Where did the summer go!

Well, it's that time of year again. Summer is coming to an end and it's time to get the kiddos back into school mode - not to mention time for me to get back into work mode. I know we had an awesome summer but it was definately not nearly long enough. Wouldn't it be nice if the summer was just one month longer. Oh the possibilities.



So over the past weekend we had lots planned again. Friday night we went over to Jason's mom's house. We met up with his family and had a suprise 80th birthday party for pops. Pops is married to Jason's grandma. He said we got him good. It was nice to see a smile on his face. The kids ran around the yard like animals. They rode bikes, kicked the soccer ball around, played a little baseball in the back yard. You know the kind where you pick tree's to be your bases. The good ol' kind of ball. It's always fun getting everyone together. Thanks for a great party Deb & Aunt Margie.



Saturday Jason helped Jamie & Autumn move into their new house. I was going to help but we were not able to find a sitter. So, I stayed home and did some much needed cleaning. After he came home, I packed up my scrapbook stuff and headed to Jay's aunts house. I was able to work on 3 pages. I was very happy with what I finished. I will post pictures later - I still do not have my own camera yet so I have to borrow hubby's work camera.



Sunday (today) Jason woke up bright and early. Him & Brendan went to meet Paul. They went on a canoe trip down the river. This was Brendan's first experience down the river. I was glad that they did this today. It gave the two of them a chance to hang out together. Apparently Brendan had a wonderful time and was a perfect little boy. Pretty amazing what some one on one time will do for a young one. I on the other hand stayed home with Colby & Chaley. We went and did some running with my mom. Then my mom and I went back to her house and made 300 plus pudding shots for Wheatland this next weekend. Glad to have those finished and in the freezer. Tomorrow, I have to get out in the bus and get it cleaned out, gased up, pre-tripped, and ready to go for Tuesday. I also need to pick up some last minute stuff at the store for the kids. I have a few other things to do but at the moment my brain is not fully functioning. Too much to think about I guess.



To all my my wheatland friends. I am looking forward to another adventurous weekend at the music festival. It's always so much fun. See you on Friday.

I will have Jason's camera at the festival. I will be sure to take some fabulous pictures and post them. I can't wait. I have a huge suprise

It's been a short while....

Sorry for the short delay in the updates! Of course I have been busy with everyday life! But, I did manage to squeeze some "me" time in last weekend. Friday night I stole my sister away from home met Jenn, Aunt Margie, & Ana at scrapbook 101. We met there at 5pm. Of course I had not seen Jenn in two weeks so we had lots to catch up on. It took me about 3 hours before I got into my scrapbook mode. But, once I got going I didn't want to stop. We stayed ther until about mid-night. We had lots of fun, lots of laughs, and tried to get lots of work done. The only thing missing was my mother-in-law. She was also suppose to meet us there. But, she was not able too. So hopefully next time things will work out to where she can come too. It makes for some good quality family time. Anyhow, I was able to get two pages finished. I posted them so you can let me know what you think. The 1st one is of pictures of the boys with Grady. Grady is Jenn's son. He is so adorable. We all went camping for a week in July at Pioneer park. We decided to head out to Jenn's dad's house on Crystal Lake for an afternoon. The kids had a blast and so did I taking pictures. Brendan was trying to help Grady get into the boat. He was having a hard time but managed to get him in. Once he did they buckled him up in his life jacket and Grady was happy as pie. The smile on his face proves it.

This next page is of a photo of Brendan when he was 2 months old. It's one of my favorite pictures of him when he was this little. I enlarged the photo to an 8x10. My plan was to write directly on the picture. This would be my first experience doing this and I was very nervous. But, only one mistake - can you pick it out? I thought the tree was cool because in my journaling I mention that he is one of life's greatest blessings. And well, to me a tree represents life. Strange I know, you pry all think I am a cook. Anyhow, I had fun with this one. Lots of ribbon and buttons to use the good ol' glue dots with.

So after having a great night scrapbooking on Friday that was all I could think about on Saturday & Sunday. So, I begged my sister to hang out on Sunday and pull everything out with me. Of course she did and we scrapped from 6-2. I added some final touches to a few other pages, helped my sis with her pages, and then put together two of my own. The one shown above and the one below. I absolutely love this next layout of Miss Chaley. She was so dang cute when she was little.

I downloaded my pictures out of order. The purple page of Chaley below is one I finished at scrapbook 101. Beautiful paper and embelishments from the Euphoria line of Basic Grey. Just loved it so much I had to buy it while I was there. I added lots of glitter accents to make it sparkle just like my baby girl. She is growing too fast for me!!

I also managed to get some time in with the hubby. On Saturday we went out on Luke & Kelly's boat. They have a slip at the Spring Lake Marina. What a beautiful place. They took us out to the famous "hanky pank". WOW is all I can say. We soaked up the sun, had a few drinks, and relaxed. It was perfect. Thank Luke & Kelly for a great afternoon. Afterwards we came home and spent some family time with our beautiful children. We had yet another great weekend. It's hard to believe that summer is coming to an end. I am very sad about that - but what do ya do. That is all for now! Until next time......

Peace, Love, & Happiness

Mya

Tiny Little Butterfly

This little tiny butterfly became my new friend on the river. We had pulled off to the side so we could all stretch and refill our drinks and I noticed the beautiful creature sitting on the canoe. I bent down and stuck my finger out and he climed right on it. He decided to hang with me for about the next 30 minutes. It was so cool. The pictures are so much fun too. It makes me wonder if this butterfly was there to tell me something. What do you think? When it was time for us to venture back on the river he flew away! Interesting huh?!

It's River Time

Yesterday we had a trip planned to head out on the river with some friends. We had an absolute blast. The kids were all with family memebers so that meant Jason & I could have some much needed R&R. We couldn't have asked for a better day. The sun was shinning and we were ready for some fun. We went with a large group of people. Most of whom attend Wheatland Music Festival with us. Let's see if I can name them all - bare with me I am sure I will forget some. The people that were with us that I knew were - Paul, Paula, Angie, Leslie, My Mom, Ruth, Chirs, Lindsay, & Brian. We met up with Brian's girlfriend from Georgia and her friend - Mary & Jennifer. Chirs brought his friend Chris from work and his wife. I remember a Ron, Kim, Stacy, and one other guy. They were all so much fun.
I felt like Paul was our chief. I laughed because he put this all together for us. He was able to get us boats to use if we didn't have our own, he found a guy with a hauler to get us to point A so we could float to point B. He cooked us dinner afterwards and fed us breakfast in the morning. Not to mention he provided us with a beautiful piece of land to camp on for the night. So he was the head of the tribe for the day. He even thought he was really an indian while floating down the river. LOL

I was especially happy to get the chance to spend some time with Leslie. She is one of my true and dear friends. I feel very lucky to have her in my life. We were able to catch up on things are just relax floating down the river.

Jason & I went down the river in Kayak's. This was my first time ever in one of these. They were pretty simple to manouver down the river. I did get hung up on the rocks a few times but my dear hubby was right there to bail me out. Thanks honey. I couldn't have done it with out you. I think now we might actually get ourselves a paif of kayaks I like them so much.

This picture is just PRICELESS. You can see the leader of our pack "Paul" standing on top of his canoe keeping things in tact. Angie is talking on her cell phone - YES I did say cell phone. You know it's 2008 when you are floating down the white river and you hear a cell phone ring - you answer it and actually have a connection. Nuts! This pictures shows about half of our clan.

We had to make a pit stop on the river bank. It was definately not a spot I would have picked out. We parked our boats underneath a bunch of trees that were hanging over the bank (yes lots of spiders and snakes like to hang out there). BUT, to my dismay it was a nice little spot to hang out and chat for a bit.

I am also glad that my mom was able to join us! My dad is out of state working again so it gave her a chance to hang out with us all and also get out and about. I don't like it when my dad is gone and she is home by herself. I worry - you know that daughter thing.

Angie & Paula- thank you for joining us! I could tell that they were having such a great time too. I thought for sure with both of them in a boat together - it would for sure tip over. BUT, they proved me and everyone else wrong. They made it through the whole trip with out flipping. Way to go girls.Jason was able to catch up with the guys and have himself a good time as well.

It was a great trip - I can't wait to do it again next year. I hope next time even more of our friends can join us. Some of them were not able to make it this year and I was really bummed. However, when we finally made it back to Paul's house for the night we realized Aunt Karen had made it there. She was so sweet - it was to our surprise she had built us a nice little fire to warm up too. Karen you are the best!

Jason & I had some great down time - a little R&R with some wonderful friends is what our bodies needed. I can't wait to see them all again at wheatland!

MISSING MY BROTHER

This is me, my brother Eric, & my sister Miranda Me & Eric Hanging out when he came home for a short visit in June.

I was not planning to post another blog until later in the weekend. However, I am having kind of a bad morning. I am missing my brother alot today. Eric lives in Gerogia with his wife Jamie. I wish he could live here with his family...but work takes him other places. Eric is such an amazing brother. I love him to pieces and miss him terribly. So my post today simply states that I miss my amazing brother!! Wish we didn't have to live so far apart. I love you Eric and I hope you are doing well. Missing you.

It's been a crazy week so far!!

Sorry I have not updated at all this week. Things have been very crazy. I am going bonkers with out a camera. I don't know how much longer I can take it. Frist of all the week started off on Monday. Football and Cheerleading practice was in full bloom. I had all three kids to get to practice on time. Not to mention they all three practice in different locations around the school. I am only one person and I can only be in one spot at one time. The kids don't seem to understand that though. Brendan thinks that I never watch him, Colby wants to know where I am all the time, and I can't hardly leave Chaley alone yet. Ugh...sometimes I just wish there were more or me.
Tuesday morning Jason got a phone call stating that his sister was in the hospital. She was working on a machine and the break press was released and it came down on her hand and litterally crushed 3 of her fingers. They rushed her by ambilance to Hackley. All they were going to be able to do for her was take all three fingers off. They made the decision to transport her to St. Mary's in Grand Rapids. Thank goodness they did. The doctor there performed a miracle on her. He saved almost all of her three fingers. She did lose the tips of them all but he saved most of them. That was definately a blessing. I pray she recovers well from the surgery and copes with a new chapter in her life well.
Football and Cheerleading will consume much of my life for the next few months. School starts up in three weeks. I am excited for that. That means back to work for me. I am very nervous for the transition with Chaley moving into Kintergarden from PPI.
But, that is all for now. I will update again soon. Hopefully next time I will have me a new toy (hint hint Jason)! I am dying inside with out my camera. Amazing how something so small means so much to me and my life.

Is she or is she not?!

This is my beautiful little girl ~ Miss Chaley!

This evening I accomplished something I have NEVER done before in my whole life. I picked up a book and I read it from the beginning to the very end. HUGE accomplishment for me. I was estatic when I finished it. I know sounds crazy huh?! I am suprised I even had time to read a book for a bit let alone finish it. You are probably wondering what it was I was reading. I went to Barnes and Nobel lastnight and picked up 'Louder than Words" by Jenny McCarthy. What a great book. It is about her struggles with her autistic son - and how she believe she has healed him. It was very inspiring. I say that because I often wonder if Chaley shows signs of autisim. I asked our family doctor for help and he seems to think it's waste of time and money. He said that their is not anyone out there that could possibly give me a straight answer as to if she is or if she is not. What kind of crap is that! I believe Chaley has shown signs of autism in the past and possibly a little bit now. Ultimately my hopes are that she just has some developmetal delays and she will EVENTUALY catch up. She has made huge progress in the past year or so with her social development as well as her emotional skills. We do still have issues from time to time. No one wants to find out that their child is autistic. However, if she is ALL I want to do is help her. I have gotten alot of great information from McCarthy's book. I plan to continue searching for answers for my baby girl. I will put for the effort to do what ever it is that I can possible to make her life comfortable. Weather or not she is autistic or just has a developmental speech delay - I love her with my whole heart & I will do whatever I have to so that I can help her.