Our Last Picture

We had a visitor the other night and thought you might enjoy seeing him. Of course, I had just washed that window, I guess that's why he had such an easy time climbing it, no dirt resistance.

Corn Casserole

We haven't had a recipe up for awhile so here goes. Harvey had 4 servings of this at dinner the
other night. Other than junk food, that is definitely the most servings he has wanted of anything ever.

Cream Corn Casserole
1 pkg. Jiffy corn bread mix
1 stick melted butter
1 cup sour cream
1 egg

Mix above ingredients, and add 1 can cream corn and 1 can whole corn (drained). Bake at 350 for about an hour, or until it's light brown and doesn't jiggle. (You can add peppers and onions, but then the kids probably won't touch it.)

The recipe is from a blog on the Prairie Home Companion website called "The View from Mrs. Sundberg's Window." I like to check in every now and then, very midwestern comfort genre.

gasp! a post!

Pictures for everyone! Sorry I haven't updated for a long time. Let's get to it!


These cute girls now love playing together. Macie can FINALLY crawl (but has absolutely no interest in standing or walking) and Addie loves hanging on everything--everything!

Here is a rare picture of Mom, all by herself, amongst the trees at the Memphis Botanical Gardens during our TOFW weekend. Below it are four silly, grinning flowers.

Jason turned 31 in April. He requested an ice cream cake, and I found this easy recipe in a Kraft magazine. It was sooo good. He was a little sad to, instead of having "arrived" at 30, to be now "approaching 40." Haha. My new favorite picture of Macie. Just look at her two top buck teeth! Here is the sign Addie and I made (she colored it) for Jason after his last final. For this last year he just works at extern sites so he no longer has any lecture classes or tests. Whew! I can't believe we're so close!

Kurt, Heather and Harvey came to visit us a few weekends ago. We loved having them. It was great to spend some one on one time getting to know them better. I've lived away from them ever since they've been married, so it was great to just talk and play games and spend time with you guys! Here is Jason dunking Addie in the coi pond at the Botanical Gardens.

Harvey commenting on their pretty faces.

Heather and Kurt bought some fish food to use at the Japanese gardens. It was funny to watch Harvey and Addie feed them. Harvey threw in the pellets one by one by one, while Addie just dumped her entire fist full at once. Do I see a forshadowing of their personalities?

Enjoying some good ole Memphis BBQ at Fat Larry's. Mmmm...

We spent a sunny afternoon at Mud Island and let the kids wade through the water. It was hot and dirty, but Harvey and Addie seemed to have a lot of fun. The best part for me? Crawling up this giant hill with Harvey, Jason and Addie and sliding down on our bums! There is a picture of that in their slideshow. Mom, that big green hill is on Mud Island. I've seen kids bring cardboard boxes and sled down it before. After doing it on our backsides, I'd love to try it on a box.

It really was great having you come. We have a letter R to reunite with your Bananagram game, so we'll have to make sure to bring that in July! I'm looking forward to the reunion, it will be so much fun to see everyone!

Oh yeah, and I still don't know how far along I am in my pregnancy. I'm waiting to get approved on Tenncare (Medicaid), and have no idea how long that will take. At the latest, I'm having a free ultrasound on June 8th and will know then. I'm feeling fine, but already noticeably showing, and wonder if I'm approaching the end of my first trimester...or if I'm just destined to be huge this time around. I've definitely blossomed in the last week or so. Grrrr. But we're getting excited about having this baby and, don't tell Jason, I'm actually kind of glad we're going to find out what we're having this time, mostly to pump me up for it. :)

Avalanche of pictures

Well, since I didn't make the time to make posts for each of these things, I'm grouping them all into one. However! I figured out how to put a slideshow right into the post, so I don't have to put in every individual picture. Good for me because it's easy, which means it's good for you because you'll get to see more pictures this way. Plus, you can make the slideshow fullscreen to see large versions (after starting the slideshow, click the icon in the lower right with the four arrows), and then click the "Show Info" button at the top to see comments for individual pictures. Use the left and right arrows on the keyboard to move back and forth through the images, or just let the slideshow run. Yay.

First up, building the raised garden for Heather.


A Day Out with Thomas at Greenfield Village. Heather's parents came down, as well as Oliver and his parents.


Our visit to Memphis. The first section of pictures are from our stop at COSI.


And finally, a trip to the Toledo Zoo with our friends the McKibbens.

A Job! A Job!

Eric has been looking for job for almost a month. Last week he got an interview...we thought it was for Home Depot. So on the day of the interview he went to Home Depot and they didn't have any idea what he was talking about. He hung around for about 30 min. and got a message for the people from the-store-that-shall-remain-nameless wondering where he is. Oops! and Dang! He wanted to work for Home Depot because then he could wear whatever he wanted to work. But despite being 30 minutes late, he was still hired to be a blue warrior in the toy department. Yesterday he took a drug test and gave them permission to do a background check and when those come in clean (they said the drug test could take anywhere from 5-7 days to come back!) then he can finish his paperwork and finally get on the schedule. This process has taken forever. Oh, well, at least it's a job and Eric's excited about toys because all he'll really have to do is stock shelves. It will definitely help this summer since we don't get our next loan money until August. Wohoo for a job!

Anna

Jocelyn, Charlie's sister, had her baby on May 2nd (I think). We got to visit them in the hospital. Her name is Anna Marie. Here are my kids holding her. She sure is a cutie.

Newest family additons

We picked up a buck for our does last weekend. We are hoping to have babies for next year's 4-H projects. He certainly is doing his job. It's been an interesting learning experience for our kids to watch. This is what he looks like.


This is him standing next to our does. He is just so much bigger than they are. The guy we got him from called him "Willy." He offered to sell him to us and we are thinking we probably will buy him. He only wants $50 for him which is sooo cheap for such a goat. We could sell him for meat for more than $50. We would keep him at Charlie's parents' house in Fowlerville though. So we have started to call him "Monster" because he's so big.


These are the four whethers we bought for the kids 4-H projects for this year. They aren't very big, but we're hoping they will put on lots of weight before August 16th, which is our show day (I think). We picked them up yesterday in Adrian, Mi. We'd like to not have to go that far again, which is why we are trying to have our own babies for next year.

Auction

Last night was the Young Men & Young Women auction to raise money for their camps. There was a spaghetti dinner that we paid $5.00 a piece for and then the auction for the desserts. We came home with a blackberry cheese cake and some really good brownies. We also tasted the cake and monkey bread that the Bennetts bought. I got a stomach ache from all the sugary stuff. Just yesterday at Curves they had a quote from Leonardo DiVinci that said something to the effect of, It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end. I found out last night that that's true, if I hadn't of started eating all those sweets, I'd have been so much better off. Once I began, I couldn't stop.

Choir Concerts

Last week we had two choir concert to attend. Makayla's was on Tuesday and Merrit's was on Thursday. Merrit was actually in a special choir that he volunteered for. It required extra, special practices before school and at lunch time. Both kids did really well, and were fairly animated and really got into the songs. It was fun to watch.

Merrit is in the front with the tan hat on. The one moving around the most.

Makayla is in the third row up and about four kids in from the end. The kid next to her, on her right, has dark brown hair and a light colored shirt. Makayla is wearing green.

Since no one has posted anything lately, I thought I'd put another picture I took on the blog. If you don't want to keep seeing my photography, you should put your own on.

4-H event

This past Friday was a spur-of-the-moment party for Bradyn's (Les and Kristi's oldest) birthday. He wanted Merrit to come so we brought the whole family. They went to see the movie Furry Revenge. It was pretty cheesy with little plot line, but the kids enjoyed it. Here they are after the movie was over.



This past Saturday we helped with a service project with our 4-H group. We are becoming more and more involved with 4-H and I think the kids really enjoy it. I think it's been good for them. Here is the group of us that went with the Gleaners group who invited us to come.


Makayla has a school performance tomorrow and Merrit has one on Thursday this week. I'm sure we'll have pictures of those to post too. This month is looking to be super busy for us. I'm so glad my classes have finished. I received an A in both. I was pretty happy about that. Charlie finished his super hard class last Wednesday and then began his next one the following day. The class he is in now is so much easier. He's pretty happy about that. The kids are all doing well. We signed the youngest three up for karate. They started last Thursday. They had fun. I'll have to get some pictures of them doing some moves. Their class is only 6 weeks long. We could sign them up for the next class, but we are playing it by ear. We also signed Merrit up for baseball. It's been his dream for years now. His first game is June 7th. The don't have a practice schedule yet. Merrit is so excited about it. We've been trying to help him practice here at home. I hope he has fun and does well. The season only goes until the middle of July, which is good since we leave for vacation then. I'm glad he won't miss any games because of vacation.

Jaxson's fieldtrip

Jaxson's class went to Grandpa Tiny's farm in Frankenmuth. It was fun, even though it was little chilly. We were able to see some fun animals, Jaxson went on a horse pulled wagon ride and we lined up using their Boer buck to breed with our does. It was a very productive time. Now we just have to fix our fencing so it will be good enough to keep in a buck, then we will go get him. I'm hoping to get him this coming Saturday. Here are some pictures of the event.
This is Jaxson and his friend Max in the chicken coop.

These are the horses that pulled the wagon.

This is Jaxson petting one of the goslings. The woman who was showing us the animals explained that with this particular breed of goose, the male goslings have light bills and the females have dark bills. We were reading a farm story today and it had some baby swans in the story. Jaxson pointed at one of them and said that because of its dark bill it was a girl. I was so impressed that he had remembered that.

Jaxson's Music Extravaganza!

Jaxson's class had a music day, April 22nd, that they invited parents to. I have some pictures and videos of them performing. This video was the most entertaining. All the kids did really good and were really cute.

Sorry if it takes a while to load.

We are still here

So I feel bad that I haven't posted in a while. I do have some new pictures and stuff to add, I just haven't had the time. Or when I've had the time, Charlie has been on the laptop. It's so much easier to upload the pictures from the laptop. Anyway, so I'm just going on record as saying that I plan to update the blog this week, some time. I'm also giving warning that when I update, it will be long.

Spring Pictures

I have inherited Dad's camera, so I've been practicing using it and took these pictures. These ones turned out pretty good, so I'm sharing them with those I love.

new phone!

Well, my new phone is up and running. My friend's sister had an extra one she wasn't using anymore so she sent it to me! It's an LG Rumor (the same kind Eric has apparently) and I like it! It's hard to beat the price. I wish the buttons were bigger, but Jason is convinced I won't even notice that in time. Anyhow, feel free to call me now!

at the lake

Yesterday I took the girls to feed ducks at a park near our house. My friend and her four kids also came. We played on the playground for a while, and then headed down the hill to feed the ducks.

I had Macie strapped in her carseat on one side of our double stroller and my friend's 2 year old was sitting in the other seat. We stood there chatting for a few minutes while the kids threw bread to the ducks and ran around. For a split second I turned around to talk to Addie and let go of the stroller. It rolled to the lake and flipped over the ledge. Before I knew what was happening my friend yelled, 'Your baby!" and I turned around to see my stroller, face down in the lake, with the wheels sticking up out of the water! Our little girls were strapped in there, face down!

Without hesitation I jumped in the lake, flipped the stroller over, and dragged it out of the lake as fast as I could. Macie was startled, a little wet, and crying. I unstrapped her as fast as I could and she calmed down pretty quickly. It wasn't until I flipped the stroller over that we even realized Daisy was still in there! Her mom pulled her out, she was dripping wet and screaming, but fine.

It was soooo scary. Probably one of the scariest moments of my life. I still don't even know exactly what happened, it was all so quick. I think I was in minor shock afterwards, I just held Macie and watched my purse and the bag of food we had brought float out towards the middle of the lake. It didn't even occur to me to go and get it. Shauna finally jumped in after my stuff and had to swim, truly swim, out to retrieve it.

Thankfully everyone is fine. The blanket that was on Macie in the carseat wasn't even soaked, about half of it was dry, so I think when the carseat flipped it made a small pocket of air around her. Her lips were kind of cut up yesterday, I don't know how that happened, but they look normal today. Daisy was really shaken up, but eventually calmed down. I just felt so stupid and irresponsible. It completely drained me I am blessed to have such a good friend that didn't blame me or get angry, she just did what had to be done and was very gracious about the whole thing.

It has made me think about the precious moments I have with my children. I mean, Macie honestly could have died had we not been able to react quickly. How would I have coped with that guilt and loss? I am grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father to protect my family and who blesses me even when I forget to be grateful or humble or obedient.

Needless to say, my phone is a goner. If you need me, either email me or call Jason's cell. I will be getting a new phone in a few days. Can you believe I need another phone? I think this makes four in two years. A small price to pay for the safety of my kids.

Sagano

Mom and Dad took us to Sagano Japanese Bistro and Steakhouse in Brighton for out birthday dinner. We had a great time. It's the kind of place where you sit around the big grill, and they cook you food there in front of you. Our chef was really entertaining, and Harvey was mesmerized. He started out by setting the grill on fire, and then setting up the "onion volcano". He wowed us by juggling a raw egg all over the place without breaking it, and then "catching" it on the side of his spatula so that tit drained out onto the table. Then he took turns tossing a bit of food to each of us to catch in our mouths. I caught mine on the first try. A lady sitting with a family at our table just caught hers in the air with her hands and ate it, to avoid the embarrassment. Our food was very tasty. I would especially recommend the white tuna, which Heather and Mom ordered. It was succulent. While cooking the food, he'd left a few pieces off to the side of the fire and did one last round of food tossing. For mine, the very last piece, he walked about 20 feet away for the toss. I caught it perfectly! For dessert, we ordered a tempura (deep fried) banana split. And since we'd already told them we were celebrating our birthdays, they brought it out in a big parade, playing a drum and singing. They had us stand and dance while they sang. The picture above is with the guy who played the drum; unfortunately, we didn't get picture with our chef.

We had a great time. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Happy birthdays!

I just want to wish Kurt and Heather a happy belated birthday! Hope you don't feel too old now.

Easter fun

We had an Easter get-together this past weekend at our place. Lots of fun was had by all. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Saturday morning, there was an egg hunt at the park down the street from us.



Here is Harvey's version of the cheesey grin. He says cheese whenever he sees the camera now, but he doesn't actually smile. He just says cheese.




Too cute.

Then everyone showed up. Heather made homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch, and then dyed eggs. Mom brought all the puzzles and games she's bringing to the reunion, and we had fun with those, too. We hunted eggs during a light sprinkle, and of course a short while later the sun came out. Oh well.


More cheese. Hillary read about this great idea to put Harvey's eggs in a whisk for dyeing so he wouldn't have to balance them on a spoon. It worked great.


Jim worked on his dyeing technique, too.





The group shot.


I dyed these eggs the night before using natural dye agents. The yellows were done with onion paper. Three were actually wrapped in the onion paper (and then in cheese cloth to hold the onion paper on), and they came out speckled. Three were sitting free in the pot, and they have more of a smooth finish. The blues were done with chopped red cabbage. They came out speckled because the pot was so full of the red cabbage, it pressed against the eggs and made the cool designs. The cabbage was pretty smelly, though. I think they all turned out great. I like the muted colors much better than the bright colors from store-bought dye.

Recipe:
Enought water to cover the eggs
1-2 Tbsp vinegar per cup of water
1/4 tsp alum per cup of water (find it with the spices in the grocery store)
As much dyeing agent as you can fit in the pot and still fit the eggs

Add the water, vinegar, alum, and dyeing agent to the pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes. Add the eggs and simmer for at least 15 minutes, or until they achieve the color you want. The blue ones took about 30 minutes for me, which will probably make the eggs really tough, so we're not planning on eating them.