Cute...dirty face and all

'Watching'

Creighton spends most of his time at the ballpark chasing girls, climbing trees and begging for concession stand treats....

Hitting and Pitching

Colby got a hit tonight and she pitched much better than Tuesday. You know it is early in the season when it takes an hour and a half to play TWO innings!

Pitcher

Colby has been wanting to pitch this year so we have been practicing with her quite a bit. She is definately improving and really enjoys it. A lot of determination in some of these pitches!

Bridge Pics Courtesy of Dan

I can't take credit for the picture. My dear friend Dan took it. I wish I was like Dan ;)



Anyway, this is the Mississippi Bridge all lit up. Thanks to some dedicated folks and generous donors, our bridge now looks like this:

Oh yeah...

And I woke up to these in the kitchen this morning.

Happy Mother's Day

A couple of attempts at long-arm shots of me and the kids.....it was tough with one little boy who likes to make faces and one little girl who still thinks bunny ears are funny :) (Yes, my glasses are crooked and yes, Creighton's hair DESPERATELY needs cut :)

It was a busy weekend. Colby has been practicing with the elementary song and dance team at church for months. They had their final practices this weekend and performed on Sat. night and this morning. I didn't get any pics, but I think I have a couple of video clips that you might be able to catch a glimpse of her in. I'll try to post them later. The weather was sooo crummy this morning so after church we headed to Coralville and did the mall crawl. I bought the KIDS lots of clothes, ate at THEIR choice for lunch, and hit all of THEIR favorite playplaces. After all, it is Mother's Day :)

Playing with fire

 

 

 

Friday night bon-fire

The kids have been chomping at the bit to have a fire. So Friday night was it. Perfect. No wind, great temp., hot dogs and smores. The best Friday night I could have asked for.

just cute kids

very random

Just unloaded the camera and found some random photos. some taken by Colby.

Blaze resting in his 'nest'.

Creighton hot-roding. He only knows fast and stop--nothing in between.

The lilacs finally made it this year without getting frost. It smells so good out there!

Colby must have taken this. It's the neighbor's horse, Roy. I wondered why she had a bag when she walked down there the other night. Obviously, she had my camera :)

Back to his old self

So last night I pulled into the garage and immediately could tell that Greg was frustrated about something. I got out and asked what he was looking all mad for. The response was, 'that d#@* horse'.

Remember last week when I wrote about what an escape artist he can be? Well, he succeeded again yesterday. He went out to the big gate (not his normal entrance or exit gate) where we take the tractor in and out to bring in the big round hay bales. He got it unchained--still not sure how he does this--he must mess with it for a long time and it just eventually comes undone. And then he proceeded to go on a walk..by himself.

When Greg got home there was a message on the answering machine from each of the neighbors' houses who Blaze passed while out on his walk. Eventually he ended up at Connie's house and her neighbor stuck him in with her Llamas! And that is where he stayed for the rest of the day until Greg had to go get him and walk him home.

It really is quite funny. Blaze has the funniest personality! I guess he didn't want the beautiful day to pass by without enjoying it :) Greg, however, didn't really find the humor in it. I am still laughing thinking about it today!

Over?

Can this weekend really be over? Wow...it flew. Nothing much went on here. Colby spent the night with a friend on Friday and most of Saturday afternoon. I grocery shopped, cleaned, mowed, laundry, played and messed with the horse. We hit church on Sunday, but had to skip out on small group to get the house ready for a Sunday afternoon showing. The kids went mushroom hunting with gramma and grampa this afternoon while I finished up at the house. They found quite a few for it being so early. Colby enjoyed it, but I think Creighton could take it or leave it. I love to eat them, hate to cook them. So, as the weekend wraps up, I think we are all completely wore out just in time to start the busy, busy work/school week ahead. (And, I am terrible with the camera these days--I have GOT to take some pictures soon!)

Another rainy Friday

So today I was getting ready for work and noticed that it was starting to thunder a little and the sky was dark. The first thing I said to the kids this morning is "you do NOT go out ahead of me this morning! You wait inside until I am ready to go and then we will walk out to the garage together. "

Colby looked at me pretty dumbfounded and said "why?". I guess last Friday is still very fresh in my mind. But, how quickly they forget and move on.

on tour

Tomorrow is the realtors' tour. They are stopping at our house around lunchtime. Our realtor is grilling hamburgers for everyone. Praying that one of the realtors through these doors tomorrow has just the right person in mind for this house. So wanting to get it sold quickly--or even show it for that matter!

Weekend closer

So the weekend is coming to a close. I am 'somewhat' prepared for the upcoming week. It will prove to be a hectic one with some crazy scheduling going on.

It's been an emotionally up and down weekend. Friday was just a day I won't ever forget with many ups and downs. And then the excitement learning of Greg's promotion. Today was a good day of working around here with a little relaxing (not much) too.

This morning I attempted to share the story of what happened on Friday with my small group. (They don't blog much--so they hadn't heard:). During prayer requests I said I had two big praises--one being Greg's job and then I fell silent. I couldn't even share it. It just brought tears to my eyes and I couldn't say it. I just wanted to say how thankful I am that God takes care of all the details in every little facet of our lives.

After the initial shock wore off and I really thought about what happened Friday morning the more I am in awe of how big our God really is. He had that specific moment in time worked out so perfectly that He kept my children and husband protected a mere 20 ft. from a deadly lightning bolt. And our horse was strategically standing so that the metal fence absorbed most of the shock and he miraculously lived. How awesome is that??

The thought that I could have lost them all at that very second still has not left my mind. I hugged them all a little tighter and told them I loved them a little more often all weekend.

Sometimes I just credit God with the 'big stuff'. And I just go to Him with the 'big stuff'. And I thank him for answers to prayers for the 'big stuff'. Sometimes I find myself praying for only the big things and wanting to control the little details myself. How thankful I am that God is in complete control of even the littlest, tiniest details and that I don't have to be. What a great reminder that I just need to trust.

Just so, so, so thankful for the opportunity to serve such a mighty, awesome and powerful God.

Going into this week with a positive attitude and a very thankful heart.

Not feeling 100%

Normally, Blaze is not a 'lay down' horse. Rarely does he ever actually lay down and stay down. Once in awhile he gets down and rolls on his back but gets right back up. Today he spent a lot of time laying in his stall (a rarity). He also laid all the way down with his head on the ground this morning and stayed that way for some time. I had Greg check on him--I was too scared. But, he popped his head up and got up to eat some oats from Colby. So, I would say he is not feeling the best, but that is to be expected....

Many thanks

Our many thanks go out to everyone who reached out to us yesterday. Thanks for your comments, your emails, the phone calls, everything. We are so thankful for EVERY ONE of you!

Thanks for understanding and knowing that our horse is such a huge part of our family and that we love him like no other.

So glad for the way this story ended.

A praise

About 9 months ago Greg made the jump from working at GPC to MP&W. That in itself was a huge answer to a million prayers. His work life improved 100% although he still worked a lot of long days, some nights and every other weekend.

He recently interviewed for a promotion amongst many others who had more seniority. So we really weren't expecting him to be selected although we were thankful for the opportunity for him to interview. Yesterday he was notified that he was selected and will start his new position sometime in mid-May.

We really won't know what to do with Greg home every night and every weekend. It will be a whole new way of life for us. Looking forward to learning what it is like to have a husband and dad that we will see EVERY day! Something we have never known.

Congratulations Greg!

God is so good.

What a day....

The day started out with the stress of the horse situation. Then the regular work day stressors. Then the weather situation. So, I called a friend to go out for a few beverages after work :) Left the cell phone in the car on purpose. When I got to the car I had 19 missed calls. One work call and 18 from the kids. No messages so I called Colby to see what the urgency was. All I got through the tears was, "I'm sick and I'm throwing up". Great. Just what I was looking forward to this weekend. Hopefully a quick bug that doesn't make the rounds. Happy day. Glad this one is OVER! Tomorrow has to be better. BTW - I LOVED pulling in and seeing Blaze standing in his pen alert. Prayers were answered today despite all the junk.