Another ER Visit

Its been a year now, so of course we had to go in for Ben's annual ER Visit..... this one like all those in the past wasn't any fun.... go figure. (Recap: 1 week after he was born, 1 year later when we were in UT, and now another IN visit)



This morning was like all the other mornings, I get up and get ready for school, and then I am supposed to wake up the kids. Benjamin messed things up, he woke up BEFORE I was even 1/2 way ready ! So he came in and sat on the toilet while I fixed my hair. The next thing I knew, he was reaching for the brush and fell on my curling iron. I felt horrible, I rushed him downstairs yelling for Jeff to get ice, and put his arm under cold water. Benjamin was screaming, I'm sure it was hurting really bad. The burn was about 1 inch from his wrist, and a 2nd degree so we decided to have a Dr. look at it. (Ben was still screaming and holding on to the brush... like it was his safety line.) Jeff woke up Ehre and put her in the car, and just before we left I thought to put Burn Free on Ben's arm. Instantly he stoped screaming and let me put the ice on his arm, it was like a mini-miracle. (Burn Free is best when stored in the fridge, then its cold when ready to apply. http://www.burnfree.com/p_home.asp )



We drove to the ER, and the Dr had a look, its a bad burn, and will hurt allot over the next few days but should heal fine. A good dressing and some Motrin and we were sent home. I am so glad that he didn't burn his wrist, burns on the joints can cause a lot of problems. Jeff and Ehre immediately headed out to school, and I stayed home with Ben. Ben fell asleep and slept for a while giving me some homework time. Thank goodness my teachers were understanding, and sent me my new homework assignments. Jeff watched Ben this afternoon so I could attend a discussion group, and then we came back home.



I still feel bad that I had my iron where Ben could reach it, but it seems like Ben has forgiven me or forgotten, since he spent 75% of the day cuddling with me. I learned a lesson, and like usual the hard way. So, let this be a reminder to all of you, keep you irons out of "falls" way. :(



Other than that well we had a great Labor Day weekend, Jason and his family came to visit. We found a fun new place, Indiana Beach (30 minutes away) Ehre and Sofia loved it!



Thats about it...anyone else have a good weekend or an ER visit to tell about? (hopefully not an ER visit!)

Mother Theresa

I just finished a wonderful address given by Mother Theresa when she received the Nobel Peace Prize, and wanted to share some highlights...though I would strongly recommend reading the whole piece.

There were a lot of points that I agreed strongly with, an associated with the need for Visiting Teaching and sisterly love:
A Few points-
1.
She starts out with a simple story of these old people living in a VERY nice retirement home. They sit every day staring at the door, no smiles. She asked, " How is that? How is it that the people have everything here, why are they all looking towards the door, why are they not smiling? ..." The response," This is nearly every day, they are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten, and see- this is where love comes from." That poverty comes right there in our own home, even neglect to love. Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried, and these are difficult days for everybody. Are we there, are we there to receive them, is the mother there to receive the child?"

2. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live?

3.( We've heard this one before) You too try to bring that presence of God in your family, for the family that prays together stays together.

4. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do.

5. (concerning family planing within marriage) You people who have evolved chastity you are the best people to teach us family planning. Because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other.......

6. ( Concerning abortion) Because if a mother can kill her own child-what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me...there is nothing between. I wish that no child will be unwanted, and also that we meet each other always with a smile, especially when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family. Smile at each other.

7. If we could only remember that God loves me, and I have an opportunity to love others as he loves me, not in big things, but in small things with great love.

Our Day

Have you wondered lately what we're up to.... I wonder the same thing.

Here is the daily run:

6 am Jeff and Ann Wake up/ Get dressed / Jeff makes breakfast and Lunches
6:15 Wake up kids/ breakfast/ Ann finishes getting ready
6:25 Ann eats breakfast with Jeff and kids get dressed
6:30 Gather everything up and get ready to go
6:40 Leave the house to catch a bus coming in 7 minutes.
7:05 A SUPER SWEET bus driver volunteered to pick us up... off rout and take us to her starting point (the daycare) Giving us 5-8 minutes to drop of the kids and catch her route heading to campus.
7:30 Jeff and Ann on campus....cracking out the books.
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12-noon Jeff and I meet for Lunch
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4:30 Jeff and I regroup and head back towards the daycare. Ehre hates leaving and Ben is more than happy to leave...so our hands are full, "dragging" Ehre out, and Ben "hugging tight", refusing to be set down. :)
5:20 we catch the bus home from school....JAMMED PACKED with students, who like us refuse to pay high gas/parking prices.
6:00 Dinner/ Play time/ Music Time
7:30 Kids bedtime
10:30 Parents go to sleep.


So that's what we do, we study, sleep, and go to class and with all the extra time we make the most with our kid time. Yeah busing takes longer, but we do it as a family making it a lot of fun...it would be better if they would allocate a few more buses for student use, since sitting with 60 students on a small buss isn't very comfortable, but hey why am I complaining, its a free ride. :)

Stop Complaining, its not going to get any better....

Ok some of you have mentioned that my blogging efforts have drastically changed.....
1. We lost our camera (but since then a camera has been donated, so we are starting to take more pictures.... that problem is solved) (Thanks again to the wonderful doners!!!)
2. Jeff and I started school this week....
3. Kids started daycare.

Unfortunately this means that Jeff and I are super busy, (I'd be happy to post my homework and you all can edit it) and the kids are busy so when we do take pictures, they stay on the camera...for a while. I'll try and keep up to my Sunday emails and hopefully load pictures at the same time, and put in a post or two. :) So please bear with us as we venture into the next year or so, we'll try our best to keep everyone posted.

New Family Pictures

This trip was so much fun, and we even were able to get our family pictures taken!
Ehre is growing up soooo quickly! (Notice we were able to still get her hair to curl even without IN's humidity!) The official Roster of Robinson Grand kids,

Ehre, Hyrum, Benjamin and Mary.

(+ 1 more on the way)

Benjamin was totally cute for this picture, he's no longer my baby, he is a total toddler!

Jeff has been asking me for a new photo to put in his wallet, and I've never found one that I liked until this one...so here you go love!

Funny note:Benjamin had acquired a cold the night before pictures, so I didn't get much sleep. Jeff let me sleep in since pictures were at 9. I lasted till 6:50 (not long) and realized it wasn't working and headed upstairs. Lo and behold, everyone was dressed and ready for pictures EXCEPT for my family! Pictures apparently had been moved up to 7 am, and we hadn't been told! So yes, our family was ready for pictures in a matter of 15 minutes, pretty impressive huh?!

Our Trip To Utah!

So what happened?

(6) Wednesday- We arrived and the flights went well, our kids slept a lot and enjoyed meeting the pilots of their flight!!!

(7) Thursday- Success with the first official Robinson Family Reunion, we dug a bunch of holes for grandpas new fence, too bad we weren't in IN, this would have gone faster....but we were in UT, which means that we ran into a LOT of rocks...a slow but rewarding effort was made!

(8) Friday- The boys went to Ding & Dang canyon, but a storm earlier in the week, washed out the road, so instead they went to Goblin Valley and played. Amy Stevenson's reception was gorgeous and it was fun to see so many old friends.

(9) Saturday-9 am Family Pictures were taken successfully ! Grandma Dawn came down to visit and it was nice to see her again. The girls headed to Catherin's baby shower, and oohed and ahhed over the upcoming arrival of her twins! Tasha and Ann were able to hang out, and all the friends met at Fudruckers for a fabulous hamburger dinner!

(10) Sunday-Church with Maas Family and had a fabulous Dinner. Ben was still sick so we camped out at the house after sacrament meeting.

(11) Monday-Jeff and I were able to do a temple session, and enjoy breakfast at Gondolffo's...yummy! Jeff met with Dr. Hawkins and then we went to the VF factory and Hale Center Theater with Jeff's parents.

(12) Tuesday-We were going to hike Timp but then I was too tired from Ben being sick at night so instead we ran errands, Jeff worked on the BYU film and became a star and then we had dinner with all of his siblings. I was able to hand out with Tasha again and see all the work she's done with her mom's house. Then we packed up so that we could leave the house at 3 am the next morning.

(13) Wednesday- We made our 5:50 flight, and enjoyed somewhat our Long (4 hours) layover in MI, we were happy to finally arrive in INDY at 4 pm and made it back to our house by 6. Jeff was wonderful, he helped me clean up and soon there was no sign that we had just returned from vacation!

Now we are finalizing things so that we can start school next week. Since my online classes are starting Monday we'll have one week to get into the full schedule before my 7:30 am class starts on the 25th! Wish us luck this is going to be crazy and wonderfull all rolled up together!

This will be my last blog, before we head out for our final summer vacation. Sorry still no pictures, that camera still cannot be found anywhere!

(6) Wednesday-
8pm Maas' pick up Maas' from airport
(7) Thursday-
6 am Breakfast Head to 6 mile/ Service Project
Robinson Family Reunion
(8) Friday-
Jeff and Ann...whom ever else attend a Manti Temple Session
Reunion/ 12 noon leave for Ding & Dang Canyon (all invited to go)
Amy Stevenson Reception
(9) Saturday-
9 am Family Pictures
Skousen Dinner/ Grandma Nodzu coming?
1 Catherine's Twins Baby Shower
Tasha Time
1-2 Frisbee Golf with Jeff's Friends
5 Fudrucker's Friends Dinner
(10) Sunday-
Church with Maas'
Maas Family Day/Dinner
(11) Monday-
Temple session?
Jeff meet with BYU
Ann Lunch with Lyndsey Henderson (What time Lynds works best for you?)
Hale Center Theater with Garren and Becky Maas (Doreen watch kids)
(12) Tuesday-
4 am Hike Timpanogus (all invited to go)
Noon: Lunch With Tasha
5 pm Maas' Siblings Dinner.... where? Not sure yet? NO KIDS so find sitters!
(13) Wednesday-

5 am Robinson's return us to the airport, and we fly back to IN

Cute kids

This Week....

Well we are now only 2 days away from leaving for Utah and we are REALLY excited !!! We hope to spend a lot of time with both families since, it will be our last time to see Jeremiah (my brother) and Erin (Jeff's sister) before they put in their mission papers and leave for far off "exotic countries", in search of those willing to receive the gospel! The Robinson's have planned our FIRST Family Reunion and as long as we don't get rained out it should be a lot of fun...well even if we get some rain, it will still be great!................... Hey are there going to be Tee-Shirts at this reunion to keep up with tradition?

This past week has been a little crazy, but its now over. Like usual, Jeff's professor just gave him his "to do" list before he is to leave, so Jeff has spent a lot of time at school finishing his projects and finishing new ones as well. He's such a hard worker and hasn't complained at all, :) So I make up for it grumbling about it and then expressing my thankfulness for the trip this week.

We had fun rearranging Day Care for our kids, we went from having someone lined up to finding out that they are graduating and could leave any time. Then Purdue called and had room for our kids in their new program, on campus. So we will now have the kids on campus with us, which is really cool, because this program will let us come and visit them anytime we want.

So now we are packing up our bags and getting ready to leave. Since our flight doesn't leave till the afternoon of the 6th our plan is to take the kids to the Children's Museum and give them a few hours to run themselves to the ground. The Museum is only a few minutes from the airport, we are hoping that they fall asleep as soon as they sit down on the plane. :) ( Ha ha ha its a good plan!)

So to all our family in UT, we'll see you soon, as for everyone else, Have a great week!

Ann & The Family

My Big Helper

Ehre was sooo cute this morning. (Ben too but he just played along) I was upstairs getting dressed, Jeff had just left for school. Ehre was hungry and I told her that I would be right down. When I came down, she had set the table with bowls and spoons, and was pouring out the cereal. She even went as far as to make sure that each of us received our favorite. Ben= Honey Bunches of Oats, Mommy= Banana Crunch, and Ehre= Rice Crispy's. She told me to sit down and I poured some milk. Then after a little bit she told me that she was thirsty so she got up and pulled out the juice and a cup.....

..... that is when I realized where she had gotten the dishes, from the dishwasher....minor problem....we forgot to start it last night.

So we had breakfast in dirty dishes, but that's OK, I had a big helper and I was so proud of her!

Gospel Principle: Praying for Help

Thank goodness for the Friend, it really helps us teach Ehre gospel lessons. Yesterday the Aug. Friend arrived, so we sat down during Ben's nap to read. We read a bunch of different stories then we came across the Matt & Mandy. The story went something like this....

Family in the Car
Car breaks down
Frustrated Dad looks under the hood
Matt: Lets say a prayer.
Dad insists on checking cables
Matt: Lets say a prayer.
Dad wants to call a tow truck.
Matt:LETS SAY A PRAYER!!!
Surprised family agrees.
Prayer is said that the car will work, and they'll be able to continue on their way.
...car starts....happy family
Dad realizes that he should have prayed first.

So then Ehre and I discussed the story and what happened. I wanted to apply it to Ehre's life, so I asked her if we needed help with anything. I gave her a clue that sometimes we ask for help when we can't find something. She remembered that we were missing our camera. I asked her if she wanted to say a prayer that Heavenly Father would help us find our camera. She said OK and offered the sweetest prayer.

Later we were driving in the car and she was really happy and talking to herself. I asked her what she was talking about. She said that there was someone at our house. I asked her who, and she said.

Jesus, and he's looking for our camera!


...While the camera is still missing and my lack of faith may be the problem ( I still think that Ben threw it away) Ehre learned a lesson, and I hope that she doesn't forget it.

:)

My two beautiful kids. Life wouldn't be as wonderful with out them! They both are growing up so fast. Ehre watched Beauty and the Beast with me for the first time this weekend. She loved it! Ben was fascinated when we watched Peter Pan. I have so many fond memories of watching Disney movies with my siblings... I hope that my children appreciate the good story lines as much as we did.

Benjamin still doesn't say much, we get a ya and na (yes/n0) but that's it right now...hopefully more words will come soon. Ehre is doing well with learning her letters, we work on them every day. She loves helping us out, and is very obedient.

Jeff and I are so blessed to be stewards over these two, hopefully we'll do things right and make our Father in Heaven proud of our efforts!

This week...

Summer is almost gone, its crazy, it seems like spring semester just ended!

Jeff has spent a lot of time at work this week working on his iontraps and had some god success with making them. He works so hard, and our family is so proud of him. It looks like if things go well his next projects will be incorporated with this one under the field of " microwave spectroscopy"... ( I don't really understand it). So hopefully the new proposal goes well.

The kids have been sick most of the week, there is a bug going a round that's not quite unavoidable. Ben is also cutting two more bottom teeth, which adds to the misery. We gathered friends together on the 24 to celebrate "Pioneer Day". We had a great turnout and a lot of fun. Jeff and I made homemade root beer, and just under 4 gallons were finished off at the party. Yesterday our ward had a Pioneer Breakfast, supper good food and a lot of fun and games. The kids loved it. We even had one little primary girl, crying at the end because she didn't want the games to end.

We've got one more week till we fly out to UT. We are so excited. Since, this may be our last trip out before Jeremiah and Erin go on their missions it will be good to see the family all together....actually who knows when we will go out after this one, its cheaper for us to pay for grandparents to fly out than to fly our family of four.

So its short and sweet but that is about it. We're relaxing and enjoying the last few weeks of Summer, and mentally preparing ourselves for the fall. Things are going to work out great, Jeff and I both feel strongly that this is where we ares supposed to be right now, and that both of us should be in school. With the Lord backing us up, how can we go wrong?!

We love you all, and hope to see a lot of you soon,
Ann & The Family.

Text Books and Pioneer Day

.sorry no pics the camera is still missing, and after rearranging the office and our bed room and cleaning the house its still is no where to be found....I may have to settle with this horrible feeling that Benjamin may have accidentally put it in a garbage can!....

Well, I've now been able to acquire 1/2 of my needed textbooks...and I already have 8 !!! Gosh, these professors at Purdue must be nuts. I've ready two of the supplemental books all ready and they were interesting I'll try and tackle another one this week....it can't hurt to have a head start on this "light reading".

Today is Pioneer Day, we will be celebrating it hopefully with a TON of friends. We've sent out an invitation to all in the area, to have a potluck dinner at 5. We'll provide the homemade root beer and ice cream so hopefully that will be a good incentive for people to stop by!

Thinking of Pioneers, Jeff and I recently spent an evening perusing through Grandpa Joe's Life History, what a man! A missionary, father, husband, good friend, frugal, wise, self sufficient, and even a friend of Ronald Regan! I am so thankful for my ancestors who have left me such a wonderful legacy to follow!

Missing Camera

Ok, I KNOW that I put it in the drawer after I uploaded our last blog pics...now where did it go?
I have this terrible horrible feeling that my kiddo's may have pulled it out...and who knows where it went....I am desperately looking anywhere, a few days ago I rounded up all the trash, please please let me find it... I hope it wasn't in there when I sent everything out!

...so yeah this means that we will have some boring posts until I can find that camera!!!

Tasha's Blog

Tasha just started her family's blog, so check it out!
http://tashajill.blogspot.com/

This week....

Hi Friends and Family-
Ehre's hair looks cute again, I took her to the stylist and she trimmed everything up. Ehre had a blast sitting in the "cool" chair with a safari cover spread over her. :) I hope that she learned her lesson, but something deep down inside of me says, maybe not. Ehre has been my big helper, I have 3 friends due in the next week, and as I started counting up how many other friends were pregnant, my list ended at 22, with 23 babies coming! So she has been helping me make burp cloths for all the babies, and its been a lot of fun. Benjamin, is transitioning, hopefully you can tell (on the blog) that his baby face is disappearing, and he is training into my toddler. Its so cute. He is ever more his mothers boy, he is slowly transitioning to nursery but still wants me as soon as its done. I feel loved, I just hope that day care doesn't kill him in a month.... a month...yeah its coming up fast. Jeff and I have everything set. I just added another class, so I'll have 15 credits and Jeff will have his 6 + research. We are both anxious for school to start...and get finished, while enjoying the time We hope that you all had just as wonderful of a week as we did, we look forward to hearing from you all. The Maas FamilyPS. As always the blog is being continuously updated.

BUNKO Group

This group of girls are SO MUCH fun, this is a monthly highlight!

Playing in the back yard

Filling up the Truck Pools Ben surfing on the wagon
Teaching Ehre that getting her head wet isn't a bad thing.

Jeff Working Hard

Its not a great picture, but here he is working in the lab near the SLA machine!