Where Willy Went

I went to the library tonight to return the kids' books and to pick out new ones. Jason is/was getting tired of them and he is sick of all the holiday books we have. The kids ask (after their nightly ice cream - just like daddy) how many books? Jason replies a number and quickly - and NO HOLIDAY BOOKS. They giggle and run to get their favorite Halloween, Christmas or Easter book.

There are so many books out there and some are better than others. I picked up this book because of the cover and the title. How can you put down a Willy book? I don't usually read the books completely through before taking them home, but the first sentence caught me off guard and I decided to read on. "Willy was a sperm." I took a double take and looked at the tadpole picture on the first page.

I turned the page and read on to see a very detailed story about this little guy - "he wasn't good at math but he was a good swimmer..." It had detailed pictures of his swim route and of the "big race."

I was a little appalled that it would be in the children's book area. Do we really need to read this to our pre-schoolers?

How Fast Can Your Big Wheel GO?

The kids love to ride their bikes. Ally is getting good on her Dora bike and Drew is finally able to get that big wheel to move. The only problem is that Ally ALWAYS has to be in the front or WWIII starts.

Jason dug out our bikes on Sunday from the basement. We weren't sure if the tires would still hold air since we haven't rode them since probably before Ally - being pregnant or small baby doesn't work well with riding a bike. I wasn't sure if I would remember how to ride it. Jason was already making fun of me since I am a SLOW and wobbly rider back in the olden days.

We took off for a ride through the subdivision. Drew kept up on his silly big wheel. Those poor little legs were constantly pedaling as fast has he could. He was so cute driving down the rode. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I would have fallen off my bike. On Monday my behind was feeling the ride.

Point of this entry: I forgot to thank the lovely youth auction people for my great bike from almost 7 years ago that I love - it will never be for training for a triatholon and it isn't worth much, but the moments I get to spend with my family makes it priceless!

It's a Good Sign!

Jason's nose is slowly getting a little better each day. I wish that we would have thought about allergy season when we did scheduled this, but really when is a good time?

The last two mornings Jason has gotten up and told me about dreams. He never dreams. That is one sign of sleep apnea because you never get into a deep enough sleep to dream. So two nights ago we were at a camp being CSI's investigating girl's smuggling in something. Watch out Sarah and Ben!!!!

Last night we (why do I get pulled into the dreams???) were on a freight train trying to get off all the animals to keep them safe before it exploded. Then we had to round them up once they were off.

Anyone want to interpret the dreams' meanings?

Take a Picture of Me!

Look Mommy I am a statue! We came home a little early today to relieve Daddy so he could go to a meeting. Drew stayed home sick today. Ally is becoming very technological. She has figured out how to take pictures with our camera even though she is scolded each time. Her pictures are getting better though. Now whatever she intends to take a picture of is really what comes out. This is her newest photo.

She has lost computer time for Tuesday for playing with the camera. She like to read books and play games. She does really good for not being able to read. She can even print pictures which is another way to lose computer priveleges around here. So if you need a place for your young child to learn how to use the computer try out Nick Jr. or Playhouse Disney. Believe it or not, Pre-K curriculum national standards are calling for some general computer usage like being able to manipulate a mouse!

Helping Change the Tire

Remember way back to care group when Jason asked everyone to write the steps of how to change our tires??? Many of us wrote down cell phone numbers of our spouses. Last spring I don't think I blogged about it but a tragedy came when a high school friend changed my tire when Jason was in Wisconsin. The tire fell on his hand and blew out his ring finger. Five months later and it looks pretty good except that he has completely lost his finger nail.

As I was driving home from the hospital on Friday night on the curvy river road, I was afraid of a herd of deer running in front of me. Who would I call? Jason barely remembers that I was at the hospital. Rachel can't come help me, she has the kids. Thus I drove slowly (speed limit) so that I would hopefully have plenty of time to stop.

I really depend on Jason so much for all my heavy labor - I like to think that I am strong but we all know better. I know that I can mow the lawn, but he does it faster. I tried to weed eat earlier this summer and went through the whole lawn, but it looked the same as I started. I wanted to cuss at the stupid thing. (Actually I think it was broken, but I will claim helplessness.) Every time I go to the shop to get my oil changed, they tell me I need other things. Never happens to Jason.

But my tires. Mr. Oswood purposely made us learn to change a tire in Drivers Ed. UMMM I have a dad and hopefully some day a man for that! But Mr. Oswood knew that someday we would be stuck on the side of the road not being able to call anyone (that was when cell phones were still in bags!). I learned and could probably get through it if it happened but I would drive straight to a mechanics shop to get it fixed.

This morning on the way to church we had some strange bumping. Being late as usual, Jason didn't want to stop, but I thought I wanted to check it out and of coarse - completely flat. Should Jason have changed that tire - probably not since the dr. said to avoid strenuous labor, but I helped as much as I could. This afternoon I told Jason that I was going to put the good tire back on with him watching so that I for sure knew how to do it. I did it, but promised him that if I was an hour from home he was still coming to my rescue!

Side note: Drew is hitting the tire with the mallet to put the hub cap back on.

No Picture

Wow I am exhausted! I would post a picture and Jason asked several times yesterday if I was going to get one for the blog. What has my life come to? I can describe what he looked like. Picture Jason in a hospital gown with ties in the back not afraid to show his panties - I mean underware. Face - tired wishing he could breathe and tapped to the bottom of his nose a big piece of gauze that was changed about every hour. Nothing changed on the outside - still the big nose that Ally inherited during delivery. (inside joke if that didn't make sense.)

I have been running around with my head cut off making sure everything stays inline and everyone is taken care of. I hate being gone, but I was confident in my sub on Friday - the kids hate her because she doesn't let them mess around!!! Good for me!

Jason had surgery on Friday morning for 2 reasons. First - because his sleep study said he had sleep apnea and the dr. thought that straightening some stuff out up there would fix it hopefully. Second - because he loves his wife and prefers that she sleeps beside him instead of a jail cell. Mostly during allergy season it sounds like a freight train is going through our room and once I am awake there is no going back to sleep. (I slept very little from March to May.)

It is not a painful surgery since there are very little nerves there, but for the first 24 hours they stuff about 90 tampons up your nose - making the only way to breathe out your mouth. If you have ever tried to eat or sleep like that it makes it tough.

Due to my wonderful sister infecting my mom with a horrible cold, she was out for kid patrol. My dear friend Kate came to my rescue. She took the kids to school with her and picked them up. She got the taste of being a mini van momma for a day. Then her husband and her came back to watch them during the evening til Rachel could get here so I could be some company to Jason. I am not sure what Jim (Kate's husband) thought - it might have been some birth control for them.

We picked up Jason the this morning after a trip to the Golden Arches. I took Drew to the dr. since he sounds like Ariel on the Little Mermaid - no strep and his lungs are good - man he sounds like crap though! We are home and I have more to do than I can imagine.

Jason isn't under any restrictions except to not blow his nose for 2 weeks and if you know him well this will be one of the hardest tasks to do. This causes slight problems since it has rained like 40 inches this week and our grass is almost hiding our cars - he is allergic to the outdoors and the dust. I am going to attempt to mow and now hurt my arm but if you are in the area and know how to weed eat - I would love a visit!!!

Off to finish the laundry and cleaning the house. Hopefully the kids will nap good since they woke up at 6:23 this morning.

Breakfast in the Van

I wish this picture showed the true mess Drew made in the car this morning. The story begins a couple days ago when my never-forget-anything daughter remembers that when we go to school we can stop at the store on the way and get donuts. Really, I didn't stop much last year, but I guess enough to ingrain it into her brain. I refused to stop, but promised that we would go to the grocery store and get some donuts for the next day.

We got what I thought everyone had wanted. Ally said she wanted white ones with no sprinkles and Drew is into anything with chocolate on top or powdered sugar. This morning we only had powdered sugar donuts and one chocolate but with pudding it in - my favorite. I am not a good sharer of my pudding donuts and had hoped to hide it while I got in the car. My excuse - it would make too much of a mess.

I didn't do such a great job as Drew spotted it immediately. Can I have a little bite? (repeat) Can I have a little bite? No I want a BIG bite. Okay I gave in and licked the pudding out so the mess wouldn't be made and he ate the remaining top of my chocolate donut. Does that count as being a servant???

Drew bragged to Ally - I got TWOOOOO donuts. On the way he managed to have powdered sugar everywhere and chocolate on his shirt. His face had the chocolate frosting to help the sugar stick even better.

I didn't plug in the video so they both talked the whole way constantly about the corn, beans, barns, tractors, and train (which we have managed to be stopped by everyday).

Kate (my wonderful science teacher friend) is taking them to school on Friday so I can go with Jason to the hospital for his nose job. I think that I won't give them donuts for her sake!!!

Supper prayers

Dear God - thank you for the food. and dear God, I don't know why I have to go to school everyday, but I have to go to school every day and dear God Amen.

Ohhhhh no we are in trouble - 3rd day of Pre-K and already is questioning why we have to go everyday! Let's just say that we were laughing so hard that we ended the prayer there.

When asked to use her spoon to eat her corn at supper - Ally said, "But I love my hands - They're great!"

These are for Jason's quote book. I wish I could make the quote book.

$11.92

As I write this I remember our good friend Jenn Milliken. I remember Jenn's air being out on their good car all summer, but she was afraid that it would cost too much to fix so she drove around without air.

We have not been driving the pick-up because the blower on the fan went out in March. It is butt hot here in the promise land. The air is so thick with humidity that it is hazy - look what you are moving into Allie L!!! Knowing that I needed to save miles on my van, I drive the truck to work, but I have refused since it doesn't have air. I am not quite like Jenn in her suffering with small children!

I finally talked Jason into getting it fixed when he started doing research on the internet about the problem. He found out that there is this small transitor or something that sometimes burns up and you can spot it and fix it. uHHHHH good luck finding it honey! After much searching he and Ally found it. It was "broken" so they went to the store to replace it for $11.92. Now the air works great. Why didn't we look into this back in March????

Hats off to you Jason!

Another Start

Another start to another school year. I wish I didn't have to post this picture, but we must document the day. Someday I will embarass my kids by taking the picture with their bus driver while everyone waits and snickers on the bus. Much to our surprise, Drew was the one excited to go and Ally wanted to stay in bed! By the time we got to school, they both were running down the hall to their class. Their preschool teachers reported a good day by both (and they supposedly took naps!)

My 8th graders were happy to see me back and I am happy to be back in 8th grade. Quite surprising since many were happy to say good bye last spring! What I miss most is the air conditioning from STL!!!! It is hot in my room and full of humidity. I told the boys I was leaving a bottle of deodorant by the door. I also seem to get heat headaches that don't go away very easily. My voice is soar and I think I am getting a cold from temperature changes. Enough complaining - pray for a great year and that God will use me in mighty ways with these kiddos!

Top 5%

Once again Jason shows his intelligence. Our kids are drinkers - they get it from their parents. Jason guzzles a glass a water before bed (and then wonders why he has to get up 3 times in the middle of the night???) Both kids like to have drinks before bed and would guzzle it if you gave them the chance.

So what did Jason come up with? Our teeny tiny glasses we got as toys from A&W kid's meals. They don't hold more than 2 tablespoons! Best thing - the kids think they are so cool and don't realize they aren't getting a lot of water!

And for the title - Jason was tested at Paric for problem solving skills and the test given placed him in the top 5% problem solvers in the nation. What does that mean - absolutely nothing.

Too Slow

Jason (and I) were too slow in getting to the couch to read tonight. We were reading the all exciting Erector Set (the ISU ConE's annual). It has updates of all the graduates that send stuff back. I think it is everyone's way to brag how successful they have been over the last year. But it is fun to see where some of our friends ended up.

Then I started listening to what the kids were doing - Ally was reading Drew's cow book to him. Well she was making up words but they did make sense! Share Bear also got in on the action!

Today's Chuckle

Jason gets to stay home and spend quality time with the kids today! He sent me an email of today's adventures as of 10:00 this morning.

We cleaned out the truck and now we are at the museum. On tne way here Drew looked out the window and yelled 'I see a hooker'. (Crane)

As we were pulling in, Ally said - Dad, youre freaking me out!

I wish I could have been there to see the tone in their voice because that would have made it even better.

What's That?

I am not sure how Chris talked Amy into this but I think it is cool. Can you guess what plant is by their front door? And yes it is a legal plant!

Also isn't Kaylee's swimsuit so adorable? I was calling her kay kay at the funeral and she would just giggle at me. She was trying so hard to call me Aunt Brrrenda instead of Aunt Bindie. Who cares what she calls me - I love her!

Hats off Allie

I don't have Allie's blog on my sidebar because she would prefer remain anonymous, but she is a very talented song writer. I have to to link her blog for Monday called Unafraid because I think that it paints a picture of what so many people go through in life. I just finished a book on fruit of the Spirit by Beth Moore (recommend!!!) and it talked about FRUIT that only God can give you when you are a Christian. But you have to take them and use them. I found myself not willing to grab some of them but wanting them so badly.

My prayer this summer has been to trust God's faithfulness. You might say - duh but it is harder than it looks. We like to say God is in control, but really are you letting him be in control. Are you having peace with him steering the wheel?

Allie - I hope that Unafraid goes a long ways because the words are a testimony of the person that I want to be because God is in control.

Silly Girl

School has started for me which means I don't have as many stories or pictures for you. It is hot and I am ready for about 8 inches of snow!!! This year was the hardest to go back. I had such a fun and relaxing summer with the kids and I didn't want it to end. I am also not looking forward to SOME of my kids this year. I need to keep a good attitude and pray that they have grown up slightly over the summer. A majority were great but a few apples spoiled the bunch.

I am looking forward to 8th grade again. Algebra concepts are hit hard this year and that is my specialty. Does anyone want to retake 8th grade math this year???? Highlight of this week were ordering a much needed new book - yes late, but it has taken me 2 months to talk everyone into it!

So I leave you with some of Ally's funnies from the past week.
In parking lot at Culvers on way to Minnesota
A: Why are we stopping here?
B: To eat supper.
A: I thought we were going to heaven.
B: mmmmm not quite Grandma Lil went to heaven, we are going to her going away party
A: Can we go to heaven?
B: Yes but I would rather not today.

Conversation while at breakfast in Minnesota
A: I am going to marry Daddy?
B: Really? Why Daddy?
A: Because I love him (break for thinking) and I love weddings!

Stacey (babysitter this week) gave me this one from when they were playing on the swingset.
A: (in the middle of playing stops) Dear Jesus Thank you for letting Stacey come babysit. I love her. Dear Jesus Amen.

At least we have done a good job of portraying the thought that you can talk to God anywhere!!!

(The above picture is of the kids playing kitty. I don't know why they feed kitties with bottles, but they weren't fighting!)

Blue Earth and the Green Giant

The highlight of the trip was seeing the Jolly Green Giant on the way home. As children this meant less than an hour to Grandma's house! We would have a game to see who could see it first from the interstate! This is the headquarters for those great veges! I know that you are all jealous and would want to go. It is about 1 hour from the intersection of I-35 and I-90! You too can get a picture with the Jolly Green Giant! They even had a tourist shop where we signed the guest book. I think that counts for our vacation this year!

Drew, Ally and I are the speck at his feet.

A mini giant with my giant kids!

Jason shaking the elfs hand.

Playground

Chris and Jason took the kids to the park a couple times. All three of them did great. We were blessed by a lady that volunteered at the last minute to watch them during the funeral. I don't know if she knew what she was getting into, but we had videos and colors for them.

Drew's scary look!

Ally coming out the sticky slide.

Twins! I know Amy this isn't the outfit you had picked out, but I couldn't resist since we had the same shirt!

We were in Minnesota a couple years ago at this same park. First picture was taken in June 2005!

This one was harder to get since neither wanted to sit and smile at the top of the slide, but instead race down!

And yes - the hard hat barely came off.

Trip to Minnesota

I know that this trip to Minnesota wasn't suppose to be fun, but like Grandma Arlene's funeral - this trip was full of fellowship and rejoicing. I am sure that Grandma was sitting on a cloud watching us, but not wishing to be with us since she was in such a better place. The funeral was full of testimony of her love and true devotion to Jesus.

I am very sad that she is gone because I wanted to know her more. I learned so much about her that I didn't know about. She had this devotion book that everyone kept talking about. I asked to look at it when we got back to Grandpa's apartment. I flip through all the pages. She started the book Streams in the Desert in the late 50s and read it over and over again. She had comments or underlining on about everyday - what was special to her, a tough time or a praise for that day.

I did enjoy seeing my family that lives so far away. I wish that we didn't have to get together for this sad times! Here are a few picts of the fun we had!

Here is Kaylee feeding Grandma Rhonda a chip. The donut in the other hand wasn't about to be shared. She was also telling us all the colors of sprinkles!

Grandma Lil's twin sisters - Mary and Martha. I am doomed. Grandma Arlene was also a twin. I praying that Rachel will get the blessing of twins.

Picture of all kids playing rockets. Amazing that my kids would stand still for this picture of 2 minutes earlier wouldn't for a family picture.

Aaron was inside washing dishes and didn't get to play with the little kids.

Aunt Lou, Uncle Mitch and crazy Matthew

Aunt Laura, Uncle Chuck and Nicole had to hustle back to Arizona to start school on Monday. On to have one more week! We missed Tyler - who is in Air Force tech school.

Pray for the Blyckers

My OLDEST cousin Debbie and her family are home for 3 months from Mexico. Tim teaches pastors and others how to lead "Walk through the Bible". I know they do so much more too. It was fun to share supper with them at Aunt Linda's before they headed back home!

Miracle Day

I know that everyone likes ice cream - maybe not as much as Jason but a sweet treat is always good. Today Dairy Queen is sponsoring - Pledge a Blizzard. All the proceeds go toward Children's Miracle Network.

A long time ago I told you about my friend's 18 month old Shaelynn. She is doing well and is having surgery early in September. You never expect your precious baby to get sick especially with such a terrible disease. Later the next month Jason's cousins little boy had a tumor similar to Shaelynn's. His situation was not as fortunate as Shaelynn's as he died a couple days after surgery. I can't image losing either of my babies.

I know that me buying a couple blizzards doesn't seem like much, but all together we can work together to help these children that are in need of love and healing.

I leave you with Shaelynn's mom's update a couple days ago. Pray for her and the family.

Here goes another long update and more changes!!! Today we went in to HCHC to get blood work done and Shaelynn's counts are awesome. White count 20.2, hemoglobin 9.0, platelets 312,000, and neutrophils 18,900. Since we started shots the day after chemo she will still have a period where her counts will drop off which will most likely be this week so we are going to continue shots all week at least until Thursday when we go for counts again.

Also we received a call from nurse, Sherri, who is Dr. Chaloupka's nurse. He is the doctor who will be performing the embolization, cutting blood supply to the tumor. She is an amazing and very sweet lady and very helpful. She informed us that Dr. Chaloupka will be doing the embolization on September 04th and that he is an awesome doctor and has done these numerous times on adults and children. She then said that the tumor removal will be on September 06th because they only like to do the embolizations 2 days in advance. She said that she will go under anesthesia for this and then have a light sedative for 6 hours after the procedure and be in the PICU overnight as they don't want Shaelynn to move a lot for those 6 hours and monitor her so that they can make sure after the procedure there is no bleeding in the femoral artery. (I think I have all of that correct). Then we will go to a regular room on 3rd floor on the 5th she is guessing and then have surgery the next day.

We will also be meeting with Dr. Chaloupka, Dr. Greenlee, and the Anesthesia Department on August 29th starting at 12:30 with Chaloupka and then on from there to every other place so that each doctor can examine Shaelynn, tell us what their plan is, and we can ask questions. That will be a very busy day it sounds so praying Shaelynn will be very patient and so will mom and dad.
SO....that is the change of plans as of right now and you know that it can change anyday and we have to just be on our toes and go with the flow.

Thanks so much for the prayers, we feel them everyday and know we would not be able to do this without them.
Love,
Sam, Drew, and Shaelynn

Loving Your Husband

I have a wonderful husband as most of you already know. My mom said once that he was too good for me - I am not so sure about that! Once and awhile we try marriage improvement. Usually this starts because I want him to change something which means I need to change something. It's only fair I guess!

After cleaning the house this week and doing the laundry, I became frustrated that all the kids' clothes were inside-out and Jason's nasty work socks were bunched up at the end. I didn't realize some of this until they came out of the drier and decided that those socks really can't be clean. Knowing that I couldn't bring up the subject unless I was willing to maybe take some of the blame for the kids' clothes and maybe have to offer a change myself.

Jason has humored me this summer with our plates. I like our plastic kids plates be put with the other plates the same color. We have 3 each of 4 colors. I like to serve matching plates most of the time - unless Ally and Drew claim a color while setting the table. Jason says it doesn't matter to him the order but come on we know him better than that he would put them in color order too. I asked him to do this a couple months ago and he has faithfully done it on his own free will!!!

Back to the laundry - I told him of my frustration and asked if he would help me. Then hesitantly I asked what I could do. He asked for all of his clothes to be on white hangers. First this proves that he would want the plates colorized together, but second - who cares. But as hard as it was for me to take my random clothes off the white hangers and his off the colored hanger, I did it on Monday while Ally and I did more laundry. I should have let it go and see how long it took him to notice, but I was so proud - yes proud - of my accomplishments that I said you didn't notice??? after he changed clothes after work. He hates this game as do all men, but it didn't take him long and he smiled.

Last night he also claimed that he has shook out his socks both days. We tried to list out all the things that we have asked each other to change and we couldn't think of many, but I know there have been many. It just proves that the little things are easy to "fix."

Try it and see the joy of loving your husband.

Home at Last

Grandma Lil went to be with Jesus at 2:45 this morning. I know it is sad that I will never eat her New Year's cookies or zwieback. There are so many memories. I am sure she is dancing/singing/making music with Elenor (her sister) and her parents and all of her friends!

I know that when she entered heaven's gates this morning Jesus said - well done good and faithful servant.

Stains!

I think that I am the stain master. I can get almost any stain out - if I catch them before Jason dries them. What is my secret - I will share since I know how frustrating it is for your daughter get a great white tank top from Aunt Rachel and spill red kool-aid done the front. OR someone lays you white sweater on a red Turkish pillow to dry and the red bleeds onto your nice sweater. Or you accidently late a stained shirt on your sons nice shirt and it puts black moldy stains on it - now that is the toughest to get out (it took everything I had to get it out - you'd never know that the front was covered with black gross stains!).

The secret is Oxi-Clean spray as soon as you take it off. Now some stuff takes a couple loads (without drying) or some scrubbing or bleach with water or a soaking in that order. I think this summer I have beat every stain that my kids have challenged me with!

Red Kool-aid on white tank from the picnic yesterday - GONE!

Willis Picnic

Today we headed north for a Willis picnic. It was hot. It was humid. It really needs to just poor, but it never did. Good thing since we were at a park in a open shelter.

Drew and Ally kept Grandma Janelle, Uncle Jared and Aunt Allison moving. Jason and I sat back and snickered by the fan. I'll take my turn tomorrow!!! Drew would walk up to Jared - "unca jared, wanna play with me - peeeeease!" Ally wouldn't take no from Grandma - even when she wanted a breather. Grandma had brought some bats and lacrosse thingys to play with. New toys are cool. Drew had a red sweaty face most of the day. We got home pretty late, but had to wake them and give a quick bath - their feets and bodies were NASTY!!!!

Here is Jared and Allison taking lessons on how to shoot the rockets. The "big" boys ended up having a war with them, but the little guys kept getting in the way.

Jared and Allison also took a spanking to Jason and I in Bocce ball. I wish that I could say it was all me (it was mostly me), but Jason came in with a few clutch throws. I can say this because he won't defend his honor on the blog!!

One more week of freedom before school starts.

Grandma Lil

I had a conversation tonight with Ally about Grandma being so very sick. She had a stroke this morning and was not in good shape. We talked about Grandma Lil having a house next to Grandma Arlene in heaven. Ally wanted to know why they wouldn't live together. Ally gets so excited to talk about heaven and how wonderful it will be. (Above Ally is 4 months old)

Pray for my dad's family as Grandma isn't doing well. It is hard because you don't want her to suffer, but we will miss her so much. Chris and I would stay with Grandma (and Grandpa) every summer. We loved all the things she had planned for us - dress-up clothes, camping, climbing on the rocks, walks, bike rides, etc.

I love you Grandma Klaassen!

What a Week!

A week of VBS is over and it was a lot of fun. It is so different at a small church - Everyday I felt like I couldn't do it. I just didn't have the right words to say. How could I challenge these kids? I told my mom that I don't do well with pre-school and K-1. Her response was yes you do! You talk to them everyday. Talking to them and teaching them are two TOTALLY DIFFERENT concepts! I hope that I challenged them.

The curriculum wasn't my favorite and it was hard to work in the good news of Jesus, but with GOD's help - we made it. Praise the Lord - 2 kids came to know Christ through the week. This is a picture of all the kids with a BIG check for the missionary they raised money for. I would reveal the name, but I have been sworn to secrecy until they get the check. If you blow up the picture you can see my lovely drawing of Goliath on the back wall. I drew a life size poster of him based on Jason's dimensions. I had 2 buckets of dirt that weighed 100 pounds to represent how much his armor weighed. It painted a good picture of what David was up against.

My kids had a lot of fun too, or at least Ally did. They earned points for being there and learning verses. I was helping her pick out her prize. She is into "make-up" right now. (what 4 yr old girl isn't?) and I found a prize that said lip gloss. Oh I can handle cute pink lip gloss. That doesn't make a mess! Well we opened it up and it had more than just lip gloss! Some lovely blue eye-shadow. Great - so she plays with it because it was her prize for learning all those verses!

Drew on the other hand didn't make it through the week. On Thursday after a late night at Grandma Rhonda's wanted only his momma. I couldn't teach with a kid on my hip so Grandpa Charlie came and got him and they moved tractors around and fed the cows. He was a little young for VBS so I wasn't going to push the issue of staying. On Friday he went with Jason (on vacation for the day) to the job site for lunch and ate pizza on a bucket. That was better than Bible School!

Way Back

I was looking for some picts for my aunt of my kids with Grandma Lil. I was going way back. She didn't change much but Ally and Drew seemed to age a lot. I found a few for some good giggles - especially Drew Drew.

Do you know this chubb-a-bub?

When her hair would barely grow! It is long now!


I had to throw this one in of Chuck so you can see how he - I mean - Trip has also grown! Please don't get me back Chuck -

Just a side note: This is a picture of our wonderful neighbors in STL getting ready for the best fireworks display (and cheapest - $25)!!!

Reading Gang

My three favorite people sitting and reading a book. I had to come see what the comotion was! There was hissing and mooing and howling. The kids love to read with their daddy!

Bubble Bath

I got a little carried away tonight with the soap. Usually when using the jet tub, I wash the kids and that soap becomes the bubbles. I was too lazy to go downstairs and get the kids' soap from my suitcase in the basement and didn't know that my mom had babysoap in the cupboard beside me. I used some body wash and said - KEEP YOUR EYES SHUT. Drew wasn't interested tonight in the bubbles and got out. I took him downstairs to get cajamas (aka PJs). When I came up, Ally was upset. What's wrong? - as I come around the corner to find her swallowed up in bubbles. HUMMM I guess I used too much soap.

Grandma was trying to calm her down and played with her while the bubbles calmed down.

There is always a tragedy when Daddy goes to Wisconsin. If the bubble incident is all I will be sooooo excited! They had a lot of fun swimming in the pool, doing chores, riding the fourwheeler and playing with all the "new" toys!

Playboy Bunnies

Thank you Lou for the funny bunny faces. Everyone was hopping around the house and singing Peter Cottontail. Doesn't Grandpa Charlie look thrilled to be involved????

We are going to leave the fun at Grandma's house so they can play with them!