Wordless Wednesday

Two Special Celebrations

This past week we celebrated two very special people.  The first one was Owen's friend Tyler.  Tyler was in the hospital for many many weeks with a serious bacterial infection (ecoli) that turned into other life threatening complications.  Mike and I spent a lot of time praying and crying for this little boy and his parents (who we think the world of!).  Owen and I prayed for Tyler every night and if I happened to forget one night, he would remind me.  He would also remind me that we needed to pray for Tyler's brother, Matty, who was missing his brother terribly.  This family has experienced unbelievable heartache, but never gave up hope.  Throughout the entire time Tyler was in the hospital, Jenny (his mom) tried her best to find something positive in each day and never lost faith.  Amazing.  They wanted to have a little get together to celebrate Super Tyler's return home. We were so honored that Tyler wanted Owen to stop over.

It was the perfect little gathering with only a few people since that's about all Tyler could handle at the time.  I know his parents are going to be planning a much bigger celebration once Tyler gains a little more strength and adjusts to being back home.  Seeing Tyler and Owen ride around in Tyler's jeep was priceless.  Owen has a special place in his heart for his buddy.

Daddy took Owen for a ride in Mr. Szajda's Go Kart.  They "accidentally" went through some muddy puddles.  Owen was not happy!

This past Saturday night we celebrated Papa's 60th birthday.

Owen had a countdown all week to Papa's special day.  He kept pointing to the number 60 on his number chart.  He couldn't believe Papa was going to be that old!  ha!

We had a delicious dinner, played trains and fuse ball, and ate chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.  Yum.

On a completely different note...

I've been so busy lately.  I have friends that I've been meaning to call and haven't been able to find the time and I feel badly about that.  This week I am going to try REALLY hard to make time to call my friends that I have not talked to in what feels like ages!  I have also decided not to check Facebook on a regular basis anymore.  I really enjoy keeping up with people and seeing pictures of friends' kids, but it is not a good use of my time.  Instead of going on Facebook, I should really just call my friends.  Lately, I've found myself being a little shocked by what people write on FB and then sharing it with Mike.  I could think of 99 things that I could do with my time that are much more positive and more productive.  Instead of watching the news at night, I've been checking FB.  Pathetic.  I may have to stop on now and then to see if Mike's class in Lancaster is cancelled since FB is the only way we know, but that's all for a while.  So, if you happen to be one of the 5 people that sill read my blog and you send me a message over FB or an invite to something and I don't respond, please just send me a good ol' fashioned e-mail.  I think I will receive a message to my e-mail when someone contacts me through FB, but I'm not sure. 

Goodnight!!

Our Week

What a week it's been!  Monday night the 4 of us went out to dinner to celebrate Mike's birthday.  His actual birthday was Tuesday, but Owen has soccer on Tuesdays so we celebrated a day early.  Tuesday was Owen's first soccer game.  They have only had two practices because they got a late start to the season, but I guess when you're four and five years old it doesn't really matter much.

Owen has grown up so much since last Spring when he played soccer for the YMCA (and he cried the first few practices).  He has a HUGE smile on his face the entire time he's on the field and is having a blast playing soccer.  Most of his teammates go to his daycare which makes it even more fun!

I have to say it's almost as much fun for the parents too.  We laugh at the silly things they do while on the field.

Mike and I were surprised at how well all the kids played.  They spread out and the game was very fast paced.  Definitely not boring to watch.  Plus, the players are the cutest darn things I've seen in a while.  They still don't quite get the object of the game and now and then they will steal the ball from their own teammates :)

Adam entertains himself by playing with Ben, eating tons of snacks, running onto the field when we are not watching, visiting and saying "hi" to all the spectators, and eating grass.

Owen did great at his game and scored some goals.  A funny thing that happened... when his team was in a huddle, the two coaches told them they had to come up with a team name.  Owen said, "How about the Owen Reager team?"  HAHAHAHA!

The rest of the week went a bit downhill (at least for Mike it did).  Wednesday he went to the dentist to get a cavity filled and later was in horrible pain and needed an emergency root canal.  He was also badly bitten by an emotional support student.

This weekend has turned out to be a good one though!  Tonight we celebrated Papa's 60th birthday and tomorrow afternoon we're going to Oktoberfest!

Wordless Wednesday

What We've Been Up To

Jeans, sweatshirts, leaves beginning to change color, and our pellet stove cranked up... just some of my favorite things this time of year.  My boys, however, are not liking the fact that they must wear pants and long sleeved shirts. 

Owen started soccer last week.  He has practices Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Eventually games will replace the practices.

Adam started swimming lessons last Saturday.  Mike took him to his first lesson and let's just say it didn't go well.  They only stayed in the pool for 10 minutes (Mike came home and told me they got kicked out...half joking).   They have toys all around the pool and he wanted to play with them rather than do what he was supposed to be doing.  I took him to his lesson this weekend and he did better.  We stayed the entire class and while he did want to keep exchanging his toy and had to have one in his hand at all times, he did every skill he was supposed to, and most importantly, he sat on the edge of the pool and did not get in until I told him he could.  He loves the water and loves smiling and talking to all the babies. 

Yesterday afternoon/evening Mike and I went to a wedding for my friend Sara.

Sara and I (bad picture of me... my eyes are messed up)

We've been friends since kindergarten.  The wedding was beautiful and Sara looked amazing!  I took my camera, however, once again, the battery was dead.  So, I took a few pictures with my iPhone.  A lot of people at Sara's wedding will be going to Hilton Head next month for Katie's wedding.  We are sooooo excited for that trip!!!

Joel and Katie

Katie and I

On the way home, Mike had a message to call his friend Shaggy.  Turns out, "Aunt" Shaggy (as Mike taught Owen to call him) is FINALLY engaged!!!!!!  We're just waiting to find out when and where the wedding will be.  Shaggy and Maureen live in Colorado so the wedding could be out there.  Wouldn't be a bad place to have to go for a wedding!

Today, we're hanging out at home.  Daddy is staining the deck and then after naps we have a very special celebration with a SUPER special little boy :)

Crafty Activity

Sunday afternoon Owen was feeling a little bored.  He had spent the past four days pretty much inside because of the rain and flooding and the sun was finally out.  A few weeks ago I found this neat idea somewhere Online.  I wish I could remember where I saw it, but I can't. 

All you do is mix paint and water together in ice cube trays and freeze it. 

These ice cubes had already made it down the slide at least once.  I forgot to take a "before" shot.

Then, you can use the ice cubes to paint.  We put our paper on the sliding board so we could race our cubes like they were cars.  It made a neat painting too! 

Ella Bella

Aunt Paige was in a wedding this weekend which meant we got to have Ella for another sleepover on Saturday night!  Yippee!!!  Owen and Ella have the best time playing together.  Every now and then they argue like brother and sister, but for the most part, they get along very well.  I told Paige I would take some pictures.  These are from my iPhone so the quality isn't that great.

First, we went to the playground.  Owen drove Ella there in his John Deere.  The sight of these two cuties made a lot of people driving by smile. 

Then we came home and had dinner out on the deck.  Pork, noodles, broccoli, and watermelon.  Oh, and two pieces of chocolate for dessert.  Maybe not the best idea!  haha!

Poor Adam tries so hard to fit in and keep up, but he just ends up getting left behind.  Not really on purpose, but it happens.  I told him that soon enough Samantha will be sleeping over too so he'll have a buddy.

After baths, the kids played and played and played until it was time for bed.  Ella sleeps on the bottom bunk and Owen on the top, but they wanted to read and talk a little bit before bed. 

They were in bed by 10 and up a little after 7.  After three pancakes each, they played and played some more before Paige came to pick Ella up.  We love having her at our house and can't wait for another sleepover!!

9-11

I will never forget.

This morning, as we were getting ready to go to church, a scary thought came in my head.  I was actually, for a second, a little afraid to go to church.  I was afraid some crazy person might try to do something stupid and hurt us. Seeing how it is Sunday, September 11th.  The tenth anniversary of that devastating day.  Our church was very crowded and anyone can walk in at anytime.  I also know we are in a "heightened state of alert" and there were police officers searching cars at our nearby little hospital this week. 

But then I realized that if we stayed home and didn't go, out of fear, "they" would win.  And I wasn't about to let that happen.  Nosiree.  So off we went.  And we remembered.  And we'll never forget.

Flood Day

We didn't have school again today due to all the flooding in our area.  Almost every school in my district has flood damage.  We were so lucky that our basement stayed dry throughout all the rain.  Most people experienced wet basements to some degree and many had more than a foot of water!  Mike spent the past two days helping people and pumping out basements.  The humidity around here is pretty bad.  We need some cool, crisp, sunshiny days to dry things out.

I kept the boys home from daycare today.  I really was itching to get out of the house and do something fun, but almost everything was closed and if it wasn't closed, the road getting there was most likely closed.  So, we hung around here, did some crafts, colored, went to lunch with Lala, and Owen and I made cookies.

And finally, after naps, the sun came out and we went to the playground.  When Adam found out we were going to the playground he was beyond excited.  That boy just loves being outside and especially loves the playground.

Owen's imagination was running wild.  He referred to me as Batman, my mom as Robin, and Adam as Frogman the entire time we were at the playground.

Adam has started doing every single thing that Owen does.  It's funny, but also a little scary.  Owen had a timeout and was sitting on the bench kicking his legs and Adam ran over, sat on the bench, and kicked his legs the same exact way.

We have some fun things planned for tomorrow.  Adam starts swimming lesson and Ella is sleeping over!