In my last entry I mentioned how things are different here. Of course there are going to be many differences when you move from the suburbs of a large metropolitan city (the "township" I lived in had over 95,000 people) to the country (where the closest town has under 4,000. The school where my kids go has a maximum of 300 kids and that's Jr. High and High School combined, between the 2 little towns that make up the school district there are less than 1000 people)

There are a few things that stand out in my mind and I wanted to share them. Even though I only moved(to Ohio) 2 hours South of where I grew up and lived most of my life(Michigan), there are many little things here that are strange to me in a quirky kind of way. For instance...everyone around here calls a vacuum and the act of vacuuming..."sweeper" or "sweeping"...funny I thought a sweeper was someone that was using a broom ;op Another thing is the exhaust fan in the bathroom is called a "sucker" by the locals. I guess because it sucks the stink or the steam out of the bathroom...lol... Lunch is referred to as "Dinner" here and Dinner is "Supper"...that took some getting used to. One more thing that comes to mind that isn't terribly different but I've noticed it none the less. Report cards here are called "grade cards". I've also noticed that since we are in the "bible belt" there aren't a lot of people who curse so that's something I have to try and eliminate...unfortunately I cuss like a sailor most of the time...not usually in public but I tend to be myself around Raven's teenage friends. They all seem to be good kids and I don't want to corrupt them with my foul mouth so I'm working on it :)

That's all for now.

And so it begins....

Didn't take me long to fall behind on my goal of posting once a week, but I will do my best to update whenever I can or if anything interesting is happening.
The title of this journal is about to become even more of a reality as the spring season is the start of fast pitch softball for Raven, her first scrimmage is today and her games start on the 30th of March and will continue probably until the end of the school year.

In another couple of weeks softball starts for Danielle and Maggie and then the fun REALLY begins :D I love watching them play and cheering them on, the running to and fro gets a little hair raising at times, but I do the best I can to make it to every game for all of them.

In addition to softball, Raven tried out for cheerleading last week and made JV for basketball season. She was disappointed to not make Varsity because she is going to be a junior next year, but there are so many girls returning who are seniors next year, and there are only 6 girls on each squad. I told her that she is still going to have a blast and that her senior year she'll be on varsity so just enjoy it and have fun.

They do things very differntly here. There is no dance/pom pon squad so the cheerleaders are basically both dance team and cheerleaders. Should be alot of fun, the whole town turns out for the basketball games and during warmups, the Pep Band (part of the marching band complete with uniforms)plays a bunch of tunes and the cheerleaders do dance routines to all the songs so it's quite the party atmosphere and that is what she thrives on.

Danielle is turning 13 on the 31st. Pity me...I will officially have 2 teenage daughters in the house. Lord, have Mercy on Me ;op