Millie's camping adventure

Here are pictures of Millie's first camping adventure. Since she had never really left her previous home, this was a new experience for her. She never wore a collar or walked with a leash. Chelsea has made great improvements with her this week. She did not appreciate walking with the leash at all and would not budge her back feet at first, but now she is actually walking to the dog run most of the time, instead of being carried. Other than that, she is enjoying being held and cuddled for the rest of the time. She has not been barking at other dogs or running off. We mostly let her wander around our campsite while we are outside and she tends to sit by us. We'll see how the rest of the week goes, but so far, so good.

I'm off

I'm leaving today for our last full week of camping. I know, I know....I've been gone a lot but..... I will be home Tuesday night because Katelyn has a dr. appt. Then we come home Saturday. Although next Friday, we will be gone for the weekend. So keep up your writing. I'll be checking back.

We've been shopping

We've been shopping today - mostly for groceries and things for next weeks camping. But while we were at Meijers, we found the school supplies. I thought we better look them over before everything was too picked over. Shaelyn picked out her new lunch box. Princesses - can you believe it? I found some matching containers for it. One is really cool. It's a container for things like carrots with a smaller container inside, that you can freeze, and then put dip in. It's also, of course, princess motif. We did some looking for a backpack at Walgreens, but they were all so cheap looking - the fronts were this plastic like stuff that I think will rip and tear easy, so we waited on the backpack for now. She does have one from last year that will work if we can't find a new one. She's getting ready for Kindergarten. She learned to tie her shoes last week. I took video but I can't get it transferred to youtube yet. Hopefully, I will get it to go because she's pretty proud of herself with that one. She's also working on riding her bike without training wheels. All these requirements of Kindergarten.......

Update

Wanted to give you all an update on "grandpa" and "grandma" from church. Hubert has about 1 more chemo treatment to go. He's feeling well and doing good from them all. Jean has finished her chemo and will be having a scan in late august or early september. Then they will know if she has to continue. She also was going to have 2 different leg surgeries to open up the veins. She had 1 which went well and was just told this week that she will probably not need the other. So they had a very positive week and were very upbeat about how things are turning out. They are planning a trip to New Jersey in August. They have not been there for a year now and are excited to return. Thanks for the prayers uplifted for them.

Introducing Millie

Well, some of you (or probably all of you) may think we are crazy, but we've added another dog to our family. Actually, it is an early Christmas present for Chelsea. We've been looking for a while for smaller dogs, that can fit in our trailer, while we go camping. I also kind of wanted to get it while Chelsea was still home from school so that the dog could adjust and I wouldn't be the only one taking care of her. Her name if Millie and she is a Pomeranian. She is 18 months old, so she's pretty much housebroken - except she's got to learn which door to go to in our house. The lady we got her from was getting older so she had to cut back on some of hers - she had 6 dogs! (she would breed some of them) Millie just had puppies that were sold yesterday. Because of that, she has lost some of her hair, which should grow back and then look more pomeranian. So here she is...

Budding Artist

I've been meaning to put this picture up. I found this on Shaelyn's wall one night when I was getting ready to read to her. It's funny because the night before, Dave and I were in bed and she came to us and asked if it was okay to draw on walls.
Mom - "no"
Shaelyn - "why not?"
Mom - " because walls have to be painted over then."
So she went back to her room. So the next night, she had pillows all placed up against her walls. I decided to move them and put them back in the living room. Well, this is the picture I found. So she comes in her room to read books. I just ignored it first to see what would happen. She kind of lays against the wall while I read. Eventually, I tell her to just come and lay by mommy. A little hesitantly, she heads over. I continue reading and casually glance at the wall. With a surprised look, I ask her about those pictures and when she drew them. According to her, it was after she asked if it was okay to draw on walls. So then I ask her about these pictures.
"Why does mom have two faces on her?"
"Because Chelsea was hiding behind you."
"Why does Dad have earrings?"
"because some boys have earrings?"
I don't have much hair but at least she portrayed me as very thin.
Dave wondered what possessed her to draw on her walls. I explained that I remember doing that after I would sharpen a pencil. I would write, "Terri, Tim" because those were the only words I knew how to spell yet in Kindergarten. He just shook his head and said that it was amazing she could be so much like her mother, even without a blood connection!

Wordless Wednesday

From the rising of the sun to its going down
The Lord's name is to be praised. Psalm 113:3





























Sunset over Lake Michigan

My nephew - Andy

This is my nephew, Andy. He will be leaving tomorrow to head off to basic training in the army. He has loved airplanes ever since he was young. We have video's of him being around 3 or 4 years old, getting airplanes as gifts. He will be enlisting and getting training in aviation mechanics and eventually learning to fly. As much as our family will miss him - South Carolina and Virginia are a long way away from Michigan - we are extremely proud of his decision to serve our country. I have always been proud of our military and supported them wholeheartedly, but even more so now! Andy, we'll miss you but look forward to seeing you at Christmas!

Vacation at CRCG

Well, I have made it back from another wonderful week of camping. We really had great weather again - except for Saturday morning when we were packing up. It was quite rainy - but we couldn't complain because we need the rain so bad. We had fun at the beach and the pool. You can see Shaelyn and the new friend she made, digging in the sand. They dug quite a hole and built a lot of castles. There were also big waves that day. You can see how white the water was coming in. I wasn't planning on going in that day, but I did get warm and the lake wasn't really too cold. So we all went in and jumped the waves. The girls love it when there are huge waves - in spite of the fact that you get splashed in the face! The other pictures show snack time. Shaelyn loves smores and then there was the plate of doughnuts that I made. For those of you who don't know how to make camping doughnuts - they are the best. You take cheap biscuits from the tube and using a bottle cover, punch out the middle. Then fry them in oil. You can dip them in powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar mixture or frost them. They are delicious!! (and very healthy) When Katelyn and Dave made it out, we headed for the shuffleboard courts. I was not very successful. Chelsea beat me and then we took on Katelyn and Dave. I lost again to them. But it was still fun. I will be home for 2 more weeks and will be camping there again then. You might think that we get bored going to the same place but no... Bible school, craft barn, wagon rides, etc... It's always different. We all love it.

It's vacation time again!!

Sorry guys,
I'm leaving again. We're off for more camping Saturday, for another week. I worked hard to get in this week. We were on a waiting list and were #7. I moved up in the list and got on section A where there is full hook-up. Since we got this trailer, Dave really wants us to use it and not just sit in the driveway, so we're off.
You may think it seems selfish of us to take off and leave him here to work but.....he does enjoy the peace and quiet he has when he gets home. And he is taking Friday off work so he gets to enjoy that day and this weekend. I'm coming home Tuesday for paper delivery and my ball game so I will be checking up on everyone else's . So keep writing - I'll keep reading. Until next week.......

She did it again!

Shaelyn did it again. As I was combing her hair this morning, I noticed some pieces missing from the top of her head. At first I thought they may have broken off, because her hair does that. Then I asked her about it and she didn't answer. "Did you cut this?" Just a little because it was in my eyes. Well, I'm pretty much sick of this and decided that before she really cuts a lot off, I'll take care of it myself. So, we did the bang cut (with informing Dave that this was probably going to happen). You can see where it's pretty short, so they tried to layer around it. She also layered around the sides of her face. I'm hoping this will be a lot easier and we won't have to pull it back everyday.

Happy 4th of July

We had a great holiday yesterday. We started the day by going to, I'm guessing, one of the biggest parades around. It's so big that apparently, people have decided to start placing blankets and stakes down, a week before!! How ridiculous. Our blanket went down the day before, just so we could get a spot. Thank goodness that it was not that hot. It was comfortable watching the parade and it heated up later in the day. At night, we headed to my sisters - Mari - for supper. It was delicious. You can see the picture of the master griller - as Katelyn calls him - Uncle Bob apparently grills the best burgers. After supper, Uncle Duane went to the backyard to play baseball with the kids. I think Anna won the game. The kids were still looking for a little something to do, so Aaron, very willingly headed out to do a little Duck, Duck, Goose. He has now earned quite a few brownie points but I'm not sure if it is enough to bypass an overnight stay with the little ones! They had a great time with him. Later, we headed out for fireworks. It was a great way to celebrate our country's birthday!

Great sleeping arrangements

Here is Shaelyn sleeping while we were camping. You will notice the poor child does not have a pillowcase on her pillow. It is the Minnie mouse that she is using for a sleeping bag. Isn't it pitiful that she doesn't have a real sleeping bag and she has to come up with one of her own? Although I believe that the green cow bag next to her could have been used!
Who knows where she comes up with these ideas!

Last weeks camping adventure

We've returned home from a week of camping. We had absolutely beautiful weather. We had about 5-10 minutes of rain one afternoon but other than that, it was sunny and cooled down at night. Here's some pictures of our fun. They've added a craft barn which is open 3 different days. Shaelyn painted a picture one time and another time she made the lovely flower that she decided to wear in her hair! At least she is not afraid of being unique! Sunday afternoon, we went to the beach. You know the pool is closed on Sunday! But the beach was great. Later in the week, I went to the pool. Katelyn and Chelsea still went to the beach a few other times. They had a "treading water contest" along with Chelsea's friend, Kristie, who stayed over a few days. They treaded water for over an hour and a half. On Friday, there was a kids carnival because it was kid's week. Shaelyn is getting her face painted by Ali who works there and is a friend we camp with on Memorial weekend. On Friday night, we had a Vacation Bible School program where they sang the songs that they had learned for the week. Shaelyn loved going to Bible school every day (and so did we). Dave came back out on Friday night. We had a lot of fun and hopefully, will be heading back in a few weeks!