Prayer Request

I received some sad news this morning. A former student of mine from Salt Lake City has a brain tumor. She had a seizure about 15 days ago and through some testing they discovered it was caused by a mass the size of a lemon in her brain. She had some of it removed and it was tested and is malignant and had probably been growing for a couple of years. She is now undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. Please keep Sarah and her family in your prayers. She was one of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. She was always kind to everyone, even me when I was the new teacher. We had a special bond because she reminded me of my sister and we had a great relationship. Sarah, we are praying for you sister! May God give you strength and your doctors the wisdom to treat you in the best way possible. With God, all things are possible!

Wednesday Part 2

Skyler and I had a great building adventure this afternoon! We built a farm! Yes, Christie, everything is exactly the same as what was in the Lego book, down to the color and size of the lego. I built most everything under Skyler's supervision. Skyler built the boat (which I don't think is pictured) and the tractor all by himself. A good time was had by all!

Our Vacation Part 2

Here are some more of the elk we saw on our covered wagon tour. Nice rear end shots, huh? There were worse ones than this one, believe me!Chuck and I went on a hike and we saw this ginormous worm. I have never seen a worm so big, so I had to take a picture of it and in true scientific form used my foot for scale!
I actually got up earlier each morning while I was on vacation then what I normally do and the second to last morning we were there, got up in time to see the sun rise. What time would that be, oh let's see if anyone can guess. I'll let you know.
We decided to spend an extra day up here and drive further north to go canoing on the Niobrara River and see Smith Falls. We took a two hour canoe trip and it was a blast! Here is handsome Chuck managing our canoe all by himself, as I had my hands full keeping Lily out of the river and in the canoe!
Here is Skyler with his Grandma and Grandpa in the canoe.

Our Vacation Part 1

We went on vacation last week to Niobrara State Park. We had an awesome time and it was so much fun spending time with our family. Here are some of the things we did on Tuesday of last week. We went to Ash Fall State Park to see some cool Rhino fossils. Here are the kiddos with Daddy on their way to check out the fossils.


Here they are working at the site, digging around some fossilized bones.

We went on a covered wagon ride to see elk, buffalo and deer. It was so awesome! We were out for over 2 hours and even got to feed them! Here is the wagon we were on.

Here is one of the elk that we got to feed.

Here are me and Lily with corn in hand ready to feed any animal that comes to us. Lily was a pro at feeding them!

Wednesday

We started this morning off trying to find our motorcycle. I went to mail a letter and looked and noticed that our motorcycle was no longer where it normally was. I was kind of mad and since we were gone for a week, had no idea when it was taken. Well, not much you can do about, so we were off to go on a treasure hunt! Skyler received a this treasure map in the mail:



On our way to find our treasure we found our motorcycle- it was at the end of our street in the sidewalk. We have no idea how it got there, but we have it back and in a more secure location. We followed the treasure map and found these!!! Yummy cherries! We ate a few but decided we would come back later for more because it was soooo muddy! We can't wait to eat more!

After our treasure hunt we decided to head over to the children's museum. We got to see some pretty cool dinosaurs and there was even a nice lady there who took our picture with one of them.

Lily was so very excited about all the dinos!
They even got to dig for dinosaur fossils!
Here is fire fighter Lily.
And, heck what trip to the museum is complete without some face painting?!

A fun time was had by all! We then came home, ate lunch and then it was time for mom to do yard work! There will be no pictures of that, it wasn't fun and it was pretty dirty!

Monday

There were a lot of things to do today, but I put off a lot of them in order to learn a few new skills. Look at what I made today. I made this patriotic tutu for Lily. It looks much better on her than it does on the banister.


I also had a sewing lesson today. I started off with material and a pattern. After cutting my pattern and sewing, which involved me threading the machine many many times, this is what I ended up with. A cute little dress for Lily that I made with the help of Chuck's aunt. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives that can take the time to teach us and spend time with us. What did you do today?

It's time for a guessing game.

Looking at this picture of a bag of items that I found in the entryway closet, can anyone guess what was lost that is now found? Leave your guess as a comment! We'll see who the smartest person is out there!

Well this should clear it up

This was on Channel 7's web page:

BELLEVUE, Neb. -- An armored caravan rolled through Bellevue around Wednesday's lunch hour on a hunt for "the mother of all tornadoes."A crew from the Discovery Channel was in Nebraska shooting on Imax film. Their vehicle is a 15,000-pound, metal-plate truck with bullet-proof glass designed to survive a full frontal attack from a tornado.

The crew said they are hanging out in Nebraska hoping to shoot footage of a big storm.

Here is a link to that story

and here is a link to the discovery channel storm chasers blog.

It disturbs me a touch that they were hoping for this, when people's lives are at stake, but that is just my opinion.

And since we've been in the basement all night because of tornado warnings and heard at least 1/2 a dozen tornadoes spotted, I think that they were probably in the right place!

Newest Paper Cuttings

These are my three newest paper cuttings. This one is a B2 for Skyler's room and the other two are for Lily. I am planning on doing one more airplane for Skyler, it's a biplane and it is pretty cool! I'll let you know how it goes. Am also planning to do a very large paper cutting, but am not going to tell you about it until it's done. However, I will allow you to guess. What do you think it's going to be?

Skyler's Gift To Me

So, I don't know what inspired Skyler here, but all of the sudden he said he needed a few minutes to go make me a present. I said OK. He came out with this.

All of these things are his and I am not sure what this means, I mean are these toys and games now mine or do I have to give them back, or will he be hurt if I give them back? I am not sure where to take this, so am just ignoring it for the time being. It was awfully cute though.
On another cute note, I was telling Chuck about a blog friend who recently had a double lung trasplant and is now encountering some problems with it and her family asked everyone to pray for her and her husband this morning as they were going in for some tests to see what the prognosis was; anyway Skyler said, I'll pray for Tricia too, mom, I'll pray that God will make her better and take care of her. Oh boy! That was an awesome moment! I love to hear him talk about prayer and to hear him pray, it is precious. I hope that's how God feels about all of us when we all pray!

HMMM

There I was sitting at Applebee's eating lunch with Christy when all of the sudden these pull into the parking lot.



On top of these 2 TIV's (which stands for tornado intercept vehicle) there were 4 other vehicles equipped to chase tornadoes and to film them. Should I be worried about the weather tonight? I may not have been until I saw those. And Chuck says, hey babe, they are just passing through, yeah kind of like a tornado would?

Ebay Purchase

I try to stay away from eBay because I always find something I need. But, I had some money in my PayPal account begging to be spent so somehow, I don't even remember how, I stumbled upon these adorable Light Switch Covers and just had to have them!!! The Moon one is for the main bathroom, the lady bug one is for Lily and the blue camo one is for Skyler. He loved them! And was the first to notice them, it was so cute!

Okay, I'm sorry!

Alright, so I have the best intentions of blogging and think of some pretty great things to blog about, and then I just don't. So I am making public an accountability list of things I want to blog about so that when I don't you can get after me!

1. Our garden
2. Feeding the birds
3. Playing in the backyard
4. Karate
5. Lily and her Dad
6. Skyler's present for me
7. Newest eBay purchase

Okay, that should keep me busy for awhile!

Garage Sale Finds and My Newest Project!

I know that I always seem to have some crazy project going on. That may be true, but this one is going to be best and favorite and CHEAPEST!!!! I was so lucky to find this at a garage sale for $8.00!!! I found a White Picket Fence Headboard and matching shelf. It needs a little TLC, a fresh coat of paint mostly and then it needs a little touch of Stephanie. I plan to have the shelf done first and soon. I am in no hurry to do the Headboard, since Lily is still sleeping in her crib and I am just not ready to make that move yet! But, by the time she is, she will have a stylish headboard that fits in perfectly with her room decor!


I also scored some other awesome things at my garage sale weekend. I found a bike trailer for the kids so we can go on family bike rides now. I also scored a basketball hoop for Skyler and a fun cash register. I also got the cutest princess outfit for Lily and tons and tons of books and a Lite Brite. I was extremely proud of myself! Next item of interest is a wagon!

Sand in the City

Our friend Vern from church worked on this sand sculpture for the Nebraska Children's Home Society Foundation. We went today, but because of the bad storms we had last night we didn't get to take a close look because it wasn't deemed as safe to be walking around near the unstable structures. We had fun anyway! We got to see the River City Star and play some games!

Skyler even got to meet Captain Hook!