Friday!!

Well, today was the last of the make up week.  Not much on the lines of school work today.  Tonight Nattalie will go to a concert with friends and then spend the night.  She is so excited.  John and I are a little nervous about her going to the concert.  One thing that is making it better is that we will be at small group at church and the concert is at Hope Church right next door.

The boys are excited because after a while we are going to Cici's with Dylan and April.  Our fun way to say thanks to Dylan for all the help with the trees yesterday.

Thursday.....one we shall label work day

When we got up this morning we starting working outside.  We helped Pop clean the lawn mower and also get more mud off the Rhino.  Wow, even though it was cleaned once there was still a ton of mud!

Then we worked on an oil change for the lawn mower and then onto yard work.  We worked on the yard so that as things die off we don't have as much work to do.  Then we had some great help from Dylan and a chain saw.  We got a ton of branches off the pine tree and then we tried to work on one branch from another tree, but it is just too high.  Dylan even helped load it all up and take it away today.  What a blessing you were today, Dylan.  Also, thanks Dad, for trying to help with the tall branch using the wench on the Rhino.  We will have to come up with a way to get that branch down!

And, no picture becuase I was so nervous with all the branches and the height that John was up in the tree! :)

Now, movie with the family before bed time.

Visit to Bob Nandell's

This afternoon the kids and I went to Bob Nandell's for a history lesson in Navy Ships and Union Pacific Railroad.  The model ships and then train sets are just amazing.  The kids and I spent more than two hours there. 

The kids also enjoyed playing with the two dogs, Jpeg and Pixel.  Bob is a retired photographer.  Don't you just love the names of his dogs!

Bob has been a wonderful blessing to the family and we truly enjoy him!  Thank you for sharing with us today, Bob!!

Now, here are some pictures to share from our fun afternoon

Daniel loved to run the train!

Nattalie had a great time!  And the scarf was a gift from Bob...she loves it!

Bob explains all the parts to the kids

This ship Bob built on his own, not from a kit at all.

WWII Naval Ship

The top gun in a WWII riffle and the bottom gun is an 1852 riffle

Part of the many cities around the railroad.

Johnathan had an awesome time with Pixel and Jpeg

Yeah...John comes home tonight!

Today we worked on some more stuff that we needed to catch up on.  I am glad that we choose to work on this rather than forging ahead and always feeling behind.

We went to church for mandolin, guitar and electric guitar practice.  The kids are doing well with their instruments.  Nattalie is really liking the mandolin; it fits her well.  After that I had practice for 2nd service worship.  We have two new songs this week...they are great songs.  Praying for a great and worshipful service on Sunday!

John should be home around 11pm.  The kids and I will head back to the church to pick him up.  They are very excited that dad is coming home (me too).

Monday, Monday, Monday!

Wow, this past weekend went by way too fast for all the projects that we wanted to accomplish.  We did miss John, but the days flew by.  We did get our work done! :)

We will label this week make up week for school.  We have some odds and ends from last week that we didn't finish.  So this week we will buckle down and get everything caught back up. 

Today we cleaned house and did so grocery shopping.  Why do I dislike the grocery store so much?

The kids are ready for John to come home tomorrow night! :)

WOW....super busy Saturday!

We started with paper route.  The kids are getting really good and getting the delivery done in an hour.  It is awesome.  I think that we will be able to get the Sunday done in an hour and a half if the boys are up to the running.  It was cold this morning and I know that tomorrow is supposed to be cold too.  We are prepared with hats, gloves, and jackets.

After we woke up we got right on the garage.  We did complete it...yeah!  We made a handful of trips to the Good Will and then also set aside some things for some of the younger kids at the church.  We worked so hard on the garage that we almost didn't get ready in time to go to soccer....but we made it!

Daniel had a great time at soccer.  He is doing awesome!  The score was 5 to 2.  Daniel's team won and he scored 3 of those points.  He is loving playing.  Nattalie, Johnathan and I thought that we were going to freeze.  It was so windy that it made it feel a lot colder than it was.  This was a really long hour and a half.

Here are some pictures:  Daniel is the white shirt and blue sports pants.

After soccer we put our center sections of the Sunday Paper together and then we headed to the house for a little bit.  Then we enjoyed some dinner with Dava and Josie.  We had a good time!  Also, yeah for coupons.  On our way over we stopped at the store to get drinks.  Hyvee had some great one day sales.  With our coupons from last Sundays paper I was able to get sausage for $.45 a lb..GREAT DEAL!!

Then....home to get ready for bed and church in the morning.  The kids were able to end there night talking to dad about their day.  Dad is still having fun 4-wheeling in the Smokey Mountains.

Busy Friday......

We, of course, started off with the paper delivery nice and early.  Then home and back to sleep.  We got up a little later and finished up on school for the week.

Then we headed to the hospital to take my dad home.  Praise the Lord that he is home and doing much better.  When we got there they still needed to take out the IV.  The nurse took it out and then went on to show the kids how it worked.  It was so funny because she got a little water to wash through it and ended up squirting it all over my dad....we all laughed so hard!  Then we got dad home and told him it was time for rest.

Then we headed home and started to work on our garage.  We have needed to work on that garage for a LONG time.  We made a lot of progress, but we still have to finish tomorrow.  It will feel nice when that project is done.  I knew we were done for today when I started looking at all of it and just couldn't figure out what to do with any of it.

Then off to the store to redeem some cans.  We used our can money for some ice cream as a treat for our hard work in the garage.  We made sure that we got enough ice cream so that we can treat ourselves tomorrow after more hard work out there.

Daniel is excited to play soccer tomorrow.  I will try to remember the camera to take some pictures. 

Good day in all and we miss John, but know that he is having a great time!