Memorial Day Weekend

Hello all,
Well last week was quite eventful. Kali started the week by throwing up Monday night. Tuesday was fine, all day. Wednesday morning though, I woke up sick to my stomach. I had diarrhea and I was vomiting all day. Doug came home halfway through his day with the same problem. We spent most of the day not doing much and just trying to keep the kids occupied without too much work. Sadly, the TV was used most of the day. Wednesday night, Danny came down with it. Thursday, Doug and I were fine. Wednesday night, Danny came down with it. I kept him home from school on Thursday although he seemed fine most of the day, he did throw up two more times during the day. I was supposed to head down to Mom's Thursday afternoon but with Danny being sick, I decided to wait until Friday. I took my time getting ready Friday morning to make sure Danny was fully over his sickness. It seemed to only last 24 hours. So we packed up and headed to Mom's and were there by 12:30. The kids ate on the way down. I left them with Mom and Marc and Elizabeth, who had arrived the day before, and went to the Market for lunch and a chat with Pam. I got back to Mom's around 3:30. Melody and her boys were there by that time. Doug got to Mom's after work on Friday and Joe showed up later that night after he was done with work. He had quite the adventure but that is a very long story. Ed and Tina and Melanie didn't get in to Mom's until 4 AM on Saturday morning. Ed had not gotten much sleep so he was rather grumpy. Saturday we just kind of hung out and got meals together and talked together. Saturday evening, we all went through Dad's books and marked the ones we wanted. then we packed them all up in boxes. About half of Dad's library is gone. Mom is going to put the rest of the books all on one book shelf and then let a few men go through and see if there is anything they want. Sunday morning, we made arrangements to take family pictures. Each family had their turn before church. After church, we took a group picture. Hopefully one of those will be good. After lunch Marc and Elizabeth and Ed and Tina headed back to their homes. The rest of the kids had quiet time and I took a short nap. We left the guys home with the kids and Melody and I went to church with Mom that evening. When we got home, we started to get the kids ready for bed. Doug and Joe played a game. Then DD, Joe, Doug and Mom played Scrabbled while I watched and chatted with them. We were again, in bed late. Mom woke up feeling sick to her stomach. Doug packed up the van and headed out. He also helped me load up the car, although the kids and I didn't head out right away. We had lunch together, but Mom wasn't feeling well so she layed down. the kids and I left around 2:30 or so. We made two stops. one for a bathroom for Kali and one stop at a grocery store. We were headed to Doug's sister's place for a cookout. We did stop at home and unload first though. Doug was there and he helped but drove separately again. He had borrowed his father's pressure washer to take down to Mom's and wash her porch off really good so she could paint it. Doug and Mom painted the porch Saturday morning and then when it was dry, they put the new, larger sand box on the porch. anyway, Doug had to deliver the pressure washer back to his father so he drove the van and I took the kids in the car. We had a lot of fun at Doug's sister's house. We played Bocce ball and a new game called ladder ball. then we made mountain pies, or campfire pies. i love these and it was a to of fun. The kids had fun playing with all the toys and bubbles and Frisbees and stuff. We got home before 9 PM but had to shower the kids before they could get into bed. they were filthy and we all smelled like smoke. they were in bed by 9:30 but it must not have been soon enough because Danny slept in this morning and had a bad day at school. I have been cleaning up the house and unpacking. i was able to keep the house pretty cook but the temp. just jumped int he last hour so I will probably need to open the windows to let in the breeze soon. Hotter tomorrow and the next day so I will be doing more at night like my baking and cooking and laundry in order to keep the heat down in the house. I hope you all had a great weekend!!!

Happy Spring......

These pics were taken at the zoo!

.....a little late. We have been very busy lately which is why I haven't been blogging much. We have made trips down to my mother's to help her out, Doug is getting very busy with his fledgling photography business and the kids are getting restless to get out and run so we try and do that as much as we can. Today, Doug has a coworker coming to get family portraits done. He is hoping to get a lot more business from this one family. he is hoping that the co-worker will take the pictures in to work and show them around and tell everyone what a good experience it was. Because we have never had a coworker in the house before, we have been feverishly cleaning and getting everything ready for the photo shoot. We also have to make sure the rest of the house is ready in case the kids that are coming need to be distracted while the parents are getting their pictures taken. So our bedroom and the kids room is clean too. We have slowly been working to get the house totally clean and set up so that whenever someone comes to get pictures taken, we are basically ready. We have also been trying to just get rid of a bunch of stuff that we don't need that is just taking up room. Our little apartment is finally clean and not quite as cluttered as it used to be.

Last night Kali and I went to a Ladies banquet with my mother and grandmother. It was a nice evening and Grandma did pretty well considering that she couldn't hear what was going on and doesn't like to sit on hard chairs for as long as she did. I had forgotten that I had brought a long a cushion for her to sit on.

Next weekend everyone is congregating at Mom's for Memorial Day weekend. It will be a time of going through some of Dad's stuff and helping Mom get rid of some stuff that she wont be needing. It will be good to be together again but hard too. We would appreciate your prayers throughout the whole weekend. You can start by praying for Marc and Elizabeth as they are starting earlier the then rest of us. They have to do their presentation at a church in Michigan on Wednesday night and then they will get to Mom on Thursday sometime. Danny has school until Thursday but we may go down early too, so we can have as much time as possible with the family. I purchased a bigger pool for all the kids to play in in the yard and Doug and I went down last weekend to build a bigger sandbox for Momma so that all the grand kids will fit in the sandbox. Mom also has a smaller swimming pool that we will keep for the smaller kids.

So after this client is gone, I am not sure what we are going to do. I know Doug has a lot to do. He has some pictures he needs to finish working on and then post so people can buy them, and he also has two sermons to prepare for Sunday. At least Sunday morning. He can work on Sunday Evening on Sunday afternoon, although he doesn't like to do that. he may do some of both and then tweak the evening service sermon tomorrow afternoon.

Doug and I went to a meeting this past Monday for homeschooling Danny. It is with a group called OHDELA. It is part of the Ohio Public School systems so it is all free. No tuition. They provide computers and any equipment that your child might need in order to learn. For example, Daniel needs a Speech Therapist and an Occupational Therapist. they will pay those people to come out to our home and give Daniel the therapy he needs. If we were to find that he needed a special computer or a special keyboard for his computer, they would provide that also. We are still doing some thinking on what will be best so you can pray for wisdom. We would also start Kalista in Kindergarten at the same time.

So much to do so I will close for now. If I can find one, I will post a picture too.

Daddy and Danny

Doug has been working hard on his photography and he is having a lot of fun doing it. If you are ever interested in getting your picture taken or having family pictures done, ask him. He is really good! He can do all sorts of neat things with pictures. He has his own professional site. Check it out here. He loves using the kids as subjects. He has been working tonight too but the kids weren't quite as cooperative. Hopefully he got something he can play with, anyway.
Hope yo all enjoy these.

Kali

Loving Siblings

Daddy's little princess

Danny

Another new picture

We went to the zoo today. this picture isn't from the zoo though. I will post some of those next week after Doug has had the chance to do a little work on them.

Some new pics

Hey all. Doug got out all the equipment that he got from Daddy and he did some expeiramenting with the kids and I and himself. He gotsome great pictures of himself and the kdis and I. Seperately, and together. The one I am posting now was his favorite and the only one he was dressed up so far. There will be more soon, I hope so watch for them!