Update

Stephen's surgery went well. His eye socket was shattered. The surgery started later than anticipated due to the "parts department" being closed. They ended up putting a plate and 10 screws in to fix it. Ellen was allowed in the surgery room with Stephen. He is to be discharged tomorrow, and they plan to head home Monday.
The injury occurred during a basket ball game.
Ellen said to pray tonight that Stephen rests well.
Don is praying they don't run into any trouble going thru customs. (I never thought of that!)

My Brother Stephen

Please be in prayer for my brother Stephen. He is currently on a missions trip in Ecuador with his wife(Ellen), son(Samuel), in laws and some teens from the church he pastors. Today he took an elbow to the eye and they are going to have to do surgery at 3pm. The skull above the eye has been damaged enough that surgery was necessary immediately.
I am very concerned for the surgery in general, but doubly so with it being done out of states.
Thanks for praying. They are all supposed to come home Monday.

Have You Tried These?

For the past couple of summers Doritos has produced a mystery flavored chip. Supposedly they want help naming the new flavor....I think they just want you to buy it out of curiosity. They know you'd NEVER buy it if you knew what it tasted like! Last summer the new chip tasted like a cheeseburger with lots of pickles. I have yet to see those back on the shelf with their "new name".






This summer these "mystery chips" are on shelves to seduce those of us curious enough to try them. These taste like, I kid you not, LEMON CAKE BATTER!!!! What it the world?!! I wish I could share with you the looks on my kids faces!!! They LOVE Doritos, but out of five kids, only 2 actually ate the chip, and only 1 actually wanted more. I am sure there is some very posh lime flavored alcoholic beverage out there they may taste like, but I for one don't care for chips that taste like either a cake mix or a liquid. They weren't terrible, they were actually rather funky. I just had NO desire to put another one in my mouth (ever)after I had eaten 5 chips. They have now gone the way of last years bag of mystery chips, they are now at my parent's house for my siblings to try. Gotta spread the love!

Don't mind me, I'm just bitter because they no longer make my favorite Doritos, Jalapeno Cheddar.

P.S. Yes I will continue to buy each new mystery flavor out of sheer curiosity

God is Faitfhful

The above images are a double rainbow we were able to see both ends of on Monday. These images are much needed by my spirit today. The promises of God "feel" rather distant today. Thankfully what I KNOW and what I FEEL are two very different things!

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

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