Another one on the way....

I'm getting all these blog entries ready to print into a book and I'm checking all of my posts and found that I didn't document that I was expecting another sweet little one. What I did find was a post about Barry getting a new baby--riding mower--and how I was glad his new baby wasn't really a baby at all.

I think someone was listening and played a joke on me.

I've also noticed that I didn't blog much during this month of June 09--or for the summer for that matter. I'm sure that's because I was miserably sick on the sofa for 4+ months.

But, for the record....I was expecting a new little one.....but I'm not now (as I write this 14 months after the fact.)

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've written (other than Ryan's birthday) and since this blog is suppose to double as our family history I 've been wanting to catch up on what's been going on with us.

Summer is now here....we're busy in the garden and playing in the sun....okay, not so much sun fun, as we are having so much rain, but that helps the garden grow.
Cailin and Liam are taking the tops off the radishes.

One great, rain free, hot day the kids had their friends come over and they got to play in the sprinkler...the first water fun day of the season. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get the swimming pool up.


Memorial Day weekend my sister Elizabeth came for a visit....with a suprise to boot, she found me in the house and insisted I come and see an end table that she thought I would want for the house. Instead, I find Cheri scaring me from the trunk of the car, albeit a pleasant suprise. Liz and Cheri had been planning for a while to come for a long weekend and visit the east coast living siblings. (The living ones, not the dead ones, perhaps "abiding" would be a better word.") We spent 2 days shopping, eating out at Texas Steakhouse and helping me rearrange some of the rooms in my home.

A few days later, Ryan and I traveled to Buena Vista, VA to the campus of Southern Viriginia University to attend the LDSEastern Home Educators conference. We had a great time. Ryan attended different classes and group games that inspired him to build team work skills. He talked much about the class 'Boy World-Girl World', this is a class that talked about the biological, emotional, and cognitive differences in boys and girls from birth on up. As he is very fact oriented, this class caught is attention. He enjoyed the speakers Brad Wilcox and Ahmed_______, can't remember his last name, but he is the UN ambassador for the church. Really cool and inspiring speakers. Another favorite was pianist Jon Schmidt. He loved that Jon's mom would nag him to practice, even pull him in from playing outside to practice his piano......hmmmm, more of that will happen around here too ;).

I enjoyed the Mentor Mom classes. There were some great 'how-to' ideas on making our homeschool even better. I also attended a day long seminar on the constitution. I'm sadly amazed at how far our country has strayed from the foundations that our Founding Fathers set in place through the inspiration of our Heavenly Father.

Barry was able to come for a few hours, he was planning to attend the whole conference but court cases from work proved to take over the time instead.

I found a you tube video of Jon Schmidt playing some of his music. Ryan was so impressed with him, and I thought you'd be too. He's an amazing musician. Check it out for yourself.

Happy Birthday Ryan

Can it be? Fourteen years ago, today I had my little angel placed in my arms. He was a bit fussy and I was certainly not thinking straight, as our case worker had to prompt me--remind me that he was probably hungry and I could feed him. What.....oh yeah, the bottle--food, yes, I -I can do that. From those beautiful and wonderful moments in Texas to the teen age joy (okay, okay, not every moment has been blissful.), ....to the teen age joy I have now, I can only thank and feel so blessed to have Ryan as my dear son.

And how did he want to spend his 14th birthday, working with his dad on their mowing business. The two of them worked on 5 yards until the heat over took them....I keep reminding them to wear hats and sun screen, but do they listen?.....they came home and enjoyed battling it out on the Xbox. A few days ago they went to see a movie, I believe it as the new Terminator movie, they had hoped to see the new Star Trek, but that had moved on just the night before. We also enjoyed an impromptu lunch at Cici's pizza the day before his birthday

Getting the mowers ready for the day.

In the evening we enjoyed cake and ice cream. Ryan wanted chocolate....lots and lots of CHOCOLATE. So it was chocolate cake with chocolate icing (mixed with whipped cream) topped with cut up Reseces peanut better cups (thanks Amy for the great idea)

Yumm....but very rich. It suprised me, but Ryan could only eat one piece. Yep, it must've been that rich.

As for gifts, "Give me MONEY!!" he plans to take his birthday gifts and add them to what he is saving for a new gaming system....it's not like we don't have enough of them already.

Going Private

We are going to change the status of our blog. If you're interested in reading our blog please let me know by email and I will put you on our list of invited individuals that will be allow to access our blog. Thanks!