I ran across this this morning and it cracked me up!! I hope you enjoy!

AAAAHHHH SUMMER!!!!

I love summer. I don't know about you, but I think it's the best season. Everyone around here is just so happy and relaxed. Especially me!!

This afternoon, we spent at Tancy's working in the garden. The beans were ready to pick, and we just needed to get SOME of the bountiful weeds under control.

Here Beth is with only a smidgen of the beans we picked.

I had Victoria and Logan today, so with all the kids combined we had 12 kids. Quite alot, but they all played well and were just happy to be together. Thankfully, Tancy has a big yard and they could all run and be happy go lucky kids without being right on top of each other.


The girls wanted to play house, but before they could play in the little playhouse, I had to clean out the BILLION ear wigs. They wouldn't step foot into it otherwise. I have to say that I don't blame them. Earwigs are gross!!

What you can't see in the picture is that #3 is pretending to be a chicken. She has crab apples under her dress. She is pretending that she is laying eggs!!! :)

The boys were happy to play under the huge pine tree. Notice how "clean" the ground is??? Yep, they had to sweep the floor in the "tree fort." They had a whole wagon full of dead pine needles and branches!! I love to see creativity at work.

Now that we know that they can sweep, the mommies will have to put that knowledge to good use.

Some of the girls decided to help in the garden, but got side tracked when they saw a few left over pea pods. What is better then from the vine peas??

I saw #4 from the garden and had to snap a picture. He looked so cute sitting there with his little cut off jean shorts and no shirt. I loved seeing his little crack hanging out to. SO ADORABLE!!!

We had planned to get the sprinkler out so the kids could run through it. Needless to say, they were happy when we told them it was time. While we were waiting for Isaac to come for a group picture, the sprinkler decided to switch directions and got us all wet. The kids thought it was great fun.


Here they all are. I hope they remember these summer days with fond memories just they way that us mommies will!

And to prove that we mommies don't just play. Here is our bounty for today!!!

I hope the rest of your summer is filled with much fun!!!

Tractors and teeth

How is it that this cute precious little boy

Can turn into this cute precious bigger.....little boy??

Grandpa and Grandma S got this tractor for Brother when he was just a itty bitty baby. It is by far the best present ever boughten. It has single handedly gotten more use then any other toy. Kids fight over it when they come to play. They hook the wagon up to it and ride it around the neighborhood.

Last night Brother realized that he could sit on the top of the seat to do a wheelie on it. He then rides it in circles laughing with glee the whole time. It is so cute to watch and listen to!

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The best news of all.................. Brother lost his tooth. Literally, he lost it. We think that he might have swallowed it in the night. He woke up this morning and it was gone!!!

I wonder how the tooth fairy is going to handle that 1???

A loose tooth

I do not do well with loose teeth. Many people who know me well know that. If you look at the picture you can tell why. The blood...the little roots hanging on....it's just gross.

When I worked in the kindergarten room, I would always tell the little ones who were going to lose a tooth over to the teacher. She would lovingly and patiently grab a tissue and check the tooth. Saying soothingly that yep soon the tooth would be out. (I think she thought I was crazy, but I'm sorry, but loose teeth just gives me the hebe jebe's.) Usually by the next day of school, the beaming student would run into the classroom bragging about how they lost another tooth.

Brother is close to loosing his 1st tooth. I think he is very excited about it. Although you couldn't tell my the way he is acting today.

When Brother is tired. He is a bear. He is crabby and whiny. If I am honest, then I will admit that he takes after his mother with this trait. But I am not being honest tonight.

He is tired today which I think adds on to his "stress" of losing his tooth. I think I have heard him cry more times today then I have all summer.

Daddy has tried to pull the tooth. He really has. But Brother lets out a SCREAM when even the littlest amount of pressure is put on the tooth.

When dinner rolled around, he wanted to know what he was going to eat. He thought for sure he needed special food because of his tooth. I told him that zucchini hash was just fine for him to eat. But in the end I did have mercy on the poor guy and let him have a ham sandwich. Although I did make him eat just a little zucchini. I had to win that battle!!

After dinner, Hunny told me that he found Brother in the garage trying to pull his own tooth out with "tools."

Anyway......that's the news from our street corner. I will let you know when he actually looses his tooth.

An Answered Prayer.....

For the past year, I have had a prayer on my heart. It's not something that I mentioned to people, its just something that was on my heart.
Since last October I have been wearing the same pair of 2 week disposable contacts. I have prayed that God would keep my eyes safe from infection, and my contacts from tearing.

I have had the same pair of glasses for as long as I could remember. I think I got my last pair before Dada was born, and she will be 8 in about a week. About 6 months ago, Hunny stepped on them. They were crooked and the lens wouldn't stay in. If I looked down or sneezed the lens would fall out. I kept them because there were times that I just needed my contacts out. And since I have bad eyes, I still needed my back up broken glasses.

I am a contact wearer. I LOVE my contacts. But with needing BOTH glasses and contacts I knew that I would have to choose between the 2. So the obvious smartest choice would be to get glasses. So the prayer of my heart was that SOMEHOW God would provide me with new glasses. With Hunny not working,and with no insurance, I knew that there just wasn't the money to just make an appointment and order new glasses.

Well God went over and above. Through the generosity of someone dear to my heart, they took me to get an eye exam. While I was so happy and thankful to just be getting glasses, they also paid for a 6 month supply of contacts.

Phil 4:19 ~ But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Eph 3 :20 ~ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

These verses have become so dear to my heart.

At the eye exam I also got a clean bill of health for my eyes. I was so relieved to hear that. I don't know why I had to wait so long to get some new glasses. But it's ok. God not only provided for my need but also my WANT and he kept my eyes safe and healthy while waiting. I serve an amazing GOD!!

I LOVE YOU J!!!

How fast this summer is going!! It is already well past the middle of July. It has not been a normal summer. The weather is cool and Hunny is still home. Today it is raining out. So we are all stuck inside today. We have not been able to swim much at all because it has just been so cold.

Victoria and Logan are here today. Brother and Logan have been playing the playstation in between nerf "gun fights."

Dada and Victoria are playing dolls and watching a Barbie movie.

Victoria has actually gone from playing with Dada to playing with the boys. :) She particularly likes the gun fights. Especially when Hunny gets involved. Then I have all of them running around the house chasing each other with the dog happily barking following all of them!!

Hunny and I rearranged the living room and breezeway today. It felt good to get the everything dusted down and vacuumed good. I love rearranging things.

Joy and Andrew have been spending a lot of time over here lately. It has been nice to be with them. Well maybe just Joy. ;)

The garden is growing well. We really need to spend more time weeding it. I am looking forward to green beans. I think those are my favorite. I have bugs eating my potatoes. I need to get something for that.

That's all I can think of for now. How is your summer going??

Things I love

I love Blackberries. I love them, love them, love them!!! My dear friend Tancy introduced me to them first. I can still remember that first experience. I was with her in her own patch (mind you, I was on the very edge of the patch, while Tancy was happily IN the patch)  behind her shed, wondering why in the world someone would actually WANT to go INTO a viny, mosquito and spider infested, THORN- FILLED patch!! I mean seriously.....I thought she was NUTS!!!! I would never stick my big toe into someplace like.  And yet, here I was "helping" pick blackberries with Tancy.  And then it happened. She MADE me TASTE  a berry. Now mind you I only did it to appease her, because I knew that I would never like it. It was the juiciest, most sweetest thing this side of heaven. I was hooked. That night after swimming, she got out some ice cream, and we had ice cream with crushed blackberries. I think I had a mouthgasm right then and there. 

Thank you Tancy for my love of Blackberries.

  

A Not so lost friend

Last week I had the opportunity of going back to the town that I grew up in. I lived their until I was 15.  When we moved it was 1 of the hardest things that I thought I would ever go through. Looking back at it all it was the best thing that could have ever happened for our family. I don't miss much about that town. It was a very small farming town. I mainly miss the people that was so involved in shaping and molding my life. 

The 1 person I miss most is my friend Erica. Her and I grew up almost like sisters.  We did everything together and alike. We even wanted to dress alike. Once her mom made us 3-4 matching outfits. We wore them to camp and matched every single day. We also used to get our pictures taken together. We would have her mom drive us to Sears at the mall and we would coordinate our outfits and get our pictures taken.  

I loved Erica so much. I dreaded moving day. The summer that we moved we spent so much time together. I think I stayed out at her house for a good solid week. We spent our days laughing and talking and crying over our separation. I think at 1 time we even contemplated running away together. I just couldn't imagine my life without her.

Eventually the moving day came and my new life began. I think that I had the easier end of the bargain. It is always easier to be the one leaving then the one being left. I had all new people to meet and new things to see and do. Since we were the only girls our age at our church, I can only imagine how lonely she felt. 

We kept in contact as much as we could. We wrote letters and we talked on the phone a little. Since it was long distance, our parents tried to limit how much time we spent talking to each other. 

When Hunny and I decided to get married, there was no other person that I wanted to be my Maid of Honor. She was it.  

When Brother lay sick in the hospital, and we didn't know whether he would live or die, she came to visit us. Only staying a few minutes, but just knowing she was there meant so much to me.

We didn't see each other a whole lot, but we really tried to keep in touch. We would  get together for our baby showers, and then there were the couple of times we would meet in the middle of our 2 towns and have lunch together.

When our accident happened, she called us the very next day when she heard ( how I'm still not sure ) but she was worried. And she prayed.

Life happens sometimes. She moved to California with her Husband who is a Marine, and is now living in Maryland. 

These past couple years we haven't really kept in such close contact with each other. But I have thought of her often and missed her even more. Sometimes I would talk to her and not really know the other person on the other of the phone. So much happens in our lives and when you don't talk to someone for a while, you don't quite know what to say. But I still missed my childhood friend, my best friend. There was so much that I wanted to say and couldn't quite find the words to say.  But I could pray. I admit that I didn't pray like I should have. 

But when I found out that she was in Ill last week visiting her parents, I desperately wanted to see her.  I prayed all would work out, and it did. The next day, I was off. The kids and I traveled the 4 hours 1 way to see her. I was like a giddy school girl the whole way down. Remembering all our times together. 

We spent the whole day together. It went oh so fast, and I enjoyed it oh so much. We were able to really catch up with each other.  It was just enough time to realize how much we have missed and how much we need to stay in touch.

It was nice to have the kids together also. I know that they won't grow up really knowing each other. I think it's more special for us mommies to have pictures of our kids playing together.

1 of the highlights for my kids of the whole day was riding in the combine. Erica's dad took them on a long ride while he was harvesting wheat.

Another person that I have thought of often is Kathy. I babysit Kathy's kids the summer that I moved. We had many long talks where she would just listen to me. I was a very confused and sometimes I think angry teenager, and she just patiently listened to me. And she loved me. Without judgement or confrontation. She listened and loved. Just what I needed at that time. I had to many other people judging. I could be me and be honest with her. And she loved me.

I have often thought about her as I listen to my "little" sister. B/c of Kathy, I think it has helped me to just be that person to listed and love Joy. She doesn't need ANOTHER person telling her what to do, or judging her b/c of decisions she makes. We all make those stupid decisions that we wish that we could take back. But that's what molds us and makes us into the person we are today.

(sorry, I have to gotten on a rabbit trail.)

Anyway, as I was driving home I was very teary eyed leaving Erica. But it has given me a resolve to stay in touch with her. No matter what.