Summer Happenings take 3

Well so I turned 30 on July 1st. It was quite a day. Actually, it was incredible...
The day started with a cup of coffee under my nose. RD woke me up and said "You have 25 min. to get showered and ready." So I quickly got dressed. One of my friends (Erin McMillan) showed up at my house before 8 AM. She put me in her car and drove me down the street to Cafe Scramblers for breakfast. When we walked in, my mom, sister, sister-in-law and another great friend were sitting at a table to surprise me. We had a great breakfast together!

Erin then drove me down the street to Kohls where RD and my girls were waiting for me in the parking lot. We all browsed around in there awhile and I got to do a little shopping. Fun for me of course! :)

RD took the girls home and said he would see me back at the ranch. Well, of course that didn't happen. I NEVER knew where Erin was taking me or what was next but we didn't head to my house. We drove pretty much all over town, just chit chatting. We hit up a cemetary and just enjoyed talking for a bit. We ended up in downtown Toledo where we pulled into a parking lot I didn't recognize. She told me to get out of the car and go into the building. (yeah, kind of freaky! Although I figured out it was Grumpys, a super yummy hot spot place to eat downtown Toledo). When I went, none other than Christy Mitchell popped out from behind a menu and said "you can sit here!!!" I seriously screamed. I NEVER thought Christy would drive from Stow, OH and surprise me for my birthday, but apparantly her and my hubby made arrangements. Such a blessing. Such a highlight of this great day. We had a fabulous lunch together, great talks, etc. We walked through Wildwood park for an hour when we were done. Awesome time together.

I then had about an hour and a half at home with NO ONE there but me and the girls. We took a walk which was great. Erin McMillan then showed back up, I thought just to visit for awhile because we were supposedly headed to my brother and sister-in-law's house for a family birthday dinner. When RD got home from work he told me he decided to do something else. So we hopped in the car (Erin stayed and babysat my girls) and headed out to a nice dinner. He took me to Ciao. Of course there was a surprise there, too. Our great friends Mike and Emily Jones were sitting there waiting for us. So the 4 of us dined and had a great dinner together!! (that picture is coming soon).

We headed back to our house after dinner to put the kids to bed. Well....

I was a bit surprised YET AGAIN that like 20 or more people were screaming at me when I walked in my back door. They seriously scared the snot out of me. Friends from church, small group...and my whole family. SO SPECIAL!

Once everyone had a slice or two of cake, a huge book was given to me. Erin McMillan had put together this book for me...her and RD had contacted all sorts of people in my life and asked them to write me a note or something about our friendship, or create a page of some sort to put in it. I have NEVER been given anything like this before. It is something I will keep forever. Erin made it into a beautiful scrap book type thing and it was beyond amazing.

Of course the night didn't end there. At 9:45 pm the few girls that were left after the cake and ice cream festivities took me out to the Docks downtown Toledo where we all enjoyed a martini at the Navy Bistro. What a super fun way to end the night. Loved it. Loved the day. Felt so incredibly special and loved. It was awesome...can't even explain it!

Way to go you two...you made the day amazing. BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER.

4th of July Weekend...

El went out on the boat with us (we went to the lake)...she stayed up till after 11 that night. I think we set a record for her bedtime. But she truly LOVED the entire display.

Fun times at the lake!!

Deep questions from my 4 year old

(Summer Happenings, take 3 will be posted soon. My hubby has the computer where the pictures are stored and so they are not all loaded yet...maybe tonight?!)

Anyways, El and I were just watching PBS kids. On a commercial they showed someone going on a rocket ship to outer space. Here is what my daughter asked me. I think somehow I have cursed her with a mind that thinks too much about this stuff cause I have ALWAYS been a question asker. But I have not MADE El think about these things?!

El: "So mommy, will we take a rocket ship to God?"
Me: "No El, we won't do that."
El: "Then how do we get up to God?"
Me: "Good question El. God will come and get US."
El: "So once we're up with God in heaven, how long will we be died (meant to say dead) with him?"
Me: "Well peanut, forever. We will be up in Heaven with God forever. But we'll be alive when we're there and it won't be sad at all."
El: "Will we be able to walk and run?"
Me: "We sure will."
El: "So someday we will die and go to heaven? And that means we will be healed up there right? Or do I not know what I'm talking about?"
Me: "Yes El that is exactly right, we will be healed up there. We will be with God and with each other. And that is a great thing, I love that you are asking questions, even if mommy can't answer them all very well."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I mean for real?!

Summer Happenings Take 2

We took a few days at the end of June and headed to Southern Ohio. Well not too Southern...we started out visiting Mimi in Columbus. We enjoyed some of her fantastic Italian cooking, some fun swimming time in her condo's pool, GRAETERS ice cream (of course), and then our time with Mimi was done.But it sure was great to be together. She is doing ok as far as her health is concerned. Still no significant growth in her cancer, but she is tired and sleeping poorly. Hanging in there, keeping positive, and praying a lot.

From there we headed to Springfield to see Grandpa Snowman and his family. El enjoyed a ride on Grandpa's lawn mower, RD enjoyed 19 holes of golf, and we all enjoyed a nice meal out together.

Just 10 min. from their house was Echo Ridge Farm...a family's farm that is not only beautiful and serene, but the family who lives there (Kyle and Katrine Koehler and their 5 kids) make it the most welcoming place ever. We had an absolute blast. Yes...El rode a horse, Em carried kittens around, we all ate meals together at a table that sat all 11 of us, and yes we also certainly felt our time together was too short. Kyle was RD's Young Life leader back in the early 90s and God has allowed them to be in touch again in the past several years. Being able to talk with them and watch them interact with their 5 children was absolutley incredible.

Summer happenings Take 1

I have been horrible at blogging. I don't think many people even read this blog, it's more for me to look back on later. SOOOO I feel the need to blog and catch up on what's been going on this summer. Bottom line, it's been great. I love being a teacher and having the summers off. I love being a wife and mom. I love that my girls are El and Em...they are precious, they make me laugh like crazy.

Some funny things that Em has been saying lately:

*Mommy, See?!!! (she always want to show me what she's doing or seeing, even if it's literally nothing at all)
*HAAAAAAY (in the most high pitched silly drama queen voice ever)
*Noooo WAAAAY, Ohhhhh goooosh
*(craziest of all....) not knowing what she's saying every now and then, she sounds like Eddie Murphy with a dirty mouth. She is still working on those consonants and vowels!

Some things keeping El busy this summer:
*Swim lessons at the JCC---she has no fear of the water, which kind of scares me
*She loves to ride the jet skis at the lake and always wants to swim at the sand bar
*She rides her bike at least 2 times a day...she is nonstop. Sadly, she had her first hard fall in *June---got a boo boo on her knee pretty bad
*El got to ride her own horse when we went to visit some friends. It was for like an hour--Rd and I and El took these horses out and it was amazing. El had a little help steering the horse by our friend who was on the horse in front of her Here are a few pics from a two day trip RD and I took with the Mitchells in June...