Halloween 2020

 Halloween was a little haphazard this year.  Everyone was uncertain whether trick or treating would actually take place because of the recent rise in Covid cases.  I thought the cities may declare no trick or treating after all.  So we didn't plan any costumes this year at all.  Leave it to Halloween day, a Saturday, to figure it out.  When once I would plan and sew costumes for months ahead of time, to scrambling the day of without much of a worry at all.

Dawson found an Ant Man costume in our costume box and he was all set.  Nathan found the skeleton costume that Jaxton had once worn and he was all set.  Owen had been given a dinosaur costume from Wyatt, Janna's little boy, and it was in the corner of his bedroom.  He found it, and he was all set.  

Kaylee has suddenly taken an interest in cheerleading.  At school, she and her friends make up cheers and do simple stunts together.  I told her she was a BYU cheerleader when she was 18months old.  I remembered that I have my old middle school and high school cheer uniforms, and so I went and pulled them out.  She tried on my red Dartmouth uniform and my green Leigh High School uniform and though both were big on her and not snuggly fit, they fit her well enough to wear!  She was super stoked.  So she was set. 

Cooper went to a friends house without a costume and was fine with that.  They would dress up if they wanted to go out.  Jaxton showed up at his friend Leila's house with no costume.  They found him a jail bird costume and he was set.  

We ended up trick or treating in a neighborhood.  People had gotten creative by putting table displays out for the trick or treaters.  One man dressed as Santa was using a trash picker upper to place pieces of candy in kids buckets, therefore maintaining social distancing and eliminating contact.  Funny times we will remember forevermore of the year 2020.   Happy Halloween!

Andrea Keplinger

Kaylee and I were going through photos in the basement and I stumbled upon these photos.  As I looked closer, I realized that I recognized someone in them.  These photos were from the summer of 2005 when Nate and I did a summer with Pinnacle in Indianapolis.  We lived in Fishers, near the Owens, and Nate was working door to door all summer.  I wanted to go to girls camp out there and help out since I did not have a job.  I had the best time at girls camp with the best group of leaders, though I do not remember any of them.  When I began looking at these photos, I realized that one of my fellow leaders was Andrea Keplinger, my dear friend that helped with the kids so much.  How did I now realize I had known her before?  This was a good 15 years ago and we both looked younger and different.  I sent the photos to Andrea who said she thought she had seen me before we met in Fort Wayne.  So crazy!!  I am so grateful for this sweet lady and the wonderful woman that she is.  

Giordano's Pizza

 Giordano's Pizza is a new Simplx customer for their burglar and fire alarm systems.  Our Simplx teams did the prewire work during the construction process and the restaurant is finally opening their doors soon.  They invited us to come in to preview the restaurant and allow the staff to practice their service skills before the restaurant opens to the public.  This was great fun!  Giordano's is known for its deep dish pizza, which is maybe 3 inches high and stuffed full of bread, cheese and goods. The kids enjoyed it a lot, as you can see!!  Welcome to Fort Wayne, Giordano's Pizza!

Christian's Wedding

 Nate and I went to Christian & Kayla's wedding.  We've known Christian since he was a senior in high school when Nate went to his house to install an alarm system at his home.  Christian was so intrigued by the installation that he wanted to learn.  Nate invited him to work with him on the side on weekends to do some installs and learn.  So we have watched Christian grow up from a teenager into who he is today, getting married.  Its been exciting to see his growth as an individual, become a farmer and a tiller of land, use his hands to do all kinds of good hard work.  Kayla did some car detailing for some of the Simplx vehicles for a while.  

The wedding took place in a beautiful farmland setting.  The groom and groomsmen wore blue jeans and white button shirts in a kind of cow boy theme.  Kayla, the bride, wore fun white cowgirl boots underneath her wedding dress.  The ceremony took place outside on a sunny afternoon with fall colors all around and the sun setting.  The barn was decked out in beautiful rustic decorations.  We met Keith there at the wedding and it was fun to catch up with him.  

The dancing is always such a fun part of the wedding.  Nate has especially gotten to know Christian's parents and it was such a sweet moment to see him dance with his mom.  So much sweetness at this wedding.  We are so grateful to be a part of Christian's journey. 

Cub Scout Nature Hike

The Cub Scouts in Leo went on a nature hike at Mattea Park. I took the three younger boys. Dustin is a wolf scout and Nathan is a kindergarten lion scout. The guide took our group all around the park to point out interesting things. The boys had curious questions about things they found on the back of a leaf, or a strange type of leaf, or a unique looking tree.  Dawson found the biggest leaf in the entire park and was very proud of that. Oh and titled along with us excited to be a part of the group. We had a fun time spending the morning in nature!

Getz Fire Equipment: Peoria, Illinois

 Nate and I went on a 2 day trip with two of our Fire Team technicians to Peoria, Illinois to Getz Fire Equipment.  Our customer base has a natural need for fire extinguisher service, which we currently do not provide.  This trip to Getz Fire has been an opportunity to be fully trained in fire extinguisher servicing and inspections.  We have learned the different types of fire extinguishers, how to refill them, and had some hands on training doing such.  There are lots of little steps involved, but it has been so very fun to try this new trade.  We purchased a fully equipped fire extinguisher servicing vehicle to be able to service and recharge extinguishers on the road.  Someday we may have a recharging station in our own Simplx office.  This new vehicle, two trained technicians, and many current loyal alarm customers is going to get us off to a great start in this division of fire extinguisher service & inspections.  

Meeting with Rod & Jeff Getz has been such a great learning experience.  They are a second and third generation company, founded by their father Marvin Getz.  Marvin did the dirty work in door to door sales of portable & automatic extinguishers for many years, earning his income by commissions only.  He rocked the sales and did so well that he was able to start his own company which has flourished.  The company today has 7 or 8 divisions beyond fire extinguishers, including fire & burglar alarms, kitchen / hood suppression systems, engineering suppression systems, explosive device suppression systems, full training programs provided to the fire departments and insurance companies, a full fleet of delivery vehicles which vehicle maintenance is all managed by their very own fleet mechanic. 

We are excited for this venture into a new division of Simplx Security.  We are in the early stages and can't wait to see where it may lead us.

Carving Pumpkins

 The giant pumpkins we got at the Wawaka farm Pumpkin Patch were waiting for us to carve them!  Each kid had a different agenda with their pumpkin and it was fun to see their creative juices flowing.  Jaxton got right to work with not a second thought in mind.  He found a photo online, printed it, and hand drew it onto his pumpkin.  It was detailed and he cut very carefully. 

Kaylee immediately found a Sponge Bob picture and hand drew it onto her pumpkin.  She painted it Sponge Bob colors and it turned out so great!

Dawson wanted to carve his and wanted his to be super traditional, just like in movies and in stories.  He has a great carved Jack-O-Lantern face on his.

Nathan wanted a frightening pumpkin this year and decided to paint his white with a black scary face.  

Owen was intentionally kept away from all knives.... he painted his with chalk markers and some paint and ended up with a colorful pumpkin.  

Cooper is yet to carve his.  We will see what he comes up with!

Apple Picking

 What fall season is complete without apple picking?  We went to Cook's Orchard and picked the last apples of the crop this season.  Since we came at the end of the season, the worker there told us we'd find hardly any.  We ended up filling 4 bags full of apples because I had daring kids who enjoyed climbing trees to pick the ones up high.  The low apples had already been picked or had fallen on the ground.  So we were forced to pick the ones at the tip tops of the trees.  Cooper was climbing high, as well as Kaylee and Jaxton.  Owen and Dawson enjoyed climbing too.  Nathan was staying at Grandma's house, which he had actually been excited to skip out on the apple picking.  

We brought all our apples home and got to work using our brand new apple corer/peeler/slicer machine.  Jax, Cooper, Kaylee and Dawson and Nathan all got a kick out of using that machine to prepare the apples for the crock pot.  We made 3 batches of applesauce so far, some we canned.  We still have 2 full bags of apples to cook up yet.  Yum Yum!

Hayrides & Cornmazes

 Because of Coronavirus, many corn mazes were cancelled this year.  We found one in Wawaka, Indiana, north and west of Kendallville.  It was a beautiful, perfect fall weather day and we spent it together doing fall time fun.  The farm in Wawaka had a barrel train ride through a corn maze with Halloween skeletons displays set up throughout.  It had a full corn maze that the kids loved.  The littles ran through that thing so fast it was hard to keep up with them!  They had hay stacks to climb and bounce houses to enjoy, a full playground and yard games.  They had a full pumpkin patch in the center and we couldn't leave without filling a huge wagon full of giant pumpkins, straight from the patch to take home to carve. Fun family day!

Autumn Leaves

 We spent a Saturday enjoying the fall leaves that are turning all different colors.  We found a Land Acres Trust trail on Vandolah Road and went for a hike with the 4 youngers.  We found neat nature items all throughout the trail and enjoyed the perfect amount of fall weather being together.  

Simplx Cares - October

 In October, Simplx Cares spent an early Saturday morning volunteering at the local SPCA Animal Shelter.  Some of us weeded the flowerbeds, some of us cleaned the adoption rooms and others of us cleaned kennels.  After our work we were able to join in the outdoor "puppy playground" where they let 2 beautiful dogs loose with us to have a playgroup.  This was so much fun.  We had Holly, Darrell, Cliff & his wife, Lauren Lawhead/Owen, Hannah & her sister, and Nate & me.  Fun times!

Oak Farm Cross Country

We finished out the 2020 cross country season last Thursday in the Cardegle Invite at Shoaff Park. The Falcon runners put forth great effort in finishing the year strong. In varsity boys we had Riley Fitzharris, Miles Rahn, Tim VanCuren, Derek Hale, Andy Sondek and Cooper.  JV Girls included Kaylee and her bestest friend, Estella Nivens.  They both did awesome.  Kaylee had a PR of her own by running a 15:55 and finishing 69th out 93rd at the last meet.  Cooper beat his personal record, running at 12:27.  Wow, that is fast!

Coach Dave Hale: "I’m saddened that the season is over; I feel like the runners were just hitting their stride. We had a big learning curve with such a young team this year. The kids will never know how proud I am of them. When I asked them to give me more, they did! (usually after the question, "why?" of course...ugh Montessori;). I will miss the feeling of competition on race days and the looks on their faces when they PR’d and didn’t die doing it. I can’t wait until next year; we won’t be just making an appearance but turning heads. Thanks to everyone for their support, Keep running. Go Falcons!!!!"