Disasters

This past week in the Poole Household has been an interesting one. We have had a couple disasters take place, starting last Tuesday night. Tim went to play volleyball with the church, and came home with a twisted ankle. At first, when I heard the news through our youngest daughter, who got a hold of Daddy's cell phone and in hushed tones revealed that her Daddy had once again hurt himself playing church sports, I thought nothing of it. When Tim finally hobbled in the door with an ankle swelled up to the size of a large grapefruit, we knew we should take him in. After being in the ER until midnight, we arrived home with a splint, medication, and a "go see your foot Dr.". We are very fortunate to have a family friend who is a foot doctor. He told Tim its just a good sprain, with torn ligaments. Time will be the healer. So a week later, we are still waiting for time to be the healer, as he can hardly walk without crutches. Disaster number #1.
Disaster number #2.
Sunday we had a wonderful Christmas Open House. The day before I was finishing up last minute baking. I turned the oven on early Saturday morning, anticipating finishing up the last couple cakes. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the sheets of Divinity I had left in the oven the night before, to dry. I am in the office and start to smell something burning, and immediately remember the Divinity. Smoke is covering the bottom floor of our house, as I scream for help. No one comes. I open the oven to be greeted with a massive burst of black smoke and flames. I shut the oven off and scream for help, as I run to open the door for air. Opening the door sets off the burglar alarm, and now everyone is up and screaming fire as the smoke rushes to the second floor. I hear thumping and crashing as my invalid husband tries to hop on one foot to the kitchen. In his quick thinking, he grabs the sink nozzle and sprays out the fire. He is overcome by smoke, and is laying on the floor (where there is a little breathable air left) and is trying to scoot himself to the deck to breathe. I grab his arm and slide him across the floor and out the door. During all of this, our middle daughter has to use the bathroom-but can't go in our house, so she runs down the street to friends asking if she can go to the bathroom, because her house is on fire. 12 hours later, we have a working oven, the party went off beautifully, and we can now look back and laugh. This is definitely a Christmas memory, we will always remember. I am no longer allowed to make Divinity.

Family Pictures 2007

Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas 2007

One of the blessings of this time of year is the chance it gives us to connect with you, our family and friends! So sit back grab a caramel macchiato (my personal favorite) and we will give you a whirlwind tour of the year 2007.

As many of you know, at the beginning of the year, we had been looking into moving to Georgia. Tim had applied for a position at Warner Robins Air Force Base, which seemed like a sure thing, so we took a road trip with some friends to see what we thought about Georgia. We loved the area, the houses, the church, our realtor, and were completely sold on the idea, but it wasn't in God's plan for that time. The base had a hiring freeze right before Tim was processed through. We were a little disappointed, but it all has worked out, as Tim was offered a new position here at PAX, which has moved him higher up the pay and position scale. This seems to be a good career move, so we are glad.

Since we had been planning to move in the summer, we didn't plan a big vacation. We let the girls attend church summer camp in South Carolina, and fit in a trip to Grandpa and Grandma's cabin in Minnesota. We had a lot of fun doing the usual boating, fishing, and skiing. Bethany and Carlie both got up on skis this year. Ashley is still not sure about doing that, but had fun riding the Sea Do on her own. On our way home, we stopped off in Chicago and fulfilled a dream of Carlie, Bethany, and mine, we had always wanted to visit the "American Girl Place". We rode the train into Chicago, and arrived bright and early as the doors to "dreamland" opened. We spent the day attending the "American Girl Music Revue", having lunch with the dolls in the café, and picking out a new outfit for the dolls. Tim was a great sport and wandered Chicago, while we took all the time we needed. If you have a daughter, I highly recommend this adventure.

The start of the school year brought some changes in our household. Ashley started high school. I know you are thinking Tim and Carol cannot possibly be old enough to have a child that old; we think the same thing! We were very proud of her as she was 1 of 48 kids in the county who had the GPA requirement to be asked to be in the STEM program at the school. (Science Technology Engineering and Math). This is a new program partnered with the base to start training kids in the Technology areas, so they can take over the future jobs in this area, hopefully for the Government. They have put a lot of money into this program to give the kids hands on training in these specific fields. Ashley is with this small group of kids (only 28 chose to attend) for her Algebra II, Geometry, and Chemistry classes, after that she transitions into the main high school classes of Spanish 2, Honors English, History, and Band II. She carries a demanding work load, but has remained on the Honor roll with a high GPA. She still loves music and is playing the piano, hand bells, clairinet, and singing on the Praise Team at church. She just finished playing clarinet for the All County Honors Band, which put on a very impressive concert. Bethany, also was selected for the Honors Band at the Middle School level, and was the only 7^th grade clarinet player from her school. Bethany still plays the piano as well, and has a knack for picking up tunes very quickly. Both girls continue to play soccer and had a great season as defensive players for their teams. Their lives are very busy as they continue to be involved in a variety of activities.

Carlie also had a change this year, as she went from being home-schooled to attending the new public charter school, which opened this year. She has a wonderful teacher and is in a 4^th/5^th grade combo class. She continues to love to write stories and songs, and dreams of being the next singing sensation. She sings in the chorus at school and will also be taking violin. Carlie has really been faithful with her piano practice and has become quite the little pianist. Do you see a theme with our kids? They all really love MUSIC.

Since I am not homeschooling this year, I have gone back to substituting for the school district, and have expanded my piano students to 10, which keep me busy. I have felt like a single parent for much of this year, as Tim has continued to do a lot of world traveling. He has had many business trips and has certainly logged in many airline miles. He loves the foreign travel, but we love it when he is home for a few weeks in a row.

For Christmas this year we are going to try another cruise. We will be leaving from Miami and cruising the Key west and Cozumel. On the way home we will be stopping off in Daytona Beach for a couple days, so Tim can visit the NASA Space Center. We are looking forward to just getting away and hanging out as a family.

If you want to visit the East Coast give us a call, we have loved having friends and family visit!

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Remember what this season is all about!

From Our Family to Yours,

Tim Carol Ashley Bethany and Carlie

Ice Skating Fun

One of the Poole Family traditions, since we have moved to the East Coast, is to go ice-skating at the Sculpture Garden in DC. We all started out with grand visions of how fun this would be. I only lasted 10 minutes, due to a foot injury, Ashley lasted about 45 ( complaining the whole time of how bad the skates hurt her foot), Bethany lasted until Tim knocked her over, and wouldn't stop teasing her, and Carlie and Tim almost went the full 2 hour session. We are thinking that this is a tradition that may be on the chopping block.......

Gingerbread Fun

Last night, we had Carlie's Girl Scout Troop over for a Christmas party. The girls had a lot of fun decorating Gingerbread houses, which turned out so cute. They also had a round robin gift exchange. Some of the girls, had a hard time believing they could "steal" the present from another girl. Others had no problem with this idea. All in all it was a fun night.

It's Snowing in Maryland

December 5,2007

Today we had a beautiful blanket of snow cover our yard. The kids even had enough to make a snowman! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....We also have finished decorating and now get to sit back and enjoy the season! Enjoy the snow pictures.

Christmas is Coming

Christmas is one of our favorite times of year. We celebrate the birth of our Lord and the sacrifice He made by coming to earth. We also love the transformation the house makes as it puts on its holiday apparel. For all of you out there who love decorating, baking, and organizing it all, I have found a great website to help keep you on track. It is calledhttp://www.organizedchristmas.com and has fabulous trackers, planners, printouts, recipes, and ideas to count you down to Christmas. Just thought I would share this, hope it helps you have a more organized Christmas.

Trip to Hershey

We had a great time in Hershey this past weekend. We had some friends follow us up and hang out with us, at our annual haunts. We started with the usual meal at Cracker Barrell, always exciting to get a chance to look in the gift shop! After full bellies, we headed into York, and went on the Wolfgang Chocolate Tour, hence the hairnets. The good thing is everyone looked dorky together. We got to watch chocolate covered pretzels being made, and sample at the end. We always enjoy watching the process. Due to rain on Friday, we spent Saturday at the park. Our girls have all decided that roller coasters are fun ( it has taken a while to get to this belief), and so we had a blast riding the various ones. We left the park around 11pm and by the time we got home it was 2:30am. Let's just say Tim ate a lot of sunflower seeds and drank a lot of Coke to keep him going. All inAll in was a fun time.

Annual Halloween Party

Halloween Party 2007

Each year we let the girls have an annual Halloween Party. They each get to choose 3 friends to come and sleepover. We do have friends that we know don't celebrate Halloween-so please know we respect your views, and we try to choose from friends who are okay with a Halloween Party. We just love dressing up and having a fun time with it. This year Carlie is the "White Witch from Narnia", Bethany is "Elizabeth Swan-Pirates of the Carribean", and Ashley is a fairy. We made some fun crafts, had some fun games, and ate lots of yummy treats. For breakfast we had pancakes in the shape of pumpkins and bats. It was a lot of fun.

Grand Opening-"Bethy & Becca's Salon"

Okay, all you men out there, who never can find a great hairstylist...your worries are over! Announcing the GRAND OPENING of "BETHY & BECCA'S SALON". Two new hairstylist are bursting out in the Lexington Park area, as the HOTTEST place in town to get a do. As you can tell by the look on the man getting his hair done, he is so overcome by emotion, that he can't contain himself. You also can experience this type of elation. Call up the salon to set up an appointment for your one of a kind hairdo. Appointments taken daily, after school.

Fall-Our Favorite Time of Year

Our family loves the fall season of the East Coast! Coming from California, we never experienced the splendor of the colors and the crisp air. Since we have moved here we take an annual trip to the chocolate mecca of the world HERSHEY PARK-to experience "Hershey Park in the Dark". Sometimes we take this trip by ourselves, sometimes with friends and family, but it is definately a trip to take. This is how our annual fall pilgrimage goes: We head up to PA. Stop for lunch at one of the several local Cracker Barrels, with full bellies we then meander through York County.....stopping at fun places like Wolfgang Candy shop(free tour and chocolate), Harley Davision Factory ( your kids need to be a little older to get in here), up to Litiz for Wilburs Chocolate, Sturgis Pretzel Tour( oldest working pretzel factory in the country, where you can roll your own pretzel, and receive a certificate), through Intercourse(this is a name of a town) to sample relishes, veggies, jams at The Intercourse Canning Co., also a quick stop at the Intercourse Pretzel shop(you can roll your own pretzel there too), there is also a Longaberger accesories shop next door, and finally up to Hershey. We sometime do the theme park, sometimes we just do the free trick or treating, but it is always fun. The next day we spend wandering through the Amish country side, stopping at local farms for pumpkins, squash, baked goods, etc.... and then take our yearly pictures in the beautiful fall glory of the Pennsylvania countryside. If you are into covered bridges, you can stop at the Lancaster Visitor Center to get a guided map of the covered bridges in the area. They are wonderful backdrops for pictures. We are looking forward to our annual trip in a few weeks. We hope we have inspired some of you to want to take a trip of your own. Happy Fall! Here are some past pics of our trips.

Had a Great Trip

T got back from Germany with lots of stories, beautiful pictures, and a cold. Guess it can't all be perfect. The highlight of his trip was visiting "The fairytale castle" in Germany. I would masacare the name Neuschwanstien..something like that. He could spell it, but he is not around. They modeled the Disneyworld castle after it. Here are some pictures. KY Transplants-I have lots of chocolate for you...and even a Dark Chocolate Toblerone Bar. Let me know when you have a few minutes to drop by!!