~sigh~ I've said it before and I'll say it again...whenver there is anything "blog-worthy" going on, who has time to write about it? But now the surge is over and I've taken a few days to recover. So, pour yourself your favorite beverage and get a comfy chair, because we may be here awhile...
April 14The middle of last month I went for my annual check-up and all was well...except that since I live in the-state-that-the-sun-forgot I have a fairly significant Vitamin D deficiency. (Honestly, I have heard that we have the second-fewest days of sunshine in the US per year, and also that we have an average of 8 days of full sunshine a year. I have not verified either of those but neither would surprise me in the least.) C'mon, I'm a California girl! Since there
is
no sunshine to speak of to go out and absorb the Vitamin D the good old fashioned way, I've been on a supplement. I can feel the difference. Not only do I notice the difference in my energy level and mood just from
seeing
sunshine, but one of the possible side effects of Vitamin D deficiency is fatigue and as the levels have continued to accumulate in my body I can feel the difference. This is good.
Hmm...don't think I ever mentioned that back on April 5 Laura got to go see
The Newsboys in concert! They are
my
personal favorite band and it was her very first concert.
April 21Laura and Gabe had their orthodontic check-ups. Julia is completely done with her orthodontia, Laura is in full swing...and we've been putting off dealing with Gabe's. Our wonderful orthodontist kindly has been monitoring him for us free-of-charge (certainly knowing he will eventually be getting his paycheck from us with this one.) This time we got the word that he should come back again in nine months, at which time we may have to start some preliminary work. Can't keep just pulling teeth out to make room forever, I suppose! Fortunately, in nine months we will be in a new year and our insurance and 'flexible spending' dollars will start anew so that we can afford to do the work.
Also at this point, Julia is well underway with her junior (and perhaps last; she is thinking that she may not play next year) year of soccer. Here she is in action:
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May 7Yes, today is Isaac's birthday, but a couple other items before I get to that. First, tonight was the final
AWANA meeting of the year, when they hold their yearly awards ceremony. Isaac was named "Sparky of the Year" for his group, for the second time! (Gabe also did very well but has a very competitive group!)
Second, thanks to
Mario Tennis for Gameboy, Isaac has developed an interest in playing tennis. We were able to find a homeschooling group and sign him up and today was his first lesson. It is only a 4-week session but at this point it looks like he will be interested in continuing when they start up again in the fall. (Thankfully, it is an indoor tennis center; remember what I said before about Michigan weather?) He is doing well and having fun. This particular session there is only one other child in the class, another little boy Isaac's age, and the teacher could not be more positive and supportive. It has been a great first-time experience for him!
(And I suppose I could be a bit biased but with his new long hairstyle I think he looks like a cute little black-haired Bjorn Borg!)
Okay, birthday pictures of my newly-eight-year old boy...
May 10Ah, the
30 Hour Famine. Yes, it is just what it sounds like. It is sponsored by
World Vision (I'll let you check out their website to learn more about them but suffice it to say they are a wonderful organization I'm proud to have supported.) There is so much to say about the 30 Hour Famine but I'm not sure where to begin! Okay, let me take a deep breath. ~whew~
Okay...the 30 Hour Famine is a fundraiser in which youth go without food for 3o hours to raise funds for and awareness of the world hunger problem worldwide. For the last several weeks I've been leading our church's youth group small group in studying this issue and in a Christian response to it. Our study culminated in the fast, which I was also honored to organize. I loved (almost) every minute of the planning but I must say it was very time-consuming! Arnel and I joined the youth in fasting starting at 12:30 Friday afternoon. We met at the church at 6 PM and it is a big job to keep teens and tweens busy and relatively-happy for over 24 hours at church, especially on an empty stomach! We played lots of games, did lots of short devotionals and even had a reality-television style "confessional" set up, a video camera in a private room where the kids could go share their thoughts. We also did a variation of "doorbell ditch" which I think may have been the highlight of the whole thing. We let the kids tell us a home they wanted to go to and then we drove out there in Betsy, the church's old 15-passenger van. The person would pray for the home's family and then run up to their door, hang a door hanger on their front door that said what we'd done, rang the doorbell, ran back to the van, and we drove away. It was a beautiful day which meant we encountered quite a few people at home, even in their yards working. We all got really good at making screeching noises to help the illusion that ol' Betsy was making a speedy getaway. Later in the afternoon we collected food for a local food pantry as well. Between what the kids collected and a little friendly competition I arranged between the men and women at church, we collected $910 for
World Vision.
May 11Ah, Mother's Day. A day to relax from the preceding weeks and prepare for what is still to come!
(To my mother and mother-in-law, I'm so sorry your gifts were not ready on time, I hope you understand now why!)
May 12Another birthday! Today was Gabe's 11th. As on Isaac's birthday, Arnel was able to stay home and took the boys fishing in the morning. You would just not believe how much these guys love to fish! We always let the birthday child choose what they want for dinner. On Isaac's birthday it was Red Lobster; tonight Gabe chose the Chinese buffet. Couple that with my visit to my own favorite Mexican place on Mother's Day and it was not a good "diet" week but some things are clearly more important.
Here is some Gabe for ya...(the long hair thing just wasn't working out as well with his hair texture so he is freshly back to his short hair since Dad vetoed the idea of a mohawk in his birthday photos.)
(Julia took this first one; I'm sensing a good eye here!)
I should also draw your attention to the Tiger's gear. Some kind of switch clicked in this boy this spring and he has discovered a love of baseball that might almost grow to rival his love of football. Being that we are already Michiganders by the time this hit, his team of choice is the Tigers but hey, you can't have everything. We love him anyway. Tiger's stuff was pretty much all he wanted for his birthday, so we delivered.
May 13You would think that after the birthdays we would be done, but no. Tonight we hosted an end-of-the-year (academic year, that is) pot luck for the youth group small group at our house. Sloppy Joes for all!
Has anyone else noticed how these events are one right on top of the other, by the way? To keep somewhat on top of things, I made more lists these last few weeks than, I don't know, Guiness.
Before the party, though, we take advantage of one of those eight days of sunshine and head over to Vet's Park so I can finally take the kid's annual spring pictures, as well as both boy's birthday pictures. Too shady and not enough experience from the photographer adds up to pictures that I'm not as thrilled with as I'd like to be, quality-wise...just too much shadow and not enough crispness. But the fabulous subjects more than make up for it.
May 15Lillian decides "Enough of this nonsense" and throws up. She and I spend the next day snuggling in bed watching Dora the Explorer and the like while she fights off a fever. We both benefit tremendously.
May 17The boys joint birthday party. The weather is somewhat cooperative so we are able to spend at least part of the time outside though it is too windy to get much use out of the new badminton set we bought. It is still a great time visiting with friends. Arnel made good use of the grill with some burgers and we discuss the fact that in Calfornia you barbecue on a grill while in Michigan you grill on a barbecue. Or something like that.
May 20We finally decide on a "new" car! Julia still has not taken her driver's test, mainly because we aren't sure our van would pass muster to take the test (electrical shortages, etc.) and she doesn't feel comfortable learning to drive Arnel's manual transmission. We've been planning on getting a third family car, rather than a car specifically for her, so she would have something to drive but we would still have it for the family when she can afford to get herself something nicer. Anyway, we wanted something affordable, obviously, reasonable to insure, safe and reliable. We have bought two cars in twenty years of marriage and we are still driving them both...this is obviously not something we are skilled at! But the perfect car finally presented itself. Our friend is selling his 1989 For F150 Lariat pick-up. It fits all our criteria and just as importantly belongs to someone we know and trust. It looks in general like this, only blue:
If all goes as planned we should have it by the end of the month. We want to wait one more payday plus I think he's going to fix the stereo still.
May 21Which brings us to today!
In the midst of all this, the three middle kids and I have finished up our school year. Julia has a handful more days plus exams but will finish before Memorial Day. We have had to say goodbye to our friends Scott and Joelle as they moved to Colorado...a happy-for-them but sad-for-us goodbye. Julia has a job lined up for the summer babysitting approximately 20 hours per week for a family with four kids including an infant. I've just completed the summer schedule of youth group activities and we have learned that we will have a visit from my in-laws the first week of June. All-in-all, though, I feel like I am in a major lull and I'm very much enjoying it!
A final note: as I am writing this the
American Idol finale is a half-hour away from announcing the season winner. Lillian spontaneously chose David Archuleta. (Saw a picture of the two Davids and out of the blue pointed to David A. and said "He's gonna win.") We will soon find out how much she knows about music!
Before I go, a few more random pictures from the last weeks:
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