Stewart is 14

August 19, 2014 | Stacy

“Mom, when you blog about my birthday, use the picture with the lightning that Nan took.”

He rocks. He just does. He’s not perfect. He complains about vacuuming, and teases his sisters. But he is a very great guy.

He asked if we could go to RMSC for his birthday and since we hadn’t been there in years I said we could. It would have been $68 for the day, or $83 for a membership, so I went for the membership. But I am sorry I did. It used to be that movies at the Planetarium were included and that would have given us a great pay-off for the huge admission fee/membership. Turns out they are now $6/pp. Seriously? We will never go. And as the museum is plastered with evolution-based lies I feel like I have to constantly play defense. So I do not love it there. Oh – and now you pay extra for this and extra for that, and…

I’ll get back to the birthday at hand. ♥

Johanna saw the sand and asked, “I get my hands dirty?” in her permission-seeking voice. She didn’t quite buy it.

She also could NOT get herself up and around in this climby thing. Maybe next year.

We really enjoyed these building block things.

Stewart was very excited about the sour cream we gave him. Sadly, we had forgotten to refrigerate it and it wasn’t edible. But it was the thought that counted.

No. No. No. It was just a CONTAINER. It had something Much Classier in it. An I.O.U. Yes. It was a paper that said, “I. O. U. A. I. O.”

Which stands for “I owe you Adventures in Odyssey.” It had a shipping delay. We also gave him an Orange Crush t-shirt and a pair of headphones. And a yummy homemade (as in every iota from scratch) lemon cake with lemony filling and lemony frosting. It was superb.

He’s a great guy and I’m so glad we get along as well as we do. I sincerely pray it never changes. He’s a light.

Growing girl…

August 16, 2014 | Stacy

Katriel will soon be 18 months old.
She sits quietly with her food (even when she is hungry!) while we say grace. And she punctuates it with her, “Aa-mon.”
She says, “Ock,” for both socks or shoes, and as soon as she hears the word, “outside” she starts looking for them.
Speaking of outside, she says something like, “ah-die” for outside.

We tried to teach her sign language for “milk” many months ago. She tried valiantly to learn it, but ended up coming up with a sign of her own. It means both “milk” and “please” it seems. And occasionally “more”. Actually – now that I think of it, anytime she wants something she uses that hand motion. It’s adorable.

She sleeps with her “Taggie” and her “Minnie”. None of our kids ever had a Taggie before. She loves it. Grandma Judy at church gave it to her.

She loves the pantry. She bee-lines right for the empty mason jars, or stray bottles of water. If she can’t find one of those fast enough she looks in the Pepsi case to see if she can reach one of those.

She busy. And she’s tall. We can’t leave anything near the edge of the counters…

We love her. She’s a treat. She still doesn’t have a nickname… It astonishes me.

Caught up !!

August 13, 2014 | Stacy

Okay – this blog has languished this summer. I’ve had all kinds of computer/photo and phone-talking-to-computer issues. Plus – I hate sitting around the computer when I could be doing something else. But I finally got the photos straightened out. And Apple gave me my third iPhone since February. (They seem to give them away like candy. But I don’t care to rehash all of THAT insanity.) So – hopefully – I will not fall behind again. Although school starts soon (8/25) so the barrel-of-laughs is bound to stop rolling. 😉

Some fun flashback pictures from April 2007.

Tabitha’s first birthday.

First party at the “new” house.

Boys for T-Ball.

Pretending to be mad.

she’s so much like Marie it scares me

August 10, 2014 | Stacy

Okay – it delights me. Marie is a jewel. (But she got hurt a lot as a kid!)

A funny thing happened on the way to the school year…

August 7, 2014 | Stacy

See John had to travel to Rhode Island for training for a week a while back. When he told me he was going I grimaced and said I would like “a vacation.” [See – his work trips are a lot like vacation. A typical day at home – he and I would rate with a “stress level” of maybe 7 out of 10. A hectic day at work, maybe a 10/10. These work trips? He concedes the stress level is about a 1½. Therefore – these are actually even MORE relaxing that the average family vacation. Now – back to the story.]

When I grimaced and stated, “I would like a vacation,” he said I should have one. Um. Sure. Whatever. About two weeks later he told me he had to go away another time for training. I grimaced and said I would like a vacation. He said I should have one. Um. Sure. Whatever. Three or four days later I said to him, “Where are you going for the second training?” He looked at me sheepishly and said, “Tucson.” My mouth dropped open and I thought – I would like a vacation. I couldn’t actually SAY it because my mouth was gaping open. He said, “I’m telling you, I think you should take a vacation.” Huh? What are you talking about? We have a big family. Vacations cost a fortune. But a few days after that when we were outlining John’s trips to the kids I said how I would like a week off. NOT a week away from them, but a week away from dishes and cooking, and dirty floors, and emails. John said he thought I should find someone to go away with for a few days.

At first I thought I should go out and visit friends who moved to the Pacific northwest. But honestly, that would feel HORRIBLE without my kids. To see all of their kids would make it so weird. So I dropped the idea. Or so I thought. Out of nowhere a few days later I jokingly texted to Emily how John had work trips. I told her how I wanted to go away for a few days. She said she did, too.

And now she and I are going on a 5-night cruise in November!! For. Real. And I’m giddy. And John is wholly supportive. My mom thinks it is a “Wonderful” idea and is going to help him with the kids. And I am going to go. There are moments when I think I’ve lost my mind. I never do anything without my awesome family. I am going to miss them SO. MUCH.

But – people are going to cook for me ALL DAY LONG. FOR FIVE DAYS! I can sit in a chair and read for hours and hours. And – if the weather is nice I can swim in the OCEAN on a Caribbean Beach. For Real.

The cruise cost $296 including transfers. The air was like $260. The one night hotel was FREE with points.

Princess Cruise line – Caribbean Princess. Cheap inside staterooms. Two days at sea and stops at Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman. They serve cookies and milk daily on the ship. And the Ultimate Soft Drink Package includes MILKSHAKES. And you can watch MUTS. That stands for Movies Under the Stars. (If anything decent is showing.) But I can have milkshakes.

(It doesn’t seem real.)

Park Rats…

August 6, 2014 | Stacy

We’ve taken up the habit of visiting parks as much as we can. And we are trying to visit a variety of them. I don’t take pictures each time. And I’ve lost count how many we have been to these last two weeks. But we are having fun and getting outside. Combating loneliness…

Sometimes we pack a picnic. Sometimes not.

It’s been fun.

Wanna join us?

Beautiful music

Image | August 1, 2014 | Stacy

no wonder we never get invited anywhere for dinner

Image | July 28, 2014 | Stacy

“camp”fire–butler style…

July 26, 2014 | Stacy

Inspired by Marie’s week at camp we decided to welcome her home by making s’mores. Marie also taught us camp songs. And then we told stories about when the kids were babies. They love to hear those. We waited until after Katriel went to bed. The fire makes me nervous.