Running!

Yea!!!! My amazingly talented husband got the 4-wheeler back up and running. He's worked on it non-stop all week (when not at work) and finally got it going again this morning. The boys were so excited!!!!!
Way to go Daddy!!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to us! We celebrated 14 years of marriage yesterday. The day didn't go exactly as we had planned....

On Monday Stephen and the boys dug my OLD 4 wheeler out of my dad's barn, and brought it home, cleaned it up, and got it running again. This thing is like 24 years old! I never dreamed that the 4-wheeler I rode as a kid would some day be rode by my own kids! Wow! The kids and I had a lot of fun riding it that evening.

Tuesday (Happy Anniversary!) morning, Stephen went to get the boys donuts. I had told him when I was working on Monday, I was going in reverse and had my windows down because I was taking comp photos, and I heard my car making a weird squeaking noise...so he drove my car to the donut shop and listened to what I was talking about. Sure enough, he said my brake pads need replaced. So that was on his agenda for the day, to get it fixed for me. Well, after breakfast the first thing the boys wanted to do was ride the 4 wheeler again. I actually got some pictures and videos of them riding it. While they rode, and I watched them, and Stephen brush-hogged the pasture so they could ride easier. They were having a blast!

Seth and I had came inside, to get some water, and the next thing I know Stephen has the 4 wheeler parked and said he's going to have to tear into it because it was making a strange knocking sound and he didn't want to risk blowing a rod or something. So he spent hours working on it. During this time, I cleaned the pool and swam with Seth, and then played catch with Seth (Levi was busy trying to help his Dad work). Around 3pm he took a break and we went into town to get some parts he needed, and also brake pads for my car. We stopped for late lunch/early dinner at Shlotzkys (spell?) and then came home for him to get back to work. While he worked on the 4 wheeler some more, seth and I went grocery shopping. We got home and he was still working on it (poor guy!), so I unloaded the groceries and then decided to run. I ran 4 miles, then went out to check on him, because it was getting dark. He was out there working on my brakes then. (BTW: I have the most AMAZING husband! Thank You God!!! I'm so blessed that he can fix all of these things on my car, and keep me and the boys safe!) I came back in and worked on some of my appraisal school stuff. Then he came in to ask me to drive it up and down the drive to make sure it was all working good. Sure enough, he did a GREAT job! So I gave him a kiss and told him thank you for my Anniversary present (brake pads) LOL! then I told him I felt bad because I didn't get him anything... LOL!!! So we decided, next year, for our 15th Anniversary, we need to do something REALLY special. Needless to say the day didn't go exactly as we had planned or hoped, but God blessed us with another day together in this life, and we will be thankful for it.


Stephen said he has to work on the 4 wheeler again today after work, and both boys are praying really hard that Daddy will get it running again. I have faith that he will. I have an amazingly talented husband who can fix just about anything. We are very, very blessed! I hope he knows how much we love and appreciate him!

Levi driving the 4-wheeler, and Seth riding behind. We need to get them both a helmet, WHEN we get it running again.

Seth driving, with Levi behind. Amazingly, Seth is the more careful driver!

Catching up

It's been a whirlwind since my last post.

When Stephen took off of work for a week, we went camping. We went to a state park first, for Tuesday evening through Friday morning. It was so much fun to get away and just enjoy my family. The first day the boys fished and I went for a run, then we went for a long bike ride down to the park store. There we found out that we could all fish without a fishing license, as long as we are in the state parks. So we all went fishing and had a great time! They caught 15 the first day, but 2 of them got away when trying to get them on the stringer. Then the second day I think we caught 13 or 14 more! We actually caught enough crappie for a fish fry! It rained most of the day thursday and friday. So Friday morning we had left, to go up to where stephen's family lives and go camping there with them. They brought their camper and boat out and we went water skiing on saturday and tubeing on sunday. I actually got to ski with Stephen, and his rope was a little shorter than mine, so he kept getting over close to me and spraying me with water, the turkey! LOL! Then I also water skied with Levi. It was a blast. On Sunday afternoon Levi started running a fever. Luckily Stephens mother is an RN and had a thermometer. It was up in the 100's, and we gave him some medicine. She left her awesome forehead thermometer for us, and we couldn't figure out how to use it. We were following the directions, but it just wasn't working right. So Monday morning she came back out to the lake to see how Levi was, and see what was wrong with the thermometer. Well....it helps if you take the clear cover off! LOL!!!! Boy did we feel like idiots! LOL!!!!!

We had came back home to get back to work. Once the boys fever was gone on Wednesday, I was able to take them to my Mom and Dad's house. They stayed with them the rest of the week and went to VBS at their church. Stephen and I went over Saturday and stayed the night and went to their church on Sunday. It was great to hear my Daddy preach. We stayed for that evening also, because the church was having a home-made ice cream social for my dad's birthday. It was D-LISH! (I soooo cheated on my diet that day! LOL!)

Then this past week we took the kids to Hurricane Harbor (a six flags water park) on Monday. They loved it! We all had a lot of fun going down all of the waterslides.

On Thursday I went up to my Aunt Linda's to get my hair done. The boys had a blast! They swam in her pool and played with two puppies she found. (If anyone wants two puppies, she has a boy and a girl, they look just alike and are ADORABLE. Their names are Lady and Tramp. How cute is that! By the looks of their paws, they will become big dogs.)

Then Saturday was my 15 year class reunion. Stephen couldn't go with me, because he had a class all day Thursday-Sunday. But it was good to see everyone again. Only 10 students out of a class of 30-something showed up. But we had fun anyway. It was neat to hear what everyone is now doing, where they live, and how many kids they have, etc. Hard to believe it's been 15 years though. I'm getting old...

Excited!!!

My hubby just told me that he has a surprise. I was intrigued.... He said he took off ALL next week!!!!!! YIPPY!!!!!!!!!!! He will still have to do some work on Monday and Tuesday, as will I, but then I'm going to take off the rest of the week also! Hooray!!!!!! I'm so excited to get a few days with my guys. We are so in need of it.

While he's been working so much, we put the boys a tent up in the living room for a few days. Boy they LOVED that. It was their fort, spy headquarters, house, etc during the day. Then at night they would put their sleeping bags in it and sleep in the floor. They were thrilled.

Today, a crazy thing happened to me. I went to work, used my access key and went into the house I was measuring. I had to go through the house to get into the back yard to measure, because they had locks on the gates. I went to the back door, turned the dead-bolt and the door lock and went outside. I measured, and then when I was ready to go back in, the door knob wouldn't turn. I was locked out! Plus the gates were locked, and they had an 8ft wood fence, so I was locking in their back yard. I called the Realtor and told her what happened and that the key was laying inside by the front door (I always put the key there, so I'll remember to put it back in the box when I lock up to leave. and I always lock the front door behind me when I enter a house, to keep anyone else from following me inside.) She then called the homeowners, and called me back to tell me where the gate key was hidden (so I could at least get out of the back yard). Luckily the homeowner then called me and gave me the code to open their garage door, and that the door leading in from the garage is never locked. Praise God!!!! I was really getting worried there for a little bit, while waiting on the realtor to call me back. Talk about a sick feeling, knowing you had locked yourself out of someone else's house and their spare key was locked inside. Whew! Luckily God came through for me and saved the day. I was short on time, because I had to hurry up and get home before Stephen had to go to work. It all worked out perfectly, thank the Lord. Never a dull day.... LOL!

nothin' much...just working....

Things have been crazy lately. Stephen has been working for about two weeks straight, with only Sunday off (though he didn't get home until 6am and had to sleep half the day). When he is home, I'm working (so that I can get some work done without the kids), and when he's working, I'm at home. Since he has been working so much lately, I've had to take the kids to work with me a lot lately. They don't like it, but know that we have no other choice. So it's been a whirlwind around here....
We did take a few hours a little over a week ago, and took the boat to the lake. On the way there, we had a blow out on the trailer. We had to unhook, jack up the boat trailer, take off the shredded tire and haul it in to a tire shop and buy a new one. We did thankfully get to the lake, and got to spend a few hours out there, before we had to rush home, shower and get ready for a night out at some friends house for dinner. It was so nice to get out and visit with friends, and enjoy the evening with them.

Levi's got a tooth about to fall out, trying to talk him into pulling it. It's one of the top center teeth, and he's worried because the one next to it is loose also. He can't figure out how he's going to be able to eat if he loses them. LOL!