Year 3, February 4th-8th, 2018: TV Station Tour plus more!

Whoops!  I put a TON of field trips/activities/errands all in one week!  So it's been hard to take pictures and post them...Instagram is a whole lot faster!  But that's because it's "instant" and it's not permanent, so the blog is still the back bone of writing down the stories and for sharing them with those not on social media.  So, I will attempt to recreate the last few days, but to be honest, I've been in a bit of a fog and haven't taken in a lot of the littler moments.  But there are about 50 pictures here, because I think was a little trigger happy with the iPhone instead of the DSLR, so we'll see what we come up with.  If you want to scroll through quickly, the biggest part of our week was today's field trip to WISH-TV 8, so please pay attention to that.  But, if you know me well, you know that once I get started telling stories, it's hard to stop!  We were driving through Beech Grove today and I bored the kids with trying to get them to remember where things were or that's where Grandpa Howell's nursing home is/was.  They will thank me later for blabbing on and on about that stuff, because I'm thankful for what my parents told me!  Thanks!

It's been awhile since Benaiah was on camera duty.  Part of it is him splitting his time between the main worship center and the middle school worship services, as well as his own Crave time on Sunday evenings.  He's know seriously pursuing a job at the new Kroger up the street from the church, so he's going to have a bigger time management crunch soon.  He is trying to recruit his friend Ethan to take over some of his church duties, but I'm sure Ethan would also like to work at some point.  The boys are growing up!

It's a bummer Abishai's face is blurry!  We briefly had a few minutes with Grandma and Grandpa before they went on a missions trip to India, so that's why we were over there after church.  That, and to clean out the leftovers, but this time, Grandma had done a great job of it already!  You know, the leftover milk, sandwhich meat, vegetables.  What a blessing that food won't go to waste and our food budget can get stretched a bit.  I do try to stretch the times in between going to the store to about 10 days because then we eat everything and learn to be creative.  I'm asking for a small deep freezer like the one we had because I couldn't get a pizza box to fit in our side by side!  Very frustrating!  Anniversary gift to myself this summer I hope!  I buy mostly frozen vegetables, not canned vegetables, and we do have a lot of meat throughout the week, so it fills up the fridge fast.  And we've been buying a ton of frozen fruit as well for Benaiah's breakfast smoothies.

Abishai found the streamers for last fall's party and carefully laid them out on the floor so he could roll through them.  Jared said he would throw them out when Abishai was done, and guess what? He did!  I was going to sneakily save them again! It makes me sad!  And this is why my house is cluttered.  But there are things I do really miss, like my deep freezer, that could have fit in the trailer.  Or my bigger stroller.  Yup, it's why I can't get rid of things.  #hoarder

He would run through them and then go back and fix them all into one pile before doing it again.  Abishai makes up a tons of games to play, but he also has started to tease and taunt and steal things from his siblings to get them mad.  And it's frustrating to all of us because everything can't be put high up, and the kids need to work on their school work and not stand there protecting their stuff.  #littlebrothers

OOOO....this made me hoppin' mad.  But now I know why.  Ok, so here, in Colts country, you always root for the team playing against the Patriots.  They could be the worst team in the league but you have to root for them instead of "cheating Patriots."  Well, listen, sure, Tom Brady is still on the team.  Some people are still there that made bad decisions like 4 years ago.  But some are not.  And some are dedicated Christians that were probably against the cheating.  I'm sure that the franchise is not any worse than any other team out there that might be cheating.  BUT, they are MY team, ok?  If Colts weren't playing, I would root for the Patriots.  I grew up with them.  I have friends and family that are proud to be their fans.  And this is the part I didn't realize until yesterday: I don't like it when people make fun of anything my parents liked, or the Granite State, or New England, etc etc.  It could be about snow.  It could be about Demorats taking over the southern part of the state because they work in Mass. but live in NH.  It could be about the maple syrup.  I don't know, but don't make fun of things from my childhood!  My dad had mutliple baseball hats he would wear depending on what sport and team he was watching.  He would put on a Colts hat, but only if the Patriots weren't playing.  He followed UNC Chapel Hill basketball.  He didn't care much for baseball or hockey, but come on?  The Celtics and Bruins! So yes, I rooted for MY team.  But I slept just fine after they lost.  Why?  Because it was a GREAT GAME!  It was a CLEAN game!  Even the halftime show was pretty tame and kind of lame (sorry Justin Timberlake, it was dull).  The commercials, well, I haven't seen much of them, and I don't like most commercials these days anyways except for superhero movie ones.  We stayed home and streamed it through the computer.  I kept an eye on things on social media, with some celebrities following one team or another, or friends on both sides of the fence.  It's just a game.  But stop ridiculing a whole team just because of a few bad apples.  Ok? Ok.  Stepping off of my soapbox....

Church was collecting snacks for the local elementary school it supports for the kids to have the snacks during the week of standardized testing.  Well, wouldn't you know it, that breaking up the list, resulted in that we had to get something from every category because our children's ages are so spread out.  I thought it was pretty interesting.

The boys had a Bible Bowl competition and their team won 1st place, undefeated!  Partly because of that young lady there, next to Justin, Jordan, who studies very hard and is a quick buzzer.

"Power nap"? or staring at his screen?  Hm,....

Yeah! Indian Creek Team 2, bracket 3, so next month they will be in bracket 2!  And Justin scored higher this time, finishing 7th of the 7th graders I think.

'Nuff said!

Nice hug, coaches!  And I saw many great posts from both sides, wives of the players, etc. on social media.  No hard feelings, no shaming, no meanness.  But the Colts had some kind of big change yesterday because the reporters today at the TV station said it was a very chaotic day covering it.

At least I can see the sunrise!

Snuggle time, on the floor, because we can.

We've had something every day this week except Tuesday!  Monday was Poke'mon Club day, and little brother had to come along because the babysitter is oversees, lol.  It makes it more tiring for me, but he played well with some littles that were there.

Playing Poke'mon.

Making friends of all sorts!  The great thing about going to the downtown library is that the space is big and there's more diversity of people.  Because of where we lived in Beech Grove and where the church is located, there are not many people that don't look like us.  Therefore, when we did come around an African American specifically, Keturah especially wasn't so sure of them.  It's not that we purposefully ignored that part of the population (or other minorities), but we just don't run in the same circles.  I think black people are beautiful.  Period.  So I'm glad Abishai got some exposure today.

He also discovered the green screen and interacted with it pretending to put tires on a race car.  He hadn't been with us for a few months.  It really shows that his mind is maturing into the preschooler he is.

Abishai glanced out the back door while he was playing and saw the snow and the shovel near by that we purposefully had left out the other day just for this purpose!  We put the rest of the summer toys back.  He basically begged to go out to shovel! #Canadian

And he went up the whole walkway to the fence! At least I convinced him to wear regular pants instead of his pj's this time.

Melts your heart, doesn't it?

Socks was super excited to have a playmate outside with him again, especially his little buddy.

Little buddy, however, put snow on his back and he just sat there like the good puppy he is.

Yup, I've needed a new crockpot for awhile because part of the cord got burnt and I can't use it without using a liner because the inside is all scratched up despite my careful washing.  I have always felt it's been a risk even using it.  So, when I saw this steal at Aldi's, it was a no brainer!  Now, who knows how long it will last.  It's not that programmable and it doesn't have a locking lid, but I don't go to many food gatherings anymore.  So, it works for us!  Woot! Woot!  V-day gift for me!

This goofball is desperate to get out on the gym floor!  He kept running back and forth in the front and jumping a couple of times at the end of his run.

Then, as I was filming the girls doing a gunny sack race, he shot out to the floor and was running with them!  Mrs. Christy had to catch him for me!  Wow, I was embarrassed but at the same time, things like that happen and Mrs. Christy would think nothing of it.  She knows we all do our best to control our little ones.  She also makes gymanstics fun with lots of games and specially themed things to jump over or run around.  It's so worth the 30 minute drive!

It's that time of year!  Abishai's birthday is next week!  And he's 3, which means it's time for a big boy "invite your friends and their families over" birthday party!  I'm super excited because I've asked 6 families and 4 families didn't hesitate to say yes!  Maybe having a birthday in the dead of winter is a good thing.  Except we could have 20 plus people in our house with no way of escape because it's cold outside.  To be honest, I'm just glad I knew enough families with 3 yr olds to invite!  It was easy with the others because we were in MOPS and we had charts with all the kids names and ages.  Anyway, Abishai wanted to open it all up now, but I didn't let him.  It's a construction vehicle party!  A construction site as he calls it.  Yes, the boy can say "construction site!"  And "No, Mommy, it's not a bull dozer.  It's a front loader."

Tramping down the snow like a kid should.

Tuesday was a home day so we focused on school, but Weds. brought gymnastics and Bible Bowl.  Oh, and before and after Poke'mon club, we managed to do 5 errands!  (Yeah for drive thru's for medication, dry cleaning, gas, and post office drop off).  We did a couple more on Wednesday like our library and recycling.  And when we got Bible Bowl, Abishai immediately shed his outer layers and dragged over Grandpa's chair ready to watch jeeps going mudding on Daddy's computer.  He's become his routine.  He also spent a ton of time running around the office and in the main room stir crazy because he hadn't napped.  He fell asleep on the way home from "nastics trap." (gymanstics track? mat?)

He's just a blur, and for good reason!  He's Dash!

I don't wanna go home.

SO, Thursday, we were in charge of a field trip to one of our TV stations here in the city.  Did you know that Indianapolis has 5 major news stations?  Yup! CBS 4, RTV 6, WISH TV 8, WTHR 13, and Fox 59.  New York and Chicago have one major network.  Our tour guide did say they have been told that they are the friendliest station because they do allow tours and talk to people.  I didn't even bother with channel 13 because I knew that they were too big and too busy for us.  And I'm so glad we came here instead.

I had no idea that they carried the CW shows!  There was a couple of hallways with some posters of the different shows.  I won't name some of them because well, they are not the best shows out there.  But Supergirl?  Oh yeah!

He doesn't watch it anymore because he couldn't keep up, but I'm sure he's still a fan.

And Arrow of course!  The closest I will ever get to Stephen Amell, lol.  Some folks who were there for a different segment on Indy Style thought I was taking a picture of them and didn't realize I was taking a selfie.

We were able to talk with the anchor before she went on air at 11 am today.  She's about to go on maternity leave, poor thing.  She said she has the early morning shift so she gets in about 4 am while the rest come in at 2:30 am.  3 shifts because news is 24 hr job!  And it's a hard job when your producer is talking in your ear and you are reading from the telepromter.  She writes some of her stories and tweaks everything she reads to fit her own style, while a producer or two writes the majority of reports.  Sweet mom, she gets home about 12:45pm and tries to take a nap and then is with her kids until their and her bedtime at 9pm.  It's a hard job sometimes.

Sweet older weatherman.  I loved seeing how they use the green screen!  His dialogue isn't as scripted, and he has to remember that what he's looking at is mirror image to him. 

Oh the control room!  I sent this to Benaiah and his mentor Matt.  So many screens!  The producer loves her job and how it's different every day.  She was showing me how she can rearrange stories on the fly, including totally deleting them if there's a time crunch.  Wow!  I couldn't handle all that pressure!  There's screens for people reporting live and screens for watching the competitors.  Incredible!  Today was a pretty quite day though.  They have a 11am show instead of a 12 pm show so they are not in competition as much with the other stations with noon shows.

Very nice!  I love the CW! I think WNDY is a public station?

The news room with three banks of desks, one for each shift.  All the news goes to the middle and then is sent out to the reporters to investigate it further.  They have the usual with police scanners, the competition, traffic cams, and the public calling in to make a report.

There is one camera in the news room that is used for the 1 minute news briefing at the top of the hour when they explain what stories they are working on.

A brave volunteer!  She could see herself on the screen and read from a teleprompter!

The weather area in the studio.  It was really neat to see all the false walls and the overhead lighting.

We had about 25 people there today.  Another group had gone on Tuesday because we had to split up the numbers.  And little ones were discouraged from coming because we needed to be quiet.  The kids were pretty quiet so I asked a bunch of questions.  This field trip was really for me because I've always wondered how it all works but haven't ever been to a studio before.  But Keturah and Justin did say they liked it in the end!

Just like any TV studio, false walls and ceilings!

Get this!  They have two studios that they move their cameras to and from.  And these cameras are all robotic!  They move on their own by a command from the command center!  Gone are the days of a camera man or woman standing behind the camera!  And these are outdated models, too.  Here's the teleprompter on this one!  The other stage is for Indy Style where they do cooking and fashion shows and have guests.  You wouldn't know it from the screen, but the floors are pretty scuffed up and behind the counters have nicks and dings.  Oh, and the Indy Style team has to clean up all their stuff when they are done.  Most of these employees do their own work from reporting to writing to cleaning up!  AND they do their own make up, even the guys!

The one and only camera man doing his thing!  So he can tell the camera to move up or down or left or right.  There is a person on the floor as well making sure there's no issues, too.

Watching the news happen live!

Lots of satellite dishes!  We were able to drive in and out from downtown with ease and didn't even have to pay for parking!  Wish TV 8 is a little bit north of the center, so there's not as much traffic.

Someone had a short nap and needed to have some chill time.  He spent the morning with two newer friends, twins Nate (Peanut) and Donovan.  They are a month younger than him.  Nate was the much smaller twin, so they called him "Peanut" and he hasn't caught up to his big brother yet.  Same smarts, just a smaller frame.  The boys got along famously!  It helps that Mrs. Nellie, Nate and Donovan's Grandma, has worked in the church nursery for 25 years! She's held all of my babies and I trust her with every fiber of my being.  She babysat Abishai once last year, too.  Sweet, sweet lady and family.  I'm super happy that the boys got to play together and I hope that we get to do it again!

Very randome, back to Sunday.  This is where everybody was during the Superbowl.

I made a parking lot for Abishai out of duplos. He loves it!

Keturah also went outside the day it snowed.  It's been a little bit snowy this week with an inch or so on the ground every morning.  And it has stayed cold, so there's not as much mud at the moment.

I'm so glad we left the swings up for days like this!

I always try to take pictures often of Socks in case he goes missing.  He's still a skinny 72lbs, almost 8 years old, a little bit greyer.

Sweet doggy eyes!

Look, Ma!  Now brush piles!  At first I wasn't crazy happy because I was trying to encourage the kids to use sticks and logs to make a fort but now it will be nice to have a bit of open space, too.  Hm,.....this might be a great place for a sandbox!  Socks does his business on the opposite side of the yard, so no worries there.

The only hill in the backyard.

Artistic pictures of snow!

Rosy cheeks! Getting fresh air!

Yes, that Scandivian face!  I've been following some channels on the Olympics, and usually pay attention to how the Finns are doing because of my heritage.  And there's no doubt that this kid looks like a Finn or Sweede.  No doubt whatsoever.  Adorable blue eyes, light colored hair, fair skin.  Crazy fun demeanor.  I can't wait to send them out side more often!

And lastly to note, Benaiah's school had their annual fundraising banquet and his ASL class signed a song during it.  The kids also served at the banquet, which was nearly sold out!  I felt bad because I made zero effort to sell tickets besides sharing a couple of times on social media.  Benaiah said that enrollment will be up next year probably.  The current students get to reenroll this month before opening to the public and yes, we will do that.  It's a good problem to have!  Oh, I did contribute a flexi clip for one of the baskets they auctioned off.

Up Next: Tomorrow: V-day exchange!  Saturday: Three of us stand out in the cold for 2 hrs waiting to get into Winterjam which will be  blast!  Sunday: Normal and full. Monday: We finally rest!

I hope to do a video blog next week. Lots of cute moments there.  That's it for now!