Gone Fishin'

We traveled again this weekend. We had a service in MI. and we stayed with Larry & Ruthie Siegel. Karris and Kyler had a blast fishing in their pond this a.m. and they caught so many fish we even had fish for lunch. Karris caught several and Kyler caught his biggest one yet. Another awesome weekend with friends.

Then Kyler felt sorry for the fish and was trying to get it to eat a worm! Poor fish... his LAST meal:-)

More Pics

I found some more pics from MO I thought I'd share.

Megan was so kind to take pictures of my kids while we were there.

It was fun getting to spend time with baby T.J.

We left MO and headed to MN for a missions conference. It was my first time to drive through Iowa. What a beautiful state!

We were intrigued by these 'things'. What ARE they?

It was our first time to MN too. We had a great time there as well. We had a 'reunion' with some friends from Afghanistan. We lived in a duplex in AFG and we lived above Gene and Jan. They were like grandparents to our kids. We got to visit them at their home in MN. That was really fun. AND we got to spend the week with Richard and Celeste and their four children (our good friends who were also with us in AFG). The house we stayed in was on a lake with a paddle boat and canoe. It was so awesome. The conference was fantastic. God's presence was sensed from the very beginning.

Happy to be together again!

It was just an awesome time with God, admiring His creation, breathing in the fresh air, singing "How Great Thou Art" on the late night canoe rides.... God is so good to us!

Good-byes are Never Easy

Dale Bailey’s funeral was today. It’s still hard to believe he’s not here! He was the kind of guy you just thought would live forever. He has been a true friend to our family. I’m so glad I was able to thank him for taking care of my dad all these years. We’ve always said that every pastor needs a Dale Bailey! It was awesome to be in the hospital room when he was ‘between worlds’. I can’t even imagine what Heaven will be like. He sure is in a better place. “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ. ONE glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase so bravely run the race, till we see Christ”!

I AM alive!!

I KNOW it’s been way too long since I’ve been on here. I THOUGHT I was warning everyone when I mentioned in my first post that I really kinda don’t have time to do this but…. Anyway….it DOES take a LOT of energy to save the trees you know! After our 'girl's nite out tonight and all the comments, I figured it was time to try to get caught up!
When school was almost over, I thought to myself, ‘wonder what I will do this summer?’. Now I’m thinking, “Wow, how did I have time to go to work?
The first full week after school we went to MO to visit my dear friend, Chelle, and her family. I guess Missouri has become our favorite vacation spot since the Brubecks had to take off and leave us here in Indiana about 4 years ago. Many of the trips we’ve taken have been without daddy but this time he got to go with us. We had a relaxing time (as much as you can relax with 6 kids;-)).

WE CAN'T LEAVE WITHOUT A TRIP TO THE ROADSIDE PARK

KYLER

KARRIS

BABY T.J. GETTING HIS FEET WET

Well, I guess that's a start for catching up. This has taken me about 2 hours!!!! I'll finish catching up soon.

Saving the TREES.....

What is it with men and chain saws????? I am exhausted from a day of trying to save the beautiful trees which outline the property at the house where David and Sarah will soon (hopefully) live. Steve has been working at that house so I thought I would go over on Memorial Day (yes, we have ALWAYS worked on holidays) and maybe try to give the yard a face lift. I love working outside. So, I called my friend, Beth, and found that she was home with only one of four kids so talked her into helping me. There is really a neat little yard there... lined with trees. We were just admiring the trees when we found out that they are (were) planning to chop down several of them. We were telling them allll the reasons why they should leave those trees. Beth said it would 'beautify' the parking lot:-) (The property is behind our church and they bought it so they could add a much needed parking lot. ) I even called my mom to come down there to try to talk some sense into these men, namely my dad. Beth and I told the guys we would climb up the trees and stay there so they couldn't cut them down! (just that mental picture I'm sure was a factor in our favor) And then I think I figured out WHY the men love to cut down the trees. It's that 'feeling' they get with a chainsaw in their hands! It is rather manly you know. I think we kinda won... I rescued one little, rather cute tree as the guy with the chainsaw had only cut off one big limb. So, our outside efforts caused the guys to not get their inside work done but the yard sure does look better! It was fun. That was yesterday but I'm having a hangover from all of that. Too much manual labor I guess!
So much for keeping up with a blog. Maybe it'll be easier now since summer break is here.

Peer Pressure!

Ok, my sisters finally talked me into blogging. I can't believe that I even THINK I MIGHT have time to do this!!! This day was also a motivation. It all started great. I have been working very hard lately..... getting up early and excercising (doesn't show) and I had the day 'off' so I was at least going to sleep in a little. We have been working on a rental house recently. We bought this house about 4 years ago and never did paint the entryway. The REASON we never painted the entry is because this is one of those huge, could be gorgeous, old houses and the entry is two stories high. The old wallpaper (all FOUR layers) was dangling from the ceiling probably 25 or 30 ft from the floor. It bugged me so bad but how in the world could WE fix that. Well, we are preparing to put the house on the market so we really need to get this done. Steve, the KING of 'jerry-rigging', had a plan. I walked into that house a few days ago and he had one 25 ft. ladder on the floor going up over the stairway, and another, probably 20 ft. ladder on the small landing of the stair way leaning on the opposite wall AND a 10 ft long board
stretched from ladder to ladder, as in one end of the board resting on a ladder rung and the other end of the board resting on the other ladder. AND he was WALKING on the board several feet above my head. Anyway.... I could go on and on about all my thoughts when I saw that (one of my first being 'we really need to get insurance') Anyway, we have been stripping all four layers of wallpaper off and filling holes and sanding and scraping for what seems like forever. Like I said, I had the day 'off'. By the time I did my morning things around here, it was getting late. I made my way, rather joyfully (ha) to work only to find that I was locked out. Steve was working in Indianpolis and, of course, had the key. Well, there was a small window right by the door that was broken and we had been needing to fix that. My dad, who had absolutely NOTHING to do today (teehee) rescued me as he has done so many times in my life. He came by and took out the little window and unlocked the door for me. I'll have to admit, it wasn't that relieved feeling you get when you get locked out of your car and then you get it unlocked.....now I had to WORK. I had to take the window to the hardware store to try to get it replaced and on the way, we (I had my darlings with me) saw my grandparents who were on their way 'to town'. I never wave at them unless they are stopped at a stop sign because I am so nervous about them being out on their own. Grandpa is 93 and he is still DRIVING... makes us all a little nervous. And he's not one of these pokey grandpa drivers either. He doesn't waste any time and it just makes me so nervous. My kids hung out the window waving at them at the stop light and as we both pulled away when the light turned green I just breathed a prayer for their safety. I went to the store, ordered a glass for the window and called my dad to complain to him about how expensive it was! He said, "Grandpa just had a heart attack at Dollar Tree". I said, "NO WAY, YOU'RE LYING" Then I realized how stupid that was because he wouldn't lie about something that serious. Anyway, we just headed on out to Dollar Tree. I was so scared. My kids were wailing in the back seat thinking we were never going to see grandpa again and I always tell myself, 'they can't live forever' so I was expecting the worse. I flew up there, saw the ambulance, left my kids in the car talking on the phone to my best friend. Bless Chelle, she prayed with Kyler over the phone, trying to calm him down. He was so upset. They refused to go in with me because they were so scared. I ran in expecting to see Grandpa on the floor. He was sitting in a chair, totally with it telling the EMT's that he is a 'retired minister'. I thought, well, at least he's not dying. I was in there only 2 or 3 min and came back out. Grandma said they had just gotten there and he started having chest pains and took a nitroglycerin and then just started shaking from 'his feet to his head' and couldn't stand up so she thought he was having a heart attack. So, anyway, I'm standing in Dollar Tree (probably my grandma's favorite place to shop) with my work clothes on, looking really gross, remembering I had kids in the car. I went back out and tried to coax them to come in. In the mean time, this Mexican lady came over to my car and asked my kids what was wrong. I told her that they thought my grandpa had had a heart attack in the store. My kids were all upset and she started speaking to them in Spanish and asking them if I was their mother! It dawned upon me that she thought I was KIDNAPPING my kids!! My kids just looked at her with this blank look. Unfortunately, they don't speak Spanish. So, I started talking to her in Spanish and told her they didn't understand Spanish and they were adopted from Bolivia etc. It was quite interesting. To make a short story long, grandpa is spending the night in the hospital. The tests did not show that he had a heart attack but they think it is a heart problem so they wanted to keep him over night.
I had someone watching my kids and Julie and I went to the hospital. I ended up taking Grandma home so she could eat lunch. I was taking her back to the hospital and my mom was with us because we had to go back to the store to pick up dad's truck that he had to leave there. I headed out to Dollar Tree via my street, just out of habit. It's not really OUT of the way, but not really ON the way either. It sure is a good thing. I was supposed to babysit for 2 kids today and in the mess, completely FORGOT and here their grandma was dropping them off at my house!! I got out of the car and never said a word about FORGETTING that I was supposed to be babysitting!
We finally did get back to the house and even got to start painting tonight. Maybe another good day there and that job will be over. There were other happenings this evening but I better let you rest for now. Thanks for checking in.