No time to post

Hey all you, whoever you are...
I'm sorry it's been awhile. Tonight we're having Rebecca's birthday party--four girls are coming. It won't be your ordinary birthday party, as we'll be having no cake. It's hard to make cake without sugar, you see. Rebecca is not supposed to have sugar right now, because sugar feeds yeast, and we don't like yeast. An overabundance causes problems. We're trying to get rid of that, so...no sugar. VERY hard for an eight-year-old to adhere to, but she's doing pretty well. Except for the granola bar she snuck into her bedroom. But other than that...
So anyway, back to the birthday party. We'll be roasting hot dogs over a fire (if we have any firewood, that is), tye-dying pillowcases (t-shirts for the boys, Joel and Clayton), and singing Happy Birthday over a candle stuck in ice cream, except Rebecca won't be having ice cream (sugar, you know), she'll have chocolate-coconut "ice cream" made with Stevia instead of sugar. I got this recipe from Mindy's blog. Rebecca loves it.
So anyway, I've got a list as long as Joel's tongue (have you ever seen him lick inside his nose with his tongue?), and really need to get on it.
Until later,
Jenny

To our daughter

Age 4, almost 5--You drew this on yourself, using Crayola washable markers. You came to me and said, "Look Mom! I'm a cat!"

Dear Rebecca,
Today is your 8th birthday. You've been looking forward to this day for weeks and weeks, asking almost every day, "How many days now?" You have been excitedly planning a slumber party with your friends. You even made a poster, detailing who's invited, games you'll play, and food you'll eat. (Supper: hotdogs or tacos. Dessert: cupcakes, chocolate and white. Bedtime snack: maybe cupcakes? Breakfast: maybe cupcakes?)
At 8 years old, sometimes I think you're too big for your britches. You're too smart for your own good. I often wish you didn't act so grown-up. You've always been advanced for your age and many many days I wonder where the teenager in you came from.
You're very tender-hearted. You love to make cards for anyone and everyone, for any occasion. You give Mom backrubs when you can see she'd like one.
You're also very spirited and stubborn, and sometimes overly opinionated. You've been a challenge for me and your dad since the day you were born, and even before that. You were 10 days late, and breach. You had your days and nights mixed up for 2 months. At 7 months, your self-appointed bedtime was 1:00 a.m.--last nap was 8:00 p.m. You needed to be rocked everytime you went to sleep. I remember lying on the living room floor, taking a nap at the same time you did because that was the only way you'd sleep. At the first creak of the floor, your eyes popped open and you were awake. Now that's passed, and you sleep like a rock. I have to drag you out of bed most school days.
You have dimples galore, in your cheeks and one in your chin. You're smile is beautiful, and always has been.
Before you were born, I envisioned a little girl who'd love ruffles, pink, lace, pricesses, and playing dress-up. You are so totally opposite of that--you'd just as soon climb a tree as play house. Dolls? You could take 'em or leave 'em.
Sometimes I think we clash...I can't decide if that's because we're too alike or too different. Maybe it's just all our girly-emotions swirling around that keep us at odds. I never knew girls could be so dramatic--I sure don't remember being like that, but I'd suppose Grandma Pam could tell me differently.
Happy 8th birthday, Rebecca. We love you just how you are.
Love, Mom and Dad, Joel and Clayton

Nora Jo has arrived

Mike and Amanda and Dane welcomed Nora Jo into their family yesterday, June 16th. She is precious...I looked at her pictures and cried with happiness. And maybe a little sadness--sad that I am so far away from them geographically.
Congratulations to Mike, Amanda, and big brother Dane!

Car troubles abound

Last night we were at the funeral of an old, dear friend. We enjoyed seeing the family, including "Ethel." When we left, we went to the house of our friends first to pick up a bag that was waiting for us there. Visited for a few minutes, then started down the road again. Just as we pulled onto the highway our car's transmission gave out and wouldn't shift past first gear (25 mph), which is really interesting when all the other traffic is going 60. Thankfully it was late enough that traffic was pretty light. We drove on the shoulder with our hazards on for a mile or so until we could get back on the frontage road and out of harm's way. By the way, a mile at 25 mph seems like a long, long way. We called John's brother Tom and asked him if he could bail us out of our bind. Tom was probably headed for bed...after all, it was after 9:30 when we called him, but he graciously came to our rescue. We parked the dud at our friend's house and Tom picked us up there. Drove us all the way home (30 miles), and then he could finally get back to his house. I'm afraid it got to be a late night for him.
So, our old "Tortoise" is dying (that's our pet name for our 1996 Ford Taurus). Our Suburban does funny braking things so I'm not allowed to drive it. And John is driving our 1978 Thunderbird to work now. I have no car. Today is Rebecca's birthday. We don't have a gift for her yet. I know, I'll just pull one out of the air.
If anyone is bored, come on over. We'll be home.

Waiting for Baby

Today my cousin Amanda was scheduled to have a c-section. I've been thinking about her all day long, wondering how it's going, wondering if they have a boy or a girl. I guess I'll find out soon enough...

Fishing trip

John and his triplet brothers, plus my dad and Chet, went on a fishing trip up North. Jerry, Chet and Dad went to Grandpa John's on Wednesday night after they stopped here to drop off the girls: Brina, Jaina, Leanne, and Emily.
Thursday morning John and Jim went up. Clayton gives his dad a goodbye hug. Then Rebecca did.
Jim got here and Brina and I went out to see his new-used boat.
The fishermen
Swatting mosquitoes already, and they haven't even left.

Beach!

Thursday Brina and I took the kids to our park close to home. We had a picnic, the boys rode their bikes, and the kids played tennis. Brina and I sat on a bench and soaked up the sunshine while we read our novels. After a bit, it did get quite warm. It must have been 80 degrees at least, which is the hottest it's been in these parts for months and months. We're more used to low 60's. So anyway, the kids got bored with tennis and got the idea that we could go to the beach. So we packed up all our gear and went home, changed into swimming suits and headed over to a brand new park reserve near us that just opened June 7th. Joel
Clayton
Rebecca
"Take a picture of my muddy hands!"
The water was still too cold to swim in, so mostly they dug in the sand. Then we went over to the playground portion of the beach.

Emily made like a monkey and climbed the weird net thing. I watched and thought nothing of it until a lady walked up to me and said, "I can't believe they put that here. Kids could fall from the top and get caught by their necks and strangle." Wow, that put my mind at ease. Rebecca zipped down the 18' slide.
Clayton stopped for a second and let me snap a picture
It's pretty safe there. We just had to watch out for things like snapping turtles and rattlesnakes and tarantulas. Or maybe it was just snapping turtles.
Brina and I went to pick up Mom from the Amtrak station Friday night. Saturday evening we made 5 pies for Father's Day gifts. After wandering aisles looking for things to buy our guys and our dads, we decided we couldn't get them anything they didn't already have. After all, they have us, right? So they got pies...apple, peach, banana cream, lemon meringue, and chocolate cream. The only catch was that they had to share them with us.
That little pie in the middle is Joel's personal pie. The crust was gluten-free. Filling was apple-peach. He devoured it.

Father's Day fun

Someone thought they were hot, so the hose came out and Lori was the squirter. Leanne and Nathan watch
Then Uncle Tom came around the corner with a second hose aimed at Lori. She took appropriate measures to make sure that wouldn't happen again.
After all that I was exhausted, so I laid on the couch and admired my angelic toes.

Birthdays and Father's Day

Rebecca's birthday is June 17th, Jaina's is the 22nd, and it was Father's Day yesterday. Lori brought a cake. Jaina and Rebecca blow out the candles as Chet looks on.
Clayton has lots of important things to say. His dad, Aunt Joyce and Uncle Tom listen intently.
Most of the crowd at Rich and Judy's house. It was a beautiful day for a picnic.

Tractor parade

When John finished mowing our lawn he let Rebecca drive it slowly around the yard. Then Joel got on his little tractor and pedaled along behind. Soon Clayton joined in with his tractor too. It was fun to watch.
When Rebecca's turn was over, it was Joel's turn. I walked along beside him as he drove up and down the driveway. Then it was Clayton's turn. All was going well--I walked along beside, he drove at snail's pace, and Rebecca and Joel pedaled behind. What fun we were having! Beautiful evening, no bugs, almost their bedtime (my personal favorite)...then BOOM! The tractor backfired and I did a quick check to make sure no one had been shot. That ended the tractor rides.

Fishing

John promised the kids he would take them fishing one Saturday afternoon. The long story behind it is this: he said they could go fishing, the kids were excited about it, but then John thought about all the work he needed to do around home so he told me I could take them fishing. Let's note here that I don't fish. Not by myself, and especially not with three little children who don't know how to keep hooks from hooking into anything and everything as they whip their poles around. I told John I would NOT take them fishing. He had promised it, therefore he needed to go along. I would take them anywhere else. Just not fishing. And I knew that wouldn't fly with the kids since they were already planning what to pack for going to the lake. So John put off the jobs waiting on his list that's as long as my arm and came along. Whew.

Not one fish was caught, it was cold and windy and the kids were crabby. But they went fishing. The highlight of the evening was eating at Culver's afterwards.

Back to May, & last day of school

Judy had lung surgery again, so one evening we went to see her. Rebecca wanted to take some pictures. Here we see the sunset from the windows of the 6th floor, John, Rich and the boys playing and talking in the waiting room, and Joel. I love the expression on his face.


Rebecca with Joel on her last day of 2nd grade. I guess Clayton didn't want to have his picture taken. And I'm really not sure why she was posing so goofy...

Tick bite plus swollen glands equals...

Lyme disease, right? Wrong! Strep throat.
Clayton has had these monstrously swollen glands in his neck for almost a week now. Today I decided to take him in, convinced that it was something related to the tick he had a week ago Monday. The next day (Tuesday) he had a fever and sore ears, the the day after that the swollen glands appeared. Since then he's had a fever off and on but feels fine otherwise. No sore throat, playing, eating, talking all just like normal.
On one hand I'm really glad it's not lyme disease. On the other hand...strep throat? How many of us has he infected? Not to mention the little neighbor kids. Oops.

Evening in the Park

Last night I suggested to the kids that we load up their bikes and go to the park that's a mile down the road--it doesn't have much, but it does boast a bike path around the perimeter. That way I could walk as fast or slow as my little heart desired and not have to worry about cars plowing over our sweet children.
I didn't bring my camera, which I knew I'd regret.
I could have gotten a picture of Rebecca crying, looking 15 feet down at a little stream where her ball landed when she accidentally kicked it that direction. I carefully made my way down the steep, slippery, woodtick/poison ivy infested slope to get the $3.97 soccer ball. Made my way back up expecting cheers and kisses and "way to go Mom's!" Got none of that. Instead, she accidentally kicked her ball down again, less than three minutes later. I gritted my teeth and again risked life and limb for her.
I played tag for a couple minutes with Clayton until I couldn't run anymore because I was doubled over laughing. He was "it" and I was, um, not "it." I was dodging his attempts to catch me by running sideways, in circles, and backwards. He kept shooting his little hand out and kept coming up empty-handed. Finally, between breaths he pleaded, "You run slow, I run fast."
I could have snapped a photo of Rebecca having a fit because I wouldn't play volleyball with her...but let me defend myself: We brought her soccer ball, not a volleyball. The teams consisted of one on each side--me against her. I was wearing flip-flops and didn't like sand between my toes. There was a guy and a little boy not too far away, playing "baseball" and I didn't want to embarass myself. And the boys both wanted me to push them on the swings. So anyway, she was having a fit, saying I never play anything with her. When I applied for the job of Mother I expected to wipe dirty little faces and chubby little fingers, not play soccer volleyball in a sandpit.
I finally convinced her to play kickball instead. I learned that I'm a pathetic kick-ball player. The teams: Joel and Rebecca against me. Oh, I had Clayton on my team too. So I was the pitcher for the first inning (it also happened to be our only inning). Rebecca kicked the ball and I unsuccessfully tried to get her "out" by throwing the ball at her as she ran the bases. Then it was Joel's turn to kick. I gently rolled the ball towards him and he kicked it right to me, except I'm so clumsy I couldn't catch it and had to run in circles chasing it. Clayton got ahold of it and kicked it further away from me...I guess he thought when you have control of the ball all you need to do is kick it somewhere, anywhere. So I chased it again. It rolled near Rebecca and I almost had it, but then she kicked it just as I was about to grab it. So I chased it again, hollering over my shoulder that she wasn't playing fair. I reminded myself of a second-grader. Joel scored a homerun, and I decided that kickball would be "way funner" with more people on my team. We'll try again some other evening. I knew when I was beat and quickly told the kids we had to go home and get ready to go to meeting.

It could be a long day

This morning Joel was sitting at the table eating a snack. He was hungry...who wouldn't be 15 minutes after breakfast? So he was busy eating and between bites he turned around and proudly said, "I've been a good boy all day, haven't I?" It was 8:45 a.m.