Noah Daniel

Today is Noah's 11th birthday.  

He was born at Portage Hospital and has lived in the Valparaiso area all his life.

Noah is an important part of this very large family (shown here with 7 absent).

And an even more important part of this smaller family.

Last night I conducted a phone interview with him.  Here's how it went. 

First of all Noah, I have to ask, do you think your mother is very funny?  Yeah.

So how are you?  Fine

Did you just do a birthday interview with your mom?  Uh huh.  So you probably want to do another one right away right?  Uh....maybe.

Are you excited that tomorrow is your birthday?  Yes

Why?  Because I want to turn eleven.  What's so great about 11?  My age won't have any zeroes in it and it's double digits.

Do you have any special plans for tomorrow?  Yeah, I'm going to school and I'm going to pass out candy and see my friends and my family is going to come over.  What kind of candy do you pass out?  It's a variety of chocolate and lollipops and stuff like that.

Do you like school?  Yes

What your favorite subject?  Math.  How are your grades?  They're good.  Straight A's.

Did you enjoy spending the holiday week in Gulf Shores?  Yes!  What did you like best about it?  I liked how the beach was just across the street.

And did you like that you could go in the water in December and January?  Yes!

What was your favorite part about spending that week with your big, extended family?  My favorite part was New Year's Eve.  What was best about that?   Going to the beach to see the fireworks at the very end of the night.

Do you like having a brother and sister that are much younger than you?  Um yeah for the most part. 

What's the best part about it?  I always have someone to play with.   

What's not so great?  They can be a big deal sometimes.

Do you like having a sister that is so close to your age?  Yeah    What do you like about it?  I like that she's almost the same age as me and she understands me.  Do you like having thumb wars with her?  Oh yeah.   Who usually wins?  Anna

What do you want to be when you grow up?  I probably will be a teacher or a video game designer.

What can you tell are about yourself that we haven't talked about?  My favorite color is orange.  I have brown hair and I wear glasses.  I like playing on my Ipad and going outside sometimes.

Also, I am a Webelos 2 in Cub Scouts and I'm moving up to Boy Scouts First Class next month.

 My favorite animal is probably a monkey.  And my favorite animal here is Harper.  She is awesome. 

 

My homeroom teacher is Mrs. Simmons, my math teacher is Mrs. Gore, and my science teacher is Mrs. VanNostram.  Do you like all your teachers?  Yeah!

And that concluded our interview but I have to add a quick little story.  And this is more about how times have changed but still it involves Noah.  When we were in Gulf Shores, there was a wall telephone.  Beth held it to his ear to listen to the dial tone and asked him what he thought it was.  His answer, "um the internet is down?"

Of course there's so much more to tell you about Noah.  The most important things about him are not that he get's straight A's or that he's in Boy Scouts or that he's a great video game player.  The most important thing about Noah is that he is the sweetest, kindest, most considerate and thoughtful boy you could ever hope to meet.  He's kind to his siblings, his classmates, and his neighborhood friends and he's considerate and thoughtful to everyone he meets.  We're proud of him beyond measure and we're hoping that his birthday is as wonderful as he is!

Jack Victor

Today is our great grandson, Jack's, 6th birthday.

Jack is an important part of this large family,

an important part of this smaller large family,

and an even more important part of this fun, happy, large but smaller family.

Last night I spoke with Jack on the phone and I conducted the following interview.

Hi Jack!  How are you?  Fine.  I hear it's your birthday tomorrow.  Yeah.  How old will you be?  6

Are you excited to be 6?  Yeah  Why?  Because ummmm ummmm ummmmah ummmmm I don't know why.  Why am I excited to be 6?  Because it's going to be my birthday?  (Remind me to strike this question from my birthday interview repertoire.)

If you get to out out for your birthday dinner, where do you want to go?  Red Robin

And what do you want for your birthday?  A Bowser stuffed animal.  (He really does like stuffed animals.)

What grade are you in?  Kindergarten  Do you like school?  Uh huh.  What do you like best about it?  Reading  What's your favorite book? Big and Little  What's it about?  Big and little animals.  (He has always liked books.)

You like animals don't you.  Yeah  What's your favorite animal?  Tigers  Why?  'Cause I like orange.

What don't you like about school?  I like almost everything like when I make arts and crafts and I like lunch and I don't have a lot of recesses because it's getting snowy so it's getting cold so I don't really go out there a lot.  

What's your favorite adventure character?  Ironman because he can fly and he can shoot with his hand!  (I don't know.  Is this Ironman?)

How many brothers and sisters do you have?  Two brothers and one sister.  Are you excited that you're going to have another one?  Yeah!  Do you want a sister or a brother?  A sister because we only have one girl.

I heard you might have a birthday party at our house.  Do you like that idea?  Yeah.  I like it at your house.

What's your favorite thing to play with?  My favorite game is my Angry Bird game and my favorite toy is my toy turtle.  It's from Pokemon.  It doesn't do anything but there's a card that shows its attack.  He doesn't attack but his attack is a water attack.  He doesn't really shoot water but his attack is water.   I hope we can visit soon so I can see it.  Yeah me too.

What else can you tell us about yourself that we haven't talked about like your friends or your pets?  My best friend is Austin.  Gaby is my favorite pet.  Are you a nice boy?  Yes and I play soccer.

And I play on my DS.  I didn't know you had a DS.  I got one for Christmas!  

And of course I have things to add about Jack.  He isn't just a nice boy, he's a very nice boy.  He's sweet and helpful.

adventuresome,

smart, and knows a lot about and loves animals.

He's also strong.

So we're wishing this sweet, smart, strong, helpful, wonderful great grandson an awesome 6th birthday but one that's only half as great as all his many birthdays to come!

David Michael

Our 7th grandchild and 5th grandson, David, is 17 years old today!

David is an important part of this large family.  (Here we are with 7 members missing.)

And an even more important part of this smaller, large family.

Last night I interviewed David and here's how it went.

You're going to be 17 tomorrow right?  Right!  How does that feel?  Kind of different.  In what way?  Well, I can go to movie theaters by myself and watch R rated movies.  But you never would, would you?  No....no.

Do you have your driver's license?  Yes, I do.  And do you have a car?  Well, I have the blue van because Dad has his red truck and Mom has the Acadia.  What are you allowed to use it for?  I drive to practice and pick up Chipotle and sometimes when I ask my parents, I can drop a few friends off from practice.  Do you help with the many family chauffeuring requirements?  I take Katie to practice sometimes because she's on my way and we sometimes have practice on the same night. 

 Do you like to drive?  I love to drive!

What's your favorite sport to watch?  I love to watch football!  And what's your favorite team?  The Colts and they won last night against the Broncos which is awesome.  That means they'll be playing the Patriots and when they beat them, they'll go to the Super Bowl.  I would love to see Andrew Luck in the Super Bowl.  He's only 3 or 4 years in the NFL and he's broken many of Peyton Mannings records and the records of lots of other quarterbacks already.

What's your favorite sport to play?  Volleyball!  It's a very fun sport!  What position do you play?  This year I'm playing right side hitter but I love to play outside hitter which is left side.  Is this a school team?  No it's a club team kind of like a traveling team.  This weekend we're going to either Rochester NY or Pennsylvania.  Those are the farthest distances we travel other than the Nationals which are in Texas this year.  Do you play defense as well as offense?   Yes, I usually play all around rather than getting subbed out.  I love to pass as much as hit but I need to want to get better at it.  Defense is more challenging when you're tall.

You're a junior this year?  Yes.  Do you enjoy school?  Yes.  I'm taking some AP (Advanced Placement - which is more than Honors - almost college based classes) How are your grades?  Pretty good but I did get two C+'s on my last report card in AP History and Honors English.  I'm hoping to improve on those this grading period.  I know you take your studies very seriously.

 What's your favorite subject?  Math.  I'm really good at it and I like it a lot.  I'm in Pre-calculus Honors right now.  All your courses sound hard?  Yeah, they're kind of ridiculous.

Do you know what you'd like to do when you finish school?  I've been thinking about it and I think I'd like to go into Business Management or Accounting.  I'm taking an accounting class this year and I'm really enjoying it.

I know you're very active in scouting.  How do you manage to do that with all your other activities?  It's hard during football season but now I'm getting back into it.  I've already completed my project and now I'm working on the paperwork to be an Eagle Scout.  What was your project?  I built picnic tables for Nana's church.  They built a new playground and needed tables so I built 3 kids ones, 1 medium one, and 1 adult one.  It was my job to coordinate the project and be sure everybody was doing it correctly.

 

You've always been very helpful

and you still are.  We'd probably still be in the beach house if you hadn't helped us so much moving out.  Do you have regular chores at home or do you help out as needed?  Yeah, I try to help with laundry, the dishwasher, and walking the dog and we clean the whole house every two weeks so that's always fun.  Not really.  

Are you single right now or are you seeing someone?  I've been with Jannell 2 1/2 months now - since Homecoming.  She's wonderful, really very nice.  I saw the picture on Facebook and asked Grandpa, "Is he really that tall or is she really short?"  It's a little bit of both.

What else can you tell us about yourself?  

I played football this season for Lake Braddock where I started as a defensive end and I had an honorable mention in our conference which means I was one of the best out of eight schools which is actually really cool.  And I met with a scout from Bucknell University which is a small school in Pennsylvania.

I also had an email from Penn State for volleyball which helped lead me to my decision to choose volleyball over basketball.  

I had a great time in Alabama with everybody and I think it was a really good decision to go there because we could do more things outside which was amazing.  Here's a shot from an ultimate frisbie game.

And now I'll add a few things that we didn't cover in the interview.  David is one of the finest young men I've ever known.  He's sweet, considerate, helpful, kind, and smart.  He also participated with two of his cousins in the New Year's Eve talent show and he had some pretty fine moves.

 We love you and are extremely proud of you, David, and we're wishing you the best birthday ever and hoping it's only half as good as the decades of birthdays to come.