Picture Catch Up

Above: my bed at ladies retreat. It was a great time! VERY challenging messages on conflict resolution.
Below: LouAnn officially lives here in Iowa. There were quite a few items she donated to help our around here, and we are very grateful!

Setting up the dining room table

J is one of the kiddos I have on school days. He is a cutie! Here he is sporting his "dog collar" for 80s day homecoming week.

C, J's brother, wasn't thrilled to be here the first couple of weeks, and he let me know it, but he has since settled into a nice routine. I found out he LOVES pasta!

Delphia FINALLY lost a tooth!

Jon's new glasses. He looks SO much like the grandpa he almost shared a name with. He missed his birthday by 17 minutes!

Don has been trimming and burning a lot of the scrubby lower limbs off our trees. LouAnn has been working VERY hard at dragging them to the burn pile.


A 1 month old and a 1 year old.... Deja Vu!!

Our room... primed.

Don had the primer tinted per the suggestion of one of our drywallers. It was a brilliant idea! You can see where you've been and missed both with the paint and the primer. I just told him to pick a lighter color next time. This was a little scary!

We did end up going with the gray paint. We both REALLY like it!

The orange and aqua bedding won out.

Today, Delphia's 7th birthday!

The traditional birthday donut.

Fruit pizza treats for her class

Don and I on our 11th anniversary!

I wore my paint pants for a week solid. I have a few more days to be wearing them. I end up washing them at night, because they start to take on a life of their own! I love having somewhere to wipe my hands, and I have also found that painting with out flooring is DA BOMB!! You don't have to worry about dripping!!

This Crazy Life In Living Color (I like color)

I have needed a clock for the dining room/ kitchen, but I had yet to find the PERFECT clock to compliment my Fiesta ware. I present, the PERFECT clock I stumbled upon quite by accident.

I am not sure if I mentioned I lost my glasses, but after I bought my black pair I said my next pair would be red. TA DA!! I love them!!
Happy 40th birthday to my Sunshine!

The fire extinguisher was HIS doing, not mine. I am really celebrating his 40th birthday, but I am not putting emphasis on the whole "over the hill" thing. There are plenty others to do that for me, right Sarah? :-)

It needs another coat to even out the color, but I LOVE my red office. One more color choice I don't have to get panicky over. I am now losing sleep over the dark blue I picked for our room.

This room became our guest suit. We got it wrapped up enough for Don's folks to use while they are here.

Don and I slept in it Monday night. It is the first time since we moved in that I have slept in a real room, with a door! (at least in our house)

Added bonus: the fan was super easy to put up. Yeah for not making hubby grouchy! Go Hunter brand fans!!

Our "chocolate" bathroom all gussied up

That's all folks!

I have to get ready for 50-200 people for Don's party tomorrow.

I'm loven' it!

Happy Birthday Bubs!!

Happy 29th Marc!

Go Cubs!!!

Happy 6th Birthday, Princess 2

Birthday Breakfast

(no worries, she got her birthday donut on the way to school)

Birthday Dress

Birthday gifts from Grandparents Mc (including the dress)

School

Today is Delphia's 6th birthday! I was able to spend the morning with her in Kindergarten. It was fun and I may even be able to remember the 24 students by name next time I go!

I am off to cram into the next hour as much cleaning as I can. I need to get changed too, I put on a tee shirt and pajama pants for my cleaning.

The Birthday Saga Continues

Usta! Things do stay busy! I am a couple of days late honoring our oldest son, Homer, on his 9th birthday. But, he was 7 days overdue, so I think he'll understand!
We started the celebration a day early with his birthday cake on Sunday. He wanted ice cream sandwich cake for his cake and we were having company Sunday for lunch. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH CAKE!

M0nday was "the day". Homer has been after me for some time to make coffee cake. I have tried a few times in my married life, but so far none have lived up to my expectations. I got my mom's recipe last week and tried it one more time....IT WORKED! I was glad and Homer was ecstatic! He did wonder when we were going to get the donuts for his birthday breakfast, but I told him that would be overkill! We will do donuts next Monday for my birthday.

Homer got to light the candles on both his birthday cake and coffee cake. I think that was the best part for him :)

We went to the pool on his birthday and then to see "Kung Fu Panda". The kids have been anxious to see it, and it was finally in the $1 theater! Tuesday afternoon I had errands to do, so Homer got to go shopping for his birthday gift. He chose a remote control airplane. He also purchased batteries for said plane, helmet and pads, and a couple of toys for the pool.

Monday also began swimming lessons. They are every week day morning at 9 for 2 weeks. I am enjoying walking on the nearby track while they do their lessons. It is best for me to leave. Otherwise Jesse turns into an infant and cries instead of doing what he is told. If I leave, he is cool.

Bones,

My dear dear first baby, what am I supposed to do with you?!! Your emerging manhood is evidenced daily, sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes....not so much. I know well the pressures of being the oldest. I was so sure I would NEVER blame my oldest child for leading siblings astray, it seemed so unfair! But the facts are these, no matter what it is you do, it does set an example.

I have to admit, raising a "man in training" is quite a challenge for me. I am beginning to catch a glimpse of what makes your dad tick, and sometimes it helps me help you, but then there is that whole other side of you that is SOOOO ME! (but in male form, it's a little weird)

I deeply appreciate your ability to sense what I need done, and your willingness (for the most part) to do what you can to help. Even if it means bossing your siblings :) I treasure the moments of vulnerability when you will let me hold you close. The "kisses are gross" stage is here for now, but the twinkle in your eye when your dad or I catch you unaware and lay one on you tells me it's more about being "tuff" than actually disliking affection.

There are so many time you and your dad are like oil and water. I am never sure weather or not to try to mediate or just observe; but then the next thing I know you are working side by side accomplishing great things! Thanks so much for building your muscles working on our new house. You have been a great help to daddy and thus to me. I wish I could be out there doing more, but your perseverance, even until 1am, amazes and encourages us both.

Thank you for getting on board and leading as we, as a family, make decisions based on

#1) is it best for the whole family?

#2) does it promote peace in our home?

I can't believe we made you! God is so good to us! We pray for you daily. We love you!

I love you!

Momma

Our Weekend/ My Man

First off, Happy 39th to my favorite person in the whole wide world!

Don and Princess #2

I am thankful today to be able to look at another year as a time of deepening our relationship and drawing closer to each other thru God. This is much different than how I feel on each of the kid's birthdays. Each year in their lives is a step further toward their independence and maturation, thus in some ways steps away from me. Yes dear, I know! Snip, snip! (Don's sign to me to "cut the apron strings")

My only regret as Don gets older is this: He is 8 years older than I am, and people used to think he was younger because of my age. Now people just assume I am older than I am due to Don's age, well.. that and the 5 kids!

ANYWAY, as I was saying, Don is SO very precious to me! I am thankful God knew what I needed in a mate, and for His perfect plan and timing in bringing us together. There have been numerous struggles as we work out the "kinks" of our relationship, but I am thankful for the knowledge that divorce is not an option for either of us. I also admire and appreciate Don's willingness to invest time and energy into "us" in order to guard against complacency and apathy in our relationship, and to work toward the "oneness" God designed for marriage. Don has helped me focus more on how God sees me, and less, much less, on what others think. We really are best friends! I am so glad!

Baby, I love you!

No, we don't have any special plans for today, but we are going to be doing exactly what Don wants today: working at the property. I did get Don's favorite cake, chocolate fudge with chocolate chips and chocolate pudding, and some strawberry glaze made last night to send with whipped cream for him and the people he works with. Don has meetings all morning and into the afternoon at work. I am not sure on our supper plan, but there is VBS at Sarah's church so I will be dropping the kids there and then I can help Don for the evening!

The kids actually did quite well helping out this past weekend. I long for the day when a day off of work for Don actually means a day OFF rather than an extra day for projects at home!


My parents and 4 of my siblings came over for supper Friday night. There is nothing like company, especially my hyper organized mother, to motivate the cleaning of my house! Don mowed the lawn here in the morning, then he, Jon and Homer headed out to the property to work on getting the basement floor ready for plumbing. Meanwhile, the girls, Jesse and I were going to town here in the house. The kids folded and put away 7 loads of laundry, and did various other errands for me. I was able to get some rather messy areas cleaned up. I was so glad.


I even cleaned our room earlier in the week. Our room tends to consist of one unmade bed piled high with balled up down comforters (Don's nest), and numerous piles of clothes. I packed up my winter clothes and sent them to storage at the new house, hung up and put away the other clothes and made the bed. All this took 2-3 hours. I never get upstairs during the day. This job rarely gets done! Don notice right away something new was in the room, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Eventually he figured out, it was carpet! Thanks dear! (in case you missed that, the carpet was always there, it just always was covered with clothes!)

So, my house is not spotless, especially now 3 days later, but I am down to 1 or 2 piles per room rather than the 5 or so....

Saturday was fun, we all worked for awhile and the kids did a great job of pitching in. It is funny how much cleaning needs done in a house that isn't even finished or lived in! Yesterday, we all went to the pool after lunch at my grandparent's. At church last night we were able to see pictures of Alaska taken by one of our deacons and his wife and their recent cruise.

Here are a few pictures of everyone pitching in at the house and the rest of our weekend.

Lunchables in the basement

My "Amish" husband

Time to cool off!

Great Grandpa's new toy

Queen For The Day

Our dear Marlene turned 8 yesterday. She was not born until after 11:30 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time, so we kept saying all day,"You're not 8 yet!" In fact she was not "officialy" 8 until after we were all asleep last night.

Marlene had the priviledge of doing her own shopping for her birthday gift from
Grandma Mc. She was thrilled to buy a small camera, purse, bike helmet and knee pads. We always do donuts for birthday breakfast, so after she got up and dressed she grabbed her purse, and we headed to Kwik Star to pick out our treats.

Upon arriving home all the kids had to clean their rooms before breakfast. While they were doing that I was able to get a breakfast casserole made. I wanted to ballance out the sugar a bit. Marlene was thrilled my choice for breakfast, it's her "favorite"! (along with a myriad of other things)

The room cleaning was finally accomplishe and we sang our first "Happy Birthday" of the day. She made her own crown at VBS last week.

After breakfast and devotions we had a bunch of house work to do. All pitched in pretty well, except for Homer who was asleep again. The girls folded and distributed a couple of loads of laundry while I finished cleaning the berries I'd picked Saturday and cleaning the kitchen. Jon took care of the garbage and Jesse was the "runner". He took things different places I needed them to go.

After a messy lunch of peanut butter and syrup sandwiches, thanks so much for that Aunt Jessica, we loaded up some tubs and headed out to "The Property". We did a little cleaning up inside the house and dropped off some tubs of winter clothes and Christmas decorations. Don said there is one room availible for me to start storing stuff in. I am trying to get things here weeded out, especially in the basement, so I can do some deep cleaning.

We had a small amount of berries to pick in the after noon. It was my last time, YEAH!!!! Then we were off to the pool! Upon our arrival home, it was time to check the mail. Our kids LOVE mail call during birthday season! Marlene has received many cards and gifts of $. Thanks to all who have helped make her day special!

Marlene's supper request was Mac and Cheese. How easy is that!!! After supper we heade to the local $1 theater to see "Prince Caspian". It was a good movie, but it lasted 2 1/2 hours!! We couldn't believe how late it was when we got out!! We had a great talk with the kids about lessons the characters learned on the way home. All of the lessons were important for each of us on a daily basis. There were some quite intense battle scenes and the kids were all afraid of nightmares, but they were all asleep within 5 minutes of bedtime prayers.

As usual Marlene made her own cake.

Of course THIS is the best part!

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Marlene with daddy home after supper. Because of time constraints we were only able to take one bit each of the cake before we needed to leave. I think I'll let them have the cake for breakfast.

Dearest Marlene,

Baby, you are such a special gift to our family! Your love and sensitivity to the needs of others is only one of the many precious qualities we cherish about you.

We are so very pleased to see you able to stand alone when needed. You do such a terrific job of including any and everyone in the things you choose to do.

I am trying to let you be your own person. You obviously got your father's taste, or lack of, in all things fashionable. Your obvious comfort in making your own choices is something I could definately learn from. I am glad you are now telling me you wont wear something BEFORE I take the tags off and wash it!! Thank you for defering to me and giving up wearing socks with sandles :-) You did a great job in picking out a purse! I love it!

I am so thankful for your daddy and his attentiveness to your needs. It is hard for him to understand girls in general, but you mean the world to him, and he wants you to always know the love you deserve as God's Princess. I'll never forget how in your newborn pictures he kept you "covered". His fierce desire to protect you and keep you safe is not just an idea, it's a part of his everyday life.

We are forever thankful to our heavenly Father for the gift of Jesus and the gift of you!

All my love,

Momma
Marlene Anne June 23,2000 7#12oz

(Sorry folks! I don't have a scanner!)