The fun of friendships

Going through some piles and cleaning up some messes before Oren heads to pre-school...
Thought I would just take 5 min. to update my blog.
His stories about pre-school are pretty great! And he loves to write and draw. He has a lot of buddies there and to hear him talk about his social fun there makes me smile. 

We have had a lot of sweet friend moments! 
I got together with girlfriends for crepes, coffee and a birthday celebration Friday - it was wonderful. 
Hazel has had girl friends over, crafting, baking and Barbies are some of their loves.  Willem spent the night at a friends Sat. night and had a blast! Oren had Nathaniel over yesterday. Merit always has funny stories from basketball, especially the bus rides. 

There were hot Cheetos in the car last night and as I was sitting at the High School waiting for Merit to get done with practice, I decided to eat a few. The heartburn I had at 5 a.m. this morning really made me wish I had not. 

O.P.J His imagination and play run wild. 

I laugh a lot and sometimes he tells me that what I am laughing at was not supposed to be funny! 

Nathaniel game over yesterday for a little play date and lunch -- Oren was SO excited!

A life update; Tuesday

The person in our family who was perhaps more excited about Willem's birthday than Willem was Oren.
Birthdays are so fun!
Merit is doing a presentation on Dave Niehaus. Fun to hear him research a man who he thinks a lot of.
Oren likes the book and the movie, Beauty and the Beast - but he is sad when the "beast" is gone and the prince is back. He misses that gently beast that people sort of fall in love with.
Hazel is loving life as a second grader. Her friends are terrific. Her teacher is amazing. Hazel's love for her family and also the animals in this family makes me so happy.

A terrible fire on Saturday night at Chico's Pizza left our community reminiscing.
The next day a dear friend called and said police were at the Western Building and that she saw smoke.  Vance quickly went there. Many firefighters had arrived at that point. The fire started in the basement. Vance and Vic's offices are there. Fires are so destructive. Where things are not burned, the smoke damage can be pretty severe. Vance is very occupied with all of this.

We all hoped the only fire were would see over Willem's birthday weekend were from the candles on his cake... but the weekend was quite different. The most important thing, no one was injured.

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I have had a lot of fun over the past few weeks, putting scripture and inspirational quotes on some of my favorite pictures!

And I stumbled acrossed this picture which I love.
Willem was 9 or 10 and incredible at netting fish! This was at the Ayakulik - trip of a lifetime. Natasha is next to him.

Happy 12th Birthday Willem!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL!!

SMART, kind, funny ---

Willem, I pray God's blessings for you!

May "12" be a year of many memories and growth!

So proud of you for taking on the challenge of piano!!

So proud of you being a 4.0 student! 

We are thankful for the great kid you are.

Life on the mini farm

 Watching this kid play is fantastic!

Oh and check out this "Chief supporter" !! 

When I see an Under Armour ML Chief jacket at Goodwill, I cannot pass it up! 

A little big for me, better on Matt --

 This is the most interesting hen! She flies in and out of the coop each day. She sleeps in the coop each night, but she HAS to have her free ranging. I have yet to see an egg she has laid. Some day, I will stumble across a pile of 30 of them I bet! My guess is she has been laying for about 3 months.

 Nellie

Hazel and Connie

When I was a little girl, living on the Sunrise Road, I had three cats. Buttercup, Lucy and Licorice I believe. I know I had Buttercup and Lucy... the 3rd, Licorice, I think. I thought they were great. After that we had  "Buns", some wild mousers and one darling cat, Oreo. My dad was never a dog person although around the time I was moving out of the house they adopted Dusty. Dusty was an easy going dog who did not bark and didn't have much of an opinion. My dad couldn't handle a barker, or a dog with an opinion. It was a good fit. 

I see Hazel with our foster kitties and with Connie and it is so darling!! She is good with the chickens and with our dog too.
Our dog, Nellie, is a good dog!
She gets into the occasional skunk and sometimes drags slippers, shoes and toys outside, but mostly she is loyal, sweet and loveable.
Vance grew up a dog lover.
When I was 20 I began to realize I really like animals.
Now at 42, I love animals.
I can hardly wait to get chicks this March! Oren and Hazel join me in this excitement.
The animal shelter called me Saturday. They said they had a fostering need. My ears perked up. They have 6 3 1/2 week old puppies!! They asked me to take them.
I paused.
But, my plan is to stay married and taking some foster puppies would not have gone over well around here.
Besides, between Awana, basketball, (baseball before long)  piano, after school art clinics, (and these are just the kids activities)  I really can't take that on. But I do pray someone will.

And through the hard, we can choose to be grateful

There is something about seeing our children grow. It is not promised, it is not a given. So with each day, month and year - we should whisper prayers to God for the gift of time. 

I have had so many thoughts this week about having a grateful heart. 

An extra dose of gratefulness seems to be on Hazel and Oren's hearts this week. Their thankful hearts and words did wonders for my heart. 

Hazel played at a friends last night. Her friend's mom made her a salad, with ranch dressing. And Hazel told me she had the most delicious chicken and white sauce pasta. She was thankful and descriptive. She did bead art with her friend and she made a cat that looks like Connie. She was so excited about this project, about her work and about her time with her friend. 

Oren is tracing his letters SO well!! If you could have seen his attempt at printing in Sept. and the growth from then to now, you would be impressed. And he is so PROUD of his work! He pulls his papers out of his red folder with GREAT JOY! 

Case has been gone 8 years. This sweet baby boy was called to heaven on January 12th, eight years ago. 

I see my sister's grateful heart, her faithful heart in her FB post today. 

The verse she shared was:

"Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God." Romans 4:20

Natasha and Reese had a difficult encounter with our dad this week where he was being irrational. 

They are going through another anniversary of their second son being gone from this earth.

They are working hard at finding their way in having relocated recently (back "home"), while living in a travel trailer in the dead of winter.

They are raising three active, fun kids who all share a bedroom in that travel trailer.

They are staying on our dad's property for right now. She walks into the home where she was raised, where our mom lived, where we made sweet memories with a mom who was fun, funny, kind and forgiving. She misses her very much.

But guess what I hear in her words? I hear gratefulness. 

She laughs at the silly. She is a great mom. She has a strong faith in God. She has a great job working at BLOEM - with baking on the side. 

I also want her to be able to vent to me at anytime, all of my siblings and they have been so good about listening to me whine at times. 

Thanksgiving, 2009 

I don't get God's plan but I trust it. 

I pray my faith is strengthened and that I am given a gift to encourage, all the while BEING GRATEFUL.

Please pray for Tasha and Reese tonight. 

Basketball Fever!

 Basketball! The hard work, the exercise, the team work! I love it.

We lost in overtime, the last game of the tourney last weekend. 

A bit of a heart breaker but our guys held their heads high.

Merit's schedule is very intense. He plays out of town a lot too. 

He had a great game last Saturday in Yakima. We missed it :-(  

The rain is really coming down today and I love it.

No time for a blanket and a book though