Catch-up post

And this is the type of post wherein I try to write everything that has occured since Sunday night, so as to inform Jessica of the happenstances of her family, which in turn will make telephonic communication easier as Jessica will not have to ask what's up here since she will already know. Not that she does anyhow...

So Monday was really busy, because 1) Grandpa Bob brought Julia (our cousin) over to play while he and two kids picked Mamma up from the airport and 2) After bringing her home to say hi to us, he tok her and Julia to the visiting hours for Grandpa Olson and 3) at 3-ish, we ourselves went to the visiting hours, and with all due respect, were bored out of our gourds (to quote John Coulter) and 4) then we took Julia home with us to eat spaghetti because we were 5) going to take her to the AWANA Fun Fair that night. Busy? Naaahh... I had the photo booth, which meant that I got to look cool with Mrs. Arnold's 5 million dollar camera dangling haphazzardly from a strap around my neck. It also meant that I took pictures of the kids and the Fun Fair in general. So...I will have her email me those pictures (please?) and I'll post them. Why? Because They Are There. (Jessica, that was an altered quote from Sir Edmund Hillary. 10 points if you can remember what he did, and don't cheat by asking someone.)

Monday night Julia and the girls convinced Uncle Victor (below)

and Aunt Joanne to let Julia spend the night here, and so she did. Then, Tuesday morning, we went back to the Jordan Funeral Home for the funeral. I sat in the back on a squishy couch with Katrina and Joanna. After taking her (Katrina) to the bathrom, she fell asleep, and as people filed out past her, they said things like "awww" and "how cute" etc. Whereupon, we drove to Grandma Olson's church and had a diner. The food was good, I thought. Grandpa Bob got a stomach ache that night, though. It was also at that dinner that Grandpa Bob lent me his camera. So...I have Pictures:

That was taken at Uncle Steve's home Tuesday evening because we went there to eat this:

And then we hugged Uncle Victor and Aunt Joanne and Julia goodbye and we left, and then they left and flew back to the Land of Sunshine and Oranges and Sharks.

Wednesday (aka yesterday) Grandpa Bob came over and did computer work all day. Well, he also did this...

...and while he did that, we did this:

Yes, we tied his shoes together. Twice, because the first time didn't hold. And then we had our other grandpa up for supper, and then we said goodbye to Grandpa Bob (and his camera) and he left. And we are certainly looking forward to (some of us) going down in November.

And I shall close with this lovely photo. He said I could post it as long as I said it was my dad.

Day Seven

Well, today. We got to church on time. Ahead of time. Grandpa Bob came over this afternoon for a while, and we had cookies and ice cream. Then we went to church again for the Pastor Appreciation Dinner. It was lasangna, salad, applesauce (made by Mr. Frudd, I kid you not), and ice cream. Ths has got to be the shortest blog post ever. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I'm really tired?

So this is technically the last in my week-long series. I shall probably post fairly often until Jessica gets home so she can keep up with what's going on.

And I just yawned for the 1,428 time this evening, so I am going to bed.

Guess What? It Rhymes With "Licks!"

That's right...it's Day Six! And this was the day wherein Grandma Suzy and Grandpa Bob made their appeareance. They came around 2:40 (or 1440) and stayed about an hour. Poor Grandpa Bob has laryngitus or something, and he can't really talk.

Besides that, nothing funny, extraordinary, or blogable happened. Besides Katrina wetting. Twice. Within a half an hour. That was extraordinary, in a bad way. And then right after that, she found a cup and came over to us and said "Juice? Juice?" It's like, hello, child, of course you can't have juice; you are fully hydrated to overflowing and it's almost bedtime. Wanna sleep in the bathtub? Honestly!

So anyhow. Today being Saturday wasn't a school day, so I may be able to catch up over the weekend in English and history, at least. Tomorrow is naturally church, so we will see how well it goes getting the kids fed and dressed and in the van by 10:20 or so.

As for the Tennasseans, they have ben doing well. There are some more people coming, I believe, tomorrow. The campaign is going well.

With that said, I think I'll sign off for now and try to do a couple days' worth of history, and then it's off to bed for me too!

Ladies and Gents, It's Day Five!

And here we are, already to Friday, with five down, two to go. Well, actually 62 and a half hours. But who's counting?

Anyhow, we ate breakfast, and then the girls did some cleaning, schoolwork, and lunch. Then, it was finally that blessed time known as Nap Time, in which the two littlest ones lay down and are supposed to be quiet. When the girls had finished their day's school, they put in Facing the Giants and watched it. Jessica then called and I talked to her. She's been doing sign waving, still. It's cold down there, and she says she is getting hyper and stuff. Like, she will jump up and down and scream when cars honk their horns (as a show of support for Mr. Hall), and the more she jumps around, the more they honk...

Then we ate supper (hamburgers, with homemade rolls) and cleaned the floors. Tomorrow, we'll do the surfaces and bathroom. And in the afternoon, Grandpa Bob and Grandma Suzy will be coming to visit. (Astute readers will realize the connection between the preceding two sentences.)

After that, it was finally that blessed time known as Bed Time, in which all but Annetta and I go to bed and stay there till morning. I still have to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen, so I shall close here!

Whoa, is today already Day Four?!?!

I guess it is! We did a lot of school (excuse me, they did. Yes, Mother, I am still doing some school, but the emphasis is on some. Now I know why you can't be a full time mom and full time student. It just doesn't work that way.) and some cleaning. Then the neighbor girl came over to help Annetta babysit the rest of the kids, and Daddy took me to my Civil Air Patrol squadron's awards ceremony. The Air Force recruiter/representative for the area, MSgt Chris Warsitz was our guest speaker, and the group commander, Col. Charlie Jones, also spoke. They then awarded the awards. One of our cadets swept the show by getting like 4, prestigious awards, and the rest of us sort of followed undramatically. I'm not sure if any of the cadets would not want me to put their names on the internet, so I won't; plus, I'm having a hard time remembering what they got. I was re-awarded my Wright Brothers' Award. This is what you get when you become a staff sergeant and become an NCO. Just for the record, that was back in April. Then, I was awarded something by the veterans, and then the squadron NCO of the year award. After all the awards and raffle were given out, we had a group photo op (in other words, a lot of cameras with bright flashes). And then Daddy and I went home. And the tire almost almost fell off. And he tightened it. And it's fixed. And I'm tired, and I still have things to do, so I'm going to quit now. Nighty-night!

Day Three!!!

Well, this morning, I awoke, and my first, conscious thoughts were: "Oh my goodness...I hope my plant [which is a Hawaiian plant and I just transplanted it into the ground and covered it up] is okay" because the ground had a light covering of...snow! It has all melted, except for some of the girls' snowmen. But anyhow, Daddy then came upstairs and informed us all that the Florida Relatives were coming up on Saturday because Great Grandpa Olson passed away during the night last night. I haven't heard from them since, so I don't know a schedule or anything. But that is still safely three(ish) days away.

We had our breakfast, and the rest of the kids played outside. Then they came in and did school, lunch, clean-up, naps, school, and movie, in that order. After the movie, we did supper and hung around until bedtime. When they had gone to bed, I did the dishes and worked on a project. Two of our chairs had really nasty seats, with the cloth coming off the padding, and being really dirty. So I took it off and stapled on some new material. They look a lot better!

I'm tired, so I shall close here...

Day Two

One thing I forgot to mention last night was that I saw a real, live Taser. Seriously, the police guy pulled it out, turned it on, and blue stuff came out the end. It didn't hurt anyone; he was just showing us. I think it scared most of us half to death, though :)

Anyhow, today. Well, we had breakfast, and the girls did their scholwork. I mopped the kitchen floor with Josh and Katrina. I had forgotten how much kids can be occupied by a bucket of soapy water and a washcloth. Then, Josh decided to take his third bath this week, but I rinsed his hair and made him get dressed. Since when does he care about keeping clean?! Annetta made our lunch, which we ate. Aftter that, Daddy left for work (he works second shift).

Because Daddy had stopped at the library the night before and gotten some new movies for us, the girls finished their school work and cleaned the upstairs. Then they watched their new video. (Incentive, yes. Bribe, no.) When it was over, Josh annd Katrina had their naps, and we all kind of hung out until I heated up leftovers for supper, we ate them, and then watched another movie. The second one was called The Apple Dumpling Gang, and it was really funny...the two bumbling bad guys, the cute little kids, the guy and the girl, the real bad guys, and gold. It did contain "some elements," very slight, and it went over most of the kids' heads. Just a little warning, though :) And then Katrina wet, and the kids got ready for bed and got in bed.

I have heard from Jessica, and so far, she has not had internet access. They've been doing sign waving.

And so that was Day 2-- two down and five to go. I've had an on and off sore throat and have ben sneezing and blowing my nose all day, so I just hope that nobody else gets it. So that's all for today!

Day One

Today has gone by smoothly...a total breeze...time passed quickly, the kids were perfect angels and never were noisy...Katrina didn't wet...

Okay, so maybe that's not entirely accurate. Want the real story?

Well, they left this morning at 3:58. I stayed awake for a while (an hour, an hour and a half, maybe), and was woken up at 7:30 by Katrina proclaiming, "I wet! I wet!" Daddy took care of that, though. Then we sped through breakfast, and the kids did their cleaning chores. By 9:00, they were just starting schoool. As we were starting school, Daddy said, "Where's my paper?" (on which he had written down all the kids' schoolwork). Hosanna said aside, to me, "He's as bad a Mamma is...I found the Bible answer book, in a folder. Actually, it was on my desk." The girls did their school fine. They needed some help in the afternoon.

Josh and Katrina alternated between being naughty, playing toether, being with Daddy, taking baths/showers, and napping. The food co-op order was early; it came at 5:40, instead of our projected 6:00 ETA. We still made it to AWANA early. They had all the fire trucks, police cars, and vans in the parking lot. The policemen and EMTs and so forth talked to us all (T and Ts, Sparkies, and Cubbies) in the sanctuary. One of the men, the police chief (I forgot his name), spoke for a couple minutes, explaining that just as it was important for policemen to wear their vests and weapons, it is important for us as Christians to wear our "armor." At about 7:00, we all walked around the parking lot, looking at the trucks and talking to the men. The Burkes, Meders (just DJ and his wife and daughter), Rich Kennedy, and Don Moore were there who I recognized. I found out what a storch is.
We (T and Ts) did not have game time, but the Sparkies did, so I watched them. It was cute...they did the "Central, South, North America" game (aka State Game), only they had a police car, fire truck, and ambulance as their areas. After the T and Ts and Cubbies were dismissed, we collected ourselves and our stuff and went home.

Anyhow, I have a question for Mamma: Why are we storing the onions in the cocoa bucket? Just curious.

And we have heard from Jessica. They are indeed in TN, and Jessica did sign waving this afternoon. She didn't really say much else. I can't think of much else to say, so I shall close for now. One down, 6 to go!

**P.S. If any of this doesn't make sense to you, it may be because I wrote it with Mamma and Jessica in mind and you may not be either!**

What's coming up on my blog

******************ANNOUNCEMENT!!!*****************

Starting on Monday, I am going to try to post every. single. day. Why? Well, Jessica and my mom are leaving (Lord willing) for Tennessee to campaign for David Hall for State Senate. My mom is coming back on the 27th, and Jessica is staying out there through Election Day. Therefore, I will be blogging for them, and every and any other person who chances upon my blog. As you can imagine, it will be an interesting week. Things like making meals and doing the dishes, putting children to bed for naps and actual bedtime, and doing my own school while keeping the other kids on schedule, and watching the little ones...I've done it before, but not for a whole big long week. Of course, I will have Annetta and Lydia and Hosanna and my dad to help. On another note, I will most likely be camera-less since Jessica has pursuaded me to let her take my camera with her. Unless I can beg, borrow, or steal someone else's camera, there will be no pictures to post. Therefore, encouraging comments, are, well, encouraged :) Please?

************END ANNOUNCEMENT******************

Psalm 145:4

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

Psalm 145:4

Seasons

Three different days...three diferent seasons...one same location.

Spring

Summer

Fall

More Canning!

On Wednesday, we did some more canning! We got 54 more quarts of applesauce and 43 quarts of grape juice. Yes, the kitchen was a wreck!! Anyhow, we picked some of our grapes, and got some (as well as two coolers full of apples) from some friends of ours. Grandpa came up around 9 AM to help us, and stayed until mid-afternoon. There was a lot to do!

Josh: "Ooh, grapes!"

You can tell that the grapes were damaged by a hail storm we had a couple months ago. There were still a lot of good ones, but they weren't good enough to be picked by the grape picker and made into juice.

Don't you wish these pictures were scratch-n-sniff?!