My Favorite Part

I have been looking forward to when the railing for the stairs would be finished! It looks awesome. I am sure the kids will have a blast throwing things down.

The deck is getting the final touches on as I type. The house inspection is on Tuesday afternoon which means it has to have everything done TONIGHT!!! It isn't great trying to do it in the middle of the night, but we have tooooo many things on our plate at this time. I went to help finish screwing the deck boards on tonight and some stair treads. The kids ran around and then climbed into the truck to watch a movie.

It was beautiful all day. After we got home a COLD FRONT came in. I think the temperature dropped a good 25 degrees since I left North Liberty. Jason said that it was getting hard to hold onto things. It will be so nice when we are in the house - sitting by the fireplace - with nothing to do????

Birthday Boy!

My little guy had quite a memorable birthday. I am not sure the memories are good - except for the Cardinals winning. I picked him up from Sherry's at about 3:45 and no more than 15 minutes on the road came our first surprise - PUKE...

My kids are known for their untimely puking in the car, but really on his birthday. I think God has a sense of humor to see what I would do. We were on our way to the house to see the weekly update - then to Grandma Rhonda's for pizza. I had his PJs from the morning so he was styling with the dinosaurs. I was hoping for a car sick boy, but come to find out - we got a 3 day plus more of yucky sick all for Drew. This made him want his mommy (not daddy) more than ever. I am so exhausted and frustrated of trying to figure out what he wanted make him comfortable.

We didn't cancel his party, and I hope no one gets sick out of the deal. We had fun at Great Grandpa Melvin's house. The kids wore their costumes. I love to go Grandpa's and cheer him up. He loves to watch the kids play. I know he enjoys the company.

Back to birthdays....Presents, cake, candles, we had the typical party. Drew is in tractor heaven and "farms" daily. He even has a "Gandpa" for the combine. Thanks everyone for the special weekend!

Cardinals WIN!!!

If you haven't heard or don't really care - I am going to tell you anyway! Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 1 in the World Series. OH how I wish I could have been in STL with people who really care, but instead I laid on the couch exhausted with my honey. I fell asleep somewhere in the 7th inning, but my loving husband woke me up for the top of the ninth. It was great. I was bummed for the rainout - but hey now Drew has a win on his birthday too!

Remember When...

Two years ago - Where were you in history???


Many remember this to be the day the Cardinals were swept by the Boston Red Soxs in the World Series! That is hard to forget and a memory close to our hearts, but most importantly we remember that Drew came to our family and hasn't left! I wanted to put the scale pictures up to remind people that he was a womping 9 pounds 2 oz, but they were inappropriate!

I remember that I was on my way to the grocery store to get party supplies for our World Series get together. Let's just say that Jason suggested that I go home when my water broke in the parking lot. At the hospital I was getting an epidural during game 3 and we had to turn off the t.v. We lost that game and Drew was born several hours later in the middle of the night.

The next day we had lots of visitors. The pictures are of our World Series Game 4 party. Jason & Julie (& Austin kind of) and Chuck, Amy & Trip. I remember Trip sitting with me on my bed so still watching the game. The boys went out to get real food instead of hospital stuff. On Drew's first birthday the Cardinals failed to redeem themselves, but this year they have a chance to win it again. There is NO CHANCE that they can lose it on his birthday this time - so who knows what will happen tonight - A victory hopefully!

We Got Numbers!

Well we might not be in the house yet! BUT we finally have brick. Supposedly he was suppose to come 5 weeks ago, but the way this contractor goes it is amazing anything is getting done.



Supposedly (I say that a lot!) he told Jason that he was going to do the inspection early next week. Which means we might be in by middle to late next week. I will believe it when the last piece of siding is put on. Oh 2 guys finally showed up to work on that again. They do have the carpet, lighting, heat registers and stuff, and plumbing stuff finished up. We are waiting on the guys to finish up the stair case and the appliances and tape and paint the garage and landscaping - and of course the siding....

If you ever move to Iowa and want to build a house, we definitely have one man that we will recommend not using - even though he has done a beautiful job!

Little Brenda

When I was little I used to play school all the time. You can get my mom going on all the silly things that my imagination would come up with when I was young. I was telling Grandpa about it and he said - "I think that sounds familiar." I responded - "Don't think it sounds familiar - it was familiar!"



I loved to play school and gather all my dolls and read or teach to them. I guess school has rubbed off on our little Ally. She puts all the dolls down for naps (using my dish towels as blankets). Drew helps put Ernie down. As you can see in the background, she has the beds made. She rubs their back like Terry does for her at school!

The sometimes reads to them. The story she is getting ready to read was about the puppy sitting on the other bed. Also you can notice the backpackets hanging on the dresser.

I guess Ms. Joanna and the other teachers at school have touched my darling little girlie's life. Role models start early in life!

Change Me!

I usually change Drew when he is wet, but Rachel noticed that he was getting a little droopy. He didn't really care and kept running from me when I had the diaper. "No No Mommy!" It made for some cute pictures at least. They will be quality for his wedding someday!

King of the Hill

Okay Anderson - I get the point. Oh I have been so lazy about downloading the pictures on my camera. My camera told me I ran out of room on my memory card. Yikes that hasn't happened ever!



We went with Jason a few weeks ago to work on the deck. Ally and Drew played in the dirt in the back yard. They had fun climbing, but it was COLD!!!! The wind was blowing from the North Pole! The ground was hard and Jason had quite fun trying to dig the holes. When he tried to pour the concrete into the holes, Drew had to help making a mess which sent us home!

JR...

I don't know if you read my comments, but read the update on the one about JR is still fighting. There has been some great news this weekend!

Let it Snow.....

Oh what a day! The cold has hit! This morning I went downstairs in search of coats. Ally didn't understand why she had to wear a coat in the car. I couldn't find Drew's even though I know that we have one - so I decided that we needed to get to Iowa City to get him a coat before it gets much colder than mid 40s.

The afternoon didn't go quite as planned though - God seems to have a good sense of humor. I got out of my really exciting meeting and noticed that one tire was low. I was in Oxford which is a town of no more than 500. I thought there was a gas station, but would it have air for my sad tire?? They did have air, but it didn't seem like my tire was filling very quickly. I stopped the air and listened and heard someone whispering..pssssssss. Then I felt the air pouring out of my tire. Great! Jason had put his phone on vibrate in his coat pocket during his meeting. I have very little signal in the middle of nowhere.

I headed into the gas station which was nice. The clerk said there was a tire shop across the street. She walked me to the back door and said that he was still open. I walked over in hope that he wasn't busy and would fix the leak in my tire. He could do it, but he had to finish the job he was on and go get his son outside of town who ran out of gas. He was pretty old too. He got it fixed and I was on my way to get the kids.

We made it to the interstate. When I was getting on, a man was pointing to my poor tire. Great - now what. I was talking to Jason at the time heading to the house and get Drew's coat. Jason had to head up to change the tire. I think that I probably could have changed it, but I am deathly afriad of big semis on the interstate. Also did I mention that it was flurring????? That is what the white blurry specs are on the pictures.

The rest of the night was unadventurous. Jason was working on digging five 48 inch deep holes by 16 inches wide holes in the hard clay for a deck. Not to mention that it was freezing. We got our stuff and headed home with McD's to make everyone happy.

Momma's Boy

Well my little guy has become a momma's boy. He doesn't want much to do with Daddy. We went to the park the other day and I could only push him. He is precious in his upside down sunglasses and "john eere" sweatshirt! He still loves to farm with Grandpa, but deep inside I think that he likes mommy to lay with him singing in bed at night more!

Josh is Still Fighting!

Many of you have asked about JR (Josh). He is still hanging on, but today he had his first purposeful reaction. He frowned and scrunched his eyebrows when the nurse tried to wipe his face. It is going to be a slow and painful recovery, but it seems that he has made leaps since the accident a week ago.

We are still in need of much prayer. He still has not woken up and still has brain swelling, but no one seems to know the extent of the damage except for God.

His family has been awesome about posting updates on his carepage. You care welcome to visit Josh's Carepage using my login and password - bwillis and ally1234. The page should automatically be on my home page, but if not his page if JRLucky16.

I have been reminded that we don't receive because we don't ask and we need to expect God to do immeasurably more than we ask. God is working miracles right now even though we can't seem to see them.

What Would You Say??

If you were in the emergency room, would you say...

We were pushing our kids down a hill with gravel at the end in their wagon? They were going fast and all there was to stop them at the bottom of the hill was a gas barrel and a metal machine shed.

If that had happened I told Jason that he would be the one telling the doctor what he was doing with the kids. They love to ride in the wagon fast - who wouldn't? Drew pulls our hand over to the wagon til we come, but he has learned that I won't do pull them down the hill.

Stupidity????

I am not sure how we got roped into this project at Grandma's house, but I am going to blame it on Jason. As we were playing with Ally, Drew, and Kaylee, Jason said that it would be a perfect day to empty the pool. Dad went inside and about 15 mintues later Mom came out to sit on the poolside.

Ally and Drew immediately wanted to help so we took off their pants and they jumped on in to the FREEZING water! Finally I asked Drew if he wanted the sagging diaper off - he said with deperation in his eye - please mommy it doesn't feel so good.

Back in July you can see the pictures of us surfing in the pool, but Drew was riding the waves outside the pool. I think that they had so much fun. It wore them out to take a nap when we got home.


When they finished they put it on a hayrack to dry. Until next summer!

House Update

It has been quite a few weeks since you have seen or heard about the house update. It is slowly coming along. Last week they finished painting (almost), put in the wood floor, and started on the cermic tiles. The siders got a couple more pieces on. Six wks and they are about half done. Pretty good timing???? Jason and I painted Ally's room. She is VERY excited and is willing to give anyone a tour!

This week they are starting the cabinets and trim on Monday. The tile should be finishing up this week also. Who knows when we are moving in, but we got authorization from the city today to move in even though the development company hasn't passed all of their requirements!!! YEAH!

Grandma's Video

My mom uploaded the video that I made for Grandma's funeral. You must have a PC to view it. The songs were "No More Nights" and "I Can Only Imagine."

Enjoy the celebration of Grandma's like....

Grandma's Slide Show

Lake Iowa

A lot has happened since last week and continues to go on. Our 7th graders took a field trip to Lake Iowa which is a small pond 20 minutes from the school. We participated in activities such as hunter's safety, water fowl, archary, shelter building, and firepit clean up. The highlight of the day was fishing! We only caught 3 fish for 100 plus kids, but they had a blast. My only rule was that I don't touch worms or hooks or untangle finishing lines!



This is a picture of the group traveling with me and Mrs. Wengerd. The are a little crazy once and awhile, but they are a lot of fun. It started off really cold and raining - I had a stocking hat on most of the morning, but it ended up being very humid and hot.

Trials and Suffering

God is really testing my trust and faith these past couple weeks. It seems that a trial comes and I work through it and then something else flies in my face. Trusting God is hard when he keeps throwing in the curve balls.

We celebrated Grandma Arlene's life on Saturday. There might have been lots of tears, but at the same time it was awesome to praise God for a woman that feared and loved him so much. I need to get the letter that my brother wrote about his memories of her - I will post it later. We also have a video that I will post soon also.

My tears for this blog come from a phone call from my principal about an hour ago. It seems that one of my students Josh (JR) was in a head on collision. He said that the doctors have said that it doesn't look good. JR was a kid that was popular and an athelete. I never saw him frown and was always in a good mood. Many of you know that I am not a crier, but death seems to be surrounding me.

One hard thing will be that my kiddos have grown up together since kindergarten and many before that. We are in a small community that knows everything and is everyone's friends. Please pray for these kids as they come to understanding that they might lose their good friend. Pray for me as I comfort them and think about how JR even affected me in the few short weeks that I have gotten to know him.

In the above picture, Josh is the boy orange Broncos sweatshirt. Please pray for the boys surrounding him. They are the ones struggling with understanding what is going on around them.

Have a good night and may you trust God that He is the one true comforter.

See Ya at the Pole

Oh for some good news for the week!

Today was a day to pray for our schools and it was wonderful! A few weeks ago I told a student that we went to the same church. He came up later and asked if I would go to "See you at the Pole." I said yes and then asked if I wanted a shirt. I was really excited.

The kids planned it with one of the mothers and they did a great job. It would be really hard to stand up, pray and sing for God in front of your school as everyone was arriving. So many of my kids were there leading it. Some parents came also which was encouraging to have them know that I was there to pray with them for our kids and the relationships around them.

They sang songs, read the Bible and prayed. My prayer for the kids and the others around me is that they see Jesus in me - that I will show grace and mercy and most importantly love them as Jesus loves them. I pray that my actions will speak louder than my big mouth!

Going Home...

I just wanted to let you know that Grandma Arlene went to be with Jesus today right before noon today. I can't believe it, but I know that she is happy. I wish she wouldn't have had to suffer for so long. We know that without a doubt that she is in heaven with Jesus. She gets to ask him all the questions that she has always wondered. She is singing with the angels. She has healthy knees and lots of red blood cells - if we have them when we get to heaven!

Pray for Grandpa. 66 years, 4 children (plus some amazing spouses), 12 grandchildren (plus some amazing spouses) and 25 great grandchildren. I know that they can rest in knowing that all of their children and all of their grandchildren know Christ and that the great grandchildren are being taught who Jesus is!

I love my Grandma Arlene and wish that I could spend another minute with her but I know that I will be with her some day singing and playing dominos or Racko in heaven.

Bad thing about the Farm

There are many things that I hate about the farm. One Sunday night while Ally and I were eating with Grandpa, we were discussing mice. I told him that I was scared to death of going up stairs in the farm house because I don't want a mouse to jump out and get me - like it would hurt me - it is probably more scared of the screaming lady. He assured me that he had never seen a mouse up there or on the main level. The basement he said was another story. He had seen and heard them running through the ceiling tiles. A lot of comfort that gave me. Ceiling tiles are only a few inches from the main floor.

My trust in Grandpa's word has lessen.... If you aren't familar with the traditions of mice, let me tell you that as the break of cold comes, the mice search for a warm place for shelter. On a farm many times it happens to be the house in most cases - well maybe not most, I should be glad that all the mice out there aren't in my house! As a child I remember them in my closet and running over my pillow and over my leg once.

As we were snuggled up watching a movie last night, Jason jumped up as if he was gling to tackle the tv. He said cover you face. I thought there was something bad in the movie. If you can't figure out where this story is going - a mouse ran across the kitchen and behind the tv. I am not sure what Jason thought he was going to do??? 200 pound man takes on 3 oz mouse and win??? Wrong - mouse won. After many blockades and Brenda screaming to get it to go the other way - he ran around the blockade and into the toy room. I am sure Ally will get a surprise soon.

We got some traps that I have vowed to never change or look at.

Calling All Prayer Warriors...

In the past 6 years, there have been many times that my mom has called me and said that Grandma wasn't doing well. This time it seems like she is farther gone than every other time. Today is Grandma and Grandpa Smith's 66th wedding anniversary. My Grandpa sat holding her hand while she lay in a hospital bed struggling for every breath.



Right before Ally was born, Grandma was in the hospital. I wanted to go home so bad, but was close to the end of the pregnancy so had to stick close. I had the name Ally picked out but her middle name was still out there. Ally Renae or Ally Arlene? The second didn't sound as "cute" as we wanted. As she was born and we found out it was a girl, Jason said, "Ally Arlene." It has obviously stuck. It is absolutely precious when my little girl says it. Throughout this email are pictures of Grandma and her Ally cat - I think that Ally was her favorite - or at least her favorite name. I think she has 17 favorite great-grandkids and 20 favorite grandkiddos and 8 children.



She has been "sick" for awhile but Grandma has come out of it every time. She is a fighter and a trooper - even when I think she would have loved to give up many times. I think she turned 86 at the end of August. Please pray for God's will. No one wants to see her gone, but we want the best for her. If God wants us to keep her for a little longer, we would gladly. But at the same time, I hate to see her miserable. I know that she will see her maker and sing with him in glory. I hope that she smiles for God more than she does for us in pictures.



Please pray for comfort for Grandpa who can't be with her as much as he would like. Pray for him as he watches his best friend suffer.



Ally wanted to go see Grandma Arlene tonight, but we all knew that wasn't such a good idea. Hopefully Ally will remember the good Grandma Arlene that smiled when Ally sang her the Bumblebee song. We luckily have been there the last couple Sunday nights to spend with them.



Yes all these pictures were of Ally and her Great-Grandma Arlene!

Time for New Jammies!

We cleaned out the summer clothes and decided some kids needed some new pants. Ally's waist seems to be getting smaller and it is all going to her LONG legs - same with Drew surprising enough. Drew ripped his only pair of jeans this week - thus off to the mall. Old Navy had a lot of cute and CHEAP jeans!



We also had to pull out the winter jammies. Fall in Iowa has hit and highs in the 50s and 60s are here to stay it seems. I love to wear jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt. Grandma Rhonda bought new hats one night at Wal-mart since we have no clue where our hats are. We thought we had kept out all our winter clothes, but the hat box must still be in storage. Drew wears his Cars hat to bed, for supper and anywhere else he needs to go.

Fun or Trouble????

Have we mentioned that we are deep in the terrible twos and we are still a solid month away from two?????

This Saturday Drew was around for the picnic. We were sadly glued to the Iowa vs. ISU football game which was lost by the Cyclones by seven. Uncle Ken says that he always subtracts 7 points from the home team for home field advantage - which makes it a tie game.



The kids were making stew. For some reason more was getting on the floor than in anyone's mouth. We ended up locking both bathroom doors to keep them off of the sink and out of the tub. Luckily no one thought of "eating" the toilet water! I guess the floor dries and no one was injured except for fighting over the spoon to stir the stew!

Apple Crisp

Wow I looked at the camera tonight and realized how much had happened this week and the fun that we had.

We were making apple crisp for a church potluck on Sunday night. Since we hardly got any - Ally and Drew helped me on Tuesday to make some more. They enjoyed peeling the apples and eating the "chips" as Drew called them.



We don't typically dress our children like this, but the were staying out of trouble while I was working. I think it is very stylish.

We had warm apple crisp for dessert tonight. The kids liked making it, but decided that they didn't like it and ate only the ice cream.

One Month!!!

We have a tentative move in date which is Oct 12th!!! We are thrilled. Last week they got the dry wall hung, electrical, gas and telephone to the house. They also got the drive way, sidewalk and basement patios poured. The slider might be the slowest guy in the universe, but oh well he isn't slowing anyone else down.

Here are a couple of picts for this week. They are working on taping it and putting in the door and other stuff!


Jason is taking the picture while standing in the "kitchen" and you see the family room - just like our STL house but backwards!

You know....

You know you live in a small town when a OLD local guy comes up to you at a gas station and asks how to use the elctrical pumps....

Movie Night

We decided to have family night. It was so relaxing. Ally and I went to get pizza and got some snacks. Grandma Rhonda let us borrow the Chipmunks Adventure. (I know many of you are wanting to know where to rent that one!) We popped some popcorn and opened some carmel popcorn to mix in with it. We had fruit snacks. We got our jammies on and all four snuggled on the couch with blankets to watch the movie.



Thanks to my dad we were also serenaded by the cows that had just been seperated from their calves - I hope that doesn't last long!

Big Boy!

Did I mention that I can eat my cereal with a spoon? I am almost 2 and can do almost as much as my sister!

Picnic

You can't do all the fun stuff with Drew around, so when Drew was out Ally made a picnic complete with real "tea." I think more dumped on the carpet than made it into her mouth. Jason and I sat down and had some stew and ice cream with her. Arabella ate for a little bit with us, but then she needed to take her nap - according to Ally. Her imagination is growing everyday and has continues to amaze us!

My First Car

It was a chilly in Iowa today. We had to pull out the jeans. Drew was so cute in his overalls - thanks to Ms Chris in STL! Drew obviously loves to play outside and enjoys his bike and car and to torment the poor kitties. By the way we are down to 2. I snapped a couple before he headed out with Grandpa for the morning.

Rain doesn't stop this little guy. Puddles are sooooo much fun!

Hay Bail Fun!

Another fun nightly activity at the Willis house. As kids Jason and I loved playing bail tag. The Smith cousins always played it and it seemed that David's long legs would always win. If you haven't ever experienced we have to get you on the farm to play around. I wish I had a video camera to tape Jason getting up. I didn't try. I sucked at the game as a kid so figured that with old age that I would be even worse. Ally and Drew loved running up and down the bails. Some day we will have to try and teach them how to jump from row to row - but we have to get Grandpa to put them closer together.

FIRE!

I keep coming up with great things to do in Iowa. I can't believe that more of you aren't knocking at the door trying to move here! Another great activity is cook outs. Yes you can do this with the firepits in STL but it is not the same as driving the hi-cup truck (Ally's name for Grandpa's truck) to the field, dodging the cow presents, and light a good ol' bonfire.



We do cheat a little by bringing out the picnic table and mom heated some cheese up for the chips. Also we are using gourmet dogs (cheddarwarts and brats for the older folks). Drew and Ally had some fun and try to give Grandma heartattacks everytime they would walk near the fire. If you didn't know, our kids get their grace from their father.

Hummmm who was watching the kids? Ahh no one knows and no one knows how many chips they ate off the ground.


I wish I knew what this conversation was about??? I think that it might have gone like this...
"You been farmin' long? Got enough rain? How's the corn look? Those heifers are black and fancy!"


Chad wanted supper so he got drug out for the fun. He also got half his hot dog stolen by Drew. Someone decided to let Drew carry his plate back to his chair. He obviously tripped and was devestated that he couldn't eat the hot dog off the ground. Chad gave up some of his since they were gone. That was Drew's THIRD hot dog!


Ally swore that she had cheese in her marshmellows. Once again she takes after her Daddy. Smores are so good. I went to the Eric Bodin School of roasting marshmellows at East Iowa Bible Camp. My marshmellows were melted all the way through!


Drew got bored with singing songs with Daddy around the fire and decided to get a jump on Grandpa's morning chores. He was mixing the corn and oats for the cows.

School Kiddos!

School has been in almost a week and it is going smoothly. I really like the kids and have liked 7th grade so far. I still prefer 8th grade, but these kids are enjoyable. They also think that I am hillarious and nice. Where have I gone wrong????