Great Kids

These are a few of our great neices and Nephews we have been playing with:

Jamin, Brady, & Nicole

Musings from Michigan

Greetings from the Grand location of the Grand River, Rapids, Haven and other Grand things - like Grandpas! Well, one of these handsome gents has arrived at this status, the other one is still enjoying having the youngest child in the family.

Isn't life grand!

100 Birthdays

I got to thinking the other day about birthday parties as we were planning to celebrate 2 in our family this weekend. And I was thinking ... we have done this alot of times.





Then I got to counting the birthdays of my children and the ones we most likely celebrated, once if not twice. And counting the ones we maybe missed or nailed with a two for one deal. Altho that usually happened with a parent and I'm not even counting those.





Then there are the "low key" celebrations which we have had more of lately as everyone is older. So it seems that in order to count, a celebration needs to have cake, candles, photos and/or gifts. Adding those up, subtracting the ones that didn't qualify I would have to say with believable accuracy that this is most definitely, count on it, birthday party number ....


One HUNDRED!! Have a good one, girls!

Attentive or Attritive Parenting

While I've been at this for some time, I don't usually think of myself as really losing my edge. Although I definitely admit to losing my cool, or at least my coolness, in being a mom. But that doesn't bother me much - after all, most of the other parents are so much younger than me that I'm not really driven by peer pressure.

Maybe this is not a good thing. This week has really left me questioning my actions & sanity - or lack thereof.

On Monday, I woke up totally forgetting that youngest daughter had a camp to attend this week. When I noticed her doing her laundry by herself I wondered for a second and then remembered a brief conversation and check I had written weeks earlier to sign her up. So a little curious I asked her just where this camp was located. She answered vaguely with the name of a suburb up north but not really sure of what it was called. No problem, I thought, I'll just google it later. When does it end I ask and receive a "maybe Friday sometime". Need money? Yeah, there's cash in one of my jean's pockets you can have. I drop off her & the camp stuff she had packed on a neighboring church corner. Since we were early (I think) there wasn't a van driver or other camper in sight, but hey, there was a nice elderly gardener in the church yard.

So here it is Thursday night and I realize she never did call to let me know where exactly she is. She doesn't have a cell phone, b/c of course she's not driving yet and that would be like, a total waste. I really don't know the name or number of the leader of her group and not really sure when to pick her up tomorrow. Maybe I better get on that googl-ing!

OK, OK, just so the Parent Police don't arrest me during the night I am compelled to add this: while all the above is absolutely true, I dropped her off completely safe and I could track down a phone number if I had to. And I have prayed blessings over her each and every morning that her heart will truly be touched. But I am looking forward to the curious response I will get about why she failed to call me.

Ride On

Here's to a Dad that enjoyed his Father's Day!

Weeding - wee, what fun

Dad is happiest when they're working:

Younguns are happiest when they're not!

This is random but this is our week

The middle child puts in 50 plus hours in record low June temperatures!

Nevertheless, strawberries still ripen in the valley and the wet parades are endured.

This Rachel Ray wanna-be makes pretty good chocolate covered berries, and other things...

Now that school is over!

The Rest of the Story

I feel compelled to give you the rest of the story since a) there was a "before" picture, and b) you might wonder about our touring around the state in such appearance as was posted, dirty knees and all.
But before getting to that I just want to add this one photo which really typifies what I think life should be like for son and his beloved. Sitting together in a cold and dark place but facing what lies ahead with the same mind and focus, with the soft light streaming in and making all things look welcome. Or something like that ... anyway, hope you like this cool shot as much as I do.
And lastly I want to post these because I have learned how to add my very own watermark, saved as a cool tool named "Sister".

So it was the caving and barking that gave us all dirty knees and muddy feet. But the final result was quite exquisite after all.

Dad is experiencing aspen envy at this point, thinking of maybe snitching one when son isn't looking.


And me, a little bleeding heart envy has me looking for a small slip of this lovely plant in all those buckets of tulips I took home!

Mountain Top Day

There's alot of snow up here.

Makes you want to go piggy back (especially in flips)

Or lick your husband's face, because you can.

Or just enjoy the spectacular view!

The Underground

Spelunking!