It's baking day

As you can see, Shaelyn is feeling much better today. I think she had some sort of 24 hour bug. Last night she was already perking up and helping Dave outside. So today, we decided to do some baking. We made a chocolate cake with white frosting and Danish apple bars. These bars were one of my Mom's favorites when I was growing up. Mom made them a lot. I don't make them very often because you have to roll the dough and it takes forever. But because I had apples that needed to be used, I thought it would be a good choice for today with Shaelyn.

Vacation blues

Yup, I'm back. It must be rough returning from a week's vacation, because Shaelyn has caught some sort of bug. On the way home Saturday, she said that her head hurt but once we got home, she was playing as usual. Sunday morning, she went to church without any obvious problems. We ate lunch and she didn't eat much and that's unusual because she typically, eats good. Then in the afternoon, she was acting extremely tired. Well, I don't like to let her sleep because then she won't at night. Dave kept her awake playing some games and I noticed she was warm. I let her sleep while the rest of them went to church. She hardly ate supper again and just sat on my lap. She perked up after she was forced to take some medicine. (She hates all sorts of medicine) She doesn't have much of a fever but is just warmer than usual and is not eating. She even went to sleep decently with a nap. She woke up once through the night, complaining that she was hungry. More medicine and back to sleep. Today, she's still pretty much laying around and hardly eating. So hopefully, this will run its course because we've got church activities Wednesday night. I don't have any pictures to post of camping because my batteries died on my camera and I couldn't charge them.

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!

We're off!

Well folks,
I'm taking a little break from the computer. We leave tomorrow to go camping for a week. Hopefully we'll enjoy some nice weather (although we could use the rain) and relaxation. I should have some pictures when we get back. Until then.......

Yard clean-up

It was time for lawn mowing again this morning. Dave asked me yesterday if I would have time to get some of it done. I've kind of been putting it off to see if he would do it, but alas, he has been kind of busy too. So before we leave for camping, I should get the lawn taken care of. So I spent 3 hours out there mowing in the heat and come in to take a nice shower. What do I find ?- We have no electricity! What a disgusting feeling. So I ended up jumping into the pool to at least feel better. As you can see, our electricity did come back on but that's the 2nd time this morning that it's gone off. It better stay on for good now.

Chicago

Chelsea and I went to Chicago yesterday for her dr. appt. I could not believe all the construction - everywhere. I know that there is always construction once you hit Chicago but this started out about 30 minutes into our drive. We could at least go 45 through that section. After we exited the skyway onto the Dan Ryan - it was bumper to bumper. I think they were working on the local lanes, so everybody had to take the express. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the loop circle and exit to the west suburbs. After arriving right on time, we got called into the room 15 minutes later. The appt. time was 9:30 and we finally saw the first dr. at 10:15. Meanwhile, my parking ticket is going up!!! Both doctors were very pleased with how she is looking - so that was good news. We get to go back next summer. We finally walked out around 11:00 their time. We called Brenda - our reported friend from Chicago - to meet for lunch. We met at a little sub shop - it was a lot like Quiznos. We got to spend about 1/2 together because she had to pick her husband up from a meeting. But it was still fun seeing her again. For those of you who don't know - she is pregnant and due any day. So hopefully next year, she'll have both kids with her. We left - after looking at the gas prices there - 3.79 a gallon!!! I guess we can't complain too much. We got back on the Dan Ryan again and what usually takes 10 minutes again took about 35 minutes. We did make better time back home - although I felt bad for those heading west on 94. They were bumper to bumper with cars and semi's. I know there was construction but we didn't have it that bad on the way there.
We got back to pick up Shaelyn from Ann's house. She had a good time sleeping over there and I guess Ann enjoyed it too! The night turned out well. I still had energy to play softball. We ended up winning against a team of "youngsters" which I thought was great.

Katelyn's poison ivy

You know that I wrote that Katelyn ended up at the doctor on Saturday. Here are some pictures to show the reason why. Her arms and legs were just covered with poison ivy.
She puts bandaids on all her fingers to try to cover up all the little bumps. The other picture of her back shows what happened to her Saturday before we went to the dr. She was on the swing outside and it broke on her. She fell down hard and immediately had that purple bruise. She is starting to do better now that she is on steroids to dry up the poison ivy although her back is still sore. She did manage to go into work for part of the day. I hope that she remembers from now on to stay away from the woods as much as she likes it.

Fathers Day

It's Fathers Day! I started my day at 6:15 with an ice compress on my eye. I believe I have a stye and my eye was swollen up. I had to play flute in church this morning and didn't really want to be seen with my eye like that. So I spent an hour with ice on it. It did take the swelling down so that people didn't notice but it's coming back again. Hopefully, it will be improved by tomorrow! Chelsea also had to be to church early because she was singing in praise team. So that left Katelyn to get there with Shaelyn. Dave had to work at the nursing home this morning. Katelyn wasn't feeling too great either because she has a bad case of poison ivy. I ended up taking her to the dr. yesterday to get some medicine. But she had to teach the 2-3 year old class so she had to be there this morning too. Dad came to church with Ann this morning so Shaelyn sat with them until she left for Sonshine Worship. Ann wanted to pick her up after church too. I think Grandpa liked that! She said she sat on her lap and was good as gold. That's not exactly what Katelyn said, but I'll just go along with Ann's thoughts. Grandpa They then took her to Ann's house for cookies before coming over to mine for dinner. So we enjoyed dinner together and giving Dad his gifts.
We ended up doing gifts for Dave after supper tonight. Katelyn gave Dave a nice fold-up step stool that he can use for camping. Chelsea gave him some sausage and cheese and of course a candy bar. Shaelyn had lots of pictures to give plus a Nemo magnet that Katelyn had given to her from Florida. She said it kept falling so she didn't need it anymore. Isn't that thoughtful! She also wrapped up her "cutie-pie" kitty that she didn't need . Don't you just love how she recycles gifts? It's the thought that counts! Thanks Dave for being a great Dad!

Chelsea's joy

Check out this first picture. Can you see any difference between it and the second one?








It was a very exciting day yesterday. After 4 long years, Chelsea finally got her braces off. Too bad I don't have a picture of before they were put on. He did show us a mold of her teeth before and there has been a drastic improvement. Now all she has to wear is a retainer. No more 6 weeks visits!!

Tagged

I've just been tagged by Katie. So here goes....

My 4 favorite jobs:
Mom and wife
Babysitting when I was younger
Working mailroom at an Insurance Co.
Planting celery - does this really count? It's the only other job I've had

My 4 favorite local places:
Chr. Reformed Conference Grounds for camping! It's got a pool and Lake Michigan for
swimming
Cold Stone for Ice Cream
Target - I can always find something to buy there
Dollar store - great finds for great prices

My 4 favorite foods:
Pizza
Chinese - it's the best!!
Logan's restaurant rolls
Fresh corn on the cob

My 4 favorite international spots:
China - of course. Shaelyn comes from there
The Bahama's
I haven't been anywhere else but I'd like to go to:
Korea - we had an exchange student from there
Australia

The 4 people I am tagging are:
Cheri
Mari
Laura
Heather

Future florist

Laura,
I think you might have some competition. Shaelyn picked these flowers and put them into this arrangement. Do you notice the greenery put into the background? And there is just a few subtle purple type flowers amid the beautiful yellow ones. One open flower and two ready to emerge. She might have a future in this. What do you think?