Monday, June 23, 2008

My Children Have Been Banned

While preparing for the death of a family member, a dear friend once said to me, "Marriage and death have a way of bringing out the best and worst in a family." Yep, that's true, and our family certainly wouldn't want to challenge that theory.

Granny is still holding on. All the great-grandkids have been able to see her, but now they have been banned (by a few family members who believe they are actually in charge of all of us) from even being at the house, or actually even outside, which is where they've spent 99% of their time while we've been over there, going in to only use the restroom on occasion ( and then being extremely quiet). There's alot of hurt going on in some hearts right now, and it's threatening to turn into some serious anger issues. Please pray that everyone stays calm and lays off the need to be right and in charge.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Update

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let everyone know that my "procedure" went good yesterday. My pain is managible with a little percocet every few hours, and I'm getting around fine. I'm just a little doped and itchy still from the anestesia.

I also wanted to tell you that we got a call around 8:00 this morning from Mountain Mom telling us that Smart Guy's granny isn't doing very well. She's been sick for months now, but just recently took a turn for the worse. Hospice has been called in at this point. We all drove over today to be with our family. Smart Guy is driving back home as I type, and if anything happens he'll be right back. (he actually called my cell phone as I was typing that sentence to let me know that he just got home). The kids and I were supposed to be coming over tomorrow night anyway to stay the week for a convention that is going on here, so we just packed up a day early and are going to stay until Thursday evening. I'm gonna spend my afternoon tomorrow cleaning the house for Mountain Mom and hopefully making her life a little easier for the next week (as easy as it can be when your mom is so sick and you have three grandchildren in your house anyway). Please be praying for my MIL's family. All six siblings are in town right now, and although Granny has made her wishes to remain at home thru all of this clearly known, it sounds as though some of the siblings are possibly putting up a fight against it. Please pray that they all have peace with the decision to keep her at home like she wants.

Well, goodnight dear friends and family. I love you all!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Alive Festival 2008

We just got in from the "Alive" Christian music festival over in Canal Fulton. It's much like the "Ichthus" festival down in KY for those of you familiar with it. We arrived there at 2:00 this afternoon and left at 11:45 just as David Crowder was finishing up leading the final worship of the night. We decided to get out a little early as to avoid having to slowly make our way to the front with the other 1000's upon 1000's of people leaving. We really need to get us a big wagon to carry our stuff in, because we just barely have enough hands for the cooler, picnic basket (on wheels), 5lawn chairs, quilt for the ground, blankets for cool evenings, and backpack containing books and drawing for the kids during things they don't care to listen to. Geez! But we made it and lived to tell the tale.

Did anyone else know that Jaci Velasquez is married to the lead singer for Salvadore and now has a 7 month old baby? Is this common knowledge and I've just been living under a rock?

At one point this evening the lead singer for the worship band "Parachute", from New Zealand, was talking about his life-story and in doing so, said the phrase, "I hated God....". Miss Bee was very quietly sitting on the quilt in front of us drawing pictures while appearing not to be listening to him at all, but when she heard him say that he hated God, she turned around to Smart Guy and I, with her mouth dropped to the ground like she'd heard someone say the most heinous thing ever. She very seriously said, "He shouldn't hate God. That's bad." We haven't had a chance to discuss with her what he was talking about yet. It's just too loud out there to have any kind of discussions about anything.

Bee and I walked over to the campgrounds where many of the festival goers are camped for the week and walked around. I was already disappointed not to be there in the middle of it all camping with everyone, and as we breathed in the campfire smells as we strolled, I became even more sad that we had to drive back here to sleep in our nice comfortable beds. (I love to camp) Well, I'm now glad we aren't out there. By the time we left, we could see our breath from the chill in the air. It is cold out there tonight. We were all shivering like madd people. We did dress for cooler weather, but not as cool as it ended up getting. We have better dressing plans for tomorrow, as it's supposed to be just as cool all day tomorrow.

Well, I'm sleepy. I'll post pics sometime. Probably not tomorrow as we're going to the festival much earlier in the day and coming home just as late. Friday, I'm once again having another procedure to take care of my fun "issues" with my Crohn's, so I'll be out of it most of the day. If I wake-up enough Friday evening, I may get to it them, but don't hold your breath. Saturday I'm planning to pack up and head back out to the festival. Smart Guy says if I can drag myself out there, he'll make two trips from the car to get everything out there, so I won't have to carry anything and then he'll take care of everything where the kids are concerned. I really, really want to go because Chris Tomlin is leading worship that night and I certainly don't want to miss that!! Tomorrow night is Casting Crowns! I can't wait! That's what I've been looking forward to the most.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Diggin'!

Can you guess what Bee is diggin' for in these pics?





My little tomboy has a fascination with pill bugs, or "rolly polly's" as I used to call them, so she will sit for an hour at a time at the sides of the house and garage and dig for them to put in her "kritter keeper"!! At one point she had at least 40 or so of them in there!

D.K. Tries His Best

This year the pool that we most often frequent has added a climbing wall in the diving tank area. It seems to be a big hit with the kids, as there has been a long line in the middle of the hot days. D.K. decided to give it a try! He didn't get very far though. He said it's alot harder than it looks like it would be!





This is a picture of D.K.'s back after his brother dared him to do a flip off the high-dive! He "over-extended" and landed flat on his back. I saw it from across the pool and cringed, as did everyone in the diving area. It sounded awful!

The YMCA

We went to the YMCA one day last week when it was raining in the afternoon, keeping us from the outdoor pools. We pretty much had the pool to ourselves after 6:00 or so. The lifeguards keep the two sprayers that the boys have on one of their chairs and use them to spray the kids with from up on their perches. The boys asked if they could play with them and shockingly the tossed them down to them. They were really cool. They shot so far that we could hit the high ceiling with them. At one point, Prophet got a little carried away and shot someone that was sitting next to the pool in street clothes. Thankfully she was a good sport about it.




Bee doing a somersault in the water. Impressive, huh!



Awww, sisterly love... NOT!



Prophet got himself trapped in the corner!



Causin' trouble!

The Sprayground

As I was looking at these I realized that I didn't have a single shot of D.K. in the bunch! Poor kid! It was a really warm but windy day when we were there, so I didn't even have to get in the sprinklers with them. I just sat on the side and let the breeze carry the mist to me! The water shootin' out of those crazy things was ice-freaking-cold. I don't know how the kids can just stand in the sprays...brrr!


Exhausted!

How funny are these pics?


We went out to play with a family from our church a couple weekends ago. It was a big day of climbing around on their huge, hand created fort, running around their couple acre sized yard, catching toads (five to be exact and they were all named "Bee"), and collecting tadpoles in an empty peanut butter jar to be brought home at the days end (yuck)! All the kids were exhausted, but Bee and D.K. were asleep within two minutes of pulling out of their driveway!

Bee's Preschool Graduation

I cannot believe my littlest has finished preschool and is on her way to kindergarten in the fall! Her "graduation" was fun to watch. They sang songs and each recieved a "diploma"! Afterwards we all had cookies and punch, and Bee gave her teachers each a bouquet of daisies!

Bee and her wonderful teachers!













Bee and her best-friend showing off the tye-dye shirts they made the week before!