Dunk's Job, Dessert, and a Movie

Dunk recently went back to work and now is working only 45 min from home! We are thrilled to have him working closer to home and thrilled about the overtime they have been having. It is not a long-term overtime so we are willing to have him put in the time for the extra moola. :-) He will be working only 30 min from home at another jobsite in a week or so and for us that is incredibly close to home! Sounds like they have work into October so hopefully they will continue to be able to get jobs as time goes on and stay busy.

Dessert has been a typical three yr old lately. Thrilled about something one minute and disgusted the next minute about the same thing. He is a hoot. He spent 1/2 an hour trying to convince us that we needed to buy him a horse (a real one) right now (not tomorrow). He explained that he didn't have enough money but we could buy it for him as he didn't want to wait. Finally, he decided he wanted to talk with Papa W on the phone and explain the situation to him. He felt maybe Papa could solve this problem quicker than Mom. Papa was very patient and said he would need to look for one. Cool move, Papa. I think there will be a long time in the looking process.

Tonight we took our weekly trip to the local country store. They have gas and treats and the kids love to admire the selection and finally purchase a sweet. I think sometimes they charge less when the kids stand their with their own containers of change. T. (the store clerk) is so patient with all the looking and prolonged decision making.

We have been watching the movie, "Time Changer". It tells in story form how Satan used the process of separating God from morals and the long term outlook that it leads to. There is no absolute for not stealing. Just shouldn't do it. Interesting to realize that Satan doesn't mind someone being "moral" as long as it doesn't lead to a personal relationship with Jesus.

NASS Weekend

The whole family thoroughly enjoyed our recent experience at the NASS conference in our state. Thanks Dad & Mom!! We got to tour the Capitol and see the golden horses up close, visit the History Center, Excell Center - ice skating, Fort Snelling, Mill City Museum, Valley Fair, Camp Snoopy and Underwater World, and the Science Museum - all in four days! It was an awesome educational and fun adventure!

The children sang on Saturday morning at the opening ceremonies and as parents we were proud as punch of them. :-)

One of the highlights was going on the St. Croix dinner cruise. The kids enjoyed the Dixie band, magicians, and cartoonist. We have great pictures of the kids to frame and keep. They enjoyed getting to see their uncle, the magician, at work.

Dot discovered a new friend the same age and they thoroughly enjoyed the events together. Her family was staying for an extra day so we took them up to the cabin and let her friend swim in a lake for the first time! They went tubing and for an after dark swim with the glowsticks. Her dad commented on the "sweet" water. We went for a sunset cruise and saw the Mom and baby loons enjoying the evening talking with Dad loon who was keeping a close tab on our boat. Absolutely beautiful.

We are now back home and soaking in the memories and catching up on our sleep. :-)

I recently discovered a spot in my vision and had it checked out. It turns out it is a blood clot on my retina. The Dr. put me on an asprin dose. Now I have to follow through and find out why at such a young age :-) I have a blood clot already. Not my idea of how to spend the last of my summer vacation. Hopefully it will turn out to be a fluke. We appreciate prayer for quick diagnosis and healing of the vision (which does seem to be happening).

I am getting excited about starting school believe it or not. I'm not ready to start yet - I've still got to go through putting away the books from last year - but I'm excited about our new direction. We are going to do Tapestry of Grace for history this year. I can't wait for the kids to put their first entries in their timelines. The idea of a chronological study of history that we can all do at the same time is making me giddy! (well, not quite that excited, but close) :-) Hopefully the implementation will be as enthralling. :-) I'll let you know...........

Cute and Green

Wednesday we celebrated G W's birthday. Near the end of our meal, I was notified by Dessert sitting next to me that he had a wonderful thing happening to him. He found a prize in his broccoli, a beautiful, green worm! He was delighted! He kept exclaiming, "Cute! Look Mom, it's crawling on my finger. Oh, Cute!" Dunk and I couldn't help laughing despite my mortification at forgetting to salt water clean the broccoli from the garden. The fresh broccoli looked so clean and wonderful, I totally forgot about checking for extra guests. Dessert was thrilled to meet his! :-)

Wonderful news - Dunk is back to work for at least two weeks. We are unsure whether this will turn into a permanent job, but grateful for now.

We were gone for almost a week at the cabin. The kids totally enjoyed their time with friends during the weekend. They spent 80% of their time in the water. The rest was spent eating. Everyone returned with a darker tan. It is so easy to relax there. The view is always calling one to enjoy it.

Big changes on the home front now that Dot and Drum have learned to drive the riding lawn mower. I had my first day off from lawn mowing on Thurs, July 14th. I did do the weed wacking but have since found out about a wonderful battery operated trimer that is light enough for older kids to handle. Way to go technology!

Zucchini anyone?! Our 8-10 zucchini plants are producing prolifically this year. :-) We are freezing some and sharing with many. Beans are also producing well to the delight of the family. We are still waiting for a red tomato.

Happy Summering!

Happy July 4th!

Wow! Does Time fly! The cement was poured and looks great!! It is so nice and dry in the basement. Slowly we are reconnecting the vacuum cleaner, etc. that was in the basement room. We have decided to go ahead and try a corn stove for our heating system in the basement. We will then connect it to the furnace to pull the heat to the rest of the house.

Dunk just got called back to work!!! Yeah! The job is still quite a drive so we are praying they might get some work on the north end. It has been wonderful to have him around. We are going to miss it but we will so enjoy the paycheck! PS. He just got a call and they want him to work on the job site which is much closer. PTL!

We have three more Thursdays of gymnastics and then we are going to take a summer break from the sport. The kids have really grown in their abilities and it has been a blast to have all the kids here to play with on Thursdays.

We planted a red maple tree. It looks like a teenager right now but holds the promise of a beautiful shade tree to come. We put a couple chairs by it in anticipation. :-)

Happy July 4th! The kids sang in church the song, In the Heart of America. They did a beautiful job! Afterwards they led the congregation in singing God Bless America while Joy signed it. I was a proud Mom who was totally nerves for them. :-) Dunk's Sister and Brother-in-law came over on Sunday and we celebrated Fourth of July. They brought fireworks and gifts for the two birthday boys. Duke got a toy Yoda who talks and a Star Wars book. Dime received a toy Obe Wan and book. They were thrilled!! to say the least. A blast was had by all. We finished the evening with fireworks in town. They introduced a gentleman at the fireworks who had been at D-Day in Normandy. Wow.

We headed up to the cabin with friends (the kids' tutor and her mom and brother) on Monday. They swam (water was too cold for me) and I pulled Dime and the Tutor on the tube. They did well. We finished the evening with another set of fireworks. They were beautiful! We had a great July 4th weekend with friends.

Today's the Day!

Yahooo!! Today is the day the cement will be poured in 1/2 of our basement. The cement truck comes at 9:00 and Dunk is scrambling to finish getting ready. He was up until 3 am last night and back at it at 6:30 this morning. No matter how hard one works, it always seems to work that way. :-) It will be sooooo cool to have that cement work done in the basement. AWESOME!!

Next steps are: putting the furnace back in the basement, finishing up the duct work down there, fixing the rest of the wiring in the basement, replacing the last two windows in the living room, tearing out the living room's paneling and gross carpet, deciding whether we are getting a wood burning furnace in the basement or corn stove, figuring out how to finish the garden shed we are working on outside, fixing the last leak in the mud room plumbing, finishing up the last of the details in the mud room so that it can be insulated and sheetrocked, and the list goes on... :-)

Yesterday we made it to town for a "cape" for Dime and Duke. (bathrobe) (Drum already has Dad's with a towel hood sewn onto it.) They were totally excited when we found some that would work. Grandma W is stitching them up to fit and adding hoods. Now they can be Obe Wan, Mace Windu, Luke Skywalker, and Anakin. They have really enjoyed their pretend Star Wars battles. They have decided that Jedi are gymnasts so it has really spured their interests in that field as well.

We picked strawberries on Thursday. Wow! They are beautiful. Some were so big you could peel them! I should say "were" as most of them are eaten or in the freezer. We had strawberry shortcake last night that could melt in the mouth. Mmmm.... So nice to have older kids..Joy made the shortcake while we were working on supper. Doesn't take as long to get the kitchen stuff done anymore. Although I noticed a batch of anything doesn't last more than one meal or a snack.

The Dot, Drum, Dime, Deer, and Daisy went to some fireworks last night with some of their friends. Dunk was working on the basement (not stuff we could help with at the time). Dessert was almost asleep on the couch so he stayed with Dunk. When we came home, Dessert was sound asleep on the styrofoam in the basement in the midst of the project. He had helped until he just couldn't do it anymore. :-) I took a picture in my mind.

The real deer have eaten my raspberries!!! We are frustrated but determined to fight back! We have never had that problem before but this is the first summer Dunk is not leaving for work at 5. Sheepish to admit but we have been sleeping in. Boy, that bed feels good. :-) Dunk has been laid off for 3 weeks now. We think God is waiting until he is done with the cement project. :-) We will have to see what He has in mind. We were talking the other day about the fact that when I am pregnant he has not been out of work. Is God hinting at something? :-)

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. :-)

Father's Day!

Sunday we celebrated Father's Day in fine style with both sets of grandparents in attendance and Daisy's brother and his family at our place. The kids had a blast with the sprinkler! Grandma K gave haircuts to all the boys. Dime, Duke, and cousin, Dash, are sporting a new buzz. We see them rubbing their heads as they enjoy the new haircut. Deer and cousin, Delight, showed off their new gymnastic skills. It is so fun to see them grow. We look forward to more times together.

Basement work continues.... We have had plumbing troubles in the mud room and so progress has slowed down as one leak after another gets fixed. The plan is to have the cement poured on Wednesday. We definitely plan to celebrate. :-)

Life Continues

Work continues on the basement. Dunk put in the new sump pump after much labor. Drum and Dime washed the basement walls (since it is so wet down there anyway) and it looks great!

The next steps are to level the dirt that is left, put in rock, drain tile, more rock, styrofoam, tubing for the in floor heat, and then finally CEMENT!! We can hardly wait to see that happen. :-) I thought doing laundry was a project before (when I went up and down two sets of stairs). Now I get to cross a moat at the bottom of the stairs or else go outside and into the window well to crouch through the window and arrive at the washing machine with my load of laundry! :-) I figure it gives me plenty of stories to tell the kids later when I'm wanting to brag about my "tough" life. "That was uphill both ways, right Dad?"

We had gymnastic classes at our house again today. They went great and fun was had by all. Deer loves her coach and classes. Today she learned the Arabian trick on the trampoline. It is so fast, despite having her do it twice, I had trouble figuring out what she all did but I'm proud of her just the same. :-) (It's a back tuck, half turn - I found out)

We watched the movie tonight called THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN. It was based on a true story about a missionary to the Kongo Islands. Wow. He went through some incredible adventures and it was awesome to watch God at work. The kids were in awe.

Dessert has earned the award for the youngest bike-riding member of the family. He prefers the old bike without training wheels. He looks so little! We didn't decide to teach him to ride. He made us do it! He loves to keep up with the big kids. Mom wants to keep him from growing so fast.

That's all for now. :-)

New Project

Yesterday we started a new project in our basement - digging out the west side of our basement. We found out one of the reasons that side of the basement was so damp was because we had a leak in our pipe connected to our outside hose. We'll save that fixing project for another time. Drum, Dime, Deer, and Duke spent several hours in the basement with Dunk helping him dig out the old cement. I think Dime's muscles are increasing as I watched him chug cement out the basement hole. It is a yucky job but the kids are excited about getting to see progress on this old house.
We have switched our hours around and have been working late and sleeping in around here. We are all looking forward to some upcoming days where we can wake up with NO RAIN! Dunk had a few times with digging where he had to quick board up the basement window while the rain poured over him.
Today's project is to clean up in the studio before gymnastic lessons today. We will continue in the basement as soon as the rain lets up and we can open up the hole.

Blogging Begins!

Here it goes! I'm going to enter the world of blogging. Jodi's website has inspired me! Someday I hope to have pictures to enter but for now I will be content with adding our family events as a sort of diary. When I read other bloggs it makes the daily events in our lives seem quite normal and humorous. Thanks Jodi!
I need to introduce the family.
We have Dunk and Daisy, Dot, Drum, Dime, Deer, Duke, and Dessert :-)
This should be fun!!