Busy times

I haven't blogged much for a while for a for couple of reasons. First, life has been keeping me very busy and second, I still have to limit my time on the computer or I will get a headache. Other than the occasional headache I have been feeling really great. I am so grateful to the Lord because there is no way I could keep up with all that needs done if I was still feeling like I was a couple of months ago! Thank-you Lord!!

The last month has been full of wedding prep and trying to squeeze in as many family trips as possible before Shyloh moves out. Here is a recap of the last month...

~We celbrated Shelbie's 15th birthday and Lolly's 3rd. Lolly is now officially potty trained!! Yeah!! Now I am only buying diapers for one!

~We had a wonderful beach trip. We went to Capitola State beach and the weather was beautiful. The kids got to see a dead seal on the beach (eww!), but they thought it was great. Shyloh and Shelbie also have a weird little tradition that they like to have a wrestling match on the beach and one them ends up with a faceful of sand...usually Shyloh. The funny thing is she always starts it and ends up being taken down by Shelbie. As usual the kids also tried ganging up on daddy to take him down. It never works though. The day we were there we saw lots of dolphins and seals swimming not far out in the water. That was special treat.

~Poppet also got a puppy, Herbie. She wanted to move out with Shyloh so to "get" her to stay here Daddy told her she could have a chihuahua puppy which she has wanted for quite a while. He's weak! We are actually all enjoying little Herbie. We have to watch him close so he doesn't get stepped on though! Crazy to have such a little dog with such a big family and busy house. Duane actually enjoys him almost more than even Poppet. Lynette went with us to get him and ended up with his sister, whom they named Haylee. We have fun getting them together to watch them play.

~Shyloh went on a road trip to Idaho with 3 other friends to visit their friends Annie and Hayden. It was a long 15 hour trip and I was a little concerned about them driving so long and far but they had a wonderful time. We all missed her terribly! The kids all wrote letters and made her a big welcome home sign. Words can't describe how we all felt to have her back with us. It gave us a little preview of how it will be when she leaves...and we don't like it a bit! :o(

~We got all the wedding invitations out. There was a little craziness with the marriage license so we held off doing the invitations until we knew for sure that we were keeping the date. They were sent out two weeks late but oh well....all is good.

~We also squeezed in a trip to the lake. Again the weather was great, not too hot. I am amazed at the mild summer we are having. I'm lovin my electric bill. Micah and Lynette drove up after he got off work and hung out with us for a few hours. We stayed until dark and had smores before heading home.

~We went camping last weekend. We told Jeff he had to give us one day alone with Shyloh before he came up. We were feeling selfish and wanted her undivided attention! We all felt a little sentimental realizing this would be our last camping trip with our family all under the same roof. This will be the biggest our family will ever be, unless the Lord chooses to bless us with twins! LOL (No, we are not planning on that nor have any announcements to make!) We had a great time. We are already planning to go back up with Jeff and Shyloh in September.
The places we normally camp were both full. We were very disappointed and Duane said, "hey, maybe God has better plans for us!) We drove farther up and he was right, God had a much better plan. We ended up in a place that Jeff actually camped at with his family as a child. It was breathtakingly beautiful! Jeff came up the next night and brought icecream with him. Yes, you read that right. He packed it in an icechest. We polished it off that night around the campfire. Yummy! Anyone that knows our family knows we love icecream! There was lots of fishing, hiking, and lots of resting. Mama needed that! We came back and I was a bit refreshed and ready to tackle all that needs done in these last two weeks before the wedding. Of course I think I am ready to head back up for some more R&R.

The wedding is two weeks from today. We have showers and lots of last minute things to get done. We are hosting a bbq the day after the wedding where Jeff and Shyloh will open their gifts and we can visit with out of town family. They will head out that night for their honeymoon. Duane is on vacation the week after the wedding. We are hoping to do some more camping with our good friends and try to keep busy enough so we aren't missing Jeff and Shyloh too much! I am also hoping to get some quiet time to get my lesson plans somewhat done for the new school year. I am really behind on all that and the school year has crept up fast! So much to do, so little time. As my cousin reminded me just today...It's all good! :o)
(There Jeff! Finally an updated blog post!)