Rainy Day...

The Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend was a rainy one. We had so much rain and it all came down so hard that pretty much everything flooded. Now, I love rain and storms, and it had been a long time since I'd seen rain like that! It was amazing!!!
What better to do on a rainy day though, (or any other day for that matter) than eat ice cream!! :)

Then after the rain stopped, Rachel, Jared and I all went to check out the puddles :)
There were some deep ones!! And the frogs and snakes were all out inspecting them too :/

Ahhh, good times.

Thursday Night Escapade...

Um, this one's a little hard to explain...

But I'm going to try.

Dearest little blog-following family...

Chucky the Truck is no more.

The last Thursday night of May, Rachel and I were on our way home from Pegasus and to really make an odd somewhat long story short... The loose gravel and really deep pothole and extremely light truck did not make a good combination and this was the outcome...Rachel and I were so blessed! You can sort of tell from the pictures

but really not even begin to see all the ways we were so protected from so many things that could have been much much much worse. We were very close to water, we hit the tree at just the right spot so I didn't get crushed, just the truck body. We didn't explode... No major injuries whatsoever. Just a very few little cuts and some bruises!
You are the privileged few who actually get to see pictures, and actually we didn't really even tell many people... So, take a minute and thank God for sparing Rach and I.
That was a close one...

Lil' Friends Growing Up...

Okay, I'll start this post off apologizing for the bad quality of these pictures.Sorry!!! But anyway, two weeks ago I got invited to the Faith Christian School's Preschool and Kindergarten graduation to see my little friend Joy graduate! Her and her class of five other girls looked soooo cute! :)Really, the only word I can think of to describe the night would be ADORABLE! They each got their little caps and gowns and diploma's... :) Great job Joy, graduating from Kindergarten! I hope 1st Grade treats you well!

Fun @ The Campground

A few weekends ago we were down at Mendota Hills in the evening

and (I think it was Wolfgang) had the great idea to go up to the store and

visit/have ice cream, and try out the new bikes! :D

The campground just bought two new bikes that they are going to be renting

out during the summer. They are different, but fun!

Here's my Mom :)And Crystal...
And Rachel, giving her 'Wicked Witch of the West' look... :D

And Wolfgang and Dad.I thought this sign was fitting for our evening activities!

Mourey and Marge were there too, but I didn't get any pictures of them that turned out, so you will just have to believe me! And, poor Lauren didn't get to be there :( :( She was sick and had to stay home that weekend. We really really missed her and felt so sad that she couldn't be there :(

Don't be sick again Lauren!!! ;)

Happiness

"The search for happiness is unlike any other search, for we search last

in the likeliest places." ~Robert Brault~ "All of us have had the experience of sudden joy that came when nothing in the world

had forewarned us of its coming - a joy so thrilling that if it were born of misery we

remembered even the misery with tenderness." ~Antione de Saint-Exupery~
"A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without

making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it

sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without

it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought,

begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until

it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one

of yours, as no one needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give."

~Author Unknown~ "On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular

cause to be happy except that they are so." ~William R. Inge~"Happiness always looks small when you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you

learn at once how big and precious it is." ~Maxim Gorky~

(Sorry, I laughed because this one was with Rach holding coffee...) :D

"Every now and then,

when the world sits just right,

a gentle breath of heaven

fills my soul with delight."

~Hazelmarie 'Mattie' Elliot ~"Cheerfulness is what greases the axles of the world. Don't go through life creaking.

~H. W. Byles~

I'm Trying!

Well, I really am trying to blog!!
I've got two posts that I could do, but the computer won't upload the photos
so I'll just have to wait to post until the internet is better :(
But hey, it all works out. My family is watching "The Wizard of Oz" so I guess
I'll just go join them... I think I've only seen in once and that was a really long
time ago so it should be kind of like new :D

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Mother's Day :)

Well, you should all be proud. Rachel and I decided to take it upon ourselves

to put together the swing that we got Mom for Mother's Day!

Mom had been hinting around for a while that she wanted one, and so

us four kids finally got her one. Nothing like waiting until the last minute

though, we didn't go and get it until Saturday afternoon and so after Mom went

to be that night, Rachel and I snuck out to the garage and started working on it!Lets just say that it was a little more involved than we first expected it was.
And at first I thought "Oh, it will be easy. There are directions"
But no, they were very vague mini-instructions that didn't explain much :/

But hey, how hard can it be??Okay, really. It took us a half hour to figure out which set of legs was supposed

to go in front and which was supposed to go in back.

None of the stupid parts were even labeled!!! Grrrrr.

But finally we figured it out, and then the rest of set up went much better!

We only ran in to a few more problems...

But after a few more slight set-backs we got the majority of it

put together and the rest was childs play :) Or something like that...

(Slightly crazed laugh) We're done, we're finally done!!!

:) Switchfoot kept us good company for the time it took us.

And then the next morning we unloaded Crystal's trunk which had all the rest

of our little Mother's day surprises in it.

There you are, the finished product!

And Rach and I are about 2 hrs. wiser :D

Graduation Day...

Last Saturday, my Dad walked in the graduation ceremony at

Lincoln Christian University. He had been doing classes there for

a little over a year and got his B.A. in General Ministry.

So us 5, Aunt Pam, Uncle Ron, and Jared all packed up and left good 'ol Eldena at 6 a.m. Moannnn...
We got there 2 hours before the ceremony so Dad could pick up his tassel and get pictures taken with all the other students. Everybody walking down. Here's Dad.

The choir sang a few songs and then the official ceremony started.Standing in line waiting to go up to receive his diploma.
Gettin' the diploma. He graduated 'with high honors'. :)

Then afterwards, there was a little luncheon for the students and their guests.
Aunt Pam, Dad, and Uncle Ron.
Jared, Dad and Uncle Ron. :)
Him and his Diploma...
Dad and Mom with one of Dad's teachers.
Dad and another teacher.

And all of us :) Congratulations Dad! :) Good job!

Hello Everyone!

Hey lil' blog following!
I'm trying to keep consistent with posting so that I don't get out
of practice... So even though I don't have any pictures or anything I'm
still posting! I hope it doesn't bore you too much.

Today we (Crystal, Rach, and I) went Mothers Day shopping... :D
I can't tell you what we got, because it's still a secret since Mom hasn't
seen what we have in store for her tomorrow... (Muahahaha!)
I'm pretty sure she's got a pretty good clue as to what we got her, (mainly because
I asked her what she wanted and told her to let us know by Friday, and then she
only told me 3 things...) But hey!

Then after we got home I made supper! Chicken Fajitas! :D I loooove them...
And so now as we wait for Dad to get home so we can eat I'm blogging to you :)
And I'm sort of watching Mom, she's playing the Wii with Rachel and is SUPER
competitive. It is sooo funny to hear some of the sounds coming from the living room!

Well all, that's about it...
Oh, I bought a book today... Little Women. I saw it when we stopped at this garage sale
and it was brand new and a great cloth hardback for only $2!! :D

So anyway, I have nothing more to post...
I just thought I'd try to stay in practice with being faithful to post more frequently.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Shall We Dance??

Devyn (my niece) has now been living with Josh for 3 months.

Well, while Josh is at work, Devyn comes and stays at our house.

We come up with some of the craziest stuff to do, and I love hearing about

the stuff she comes up with and all the stuff she says is sometimes so funny!

It can sometimes be exhausting, because although I'm 19 and young

and supposed to be full of energy, Devyn is 4 and 4 yr. olds have wayyyy more

energy than their aunts :P
Well, one of the things she came up with for us to do was dance. She saw my boots
and Rachel's shoes out on the mat on the porch, but she looked at them and said,
"Hey, we should dance! And wear our dancing shoes!!" A close up of our 'Dancing Shoes!!'

*Oh, and in case anybody was wondering from the pictures, no,

Devyn did not wet herself, she spilled her juice on herself at breakfast

and it hadn't dried yet.*

Hangin' Out

The first Saturday in April (yes it has been that long since I've blogged),

found us out at Mendota Hills for a cleaning/workday. For some reason

they guys decided that it was us girls' jobs to do the gross cleaning of

the bathrooms and some of the campers... But since there were 3 of us

and we ended up roping Jared in with us so that made 4 it was fun because

like the title says, we just got to hang out.
:D Ready for a big day.

It was nice though because all of the campers had been cleaned last fall so we

were mostly just freshening them up. In a few of them, mice had made some

not so friendly visits over the winter, but it wasn't to bad.And we all took different jobs so it didn't take too long.

Annnd it made the time go much quicker too since Crystal's phone

had a bunch of music downloaded onto it.

And Crystal enjoyed showing off her new 'ride' also. She had just signed the

papers for it two days before...

And last but not least, we got to clean the bathrooms... Oh yay...

So many chemicals, so little space and venhilation...

But let me tell you, I can't even begin to guess how many brain cells were killed

in those 3 hours it took to clean the rooms thoroughly.

Yes, thoroughly. We even mopped the ceilings! :D

Just kidding, only for the pictures.

And it always feels great to see all the hard work done and see how nice it looks. :)