It's Official....

We are Homeless.

At 8am this morning we had a home. Minus a few trees.

By noon it was gone.

The video clip is like 5 minutes long. A long clip, but when I think about it, it takes months to build a house, and a day to take it down? Amazing.

The Summer House

This is our Summer House.

It's been very confusing trying to figure out what to call this place. Home? not really. By the land-owners name? odd. The rental? strange. So we've settled on: "The Summer House".

It is a really nice home, perfect for our needs the next 6 months.

My favorite part? This. The driveway. It is long.

Makes it quiet, and I have no fear of any child getting on the road!

It also has several "cutesy" features. This little shed being one of them.

And the best part?

I can see our farm from the kitchen window.

As I finish this post, the shower is on, we're getting ready to go watch the demolition of our "Farm House"!

House Update

We've finally gotten all of our things out of the "Farm House". A big thanks to those who helped...we couldn't have done it with out you!



A lot of our things are in storage, but we still have things to unpack at the "Summer House".



And the demolition has begun! Everything that we planned on taking out of the house is out, Ryan had a good time with it. He enjoyed hanging with his buddies and ripping it apart. After the water was turned off and the power disconnected, I decided I was more useful somewhere else!

This week Ryan is taking down 3 trees and cutting them up for firewood. Thursday the backhoe/dozer will arrive. The house should be gone by dinner time Friday night.

I'll keep you posted!

Jack's 1/2 Birthday!

Jack is 6 months new! We went to the Doctor on Friday. He weighs 18 pounds and 4 ounces and is 27 inches tall! He may be the size of a toddler, but he's our little baby!

With his good behavior sticker, and the ever present perplexed look.

Saturday he pulled up on his knees from a sitting position. He'll be at kindergarten graduation before we know it.

The Other Baby.

She's had a rough couple of months.

Jack has rocked her world.

Potty training has gone down the tubes. She pops his paci in her mouth whenever she gets a chance. We've tried everything. Today when she wanted to help stem strawberries. I said: "babies cannot use the kids knife". She immediately took the pacifier out of her mouth and in a very big girl voice said: "I'm not a baby, I'm a BIG girl".


On another note, she got her finger pinched several days ago. She's smashed it several times since. Poor little princess.

Fruit of the gods...

In the midst of our moving, (yes, we are still moving). My friend and Co-worker Shirley, gave me a ton of strawberries!

My fridge is full of these beauties. They are red, juicy and sweet! duh, I know all strawberries are red, but these are red all the way through. Not like the nasty ones you buy at the grocery store that are white in the middle.

After a discussion with another co-worker (ok, she's my boss) on the amount of sugar used in jam making, I decided to do an experiment. In years past, I've always made the same recipe. See yellow box above. 2 cups of fruit and 4 cups of sugar. Yes, twice as much sugar than fruit. We love it. Especially my brother Reuben, and I always make him a few boxes.

This week, I made all four of the recipes shown in above photo, picked up some rolls at Kroger and had a taste test at work. A little breakdown:

Sure-Jell (yellow box) 2 cups of fruit, 4 cups of sugar. The most difficult to make. (as if it was difficult)

Sure-Jell no sugar added recipes (pink box) 4 cups of fruit, 3 1/2 cups of sugar. As difficult as the yellow box.

Sure Jell easy prep packet (blue envelope) 2 cups of fruit, 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Easier than the boxes.

Ball no cook packet (yellow envelope) 4 cups of fruit, 2 cups of sugar or splenda. Easy peasy lemon squeasy.

The result? A tie between Sure-jell pink box and Ball yellow packet. For some reason the sample of the Ball recipe was a little runny. The containers I left home set up fine.

As for me, I'm changing the jam at my house...less sugar...tastes better? win,win!

Try it out and let me know what you like!

Three First's

Jack is sitting up by himself pretty well...

He had his first teething biscuit this week. All organic Elizabeth!

And yesterday he reached for me....

*a little tear for our last round of "first"*

To Good To Be True!!

Most of you know that I have pledged my eternal love to Kimberly. And Ryan. And my children. Oh, and the Verizon man too. His name is Todd.

But Kimberly and Elizabeth, well, They're some of my favorite people.

Sometimes when we hang out, I laugh so hard I could pee my pants.

Not only are Kim and Elizabeth fun to hang with...they BOTH are very talented artist.

Kimberly took my portrait when I was 9 months pregnant with Jack. They are beautiful, priceless photos that I will cherish forever.

She leaped out of a warm bed in the early morning after a late night to photograph Jack's birth in the middle of December. And from that she created the most beautiful gift for me. Ryan gave it to me on Christmas morning 2008. It is the only gift that has ever made me cry.

She has not only captured my children's personalities perfectly, she's captured their soul. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

As I wipe the tears from my cheeks, I have to tell you that Portraits by Kimberly is Celebrating this month. She is Celebrating 15 years in business! And boy is she Celebrating! Check out her blog, and leave some comments...you'll love it when you win!

The After Party

On the last day of school we hosted a "Summer Kick Off" party for both Elle and Will's classes.

These kids were crazy. No, they are not supposed to be up here. But they are.

At one point I had to pull the kids from the bottom of the mosh pit/ball bin/sweaty body pile so they could breathe.

Gross.

The littlest partiers, partied the hardest!



"Take my pikshure, Mom"

Our "Pretty, Pretty Princess".

The Shaking Has Subsided...

And I've pledged my eternal love to the Verizon man.



We've been back online for almost 48 hours after being off for 2 whole weeks.

Catching Up:

The kids are out of school, and we all are enjoying sleeping in! The last day of school was Awards Day. Elle Cantered at mass, we taped all of the songs, but this one was the best:

She also earned several awards, including the 3rd grade scholar award.

We are so proud of her!

If an hour of mass, awards and the thought of summer was not enough,

All the students walked to the Ice Cream store.

I got to walk with Will's class. I had cookies and cream... mmhh

The carpool clan

Really??

I'm working on my Internet problem. I am starting to shake, and I can hardly pass by a computer without sitting down and madly reading all the blogs I follow. AAAHHHH!

On the other hand, I just joined "Facebook". (it's a slow work day...c'mon).

Uh, really? I think everyone I know is on there.

Look me up!

I'm Not Dead...

I'm Moving. No, Ryan and I have NOT come to our senses, sold the cows, and bought a hut on a beach in Barbados.

In January we decided to build a new house. Just like that. We didn't have anything else planned for our summer. Why not?

We've rented a "summer house" around the corner from our farm, I am MADLY organizing 12 years of accumulated "stuff" and four kids into four piles: "keep", "store", "TRASH", and "donate". Not as easy as one may think. And I had some delusional grandiose idea that it was going to be orderly.

We are scheduled to demolish our old farm house the second week of June, and pour the new basement after.

Matt the contractor is promised to start August 1st. Hell or high water, he knows I'll be there with breakfast so he'd better be there with some employees~

With all that said, my phone line was ripped down by some farmer who thinks when it comes to equipment, BIGGER is better. No home phone, no internet. (p.s. the un-named farmer is not Ryan.) My FABULOUS Verizon man did come out on Memorial Day to fix the problem, since we are moving this Saturday, we decided there was no reason to put up a line to be tore down in 4 days... I miss my internet. Do you all use "google" as much as I do?

Small (guilty) Pleasures!

YEAH!!

The season premiere of "The Bachelorette"

starts tonight!

I thought this expression was so cute.

"What?"

"You talkin' to me?"

"Wanna check out my pedicure?"

and yes, our living room floor usually
looks like that.

Pedicure

Bea gave Jack his first pedicure in the bath this week.

With her toothbrush!

My Mother's Day

On Sunday morning I woke up to these beauties!

After dedicating Jack at church, we went to our local Mexican Restaurant for lunch, and then home where I took a lovely nap with Jack.

After my nap, we planted some of our garden!

Tomatoes, broccoli, pumpkin, zucchini, green beans, peas and sunflowers.

Elle and Will are anxious to see who's row will pop up first!

Soccer Season

Soccer season is now in full-swing.

They are on different teams this spring, but both have the same color shirt. Lime green. Will is number 1, Elle is number 2. Unfortunately, the games are at the same time, at opposite ends of the complex. As parents, this is really the first time we've had to "divide and conquer".

Elle is now in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade group. She is so happy to play with "serious" soccer players. She volunteered last Saturday to sit out the first quarter so that she could play the rest of the game.

Will is doing so much better this year. Having Elle first really did nothing to help her parents 'parent' a boy. Last spring Will cried every Saturday morning before his games. He was tired. He did not want to spend his only free morning on a cold soccer field. I cannot blame him. I did not want to be there either...

This year he is excited about his practices, loves his games, and is much more aggressive. Now, I'm not one to advocate aggression, but when one is part of a soccer team it is better to go after the ball and attempt to help you team than stand (sit) on the field and pick your nose.

Just sayin'.

Dedication

Sunday at church we dedicated Jack.

We promised before God and our church family to be godly parents and to teach Jack about Jesus and follow him.

Pastor Kurt chose this verse for Jack:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5&6

Jack O' Lantern

Will lost his first tooth.

OK, he made me pull it out.

He did. I promise.

I hated pulling my own teeth.

It was so gross. It was not even really ready.

See all that blood?

But I was so sick of his whining,

I just did it.

And it made him so happy.

The tooth fairy brought him a dollar, that pleased him.

And the principal said: "That whole 1st grade is starting to look like Jack O' Lanterns"

Which pleased him more.

Bea's Three!

Here she is on her actual birthday, her favorite meal: "Chik-ehn an Fwies"

Ryan hid this in the shop and told Elle: "Don't go in the shop. Bea's birthday present is in there, and I don't want her to go out there. STAY IN THE YARD". So, Elle told Will: "Don't go in the shop. Bea's birthday present is in there, and we don't want her to go out there. STAY IN THE YARD". Bea overheard.

Whenever we would talk about her upcoming birthday party, she would say: "my birfday is in the shop."

Then she went to the shop.

And we could not get her off it.

This was her reaction to every single gift.

How easy to please!

With her teddy bear cake. I made for her little party with our "family"

My decorating skills could use a little practice...

FAME

If you check this blog on a regular basis, I'm sorry.

I've been busy. I'll try to catch up.

Last weekend Elle participated in the local Art show.

This is J., a classmate of Elle's with their artistic renditions of St. Francis.

They both did a Fabulous job, and you'll see Elle's hanging in our home!

Her dance troupe also performed, here she is front and center.

It was a great day. Elle did wonderful in all of her performances, and her artwork is fantastic.

I love looking at all the exhibits, people who have artistic talent just amaze me.

Coming up: Bea's Birthday, Will's Jack O' Lantern, and the best thing to happen to us since, well...Jack was born!

Week Night OUT!

Tonight my friend Hilary and I took in the "Taste Of Home Cooking School".

We had a great time catching up.

The show was fun too!

Dana Elliot, a Taste of Home culinary specialist, has been here the last three years. I have had the pleasure of helping prep before the show, and seeing it come together in the evening.

Taste of Home has lots of great recipes that use ingredients most of us have on hand. I would encourage you to check out their website...I think we'll be trying the Savory Pork Salad. And the Triple Chocolate Pie. And the Three Cheese Tomato Pizza. Man am I hungry.

More Changes.

Along with rolling over,

2 New teeth,

Jack grew some hair.

Hugs and Kisses Aunt Tracy! Love, Stewie.

Monday Morning Giggle

Bea is our goofy child. She fits pretty much every middle child stereotype.

This is what I overheard her singing to herself this weekend:

"I like big butts...and I cannot lie"

I have no idea where she heard it, but it made me laugh!