Academic Achievement Award!

For the third straight year!  Way to go Caleb!  We're very proud of you!

What a GREAT kid!

Everyone needs to veg out

on the couch with the comics on a Sunday afternoon!  A 9 year old boy is no exception! 

A visit with some old friends!

When Ron was in South Africa last week, he had the chance to have dinner one night with some friends we knew 20 years ago while living in Dallas. Here is a picture of Ron with Cindy and Mike Rodewald at a restaurant in Pretoria, South Africa. Twenty years, and none of them have changed a bit!

For a few more photos of Ron's trip, be sure to check out the blog for St. Paul's Lutheran Church!

The Weary Traveler

has returned to his home.  Ron left South Africa on Friday at about 6 (here in IA it was about 11) and I picked him up in Cedar Rapids at 11 today.  24 hours of traveling will tire a fella out!

Check the blog in a day or two for a post from Ron, including some of his photos from this week.

Corn, Corn, Corn, Corn...

What a day!  My friend Mary (waving here, 'cause I KNOW you are reading this! ) and I were discussing our mutual digital scrapbooking hobby at lunch, and somehow (totally unrelated to scrapbooking!) it came up that our family had totally missed the whole sweet corn season this year.    She said,  "I'm going to pick sweet corn at my brother's tonight after school.  Do you want to come?"  Of course, I said yes. (not knowing what I was getting myself in to!) 

Mary picked Ethan and me up after school, and we headed over to her brother's weed ...oops...I mean corn field.  We picked 253 ears of corn!!!   Yes.  253!  Do you folks have any idea how much corn that is?  Well...let me tell you...it's a LOT!  It's a lot of corn, and it was EXTREMELY hot out in that corn field!  Man...we worked up a BIG sweat!  Ethan was grunting and groaning as he was trying to lug those huge garbage bags full of corn  around out there!   He was a really big help!

Since Mary and her husband Tim have cows, she graciously invited Ethan and I to husk the corn at her house, so we wouldn't have to pay the city to dispose of it all.  Well, I wasn't going to make Ethan help with ALL the corn by himself, so I began recruiting my kids.   I picked Rachel up at 5 after volleyball practice, and  I called Caleb and Cameron on their cell phones and said "If you are getting a ride home from Cross Country practice with a friend, have them drop you at Tim and Mary's house."  Not knowing what they were in for, they actually showed up!  We all shucked corn.  The older two boys ran into town to pick up pizza, and the rest of us kept shucking corn.  (Oh, and we had to take a few minutes to admire Mary's dog Rosie's  CUTE 3 week old little puppies!)

After a yummy Casey's pizza and (what else?) CORN supper, the kids helped carry the corn into the house, and fed the husks to the cows.  Then all four kids came home (tonight was a BUSY homework night for all but Caleb!) and Mary and I cut the corn off the ears, boiled it and bagged it up.  We did 64 cups of corn!  Whew...what a LONG day but really productive day.  That corn looks wonderful in my freezer!

I have GREAT friends!  It is SO much more enjoyable to do a big job like that with a friend!  We laughed and even got a bit...(dare I say it?) SILLY by 9 pm, but what a FUN way to get a job done!

I also have GREAT kids!  They (fairly) willingly worked and helped us get the job done.  When the kids came home, Caleb helped Rachel with her math homework, looked over Ethan's homework, AND quizzed Ethan on his spelling words!  When I got home, Cameron was finished with his homework and was practicing his trumpet.  Rachel was plugging away at her homework.  She was working on a book report for her demanding Literature teacher (who happens to also be my above mentioned friend Mary, LOL)

I also have a really great husband, and I'm missing him terribly.  This week he's in South Africa!  Sigh.  I'll be glad when he is home for a while!  Can't wait to see him and hear all about this trip!

Traveling Man...

Well, right now, Ron is in a plane somewhere over the ocean headed to an 8 hour layover in London, before traveling the rest of the way to South Africa.  He's going to have an 8 day week this week, due to time zone changes and such!  2 days to travel there, 4 days at a conference and filled with meetings, and 2 days to fly home.  But he'll really only be gone from Sunday to Saturday.  Odd, isn't it? 

Please pray for safe travels, and productive meetings for him, and for all to go smoothly for those of us left at home!

Late Summer blooms

Oh, I love my flowers.  I haven't gotten a picture of the back yard garden flowers yet, but I just had to snap a couple of pictures of my flowers in front this afternoon!

 

I've tried for YEARS to get impatients to look so full and pretty like this!  I'm thrilled with how they filled out inside those rocks! 

aren't they pretty??

Today my first hibiscus flower bloomed!  I LOVE hibiscus!  I call this my "Marta plant", as I planted this the day my dear online friend Marta died a couple of years ago.  It just keeps getting bigger and bigger each year.  I'll be sure to snap a picture when it is full of blooms, too!

Isn't it huge?

I really just love these flowers.  I think, since it's doing so well, I might have to plant another one somewhere!  Maybe in a fushia color, perhaps?

Then, last summer, my mother-in-law gave us a bunch of daffodil bulbs and surprise lily bulbs.  I didn't know what a surprise lily really was, but I stuck them in the ground.  And guess what?  SURPRISE!  LOL...I have lovely little flowers popping up!  They are really pretty!  My first one bloomed today, and I have several more that are about to open up.  Cool!

I'm ever so thankful for Erik and the work he (and his family!) helped us do on the landscaping of the front yard last spring.  It really makes us work at keeping it looking nice, and boy are we really enjoying it this year!  Everything grew back nicely and I've already got ideas of what I want to plant next spring.  More impatients for sure!

Now the only thing left to bloom are the chrysanthemums.  The plant is just HUGE (got way bigger than I expected!) so we'll just have to see what happens with it this fall!

First Day of School

1 down and 179 to go!  Wow.  Can't believe that school started today!  As a staffer at the middle school this year, I've worked 3 days already with meetings and inservice and such.  Today was the first day for students. 

Here are the "first day" pictures.  The kids are smiling on the outside...but on the inside they are thinking two things.  1)  "Crud!  I do NOT want to go to school!" and 2) "I can't BELIEVE mom is making me DO this again!" 

Caleb.  See what he's holding up?  A 1 and a 2.  That makes 12!  He's a SENIOR!  I can't believe we've been taking these first day of school photos for thirteen years!  My how time has flown by.  He'll be doing cross country this fall, and marching band, concert band, pep band, track, and Get-A-Grip.  He'll also be taking several college courses through the school this year.  Wow.  Busy time!

Cameron.  Yep.  That's a 10 he's holding up.  He's a sophomore, ready to conquer his second year at the high school.  He's participating in cross country, marching band, concert band, pep band, and track while also taking a full course load.  Another busy fella!

 

Rachel.  She's in 8th grade.  She's going to do volleyball again this year, and is considering track this spring.  She's in vocal and band.  She is enjoying being the "top dog" at the middle school this year.

And then there is Ethan.  He's in fourth grade.  He was excited to get an "agenda" or "assignment notebook" this year.  It makes him feel as if he is one of the "big kids".  He'll do flag football again this year, and he's still in scouts.  He'll keep busy attending his siblings activities, too.

Awwww...here they are.  God has truly blessed me richly, hasn't He?  I have four AWESOME kids!  I pray for them daily, and especially today I thanked God for there individuality and prayed for tremendously successful school years for them!

Uncle Doyle

My uncle Doyle died this past Wednesday.  My mom came from a huge family.   He was one of her brothers.  His oldest daughter, Kim, is the same age as me, and so...as cousins tend to do, we spent lots of time at each other's houses growing up.  I always loved spending the night at Uncle Doyle and Aunt Judi's house!  We just always had FUN!  Uncle Doyle loved to tease and pick on us kids. 

Uncle Doyle gave Caleb his very first teddy bear.  He drew Caleb's name for the Christmas exchange for Caleb's first Christmas.  He gave Caleb a teddy bear that was bigger than HE was, and Uncle Doyle just grinned and said "EVERY baby needs their very own teddy bear!"  It was a soft and cuddly thing, and it is still around at our house!

Here's a picture of me with Uncle Doyle about 41 years ago!

And here's the last picture I took of Uncle Doyle, at our reunion on July 13.  He's with Aunt Judi.

It was a good day today.  A great portion of the family was there for the service.  I am very thankful that I was able to make the trip home for the service.  It was good to see everyone, and it was well worth the 10 hour drive to get there!

Final Las Vegas post

OK, I promise I'll quit talking about the Vegas trip, but it sure was fun!  I just have a few more photos to share from the great week we had there.

M&M world was REALLY cool!  4 floors of M&M stuff!  And now, looking back on our time there, I can't BELIEVE that I didn't buy a single M&M while I was there!  Geesh!  Now I HAVE to go back!

Ron wanted to visit Quark's bar.  He's a closet Trekkie!  While there, he enjoyed a couple "Romulin Ales"  He even bought one to bring home.  He said "It didn't taste that good, but it sure LOOKS cool!"

We took a gondola ride through the "streets" of the Italy when we stopped at The Venetian.  That was fun, but it was HOT outside. 

It was SO hot that we just HAD to stop at Margaritaville to cool off.  I shopped...Ron didn't :)

On the way back to our hotel, we again walked through the MGM hotel/casino and saw beautiful lions in the lion habitat. 

That evening we went to Stomp, and then on Thursday we headed home.  What a fun trip we had!  Ron pulled off a GREAT surprise to get me there.  Hmmm...wonder what he'll plan next?

Stomp Out Loud

Last night, we attended a performance of Stomp Out Loud at Planet Hollywood.  (You can see a you tube video of them here .)  It was simply incredibly.  Really the ONLY "music" that was heard was the rhythm of these people stomping on, banging on, swinging from, sweeping with, squeezing, shaking and pounding everyday items.  Like garbage bags!  Or rubber hoses of varying sizes and thicknesses.  Rubber gloves squeaking on a kitchen sink.  Swinging from a billboard, banging on different items. Rattling newspapers.  Oh, I just highly recommend them if you ever get a chance to see them!   Way, way cool!  Ron and I both highly enjoyed the performance!

Tropical Paradise in the Middle of the Desert

Of course, I mean Margaritaville! 

What a great place.  They have the BEST margaritas ever!  mmmmm....

We had lunch there on Tuesday.  We ordered the Volcano Nachos.

Here's a shot of them before we started.  Look!  It's as big as Ron's head!

Oh, BOY were these good!

Of course, so were the Corona and lime :-)

After Margaritaville, we stopped in to see Elvis...

(shhh...don't tell him....but he wasn't very good!)

Then more sightseeing.  There was just so much to see and do!

Pharaoh at the Luxor

New York Skyscrapers

a roller coaster ride around New York!

The strip, with the mountains in the distance.  It was just beautiful!

OK...I'll upload again, and more pictures will be available when I get them off my camera!