Mom, I'm bored!

Whoever thought of putting that phrase on a radio commercial? If we hadn't heard it, we never would have realized, but since the subject's been brought up....... MOM, WE'RE SO BORED, ALREADY!

And Mom's great solution? "Shake it off and have a good time already!" Sheesh!

Of God and Parking Spaces

This past week was Super Summer Spectacular at our church, Abundant Life. Every day we worked at Maaco (the kids and I) and every evening I dropped them off at church from 6-9. I think everyone is a bit exhausted by the end of the the end of the week. By Thursday the parking attendents started looking slightly ragged.

As a rule, we don't follow orders well when told to park at the church - I admit it. But I purposed to follow the wildly waived directions this week. The first night I was ushered into the very farthest row from the church. I steamed inwardly at the parking attendents all night for "picking" on me. Tuesday night I asked God for a better parking spot, and I watched the cars in front of me ushered to the back row, but then I was waived up to the front. GOD ANSWERS PRAYER! After gathering all the kids from their locations and arriving quickly and safely back to the van, we got in a very long line to exit the parking lot. It was nearly 9:30 before we got home and settling kids to bed carried us past 10pm.

Some time during the rush of days piling into nights, this sunset lit up the whole sky. I blasted the Christian radio station and rolled down the windows to let the evening air rush in, praising God for always listening and taking care of me. As I neared the parking lot I realized that He's always taking care of my parking spot whether I ask or not, and sometimes.... sometimes He's already planning something better for me than I can think up myself. I happily pulled into the lot ready to park wherever the attendents waived me. I ended up in the back row again... but we got home at 9:10.

I had this overwhelming sense that God would give me what I asked for, but He was already carefully guiding it before I even asked.

100th Post

I think it's remarkably fitting that my 100th post should be about cookies. I make cookies nearly every Sunday and I get as far along the mixing as possible before I'm discovered b/c one kid attracts the other's attention and I'm soon swarmed with "just one more, Mom!" help testing cookie dough. Most recently Camten and I had 10 undiscovered minutes of quality time with the flour and chocolate chips. I do so love bonding time.... and chocolate.

4th in the "Upper Field" (above the Orchard, next to the hammocks)

Excitement is high.

Waiting for the sun to go down.
Amazing ear muffs.

The show: the moon, neighbor's fireworks, the Seale college boys, 80 degrees, wheelbarrow full of fun, late night.

Father's Day

I don't always get pictures of the most important things. Sometimes we are so busy living, there's no time to worry about documenting it!

Father's Day was like that.

Jeremy is so busy nowadays with the shop. We see him a lot, 'cause we're down there, too, but he's working-working-working, usually where we're not. When we take over dad's office, he stays out in the lobby. When I can answer phones, he follows the paintline crew more closely. He's busy.

So, Father's Day was a chance for us to show him how grateful we are and how much we love him. When he gets home, he often falls asleep on the couch while dinner is being cooked pretending to watch Jeopardy. We usually give him 1/2 hr to un-tense-ify before lavishing him with loving attention. And before Father's Day, he had to prop a bunch of pillows under his head and nap all kinked up on the failing couch (it's all busted up from all the love). We decided to get him a chair.... his very own, first ever, Daddy-chair.

Trinity spilled the beans days early, but he couldn't figure out exactly what she meant. By the time we found a chair on 82nd and brought it home in the minivan, she had figured out what "secret" meant and we couldn't get her to tell him! But when she did....

He was SOOOO surprised!

Now he's just hoping he gets a turn in it, since the kids have to test it first!!

our Shad-man

"Get a picture, Mom!" Shad sees things. He looks and sees... the sky or a lady bug. Some things we can't keep forever, so we take a picture, but if Shad can, he'll save everything.

Shad turned 10 years old on June 13th, just after school got out. He had friends over for his birthday party - he designed the Invitation himelf and we sent it in the mail. For his Bakugan party he had a Bakugan cake and received tons of bakugan toys...

.....I think he has over 30 of them now!

Shad is nearly as tall as me, Mom, but he can still fit in the dryer. (How long will that be possible?!)

We went with Shad on his last big 4th grade field trip. First swimming and then the park.

Every night Shad asks God for an endless amount of hugs from everyone. He sneaks up behind me and lays his head on my shoulder when he wants one. (I try not to jump!) He doesn't talk a lot with grown-ups, but he can be the loudest in a crowd of kids. We have experienced how stubborn Shad can be once he makes up his mind. He's a perfectionist and detail-oriented. He believes the best of others and avoids getting into trouble himself. He'll take care of Trinity often (more than Aidan or Camten!) He would love his own room full of shelves to store all his treasures - it will have to be a large room with a lot of shelves. For now he resorts to asking for quiet time when he needs it and rotating treasures on his two shelves. I don't know anyone as competitive as Shad - he will be the best, the fastest, the strongest (or struggle with the shortfall.) He currently loves soccer and not baseball ('cause who can hit a ball that learning kids are throwing?!)

We are so grateful God gave us Shad. Since he was a baby, we knew he was going to make the world adjust to him and not the other way around. We pray that God shows him what is worth fighting to save and what he should stand up for and compete to win.

Our Trinity Treasure

Our Trin is a character. She loves jewelry and make-up and picking out pretty clothes to wear. She loves drawing and painting and sending letters to everyone she can think of.

On June 7th she turned 4 years old and Daddy was so happy to give her a bike.

Because she can also do everything her big brothers can. She can play with cars, throw rocks in the river and steal a ball in the swimming pool.


She demands her turn on the Xbox even though she doesn't know how to play. She declares she can mask a car for paint at the shop.

It doesn't matter how many times she's been told not to color balloons, she thinks it's fun. Her bath turned purple from all the ink that came off on her hands on her most recent project.

Trinity loves her brothers, we are certain, but she declares all kinds of emotions depending on her mood. She doesn't hesitate to say "I'm mad at you" when she gets the raw end of a deal. She has a "big hug" that drowns out all the stresses of a day and she'd have Otter pops for dinner every night if we'd let her. She loves scissors, but isn't allowed to use them often. She puts up with Mom combing out her curls daily but decides when time's up. She loves Strawberry Shortcake and Ponies and pink and purple. (So, Strawberry Shortcake riding a pink pony is the best in the whole world.....) Jean shorts are "Shad clothes".

My favorite thing about Trinity as Mom.... is how we are friends and cook together and feed the animals together. "Us Girls" run errands together where "boys aren't allowed". I love being her buddy.... but no one can touch her relationship with Daddy. She knows she has her daddy's heart and attention forever.

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Cool Spots, Cool Kids

Kids have their own rating system of coolness (my word, not theirs). One of their friends from school had THREE forts at HIS house and another excavates for thunder eggs in his back yard.

Weeeell... I think we got some cool forts, too! (and cool rocks)
There's the totally awesome MINI-VAN FORT. It comes with a driver's seat and music - although Mom doesn't have the speakers to turn it up full blast. LOUD is pretty loud. Aidan has dibs on the van when he grows up so he can "put over 20 speakers in it - have you seen Jackhammer, Mom? I'm going to make it LOUDER than that!" (I don't remember Jackhammer, but I can imagine.) We can flip down the back seat, too, for a great hang-out.

Then there's THE FORT THAT DAD MADE - he made two, actually, one on purpose and one "secret" one 'cause it looks like a pile of brush from the outside, but inside has a seating circle and all kinds of cool kid things (that I just can't see, being grown up and all.)

Camten found a cool mustache in the brush. Cool, man.

Shad has an exclusive TREE FORT. "Exclusive" 'cause he's the only one tall enough to climb into it, yet. I'm sure this will be the spot of future attention, but since it's at the top of the "upper field" I'm not encouraging construction projects. (For obvious reasons to me. Try running uphill to rescue kids a few times and you'll agree. By the time I arrive huffing and puffing, they've already rescued themselves. They certainly don't need more creative ideas on how to get stuck.)

I hope "the boys" are telling everyone we have the coolest house ever since we have so many forts (and rocks). It's hard to keep up with the changing times, you know, but I'm ready to try!

EASTER

Grandpa had everyone over for the long-traditional egg hunt

So, we made some really cool eggs.

FUN was had by all!

Swap Meet 2009

We had a MAACO booth at the Swap Meet! :-) We ordered magnets - which is exciting... see? I'm excited! and we made a Sweepstakes box and gave away a FREE paint job! We also printed up flyers for our Grand Opening Party and Classic Car Show on Aug 23rd to share. We built the backdrop and hung the banner... and made "before" and "after" posters. WHAT AN EVENT!

OMSI & the Ismerts

I know, we're CRAZY! :-) 2 moms and 10 kids... that's what I call a bucket of FUN!! :-) I would have got more pictures, but I was hunting down a kid

Birthday/Reunion!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa! we love you!