Summertime Fun

During the summertime the boys actually have time to play video games. Now that the Redbox is renting games, we are able to try a few out to see if they would really like them before purchasing. Since most of the games the kids want are in the $50 range we are thrilled that we can rent some games now for $2.00 a night.

Last night after finishing up yardwork we picked up and put the game Michael Jacksen The Experience. Basically there are several hit songs off of his various albums that you can learn the dance moves to. It can host up to four players. (If Sweeties back wasn't so pitiful, you can guarantee he would be involved in this!)

There are instruction videos, and then you are ready to begin. Now, you can be Michael Jacksen, or one of his back up dancers. Following the moves of the character you pick can be challenging, and fun!

At the end of the song you get rated, star power as to how well you did. Cory got 4 stars and Brian got 3. Me? You know I tried it. Okay, so I never said I had my groove on! I got one star. I am proud of that star!

Maybe this will help us with our flash mob status. I need more practice. It gives the boys a good laugh, and me some more exercise. So far my favorite is Thriller! The boys like Bad, and Beat It. Time will tell, there are more songs than time we had last night!

Rocket Ship for Sasha

Brian got creative a couple of days ago and took a cardboard box and created a rocket ship bed for Sasha.

She even has different colored control buttons at the front! She was very polite and spent some time in there, but when it came time for a real nap, she settled into her good ole reliable bed.

Happy birthday Grandpa!

Happy birthday to my dear Grandpa today! He is 83 years young!

Full Bloom in June!

It is a beautiful thing watching the boys each with a lawnmower, mowing our yard together. We finally got some rain over the weekend, and after ignoring the lawn last week, we attacked it with a vengence today.
Pulling weeds, doing some edging, little weedeating and some trimming, things are looking great! The day lilies are in bloom with pretty little pops of color scattered throughout the yard, and the petunias in baskets on the porch are showing off!  I even have a mum that is blooming over by the mailbox! Happy June!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. Dad's are so important in a family. The leader of the family. Growing up, my memories of my father are fuzzy at best. There are more things I remember that I would rather forget. However, over the years, I'm working on improving my relationship with him.
Sweetie's dad? He and I have had a great relationship over the years.  He has been there for a friendly word of advice, a great bear hug, and loves completely.  With a wink of his eye he puts you  instantly at ease. He tells ya like it is, and serves his church and community humbly.

To my Sweetie! You rock as a Dad! You have and are making a difference in the life of our boys daily. An active Dad is a treasure. The boys love that you coach soccer games, that you lead us in church activities, and help us maintain a safe, healthy, and happy family.
We love you!

CYCOCycle

This is the new CycoCycle. It looks like a tricycle without handlebars. The boys love it. Well, Brian a little bit more. Cory seems to think that its too much like a tricycle. Yesterday just for fun when we were out on errands we stopped in Toys R Us to check it out.

Without handles it requires balance that's for sure. I was told you could hold onto the seat as a type of handle. Apparently there are many ways to ride this thing.

I looked up the website on the new toy, and apparently there is no "born on/created date". There is a story about a child at an orphanange that got one of these a broken tricycle and he used it as it was. Maybe someone used that to re-create the tricycle. What do you think? Oh, and this is bigger than a normal tricycle. Lots bigger for bigger kids! LOL.

Vintage Clean Up Job

In the last couple of years with the job market being as such, I've had to be creative in order to help Sweetie get bills paid.
One of my favorite jobs was cleaning up and cleaning out an old home after its owner died. The owner had a daughter and she wasn't interested in anything the house held. NOTHING! Can you imagine? She didn't even want to come down (she lives out of state) to go through the house first. She wanted to hire someone to go through and the house room by room and document what was in each room. She then wanted the rooms cleaned. (here is where I was hired). Me and another lady showed up and cleaned for almost 5 days straight. This was a five bedroom, three bath home. Once all this was completed, we were to then go and make a list of what was there. We did. We faxed the list and waited 24 hours. She called back and asked us to get things ready for the auction folks, and the rest was to go to Goodwill.
While this was a daunting task, apparently it was too much for the lady that started with me, so I got to go it alone. Each room was full of suprises. Antique quilts, racks for them to be displayed, old hankerchiefs, toys, telephones, buttons, shoes, everything. It was just crazy. I loved it! The old photo's called to me, but since I didn't want to spend days and wasn't paid too, I moved on and just stuck all that stuff in a box.
There was also a full shed, full of tools, canning jars, ect. That was the most challenging for me, because it was hot and spiders were everywhere.. I ran out several times just knowing something was crawling on me...ick!
It didn't take me long to document everything. Next was to walk through with the auction folks and let it be. Then the women who hired me sent a check and all was well in my world.

The boys were involved with a Saturday game and full afternoon so I missed the auction, I wonder what went and what didn't.

Summertime = Camp Memories

Cory and his ninja buddies at camp in Land between the Lakes last week!

The boys had a week of Bible study, games, swimming, and cicada lullabys.

Lots of memories made!

Game Night

Last night we hosted game night in our home. However, we only ended up playing a game that we all got hooked on in Costa Rica.  Phase 10. After working hard in construction on the Abraham Project in Costa Rica, in the evenings after we had dinner and devotion time, we would break out various games to play together. This was a game we kept coming back to. I've been told its like Rummy. Ive never played Rummy so I don't know. Basically, each player's goal is to complete and lay down the current phase, and then rid their hand of remaining cards by discarding them on laid-down Phases, called "hitting". The player who does this first wins the hand and scores no penalty; all other players earn penalty points according to the value of cards remaining in their hand. This can go on for hours as folks try to keep their scores low and complete their phases. We played until almost 11pm last night. We invited over all the folks that were part of our late night group in Costa Rica. We laughed, teased,  and updated each other on our lives since the trip. The winner most of the time while we were in Costa Rica, was not able to be with us last night as we attempted to pick up where we left off. We missed you Nikkita!

So now we have a new winner and she can hold that title til we meet again! Yay for Yolanda! (funny thing was she had dubbed Brian her little good luck gnome and had him sit with her for several hands until she got the hang of it.) Throughout the evening if he walked off she started losing, it was funny. Near the end of the game, we all took turns rubbing "the little gnome" for good luck!

For Nikki : the gameisms last night were:

the BOB tattoo (explanation later)

and

"I'm collecting 12's"

"pass the Twizzlers"

and also

"these twizzlers aren't sour"

"can we use 2 skip cards as a set?"

and lets not forget

"Strategically speaking..I have to skip you"