I'm back home again -

     Early last Friday evening, five of us pulled out headed towards Byron and Cyndi's for Analyse's first birthday party. Sadly, Brandon was not with us. However the happy news was that it was because he had the chance to work and earn some money :-} Sat. morning C.P. High School was again hosting the yearly state track meet and they had again asked him to work it. He had also been called and asked to cater jobs both Sat. evening and one on Sunday. Seeings how he is still out of work, you take jobs where and when they come along!
     Analyse's birthday party was scheduled for Sat. afternoon. Our plan had been to come home early Sunday evening. The rest of them did, but due to Cyndi's INSISTENCE I stayed. HONEST, she was most insistent!!! !!! Brian approved, Brent and Kayla offered to do a round trip Wed. evening to fetch me (the train is so not an option yet for me!), and Brian said they could use the van, so it was decided.
     I now have a whole lot of postings to write up. And l-o-t-s of pictures to share. :-} Hey, who moaned?! o;-p
     We pulled in between two and two thirty this morning, so for now I am just going to leave you with this one picture of my sweetheart and then go back up to bed for awhile. Sleep is calling.
     This then friends, is our adorable one year old grand daughter :-D

from Brian -

copied to here from Brian's Facebook page:

        "I've decided to stop beating around the bush.
     I'm going to move on to the ornamental shrubbery."

popsicles -

     On one of her blogs, pause, interrupt, yes she has more than one, she actually has five, continue, my blogging friend 'Mexico Jen' has declared June to be "Popsicle Month". Her goal is to feature a different type of home made, good tasting, yet nutritional popsicles every day of the month.
    I thought that many of you might want to try making your own popsicles in this heat too. The blog of hers that she is featuring them on, is her 'Whole Food Kids' blog. Make sure and tell her that Cheryl B. sent you ;-}
    Oh, and while your there, make sure you check out the drawings her ten year old made for his 'Iron Man' outfit ;-} Oh the memories of similar drawings that came to mind :-) The pictures are in the posting featuring the 'Iron Man Popsicles'.

EDIT:
"Awwww, you are so sweet to pass this along! I do have one correction, though. Not ALL of the recipes will be healthy! Some will just be completely indulgent!

      Love,
       Jen" (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com)

"Hopefully Useful Tips" ('07)

     Due to a b-u-s-y productive weekend and having a busy productive week to come, I decided to pull this out of my drafts file and use it this week. :-) What all have we been up to and what all will we be up to, you ask? One clue can be found on our blog by what is currently in the "Seasonal Smiles" area. We have been taking lots of pictures of all of our projects and thus will be posting numerous different projects soon!
   In the mean time, here is this, which hopefully you will find useful.

    On Monday, March 22nd, I posted a listing of the "hopefully useful tips" from 2009, and explained what had prompted me to do so. The listing itself was a directory listing of sorts. And I titled it, "Pick a tip, any tip ....".
    Even though I hadn't been participating in blog 'theme days' back in 2008, I knew that I had posted on subject matters which would qualify under my "hopefully useful tips" title. So I went looking, found some, and posted them on April 12th, 2010.
    You guessed it, I just had to see if I had posted anything that might qualify back in 2007. Here's the ones I found:

Jan. 12, 2007 - "Choices" - All day, every day, in every area/aspect of our life, we are faced with, and make, choices.

Jan. 26, 2007 - "Which brand?" - sometimes you get what you paid for

Jan. 27, 2007 - "Heads Up and Advice"

Jan. 29, 2007 - "Recipe Variations" - a humerus commentary on the subject

Jan 31, 2007 - "Food and Water" - being prepared for emergency situations

Feb. 2, 2007 - "To Do List" for near the beginning of every year

Feb. 3, 2007 - "Ramen Corn Chowder" - easy college recipe

Feb. 4, 2007 - "Products" - do you always use them as they were designed to be used?

Feb. 8, 2007 - "Ending Junk Mail" - [near the end of the posting]

Feb. 9, 2007 - "Laundry Rooms / Areas"

Feb. 11, 2007 - "word-ology" - some variations of words meanings in reference to food

Feb. 18, 2007 - "Guys vs. Gals" - in the way we view 'the silent treatment'

Feb. 20, 2007 - "Porch" - a neat idea for them

Feb. 21, 2007 - "Emergency Supply Kits"

Feb. 28, 2007 - "About those Emergency Supply Kits"

March 20, 2007 - "Emergency First Aid Kits"

July 24, 2007 - "Verifying Emails" - and about the 'cookies' attached to others

Aug. 8, 2007 - "How we perceive 'Dad's' "

Aug. 31, 2007 - "Whole Chicken cooked in the Crockpot"

Sept. 6, 2007 - "A Fine Line in Marriage"

Sept. 13, 2007 - "College Acceptance = High School Diploma"

Sept. 21, 2007 - "The Importance of Friendship"

Oct. 22, 2007 - "Winterizing Your Car"

Oct. 30, 2007 - "Taking Home Your Leftovers"

Nov. 2, 2007 - "Is 'Good' Enough?"

Nov. 5, 2007 - "Winterizing Your House"

Nov. 7, 2007 - "What is Gossip?"

Dec. 5, 2007 - "Feminism"

Dec. 10, 2007 - "Where's the button to turn your brain off?" - a tongue in cheek commentary

Dec. 17, 2007 - "Are We Really Asking These Candidates The Right Questions?"

;-p   I found more of them in '07 than I had in '08

I hope that you find at least one thing in the list that really does help you!

     PLEASE come back here after you read any and leave your comments about them on this blog. Thanks! [and yes, you are welcome (even encouraged) to read each and every one, and leave a comment about it each and every time]

I 'plan' on linking this particular posting to:
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).
~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)' (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Make-Do Mondays", hosted by Shari, at 'My Practically Perfect Life' (www.practically-perfect-life.blogspot.com).

from Brian -

copied to here from Brian's Facebook page:


    Yesterday I lost all self-control,
         but I found it today.
       It was under the couch.

an unusual message

    Last Saturday morning, I was able to attend the memorial service of the father/father-in-law of our dear friends John and Jewels, via my sweet friend Elizabeth B. chauffeuring me. (Thanks Elizabeth!!). I had known the father/father-in-law for y-e-a-r-s. He and his wife had been active in camp back when my family first started attending. And then they had been coming to our church for the last couple of years, via their children. But the main reason I wanted to attend, was to give smiling support to my friends.
    Originally both Brian and I were going to go, but then for the first time in over two years, his work scheduled a 'mandatory Saturday'. Figures. I'm glad I went anyways.
    One of the speakers was Dr. Rich McCarrell. He spoke on Romans chapter 16, verses 3 through 16. Like he said, it is not the usual type of message you hear at funerals or memorial services. But I liked it! And I was encouraged by it.
    In those verses, the apostle Paul is sending personal greetings to various people in the local body of believers in Rome. By personal greetings, I mean that he mentions different people by name. None of the names he mentions, are names that we automatically associate with the early church in Rome, or anywhere for that matter. We are all familiar with the name Paul, or Timothy, or Matthew, or Mark, or Titus, as well as others. But some of the names he is sending greetings to here are, Priscilla, Aquila, Junia and Tryphosa. As well as others.
    Dr. McCarrell said that all of these people, were people whom were the 'behind the scenes' type of people in the local churches. They were the ones whom did what needed to be done, so that the more well known names could do the teaching. Paul held all of them in high esteem because they were using their own God given talents for the benefit of the spreading of the gospel, as well as the encouraging and building up of the saints.
    Dr. McCarrell said that Paul knew just how important their 'behind the scenes' efforts were in the overall scheme of things. He said that it was likely the now deceased would have been one of the people Paul would have been sending greetings to.
    He wanted to use that passage so that he could encourage all of us still here, to continue on in what we do, whether we be 'out front', or one of the just as vital but 'behind the scenes' type of people.
    I wanted to share this with all of you to hopefully spread the encouragement. Sometimes being a 'behind the scenes' type of worker/person can seem discouraging and totally unappreciated. We must remember who it is we are called to serve. While we are told to serve one another, it is God himself that we are actually to be serving. What ever 'behind the scenes' task that we are doing, mentally know that it is God we are doing it for.
    May you too be encouraged by Paul's message in Romans 16: 3 - 16.

backing up a trailer

      Brent is planning on buying a pop up trailer. Yes, he's going into the Navy, but it could be awhile before he actually leaves. Brian is planning on letting him store it here for use-age fees ;-p
     The other day we were talking about camping in our old pop up, and the story about me backing it up 'that one time' came up. Seeings how on Monday's I usually try to post some type of 'hopefully useful tip', I decided to share that story since it does contain information some of you might find ever so useful ;-}
     Then I remembered that I had told the story one time to Heidi from the blog 'The Milkman's Wife', so I went there and copied it, then posted it here (time efficient <-- bonus tip for ya all right there o;-p).
     "Hey Heidi - your comments about "backing up" reminded me of something I thought I'd share -
     We had a 3/4 ton, full block engine, suburban {insert the 'Tim the Tool Man' noise here ;-p} Which I absolutely loved, and a full sized, hard sided, crank up camper. The camper was the same length as the suburban.
     Sometimes "the boys" and I would head out to a relatively nearby campground on Friday, and Brian would join us there when he got done catering on Sat. {we only did this when he wasn't scheduled for a late evening Sat. job}.
      The memory that came to mind was about one of those camping trips. I had pulled into the campground and registered, then drove around their campground to spot exactly which site was to be ours for the weekend. But then I drove the loop again, thinking over exactly where I wanted to park our camper, etc..
      As I again approached our site, I stopped and let my four and a nephew get out, with instructions they were to "go sit on the picnic table - and STAY THERE!!". Sometimes I needed full concentration to back that up, and their added in-put / advice seldom helps start the weekend on a good note (if ya get what I mean).
     I pulled all the way forward, stopped, and with my eyes closed, was talking myself through what I needed to do. "Okay, if you want the trailer to turn left, you need to turn the truck right ..." When I felt confident, I opened my eyes and about jumped out of my skin!! There was a man standing next to my open window, grinning broadly at me. Yikes!! He said, "I came over to help. I saw you drive on through and then back again, saw you make all the boys get out, thought maybe you needed help, but sounds like you'll do just fine. If you do need help, I'll be on the picnic table like a good boy!"
     Oh my gosh. I was so-o embarrassed. He patted me on the shoulder and said, "You're doing great mom!" and strolled away - to the picnic table.
      I backed the trailer in and only had to adjust it once :-} See, I wasn't just backing it straight into the spot. The first time through I had noticed that this particular spot actually had a beach to it, so I had decided to park the trailer parallel with the road, with the front facing the lake - that way, with five young boys, it didn't matter if the door was closed right when they were getting dressed, a-n-d I would be able to sit under the awning while watching them play in the water. :-D
     After I had gotten it parked and climbed out of "the truck", I learned that I had really been being watched. Five other guys had also come over meaning to help, but had stood back by a different trailer when unbeknowest to me, the guy at my window had waved them back with his hand.
    When Brian got there (in his tux serving outfit - while all of us looked totally frumpy by that point {but man did he look "hot" wink, wink}), ALL of those men wandered over to congratulate him on having such a cape-able wife. chuckle, chuckle."

    - - yes, like I've shared before, I often do leave long comments. And no, the blog owners don't mind. In-fact, some of them have commented back about really enjoying them. 0:-)


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to:

~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)' (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).