Happy Birthday Michael

Happy #50 to Michael Jackson. In honor of Michael's birthday, listen to ABC on the playlist at the bottom in honor of Michael. I liked him when he was on TV in the 60s and 70s. In fact, we're the same age.

Blake goes to College

We moved Blake into school last weekend. He lives in the same dorm Laura did her first year. But the furniture is all new and we didn't have to buy a loft for his bed which was really nice. We went dumpster diving at the beginning of August and got the futon Jay is sitting on. It went nicely in the room. His roomate brought a TV and a microwave and Blake had a fridge so they're good to go. Only the xbox is still at home for awhile yet.... He's having a great time so far, but we do miss him.

So we aren't quite empty nesters...see the other little guy in the chair? Oh well, he will keep us young. I have been praying though that God would introduce me maybe to some other women that have kids out of the home and he did less than a week later! I think that I should've been more specific maybe cause the first thing one of them asked me was if I sewed or gardened, and I referred her to the picture of my garden posted earlier on this blog. I laughed with God about it later and reminded him that I've become a little more urban than that. I did can some salsa though later (I didn't get the tomatoes from MY garden.) Only He knows what he's got planned for our future, I can hardly wait!

A Trip to the Fam

We went to see Adam and Laura in the middle of August, kind of at the last minute, so we drove 14 hours to get there. It was a really pretty drive. We had a great time. The first picture is of the sun setting at the top of the hill they live on. The time went quickly with lots of activity. We went on a five mile hike that took us about three hours. It wound along some small and bigger creeks with some big rocks. The boys tried to climb them all. We also managed to find time to play wiffleball, badmitton and sand volleyball. Wow, I really have an appreciation now for the olympic sand volleyball players, it's hard to get across that court quickly. We obviously slept hard (at least me) and ate good too. We had some great BBQ at a place that they like to frequent in the next town and some good home cooking too! We got to tour Samaritan's Purse too while we were there and learned more about how God is reaching people for Christ around the world. Anyway, the time went too fast and we were soon home again. We miss them already.

We're From Iowa

It's sweet corn time!

For a few short weeks we eat all the sweet corn we can. It's a little work to shuck it all, so if you can find a few friends to help you, that's even better. Add a couple of burgers, and you're all set!

Is it a garden or a jungle?

Weeds are also prevelant in Iowa this time of year. My garden got a little carried away from me this summer. There are some tomato plants in there somewhere, but it's pretty much a wash. Next year I'm planting wildflowers and am going to forget all the work of weeding. Too bad weeds don't taste good, we'd have plenty.

Hooverball

Hoover Fest in West Branch was last weekend, and Blake was on a team. If you've never seen it, check out the video. The leather ball weighs four pounds and the goal is to throw it over the net and make the other team not catch it. He has light shorts on and makes the diving catch.Needless to say he was a bit sore the next day, but like he says he is now in the top ten in the nation for Hooverball.

Jacob's baseball team spent a week in Burlington, Colorado at Regionals. They got 7th place, but Jacob played well (hit a triple in one game to bring in three runs) and we had fun, learned a lot, got better at ball and made some new friends.