Cousins...

So Aaron is from Indiana, and Caleb is from Iowa...and they are BOTH in Orlando for the National LCMS Youth gathering. Cell phones are wonderful, 'cause it allowed the two cousins to meet up this week! They were THRILLED to spend some time together!

Wow! I'm a Rockin' Girl Blogger!!

My friend Lori tagged me as a

Thanks, Lori! What fun to be noticed :-) How cool is that? Now, I get to "tag" some other "Rockin Girl Bloggers!"
(This was started by Roberta Ferguson) on her blog. Great idea, Roberta!

The above mentioned Lori follows her dreams and opens her own digital scrap store, and boldly shares her faith through the digital scrap kits she designs. Way cool! Now that we live in the same state, I hope we can meet sometime!

Hummie has a wonderful blog for sharing her life, her faith, her hobbies and her talent with us! We have lots in common, and I just KNOW we will meet someday! I call her my "Lutheran Scrapper friend"

Lisa has taught me so much of what I know about using my DIP program for digital scrapping! She is very talented, and freely shares her talents and skills! She's awesome and giving me tips and solutions when I'm stumped on how to do something!

Sarah has an amazing eye for design, so when I'm stumped with what to do with a page, I can always count on Sarah to give me some ideas and inspiration!

Jen is a fellow Pastor's wife, and her glimpses into their daily life make me smile. We've "known" each other for several years, and I consider her a good friend! She inspires me to keep plugging away at my goal of becoming debt free!

Amy is a great friend, and a tremendous resource to me as a mom of a pre-teen daughter! She's full of wisdom and guidance, prayer and friendship! She's got an awesome ministry going on! She's also a fellow Pastor's wife.

So, if you have time, check out these newly tagged Rockin' Girl Bloggers!

A Fish Fry

We spent the week in Ohio visiting with Ron's family instead of traveling to Canada for a week long fishing trip. The yearly fishing trip has always been a wonderful vacation that everyone looks forward to, but we were unable to travel there this year. And ya know what? I don't think anyone minded much at all! We all just had a great time with each other. The important thing was that we were together, and no one much cared WHERE it was.

We did try to keep up a few of the "traditions" from the Canada trip. Ron brought Canadian beer, the women grocery shopped, and we fried fish. Not twice a day, every day like in Canada, but that was our Friday evening meal. Here are some photos of the fish frying process. Going out in a boat on Rice Lake to catch some fish (photo from July 2006)Gene dumps the fish onto the ground to count them. (Photo taken July, 2006)

The fish from each fishing trip (2 or 3 trips a day) are counted into buckets. (Photo, July 2006)and are taken to the fish cleaning house. (photo, July 2006)

I have no pictures of the packaging of the fish...guess I never thought to get out my camera at that point, LOL. But now, we'll skip to THIS year's pictures of Grandma, Ethan and Hannah breading the fish. Grandma and an 8 year old and 7 year old...breading fish...well...I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Let's just say...it wasn't pretty, LOL.

All set up and ready to start breading the fish.
Hmmmm...wonder why they are doing this outside???First, dip the fish fillet in flour.

Then, dip it in egg.Then cover it with cracker crumbs.Then, fry it up til it is golden brown.photo taken July 2006
and ENJOY!

Thanks, Lester and Mary for another great week of vacation at your home!
We had a terrific time!

Vacation

Well, what a summer this has been so far! My goodness, the MILES we've traveled! I'll summarize the highlights, 'cause otherwise it'll take a week for this all to be read!

On July 9, Caleb and I took the van, and Ron took his car and the dog, KT, and we drove to Ohio to visit Ron's folks. We were reunited with Cameron, Rachel and Ethan, who had been in Missouri with friends and cousins for the previous week, and had spent the weekend with Aunt Martha. We were all happy to be back together as a family, and it was great to see Grandma and Grandpa. KT was in dog heaven...out in the country, not having to be chained up much, and just roaming and wandering.

Living "A Dog's Life!"

Tuesday, Ron's brother Gene and 3 of his four kids arrived and added to the chaos at Grandma and Grandpa's. What joyous fun THAT was with the kids all together! Later when Martha's oldest and Gene's wife and oldest son arrived, we had cousins ages (boys) 21, 16, 15, 14, 14, 13, (girls) 12, 11, boy 8 and girl 7! What a CREW! And lots of fun playing in the creek, playing cards, visiting, shooting fireworks, joking, etc.

playing Monopolythe girls LOVED being together again!

Wednesday we went to Kings Island Amusement park (to give Grandma and Grandpa a bit of a break in the chaos). What a blast! The kids disbursed and conquered all the roller coasters and fun rides they wanted from 5-10 that night! (Martha and I conquered a couple of roller coasters too...well...*I* conquered...Martha just SCREAMED in my EAR the whole time (just kidding, Martha...it was a BLAST and I'd ride a roller coaster with you any time (just have to remember my ear plugs first!, hee, hee))The Kings Island Crew of Cousins!What daddies won't do for their kids! Ronnie and Gene on one of the Nickelodeon rides at Kings Island.

Thursday we hit the amusement park from 10-12:30, had a picnic lunch, and then hit the water park. Another GREAT time was had there, til about 6:30 when we all headed back to the amusement park til 10. THEN the kids decided to get souvenirs, so it was after 11 when we left.

Friday we spent the day back at Ron's folks, doing some work around the yard that needed done, along with more visiting, playing and having fun!Ron got to teach Ethan how to drive the lawn tractor, and as you can tell,
Ethan loved every minute of it!

Saturday Ron and Caleb and KT returned home, the other 3 and I spent the rest of the day with Ron's family before heading to my sister's house, an hour away.

We had fun at my sister's house with her family, swimming pool and trampoline and HUGE TV! We had a great visit with my dad and step-mom on Sunday evening. One of my favorite photos from my vacation. My daughter and my daddy.

My sister and I had a shopping day on Monday. What a TREAT to have the kids old enough to stay home alone so we could have a girls day!

Tuesday the 3 kids and I headed north to Frankenmuth, MI for a touristy day of fun! We had appetizers at the Bavarian Inn, shopped at the Fudge store and other fun places around town, and ended at Bronners Christmas shop.Ethan, Me, Rachel and Cameron at Frankenmuth

We FINALLY arrived home late on Wednesday night. Now, after all this, hopefully you can see why I haven't updated my blog recently!

Whew! Hope the travel log didn't exhaust anyone too much!

Happy 16th Birthday, Caleb!

Wow! I'm the mom of a 16 year old! What a GREAT kid he is! His siblings are all in Missouri visiting various friends/family, so Ron and I got to spend the day with Caleb. What a great day we had. Driver's License office (yes...it's official...he's driving!), Olive Garden (GREAT choice, Caleb!), and then various stores shopping for a Nintendo Wii (no luck!) and other "stuff", and a final stop at Coldstone Creamery (another AWESOME choice, Caleb!)

We also golfed 4 holes, and then stopped and Grandma Marge and Grandpa Richard's for a brief visit.

Happy 16th Birthday, Caleb!!!!