A family reunion

Rachel and Ethan and I are so glad we made it to Ohio for our family reunion!  Aunt Lila Mae and Uncle Harold have a BEAUTIFUL new (to them) home, and they hosted a great family reunion.  The kids especially loved the pool, and swam all day long.   I enjoyed visiting with many of my aunts, uncles and cousins.  I promised my cousin Hollie that if she'd check my blog, she might find a photo of herself on it.  So...here ya go, Hollie!

Isn't she lovely?

Here's Hollie's mom and dad...my Uncle Jim and Aunt Susie, with me and my sister.

And this is Hollie's brother, Arron.  He's getting married next weekend!

And this is my cousin Ty, and me, and my Aunt Lila Mae.  She hosted the reunion at her beautiful retirement home!

This is my Aunt Lila Mae with her husband, Uncle Harold!  We hope to visit them often in their new home!  GO BUCKEYES!

This is Aunt Lila Mae and her brother, my Uncle Tom.  (He's Ty's dad)

And this is my Aunt Judi and her grandson, Paul

and here she is with her hubby, my Uncle Doyle

This is Aunt Robin (She's married to Uncle Tom) holding her month old grandson Trevor.  His dad is my cousin Tad, but he was sick and not able to attend the reunion.  That is his lovely with Maribeth with them.

Of course, I have oodles and oodles more pictures, but that's all I'll post for now.  Oh, except for this one of my daughter.  She heard on Sunday, at least 172 times "Rachel!  You look JUST like your mom!"  This is the response that some people got after saying that to her.

We crashed a party!

Last Saturday when we got to Ohio, my sister, Sue Ann and her two kids, Jordan and Madi were just leaving for a nephew's (on the other side of the family) birthday party at an area swimming pool.  My 2 kids and I crashed the party and I enjoyed the sun and photography while the kids splashed and played for 3 hours!  Here are some pictures!

Hello from LaPorte, IN

At least I think that's where we are.  I can't remember exactly which exit I pulled off at!

I managed to get a DVD wedding slide show finished for a July 26 wedding late on Wednesday night (actually 4:30 Wednesday morning, to be more exact, LOL)  Thursday was laundry, computer work with a friend (Hi Mary!) and then golfing with Denise, Jean and Sue.  Nice dinner at the golf course, and then home to begin packing/organizing for an Ohio trip.

It was finally about 1:30 or so when we left home.  We stopped at church camp to pick up a few things Ethan left behind while camping there.  We stopped at A Walmart to get E some headphones for his DVD player.  I listened to a JA Jance novel for a while while the kids watched their movie.  Then when there movie was done, we listened to a juvenile fiction book called "Alex and the Ironic Gentleman" (can't remember the author off hand)  We're 2 hours into the 8+ hour story, so that should get us a long ways down the road!

Enjoyed supper at a subway...mmmmm...and then drove another couple of hours and stopped at a Hampton Inn ( my very favorite, all time best EVER hotel chain! --and no--I don't get money from them for saying that!)

Kids swam, I read a magazine and avoided getting wet.  Were now settled down into our super comfy Hampton Inn beds...the most comfy hotel bed I have ever been in!  Great place to sleep.

We'll wake up in the morning to a lovely hot spot on the breakfast bar, and  will head out for the last  hours of the trip to Ohio.

Talk to you later from Ohio!

HAPPY 17th Birthday, Caleb!

Can you believe that I'm the mom of a 17 year old?  I sure can't.  Seems like just yesterday that this little tiny baby made his appearance.  He was always a happy baby, and has grown in to a happy, laid back, easy going young man.  We so enjoy his sense of humor and his easy going attitude, and his willingness to pitch in and help when asked (and even sometimes when NOT asked!)

His requested birthday lunch was cheeseburgers, so that was easy to do.  He asked for cheesecake, so I made a YUMMY no-bake cheesecake topped with strawberry pie filling for dessert. 

He had a laid back day, and now is on his way out to our friend's house, where his girlfriend, Katie, is throwing him a surprise birthday party!  Hope he has lots of FUN!

Happy Birthday, kiddo!

Template in DIP

My friend Lisa asked for a template from the page of Adam that I did. So, I created one! How FUN. I thought I'd share with anyone who happens to stumble across it in my blog. It was created in DIP, (Microsoft Digital Image Pro/Suite) so I believe only DIPers can use it :)

Click on the image below to be directed to 4shared, where you can freely download it.

More Fun at the Lake scrap pages

I've finally had a bit of time to do some scrapping again!  It seems like it's been forever since I've had time.  Of course there are LOTS of other things I COULD be doing, but hey...a girl has to have some time for fun, too, right?

 

this one was all created by me...no templates or kits or anything!

 

This was created from a template by Racketty Scrapety (#54) which was converted to DIP by Lisa.  The kit is called "Under Water" by Symphony.

 

And this was created using parts of a kit from Aprilmouse called "Boys"

Finally Scrapping again

Ron went to sleep by 8:30 or so last night, so I finally just had a chance to sit down and scrap a page.  It's been a long while!  I scrapped the pictures of the kids swimming at Erik and Kelly's cabin last weekend.

He's HOME!

Ron made it home safe and sound, and we are all SO glad to have him home! 

His flight home was fairly uneventful, other than that his luggage didn't make the final trip from Chicago to Cedar Rapids with him.  But it was delivered to the hotel we were at by 8:15 the next morning, so no problems whatsoever.

He's working at getting readjusted to our time zone, but as usual, when he arrives home from an overseas trip, he becomes (gasp) a MORNING person!  UGH..he doesn't fit in well with us that way, LOL.  This morning he was wide awake and ready to go at 5 AM.  By the time I had to go and wake Ethan (at NOON), Ron was about ready for a nap! 

But all is well, and we are so glad to have him back with us.  We've been hearing stories and looking at pictures and just enjoying having him home.  When he gets copies of Erik's pictures, we'll get a few more up on the church blog.

Painting Fun

I promised Ethan that while his dad was in Russia, I'd paint his room.  Since Ronnie flies into Cedar Rapids late tomorrow night...I thought it was about time to get this project started.

It is LONG overdue.  He's been asking for it to be painted for about a year.  Last fall, he said "MOM!  I don't even care WHAT color you paint it.  Just PLEASE get Winnie the Pooh off of my walls!"  (He's 9...yeah...it's about time, isn't it?)  He chose "Cougar Colors" our school colors. 

When we got home from Missouri last night, Rachel, E and I started cleaning out his room of all of his STUFF.  I was finished with the primer coat by 2 am.  Today I had errands to run in the morning, picked up the paint  and was home by 11:30.  I started trimming at around 12:15, and the trim (ceiling, floors, windows and doors) was done and we started rolling the walls at around 1:15 (there was a lunch break in there, too)  It was ALL painted by 1:45!  Talk about speedy!  I invested in a paint stick! Oh my goodness is that thing SOOOO cool!  You just suction up paint into the handle and you don't have to keep stopping to refill your roller brush!  You just push the handle in some more, when you are ready for it to have more paint on it.  I'm wishing Ethan's room were a bit bigger, as this was FUN to use!  It is WELL worth the $25 (I got it at our local hardware store).  Reviewers comment that it is a pain to clean, but honestly...it wasn't that bad.  I can't recommend it highly enough!

Anyway...here are some pictures.

Teaching Ethan.  He was a big help, and SO excited to get this job done!

This is the part of the job that I REALLY dislike...it just takes SO long!  But it does really speed up the process!

The paint stick, filled with paint.  WAY cool tool!!!

Hee, hee...check out the paint on the back of his head! 

Are we having fun yet?

The final step was stamping paw prints on the wall in blue and green.  Go Cougars!

all done!

Whew...what a 24 hours!

Now, to let it dry and get the room put back together! 

 

Lake of the Ozarks Fun!

While in Missouri over the weekend, we spent Sunday afternoon at Erik and Kelly's cabin/dock.  The kids had a GREAT time swimming in the lake, and I had fun taking photos.

Adam just bobbled around happily in his life vest.

Every once in a while, someone (Ethan's turn this time!) had to go and "herd" him back towards the dock.

Rachel was about the most excited of all the kids to have a chance to go swimming in the lake.  She only freaked out a little bit when she felt something brush up against her legs...EEWWW!

E and Aidan "fished" (and pulled up rocks) when they were done swimming.

Rachel and Aaron enjoyed being the "big kids" for the weekend.

Adam REALLY loves his ChaChi!  They have had a great 2 weeks together!  He kind of cried (well...more than kind of!) when we had to leave yesterday morning!  He cried HARD!  And BIG tears, too!

Aidan

Aaron, Adam, Rachel, Ethan, and Aidan.