TIMS

Since I obviously have shared many videos to encourage charity to others, I thought I would share just one more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jx0ZjAXWwQ

Next time you see someone wearing a pair of Toms, try not to begin chuckling.

As a side note - Tripp Crosby (the taller one) attended Asbury University for a couple years, the university I attended. He was a freshman when I was a senior. We never knew each other, but I worked in the financial aid office, so I helped him with his financial aid paperwork when he first arrived. He was invited to be the speaker/emcee last year for their Homecoming/Reunion weekend last year.

Yard Sales and Camping - what summer is all about, right?

The second weekend in July, I had a yard sale here with two friends. It was a lot of work and I only made $57 and the ad in the paper cost $7, so I am not sure it was worth all the work. I probably would have made more if I would have had it a second day, but I just wanted to be done with the stuff. Also, after the sale, we realized there were a couple bigger things we forgot to set out and there were other things we found that we wanted to get rid of, after the initial pile of stuff was gone. But, since I took everything left over from the yard sale to Goodwill, I would not have enough to have another yard sale, even if I wanted to! I am currently reading "The 7 Experiment: staging your own mutiny against excess" with a group from my church and this week is about possessions - or about having too many possessions and what that says about us. Since I just got rid of a bunch of stuff, I wasn't sure if I could find more to get rid of, but it seems that more things just keep popping up that I don't need. I do not have a hoarding personality. In fact, I love the feeling of purging my home of clutter and do it on a regular basis, so keeping all the stuff for the yard sale was so stressful. The few things I had left that I had planned to get rid of in the yard sale, I have tried to give away to those that I think would need or enjoy them and I have enjoyed it so much more. I think that yard sales are just not my thing and I don't think I will have another for a long time, if ever!

The biggest highlight of having the yard sale was spending the day with my two friends and their kids and helping the kids to be little entrepreneurs! They had a lemonade stand and also sold cookies and pepperoni rolls. They made $48 and since they were sharing it between all the kids, none of the adults made them pay for their expenses. They really did work hard and it was fun to have them all work together to make their sign and to sell, etc. I was so busy during the yard sale, I forgot to take a picture, but I remembered at the end of the day before we tore down their table.

Bagging the cookies.

The sign they made together.

We had already taken the lemonade and cookies upstairs, but here are my two salespeople, minus their co-workers.

Then the third weekend of July, we went camping for Josh's family reunion.  We had some wonderful moments and thought, "We really should do this more often." Then we had some miserable moments and thought, "We really should never do this ever again!" It was just SO HOT and the campground bathroom left a lot to be desired, like enough water coming out of the shower head to get you wet during your shower! We had a friend who let us use their family's roll-up camper. Camper camping is so much easier than tent camping, but it is still a lot of work.We learned some things and think that if we do choose to do it again, we will be a little wiser the next time. We did have some great family time in the pool, which is where we were all our happiest! Bella has became a full-fledge, deep-end swimmer this summer. And on top of that, she learned to ride her bike without training wheels there - and has the bruises to prove it. She was so determined to learn that she kept falling and getting up. She would not give up and had it down by the end of the weekend. We made a deal with her that when she learned to ride without training wheels, we would buy her a new bike, so she got her new bike as soon as we got back.

Our camp site. This was at around 10 a.m. and it was already in the 80s.

This was one of Bella's first rides without her training wheels.

July 4

I was going to write a post for all of July, but then I realized that it was taking quite a bit of text just to share about July 4th! So this is just week one of July. Hopefully, I will blog about the rest of July before Christmas!

The first week of July was a bit slower (thankfully!). We had a few play dates and we had neighbor's kids here, but no scheduled activities until July 4th. Of course, I had a lot of housework to catch up on! I spend over $300 at the grocery store, because I had not taken a real grocery store trip since school let out and we were pretty much out of everything!

On July 4th, we went to my hometown to have a picnic with my family. We originally planned to go to the park that we used to go to when I was little for the 4th, but the weather was looking really iffy, so we decided to eat at my parent's house instead. We decided to have everyone chip in and buy fried chicken, instead of cooking and it was the best decision ever! It made preparation and clean up so easy. I had made pepperoni rolls and cinnamon rolls the day before and my sisters and mom made a few things each too, but it was pretty easy for everyone. I don't get to see my two oldest sisters much, and my other sister I see just a little more than them, so it was great for everyone to be together and getting along! My kids played outside with their cousins for a few hours before we ate and the adults sat around and caught up, since we didn't have anything to cook!
After we ate, my sister Tracey and I decided we were going to try to go to the park anyway, even though the skies looked pretty ominous. It was only $4 for a van load to get in, so I thought that even if we didn't get to stay long, it would still be fun. My sister wasn't so enthusiastic! My kids love to play with their cousin, Emma, and she is so easy going that she is always a joy to be around. Tracey's other three kids didn't get to join us on the 4th because they were at church camp. We got there and minutes after we got to the beach, it began down pouring, serious rain the size of small birds down pouring! Since it wasn't thundering and lightning, the kids ran out in their bathing suits and played in the rain. I kept saying, "It's going to clear up. I can just tell." It finally the rain did slow, but then it began lightning and thundering, so we had to pull the kids under the bathroom awning where Josh, Tracey and I had huddled. Then I said, "Even if it doesn't clear up, at least we are making memories!"  Tracey said jokingly, "Yeah, I can just hear us. 'Remember that time when we went to the park and got struck by lightning!'" But then suddenly it did start to clear up, so we waited for the storm to move away a little and let the kids play in the sand. After about 15 minutes, the thunder and lightning began again, so we made them come back up under the awning and I joked again that it was going to clear up. After 15 minutes under the awning, the storm had passed and we let the kids go back to the sand and play for about 15 minutes.
Then the sky actually did clear and the sun grew hot. The kids were finally allowed to get in the water (which was pretty gross, since all the rain had really churned all the sea weed and everything from the bottom). They were ecstatic! The plunged right in. They splashed and played for about an hour. Tracey and I had waded up to our knees in the water, both of us decided that it wasn't worth getting in our suits. We were standing there chatting and we noticed that the clouds on both ends of the sky were looking really black again. Almost before we knew it, the rain began pouring again. By the time we gathered our stuff off of the beach and got back to the awning, we were already drenched to the waist. We stood there deciding whether we should make a run for the van or wait it out. We decided that we were already so wet, we might as well just go. By the time we got to the van, even my shorts were soaked all the way through, but we were all laughing and I don't regret going to the park for a minute.
We had originally planned to go to the professional fireworks that are shot off over Deep Creek Lake, but when we got back to my parent's house, my dad was already setting up for his own fabulous display, so we decided that we just had to stay there instead. Tracey asked Dad to build a fire and we ran to her house to get S'mores stuff and so that Emma could check the dogs that she was dog sitting - which my kids love to help her with every time we are there!
So we got back and pulled out the lunch left overs, sat around the fire and the kids played in the yard. My dad, Josh, and my brother-in-law Donnie went up on the hill of my parent's property to start the fireworks display. I have to say, it was quite impressive. In between the blasts, you could hear all three men laughing, like blowing up things was the funnest thing in the world to do! My sister thought one of them was going to end up losing a finger or something! The kids actually got bored watching the fireworks before they were finished (that is how many my dad set off) and began playing flashlight tag.
We didn't leave until 11:15 p.m.. I thought the kids would fall asleep as soon as we hit the interstate, or before. But not only did they not fall asleep, they talked and played pleasantly the entire trip home. They decided to use their blankets to make a tent over them. It took them the entire trip, but they actually had one constructed by the time we pulled into the driveway.
It was such a great day. It was definitely one that I will remember for a long time and my parents were so happy to have us all there.

June

So, it has been a long time since I have blogged, yet again! Our summer has been busy, but I really have just not felt like writing when I do have the time.

I have always liked word puzzles, but never been interested in crossword puzzles - until now. So now, in my spare time, I find my book of crosswords and can waste away 20-30 minutes without even knowing it.  I have actually became burnt out on other types of word puzzles that I used to do, so I may eventually burn myself out with these also. I also have been reading magazines and a couple books. I have been trying to get a study of James by Beth Moore done (that I began quite a while ago), but the lessons are really long, so it is difficult to really finish them in one setting, especially when you have to stop every 5 minutes to answer a question, break up a fight, or get a kid a drink.

The only regularly scheduled activity we kept from the school year over the summer was Elias' drum lessons.

I was going to just do one blog post that was a quick synopsis of what we'd done so far this summer, but I realized that the post was getting extremely long, so I decided to make this post just about June.


So all summer we have had neighbor kids at our house practically every day, sometimes multiple kids at multiple times in one day. I never grew up in a neighborhood that had kids and always wish I had, so I try to remember that when my house is loud and the door is sitting open again and again. When our neighbor kids aren't here, we often have the kids school or church friends visiting too. Some days I have had to tell the kids that the neighbors have to go home, just because I would like to see my own kids and have a conversation with them! They don't understand this, but I don't like putting them to bed and feeling like I barely saw them all day!

We started the summer off busy as usual! We attended my friend Cassi's 30th birthday party on the first Friday of our summer break. Josh took Elias to travel soccer try outs, but they came afterward. (As a side note, I was really proud of Elias. He tried out for travel and made the team, but decided he would rather play on the local team and turned it down.) Then Saturday, Josh ran a soccer tournament while I took Bella yard saling. Then we went to our friend Bella's dance recital. It was quite a full weekend!

Cassi and Bella at Bella's dance recital.

The week after school ended, the kids had swim lessons every morning. The first week of lessons, the kids went to a VBS that they go to every year and they kept inviting friends, so by the end of the week, we actually had to take 2 cars to transport them all! I got tons of exercise that week, because I walked on the track beside the pool in the mornings during the kids lessons and then Josh and I walked on the rails-and-trails in the evenings.

This is Elias with his swim teacher, David. He really liked him a lot. This is the picture I seem to have taken at swim lessons. I thought I had taken more, but there are none in my files.

On the second week of lessons, we had use of our friend's pool who was on vacation. So we would leave lessons and then head out to her house to swim. I continued to walk on the track that week. It felt great to get regular exercise, that was so convenient to do!

At our friend's pool.

The following week, our church had "Big Kicks Soccer Camp". Basically, it was VBS with a soccer theme. It was a crazy, HOT, busy week, but it was so much fun and we actually had some great family time that week. Josh coached and I helped with registration and the food for the special events and the kids both participated. Elias was on Josh's team and Bella was on "Coach D's" team. She is a teen who used to be in the youth group when we were leaders and Bella really looked up to her a lot. She is not extremely interested in soccer, so I was really glad that she enjoyed it. And the only night that the camp was completely rained out was Friday. We just went to the church and had ice cream and watched a slide show of pictures, which we had planned on doing anyway outside at the park. I think it actually worked better at the church, so it was actually a blessing in disguise.

Josh and his assistant coaches

Bella and Coach D

Elias got his face painted during the hot dog dinner, which occurred before camp started on Wednesday and he had sweat it almost completely off in the first 5 minutes of playing!

Also, that week I babysat for a friend's baby all day Monday. My kids were great helpers for the first 5 hours and kept saying they wished they had a little sister or brother, but by afternoon, their enthusiasm to help had waned quite a bit! But she was a great baby and the day went amazingly smooth, even though we had two different appointments that day - one being a dentist appointment for me, which I was the most worried about! She sat in the stroller and seemed enthralled!

Elias kept putting his hat on her and taking pictures while I was getting my teeth cleaned. I was so afraid he was going to end up frustrating her by doing it, but she was a trooper and never fussed once!

Then on Thursday of that week, my friend, Dawn, and I went to a Harry Connick, Jr. concert. I had scheduled it with her before I realized that the camp was the same week. We had such a good time. She was one of my first friends that we made when we moved to Fairmont and we used to meet on a weekly basis for Bible study and accountability, etc. But since I had Bella, we hardly ever get together anymore, so it was so nice to have some dedicated time with her and we seemed to pick up right where we left off.

And, finally, on Saturday of that same week the kids and I attended a birthday party for our friend, Bella, who was turning 5, at a gymnastics center. Josh stayed home to help a friend move.

So that is what our June looked like! Look for the July post to follow!

I will think of this every time I see a piano...

I am sure you have heard the expression, "He played me like a fiddle!"

When it comes to the devil, he often plays me like a piano. I never would have thought about it this way before. Just read this.

Another school year over

Another school year is over. The kids are enjoying this first beautiful day off by playing with the neighbor kids.
The kids ended the year strong. Both of them had good grades and I really saw both of them mature in many ways over the past year. They are both looking forward to next school year. I can hardly believe that it will be Elias' last year of elementary school. I am so glad that he has a positive attitude about learning now. Last school year, trying to get him to read and learn was torturous for everyone! Bella had another great year. She is just a natural student who loves to learn, so she takes to every subject quickly. The kids have already scoped out the next grades' teachers and have decided which ones they would like to have! I have told them to not get their heart set on anyone in particular!

I took a picture of the kids last night in the same place I took their "beginning of the year" pictures. They had been playing and were a little disheveled looking, but it gives me an idea of how they have grown. Bella lost her 2 front teeth just a week or two after school began and she still has no teeth yet! We keep thinking they will pop through any day, but we have been thinking that for 6 months! The 2 teeth beside Elias' front ones have not grown in yet either. In fact, they are taking so long that the dentist x-rayed him to make sure they are up in his gums. I didn't know this, until I had met 3 different people that were missing those teeth, that those are teeth that people commonly are missing. They put in implants and have veneers to replace them. Luckily, Elias' teeth are up there, they are just taking their own sweet time to come in.

This is the beginning of the school year.

This is the end of the school year.

We took them to Burger King (their choice) to celebrate the end of the year and Bella wanted to show off her toy from her meal.

Thought of the day

God will not be handcuffed by my failures or unleashed by my successes - from Jon Acuff's blog post.