Zippin'

So my inventive son,
who can just about do any knot and can create anything from a pile of scraps,
worked to create a zip-line,
with the help of Landon.

All he needed was several ropes, a chain, a pulley, and a couple of carabiners.



They used some tire chains, that they picked up from some garage sales,
as a ladder to get into the tree.
Which Kaylie is modeling on how to use.



Also needed was a brave little brother,
who was kind of like the chimpanzee's sent to space,
to make sure it was safe.



They even figured out how to get the rope back to the tree.



Once deemed safe, the rest wanted to go too.



Things were fine tuned so those who couldn't climb up in the tree could still enjoy the fun.
All friends worked together so all could enjoy.

~July 20

June's Special People

I'm going to begin with some special people we've seen this month.

We brought in the month of June with a visit from my parents.



As soon as the school year was done for my mom,
they headed straight out to Colorado.
We visited Lake Dillon, we garage sale'd three different days,

enjoyed a church picnic, visited Ft. Logan National Cemetery,
drove down memory lane (to the VA and back, minus dad),
we watched movies and just plain enjoyed each others company.

________________________________________________________________________

Some other special people this month, was our neighbors/ the kids' friends.

They are selling their house and moving to New Mexico.
It is a sad day for all of my kids.
"Big" Tanner was the only male friend in the neighborhood that the kids had.
"Brown" Allie (referring to her hair color because we have a "red" Ally in the cul-de-sac also)
was Kaylie's age and they were friends also.
We will also miss their parents.
They came to know Christ through us,
they were part of our life group and it was great having them as neighbors.




(Pictures were taken 6/5/10 of mom and dad, 6/4/10 of the kids)

Three Stories

Story #1

I thought I would throw in how things are going now, in the midst of all my catching up. If you are a Facebook friend, you have probably read about our little adventure on Sunday.

The kids and I get to church and I go into Jeff's office to grab all of our name tags and then I start heading down the hall. The kids have already ran to the front of the church, which is on the complete opposite side of Jeff's office. The next thing I know is the fire alarms are going off, lights are flashing on the alarms, and a lady is telling everyone to exit the building. I see my kids pop out from the front and Preston is pointing at Kaylie. I just turn around and head right back to Jeff's office.

I walk in there and he asks what's going on. I just informed him that I think it was one of our kids and he can go deal with it. As we walk out of the office, everyone is chuckling and trying to decide, do I exit or stay in. Our worship leader made the call, and said we might as well go out and get the practice. Thankfully, this happened around 9:00, 30 minutes before church starts, and not too many people were there.

One kind man, was on top of things and immediately called and told them it was a false alarm but the firemen still have to come out. There were no sirens, only lights, but my kids were out front jumping and waving them to the right place. Once the firemen came, I had to go finish my morning duties.

Later that night Jeff filled me in on the rest of the firemen story....

When the firemen were filing out of the firetruck, Jeff went out and met the "man in charge" and let him know that it was a kid in the church who pulled the alarm and "could you talk to 'em." The fireman said, "Yea, where's the BOY." Jeff said, "Actually, it was my four year old daughter who pulled it." I then had to ask what the reaction of the fireman was and Jeff said he smiled and then asked where she was.

At that point, from what I gather, Kaylie was under one of the secretaries desks on a shelf curled up in a ball.

I asked, "Jeff, were you able to get her out."

"Yeah, but not until the firemen left."

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Story #2

We had just gotten home after eating out, after church. There had been some discussion whether or not to make the kids lay down to rest. Originally I thought, "No, because then they could go to bed early." But then I realized if they don't lay down then Jeff and I can't take naps.

Somewhere in the mix of getting everything into the house from church, the kids had hooked up and started playing with a couple of neighborhood girls. Jeff and I sat on the couch and were talking about the day and the next thing we know, Landon runs in and says Kaylie was hit with a dart and it's sticking out of her arm. Just seconds later, Kaylie walks in with blood dripping down her arm, no dart.

Jeff immediately jumps up and asks if I want to take care of her or go outside and take care of things. I chose her.

Come to find out, the two older boys grabbed the darts out of the garage (which they aren't suppose to touch without adult supervision) and take them out in the front yard. I think they started with just throwing them up in the air and letting them land in the grass. But somewhere in that short 15 minutes of being home, Preston challenges Tanner with, "I bet you can't hit me with that [the dart]." So that is where the game begins. Three boys, which are mine, and four girls, only one is mine, is playing dodge the dart. At first the game was Tanner throwing the darts at everyone else and then a neighbor girl decided to join Tanner's team and then it was 2 against 5.

Once again, from what I can gather. Kaylie getting hit with the dart was an "accident". She was picking a dart up off the ground when she got in the way of the dart Tanner threw.

Jeff sent all the neighbors home and made our kids come in. It took a little while to get the story out and then we sent them to bed while Jeff and I were going to talk about the consequences. The next day was when they were dealt the full punishment.

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Story #3

This one isn't about the kids, but just a little update on myself.

Yesterday, right after lunch I started getting sharp pains on my right side, right underneath the rib cage. It wasn't a constant pain, but when it came, it was very intense and it took by breath away. The very first pain lasted maybe a couple of minutes, but after that, it would only last seconds. After not sleeping last night, I decided I would go to a walk-in clinic as soon as they opened.

Apparently when they say they open at 8:00, that's not what it really means, because that's when I showed up and there were 3-4 people in front of me. Anyhoo...to make this short... they did a urinalysis, and they found blood and the my white blood cells were high. The PA thought that probably meant infection, BUT it could be kidney stones or gallbladder. She gave me an antibiotic, not penicillin based, which reading the possible side effects will bring you to your knees, they are so scary. She also said she could do a CT Scan. After talking to Jeff we decided to go ahead and schedule the scan, I got a call about 30 minutes later and she wondered if I could go in, in about 2 hours.

Got my CT scan done just fine, and then I got a call saying that it was negative for kidney stones and that it was normal. That apparently means there were no gallstones or anything else causing my pain and nausea. That is a praise! Now we can just pray that all is taken care of with this antibiotic and that the medicine will do only good and no harm. (Coincidentally, my dad was just put on the same exact medicine because his incision wound is now infected.) As my mom says, "You and your dad are bonding over this." :o)

That's my past few days...hope yours has been a little better!?!

July 4 - Let Freedom Ring!

This Fourth of July we originally had plans to be back in Kansas. We were going to go down a little early and go visit Jeff's family and then we were going to head to my parents' for the 4th and celebrate with my whole family. As we know, plans were changed and this day started with the plans of it being a small celebration in our cul-de-sac with just mom, and dad who just stayed in "his room". The kids and I had purchased a few small fireworks for them to shoot throughout the day. We were going to just grill out some hotdogs, make some homemade potato salad, cut up a watermelon, and open some baked beans.

Lighting Smoke Balls

Preston with his homemade citronella torch.

Snakes

Around 2:30 in the afternoon we got a call from our friends Kevin and Marty and they said they weren't doing anything and so they we going to be able to come over. Okay...get out a few more potato's for the potato salad, grab another package of hotdogs out of the freezer, and mom runs to King Soopers to get strawberries that I had a raincheck for.

Around 3:00 we got another call from our friends who we had the privilege of serving side by side in Hugoton together but they now live in Louisiana. They happened to be in Colorado for their vacation and they were going to be headed out the next day. They were staying in Brighton which is maybe 15 minutes from us. We had to invite them over because how can friends be so close from so far away and NOT see them.?. So it was....get out some more hotdogs out of the freezer, make a pasta salad that we had ingredients around the house for with the exception of the red bell pepper. Make some tea and lemonade. Clean some more strawberries.

When everyone was here, we grilled, we ate, my kids shared their fireworks with their friends, we watched, we talked, we laughed.

Everyone enjoying Preston's creation.

We then used it to light sparklers.

At 9:00 we walked up the street to some friends who are in our life group and they, with the rest of their family, opened their yard to us to sit and watch Thornton's firework display.

The beginning of the show, a parachutist with an American flag and all lit up.

After the show we headed back home and got some pictures.

The kids are very close to age. There are three sets that are just months apart: Preston (10), Tanner and Madalynn (8), Landon and Justis (almost 7 & 7), Dawson and Kaylie (4), Jillian (3)

Travis and Jae were such encouragers to Jeff and I in the short time we were together in Hugoton. They were supportive in their words, their actions and definitely in their prayers. I believe it was just over a year that we were together, but the bond that God created was much more. Every person in ministry needs and should have someone like these two behind them. I encourage every Christian out there to be that type of person to their pastor(s) and not the "other kind". We are blessed to have them in our lives and to have them share this 4th of July with us.

Then Jeff took Travis to see the church, Jae and I talked, and the kids were out!

...well most of them any way.

So our private, quiet 4th of July turned into something more and we enjoyed it!

June 30 - A Summer Day

This was just a day were a neighborhood girl brought over some tadpoles she caught. She said she got them out of a creek by her house. I have NEVER seen tadpoles like this. I don't know if they are bullfrogs or what. They were HUGE!

This is what my garden looked like at the time. Wow! Looking back at it, it seems like there is not much there. Some of my first tomato's.

Kaylie and her friend "brown" Allie, playing on the swing.