6 Miles

Sorry for a boring title, I'm just running out of creativity for titles right now. But at least you're getting some posts with actual information–not just pictures! So, here are a few more updates from the weekend and the last few days.

First, James pointed out in the comments of our weekend update that I didn't say he spent 9 hours working on fixing our garage door. The opener had stopped working. When he went to look inside the black box that houses the motor to open the door, he saw lots of bits plastic from a gear that shattered. So he was going to get a new one. But then he realized that the door was off balance and other things were messed up (I'm sorry, I don't remember what and he's no here to ask. I know the springs were rusted and something else was broken and it was just a mess). He was going to have to get all the new points to rehang everything, but Lowes didn't have those parts. So he went to an actual Garage Door store and was able to get the parts AND the gear for the motor, so he didn't have to pay $140 for a new black box. But it took some time to get it all fixed. So he ended up spending 9-10 hours working on the garage door. But it opens! And we didn't have to pay someone else to fix it! And he could have a possible second vocation if he ever decides to leave the computer field.

Second, my MOPS group started up Tuesday night and it seemed like (to me) it went really well. It was wonderufl to be meeting again and I had a great time–I hope everyone else did! If you want to read more about it, you can look at our group blog www.mopsonthehill.wordpress.com

Then we had AWANA last night. Last week was rough and I was a bit discourage about it. Last night was completely different. The books for the kids were supposed to be passed out last week but they hadn't been ordered. They tried to rush to put in another order to have by last night but were told "Due to heavy volumn" there was no way we'd get them by Wednesday. What a blessing to get an email on Tuesday to tell me the books had arrived!  The kids were so excited to get them. We (the leaders) are starting to get our act together, the parents are starting to understand what their role is and the Cubbies are having a great time and learning verses! I've been very encouraged by some parents telling me how much their kids are enjoying it. If you remember, please keep the program in your prayers though, we still have a number of weeks left to meet.

Yesterday, the boys were listening to one of the Praise songs James' team sang last Sunday (Undignified by The David Crowder Band…or "The La La La Song", as they call it).

Will was on drums.

Alex was using a block as his microphone and singing and dancing along.

We listened to that song a number of times yesterday and today. Then they started to fight over who plays the drums. So we took a break from singing along to it.

We've been working with Alex to say the "s" and "f" sounds at the beginning of words. He'll say "nake" or "ban" and James will tell him "Say SSSSSS-nake" or "Say FFFFFFF-an", and Alex will give it his best shot.  The other day Alex was wanting to know when it'd be HIS birthday. We told him January. He said, "In FFF-january?!"

We sold the broken van for scrap parts. It was nice that they picked it up. Sadly, the boys and I were gone when the guy came, but James took pictures for them. (Seriously, they would have been THRILLED to watch the whole process.) They were impressed it was a TWO car tow-truck!

Last night we went to a Youth Leader Meeting. The youth pastor hosted and the leaders all met while the kids played, and then we had a chili dinner. Will told me he remembered when we were there for a steakout. After a double take, I realized he meant COOK-out, one we had about a month ago there.

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Today James had jury duty. Because of our single car status in the family, we decided I'd take him to the court house and drop him off, so I could use the car to take Will to preschool and various other activities. As we got to the preschool, Will said "When are we going to pick up Daddy from the Quarter House?" 

…I left the house this morning with no diaper bag, no spare diaper in my bag, no change of clothes for "just in case". And we had no problem! It was quite nice. 

After a crazy week two weeks ago, this last week was supposed to be our "slow" week. It didn't seem that slow. Or, on the days we didn't have things planned we were busy enough that I felt it was a busy week. But nothing that interesting, thus the lack of blogging. I'll try to give you a few highlights.

We moved Will up to a larger bike this week. He was working so hard to pedal that little bike and James remembered the previous owners of the house had left a bigger bike in the shed. So we pulled it out for Will and he's loved being able to go faster. He's joined James on two runs (Will bikes while James runs). He looks "right" on the bike (instead of too big for a tiny bike, how we realized he looked on the other) except for one thing–the bike is pink and purple. (The reason the previous owners left it, they had a girl and a boy and probably thought they weren't going to pass it down to the boy.) The nice thing is, he doesn't care, he loves how much faster he can go and experimenting with things like "How slow can I go before I fall?" or "How fast can I go while I turn?", so we'll keep it. Maybe spray paint it if it starts to bug me too much.

While Will and James run/bike, Alex and I go on slower walks and go feed the "phish" in the pond. We saw the snapping turtle yesterday. He some times swims up to eat the bread we throw in, but we don't see him very often so it's a Big Deal when he appers. Both times we were walking, Alex said "I miss Daddy and Will weally" (his r's come out like w's). (He keeps saying funny things and I keep forgetting to write them down here. I'm going to try to do better.) Alex is really getting into the "I do it!" stage. He wants to do as much as possible and even things that are not possible for him. It makes for some 'interesting' times.

Last night I had the boys helping me with the green beans we've gotten. Will loves helping me tip them. Alex wanted to help as well, so he got to snap them. It was nice to see how badly they both wanted to help. I was hoping it'd make them want to eat the green beans they helped prepare, but that didn't happen. We are making plans to put in our own garden next year so we're going to have many more chances to work together.

We had cool weather last week and then it started to warm up. It's been so dry in the last month,  everything is turning brown, leaves are starting to fall and it's looking, but not feeling, like fall. We were supposed to get rain all weekend but then it shifted north. I think we're the only area hoping for Ike to come, we really need the rain. We are getting some rain from him, but most went North again, to areas that did not need the rain. We hope those of you in the Northern part of IL and IN are doing ok!

James played drums with the praise team today. The boys got to see them practice Wednesday (they practice from 7-9, we have AWANA from 6:30-8. With only one car we all went together and got to stay late to listen) and they really wanted to see the team play this morning. So I got both kids out of their Sunday School classrooms and took them upstairs to hear the team. By song #2, Will was done. Alex wanted to stay. So mid-way through song #3 I took them back to their rooms. Alex cried the whole way back, he wanted to stay and hear the music. He loves music. Several of his Sunday School teachers have told us he sings along with the songs with them and they enjoy it (I guess most kids his age don't join in as much).

Looking ahead to this week, I'm excited about the start of the Mothers of Preschoolers group I'm a part of. And, this weekend I'm going on the Ladies Retreat our church is having.  

So, now you're caught up a bit!  Thanks to for sticking with my long and rambling post! (Sorry I had no pictures to break up all the words! James just complained about that!)

Saturday we finally had Will's birthday party. Because of the delay almost everyone we invited was able to come (I let him invite a lot of people thinking many wouldn't be able to come. We had some kids leave early and other come late, so I think we had 18 represented at one time or another–that included a few siblings toddling around though.).  It made for great fun, but also great chaos!   Really, it wasn't that bad. It was a blessing to be able to hold it outside–we are VERY thankful for the large backyard. We are also VERY, VERY thankful for a generous boss. One of James' bosses loaned us a large blow up water slide and bounce house he owns. We're also VERY thankful for my parents! Both were great help in getting ready, and these pictures are here because my dad took my camera and took them–I was a bit busy with the party! My mom had a great time keeping Alex company and he loved the one-on-one time with Grandma.

And now–to the highlights! Here's the giant slide:

The water was a bit cold so not all kids went on it. We were blessed with a beautiful day, but it only got to about 79, so the kids who did get wet were shivering .

Here's the bounce house:
We saw up to 7 kids in it. The sign on it says no more then 2 kids. Ironically, we had no problems until there were just 2 kids in there (Will and Alex) and then they bonked heads.

The kids also had fun on the swingset and the kiddie pool. The little girl in pink was overheard saying "This party is TOO AWSOME!"  It was nice they enjoyed it!

Several friends stayed and had a nice time talking during the party. I knew I wouldn't get to enjoy much time with them, but it was nice to spend my few free moments chatting.

So, remember my plans were to have some water balloon activites? I was going to have a race (since this was a race themed party), and then let them do a water balloon toss and then let them just throw them at each other. As soon as I brought them out, the kids were ready to grab them and throw! But we got them to hang onto the balloons and line up at the start line.

And they were off!

And after the race I lost control and they all threw them at each other.   At least they didn't throw them at me!

Then we did the pinata. Will had one request–a pinata. (Well, actually he asked for party hats too but that didn't happen). So he saw a monster truck pinata that we had fun hitting. Sadly it was annoying as each wheel feel off and dropped candy and we had to keep getting the kids back for the main body. But in the end we just opened it up and threw the candy out and they loved getting it.

Then it was time for cake and ice cream! The cake was made by a friend who is doing cake decorating, I realized mid-week I was in over my head and figured that'd be one less thing for me to do. I am glad I did that.

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BEST IDEA EVER–put the kids on sheets on the grass. Boy were they messy!

Then we did presents and the kids started to leave. It was fun, not too long and not too hard. It was nice to sit down and chat with friends at the end. But, it was a lot of work and confirmed we won't be doing a big party every year but every few years!

Will got this with a gift card from Great-Grandpa Harbin. He LOVES it because it has a dumpster that can be lifted up and then dumped in the back. (This is where it's fun to let them pick out gifts sometimes because I would have NEVER thought he'd like it as much as he does.)

Here is what Will told Heidi (who told Doug) about it ""I like my garbage truck. I like how it dumps trash into the hole where the trash goes and smushes the trash all the way to the back and I like how it dumps all the trash to the ground in the landfill."

You're seeing him show you how it's smushing the trash back (by turning the knob).

…and the joy of dumping it! Thank you Grandpa Harbin!

(Here is a link back to his first day ever of preschool, 2 years ago, for those who want a reminder how big he has gotten!)

Well, we made it through the crazy part of the week. The title is me breathing a sigh of relief.

For those of you who don't know, I'm in charge of Publicity of my MOPS group. This is my busy time of the year, trying to get word out about our group, getting registration letters ready to invite all the moms back, and then the biggest task: getting the welcome folders together for the first meeting. The folders, this year, ended up having 12 different things I needed to copy. Since we were making 100 folders, that meant 1200 copies!!!  That includes a welcome letter, a packet of short biographies of all the steering team members and table leaders, a directory, a schedule, our child care information, etc. All very important things.  Tuesday night we met and I had wonderful help getting the papers put in order and into the folders and great help putting labels on mints we're going to give out. So I left that meeting thinking "Whew, half the load is off my shoulders!"

Wednesday night was our first night of AWANA. First ever for our church–we just started the program. I am director of the Cubbies, the 3 and 4 year olds. The first night is parent night and I realized part of the nerves was trying to do a parent night the FIRST time we've ever done club! Yikes! Thankfully (?) word was not put out well at all that parents were supposed to stay! So, we had 2 stay and it was fine. We had fun and the kids had fun and that's what matters. We worked on learning our Key Verse (1 John 4:10) and Club Motto (Jesus Loves Me!). The motto is hard to teach, you tell the child "Jesus loves Me!" and they say back "Jesus Loves you!". So one leader taught the kids with their names in it. One parent gave me a hard time because she asked her daughter "What verse did you learn?" and her daughter said "Jesus loves Zoe!" She asked me where that was in the Bible!   So over all it went well, despite some bumps in the road and we're all looking forward to next week.

So now…now I feel better.  Now I need to work on getting the house ready for Will's birthday party on Saturday. Clean the house, prepare the food, make goody bags, and get the candy for the pinata. Oh, and some games. I have water balloons we'll need to fill… We're borrowing a blow up water slide from a friend (the massive ones) and will have the kiddie pool filled and sprinkler out. I figure the kids can play with those awhile, then we'll do water balloon games (tosses, races and something else).  Then we can do the pinata, the cake, the gifts and then play again….but I think I want to have a few extra game ideas in my back pocket in case things start to get crazy or if that doesn't fill up an hour and a half.  Yeah, short party–I know my limits! Any ideas or thoughts on my plans? Let me know! 

Other random tidbits:

• The van died yesterday. A piston broke, so the engine is done. It'll cost more then the value of the van to repair, so we're back to just having the car. We're thankful it didn't happen while we're on the road to/from PA. It was a good van that my parents sold to us and we did get some good use and several long trips out of it. We're wondering if it's God's sign that we're supposed to stick with two kids.
• Will started preschool and enjoys it. His teachers seem really nice and he has 3 friends in his class from his class last year.
• Alex was sad, he wanted to know where his class was. I was glad we had Bible Study so he and I got to go somewhere after taking Will into his class.