Anniversary

When Knight and I were picking a date to get married we just picked a random date. Now, 15 years and 4 kids later things are a tad more complicated than that. When I realized our 15th anniversary was coming up, it crossed my mind I would like to do something special. Something a little more than our standard dinner out. So I had mentioned I would like to go away for a night or weekend to celebrate. He said it sounded good to him so I started looking at the calendar for weekends that would work. We had a couple weekends in August that looked promising. Then I became aware that he wanted to do it either the weekend before our anniversary or the weekend after (our actual anniversary is on Wednesday). So I decided to surprise him. I changed some appointments, figured out what the kids would do, and then told him we were free to leave the next day if he got done early. He did get done early, I found a hotel room, and off we went to Duluth (our favorite vacation spot). All in all, a nice relaxing time. Here's some of what we did...

The view from our room...

We spent the evening on the beach...

Watched the sunrise...

Knight ate from Crabby Bills...

Update

This is my daily weekly monthly update. I really mean to update more often but I always think

• I need to get those pictures onto the computer to add to the post
• When the next event gets done I'll have even more to blog about
• I can't share that. It's not blog appropriate
• I don't have anything worth sharing. Plus I'm sure no one reads this anymore

or any number of excuses. But here I am. If only to remind my kids of this summer since I don't scrapbook.

Last month my southern sister came up to Yankee country for a girls weekend. There was lots of relaxing, kayaking, beading, and henna to be remembered. There was the "remember when" conversations, along with the solving of all life's problems, and analyzing everything to death. But that is who we are and what we do. At times it's nice to catch up with your original family when life has separated everyone with lifestyles, or physical distance. Good times but I am glad to be home where I belong.

The three youngest went to camp the day after I got back from the girls weekend. They had a great time and came home a little bit more aware of God in their lives. I love that they have a great time with all the activities at camp, but what I love more is that it opens up more conversations about the truth of Christ. Rara was homesick for the first time this year, but she decided that it was probably an attack from Satan because he would not want her to be there having fun and learning about Christ. She's never been homesick before, so maybe she's onto something.

I also was able to go kayaking with a wonderful group of ladies, one of whom is back on furlough. It was such a pleasure to be able to share the kayaks with some ladies who needed a quiet morning in nature. The problem came when these women were not quiet, but having splash fights and laughing so much that they scared all the wildlife away!

That is how my days in Paradise are going. I am truly blessed

Annual Parade

We have an annual parade that our village puts on every year. And since we live on Main Street, it comes right by our house.

We have had a tradition each year to grill out, invite a couple families and visit for the day.

Well, this year we have had such an abundance of sickness that I was not up to thinking about it when it came time to invite people. Knight was heading off to church and very stupidly I just said "I don't care. I don't want to think about it. It's your baby this year."

Oooops!

Let me say that again.

OOOOOOOOOOPS!!!!!

He just informed me that he was making calls to the invitees and seeing who was going to make it. It is up to 39.

Thirty-Nine people.

And I am not a crowd lover.

At least I know most of the ones coming, and those I know I like.

Panic is not quite setting in ... Yet!

Observations From the Couch

Since I have been down with Strep since Tuesday and haven't moved off the couch, I had plenty of time to see things I may have missed if I hadn't had this "opportunity" of a couple days off.

1. My kids are growing up...fast. The house didn't get too out of order this time around. Dishes and laundry even were kept up. And there were even times that I didn't have to ask for them to do it!

2. Another evidence of my kids growing up is that my phone rings more for my kids than it does for me. My guess is that this will only get worse.

3. Video games are mind-numbingly boring. I had plenty of time to try to get past that stupid castle on Zelda (original) and I can't make it. But I can't force myself to play it for hours either. I tried Zelda, Super Mario Bros., and stratagy games. All of them don't entertain enough when you are tired of sitting on the couch.

4. My body can't take lying/sitting around for 2 days. I ache all over. Makes me wonder if those who are wheelchair-bound/bedridden live with aches from inactivity. I think of little Micah and wonder if he deals with this, and if he thinks that everyone is always in pain like he is, that it's normal. Mine may be slight, and very temporary, but it still gives me a new compassion for others.

In other news I sorta got paid for taking some senior pictures. The payment came in the form of a gift card with a nice thank you attached. Exciting for me. Imagine, if I actually keep it up, I may be able to make money at this!

Adventures in vehicle shopping

We have been vehicle shopping... slowly.

Not being in a hurry and waiting for a deal to come along generally pays off. Also we have limited funds. That tends to make someone more patient.

I have been going online to look at our local and semi-local car dealerships to check out their inventory and see if they have what we are looking for. We knew we wanted a minivan, newer than 2002, preferably with quad seating and a CD player.

While looking online, we spent most of our time searching the lots with the best reputations. The place with the very best reputation in our area is in a tiny little town and a 20 minute drive to get there. They did have a couple that looked promising online so we headed down last weekend. The one they had sold, and the other was out on a service call.

Shucks. Call us when it comes back.

We talked to him about what we could do for trade and have been looking yet, but haven't found much. He thought the van would be back Tues. Tuesday came, and the vehicle hadn't made it back to the shop yet so he said he would give us a call.

So then comes the call today. And it's a good day, we have time to test drive it. But it was not meant to be. They can't find it.

The van is gone.

They have the title. He's asked all those who work there (he is one of the owners). No one knows what happened to it. They are embarrassed and wondering if it was stolen.

And that left us looking again.

We did find one at a huge bargain at a different dealership. 2003 Kia Sedona. Quad seating, CD player, leather seats, even a sun roof. Now I can pretend I'm cool and have a convertible as I drive my minivan.

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)

This was just great! Definately worth the watch

Name that disease...

Since the illness in my house continues, I thought we could have fun with it. I will give you the background information, along with J-Bird's symptoms and we will see who can come up with what he has this time. It will be FUN!

J-Bird finished his amoxicillin on Sunday night(apparently irrelevant). Monday morning he came down with a fever of 102.7 (here starts the clues). He napped, didn't feel very well, but not REAL sick either. Tylenol helped a lot. This morning the first thing I noticed about him is that he had a rash on both sides of his face and I looked at his trunk and had some rash there too. I took his temp and it was down to 101. A couple hours later the rash is worse but the fever is down to 99.6. I took him in and got my answer of what is wrong with him this time. Here are the major clues...

-Starts as high fever. Goes down pretty quickly.

-Rash develops. This rash is known to be on the cheeks.

-A very common childhood illness.

-Normally kids get it between 3-4 years old. I guess home schooled kids may take a little longer to contract it.

It has two common names, and one technical name that I know of.

Ok, who can tell me what J-Bird has??? Come on and play along!