A New Love

Don't worry, this love in NO way replaces my dear husband, BUT it sure makes his life easier! (at least as far as PMS goes!) I found these by chance at our local gas station. The package isn't very clear so I will clarify. These are Mint Crisp M & M's! They are the best!!! What's not to like?!!!! They are mint, chocolate, have fewer calories than other bags the same size, and 2/3rds of them are green...... (we kinda have a running joke/ signal that green M & M's are "mood food") Sorry if you didn't want to know!

Birthday Boy!

July 1st is our Jon's birthday. He missed his Grandpa's birthday,June 30th, by 17". This year Jon turned 7!

Jon was able to do some birthday shopping Saturday. He knew ahead of time what he was looking for. He came home with bike helmet and pads, a batting helmet, bases, tee, 2 baseballs, and a bat. Many thanks to friends and family who sent birthday $! Each of the kids gets to go on a shopping trip with some of the money, they also contributed $10 each to our family pool pass. The remaining birthday $ is going to the bank!




We celebrated the kid's birthdays on June 30th with my side of the family. We grilled supper, had pasta salad and watermelon, opened a cards and gifts, and had "mud dessert". It was a fun evening! We have all been going hither and yon for the past month and it has been quite some time since we have been able to coordinate an evening together.
The trip was two fold in that Don was helping install a gas line in Marc and Jessica's new house, and he was also doing some surveying for them to help with landscaping.

Jon making "Mud"

Jon singing along to "Happy Birthday"

Jon's birthday pancake

Jon's baseball cake

Dear Jon,

My dear grouchy baby! It amazes me how mellow you have grown to be!! I am so thankful for your daddy being there, in your first 8 months, to take over with you in the middle of the night when your cries reduced me to a pile of tears and nervous frustration! Thankfully when you slept, during the day, and when your smile flashed those dimples I received the confirmation I needed that you were indeed a gift.

Today your smile with dimples is a constant part of practically EVERY moment of our day! You definitely have cheerful spirit! You now are constantly singing or whistling. Often the very song you are singing is used to relay to mom and dad a message of encouragement from God.

Thank you for your lavish affection, and helpful spirit! You were such a blessing to me the other day when you swept not only the dining room, but the kitchen too!

You are our "middle middle". Middle child, middle boy! I am glad you are a WYSIWYG! (what you see is what you get) I used to think there was some deep hidden need you had that I needed to discover, but since then I have come to realize, you are just you! I love you to death!

The "engineering gene" is most strongly manifested by you. Your precise instructions and supply list for various "projects"astound me! (but I really don't want to start building a lantern for your sister's to use when they go to the bathroom at night right now!)

I am reluctant to release you as my baby. The stronger facial features you are growing into are slightly similar to my baby, but also strangely unfamiliar. The fear and anticipation of watching you grow battle constantly in my heart.

I love you Jo!

Momma

Weekly / Weakly

Dear friends, I never intended to be such a weak / weekly blogger! I had been encouraged to start blogging awhile before I actually bit the bullet and .... let another Sarah friend set one up for me. In pre-blogging days I constantly had thoughts of things to blog about. Daily happenings, cute kid stuff, various (and trust me there are many) personal idiosyncrasies.
I love to check on my friends daily and catch a quick glimpse of where they find themselves on a day to day basis. But, as I am sure some have noticed, here I find myself 6 days out from my last post! What in the world!!
Maybe today's post should be about the various and sundry "Blogging Blockers".
So far I have not learned the art of "speed posting". I find it takes a lot longer than I anticipate to compose and publish a post.


Okay, total epiphany: maybe it takes so long because I write too much, and maybe I write too much, because I THINK too much!


Well dear ones, I planned to leave you all with a bullet point list of all that is going on in my life and how it they keep me too busy to post, but this is instead what you are going to get. NONE of my premeditated rambling!
2 prayer requests:
~Marlene stepped on a nail last night, and will be getting a tetanus shot tomorrow
~My precious friend and sister-in-law Wendi is going to have a DNC tomorrow to remove what remains in her womb of the most recent addition to our family. This little one rests now in the arms of Jesus. We so wish this were not the case, but we continue to trust even as we grieve.

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!)

A Few Firsts

I have a few "firsts" of summer to share:

First sunburn

My first sunburn came in the form of a small "smile shaped" area just above my waist in the small of my back. I greased myself down with sunscreen before I picked berries for 2 1/2 hours Tuesday, but I failed to realize my tank top hiked up a bit. It still smarts when I my clothes rub on it. Don thinks it's great fun to hear me squeak when he sprays the aloe gel on it :-)

First swim

Last night I took the kids to the pool for the first time this summer. I had to pick strawberries, AGAIN, but promised the kids we'd go after I got done. We were there from 8-8:30pm.

We went again to day from 1-4pm. It was great to be in the water. Jesse and Lexi, our future neighbor, kept me busy at the end of the water slide.

The pool didn't open until last Friday (13th), but that is a whole nother story in itself! You would think people would be used to June coming after May and have the pool prep done!

First tooth lost

Tonight at supper Jon complained his loose tooth hurt when he ate. We've been so busy the past week, and they were gone for 3 days, so I hadn't checked it in a while. It was barely hanging on. Jon complained about the hole where his tooth used to be. He wanted me to tape it!

2nd tooth lost

A sum total of 15" later we were checking his other front tooth and it too came out!

First Strawberry Pie!

It took forever to get the berries, but I finally had time to put together a fresh strawberry pie. The recipe is compliments of my MIL. It's been a favorite for some time! Delphia was a big help! She did all the stirring, which takes upwards of 20". Gotta love the swim skirt over the PJ shorts!

Night home with Dad

Tonight for the first time in awhile, the kids were able to have supper with and hang out with their dad. It was nice to have him home relaxing with us! We are headed to bed soon. We hope to get a decent nights sleep so we can get rested up a bit for all we hope to get done tomorrow.

The Property

We arrived safely home at 9:10 PM Sunday night. The route was easy, but I was WAY tired! Once we were in Iowa I woke up and the time went quickly. Note to self: Next time you decide to take the Camry to save on gas, limit the load to 3 kids instead of 4. They were about to kill each other the whole way home. I in turn wished teleportation was available!

After a short family time Sunday night, Don and Homer had roasted hot dogs for the kids so I didn't have to stop and get food plus try to deal with the limited space for eating, we hit the hay! No tornado warnings! Yeah!



Monday morning found our alarm going off at it's usual ungodly hour, 5:45. I had to get Don and Homer out the door by 6:50. Don met my Dad to get Homer his ride to Jr. Boys camp. I can't believe my baby is going into 4th grade! He is having a good time so far. I am glad my sister, 3 brothers, and my dad are all up there! Here he is ready to roll! He said he missed me VERY much while I was gone, but he declined my offer to stay home from camp:-)

Once I had Don and Homer out the door, I had to wake the other 4. We needed to leave by 8, so they needed to get breakfast and I had some MORE packing to do! We got out of the house almost on time and made it to my folks church where they are having VBS this week. My dear mother is keeping the kids until Thursday!

So, what does one do with 3 DAYS all to ones self? I have no idea! I keep asking myself! Monday I stopped by my brother's new house and helped my sister in law, Jessica, paint their master bed room. After that I took a walk with my Mom, Marlene, and Jon. I left town in time to pick up Don at work. We had a stop to make, then we went out for supper. We crashed HARD when we got home! The pace of our life and all we have to do wears us out quite a bit! It was super nice to just chill out together with No Interruptions!!!

Yesterday, I stayed in bed until noon and watched a couple of movies. I was so torn! I had tons to do cleaning wise, but I can do that while the kids are here. Sleeping in is not so easily attained! For some crazy reason, I agreed to pick strawberries for a friend while she was on an Alaskan cruise. I pick them and clean them and I get to keep half. It seemed like a do able deal..... Honestly, the patch doesn't look that big, but there are no rows and the leaves do a great job of hiding the berries. I spent 3 1/2 hours yesterday picking and cleaning those buggers! And I don't even have my half cleaned! I think part of the problem is the berries are quite mushy and thus not real tasty. It lessons the motivation to pick them when they aren't worth the trouble! I'm going to have to get some Shure Jell and make jam! I want to make a yummy strawberry pie, but I spend so much time getting the berries I have no time to do anything with them! (2nd note to self: I hate gardening, thus I have no garden, don't offer to help garden unless your the last available sole on the planet!)

Last night Don and I went to our property and did some work in the basement. It was kinda mucky and I got quite dirty, but I was thankful I was getting that dirty in an unfinished basement. I know some whose basement is that muddy from the flooding and theirs is finished!

This morning I did get up at a decent time and cleaned my kitchen and part of the dining room, paid bills and balanced the check book (depressing). Today Don took 1/2 day off. We walked hand in hand thru a couple of home improvement stores checking prices and picking out retaining blocks for our egress window. We had the shock of our lives when the color I picked was the same color Don was thinking, PLUS I didn't pick out the priciest blocks available!!! Our agreeing with out "discussion" plus the moderate pricing was our miracle for the day! We are now home, getting ready to head back out to the house.

I honestly hadn't planned on getting this wordy! The below picture is of some daisies the "strawberry friend" gave me last spring. I love the fact that they grew even taller than our weeds with NO tending! We did have to water them a bit after we planted them last spring, but that has been it! Don has been careful to shield them from the onslaught of large vehicles and lumber deliveries. Last spring after we planted them I called the property "Daisy Lane". Don wasn't real thrilled with that so we are back to calling it "The Property".

Which Way Should I Go!

Currently I am sitting in Michigan, watching The Princess Bride, and trying to plan my route back to Iowa.

We, Marlene, Jon, Delphia, Jesse and I, headed out here Thursday morning. Mainly we are out here for a graduation open house, but we have also fit in quick trips to visit family, and we plan to visit our church family in Marne for the morning service tomorrow.

I have been up rather late each night, but it sure has been nice to not worry about tornadoes!!

I have been making the trip to and from Iowa to Michigan for almost 10 years now, the route is pretty much a now brainer, BUT with all the water I had to find an alternative. I'll survive. For awhile I thought I80 was closed over the Mississippi, THAT would have made things MUCH more complicated!! I was VERY relieved to find out I could travel the "normal route" at least until I am in Iowa.

Homer is home getting ready for Jr. Boys camp and taking care of Don. Yesterday he took some food out of the microwave Don had been warming and took it to him at the table. Don was surprised, but told him thanks. Homers reply; "I figured I'd take care of you since mom isn't here." Too cute!

As far as the windows go, Don and Marc were able to get all the windows and one of the patio doors in Tuesday night.

I have been so glad to be out here in MI again, and see every one. But I ache to be home again in Don's arms. With him so busy getting the house ready, we haven't seen much of each other much lately. My mom is planning to have the kids at her house Mon-Wed. I am soooo excited. Our time will be spent at the house, but at least we will be able to BOTH be there!

I'm a tad tired and rambling. Good night!