Friday, June 1, 2012

Memorial Weekend 2012 as told through pictures

A typical summer weekend, at the lake house with my family:)

Sometimes, our bed is in the basement where no one else is sleeping, so falling asleep on Papa is the next best thing. 

Look at my cute hubby. He is so ready for another baby:) 


Nothing is as much fun as playing with a ball and Aunt J!


Our baby Rae, rolling over

Uh oh. Caleb is teaching her to roll over. I am not sure if he is ready to be a big brother yet. 

Captain Caleb reporting for duty. 


Me: Caleb, tell Aunt Jenna a joke. 

 Caleb: JOKE! HAHAHAHA. 
Obviously it was funny, they both laughed. 


Jalissa scoping out the water, seeing if she is brave enough to ski. She was!

Getting the ski ropes ready. 

Here she goes!


Look at that face of determination. First time skiing ladies and gentleman!

She's up!


Beach babe. 

I can't get over the pink! I LOVE IT. 







Bonfire and smores. Or "fire treats" as Caleb calls them. 

I am actually in the picture. See, I was there! 

He loves baseball, mostly because Aunt Jalissa plays softball. 

Fahj, be careful. This is your third fall of the night. I know I can't speak, because I took a dive too, but at least I didn't take three! 


True love= when your mother laughs at you when you fall out of a chair. 

Opps. I think Aunt J was taking a nap on the deck. Sorry J. No sleeping for Caleb. 

Raegan fell asleep on the deck too. 



I can outside and saw this. Love. 
Great grandma singing "Pop goes the weasel" to her great grandson. 

Thursday, May 31, 2012

A Whole Lotta New

As we move into the summer months, I am quickly reminded about how much "new" we have going on.

Speaking of NEW, how do you like the NEW blog? I think I love it. I might be joining yellow fan club a little late in the game, but I still love it.

Our foster care licence is officially open. What does that mean? Simple answer: We could receive a placement at any moment now. Any time. We will be experiencing a whole lot of NEW in our family once we receive a placement. There will be lots of transition, and we are not sure if we will have kids in and out of our house, or if we will be placed with a preadoptive infant. Either way, a lot of transition, more chaos and less sleep (I am guessing:).

Potty training is NEW to us. We have introduced the potty to Caleb, he has "tried" but I haven't been intentional about it. I didn't want to put the time and energy into potty training, when I knew that I would be traveling for most of May. After next week, life won't slow down by any means, but I will at least be at home with somewhat of a consistent schedule. Looking froward to saving money on not buying diapers, but sad that it means I now longer have a baby.

A few weeks ago, I did a NEW type of photography shoot. It was a 1940's era theme. I can't say much more until the photos are revealed, but I love to expand my photography skills.

I have a NEW, well, NEW to me car. I have never ever in my life had a NEW car before. I was reminded this weekend about all of my cars that I have had. My favorite--"Watt Pond." It was a teal Cutlass Supreme, the windows did not go up or down, there was no air or heat, and mostly no radio, when it rained, water came in the inside of the car- so much so that I had extra towels in the car, and often had plastic bags for people to sit on. My favorite feature about "Watt Pond," and its name sake---because of all the water in the bottom of the car. When you would get into the car, you had to roll up your pants, and make sure you had sandals on...you would get wet. Sorry about that tangent--all this to say, I LOVE my NEW to me car.

I also have a NEW laptop. Wow, my honey has been spoiling me lately. Traveling for work is much easier when all of the documents I need are on my laptop. It also saves printing, so I don't have to print every document I might need while on a trip.

In the summer months, I will be raising an extra $15,000 in NEW support so I can continue the work here at Albion.

Speaking of working, I will be entering a NEW stage of "work life" next year. I am planning to work 30-40 hours instead of 20. I  C A N N O T wait. God has been preparing this for a while and I finally get to see it come to fruition.

Last year, we tore down our deck. We didn't have the money to do anything then, but we saved and planned and now we have a NEW patio. I love it. I often go out on the patio and read and journal. I had a Bible study prep meeting with students out there. Caleb can go out and play and I can watch him or join him.  It has been a blessing.

I have been trying to garden. This is so NEW to me, it is ridiculous. There is little that I enjoy about gardening, except for the end result. I hate planting....I hate getting dirty, I hate not knowing what I am doing, I hate that my body aches afterwards, and I hate that I just need to do again next year. But my naked patio is thanking me for the hard work.

We did something NEW at the lake this past weekend. And by we, I mean my sister, Jalissa. She learned how to water ski. It is possible that I may try it this summer. I am not really a fan of face planting in the water, but it still looks fun.

I have a lot of NEW reading to do, on my summer reading list. What are you reading this summer?

I am planning on learning NEW things photography wise this summer and continue to build our business.

This is NEW...we have a college student living with us this summer. Actually, it is not really that NEW. It is rare that we don't have someone at our house at any given time, but thought I would still mention it:)

What NEW things have you been up to?

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Sometimes and Always

Sometimes: I roll my eyes and think that my favorite show has gone too far. 
Always: I continue to watch it. 

Sometimes: I have hope that mornings will go smooth in our house. 
Always: I am reminded by my two year old, that like his mumma, mornings are not his thing. 

Sometimes: I update my blog with pictures. 
Always: Take tons of pictures of day to day life and they never are seen. 


Sometimes: I go for a walk/jog with my dog 
Always: I wish I was a runner and ran miles everyday 

Sometimes: I wake up early 
Always: It's hard to get out of bed, but I am so glad that I did!


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A Mother's Day First

In almost 8 years, I have not spent time with family on Mother's Day. It started when I was in college and went off to Chapter Focus Week with my InterVarsity Chapter. It would ALWAYS fall on the weekend of mother's day. 

And then I joined staff with InterVarsity. Over the years, I have put in 1-3 weeks a summer of Chapter Focus Week and every single one has been over Mother's Day weekend. 

But not this year. Just the way the calendar fell:) 

Instead, Chapter Focus Week ended the Friday before Mothers Day. My mother's Day gift was a hotel room, all by myself to recover from said week. Let me tell you, working with college students is not for the faint of heart. (I think I saw this on facebook from a colleague, so I am going to steal it.) Jon's parents still had Caleb (they watched him while I was gone), so we had to make the trip 2 hours east to pick up my baby. 

And I was able to see my little sister celebrate her first Mother's Day. 



While everyone was together, we had an impromptu photo shoot. I shutter at this picture. (Notice...open garage and car.Now that you see it, you can' take your eyes of it, can you?) 
We had to get a picture of mom and her girls. 

Time for Dad to join the picture. 

Our family tree is growing. Adding Raegan and Caleb to the mix. 

Sisters and their babies. (Even though Caleb looks like he is my size, I assure you, he is and forever will be my baby Cay-ub. 

My youngest sister, Jalissa with her niece and nephew. 
I think we have some hillbilly kids. Both with no shoes and Rae's diaper hanging out of her dress. Where are the parents? 

All of the sisters together. 
I
Happy Mother's Day!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

He knew what I needed

He knew that I needed some time with my little man playing outside today. 

He knew that I was going to laugh all day when Caleb came up to me and said, "So what is that mumma?" (per usual). I replied, "It's the engine to your lawn mower." His response. "Yes! Good job mumma." As if he knows all that there is to know about lawn mower engines, and I was just given an uknown quiz. 

He knew that I had a really bad headache, premigraine, and all I wanted to do was to go to bed early. 

He knew that I also would have loved a quiet night down stairs, laying on the couch watching Grey's Anatomy while the boys were fast asleep. 

He knew that it would he would be storming outside, so much so that we would lose power. 

He knew that I needed to prep for the Mark track at Chapter Focus Week. 
 He knew I needed to be in the word. 

He knew I needed to be refreshed by the word. 

He knew I needed some Jesus tonight. 

He knew it would take some drastic measures, because I have been avoiding Him lately. 
He knew that I take a break from my study time to take pictures, edit photos and write a blog post, and yet He still waits for me to go back into His presence. 

He knew. 


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