"Jennie, Jennie in the land of plenty, how does your garden grow?"

Not so well, I'm afraid. A few weeks ago we built a frame to do some square foot gardening. It seemed like a great idea. No tilling or anything like that. Just a raised garden fit into a small space. We emailed the A&M ag extension and asked what kind of veggies would be good for a fall garden and ordered our seeds: lettuce, carrots, pumpkins, and bush beans and we bought some tomato plants. One day after the frame was built and the soil put in (organic even!) I asked the boys if they wanted to help plant the garden. J&J said they would. I drew them a diagram of where to put different items, including planting the carrots in a big pot in the front so there would be plenty of room for them to grow deep. Well, they planted pumpkins in the pot by mistake and then couldn't remember what was planted other places. OK, I decided we'd just wait and see what grew and then we would know what was what. No problem. Well, the problem is, nothing but the beans have grown. Well, that's not true, the grass seems to be doing very well in the garden! There are pumpkin plants in the pot. We'll see what happens when those start vining out. AND we've had so much rain, it's ruined our tomotoes. I'm just glad that we're not dependent only on our garden for food! I'm thinking of replanting. I really do think I would enjoy gardening if I could just get the hang of it!! Any suggestions???


Michael and the boys cutting the wood for the garden frame.
Here's the frame coming together. See Jeffrey in the chair? He said "I think I'll let my job be 'The Encourager'". SO he sat down in the chair and said "Keep going guys, you're doing great!"
Our pumpkins starting to grow.
Our "Lame-o" variety tomatoes. I think we can safely clean out these pots and start over.
Well, the beans don't look too bad. We'll see how they do.

The great EGGSperiment

We now have enough eggs from our own chickens that we decided to do a taste comparison. Michael, Jeffrey and Josiah cooked two store eggs and two of our eggs. Then Michael served them up without telling anyone which eggs were which. The verdict: Jeffrey and I both correctly IDed the "homegrown" eggs, but I'm not sure it was more than a lucky guess. The homegrown eggs did have a little more golden yolks and Michael said slightly runnier whites. However, the taste was very similar. I think maybe since we normally buy cage free eggs, there isn't that much of a taste difference. But it's really nice to walk out to the backyard and get the eggs! We're getting one a day right now. We think maybe Cheetah is laying (since she was laying before). Just gotta get the other girls in on the act!

Michael and his crew cooking up the eggs.
These are our eggs in the pan. Don't they look pretty!!

Cold blooded fear- Do something hard

Ok, we had to know that they were around, we just haven't seen any. We got kittens so we wouldn't have to see any, though the boys have been begging to see some-and a mom's prayer to NOT see any has availed long. Until today. I spotted a snake! OK, it was more the size of a long earthworm. You can see it compared to my shoe. But when I brought the pictures into the boys, they zoomed the photo on the camera and it really gave me the creeps! Jeffrey has decided that it was probably a hognosed snake, mainly because it looked dead when I took the pic, but was gone when we all came back to look at it.


"Hello, my name is Creepy!" Anybody know what kind of snake this is?
I was outside taking "Before" pictures of our flower beds and walk way because we were going to bless Michael and weed the flower beds today. Well, let me tell you, my enthusiam about weeding the flowerbeds has seeped out my shoes since finding this precious little gem. Questions roll around my mind: "Where are you now? Is your mother around? Are you just one of a family of slithery nasties? What kind of snake were you anyway? Why didn't I just step on you when I had a chance??!!!" I've been praying about conquering fear that's in my heart. Though, I've tried to justify the snake thing with "It's Biblical. There's supposed to be animosity between women and snakes. Remember the Garden of Eden." However, animosity is not fear. And I must confess to times walking when I'm really nervous about seeing a snake. One time I was even listening to my ipod and there was a maraca in the music and I about jumped out of my skin, thinking it was a snake rattle. So, I guess I'm going to have to go out and weed those flowerbeds, just to face that fear. I was just talking to my sister a couple of days about "Doing something hard" everyday. I know what today's is going to be!! Hopefully, it makes a great "After" picture!
Sorry-forgot to turn this one. This is the walk way, before.
Texas flower bed, before. The stones around this flowerbed are in the shape of Texas.
Front flowerbed, before.

Josiah's been drafted

We got "the call" last night from Josiah's new coach. He called to say that he had "drafted" Josiah. They had try outs last Saturday and all the coaches took notes on the players and then got together early in the week to "draft" players. The coach didn't say, but I'm SURE Josiah was a 1st round draft pick! :-) So, Josiah starts practice Wed. Sept 10. Wednesday is the only night J&J don't have football. I'm trying to decide if I'm glad that soccer for Josiah is the day that we don't have football, or bummed because it's on our only day without football. At least soccer is in Castroville, a short 5-10 minute drive from home. And it's at 6:00, so we can eat early. To say that Josiah is excited is a gross understatement. He's actually made on his own accord a sheet where he's written down spots to cross off every day until practice starts. At the bottom of the sheet it says "Finished. Soccer practice!!" So cute!

Josiah-isms

Over the past couple of days, Josiah has said the funniest things that I just have to share. Of course his brothers have their share of goofball comments, but they're outgrowing a lot of the sweet innocent things said by children in single digit ages. Here are some of my favorites:

Josiah and junk foods - Following a dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches made with cheddar cheese slices (after Michael and I decided to quit buying "American" cheese for healthy food reasons) "I really liked grilled cheese in Tennessee. I don't like 'em in Texas!"

When seeing cinnamon toast for breakfast made on Texas toast (for those non-Texans, that's huge thick slices of white bread) that I got for free at HEB last week "Is that WHITE bread???" Then he closes his eyes and looks toward heaven and quietly whispers "YES! Thank you!"

Then yesterday he was making himself a sandwich on wheat bread. A funny conversation ensued. "Mom, where's the bread?" "On the counter Josiah" "Mom, this bread is BROWN! (with disgust in his voice)" "Yes, Josiah it's the kind of bread we always buy" "Brown bread? We eat brown bread?? Like since when?" "Since always ,Josiah. (How's that for a mom response!) I never buy white bread. We only had white bread because it was free." "This kind of bread. This is the kind of bread that we always buy??" (Still doubtful) "Yes, Josiah, always." He shrugs his shoulders and walks into the kitchen to fix himself a sandwich.

Josiah and selling our house in Memphis -We were talking and praying yesterday about selling our house in Memphis and Josiah adds: "Wait a minute, why do we want to sell our house in Bartlett?" MOM: "Well, Josiah, we don't want to have to pay for TWO houses. We don't need a house in Memphis anymore. We don't live there anymore" "But mom, I still have friends there. I want to still go back and see them." "We can still go back and see them, even if we don't have a house there." Well that seemed to lift a load off of his mind. So, maybe now we'll sell our house. Maybe little one has been secretly praying that our house wouldn't sell so that we can still go to Memphis.

Josiah and chorepacks-I'd been thinking about getting out our chorepacks and putting everyone back into the habit of doing their jobs around the house. ( I keep telling myself "I'm the manager, not the maid" but obviously I keep forgetting to send out the memo to the others around!) But last night Josiah said "Mom, when do we get our chore packs out again?" Follow this with a chorus of groans and "Thanks alot, Josiah" from all the brothers. I explained that I had just been thinking over the last couple of days that we needed to do that and that we'd start tomorrow. Then he came back with "Yeah, we'll do our chore packs and then all you'll have to do is sit around all day." Oh, if only! Bring on the bonbons!

Josiah and the fan-Here's one for the books. A conversation you would never believe you would have until you have a boy of your own. Michael has a small desk top fan that he keeps beside his bed to blow cold air on him when he sleeps, and to keep out the noise of the roosters down the street in the wee early morning hours. I think it originally was meant to keep out the noise of babies in the wee early morning hours, but it's progressed to livestock. Anyway, I was lying down waking up from a quick nap when Josiah walked in and proceeded to stick his tongue into the fan and try and touch the blades, which were moving ,with his tongue. Here's about how the conversation went.
MOM: "Josiah, Please don't stick your tongue in the fan"
J: "Really? Why not?"
M: "It's dirty, the blades are metal and they're moving and they could cut your tongue or your tongue could get stuck in the side of the fan. It's gross" I couldn't really think off the top of my head of more reasons. I never thought this would be a list I would need to compile at a moment's notice!
J: "Well, hey, mom, now the fan's off and the blades have stopped, can I do it now? You can take off one of the reasons that you just listed."
M: "No Josiah, it's still dirty and disgusting, and the blades are still metal. Why do you want to stick your tongue in the fan?" I'm still not believing that I'm having this conversation.
J: "Oh, I don't know, it just seems like a cool thing to do" And that's the end of that.

Chip flops

Years ago a friend of mine made Potato chip cookies. I remember thinking that sounded gross but them tasting great. Well, tonight, I was feeling resourseful. So armed with some old potato chips and an allrecipes.com five star recipe for potato chip cookies, I headed into the kitchen. About 15 minutes later the kitchen smelled wonderful and I sent out the call "Hot cookies". Of course, all hands were quickly on deck. "Wow mom, what kinds of cookies are these, sugar? Cinnamon?" Enthusiam hit a wall when I told them what they were. However, they all took at least one with a glass of milk and went to the table. The cookies recieved four thumbs DOWN! The rest of the cookies went into the trash. I did taste them and I thought they tasted pretty good, kinda buttery and a little like a sugar cookie. But since I'm supposed to be doing 100 days without sweets (I guess that starts over tomorrow!), I threw the rest away. So much for resoursefulness! What a minute, I'll go fish them out of the trash and feed them to the chickens tomorrow!!!

Beware...lots of new posts

Our camera ran out of juice and has to be recharged at Michael's office and our internet was a little sketchy on Saturday, so there are lots of posts covering the weekend and early this week. I promise to try and space the stuff out more later. But I wanted to pass on the following tidbits, because who knows what might happen today!!

Toothless and so cute

Josiah lost 2 teeth this weekend. It took a little bribery, um I mean focused monetary incentive, but he let me pull them, one on Saturday night, one on Sunday night. He looks SOOO cute because...well, he always looks so cute...but particularly because he already had one missing, so now there's a three tooth gap right in front. The brothers think it's a little freaky, but I've reminded them that they all had the same gaps at about age 7; it's a part of growing up. Much to his dimay, I've reminded him that he CAN still eat carrots and celery, by using his molars. I think he was really hoping for months of ice cream, jello and applesauce.

**He's holding up the number seven because Michael wanted to always remember how old he was when he was missing these teeth.

At long last...eggs!!

This weekend we FINALLY got eggs from our beloved hens. Josiah went out yesterday morning and came in with an egg in his hand. Of course his first question was "Dad, did you put this egg in the nest??" We'd done that before in hopes that the hens would get the idea. It didn't work, but right after that Rhoda started CROWING-well, it sounds a little like a rooster with a sore throat, but it's crowing. Jeffrey checked on the internet and hens can crow. We thought maybe she was acting like she was taking credit for laying the egg or something. Or saying "OK, who's the wise guy around here, we don't lay BROWN eggs!!!" Well, it turns out, the eggs they've laid (we've had 2 now) aren't brown, or even white. They're sort of a pastel blue/green/grayish. (Jeffrey insists they're green!) I don't know if you can tell by the picture comparing them to the white ones. Ours are the ones on top. We haven't tasted them yet and we don't know who's laying yet, but we're off to an "egg"sellent start (sorry, couldn't resist!)

Pads and the heat

Yesterday was the first football practice in pads, and to really welcome them, I think the weather was the hottest day of football yet, and no rain to cool things off. Don't they look handsome! (These pics were actually taken in May at football camp. Jonathan is now just about even height and weight wise with Jeremy now). We had to call my dad (because we couldn't reach Michael on the phone) to get an over-the-phone refresher on how to loop the belt throught the pads and pants. I have NO idea!! French braided hair, cross stitch, chain stitch crochet, yes...football belts and pads...nope!

They've been moved up to the A team in football AND J&J said that the coach had a talk with the other leaders on the team (who have played for at least 2 years before) and told them that if they didn't kick it up a notch, there were a set of twins who would be taking their places on first string. They were really proud of that. Jeremy's doing great and realizing I think that maybe football isn't so horrible after all. Games start in a couple of weeks. That'll be lots of fun!!

Jonathan's better and so's the garage

Thanks to prayer and the right homeopathic remedy, Jonathan is feeling totally well again!! I gave him the remedy on Saturday night, and he woke up feeling better on Sunday morning. Michael took the other three boys to Austin for a salsa festival (Josiah calls it a "festibal"-isn't that cute!) and then on to Schiltterbahn. We didn't think Jonathan should venture away for an entire day, so he and I had a wonderful Sunday just hanging around, watching movies, going to the grocery store, etc.

In our life, however, there's rarely an uneventful day and this was no exception. During the day, there was a huge storm with lots of wind and rain. Jonathan and I enjoyed watching it from the living room. He even said it was like a tropical storm. Well that tropical storm should have been name Garagesoaker. Neither of us thought about closing the garage doors (it was a self confessed "blond" moment, which happens even when you color your hair "medium ash blond"!!). We actually never thought about it until Michael and the boys came home and said "Have you seen the garage??!!" Um, no. Well there was water, in some places, inches of water standing in the garage. In the absence of a storage room or attic storage in this house that we had in Bartlett, much of our stuff is in boxes in the garage. Thankfully, it was mostly plastic boxes. But Michael and I spent part of Sunday night and the boys and I spent Monday morning moving boxes and other misc. stuff out of the garage to sweep out the water. All's well that ends well...we didn't seem to lose anything and got a nice upper body workout at the same time!

We miss our tub

Poor Jonathan has not been feeling well since Thursday afternoon. He's had headache, stomachache and fever off and on for several days now. He missed a trip to Sea World and football yesterday, and maybe Schlitterbahn tomorrow. He must be feeling bad! One of the terrible things is that, as lovely and great as our home is, there is NO bathtub. There's a hot tub outside, but no tub inside. He's been in the hot tub several times, but when you have a fever and chills, you just don't feel like going into drizzling rain to sit in warm water. You want to put aromatherapy, in a bathtub and soak until your skin turns red and wrinkly! Hopefully, we won't have to face this situation too many times while we're here! I thought about bringing the horse trough that was left here inside and filling it with warm water. I've been met with only smirks and cool receptions when I've suggested it.

"We just wanted to let Jackson taste the kitty"

No good conversation begins this way! It's how Jeremy started a story just a minute ago. He proceeded to tell about how they just wanted to see what Jackson would do. Um, hello, remember the horrible fate of Nita and Diamond??? (They were our gerbils that Jackson killed and maybe even ate after Jeffrey just wanted to "introduce" them to Jackson). Jackson was on the lead tied up and Trixie was under a table on the back porch. Turns out that Jackson cornered her (they were on opposite sides of the ellipital) and then Trixie ran off out of Jackson's reach. Boy brain at its finest!

Rowen hits the road

Question: How many livestock novices does it take to capture an escaped Rhode Island Red hen?



Answer: More than six

If a hidden camera had been around on Monday night at our house, we would be vying for the grand prize on America's Funninest Home Videos for sure! Rowen (on left above) some how made it to the top of the coop and picked just the right spot or right angle and flew the coop-literally. Josiah, Jeremy and Jeffrey were outside. Josiah ran inside yelling "The chicken's out! The chicken's out!" Michael, Jonathan and I immediately went outside. Then the comedy began. We were trying not to run directly at her, because then she would run away and possibly run through the portal into our neighbor's land which is covered with trees, cacti, brush, rocks, snakes? coyotes? wolves? So, anyway, Josiah runs to get a bug net. Too small. Michael has a "bright idea" to get a beach towel and throw it over her and then grab her and put her back in the pen. Problem is, she's too fast. We found that out right away. At one point, she's running toward Jackson (not a smart move!) and then does an immediate about face and dashes back toward the pen. There was even a time when she ran back to the pen and was frantically looking for a way to get back in. I'm sure she was thinking "These folks are lunatics! Let me in! Let me in!" By this point, there are three beach towels poised ready for use. But no one can catch her. She takes off across the yard-the entire way across the yard with six people running in a circular formation around her trying to keep her hemmed in . Add to this hysteria the fact that the ground is soggy from rain, so we're slipping around in the mud as well. She makes her way to the dreaded destination....the fence between the properties. Jonathan and Jeremy almost catch her but she squeezes between the opening in the fence. (BTW, it's amazing what small spaces these chickens can fit through!) Michael calls off the search and resuce mission, much to the boys' chagrin. We pretty much give her up for lost. I set off on my evening walk , praying that she comes home. I find out later that Michael told the boys that the next time they see Rowen, it will be her carcass. Isn't that terrible!!!!????? However, when I get home, Jonathan runs and greets me to let me know that she came back!! Jeremy had a God-inspired idea to just open the door to the coop in case she comes back. (We put all the other chickens inside the mobile coop and left the door to the expanded part open). A few minutes later she came back, circled the coop "like an airplane" (Jeffrey said) and went inside. She never seemed so happy to be in such tight quarters. We heard she had a meeting with the other hens that night and told them that the whole "free range chicken" utopia is not all it's cracked up to be. We're glad she's home. Now we just need those hens to start laying some eggs-though Rowen might be so traumatized that it's months before she lays!

I LOVE H.E.B!!

Jeffrey and Josiah and I went to H.E.B. today. I like going on Wednesdays because it's the day I've consistently been able to find Central Market organic chicken marked down by 50%. I found plenty today as well as Jennie-O natural ground turkey that's normally $5.79 for $1.79. I stocked up on those. But the great deal was this.
Three loaves of Texas Toast (bread), Nestle quik, 32 oz yogurt, Dannon dino yogurt, Purina One canned dogfood, Wishbone salad dressing, 3 quarts of HEB Creamy creation ice cream, 1 pint Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Chips Ahoy, 3 pkgs of Bundino (that are like bagel bites), 2 8pk Juicy Juices, 2 Pillsbury pizza crusts and (I forgot to picture) 3 bags of spring mix salad, Memphis BBQ sauce, a box of HEB croutons, and a bag of HEB chips. SO, how much did all of this cost???? NOTHING! All of these items were free! Some with HEB coupons, some with coupons that I had. I ended up saving a total of $52 with coupons today. I'm so glad that my sweet hubby works for such a great company!

The breakfast of champions

Sometimes there are days when I really can't believe how much my dear boys eat. If today's breakfast is any indication, this will be one of those days. I'd planned just to serve granola bars (Quaker Simple Natural chocolate chunk...very yummy) with some vanilla yogurt. An easy one that the boys could do on their own while I was exercising. Turns out that simple breakfast was only phase one! It is now 9:20 am and for breakfast the boys have eaten one box of granola bars, an entire 32 oz container of yogurt, 1/2 pound of strawberries (I put the other half up so I could have some later), a dozen eggs, 6 pieces of whole grain toast (Josiah wanted more, but we ran out of bread) and 3 grapefruits. Oops, they just found the strawberries. Make that 1 pound of strawberries. I'm closing the kitchen!!! It's almost time to start lunch! Well, at least they eat.

We're all in...sports that is

So after a blissful, yet eventful, seven months with no sports teams, all of the boys are now again officially signed up for teams. I must say it's been quite lovely not having places to be many nights a week and Saturday mornings free to do stuff around the house (like chickens, gardens, weeding flower beds, etc.). It's also been really fun to just watch the boys come up with their own games to play. They found out pretty early on here that basketball just isn't the same on rocks, gravel and grass. That didn't last for long. They've had weeks where lacrosse was the game du jour. I'm not even sure how they figured out the rules to that one. I think they looked it up on the internet. They've played soccer (indoor and outdoor) and recently volleyball over a table on the back deck. I think the olympics played into the interest in volleyball. Of course, there's always biking races, scooter obstacles courses (which also doesn't go so well on the gravel, so that was deck-bound only. The scooters have since found a semi-permanent home at mom and dad's where concrete and smooth sidewalks abound) and of course lots of exploring.
So our new chapter in sportsville begins tonight with Jonathan and Jeremy attending the orientation for 6 man football. Jeremy is less than thrilled about playing, but Michael and I both really feel that it's the right thing for him. Jonathan is totally pumped. Michael's coaching the team as an assitant coach. Practice starts on Monday...4 days a week from 4-6 in the warm TX sun! I'm glad Michael's coaching b/c that means I don't have to sit around in the heat. I get to go back home and get dinner ready for the troops. And then some days (we don't know which ones yet) hustle home and shuffle Jeffrey and Josiah to soccer practice. J&J play at FEAST (a homeschool group in San Antonio) which is about 30 minutes into town. Thankfully, Jeffrey and Josiah play and practice in Castroville, which is only about 5-10 min away, but in the opposite direction. So, here we go! Gentlemen...start your engines!

A great weekend

Last week we had some very special friends come for a visit from Memphis. We ALL had so much fun playing around and going to Schlitterbahn and hanging out at the house. We had mattresses all over the floors and lots of food to go around. It was so wonderful! Tears were shed when Sunday came around and everyone had to go home...mostly from mom I think! :-) Here are some cute pictures from the weekend.

Celleste, Katie, Jonathan and Jeremy in the hot tub. They spent HOURS here!
Jeffrey, Ellie, Josiah, Makayla, Madison and all their Webkins.
Jonathan, Celleste, Katie and Jeremy made brownies AND a mess.
Jeffrey, Ellie, Katie, Jeremy, Jonathan, Josiah, Makayla, Madison, Celleste and me playing "Spoons".

Meeting the challenge

Our dear friends just recently ended a year long soft drink fast...(well, being from farther north than Dallas, they called it a "pop" fast, but since these Texans consider "pop" solely to be the sound made from a toy gun or what we affectionately call our grandfather, we called it a soft drink fast). They were handsomely rewarded in cash from their parents, which sent the minds of our boys into action. They quickly asked if they could do the same, of course earning the same rewards. So after deliberation and discussion, the boys (with vary degrees of resolve) embarked on a no sweet drinks fast to be concluded on August 1, 2009. Though the monetary reward is substantial, it's doubtful if Josiah will make it. I mean what is a chunk of cash to a 7 year old when faced with kool aid or DP????? Jeffrey's resolve is only slightly more solid than Josiah, so we'll see how that goes. He does have some ways he's already planned to spend the money. That may take him to the end. J&J, however, have their faces set like flint toward to prize. No waivering! Michael's not even going to pretend to try. I'm in. I can still drink tea, just not soft drinks. I've just started the Maker's Diet , so sugary and even artifically sweetend drinks are off the plan anyway. Stay tuned.

A BIG weekend-part 3 AKA More girls around

Setting up the chicken coop
Sacagewea was the only one who would come out for a picture
Jackson meets "the girls".

While I was away spending, I mean saving, money (see ABW- part 2), Michael and all the boys headed to Burnet, TX (after the mandatory trip to Schiltterbahn) to get a mobile chicken coop and 5 hens (girls!!!). They're names are now Sacagewea, Dorcas (from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), Rhoda, Rowen, and Cheetah. Rhoda and Rowen are Rhonde Island Reds, the other three Michael couldn't remember. Cheetah was already laying at Josh's house (the builder of the coop www.mobilechickencoops.com and owner of the chickens) so he said probably after a week here she should start laying here. The others are younger and should start laying in a couple of months. The adventure begins! Josiah and Jeffrey have already accidentally (??) locked themselves INSIDE the coop. Once the door closes, you can't open it from the inside. I guess that's so the chickens can't let themselves in and out?? :-) Today after Michael gets home from work, there will be construction to expand the coop. It should significantly expand the ranging area and give them a little more room to wiggle and flap around. We want our girls to be happy! Happy chickens make better eggs, right!

A BIG weekend-part 2 AKA Couponing jackpot

This weekend I got to go shopping for the first time in probably 3 weeks. We've been trying to get by on just the barest essentials at home to make up for the extra money that's been spent on gas going to Tulsa and back and to Bryan and back (and the totally awesome trip to LA). It was actually very fun to get to go grocery shopping again. We had a party planned at our house for some people that Michael works with (like 20 people) and we are having company come from Memphis this week (YEAH!!) so I was actually buying some foods that I wouldn't normally buy and having to buy things to fix for recipes Michael wanted for the party, so couldn't just buy deals. I went to HEB Central Market (like Whole Foods, only better :-)), our new Super Target and Castroville's own (slightly lame, but they double coupons up to and including $1) Super S Foods. I saved a whopping $155 with coupons (and some HEB gift cards we get as rewards from our Mastercard and a small one for Target). I spent $200. The amazing thing was that probably 85-90% of what I bought was natural (and probably 70% of that was organic). We're trying out some new recipes this week - hummus and pita chips, Grilled chicken pitas, Red Snapper Mexican Style, something with green lentils. Anyone have a good lentil recipe?

I'm going back to Super S foods today because while strawberries are on sale there, I'll be able to get a gallon of Borden Organic Milk, a lb. of fresh strawberries and a box of cherrios for about $5 with the coupons that I have.

Stay tuned for more savings to come!

A BIG weekend- Goodbye to an old friend

This was a huge weekend-lots going on. It started with us saying goodbye to an old friend. We first met this friend 14 years ago when I was pregnant with Jonathan and Jeremy. She's been there through childbirth, nursing babies, Bible studies, game nights, movie nights. She's held her arms full of gifts waiting for laughing eyes and giggling boys on Christmas morning. She's even had dogs jump up on her back to get a look out the window tens of thousands of times, without a complaint. When we noticed her looking weary and her frame looking wiry she wasn't offended when we gave her a new look, she actually seemed to shine even more. But now it's time to say goodbye...to our old blue couch.


Ok, so maybe that post was too dramatic to document getting rid of an old couch, but it was an event. With so many other changes going on, it was a little hard to get rid of something else that was familiar. Jackson (the dog) is still mourning! :-)
In place of old blue, we now have a very nice brown leather sofa, ready for years of service (we hope!) And we trust that our old couch will go on to find another home and serve someone else.
Here's our new sofa.

Here's Old Blue waiting in the garage for the Medina Children's Home to come and escort her on a new adventure.

8 Cousins Production announces Daniel's debut

At Christmas this past year, all the cousins put on a dramatization of the Nativity story (it was awesome!) and my dad called the troup 8 Cousins Productions. Of course at the time there were only 7 cousins visible and one yet to be seen. Daniel James Turner made his debut on July 18 at 9:23 pm, weighing in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. He's very cute (which is true across the board for all the members of the group!) and a very easy baby. Which seems like it ought to be a prerequisite for baby #4 in a family, especially when the others are 6, 3 and 1! Here are some pictures of our stay in Tulsa. All my boys loved being around Daniel. Jeffrey even told me yesterday that he wished I was pregnant. Is this the same way he "wishes" we had goats or a donkey????? Can't sell a new baby on Craig's list when you get tired of it! Anyway, here are some cute pictures. Welcome Daniel!!

Aunt Jennie and Daniel
Jeffrey and Daniel
Josiah and Daniel
Jeremy and Daniel
Jonathan and Daniel