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!!

11 Years

11 Years Ago Today:

• after traveling together in Life Action Ministries for 9 months and spending practically all day every day together, Don and I had not seen each other for 60 days!
• Don who is NOT a morning person woke up at 5 or so to get on the road from MI to IA, and thus arrived blissfully earlier than I expected.
• I was so keyed up to see Don again and be held by him, that rather than run out to the car to greet him, I ran to the basement to be alone after instructing my mom to send him my way once he got inside. Weird to some, but that moment was so precious to me, I was in no mood for an audience.
• Many family members were traveling
• We loaded all my belongings into a trailer hauled out by Don's sister and her husband. I was so sure I needed the big trailer they brought out, but in truth I could have fit all my stuff in the smaller trailer they were thinking of bringing in the first place.
• Our nephew Tyler made the now historic quote, "I don't want to see any more silos!!!" (the first million had been exciting and helped pass the long trip. After that they lost their charm)
• Don's grandmas were still alive
• All my siblings were much younger, as were Don's nephews.
• Life was a lot simpler, and less complicated
• We were so sure it couldn't get any better, but in all reality the beauty we beheld then was just the "earth bound caterpillar"