VBS - Day 2-3

Yesterday at VBS was fun. The theme of the day was Unity. They talked about Esther. This is what Sam came home looking like. Not sure if he's going to have a disguise for every day, or what! We only have the kids on MWF, so T,TH are our prep days. So yesterday we spent the whole morning cutting out the spaces in between letters on these fish and crosses that said "Love" with X-acto knives. We had to do quite a few of them. It took us all morning.

Today, the kids used our cut outs to put together these cards to give to missionaries. This one was Will's. They glued colored paper behind the letters, then glued the whole thing to a card. They wrote a note inside and attached one of their bible verses for the week. This is what Will wrote:

Dear Missionary, Thanks for helping people! And don't forget to read the verse above. From Will

He's always short and sweet and to the point! On the way home, Will said, "next time we do a craft project, can we do something that we can keep and take home?" Our craft leader had thought ahead that she might get some reactions like that, so she had rubber Jesus bracelets and candy for the kids to take, so they'd come away with something.

Noah and Sam's groups decorated paddle balls and made macaroni necklaces. Not sure why Sam is coloring with his left hand, since he's right-handed!

Today's theme was Training and they talked about Daniel. The oldest kids made praying hands by using a mold and thin metal sheets. They had to rub the metal with an etching tool and their fingers to mold the metal onto the outside of the mold, so that the image appeared on the metal. It took a lot of patience, but they did great. They put the metal in a cardboard frame, then decorated the frame. Jack wrote around the edges, "Pray to the Lord God."

My Dad

Yesterday was the 10 year anniversary since my dad passed away. My sister Emily wrote a tear jerking post with some very nice pictures. Laura wrote a very cute story about Noah talking about his Grandpa Bill. I guess I don't have much to say.

VBS- Day One

We had a very fun first day at Vacation Bible School. The theme is called SonForce Kids. It's all about being courageous special agents, and all kinds of cool spy stuff. It's worth clicking on the link just to hear the theme music! Today the kids were Level 1 Agents and they talked about Trust. -Trusting in God's plan. They talked about baby Moses. Will was very excited and is very into this. He's excited to advance to being a Level 2 agent tomorrow. I'm helping out with Arts and Crafts again this year, which is so much fun! It's basically because the women are so great, funny and silly! This year is the first year that Sam really gets to participate in the full program. Up til this point it's been more like he's hangin' in the nursury. But now he gets to go to music time and craft time and be in the chapel during opening when they do their skits. His group made disguise kits. I couldn't even recognize him with his secret identity. And boy did he blend right in:




When Damon got home from work I quick had Sam put his disguise on. Damon came in and was like, who is this stranger?! Sam said, "It's me!"

Will's group made secret laptop computers. They used CD jewel cases to make their "computers," complete with thumbprint identification scan. Inside are all their verses for the week.

I didn't even try to take Jack's picture. Didn't want to embarass him in front of his friends! It was a good, tiring first day!

It's an IKEA Miracle!

I can't believe it all fit! Any guesses as to how much stuff this actually is?!




Damon and I spent a fun, KID-FREE weekend in Schaumburg, Illinois at the IKEA store! Yes, it is possible to spend a whole weekend there! (It's amazing how much you can get accomplished without the kids.) A great big thank-you goes out to my mom and Don, for taking care of our kiddos for a whole weekend! Did I mention we were KIDLESS??!!! Not sure who was more tired, grandma and grandpa, or the kids. They had a great time going to Jack's game, swimming, a trip to CR, movies, playing outside, going to church, out to eat, and two visits to great grand-parents Quint and Berends. Whew!

We arrived at IKEA right after lunch on Saturday and set to work doing our shopping. We had done a lot of research online ahead of time, and had some good ideas of what we were looking for, but needed to see things in person to really know what we were interested in. Can I just reiterate how relaxing it was to look and shop without any kids?! Usually Damon and I end up on each other's last nerve when we try to shop together with the kids, but this was totally different! We stayed there all day until almost 8 o'clock, then purchased the items we'd picked up along the way. This first pass mostly just consisted of the accessory-type things we had encountered, that you can't live without because they're so cheap. Did you know that lots and lots of really cheap stuff adds up?!


Then we had a really nice dinner at the Weber Grill Restaurant. It was great - a bit on the pricey side - but worth it if you have no kids with you! They serve burgers, BBQ, chicken, steaks, and other special dinners. They cook all the food on HUGE weber kettle grills in an open kitchen, where you can watch the chefs at work. Outside was a huge charcoal grill statue that could cook 2000 burgers at once, if it really worked. I had the Beer-Can Chicken - a half chicken grilled over a beer can, with a garlic spice rub, and their special loaded baked potato that had bacon, broccoli, butter, sour cream, and cheese sauce. SO YUMMY! Damon had ribs and beef brisket, baked beans, coleslaw, and cornbread. To start out with they give you these yummy rolls with smoked cheddar butter and regular butter. At the end of the meal, they send you home with a small packet of their signature spice rub. It was a fun experience. The light shades were all grill lids and there was a statue of the typical dad in a hawaiian shirt with his grill. The restaurant even offers grilling classes. Anyone who is a fan of grilling would like this restaurant.


During dinner and then later on back at the hotel we were able to make our final decisions, and checked a few more things on the website so that we could make our big heavy purchases the next day. We stayed at a very nice Quality Inn very close to IKEA. We were ready and waiting with our list, waiting for IKEA to open at 10am. By 1:30 we had made all of our purchases. This was the scary part: finding all of our parts and pieces and boxes in the self-serve warehouse. All the big items have tickets on them in the showroom, directing which aisle and bin to find your parts down in the warehouse. You had to make sure all your numbers were matching up, and some of the dressers and beds came in more than one box, so we just hoped and prayed, and double-checked that we had everything we needed. Luckily everything we wanted was in stock - another thing you don't really know until you get down to the warehouse. Although we checked stock availability online ahead of time for that store, we weren't sure how much to trust it. Our back-up plan was to drive to the newly opened store in the Chicago suburb Bolingbrook (which is smaller) if something was out of stock in Schaumburg.


To celebrate, we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory across the street at Woodfield Mall. Another yummy experience! We even spent a few minutes walking around inside the mall, which was huge.


I'm sure we'll be posting before-and-after pics of the boys and our bedroom, as projects get finished. I'm sure it'll take us all summer! The plan for the boys room is to first paint, (blue and green and maybe some red accent?) then put up their new IKEA bunk beds. Damon is going to build a desk, built into the length of their closet, using table legs from IKEA and add shelves above. We got some cool accessories for their desk like some magnet boards, these plastic chairs and these "drawer" trays that attach to the table legs and then swivel underneath the desk when not being used. I hope no one tries to sit or stand on them! The chairs will match their new bedspreads. We also got them each these cool reading lamps that give Will his little taste of the Spiderman room he so desperately wanted, but is not getting. If you enlarge the image, you can see the plastic spider web grill and plastic spider, designed to keep little fingers away from the hot bulb. We are so excited, and so are the boys. As a special surprise, we brought them back stuffed dragons that I fell in love with on my last quick trip to IKEA in Minneapolis, on a Women of Faith weekend. They are quite long and already have been tied in knots, and dragged around the neighborhood. My hope was that they we can wind them around the bunk bed rails, but the boys may have a different idea. Sam says his dragon has a leaf tongue. Will named his Dragon "Fire."
The answer to how much stuff you can fit into a van:
1 set of bunkbeds, 1 twin mattress, 3 six-drawer dressers, 1 wardrobe, 1 queen headboard, 5 kitchen chairs, 2 desk chairs, 6 table legs, 2 laundry stands, don't forget 2 dragons, and other little miscellanous accessories. -All packaged flat and with room to spare!!! The packaged flat part means you put it all together yourself. Or I should say Damon does. He's in heaven.

Successful Weekend

Here's a glimpse into how our Iowa Arts Fest Weekend went:

This actually may give you the wrong impression. The boys were not bored and we were not bored. We did not have too much time on our hands, we were just being silly and decided to pose the dolls the same way the boys were sitting. We actually were very busy - Sunday more than Saturday. The rain did not keep people away. The kids had fun hanging out and doing some of the kid art stuff they had set up. Here are few more pics of some of my new things (I pretty much already showed you the rest of my new stuff in a previous post) I think you can double click on the images to see them closer, then you'll be able to read them and see the details:




and here are some of my mom's new things:




The rings - Ringy-Thingies - in the basket above, my mom made from vintage jewelry and buttons. Very cool. My very favorite new thing that my mom did were her Art Dollies - for girls of all ages. They are in the process of being christened with their own names.



My very favorite one is the purple girl in the last picture on the left. You've got to love her bikini top with the two buttons. These dolls were a big success. We posed them out and about, and had a pile sitting in a painted cradle. Some of them had pockets with removable hearts in them. Even Lily got one for her birthday:

One of the boys, I think it was Noah, said it looks likes a frog, so Laura said maybe they'll call her Ribberta. Way to go mom! Your crazy creativity never ceases to amaze me!!!

Camp Out

After the arts fest weekend, we had to hang some of the tent sides in the garage to finish drying. (We had some rain, but nothing that affected us too much.) Sam and our neighbor Samantha found it fun to "camp out." It was fun until it all fell down. (They were only being held up by the velcro straps.)

Little Holy Rollers

We went to Noah's t-ball game last night and Will spent his time rolling down the hill. It eventually evolved into Will doing somersaults. It reminded us of The Princess Bride. "As yooou wiiiiiish!!!!!!!" Lily tried to do it too. She tended to go more sideways than down the hill! I don't know what's up with the new You Tube format, but all those pop-ups are interfering with my viewing pleasure. It's just annoying.

Lucy and Cookie "playing"

I know that Laura and Joe have been curious to know whether their dog Cookie has been getting along with our dog Lucy while their dog is staying with us. I know it weighs heavily on their minds and they lie awake worrying about it at night. Their dog is just so little and our's is so big, it's bound to make them worried for everyone's safety. So just to put their minds at ease, I've taken some video. I've edited out the bloody parts, because I don't want them to feel bad. I'm sure that Lucy will learn to walk on 3 legs just fine . . . eventually. (Just kidding! hee hee!)

Well this video shows you what it is really like when they get together. I've been trying my best to keep them apart - which is not an easy feat in our household, because Cookie doesn't seem to like Lucy all that much. Basically it goes like this: Lucy would like to be friends and play, or just be left alone, and Cookie is a little hyper snot about it. I think Cookie likes being in charge, she realizes her size doesn't matter. Cookie basically spazzes out, when all Lucy'd really like to do is lay down, and then once Cookie does get Lucy all riled up along with her, she growls and yaps and runs Lucy off.

At Least Someone is Enjoying this Dog

Since Laura and Joe are "homeless" for a few weeks, their dog Cookie has been staying with us. Let's just say, she's not the kind of dog we are used to. The kids LOVE her, because she is just their size. They can't wait to take her for walks and play with her. Sam says that Cookie and Lucy are having a sleep over. I am used to Lucy - who listens, who stays off our furniture and beds, and who doesn't roll over and wet herself when Damon just looks at her. Sam gets such a kick out of playing with her because he's actually stronger than her (unlike our dog!) My favorite part of this video is when Sam says, "You want a piece of me?!" Not sure where he learned that!

Kent Park Day

Today all the 1st and 2nd graders spent the day at Kent Park. The plan was that they were going to go, rain or shine. Well, it rained. The kids were so disappointed. They'd planned to go fishing and hiking on nature trails. But none of that happened. Instead, they spent the day in the lodge, first listening to a nature expert talk about some of the wildlife, then had their picnic lunches, then watched the movie "Open Season." They ended up coming back early. Good news is that they get another chance at good weather next year, when Will goes again as a 2nd grader. Mrs. Hackbarth had told everyone to bring a hat and so Will insisted on wearing his (what he calls) "lucky fishing hat." Evidently it helps him catch fish. It was a birthday gift from McCarragher's (along with his own fishing gear.) It has his name painted on it, and was rimmed with fishing lures that Laura had attached. Will started out the day with only 2 of the lures left, and when he got home from school, they were all gone. I knew this would probably happen! In fact I didn't really want to let him take the hat in the first place, not because I cared about the lures, but because I knew it would be a distraction to him, and to others. But I finally gave in since it was the 2nd to last day of school, and it was going to be crazy anyway! When I asked what happened to the other lures, he said the other kids kept touching them and they fell off. He didn't seem too concerned about it. Oh well!

Animal Underwear

The other night Will was supposed to be in bed asleep when he came out like this:

He had taken his stuffed snake and tied it around his waist, and then taken all the rest of his stuffed animals and tucked them into his "belt." So there were about 15 animals hanging from him in front and back. I should have taken a video, because he looked really funny when he walked - all the animals swayed with him. I even called Damon in from the garage, saying, "Dad, you might want to come and see this." I'm not sure what posessed Will to do this, other than he was bored and couldn't get to sleep. He reminds me of something, but I can't think what it is. Tarzan?

Character Counts

At Lemme on Wednesday the whole school gathered together outside to have their chain-link celebration. (Click on the highlighted words to go to the links.) I like the picture at the bottom best because it gives you a good idea of how big their circle was. It would have gone around the entire building! It was about a mile long. Throughout the year teachers have been awarding kids a strip of paper each time they display one of the 6 pillars of character. They get their name written on that strip and the strips are color coded to match the 6 pillars. Wednesday was the big day when they connected all the strips together. they recited the Lemme Pledge all together, then they all had a picnic lunch outside. The Press Citizen did an article as well. Everyone was so excited! This is a new tradition that our new principal, Mr. Bacon, started this year. He said something like, "we're going to be literally connected by all of our good deeds!" (He's such a neat guy!) It was a great way to increase school spirit and emphasize the importance of character. It makes me feel like Lemme is a safe place to be!

I Have a Cheesy Monkey of my Own

You wanna talk about who's a cheesy monkey?! How's this for cheesy monkey?!

Baby News!

Well, we have some baby news! I went for my ultrasound on Friday, and we think we are having a boy! And it's perfect and healthy! Praise God! We all, even the boys, went through a bit of sadness thinking of the girl we'll never have in our family, but we're over it! God knows we do boys best! We got some awesome pictures. The first is a view of the baby's face - straight on. The forehead is on the left, chin on the right, and you can see two fist up by his face.

This is a profile of the baby's face - he's looking up and has a hand up there too.

We think this picture is funny: it's just of the baby's lips. I guess he had his mouth open, which is the dark circle you see. The rest of the baby's face is back in shadow.

Lower leg bones

Bottoms of precious feet!

Lower arm bones and handAlien child, done with the 4d imaging. This is the baby's face, looking straight on. His hand was up across his face, and the ultrasounder wasn't getting a very clear picture. The placenta is off to the right.

The most exciting bit of news we had was that my due date is now Sept 6, instead of Oct 6! Yeah, crazy. Back in early pregnancy, we had several ultrasounds done, and from that I had somehow gotten it in my brain that I was 15 weeks along. After an appointment they said, "Oh, no you're only 11 weeks." I was very disappointed because I'd been so sick, and was hoping I was further out from my first tri. At the time I remember thinking boy, how did I get so off? Come to find out, I don't think I made that up after all. I think someone must have told me the real weeks, and I latched on to that info, but my charts didn't get changed. So they were going by the old info all this time. So, now HOPEFULLY we're back on track. I'm 25 weeks. 6 months! I'm due beginning of Sept, which could really be August, if I get induced a week early like I did with Sam! I could have a new baby in my arms by late August, which doesn't seem nearly as far away as Oct! (Right when school has started!) Should I start panicking?! I suddenly get to be pregnant for one whole less month! Woo hoo!

A Post for Gretchen's Benefit

Once again, I've been heckled for what I post and don't post on my blog! So this blog is to humor my cousin Gretchen - a big fan of American Idol.

I must admit I haven't been a regular watcher of Americal Idol. I started out watching the beginning episodes - you know the ones where they show you all the wanna be's who are way out there. Then I saw some of the middle episodes, but recently I haven't seen it. All I knew was that I liked Melinda Doolittle because she seemed so genuine. She took songs that we'd all heard of and made them totally her own. I loved her voice. I guess she made it to the final 3, and was then voted off. I tried to watch the season finale last night, but missed the very ending where they announced the winner! (I was putting kids to bed.) Evidently Jordan won. I didn't have a big opinion about either her or Blake, because I didn't think either of them were that great. I did however get to hear Blake's famous beat box thing he does, and I must admit that although that rap stuff he does (I sound so old!) is not my thing, he does have an unusual and amazing talent. However, I think you can be talented at doing that, and still not be a super amazing singer. I didn't hear him actually sing enough to really know. Like all of these competition shows, it sometimes comes down to your popularity with the public, not necessarily on strictly who's the most talented. (Case in point: Emmit Smith beating out the superior dancer Mario Lopez in last season's Dancing with the Stars. Why does everthing always come back to DwtS??!!)

I thought it was fun to see all the AI contestants singing with other guest star singers. I could have done without the "tribute" to Sanjaya - who cannot sing worth a darn, and should have gone home long before he did. I think they only featured him to make fun of him, don't you all?! And of course I just knew that poor little girl would be in the audience - the one who cried everytime he sang. The poor thing needs to find someone else to Idolize! (I must admit I had a sudden flashback to my days of obsessing over Joey McIntire from New Kids on the Block.) You will all be proud to know that I've matured enough that when I watched Joey on the first season of Dancing with Stars I shed not a single tear. See? It all comes back to DwtS!

As for the trophies they handed out to all the odd ducks from the try outs who didn't make the cut - I thought that was just cruel. I felt sorry for them! It was like they were being made fun of, but did they even know it?!

Overall, my assessment of the AI finale is that here again is another example of dragging out the season finale waaaaaay too long, when all anyone really wants to know is "who won??!!" That's tv for ya - dramatic and addictive.

Dancing with the Stars - Season Finale

Apolo won! I admit I am disappointed, but not surprised. I was really pulling for Joey all along just because he always made me laugh. I realize Apolo was the better dancer, he could move his feet much faster than anyone else, plus he had all his atheletic skills working for him. I was always impressed with Apolo, (although I did agree with some of Len Goodman's comments about there being too much hanky panky and not enough dancing in some of their routines - the thing with the chair was too much) I just liked Joey's personality and how much fun he had, OK??!! It was fun to see all the contestants up there one more time, but I really could have done without all of the drama of dragging out the finale for two hours. Just tell me who won already! Will had just gotten into bed when I realized that Joey was going to perform his Star Wars dance again. So I ran to his room, flung open the door and told him, "Will! Come quick!" He was all confused but happy to be up out of bed again. Damon was like, what in the world is going on?! When I explained I wanted Will to see the Star Wars dance, even Damon sat down and watched it with us, although he kept shaking his head and saying "You've got to be kidding me!" Five minutes later Will was back in bed, and he thought it was all great fun - to be able to get out of bed, even if it was just to humor his crazy old mother. Damon just rolled his eyes.

Pregnancy Brain

I just picked Will up from school and as has been my habit lately, I was too lazy to walk up the big hill to the school to get him. So we drove to the end of our block, turned and went up the hill two blocks and waited in the car for him to come out. On the way back down the hill, I saw something oddly familiar in the middle of the street, a good block from our house. It was a cordless phone - that looked just like ours. I almost ran over it! I was still confused for a split second before I remembered that I had put our phone on the back bumper of our van, after hanging up with Emily. I was sitting outside, talking to her while Sam played outside. I was sure it had broken, but it appears to be working just fine! Lucked out on that one!

Mother's Day video

During the mother's day services at our church, they played this video that had me crackin' up! What gets me the most is when he comes back from "talking" to his brother, and his hair is all messed up. I laugh out loud every time I see this video. Just wanted to share it with all of you, so you could get a laugh too!

Card for Dad

Will came home with a card for Dad because he's such a nice Daddy. First there's a picture of Dad with his favorite thing - oranges. (Although it's really more the flavor than the actual fruit!) Notice that Will has drawn a pyramid of oranges with the top one missing - because Dad is holding the top one. The other picture is of our family. We are all wearing our favorite colors. Everyone has the correct color eyes. Sam and the baby are holding hands, and everyone has their hands in the air because they are happy. Notice the baby's crib has a mobile. Very cute!

Art with a "Message"

I'm making these little boxes to sell at the Iowa Arts Festival - June 2-3. They have a word or saying on the top of them- all inspiring stuff. Sam is fascinated with their littleness, and likes to take the lids on and off. He'd show them to me and say, "What does this one say?" So I'd tell him. Then he brings me one and says, "What does this one say? Does it say, 'give up?'" Well that's what I feel like doing - at least when it comes to being an artist. I've had 6 months to get ready for this - the biggest show we do of the year. And what do I have to show for it? A handful of tiny boxes, some rocks, and a few framed pieces that have been sittting here half finished for months. Pitiful. I still have no creative energy - and don't see any coming my way for the next oh, say, year or two.

I've got plenty of older things to sell - our racks will not be empty - just nothing much new. Oh well. What I've got is what I've got! I'm not going to freak out or stress out, or do any of those other things I've been known to do in the past. I'm just going to enjoy myself. Yeah.

TICK!!!

Wetting and combing Sam's hair this morning I found this guy attached to Sam's head. We were on our way out the door to go to Sam's 6 month post op visit with the ENT doctor, and I didn't know if we even had any matches, so I got the tweezers and pulled him out. I was expecting there to be a larger barb thing where the tick attached itself, so I wondered if I'd gotten it all out, or if some of it was still in Sam's head. I stuck the tick, still alive, in a baggie and brought him along, just to see if the doctor knew. Plus I wasn't sure what kind of tick this was, and whether to be concerned about Lyme disease. I guess this is a deer tick - not the kind that carries Lyme disease. The kind that can carry Lyme disease are smaller, black, and crunchier. And it all came out, thankfully! I wanted Sam to show Laura what was in the baggie, but he won't even come near it. He thinks it's going to get him. He told Laura, "There was a bug in my hair. It was eating my head." It is pretty freaky! Wouldn't you know it, Will was already off to school by the time we discovered Sam's, so the minute Will gets home from school, he's going to receive a mom examination from head to toe. Kent Park is notorious for ticks. We should have checked the kids over when we got home yesterday. I'm surprised that it went undetected through bath time last night. Sneaky bugger.