Family and the 4th of July

Well, it's hard to justify spending time on the computer when a lot of other "stuff" has to be done. I'm so sorry I haven't updated this. I love reading other friends' updates, and I feel bad when I don't update. Sorry!

OK, we've had a very busy 2 weeks. As I tell about it, I will post photos. I've tried to photo journal everything we did. We'll see . . .

I wrote last that we went to a parade on Asher's 4 month birthday. I realized today that I don't have his 4 month photo taken on his giraffe blanket. However, we did get his photos taken at Sears. I will post a poor replica of them when they come. They were cute.

Then the following Monday, I wrote that we were going to close on the house. Well, we closed at 3:00 pm, went to the cities at 5 (or so . . . if you know me, you know what that means!) to be there for a birthday party for my brother, Jon's son, Noah. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, we got the photos of all the grandkids taken. (Joshua's holding Asher. Hanna is holding my sister's son, Ryan and sitting in the lap of my other sister's son, Jonas.)

The next day, we went to the Mall of America and then picked up Marc's Mom from the airport. We drove back that night, and got home at about 7 (I think?). My brother, Jon, drove out to Montana that morning to stay with his wife, Sara's parents. They stayed there until later on in this blog. :) Wednesday, we had lunch with Marc's mom, Asher's 4 month and Joshua's 8 year shots, gymnastics, supper and base/softball. Thursday . . . we rested! ( . . . and did laundry!) Friday, the 4th of July, we folded said laundry and ran around like a chicken with our (MY) head(s) cut off getting ready for the weekend.

I have had enough with running this way and that, busy with this or that, Marc busy, busy, busy with the house and the job and fishing. My parents were going to be gone for the 4th, so I asked them if we could stay in their house over the weekend and just spend time as a family -- no friends, no relatives, no work, no responsibilities. We packed up and cleaned the house Friday morning and early afternoon, and then we left the world behind. (sounds like a book!) We had fun. We were going to go to the Taste of MN, but by the time it was ready to leave, we all wanted to slow down and not be around the crowds, so we went to Prior Lake's Lakefront Park Fireworks display. It was really nice. We left shortly after 9, settled onto our blanket on the grassy hill by 9:30, did some sparklers while we waited. Asher sat content in his car seat. It was all perfect. At 10:00, the fireworks started, and Asher even loved them. He loved the bright lights, and the sounds didn't even scare him. His arms and legs were going, he was so excited! When we got back to my parents' house, we did some sparklers, and went to bed. It was nice.

The next day, we went to Chuck E Cheese's, went to Marc's favorite store, Mills Fleet Farm, checked out furniture at HOM furniture, went home to rest a little, then went to Red Lobster. With the exception of the kids at the furniture store, everything was perfect. Even down to the kids' entrees, which they normally have at least ONE thing to complain about, they both were wonderful!

The next day, we woke up late, packed up and as we were getting ready to go, my sister, Kris and Jonas and Kabe came through the door. We all went out to lunch, and then we left. (Kabe holding Asher)

Monday, we got rained out of our ball games, but we had another fun event to come home to -- my brother and his family stopped by our house on their way back from Montana to Ohio. They came Monday night and left Tuesday evening. They were going to spend a day in Wisconsin Dells before they went home. It was fun to have them. The boys tore into our boxes and had all the toys unpacked within just a couple of hours. Thanks for the help, guys!!! (j/k)

Tuesday night, 2 girls came to stay with us for 2 weeks. They are from CTI, the music ministry I toured with when I was single then worked with a few years later. They are doing intense music and ministry training for the next 2 weeks, then they go to Guatemala for a month. I love to host CTI girls. I feel bad this time around, though, cuz we don't even have a towel rack for them to use. We're getting there, but a lot of little details need to be taken care of. They're sharing a bathroom with my 2 older kids, no TV downstairs, and lots of other little things.

Tomorrow, my sister, Kris and her family (Rick, Jonas and Kabe) are coming out for the weekend. It was kind of spur of the moment, and with the CTI girls here, we're lacking an available guest room, but it's chaos here anyway, so why not share the chaos with the rest of the family!

Our house is still under construction outside. They're working on our retaining wall that we need to get done so we can have our dirt work done up to code (or something like that). It's looking nice. It's very expensive!!! (Ouch!) Marc had thought of doing it himself, and we would've saved a bunch, but I tried to reason with him that he is too busy as it is, and it's a big job. So, he made the phone call, and they were out there within 48 hours working, and already they have 2 of the 4 walls done and the 3rd about half done, and it's only 2 days into it. They may finish tomorrow. Marc looked at it tonight and expressed how glad he was that he didn't have to do it, that it's such a big job. The friend that was going to help him expressed the same sentiment.

Well, I will try to update this again very soon. I will add other photos that I didn't comment on. And I am too tired to proofread this. Have a great day!