Timber!!!!!

Today while Dad was here we decided to take out a tree that was growing very crooked. It would likely have fallen over sometime - so taking it out before it blew over was a good idea. It also is our free haul off week - so we could stack it by the street without having to cut it up real small.

Doug used a rope and a chain saw - and we tried to pull it into our yard - but it ended up going into the neighbor's yard instead :( Luckily it only hit their gutter a little. :( We did get most of it cut up, hauled out of their yard, raked up, and out by the street. The neighbors were not home, until we were almost finished. They were more concerned about what tree we cut down (as they really are attached to their trees) then the fact that a limb hit their gutter.

We only have a little left to cut up. The chainsaw was not working correctly - so hopefully we will finish it up later today or tomorrow.

Thank you mom and dad for helping with the tree. Your help was greatly appreciated!!!

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Watching the Parade of Nations
Whee! Down the bouncy slide I go. Emily loved it, but Andrew was not so sure. One time down was enough for him.
Emily and Michael both gave the climbing wall a try. Michael is looking at me to ask if he could come down. He liked the idea of a climbing wall, but not the height. Emily made it all the way to the top!
Emily, Noah, Andrew & Michael at the Slugger Factory
Andrew and Michael both gave the Slugger batting cage a try

There was a World Fest downtown that had a parade of nations at noon. I thought that would be fun to see. We were surprised when we discovered a free festival in front of the slugger museum & fraser history museum. The kids enjoyed the bouncies, pitching machine, hitting machine, and climbing wall. In addition we went into the fraser history museum. A fun time was had by all!

splinter

Last weekend we took Emily to the doctor as she had a splinter in her foot. It had been in her foot for about a month. Part of it had come out - but some was still in her foot - and it had healed over. There was a callose on her foot and it was very sensitive. Her dr. said we had to go to a pediatric surgeon. I figured the surgeon would take it out in the office so I scheduled an appoitment for Monday. At the appointment, the doctor just looked at it and said that she could schedule surgery the next morning at the children's hospital. So, Tuesday morning we headed downtown to the hospital and had surgery. The doctor gave us the splinter - about 1/8 inch piece of wood. She spent Tuesday out of it due to anesthesia. Wednesday morning she went to our friends' house - and then came to school Wed. afternoon. Now she is back to normal. Her foot just looks like it had a broken blister on it. I think the bill from the surgery will be worse then the actual surgery.

The moral of the story - don't go barefoot on decks!!!

volleyball

You all know how althletic I am :) You also know how my hand-eye coordination makes me a great volleyball player - right :) Well, Emily started volleyball this week. There are only 7 players on her team - 6 of which have played before. They have nic named Emily their "secret weapon". She is loving it. The other girls are taking her under their wing and helping her along. It is great to see! She has practice all next week, and her first game on sept 2.

first day of school

Oomph! Can we lift our backpacks?
Look at all my books for 5th grade!
Big 2nd grader!
Wow! I have my own locker!


Wow! A 2nd grader and a 5th grader! Emily and Michael are sure growing up fast! We started school on Monday. Here they are on the 1st day of school.

hit away

we got Michael a hit-away. It is mounted on his basketball goal. We found it on clearance for only $11. What a good deal. We also found baseball pants on clearance for only $3.

new sewing machine

Emily's sewing machine from mom and dad got out of alignment. We took it into the sewing machine shop and they wanted $65 just to look at it. We knew the machine did not cost that much to begin with, so decided to just get her a better machine.

We got her a brother machine from wal-mart. It is very similar to the one that I have currently. She has enjoyed using it some, but has not had it very long.

lemonade stand

On Friday the kids had a lemonade stand. I helped them make slice and bake sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies to sell in addition to the lemonade. Lemonade went for 50 cents a cup and the cookies were 50 cents each. They started around 1:00 and got off to a slow start. They had a few sales - but around 3:00 it started picking up. Between 1:00 & 4:30 they ended up bringing in around $35.00. Emily gave $2.00 to a neighbor boy who came over to play and helped some. Then Michael and Emily each got $10 and they decided to give the other money to the neo natal unit at the children's hospital here in town.

After bringing in a good haul, they decided to try again on Saturday afternoon. Business was a lot slower - and after about an hour they had brought in $1.50 and decided to close up shop.

I will post pictures after I find where Emily put her camera - I took pictures on her camera.

six flags

Today we went to six flags. We all had fun. Michael went on the wooden roller coaster they had - he was actually crying when we got going on it, because he did not want to go - but by the end he said it was great. He ended up requesting to go on it again later in the day - which Emily did not complain about. We enjoyed the water park & the rides in the park. Now that Michael is tall enough to go on everything, it is very nice.

Emily had a little mishap in the water park. She slipped on a water slide & ended up hitting her head a few times on her way down a slide. She got a bump & burn mark on her head. She and I went to the first aid station for ice. She was very fortunate that it was not worse - but she does have a little red mark on her forehead now. Of course, she also had a splinter in her foot - which she got yesterday - so the lifeguard who helped us and the men at the first aid station were first thinking she hurt her foot (since she was limping). Kind of funny.

Emily's Room Complete

Emily's loft - changed from green & pink to blue & pink
Emily's bookshelf - changed from pink to blue.

Also note the ceiling - looks cool doesn't it :)

Emily's valance & some stuffed animals & ceiling
Her light switch cover was perfect with her new color scheme :)
Fun beads hang from her loft

Here is Emily's room. Of course it does not stay clean too long, so I had to be careful about where I took pictures from. It is more open than it was before -so hopfully that will help. She also did not want her rug in her room anymore - that makes it look better too.

Let me know what you think of my big girl's room

more painting

Today Emily & I spent more time painting in her room. After finishing her walls, we moved on to her loft. In addition we painted her ceiling. It looks really cool. I took some white & mixed it with the blue & we sponge painted her ceiling. It looks like clouds. WE also found some mix matched paint at Lowes that was the right pink to repaint the legs of her loft. So - everything has been repainted in her room (except her door & closet doors.) Will post pictures after we get everything moved back in. Right now our hall is filled with the contents of her room. It is hard to get down the hallway - I hope we don't kill ourselves tonight when we have to go to the bathroom.

painting Emily's room

Blue Boo
Emily's old color of pink vs. her new tourquoise/blue color
Her old valance that I made will look great with her color choice - as well her comforter. Both have the same blue color in them as an accent color :) Yeah! That means saving money!

This summer I had planned to paint the living room, dining room & hallway (which I did in June) along with the trim in those areas. I used a little lighter khaki than was there to begin with, as well as refreshing the white trim. You can't really tell the difference, since it is basically the same color, but it looks a lot nicer. No more scrapes and scuff marks. I was feeling good about that accomplishment.



I had also planned to paint Emily's room - she wanted a make-over. That was a little hard for me, I think that is part of why I was waiting. When we moved in around 7 years ago I had painted her room pink, sponge painted it mauve, and then added a ballerina boarder. I had worked hard to make my little girls' room special. Now, she is 10 and did not want her little girl room anymore. Changing it would be admitting the fact that my little girl is growing up.



Now her room is in mid paint. We got 2 coats of tourquoise on 3 walls as well as her book shielf, and then we ran out of paint. One wall & her desk have 1 coat of paint. I will hopefully finish it up tomorrow after getting more paint. I am also painting her trim white - freshening it up.



We now have a Blue Boo - and he will stay that way for a few days, as I am in the midst of home visits as well as painting her room & VBS, so a bath for Boo is not in order. He has paint on his side, ear & tail. He looks funny. Check out the pictures.

autograph night

The boys (Michael, Doug & Dad) went to the Indians game. It was autograph night. Michael got a ball filled with autographs. They also got a picture given to them by a photographer and they got it autographed by the player. The awesome thing was it was of the MVP of the AAA All Star Game. Michael & Doug had seen him play. It was also a picture that was taken at the AAA All Star game. Wow! What a great way to end a birthday.

It actually started and ended awesome for Michael. He got to go golfing with the big guys in the morning - and then ended the day with a baseball game.

cornhole

For a Father's Day, Anniversary, birthday gift we gave mom & dad a personalized cornhole set. It is the STL Cardinals and the MN Twins. The beanbags are navy & red.

Doug made the cornhole boards and I made the beanbags. We had a good time breaking it in over the weekend.

celebrating birthdays

Happy 8th birthday Michael
Happy Birthday Mom & Gene

Thank you Greg, Jamie, Naomi & Micah - I love the picture & the awesome card!!!
Thanks Gene, Holly, Andrew & Noah for the Star Wars stuff!!

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for the erector set and the winter coat!!!

Thank you mom, dad, and Emily for the basketball goal, the story Bible & the baseball t-shirt!!

Michael & Amelia

Last weekend Doug and Micahel headed up to Craig & Amber's house to deliver some furniture that we just did not have room for. Michael enjoyed playing with his cousin. They also went to a ball game - which of course Michael and Doug just complained about terribly (just kidding). They boys had a good time seeing family & just being the boys.

Emily and I spent some time scrapbooking & watching two movies. We had a good time just staying put.

home visits

I started my home visits yesterday. I got 7 done yesterday out of 18 that I will have to do. I have 15 out of 18 scheduled - so I will try to catch the other 3 today. The bad thing is the rest of them are spaced apart pretty bad, due to vacation schedules. At least I was able to knock out 7 yesterday.

I also thank mom & dad for taking the kids so I could do that. They are having fun with grandma & grandpa. I took them to the outlet mall on Wednesday and then got back around 4:30. That gave Doug and I the opportunity to go out to dinner. We went to Outback and used a gift card I had gotten from a student. I had a $25 gift card and spent $25.20. Couldn't get much closer than that.

shopping

This year I have been blessed to find some awesome deals. The other day we walked into wal-mart & they had a couple $1 clearance racks. I got myself two tops, Emily one (which I altered to fit her) and then Doug got 4 long sleeved dress shirts. All for $1. Wow! Then I went to K-Mart and they had their whole women's section on sale. I got 4 items for $10. Another Wow! We went back to Wal-Mart for a totally different reason and they had another $1 rack, this time beign girls - so Emily got 2 pair of pants & two tops for only $1.

In addition I have hit 3 different Children's Place stores over the past week, all which have had 50% off of their sale prices. I have gotten things for $2 & $3 dollars. The most I paid was $4.50 for anything! Wow!

I also hit the outlet mall with mom and the kids (that is where one of the Children's Place stores was). I have gotten about 30 items of clothing for around $120. Wow!

I thank the Lord for these money saving bargains. I feel God placed some of these things where he did, as we were needing fall & winter clothes for the kids, and we found some great deals on those, as well as some summer stuff for Emily. I was expecting the summer sales, but not the fall/winter things. Thank you Lord for helping provide.

basketball goal

For Michael's birthday we got him a baseketball goal for the backyard as well as a basketball. He was excited about getting it yesterday :) We knew it was hot though - as when Doug told him he did not think he had time enough to put it together before our Christ Care meeting - Michael said, "That's ok Dad. It is too hot to go out and use it anyway.". Wow! My little boy is sure growing up!

home visits

Today I started calling around to schedule my home visits. So far I have 3 for this Thursday & 1 for next Tuesday. That is 4 out of 19. When Emily heard what I was doing, I told her that I knew she did not like this time of year (thinking that I am gone so much & very busy during the day, that is is hard on the kids) but she said what she did not like is that it means summer is almsot over. Of course that is what I don't like about it also.

Emily and the Orthodontist

August 2007

July 2008

Emily went last week Thursday to get her braces off as well as her top mouth expander. When they took off her contraption one baby tooth came out and another one almost came out also. Her mouth was very sore until yesterday, so she ate lots of puddings, jellos, pb&j sandwiches... Pizza was a challenge. She goes today to get fitted for a retainer - had to wait for the swelling to go down. Here is a picture of her before & after. Wow is there a difference.

Mary Kay Party

Tonight I had a Mary Kay party. It was great! I had 8 people here and earned almost $100 in free stuff. Of course I spent another $122 and ended up getting actually $135 in free stuff because I got some stuff bundled together. It was a great time to get together with old and new friends. Our new pastor's wife as well as our new kindergarten teacher came and it was a great time to get to know them as well as them to meet other ladies from the church.

holly's blog

Today I welcome my sister Holly to the world of blogging. Yeah! I look forward to hearing more about how her two boys are growing. Here is her blog.

http://buerossegang.blogspot.com/

last night's concert

Last night's concert was very good - but attendance was very low. There were about 20 - 30 people there, most of which were there to sell soda/popcorn, set up the event, or run the sound - or were family members of these people. They did lead worship this morning - and sounded very good. It was a little louder than our usual music at the 11:00 service, so I am hopeing that they don't get complaints. Michael especially loved them - and so we got their 2 CD's.

If you ever have the opportunity to hear the band 40 Day we would recommend them.

handbell choir

Last night we had two girls from Illinois stay with us. They were part of a high school handbell choir which was traveling around to share their talent. They had about 50 high school aged kids in the choir. It was incredible. When I read their biographies in the program, the kids were all busy kids, involved in sports and music as well as many service opportunities. The choir met at 7:30 on Sunday mornings to practice before going to either 9:30 or 11:00 service. Wow! What commitment. The choir had been to the Slugger museum earlier in the day so we drove them by Churchill Downs before stopping at Sonic and then coming back to the house for the night.

Tonight we have a concert from a band entitled Day 40. Here is their website:
http://www.day40.net/day40.htm
Doug is doing the sound for them. It was supposed to be outside, but there was a big chance of pop up showers so they decided to move it inside. It starts at 9:00 so we will see how late we stay, as it goes from 9:00 - 11:00. They are also leading worship tomorrow at 11:00.

catching up

wow! Although it is summer - it seems i have less time to update my blog. I am busy with all kinds of "out of routine" things like doctor visits, orthodonits visits, dentist visits, trips, errands, painitng parts of the house, painting my classroom... I also just put a few new things on the kids' blogs - so now I am looking at mine. I put dates on the entries for when they occurred, not when they were posted, so you will notice posts from earlier in June and July, which were not there earlier. Enjoy! Have a great day!

Big Grandma visits

Karen came for the 4th of July weekend and into the next week. We did quite a bit of game playing - Mexican Train, Rummikub, Zooreka (Michael's birthday gift from Big Grandma), and Operation. In addition we went to a park for Threshing Days (and enjoyed the river & a creek with a cave), went to the Fraser History Museum, enjoyed the Bat's baseball game with fireworks, went to the slugger batting cage, and out to LaGrange to show how Emily rode her soap box derby car.

Aaron and Katie's wedding

The occasion of Aaron and Katie's wedding brought our whole family together. That was great. The whole T family was able to have some bonding time at the hotel as well as at the wedding recetption. It was great to see all 6 cousins together. In addition all the Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandparents were there for the M family. This is the 1st time since 1999. Wow! Since then lots of marriges and kids have happened. The family has grown. It is great that we were all together. The Lord has really blessed everyone and he has shown his grace and mercy to all.

Here are the pictures that I took - mainly of the T family bonding, but some at the reception.

farm

We saw a fawn in the woods on the way down the creek. It was caught in the fence.
The creek was very high - the kids could feel the splash of the big rocks when they threw them in. wow ! That sure was fun!
In the hayloft - look at all the hay
Justin, Michael and Emily in the woods by the "other place" The vines were great for swinging on - Emily became Tarzan.

We went to the farm with mom a few weeks ago. It was a great time to help grandma and grandpa do jobs which they are not able to do anymore - clean out the cellar, defrost the freezer, weed the flowerbeds, clean parts of the house, help cut quilt squares...



The kids enjoyed a hayride, walks to the creek and the woods of the other place, playing outside, and watching Uncle Lynn and Grandpa use the farm equipment. Justin was there helping too, so they enjoyed having him there also.



Aunt Bonnie took us into the Saxon Memorial one day, and the kids enjoyed seeing some of the cabins. We cut the visit short due to a lunch at Dip & Deli (a favorite place for the kids).