A Morning at the Park

With Daddy gone Mommy tries to think of anything to make the day go by faster....today it happened to be yardsale-ing=) The kids and I drove into town and hit some big bargains. We spent a total of $2.10 and got some real finds. I'll do another post soon to show you some of the goodies but here's a hint - the kids are going to model them! I did buy 2 suitcases for 25 cents each. After that I dropped the kids off at the park so I could run some errands uninterrupted and they could let off some steam.
Here they are - all five of my kiddos!

Logan and Alana ended up matching today so they were especially cute=)Another weird Logan face -Jesse had fun playing but I think his highlight might have been when Uncle Chad stopped by=)I think the older 2 enjoy it just as much - they get especially goofy if there are no other kids around.

Nothing like the swings!

This evening we'll all go to a birthday party, tomorrow we'll be busy with church, Monday I have a list of errands to run in town for Matthew, then it will be Tuesday....and so the days will go by=) Hopefully very quickly!

Safe Travels

This day couldn't have come to a better end! Just a bit ago Matthew called=) I wasn't sure when and if I'd be able to hear from him but, PTL, the missionaries gave him their phone to use and we talked for a little bit -YAY. They had no trouble whatsoever with any of their flights or with customs. When they arrived they were given a tour and an idea of the projects they would have to work on. They will be working at a camp belonging to Gospel Mission of South America that is located in Paysandu, Uruguay. The camp is used often throughout the year for youth retreats, pastor conventions, missionary conferences, etc. I'm not sure of all the team will be doing but I've heard everything from painting to concrete work. Dan Vallette is the missionary on site and they will also participate in his church during the time they are there. Pray that while they are there they will be a blessing to both the nationals and just as much to the missionaries. Then, when they return, you can pray that they will have been changed and that this trip will have made an impact in their lives, Lord willing even to the point of returning to the field as missionaries themselves - that is NTI's goal!

Today is weird day. Right now I'm supposed to be a few hours from Omaha, NE getting ready to spend the night at some friends house as we make our way down to Georgia for 2 weeks. The original plan was for me to head south with the kids to my parents house because Matthew was going to be headed to Uruguay with a team for that time and I didn't really want to be alone....well, he's still gone but we're not so....I'm alone=(
For a number of different reasons we made the decision to just stay here and stick it out until he comes home on June 13th. My parents were very understanding and I've shed my tears so I hoped to be over it...but reality hit today when I realized Matthew was gone and it was going to be a loooong time before he came home to me.
We've done this sort of thing before and since starting Nehemiah Teams International it has become at least a yearly event and probably will grow to be even more often. The mission is small and has two faithful supporters so we can't exactly all tag along with him when he has to go. Please pray for that area, though. We believe this mission is a God-given desire of Matthew's and something that he loves doing - but we want to be able to be more involved as a family. This fall there is a construction need that would be best handled for an extended period of time from the field - to do so we would all need to be able to go. Pray with us that this works out so that we can enjoy being an active part of NTI together and not just letting go of Daddy again=)
I hope to have updates on the team and how things are going but it will depend on what they have down there for communication. The official report as of right now is that Matthew and the 5 other team members are at the airport in Denver preparing for their 3:05 pm departure. Hopefully it will be on time since they only have 38 minutes in Atlanta to make the connection which head to Buenos Aires, Argentina and on to Montevideo, Uruguay.

This is my boy

Boys like the dirt - I know and accept that fact. But when a boy becomes one with the dirt, when a boy is never without dirt, when a boy gravitates to the dirt like ducks to water, when a boy spends more time dirty that clean....it becomes difficult for me. You see I have such a boy - I have three boys, but I have one die-hard fan-of-the-dirt boy. He is quite often told to strip, standing outside on the back deck, down to nothing but his 'skivvies' (as Daddy calls them). If we sat down for a meal of nothing but white rice he would finish dirty. I have lost track of the times I have found him in a mess. Yesterday was at the top of the dirty list, first I found him making mud and painting himself with it. I stopped him at his elbows. Then, and this one I caught on film, I spied him SITTING almost fully immersed in a mud puddle. Please note, not just standing and splashing as one would expect from a boy child - but sitting and reaching down into the slimy bottom of the mud hole and scooping up as handfuls as big as he could. This is my boy....I love you, Logan, with all of the mother's love I can possibly hold in my heart I love you!

New Bikes!!

Another free gift from Jay, who I mentioned in the last post, were four bikes that had been outgrown by his two boys. Well, he couldn't have bestowed them on two more willing recipients than Zach and Logan. Sufficed to say that since we got them on Friday afternoon it was hardly a 12 hour period before Logan learned to ride a bike without training wheels for the first time! Zach could only handle regular riding for a little while before he had to pull out whatever he could find out of Daddy's garage and get going on some jumps and any other stunts he could think of!

New bikes + boys = happy boys

Boys + staying busy = happy Mom

First Haircuts =(

My baby no longer has curls! Yep, on Friday morning I took Jesse in for a haircut and what used to be long and a bit curly is now short and straight. Mind you, I'm not a fan of guys with long hair...but these were my baby's 'goldy locks'! Anyway, he's still as cute as a button and he also behaved VERY well in the chair, one never does know how that will go=)

PS - Thank you, Jay, for the keepsake box of curls and the free first haircut!

Mighty Hunters

In the past week or so we've had some interesting 'hunts' take place. While out with Daddy target shooting, Zachery shot his first rabbit - his first anything! He definitely had a proud moment and brought the trophy home to show off. He also skinned it and saved the feet!

Take a close look at Zach's face - you don't often see a smile that big with that much sparkle=)

And the most recent one is the first of probably many to come this summer. Matthew caught a snake. Thank the Lord that somehow or other Matthew is usually home when we come across one because I have no desire to deal with them! Anyway, we usually catch a dozen or so each year and this is the first one - also, it's a different kind than the usual garter snakes we have. It is 'harmless and docile' but, thankfully, dead just the same! I hate each and every kind no matter how 'docile' they are, I'm just wondering how long before we find our first rattler....you'll know when we do because you'll probably hear me!

It was long!

Can you spot it?

Track and Field Day

Today was a different kind of day for our family. A Christian school/home school track and field meet was held on a college campus up in Rapid City for kids from Kindergarten to 8th grade. We registered for it a month ago and thought we could make it an event for the whole family. Things changed once the actual day rolled around and it ended up that I took up Zach and Logan while everyone else stayed home. Matthew worked for a bit in the a.m. and then came home, in the meantime Monica babysat the youngest two who have been sick for a few days. Not sure whose day was longer - hers or mine! I'm thankful she could stay since Alana and Jesse would have been miserable. The boys competed in 4 events each and we got there at 8 and didn't leave until after 3p.m. Let me just say there was a LOT of waiting involved. It was a pretty fun day for the boys, though. The drawback was the hot sun and the bleacher seats=) But I got some pictures and thought I'd show you their athletic spirit in action!

As I mentioned we did a lot of sitting and waiting - in the bleachers,

and on the field.

I even got bored and did some experimenting with my camera!

But when you have about 500 people you just have to learn to wait your turn!

In the afternoon things started to go a bit quicker, the boys had their field events in the morning and their track events in the afternoon. Zach did some stretching before his 400 meter run.

Here's Logan winding up for what turned out to be third place in the softball throw.

Zach on the starting line...

Logan holding a ribbon...

Both boys ran in the final event of the day - a four man relay race, Zach helped his team place second. I caught the baton hand-off!

The boys did well both in being patient and in having a good attitude - first place winners if you ask me!

New Picture

The new picture at the top of the blog is one I took on a camping trip two summers ago. It's probably not much more than an hour from our home up in the Black Hills on a road called Needles Highway. These kinds of rock formations are named so because from a distance they appear to be a bunch of needles stuck together - it's quite beautiful. Not sure if I like the looks of it, I can never get things layed out just like I want them to be but we'll see if it grows on me. Just for fun I'm including some more pictures from that trip that was almost two years ago - time flies when you're having fun=)