Already 2010!!!!

I am a terrible blogger, but when you only have dial-up it makes it hard to blog. Anyway I have high speed at the moment so I am going to try to blog more often.

I am once again away for the weekend. I am scrapbooking with my sister-in-law Amy and we are not getting much done, but we are relaxing and having fun.

Abby is 10 1/2 and in 5th grade. She is doing well and like school. She is currently playing basketball against other schools and does well at it. She is beginning to show signs of upcoming teenage years and we are trying to figure out how to deal with the attitude. It amazes me that she already thinks I don't know anything, when not long ago I knew everything. She has a yellow lab that she absolutely loves. The dogs name is Roxy and they share Abby's bed at night which makes the twin bed full with a girl and 85 pound dog.

Tom just turned 9 which is very hard for me to believe. He is a great kid who loves sports. Right now it is football, either on TV or on the Wii. He is teaching his younger brother to play football. It is always in the house much to mom's annoyance. Dad is a big contributor to this football in the house game. We found out he is not a snow-shoer this winter. He is pigeon toed and couldn't keep his feet straight. It was really funny. He really doesn't like school and would rather not go. He has started to like reading Michigan Chillers and goes in a closet by himself and reads. We had to make a rule that he has to get A's & B's in school or he loses the priviledge of video games for a week. He was doing just enough to get by and we know he is capable of more.

Becky is 6 and in 1st grade. She is in a 1st & 2nd grade class. She is doing very well and is very smart. She loves to read and loves to go to school. She is always smiling and wants to please everyone. She is also very independent and yet also at the same time very needy. She likes to play with her American Girl doll and be a "mom" She is always thinking of others and how to help them either through prayer or doing something.

Joe is almost 3. Right now I would be so happy if he would just go to the bathroom and stop wearing diapers. He claims he will do it when he is 3. There are days he is good and others where he just wants to be a baby. He is such a joy. He seems so grown up and also still my baby who I don't want to grow up. He loves anything to do with the farm. Most of the fall he would leave with dad at 8am and return around 9pm. He took a nap in the tractors and loved helping bring in the crops. He says the cutest things and I wish I had video cameras in every room of the house because once he sees the camera come out he turns into a cheese.

Remembering Memories

I just got back from about 36 hours of no kids. Yes that is right NO KIDS!!! Thanks to my wonderful mohter-in-law I got to go spend time scrapbooking with Amy. We do this twice a year and have so much fun laughing and talking that I look forward to it for months beforehand.

It is always fun to me to look back on what I have done and see how the kids have changed. I don't know about you, but I am a mom who has always said "I can't wait till the kids are bigger." Well now that they are getting bigger I can see why people told me to enjoy the time when they were little and needed me and wanted to be around me.

Why do we always wish for things to go faster than they are? When we were kids we always wanted time to go faster so it would be summer, winter or whatever we were looking forward to. Now that my kids go back to school in a week I can't believe summer is already done. Where did the time go? Here I had a whole summer where I wasn't working and yet I feel we didn't get anything done or that we didn't do any major vacations except for Pickeral Lake with the Feyen's.

Abby is now 10 and seems like she already doesn't need me as much as before. In a way that is good that she is independant, but also sad that she doesn't need my help as much. I still remember when she was born and how I couldn't put her down because she was my baby. How things change with a little time.

When Amy got home this week she said Joe no longer looks like a little baby or toddler he now looks like a little boy. When did my baby grow up? This is a stage I will never get to repeat since we are having no more children.

Well we are going to make some more memories this week as we spend our last week of summer vacation together. Pray for us as we begin the transition into school again.

Pickeral Lake Pictures

Pickeral Lake Vacation

Well another year of vacation at Pickeral Lake with the Feyen's has come and gone. We had great weather and wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere but at the lake. I think we were in our bathing suits almost the whole week and yet I still have about 8 loads of wash to do. How is it possible that kids can get clothes dirty when they only wear them for about 2 hours a day? Oh well it was worth it.

We did the usual trip to the candy store, swim to the camp across the lake, turtle race, pinata and trips to the 4 connected lakes and a swim on the sandbar. On the swim back from the camp, I was treading water waiting for Becky catch up. While treading my wedding ring and diamond fell off and is now in 33 feet of water in the lake. It was quite a shock because I couldn't get the ring off before we left. The kids were more upset by it than I was. They were concerned that Paul and I weren't married any longer. I then had to explain to them that it wasn't the ring that made us married and they wanted to make sure I get a new ring ASAP. I think this time I will stick with a plain band. Uncle Ken said maybe I should get one tatooed on my finger and then would never have to worry about losing it. I don't think so.

It was good to see everyone but also be home. It was fun to have Allison and Sarah stay across the lake and come visit us daily. Also it was nice to see Rachael and Mike when they came up. Allison, Sarah, Amy and I were saying it is time to get a Feyen get together with the cousins and not all the Aunts and Uncles (not that we don't enjoy your company) We will have to work on that for later this summer or next summer.

I will post pictures of the week next time I get to the library and have high speed.

PICTURES!!!

Well now that I know how to add a photo I am going to try this. These are pictures from our time in Minnesota so some have the Prichard's in them. Hope you enjoy. Beginning next week I will have my goals and failures for Workout Wednesday. I hope to have more positive goals than failures:D

Bear with Me, I'm new at this:D

Okay well here goes again. I am not very faithful in posting on here because of all the other things going on. Also we only have slow speed internet and it takes a while. I am at the library now and maybe I should make this an every Wednesday thing and try to post once a week.
I am trying to do what Lisa is doing, to loose weight and to be more healthy. I am training for a 5K in Overeisel at the end of May. I ran it last year without much training and would like to do better this year. Abby is running it with me. She is involved in Girls on the Run. We did it together last year without walking (that was our goal). Now this year maybe we can try to improve on our time.
Along with everyone else spring is a busy time at our house. Tom has baseball practice twice a week. Paul is busy planting and he plays ball 2 nights a week too. Abby has Girls on the Run, Becky & Joe just go along with whatever we are doing. Abby & Paul also have bee hives to keep the Feyen's supplied with fresh honey. They have to take care of them a couple times each week too. Among all this we still try to eat together a couple times each week.
I need someone to tell me how to post pictures of here. I can't figure it out and have a lot to put out here from Minnesota and just the kids in general.

Spring Break 2009

I am going to try this blogging thing and see how I like it. I am sure I won't be as faithful as Lisa & Charity are, but I will try. Bear with me as I am new at this.


Hello Everyone!! We had a great spring break in Minnesota. The Prichard's let us come visit for a week. We had a great time. This was the first family vacation we have ever been on that didn't include a softball tournament. There were a lot of worries about who wouldn't have fun and if Paul would get bored. Thankfully everyone had fun and felt right at home. If you ask the Prichard's maybe we were to "at home".
It was great to get to know them better in a more intimate setting. There were games played nightly. The new favorite game is "The Farm Game". It will be coming to the cottage, but beware the Tom, Joel & Anna are very competitive and got really good at it. They beat up on Paul and here that never happens so it was goo to put him in his place.
Julia had to deal with us being downatairs with her. We invaded her bathroom and took over the TV room. We also were up earlier than she was, but she never complained and was very gracious to us. Thanks Julia (or as Joe calls her "Judya)
We had a trip to the Mall of America and spent the whole day in the amusement park and never got to go shopping. I think I was the only one sad about that. We had a great time and can't wait to see Tom, Lois, Julia, Ellen, Joel & Anna in 70 days at the cottage. Anna informed me of how many days are left until the cottage.
Ellen got her braces off while we were there and did a lot of smiling:D