The Shack

Here's some of my pictures of The Shack. We really had a good time - despite the weather. Sunday we were able to get a few more pictures. Here's the girls - loving picture time. I wish we could have had more time on Saturday to walk around on the trails but it was just too windy and rainy out.

I love seeing these two together. Shaelyn sure does love her Uncle Duane. During this time, he had become her personal chauffeur. Every time they walked, she had to be on his shoulders.







What a beautiful place. I had never been there before. Everything was done in in the rustic look. Our rooms were beautiful and the food was delicious. I can't believe how much they feed you there. It was rough on the poor treadmill this morning. This will be a weekend that everyone will remember. 

Vacation

Although I'm sure we're all posting the same thing, I'm writing about our leaving for the Shack. Cheri and I have already chosen the toys for Shaelyn and Halle. You know, they have to have the same things and amounts so everything is equal. We are very excited to go even thought the weather will probably not be so good. I also know that I have not posted much, I'm still trying to get over this stupid cold. I'm feeling better but still am congested, so hopefully, I'll be doing better by tomorrow! Can't wait to see you all there! Thanks, Grandpa.

The Great Escape!

Last week, I come home from dropping Katelyn off to find Chelsea downstairs with a flashlight. I come in the door and they say, Nope, just Mom not a mouse. I'm somewhat confused and Chelsea tells me that Graham Cracker - her hamster - has escaped. Not a good thing with 3 cats in the house. Apparently, Katelyn broke a latch on the cage. They put a scrapbook on top to hold it down. Well, they didn't tell me that. I saw the book on top the next day and returned it to its rightful place because I didn't want to take the chance of the hamster chewing on it. Because there was nothing heavy on top, he could just push it open and run out - which is what he did. Chelsea and Kristie searched through the room and moved all of her stuffed animals away and didn't find him. So I searched throughout the night too. When we went to bed, I decided to shut her door with Nerman inside. Nerman is notorious for killing rodents. She will kill mice and deposit them at the foot of Chelsea's bed for approval. Since, we had searched the room, I thought it safe to lock Nerman in there. Around 7 in the morning, Kristie heard some scratching and saw Nerman and Sammie sitting still and staring by the wall. She woke Chelsea up to tell her that she thought the hamster was over there. He wasn't moving so Chelsea thought he was dead. After she picked him up, he moved. So back in his cage he went. Now the book is on top and I hope he learned a lesson. We keep him in there to keep him safe. Oh, the joys of having pets!

Katelyn's college visit

Katelyn went to a college visit today. I know, my little girl is growing up. I can't believe we have to think about college. She went to Kuyper last night for an overnight stay. She wasn't really too sure about this but I kind of pushed for her to try it. She really seemed to have a good time. She thought the dorms were nice. Then this morning I met her there. We met with a social work professor - that's what she wants to do. They gave us a bunch of information about it - her class course and what not. We went to the chapel service which was nice. Later, we split into groups and they toured us around. We got lunch at the cafeteria and later had an important meeting about financial aid. They are really willing to help fill out all the scholorships and financial aid paperwork which I appreciate greatly! The students all seemed very friendly and it's such a small campus - around 300 students. Every class room is in 1 building which has a covered hallway to the cafeteria and student centers. She really loved it there. She thought maybe she should check out at least 1 more college just to see if there is a big difference but we'll see. We'll see how much in scholorships she gets as this could determine if she stays on campus or not. I'm sure that this will all happen quicker than I want to think about.

Faith

Wanted to let you all know about an event that happened in my life this week. As you know, Dave has been laid off of his work the past couple weeks. Well, there has been no money come in either. I scrounged up what I had to make the house payment. After that, there really was nothing left in the checking account. Saturday night, I was getting stuff out for church the next day. I saw the budget envelopes on my dresser. I thought to myself, "well, I can't write a check this week because we don't have any" And then I was reminded that we will be taken care of and we need to have faith. So I wrote out my check. It was rather scary putting it into the collection plate on Sunday, but as I watched it go down the aisle, I prayed, "Lord, You promised you would take care of this and what we give will come back to us." Dave called his foreman at work Sunday night to see if there was anything yet and he said nothing was there. I took Shaelyn to swimming Monday morning and stopped at the bank because I had to transfer $ to my checking. I come home to find a message for Dave to call into work. I called him and told him to call me back. He didn't call right away and I must say, my faith was still wavering. Eventually he called and said he had to go into work and later told me that he had a fairly large job and could spend as many hours as he wanted on it. I literally started crying. I knew that this was an answer to prayer. Now I know that I will probably always struggle with this faith issue - especially when finances are involved but I do know that we were taken care of and this was an answer.

The hotel

Well, I've given up trying to post any pictures of our night at the hotel. This is now my 4th time trying. I'll just give you an update. When, we got there, we hung out until Katelyn could make it. We headed out to pick up some Chinese for supper. It was delicious! Then we thought the pool would be a great place to excercise it off. We swam till 7:00 after which Katelyn had to leave and go to the dance. I called Dave to find out when he would be there. He was out of town and things were not going well. So he finally made it to the hotel at 10:00. Chuck and Sue were late too and made it around 8:30. We decided that we should go for a swim that night together so the girls had a good time running from pool to hot tub. We enjoyed a great game of Catch Phrase when Dave arrived. And of course, the females pretty much took every game. We managed to make it into the pool once more in the morning after breakfast. We would have preferred to go camping but since the weather was going our way, it was nice to spend a night away from home.

Going to the hotel

Well, we were supposed to go camping this weekend but alas, the weather has ruined our plans. We were really hoping that it would be better tomorrow, but the forecast doesn't predict that. So, we are going to a hotel with Chuck and Sue instead. I've got a coupon for a cheap stay. The kids seemed to be fine with that, so maybe I'll have some pictures when we get back.

My instant comfort

I'm responding to the blog that Heather wrote about instant comfort - Here are some of my favorites :

1- Snuggling with Shaelyn in the morning when I don't want to get up - She's an instant heating pad

2- A hot cup of chocolate on a cold day - Unfortunately like today!!

3 - Watching my kids playing together

4- Singing some of my favorite songs in church

5 -Sitting by the fire during a blizzard - Can you see that I keep thinking snow?

6- Taking out my coat for a new season and finding money in the pocket

7- Petting the cats and feeling them purr

8- Holding a new baby

That's some of mine - who else has any?

The race

Chelsea sent an email to me complaining that the middle child is never in the blog so here you go. Shaelyn and her like to have races down the hall. Here they are at the starting gate. I was told that I couldn't say who usually wins the race but I think I can give a hint. If it's not a tie than the one who's under 3 feet has a tendency to pull it off. But Chelsea did have papers to deliver papers today so it wasn't quite as fair for her because she was tired.



Just a note on the side: Katelyn got her proofs today so whoever wants to see them can come on over. They turned out really good! 

Update report

Just wanted to give you all an update on the "grandma" from our church. She finally came home from the hospital on Friday. She is taking a regular chemo pill for 5 days and then I believe she is off for a month to check how things are going. Regular IV chemo would not be good for her heart. She made it to church yesterday morning. She was tired but did not get sick from the pill the previous night so all seems to be going well. They did a cat scan on her brain and did not see anything there. But then last night, Hubert informed me that their daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer last week and their insurance will not be kicking in until another month or two.
You know, sometimes it just seems like it's one thing after another. I know you all know the feeling. So I'm sure they would appreciate any prayers for their family yet.

The fight for the Computer

Well, last week, we finally got our computer set up for high speed. First, it caused some trouble to my blog so that is my excuse for not putting anything up lately. But now, it has become a fight for the computer. Shaelyn needs me to go to "pony land" with her and earn points (although it is rather fun seeing what we can do) and now Chelsea has started hers up too. Katelyn wants it for school papers. Every time I decide that I'm going to start going to the computer, I see the light on in there, and alas, someone else has taken over. Ahhhhhh! I believe I will have to set limits on everyone (besides myself) Hopefully, during the week, I should be able to get my fix in while the girls are at school. Otherwise, we're going to have to purchase another computer! Ha

Katelyn's pictures

Well, we got to preview the first of Katelyn's pictures yesterday. She said she started with around 300 and she weeded it down to 50. Now it was our turn. We had to get it down to 30 for the proofs. We didn't do too bad at first. We had it down to 35 but those last 5 were killers. There were 3 sets of similar ones. I liked one and Katelyn liked the other. We ended up keeping all those sets and eliminating some others. So you will all have to be ready to help us decide. Judy has to upload them to a developer and then we'll get the proofs. I think they turned out really good. Hopefully, you all will be able to see them too.

We bought a trailer!

We bought a trailer yesterday. Well actually, we bought it last week but had to wait to get it until Dave could do some adjustments on the hitch. It has two beds that pull out from both sides like a pop up camper. We wanted a trailer but really needed one that was light enough for us to pull and we finally found this one. I'm especially excited to have air conditioning and a bathroom!
Here is the girls side. It has a double bed on the end. Chelsea will probably sleep on the couch, which was where she usually did in the camper. The bathroom is on the right hand side. On the left is a cabinet to hopefully store our clothes in - if there is room enough for all of Katelyn's things.
This is the larger bed - which will be mine. Katelyn finds it somewhat humorous that I will have to be crawling over the couch to get into bed. You can see that the bed is not pulled out here because the cushions are still propped up. The girls were pretty excited because they didn't know we were getting this. Hopefully, this will work good for us. Cheri, are you ready to go camping this summer? We're ready whenever you are!