A day on the Ohio

There are days, I must say I am blessed by my career and the things I get to do.  Friday, September 5th, I spent my work day on a barge on the Ohio River.  The Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Growers Association hosted an Ohio River Tour through the Newburgh Lock and Dam.  Farm Credit Mid-America was one of many sponsors, which meant my employer got several spots on the tour for employees.  I was fortunate enough to get to go to represent my employer.

 

We all met at in the Mulzer Crushed Stone parking lot next to ADM in Newburgh.  We were bussed though ADM lot down to the river and walked onto a barge!

I have been on the Ohio River on a boat, but never before on a barge. 

This is a view of ADM from the barge.

We were transported up river toward the Newburgh Lock and Dam.  Along the way we saw several cranes.  I was amazed at the size of these machines.  (It reminded me of the Thomas crane, Cranky, on steroids!).  I believe this one was moving sand.

 

We were allowed to move around on the top of the barge.  When we were approaching the Newburgh lock, we headed up to the front of the boat.  There were several people of political importance on the barge Friday.  One is pictured below in a purplish colored shirt, sunglasses and mostly bald.  Do you recognize your Congressman?  It is Congressman Larry Buschon; hailing from Newburgh, IN!  We also had Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann.  This was the second time that I have had a chance to be in a group setting with her.  Both the Congressman and the Lt. Governor are agriculturally minded. 

A guy from the Army Corps of Engineers was there to talk about the Ohio River Locks and Dams system.  The Newburgh Lock and Dams were approximately 45 years old.  Some of the oldest locks are pushing 95 years old.  They are all starting to need major work and upkeep.  The expected life span of the locks and dams was 50 years when they were constructed.

We went a little ways up river then made a U-turn in the middle of the river and proceeded back to the lock, through the lock and back to ADM. 

ADM cooked pork chops and had potato salad, baked beans, cookies, and cold water/soda.  It was a neat experience and one that was experienced as a working day with all expenses paid!

Before aka B4

When you have a 5 1/2 year old and a 4 year old around and want to have a conversation, but don't want them to know what you are talking about sometimes you talk in code. Lance and I quickly gave our little secret the name B4 also known as "Before".  If you haven't figured it out yet, B4 stands for baby #4.  That's right, we are expecting another bundle of joy.

I went to the doctor on August 20 and heard the heartbeat for the first time. It was 151 beats per minute.

We decided to tell our family with this photo

13 months

Toby is 13 months old.  He has been a little behind on his shots due to a hospitalization at the time he should have gotten 3 month shots.  Nonetheless, we are getting them all taken care of now!

He got a clean bill of health at this check-up.  He weighed in at 22.0 pounds and was 27 1/2 inches long.  This has him at just under the 50th percentile for his weight and in the bottom 5% for height.  He got three vaccinations and only cried for a minute.  I was very surprised that they gave one of the vaccinations in his arm!  Jenna is 5 and has never had a shot in the arm!

He eats just about anything you put in front of him.  He doesn't show signs of being picky yet.  He still loves bananas and peaches.  He now has six teeth - four on top and two on bottom.  He is working on his two bottom I teeth at the moment.  If you stick a finger in his mouth he bites, so I haven't been checking for teeth as often! 

Toby has been taking steps.  He still prefers to crawl, but if he is upright and something is only 5 steps away, he will take the upright steps to get there.  He is still a little wobbly, but is getting better.  He loves to be playing with whatever his sisters are playing with at home.  This has become problematic at times, as they don't always want to share their toys and he a rather destructive little guy.  I have been calling him "Toby the Tornado!"  One of his favorite activities is to go over to the crayon box and dump them out, then the marker box, then the clip doll princess box, and so on.  When he is done, you can tell where his path has been!  He is getting better about sitting there and putting the crayons back in the box after he dumps them.  He also enjoys picking them up and crawling around the house with them.  Toby loves to watch a ball roll across the floor.  It makes him giggle and clap!  

Toby is still on a steroid version of the breathing treatment once a day.  He does pretty well with sitting still for the treatment.  We attempted to wean him off of it once and only made it three days before he was a raspy breather.  We go back to the Riley pulmonologist again October 1.  At that point, she intends to run several other tests to see if they can find anything.  For now, he is happy, healthy and growing which makes us all very happy!

First Day of Pre-K

Shelby was super excited for school to start for her today!

She is attending Learn-A-Lot which is in with her daycare. It was not my first option, but it will still work on her educational foundation. 

She had to find her name. She is in the no category, as her name (first) does not have an "a".  

She was also excited as her name was posted as a summer birthday on the wall!  I am glad her classes kick off this week as she has been mighty jealous of big sis being in school last week while she was not. 

First Day of Kindergarten

Jenna is attending Kindergarten at Shakamak Elementary this year.  The first student day was Friday August 8.  For the Kindergarteners they only attended for one hour to meet the teacher and to check in all their school supplies.  It is a unique set up, that I don't particularly care for, but no one ask for my opinion, so I followed the rules.

 

We signed up for the 8:00 to 9:00 time slot so that I could take her back to daycare and go to work afterwards.  Friday morning it was raining hard.  I used an umbrella, which is saying something!  Unfortunately, that means we didn't take any pictures outside :( 

 

They asked each child to stand in front of the blue wall for pictures, so that's the first one I got of Kindergarten.

Her teacher this year is Mrs. Boyd. 

Mrs. Boyd had the door all decorated with stars the first day!

So we walked into the room and met Mrs. Boyd.  She asked us to drop all our supplies off at the appropriate stations.  There was one for cups, napkins, silverware.  Another for glue, markers, crayons, another for earphones, baggies, and so on.  Jenna marked her name off and left her supplies behind.  Meanwhile, Mrs. Boyd was making sure how everyone was to and from school.  Once all the supplies were dropped off for the 8 kids in her group, Mrs. Boyd read the kids a Pete the Cat book.  They then had snack and were dismissed into stations.

 

Mrs. Boyd then talked to the adult group about daily snack, daily routine, and "special days".  For example they have Gym class on Tuesday and computer class on Thursday.  We talked briefly about field trips and miscellaneous information and that concluded her first day of school.

 

Jenna is really excited to know a few of her classmates from pre-school and daycare.  Lilli (pre-school) was in our same one-hour group and Tegan (daycare) is in her class, too.  I am sure she will make other friends very quickly.

Today, Monday 8/11 is the first day Jenna got the opportunity to ride the school bus.  Her buddy Ava is standing beside her in front of the daycare.  Ava is in first grade.  I talked to Ava's mom and asked if Ava cared to "show Jenna the ropes" and to make sure Jenna got off the bus in the evenings at the right place. Ava loves the idea of already knowing the ropes and being able to show off to a friend!