Chess

Okay, I have to admit that there are things that I don't even think about introducing to my children because:

a. I don't like it

b. I don't get it

c. I don't even think about it



Chess falls into the "all of the above" category. I don't like the game, because I don't get it, so why even think about playing it....



Well, Ama and Poppop dropped that game off last week and let me tell you it has been a huge hit with Micah. It took Kevin an hour to explain all the game pieces and what each one does. I was bored after listening for the first 5 min. Neither of us thought that Micah was even old enough to "get it", but he proved us wrong when after Kevin was done explaining everything, he repeated back to Kevin everything Kevin had told him about each piece. We were both amazed.

Since that informative night, Micah and Kevin have been playing that game almost every day. We know that Micah understands it, because he is now teaching all of his friends how to play it too.
So my question is this.... What do good 6 year old chess players grow up to be???

quick note...

I just added the song that I talked about on my last post...You Are So Great...close your eyes and listen, imagine yourself with a gym full of people raising their hands praising our Savior, it sounds just like it did on Sunday, beautiful...
(seriously, my church really sounds like this...awesome!)

The General Lee

We passed a Dukes of Hazard Museum and the General Lee was parked outside. Kevin had to stop to have his picture taken with it.

Then I decided to have my picture taken with it too. Brings you back to the good ole' days when there was actually something decent to watch like Dukes of Hazard and The Cosby Show.

Blessings!

Here We Are

This is the only family picture from our days down in Tenn. Some weird lady came up to me and asked if she could take one of the 5 of us. She managed to take a relatively decent picture, we are all in the picture, we are all looking her way, even though we don't all have smiles and it is a relatively clear picture. I am not sure why this picture isn't uploading the right way, so just turn your computers sideways:-)

Blessings!

Taking a Break from Tenn Blogging

We were invited to spend the weekend out at the cottage with Kevin's Grandparents, Parents, and Sister.


We had a really good time. Micah is adding a new game to his list of games he likes to play, Checkers. Great-Grandpa taught Micah how to play, and now the game ranks right up there with Uno.


We went into town (Grand Haven) and walked the boardwalk. Watched some fishermen clean their fish.....that was not pleasant for me, especially when one fishermen cut the side of the fish open and all kinds of minnows (little fish) fell out. I just about lost it, and had to walk away. I have one word for that GROSS!!!!!

The cute dog in my hands is one of Aunt Kerri's, she has two and they both wanted to be carried:-)
The kids all got tired of walking, so we carried them on our shoulders.
I know Aunt Kerri isn't going to like that I put her picture on the blog, but I had too... This picture (below) was taken right at the beginning of the pier at sunset.The picture above was taken Saturday night at a park in Grand Haven....before we had ice cream.


We also took a ride on the Trolley. I have never done that in all the years I have been going out there with Kevin. It was a nice little ride, the kids thought it was fun.


It was really nice that the kids could spend time with their Great Grandparents. Grandpa and Grandma didn't seem to mind that the kids cause all kinds of commotion and noise. When Grandpa went out on the gazebo, the little ones followed him right out there. It didn't bother him when they asked him to sing the "Little Fishy Song" for the 10th time. He even gave up the master suite so our family could all sleep in one room together. He was as patient as a Great Grandpa could be teaching Micah a game that takes concentration (at 6yrs old that is sometimes hard). Today when Jilli was upset about something, Great Grandma called her over to her so she could tell Jilli a story about when she was a little girl. Jillian was a captive audience for about 15min. She just stared at Grandma, while she was telling her story.

I hope my children remember these special times as they grow up. Time together with family, whether you travel far from home, like to Tenn or stay close to home, like a weekend in Grand Haven. These are the types of memories that we want to build for our children.

(Thanks to Ama for all the pictures)

Blessings!

Do You See It?

Driving down a winding road. Enjoying all the beautiful views of what I call mountains (really just hills), we rounded a corner and the trees opened up and this is the view we saw.
The trees framed this photograph and in the middle of the frame there was this beautiful white steeple. Peeking out above the trees calling, beckoning all who glimpse it. Nestled in the rolling hills. Peaceful, quiet, proud, tall.

Thinking about this steeple, it is impressed upon me that the steeple represents my christian walk. Is my life this beautiful steeple standing tall, so anyone who is passing by can see Christ in me? Or is it hidden, not easily seen...people pass by me every day and don't see anything different about me.

Humbling to think about, scary to look at yourself in the mirror and not know if you are really living your life the way Christ calls you to live.

I pray my steeple is showing...

Special

Different times...is what I look back and say. A time when kids could walk 3 blocks down the road to a city park and play there all day without parents worrying. Kids running free in neighborhoods all day only showing up at home for lunch and dinner. I look back with many fond memories. Many of those memories surround two very special people.


My Aunt Ruth and Uncle Gary. They were like second parents to me. Richard and I being together all the time, I guess it was only natural. He spent the days at my house and I spent the nights at his house.


I remember a road trip out to the lake, and having scrambled eggs and mushrooms for bedtime snack (I didn't touch the mushrooms with a ten foot pole!). Staying up late (we got to stay up later when we slept at his house...shhhh, don't tell my parents). Then there was one overnight stay that stands out in my mind...I got very sick, I threw up 8 times during the night (why I remember these facts I have no idea). My Aunt, very lovingly, took care of me all night long. How horrible it must have been for her, someone else's kid getting sick over and over. She never made me feel anything less than loved. My Uncle Gary always made me feel special too.


When I was 10 yrs old we moved from my childhood home, one of the hardest things for me was moving away from my second family.


Amazing how life slowly pulls you away from the people you love the most. It took me traveling all the way to Tenn to remind me how special they still are too me.
Aren't they the cutest couple!

Blessing!

What Were They Doing??

To this day I am not sure what Tim and Melissa were doing....but whatever it was it made me laugh, so of course I took some pictures of it.

I also, had some fun doing some different techniques to the pictures, so have fun imagining what they were doing...

Blessings!

The Face

He should know better than to give me a face like this when I have my camera in my hand. He was goofing off, but I thought it was the funniest thing ever!

I have some more great shots of diving board wipe outs, so stay tuned.

Spiders

Up here in the north country we don't get the critters that the south gets (thank goodness!) One of our first encounters was with a brown spider that was huge! We discovered it in the swimming pool. It was dead so I picked it up (much too Kevin's dismay) and made him put his hand next too it, so that I could show you how big it really was.

We were told that these spiders are not poisonous. We did find one of these in the house down in Tim and Melissa's room. My Dad used tongs to extract it from the house. I much prefer our small house spiders too these gigantic ones.

Blessings!

The Tux and Wedding

I briefly alluded to the difficulties that surrounded Tyler's tux, but I thought that it deserved a complete posting of it's own.

The first full day in Tenn (Wed) we took the trip (about 45min) down to pick up Tyler's tux. The pants were too short and the jacket was too big. They remeasured and assured us it would be ready for us the next day.

Thursday we again headed down to pick up Tyler's tux. The pants were now too long and the jacket although was the right size, it's arms were too short. I informed the employees that the wedding was the next day, we didn't have the time to get it wrong again. That is when they went and got the women who actually does the alterations. She came out and told me (in broken English) "I do it right now...you wait, I be 10 minute". When she came back out Tyler finally had a tux that fit right. Tyler was very excited to wear the tux. He thought it was the coolest thing.

The day of the wedding arrived.....VERY Hot and humid. We made the trip down for the rehearsal that was taking place Friday afternoon before the wedding. Tyler fell asleep on the way down, a blessing as this was too be a very long day for him. He woke up shortly before he had to practice "the walk down the aisle".

Tyler is not someone who wakes up very easily or happily. So he frowned and was a little difficult during rehearsal. Reassuring everyone that when the pressure was on, Tyler would deliver. Kevin and I both completely believed that our spirited little boy would pull through with flying colors.

Rehearsal ended and now it was time to wait to put on the tux. I went to put my dress on, and when I got back to our "little room" Tyler was half way dressed. He was so cute! His face beamed at me when I walked in the room.

Then we had to wait again while the Richard and Jennifer had their portraits taken. Then the doors opened and it was Tyler's turn to put on his smile. Which he did like a little pro!

After pictures there was more waiting. I had to be in my "assigned position" in the sanctuary and Kevin was downstairs with Tyler and the girls. Then it was time, would he pull it off like Kev and I believed he would, or would he see all the people and get cold feet?

Notice proud Daddy in the background... Down the aisle he came with a huge smile on his face looking at all his family that were two rows deep of faces smiling back at him. He marched himself right up front and took his position between Richard and Brad (the best man), just like he was supposed too. Then it was time for him to move to the top of the platform. He stood there like a little man for the whole service. Only a few times did he start to get jittery and Brad just touched his shoulder and he stopped moving.

Then it was time for him to come back down the aisle and he looked like he was a kid in a candy store. He knew he pulled it off with flying colors. Our family couldn't have been prouder at that moment. I am sad that I didn't capture his face as he walked by me, but I just couldn't take my eyes off of him for a second, not even to bring my camera up to my face. His picture is locked away in my heart forever!

Because I know that Aug 1, 2008 wasn't all about my little ringybear, I have included a picture of Richard and Jen....so the rest of you can see how cute they both are.

Here is one more of Tyler.....my little photog!


Blessings!

Tennessee Welcomes Us

(I typed this up and had it ready to go, I just didn't get it online until now)

After 12 hours of traveling in a van, we arrived in WARM Tennessee. The trip went really well, the kids did great!

Today, being our first day here, we had to travel down to get Tyler's Tux for the wedding. What I was afraid of, happened. His pants were too short and his jacket was too big. So back we go tomorrow, to try again to see if they can get it right. But even with short pants and a jacket that is too big, he looked absolutely adorable!

After our trip down to Murfreesboro, we came back to the house to have some fun in the pool. We had such a good time. The kids are all becoming little fishes. Micah went from having a lifejacket on all the time, to not wearing one at all. Tyler went from not wanting his eyes wet, too swimming underwater for long periods of time. Both the boys went from not wanting to jump off the diving board by themselves, to running and leaping off of it. It is starting to scare me a little that they are becoming too comfortable in the water. Jilli is even jumping off the diving board (with us catching her). We are having so much fun, and can't wait for the rest of our family to make it down here tomorrow (Tim and Melissa will be arriving on Friday).

So far we have had two thunderstorms roll through. One came rolling through while we were having fun in the pool. So we hung our bathing suits up and came inside. Now there is another one passing over as I am typing this. Peaceful. There is something about the rumble of thunder and the plunking of rain that calms me.

Good Night from Tenn!