Lake Fun

We spent last weekend with my family in Minnesota. It was a great time filled with relaxing, boating, and fellowship. The girls had a blast! Sylvia is turning into quite the little waterbug. She loved to dip her feet in the water! Olivia had a great time with her "friends" (her cousins!), she played in the sand and enjoyed playing dress-up.

Here are some pics from the weekend.

Father's Day

fa*ther [fah-ther] -noun

1. a male parent
2. any male ancestor, esp. the founder of a race, family, or line; progenitor.
3. a man who exercises paternal care over other persons; paternal protector or provider:

There are many formal definitions of what a father is, these are just a few. Yet none of them can truly define what a father is to a child. Here is my definition.

my fa*ther [mahy fah-ther]

1. A man who worked long hours in order to provide for his family.
2. A man who taught work ethic through example.
3. A man who taught us to fight our own battles.
4. A man who instilled respect for others.
5. A man who cared enough to let us learn things the hard way.
6. A man who would give up everything for the good of his family.

Thanks Dad.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." Exodus 20:12

A Weekend of Showers

Saturday we were off to Lytton, IA to attend the wedding shower of Abbey's cousin Jason and his fiance Jill (actually it was just Ab and the girls, I got to hang out with the guys). It was a fun time and it was good to see family and share in these special times. Today we participated in a shower of a different kind. This one was thrown by mother nature. Hopefully the rains will subside and we can get some dry weather soon! Here are some pics from the weekend.

Always A Bridesmaid......

Well, it's official. I got a call from Ames Middle School tonight informing me that they were very impressed with me but they offered the job to someone else. I have now ALMOST landed jobs at two of the top school districts in Iowa. Looks like I will be a Tigerhawk for at least another year! I'm not sad however. I know God has a plan for me and He feels there is more work for me to do where I am. So I will forge ahead and start making plans for next year! I wish it was August already! I know, I'm crazy like that. I need to start teaching summer school or something.

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "plans for good, and not for evil, to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

A Fine Farewell

Last Friday was my last day of school and as a tradition I let my students write farewell messages on my boards. (Which is a huge deal if you knew how strict I am about students writing on my boards!) I thought I would share them with you.









Matt

Scary Kitty

I'm recovered from a weekend of working and am feeling well rested...just in time to set my alarm for 1:50am again tonight-ugh. Good thing I do love my job most days:) Olivia is excited to go back to Pam's tomorrow and see her friends. She got to visit a friend from down the street today because we had to return his dolly to him. Why did we have his dolly at our house, you ask? ...impressive transition for an amateur, right?

Last night, we tried out a new sitter. Matt had his confirmation class and I was training for my new per diem ChildServe job, so we needed a sitter for just a couple of hours. This new sitter, who we will call "B", was referred to us by our gracious neighbor down the street. Side note: did you know that people are most reluctant to give out good sitters' names in fear that they'll lose availability? She has a boy Olivia's age and an infant and has used this sitter, "B", for over a year. "B" came highly recommended, and lives within walking distance, so we gave her a try. Thanks to our friendly cat Gizmo, she may never come back. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of meeting Gizmo, I'll give you the synopsis of her character. The cat only loves, ok-she only tolerates, two people in the world; Matt and I. After three years of having another being in our home, Gizmo is just in the past few months, finally warming up to Olivia. Gizmo is large and likes everyone to think she's in charge. Really she's just a paranoid, spastic, nervous feline with a personality and most likely anxiety disorder. She lounges around the house all day long, keeping a safe distance from anyone who may attempt to interact with her or, heaven forbid, walk past her. Apparently, the latter is what the sitter did and that seemed to really upset Gizmo, in return upsetting "B". Instructions were to finish watching the Bee Movie while snuggling on the couch with the girls (this is what they were doing when I left at 6:50pm) and put the girls to bed between 7:30 and 8:00, their normal bedtime. Specific instructions were written out identifying each child's nigh-night lovey so this couldn't be mistaken, which would have made bedtime difficult;) So much for instructions! Matt said he came home at 8:10, a breif hour and twenty minutes later, to the house in chaos. Both the girls were still up, not that big of a deal really. But, the mayhem that he encountered was a surprise. Picture this: Olivia and Sylvia crying due to madness, "B" nearly in tears and apologetic/frightened, neighbor girl chasing Gizmo into a back bedroom, her child-in his jammies-having a hay day rummaging through Olivia's many dollies and dress-up clothes-then throwing an all-out fit when Matt arrived and mommy told him it was time to go home...hence the reason he probably forgot to take his own dolly home with him:) I'm guessing that Gizmo layed right in the hallway, blocking "B"'s path to the girls' bedrooms. When she approached the fat cat, Gizmo probably hissed and batted at her feet-the most harmful thing she could do, #1:because she's so fat and slow and #2: she doesn't have front claws and #3: she's more afaid of people than they could ever be of her. I find out today that "B" was so scared, she called her mom and "B"'s mom called our neighbor to come assist with the situation. How could so much go wrong in such a short amount of time? Thanks alot Gizmo!!! So, we took a little wagon ride down to our friendly neighbor's house today to return her son's dolly and Olivia got to play for a bit. Sort of funny I thought, so I shared. Have a great Wednesday.

Prayer request #1: for sanity in our cat's small mind
Prayer request #2: for forgiveness from "B" for our rude kitty
Prayer request #3: for understanding by our neighbor...that we have a psychotic feline
Prayer request #4: for all of you to see the humor in this like I did
Prayer request #5: for you to actually pray for all of the above
Prayer request #6: that you would know that we pray for you too <><

More Video

Still trying to master this whole YouTube/Embedding thing. I'm getting better so I don't feel like I'm losing my grasp of technology! Here's a clip of the girls playing on the beach at my parents' lake home in Minnesota.



Now that I've taken care of this I'm going to take the girls on a bike ride! Ab is working today so I got to have some QT (quality time) with the girls. We went to church today and the girls were (for the most part) on their best behavior which I was extremely grateful for! They even cooperated enough for me to attend Adult Bible Study which I am also grateful for. It was nice to participate in some adult conversation.

Enjoy the video and hopefully we can keep them coming!