I am hooked on gardening!!!! My hostas are coming out and that will all be garden next year.

I am listening to this conversation and it is  craking meup so I decided to let you all in on it....

" you hate me cuz I rock (dillan)

you use the same play every gamr(ryan)

Dillan, are you a cheater? (mandie)

Dude, I didn't use the same play, I promise...(dillan)

Are you back for more?(mandie)

ewhhhhh, ewhhhhh (mandie) who knows what they subjected her to

Now they have meandered to the kitchen to look for something  to eat...whts new with that. I need to stock up on ramen noodless for Mandie.

Don't someone look  young here??? tee hee

Ash is still smiling:)

Aunt Tracy dressed this little indain the year we lived in Maine.

Mandie and Dillan.

Family updates:

Mark is recovering nicley- got stitches removed yesterday -goes back to real work tomorrow. He is going to post pone the next one till this hand is strong again.

 Ashley is on her way home for Kate Daltons funeral.

Markie, just hanging around waiting for a call back...

Dillan hurt his ankle yesterday skateboarding. Working at Ritas today.

Eric is practicing for football everyday.

Devan is just being Devan........

Marks best friend growing up.... now a missionary pilot with MAF. He was here with his team in Smoketown doing   a weekend thing. We had a great time catching up with him and getting a ride in the new Kodiack aircraft. Mark was Jeffs first passenger after he got his pilots licence when he was a teen.

Devan getting ready for take off- his first ride ever!!!

Eric second ride with Jeff

The view was georgous!!!! We flew down to Long Level - 10 miles out..... had to get out of the way  of the helicptor- yikes!!!!

Back on the ground and re-feuling...

Eric and Devan with Steve Saint- Nate Saints son ( Nate was killed by the Wadoni Indians 55 or so years ago along with Elizabeth Elliots husband and some othe men. IF you have never seen the movie made on their life story called "The End of the Spear" - YOU MUST!!!!!!)

Last Wed. night  we had a wing night - per Ashleys request. Lots of wings, lots of food, lots of laughs!!

Joe was having a hard time keeping the butter off his chin:)

Early Friday morning we were off to Lynchburg to move Ashley. I took the 3 younger boys and Mark came down after work with Ashleys car. Her dorm is up on a hill this time. The option was to climb 76 stairs(just till you reached the dorm- then she is on the 2nd floor:)) OR climb this very steep grassy hill. We tried both looking for the very best way- THERE WAS NONE!!!!! Wheww!!!! Just when we got all her stuff up, Steph came in and she had a carload. The  boys graciously helped her. Then came the time for moving everything around to suit them.

Lydia, Steph and Ash

Remember those seedlings we planted back in Feb. or March????? They became beautiful pepper plants and LOTS of them. I have more bannana peppers  than I know what to do with!

The other peppers turned out to be gormet peppers, these are purple and I have white- unique. They are very tastey.

I start the newborn baby today- he should have been here by now . It is fair week this week so I'm sure the kids are going to want to go over there some.

It is time for  a cup of coffee.... later

As if this week was not crazy enough with Marks surgery, having a wing night, doctors appointments, Ash getting packed to go back to school, Eric starting football and numerous other things... I decide to do the "meal thing" when I found chicken breasts for 88/lb! So we did it and boy is it a good feeling!!

Tonight we are doing a wing night so it's "off to the races " to get everything ready for  that. Ash and Ann are here to help so thats good.

Dee stirring the white sauce for the chicken cor don blu

20 meals in less than 5 hrs- including shopping!! Now really, why don't we do this more often??

Chicken rigatoni, cor don blu, parm and ritz.........

A vacation to remember- time well spent!!

14 meals as a family............... NICE!!

The meals were THE BEST!!!! We rolled from one meal to the next- 3 HUGE buffet meals a day!!!

The kids getting ready to ride the wave cutter.

The big kids getting ready to go para sailing.....

Devan enjoying some time alone:)

Clair and Bonnie Hoover were there with their boys which was great for the boys!!! They brought their boat so he took them out everyday waterskiing, knee boarding, tubing and this is called a sea biscut. They were actually airborn at one point on this thing. Another time they wrecked so bad Dillan flipped 3 x LONGWAYS before flying into the water!!

Our Pastor and his wife an daughter and our worship leader and his whole family were there. It was great getting to know them better. We shared some meals together, and spent time just hanging out with them. We thought they were great before, now we thing they are SUPER GREAT!!!!!

We spent some time at the beach last week. The boys loved it.... Devan especially.

Helping Dee get ready for a  yard sale today, cleaning for Mr. Reed, getting some groceries, making some phone calls, hitting the pool with the boys,going to a girls night out tonight with our life group- just a few things on the agenda today. My neighbor had her baby on Sat. and Ashleys boss had their baby on Sun. so thats 2 meals I'm thinking about.

Here's a link to the pictures from Sandy Cove. What a great week! Just copy and paste this link into your search box! :)

www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery.php?source=ppsl&instanceid=119273897

It's been awhile again ,I know. One thing just leads to the next and before I know it a week has passed. I have been keeping busy with so many things:

• writing a biology student pack to go with a cirriculum I have and Love.
• making sure there is food in the house for all my kids and the mounds of others that show up here on a regular basis- yes, I love it! Thus, last night we went to the Sharp Shopper and came home with 3 cart loads- that should last a few days.
• Bible study- my last one was yesterday as we will be away next week. It was agreat study, I am ready for the next one. Beth Moore is amazing.
• Treading through the DEEP waters of raising teenagers with my dear friends. Please pray for all our teens, the world is really pulling them in with Satans lies.
• watching a young boy (13) overnight for a single dad, this is new for me, never did the overnight thing. My boys have been great with him, he's  a really good kid and  I think he is enjoying the boys:)
• lastly, I am currently wearing a 24 hr. heart monitor. I have had irregular heartbeats for a week now so yesterday I had blood work done and they hooked me up to this contraption. I go today at 1:15 to have it taken off . Hopefully it will shed some light.
• Today Dee and are are making our annual trek to the copy store to make a million copies for this school year...... fun , fun:)

Despite the fact that Boonie looks like he might be a convicted "something or other "here, let me assure you he is not. He found this baby bird on our driveway yesterday afternoon and has been carefully attending to it . I will say the bird does  have a will to live. We put it in an abandoned nest over at Jens in high hopes(yes, I know it is just that:) that some childless Mama bird will want to rescue the poor thing.

Any suggestions on caring for a bird this young would be greatly appriciated. Eric found some very tiny worms last night and said he got it to eat them??? Greg- if you still have an incubater.........

Not much else to tell, houseful today and tomorrow for me...... and some coming day AND night next week. Never  a  dull moment.

I don't know what happened here, but this is the first I've been able to post in awhile. With Ashley 's party , and house guests and a SURPRISE visit from my forever friend,Lisa, things have just been crazy.Last week Jen and I did a yard sale so after the party was over, I had to get things ready for that, then thursday and Friday were filled with that. It was sucessful, Jen made more than me and I did almost have to push her over in her chair:) Mark and I went to Texas Roadhouse Fri. night with some of my profits:

This watermelon Lisa cut for me while we caught up on LIFE, and me saying ove rand ever..."I cannot believe you are here!!!!!"

Trey bey bey loving his drink!!!

Lisa, me, Ash and Ariel. Ash and Ariel are 2 days apart. They were our best buddies when we lived in Maine. The kind that no matter how long you are apart- you  just strat up right where you left off. We have SOOOOOO many memories with them. It was just great to see them!!!

The cutest, this boy is just something else. He is definitly going to be a family man. He loves his neighbor kids and they love him!!! He won one of the prizes for best dressed!!

Andrea made the cake- great job Ann!!!!!! Steve stopped by on his way home from work and decided to help himself......... BEFORE the party ever started, mind you...... thats my brother for you. He's a great guy- really, would do anything for you........ just wants a piece of cake in return ,I guess:)

Been starting to look for the monarch caterpillars. Found 2 so far that I gave to a friend who is doing it for the first time with her kids. so, I don't have any yet myself.

Today is one of 5 days completly off this summer- without extra kids. Some sort of celebration should happen!!

Hapy Birthday to this wonderful woman. Many years ago, she took me under her wing and treated me just like one of her own. Little did she know I would later become just that.  She has been a Godly example through the years, a definite prayer warrior, and an all around Proverbs 31 woman. Her children and their spouses "rise up and call her blessed"- hows that for a legacy?

So...... Happy Birthday Ma! Have a wonderful Day!!!!!!!

ps. The other young lady is way special too.......:)

I picked these at my Dads garden. They are in Maine with Marks family and Steve and Dawn. I picked 7 qts.

I have had Jena and Julia this week while Dawn is away. They are so good. Jena is so smart- she amazes me everyday with what she knows! She loves the pool and asks when we are going "bye byes" till we leave:)

We had a girls night at my Aunts last night. Kind of a going away for y cousin Kelley. They are going back to Tiwann - I know thats spelled wrong....  We had lots of yummy desserts. I forgot I was supposed to take one till I got there- opps! We had enough anyway:)

These are my dads two sisters, Connie and Brenda with Connies youngest daughter , Kelley.

This is Aunt Brenda, Kelley, my Mom,me and my Grandma.

These lovely ladies are my cousins wives. Raya (sp) is married to my cousin David and Sarah is married to Mike. Sweet as tehy come , these gals are!!!!!

We had a great time chatting and looking at Kelleys pictures from her world travels.....

 Thanks Grandma Jean, for another day at Hershey Park!! The kids really enjoyed themselves. The new waterpark is so cool. They could have spent he whole day there! The weather was great!

Ash and Eric.......

Steph and Devan

Today is week 4 o f Bible Study. I am really loving it! My neighbor Sherry is going and enjoying i t as well. Jen is away this week so she will miss it. I will leave you with a few exerpts from todays homework.....

So we are all on this bible study journey and I love that God uses it differently in everyoness lives according to what is going on with them...

"As we seek God through His word and desire to do his will, He fashions a tailor-made encounter" - loved that........

and this...

about Ps. 127 " A Latin motto says -Nisi Dominus Frusta- .It comes from the first words of this Psalm and means "without the Lord, frustration". It is the motto of the city of Edinburg Scotland, appearing on its crest and is affixed to the city's official documents."

interesting......

to Allis Brithday......

6  days!!!

Have my two sets of siblings today. We are going down to lunch on the square again this week. That seemed to be a big hit last week:)

These two adorable boys showed up at my door early this morning. They asked if they could stay for the day and I just couldn't help myself, look at how sweet....they are watching animal planet till Devan gets up. Riley and Lilah come today too for  a few hours while she has a meeting.

Eric left for camp yesterday until Sat at noon. I miss him already. My two big boys just left for work. Dillan leaves on Sat. for a week at the beach with the Polous's. We had to get him some new clothes as he only had one pair of shorts and no swimsuit.

Yesterday after Bible study , which is amazing, by the way, Dee and I did her whole back yard, got all the furniture out and planted flowers. She just needs to get an umbrella for her table now.