That lake trip.

I mentioned a lake trip a while back and said I'd tell you about it then promptly forgot. Lucky for you I'm narcisisstic enough to go back and read my own blogs periodically.

July 8th we took a youth group trip to Lake Grapevine. We rented a double decker "party barge". It had a slide off the back, a grill, a bathroom, tables, chairs, stereo.....

Here's Todd sliding.















Josiah sliding.
















Todd using his photojournalism skills to document the upper deck and it's goings on. (the kids were jumping off the upper deck into the lake).



















This is the lower deck...and what's that? Could it be the pontoon boat that had to come steer us out onto the lake because the rudder was broken?
Maybe.
Too bad they didn't fix the grill too.
















Despite the glitches, the party barge was a total blast. I highly recommend it.

Internet Nonsense

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Pardon me.

You'll have to pardon my amusement at my children's political incorrectness. The boys found their rubber band guns this morning. Josiah was so proud. He was waving his around and loudly proclaiming, "We're coppers, Mom!"

Within minutes they had set up a "shooting range" in the living room. Don't worry, they're not just shooting at Bob the Builder, they ended up with a large variety of toys.

It makes me smile. Not the "I'm so proud!" smile of a redneck woman who gets a tear in her eye when her baby learns to shoot but the "That is hilarious!" smile of a woman who knows how mortified all her "politically correct" friends would be.

It's Hot.

Seriously hot. Seriously, extremely hot. Like the kind of hot that explodes a can of 7Up in your swim bag while you're swimming at the Keller Pointe with your family.
ug.

The missing photos

Here are some of the photos intended for the previous blog.


Hunter at his "birthday party" at Grandma's house.

















Josiah's special noodles.





















Todd defending the youth group kids from a killer gator.

Things I'm Proud Of

This blog is meant to contain photos. Blogger is apparently experiencing technical difficulties with photo uploading. I waited to post since they were officially "down" yesterday but I still can't upload photos and am tired of waiting. I will post this photo-less blog and try to post it's photos via Picasa in a separate blog.

Here goes:

In an effort to not be so boring, I've decided to try to post something interesting. The fact that it's only interesting to me probably makes it just that much more boring but hey, it is MY blog after all.

Here are a few things I've been proud of here lately:

1. Hunter.
Hunter has been making good decisions lately when I least expected it. He even called me from a friend's house to ask if he should get in the pool with his buddies even though both parents were gone. (The answer was obvious, but he needed reinforcement and he knew it.) I was so proud I almost busted.


2. Todd.
Todd's done some great stuff with the youth group this summer and he's done it with great aplomb. He has been trying his best to always have a good attitude, which is tricky your third week away from home, on very little sleep, with a large group of teens and pre-teens. I've had more help than usual this summer since we're here near family but I also miss him more than usual this year while he's gone.


3. My mad book-editing skills.
As most of you know, we are on this never-ending saga of book editing with Gailyn VanRheenen. It is a skill I did not have when I volunteered and I'm afraid that I've been slow in learning it. If, however, anyone is ever unwise enough to ask me to do this again sometime...I'm all over it! It should only take 3 weeks instead of 6 months next time. We're actually almost done now!




I'll tell you how you can buy it when it finally does get published but I must warn you, if you're not a "missionary type" you won't appreciate it. If you are, it's pretty stinkin' cool!


4. The return of my long-lost cooking muse.
I used to love cooking. Really love it. For some time now I've been dreading it at every meal. I guess it's because I can never make everyone happy....or, sometimes, anyone happy. I know that this is not necessary. Kids will eat what you fix if there's no other choice. However, it's nice to have your food appreciated when you fix it. Josiah's dietary restrictions also make cooking a real thinking excercise and that tends to wear on me.
Lately I've ventured out a bit, however. It helps to get some good ingredients....like Josiah-safe mayonaise. Here's what I made for him tonight:



It's corn noodles and sauted chicken with "vegan-aise" and Italian dressing....and it tastes fantastic, if I do say so myself. Just FYI, mayo and Italian makes-a one-a tasty sauce-a.




5. My brave venturing.
I've been driving up a storm this summer...mostly without Todd. This may seem minor, but I really don't enjoy driving, especially through the Metroplex. I'm intimidated by my lack of anything resembling a sense of direction. I am overcoming this! (the compass in my van helps) I'm not saying I want to become a bus driver or anything, but not being afraid to leave the house is definitely freeing!

I think it's cool how thinking of things to be thankful for/proud of opens up a floodgate of thankfulness. The more I write about, the more I think of to be thankful for. I must say that it's good to feel good about myself amd my family. I think I was depressed there for a little while. I definitely feel better now. I'm thankful for that most of all.

It's hard to shoot a photo while you're driving.

I just couldn't resist, though. It's so fun, but somehow this photo doesn't look like Josiah to me......except for the ever-present Mario costume. 

Happy Birthday Hunter!!!!

It's good to include the link, eh?

http://picasaweb.google.com/mamateresa

Sorry 'bout that.

Web Albums

I posted a few more albums at my Picasa site. There are photos of the lake trip yesterday, the Snyder trip Tuesday and Ashley's birthday last Saturday.

I'll try to blog about the lake trip later on. This afternoon we're headed to my parents' to celebrate Hunter's birthday....which is Tuesday! 11. no comment.

Fourth of July

Can you tell I'm trying to catch up on my blogging?


For the Fourth, Todd's sister and I packed all 6 of our kids and my Chihuahua up in our van and headed to West Texas to see our family. I didn't wait on Todd for this because his step-mom begins radiation and chemo tomorrow and we really needed to get out there before it all got rolling. The doctors are anticipating a rough time of it....they even installed a feeding tube before hand. Yikes. She'll be needing lots of prayers to get through this.

Meanwhile, we packed up all 6 kids and the dog and headed out. It took about 2 hours longer than it should have to get there but we all survived the trip. Being there was so worth it. We had a really nice visit with the family and got to see some fun fireworks....even in Snyder! We were worried about Josiah because of the noise so earlier in the day we had gotten out PaPa Les' ear plugs and head phones to help. He used them while they were popping fire crackers at the house and wore them right up until the fireworks started at which point he whipped them off and ran in circles and jumped up and down and cheered and basically had a total blast (pun intended).

The trip home was even more exciting than the trip out. The kids were all.......o.k., MY kids were extra cranky and we had an extra dog since Colby had gotten his long awaited puppy from his grandparents. It also rained on us and we missed the exit for McDonalds in Abilene. Did you know that there is NO McDonalds between Abilene and Eastland?

But, once again, we all survived the trip and Hunter's already asking when we can get all the cousins together again. I'm so thankful that I enjoy Todd's family so much. How boring life would be without them.



Here's PaPa Les and Grangy Jan cookin' supper Tuesday. (Yes, I meant "Grangy")
















Erin draws a picture for her Great-Grandma Jean.




















The fam' at the park waiting for the show. It sounds funny when you try to explain who everyone is......step-sister-in-law?, step-neices?.....whatever! They're all family!













We had a great time. Hope you did too.

Some things in life.....

....really require a video camera. One of those things is an "American Idol" birthday party for your niece at which all your relatives sing karaoke. Unfortunately, I did not have one with me.

One of the best parts was Alicia "singing". She really hammed it up.






















The kids really "appreciated" it.














The absolute best, however, was Josiah "doing the Mario". He sang the music from the game and jumped around like Mario, making all the noises of going down tubes, getting a power star and everything. He make it all the way to the final round, but seeing as his competition was the birthday girl........ :-)