Van Blessings?

Blessings? Well, we had to look for them a few minutes before finding them. On the way home this afternoon, our van died a horrible dripping, crying, smoking death! Our transmission has been "slipping" for a few weeks, so we actually expected a van problem. In fact we had plans to call and get the van an appointment first thing in the morning. Old Bessie just couldn't hang in that long!! About half way home, she started chugging and puffing and smoke started coming out the back. 7 miles before we got home, she died and miraculously restarted in second gear to trudge back toward the car shop where she died right in front of the shop in the street in a major puff of smoke leaving a puddle of transmission fluid and she started sliding backward. Charles leapt out of the van and grabbed on...used his manliness to push and steer the van into a nearby parking spot to await no matter what diagnosis tomorrow morning!
So where are the blessings? Well, Charles is out of school right now (so no commute while we are down to one vehicle), we have the money to fix it (we hope if it isn't more major than we believe), we made it to the car shop (literally died right in front of it), and we had someone to come pick us up - and of course no one was hurt! We do have the car, which also shakes when driven and has no air! But back to the blessings....
My dad is doing well. They decided to keep him another night. They think it may actually be his gallbladder, so they are running more tests. I hope we know more tomorrow, but I think it may be Monday before we find out what the tests reveal. Keep him and my mom in your prayers. This really has been going on for a long time, and we are ready for him to get better. At this point, a diagnosis (such as your gallbladder is bad) would be a blessing. We'll just have to wait and see. I'll keep you posted.
Also, I broke a tooth tonight after getting home from the dentist. Oye. We still have a long way to go in this very expensive mouth of mine. Blessings there? I had a good visit today, and eventually we will get this all taken care of.
Thanks for reading. I don't know why, but I sure do feel better when I put all of this out there!

Summer Adventures

So what has happened so far this week? Kaitlin started Acting lessons Monday night, and she'll continue those every Monday this summer. She loved them.
Today we dug in a brick for dinosaur bones, then we pieced them together and identified that we indeed had a spinosaurus. This week we have been reading from a book called "Dig It" all about what palentologists do and how they find dinosaur bones. We've also been enjoying a kids CD of dinosaur music and dinosaur snacks and dino games. Kaitlin (who loves the Magic Tree House book series) read Dinosaurs Before Dark. We are just about dinosaured out, my friends! I have loved dinosaurs since I was little, and I would jump at the chance to go on a dig or even to a museum filled with skeletons of dinosaurs! I hope I've passed some of that on to my kids this week.
Today we also found a teeny tiny frog. Summer is indeed an adventure and we are enjoying every minute of it. I am still trying to learn to ride the unicycle. I have no skill or balance. I'll let you know if I ever make it further than 3 feet without braking bones!
Tonight we enjoyed snocones beside the park and now we are off to church. Here a few pictures of what we saw today.

Prayer Request

I just found out that my dad is in the hospital because he is having an allergic reaction to some medicine they put him on recently. They have still been unable to correct his blood pressure problems entirely, and he is still having stomach problems. For those of you who don't know already - he had 1/4 of his colon removed last summer - I believe it was around June, and he has had all sorts of problems since. Pray for my dad and also for my mother (who is near her wit's end with all of this).
My mom said that he is already responding well to what the doctors are doing for him, and they hope to see him released tomorrow afternoon. I guess after that, they will just have to figure out how to change his medication again (for the millionth time).
Thank you!

Pterodactyl Toenails!

We made Dinosaur Delight today while listening to some jazzy dinosaur music. It was so much fun. Here is the recipe so you can try it too! Make sure you prepare all the ingredients before hand in bowls so that the little ones have to wonder if Mom is really feeding them swamp water!

Dinosaur Delight
Need:
1/4C dirt (cocoa)
1/2C swamp water (milk with green food coloring)
2C crushed Pterodactyl toenails (sugar)
1/2C fat (butter)
2C dead grass (uncooked oatmeal)
1/2C squashed bugs (peanut butter)

Mix cocoa & milk. Add sugar and butter. Boil about 3 min. Add peanut butter and oatmeal and stir until melted. Remove from heat and stir until mixture begins to thicken, Drop by tablespoonful onto waxed paper cool, eat and enjoy.

http://www.primarygames.com/science/dinosaurs/dinosaurs.htm
Here is a website that has some dinosaur writing paper and dinosaur coloring pages. It also has a cool dino-facts page to check out!

Wedding Laughter

A friend of mine posted a blog a while back asking for stories of wedding mishaps. Then last night I got to talking with a few women and we started laughing about wedding day problems.
Here's what I posted on my friends site.

“Ah where to begin...ok, I'll choose the cake. Lol. We decided to cut costs by letting a friend of the family decorate the cake. I chose a cake similar to one that she had made for another family member and said, "I want it like this one only with more Christmas time type flowers" (since we got married in December). When the cake arrived (shortly before the wedding) I found not only Christmas type flowers, but also glow in the dark cherub angels and tiny Santa hats perched in among the flowers!!!! My wonderful sister did all she could to remove the offensive, glowing creatures, but the memory (although somewhat tragic at the time) still makes me cackle out loud.”
I just picked one. I could have talked about his brother passing out at the wedding, or the ice storm that took out the power, or that his sister got in a wreck on the way to the wedding, his mother had the flu…I could seriously go on here.
So, tell me some of the worst (and funniest in hind site) things that happened at your wedding! Share your story or if you were at my wedding and have a different funny story - share that.

The reason that my mind is on the wedding track, is that a good friend has asked me to do the photography for her wedding in December. I feel (and am) totally unqualified, but she seems to think I can handle it. I am under-equipped and under-experienced (spell check says those are not words, but you understand). My bestest photographer friend has given me her advice, but any of you that are photographers can chime in as well. I’d love to second shoot for her (so that she can have all the pictures I take to develop as she wishes) but I’m just not sure about being the main gal for this job!

The images here are from her sister's wedding last summer. (Ld Photography)

My New Addiction

So most of you know that "cooking is not my ministry." That is a quotable line from the movie of my life! However, I love all things red and kitchen - especially vintage, red and kitchen. It makes me drool! So here is my latest fantasy and addiction.
My grandmother past away last April and I was given the precious gift of a red pyrex bowl from somewhere around the 50s(I think). It is one of my few treasured items, however my husband loves to use it. I have promised to get him one exactly like it that will not make me HATE him if he breaks it. It's just not worth how upset I would get. His whole, "Grandma Hall would want you to use it" speech just doesn't penetrate!
Anyway, we are in need of tupperware and mixing bowls, and this is what I want! We have just started acquiring kitchen items that aren't from the dollar store this past year and I am loving it (although some great stuff comes from that place, and our best stuff is from garage sales). Since we didn't have the typical bridal shower, etc we have had to build our kitchen verrrryyy sllooowwly (which just makes us appreciate everything that much more).
If these make you drool too, let me know and feel free to share your kitchen fantasies! I also love red depression glass. Although we aren't blood related, I must have inherited my love of depression glass from my grandmother-in-love who has a dreamy collection herself.

YOU FOUND ME

Yay! I'm so glad you found me. For the few that read this blog - please leave me a comment to let me know that you are here. I reposted the last two blogs from the other blog incase you missed them.
I realized that I had too much personal information tied up in the last blog including our last name in the URL.
So, I just deleted it to start fresh. I hope I haven't caused you too much trouble switching sites.
I'm going to try to redo links, etc in the near future.

Top Reader Award

Today was the awards assembly at Kaitlin's school. I was sort of far back, but I got a few pictures to share. This six weeks she earned Advanced Reader 2. She also recieved the Top Reader of the Year Award for Kindergarten and got her "Kindergarten Diploma." It was a big day for her, and we are so proud. Waita Go, Kate! We love you!!!

We Made Butter

Kaitlin has been after me for sometime to let her make home made butter, so this afternoon I finally gave in. It took less than an hour for the three of us (Kaitlin, Jonathan and me) to shake shake shake our way into delicious home made butter. It is delicious and it was well worth it.
We used 2 cups of heavy whipping cream in a cleaned out pickle jar. We added a large (clean) marble to make the churning go faster (and believe me it made a big difference). Then we shook and shook and jumped up and down and shook some more until finally we had butter. We had to drain the buttermilk and voila! As you can see, we enjoyed our snack on some delicious crackers. Better yet, we are about to enjoy some more! We are in for a fun summer.
For my sister's take on this entire event, check out her blog at http://www.lonestarcasiesrandomroundup.blogspot.com/