The New Me

I'm Back!!!

I'm back from my "vacation" in Iowa with Rachel! We had a lot of fun and a lot of time alone together before we had to say good-bye. I have a lot to talk about! I talked nonstop on the 3 hour drive home from Chicago. At least it kept Dad from sleeping while driving!

 Rachel and I have known eachother since we were babies. We weren't friends then, (if anything, I didn't like her, as she used my hair to pull herself to a standing position!) Our moms were friends though, so we saw eachother a lot and we became best friends. We would bring playclothes to church just in case we were invited over. We played barbies, house, everything together.

 Rachel is really close to Ethan and Ana! She has known them since they were babies and they ADORE her. It's a fight everytime she comes over who gets to hang out with her!!! :-)

 Minte even loves her!!

We had a great time on our 5 day time together. We were able to talk a lot and I was able to see her new house that they are moving into Monday, her school, and her tiny town! It's one of those towns in which news passes around quick!!

Iowa's small towns are like a small city's downtown. All of their stores that they go to for everything are down here. There are larger cities with stores I'm more familiar with like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. But they're quite a distance away.

It's very interesting how Iowa is set up. When you leave town, you follow one road that have lots of houses around it. Soon the houses become farther and farther apart and then you're suddenly in between cornfields. After a looooong time houses start getting closer and closer together and suddenly you're on the main street of the town. This is very different than what I'm used to. I'm used to cities being connected to other cities with no cornfields between!

I have to go now, but this is a little bit of my time in Iowa.

The Death of a Pet and a Trip to E.R.

Monday night, after returning from an evening of basketball at our friends' house, I decided I should probably get new food and water for Gwen, our black rabbit. I went out the back garage door and turned towards Gwen's cage. She was stretched out in a way I'd never seen her before. It was weird. I started fiddling with cage and calling her name. She didn't answer. And then I knew. Gwenny was dead. I quickly went inside to tell Dad, who followed me out. She was pretty much stiff so she probably died during our weekend up north. She still had a lot of food and water in her bowls, so she must have died soon after we left.

Dad buried Gwen in the field that night and the next morning we told Ethan and Ana about her death. They were sad, but not too sad, as Gwen was not very nice and they didn't really interact with her. Ana of course was very interested in death and wanted to know how she looked, what we did and so on. She asked whether Gwen was standing up or lying down when she died!!

The trip to E.R. was with the littlest member of the family. According to Ethan, he was gagging and making weird noises. And seeing that Minte had pennies in his hand, he assumed he had eaten a penny. He immediately told me and after seeing Minte seemed to be okay and was able to breathe and everything, I took him upstairs to Mom. Mom tried to get Minte to tell us whether he had put a penny in his mouth, by showing him a penny and pointing to his mouth. He grabbed the penny and immediately tried to stick it in his mouth!! Mom called the doctor who said she should take him to E.R. Mom and Minte spent about 3 hours there taking x-rays and eventually finding out that there was no penny in the little guy's body. It was a scary morning!

Today I leave after church for Iowa with my best friend since she was born, (I'm older), Rachel. Her family is leaving Michigan today and I am going with them. Thursday, Dad will pick me up in Chicago when her family drops off her older brother at college. I'm excited to see Rachel's new town!!

Back from a Weekend at the Cottage!

We got back around 11 o'clock last night from a weekend up north at Papa and Nana's new cottage. It is built with logs and is MUCH larger than their last one. I think the girls' favorite part are the TWO bathrooms to get ready in! Can't say that it's any shorter getting ready for the day, but at least you can use the one bathroom while someone showers! The cottage also has two enormous porches on the back and front. The one in the back, (or the front depending on who's talking), facing the lake, even has a gate to keep little people from falling down the steps.

We made it to the cottage Friday night pretty late. We stayed up a while visiting and watching a very excited Minte Gabriel perform his tricks.

The next morning we spent most of the time in the cottage getting ready for the day. (Actually I was reading a book for most of it). The kids went fishing with Papa and Luke and came back with several fish that were unfortunately too small to eat. Of course, after lunch, we wanted to swim. So we headed out into the cold yet "warmish" lake. Minte "swam" in the lake for the first time. He didn't want to put his feet in at first, but eventually was walking all over in it, his tummy heaving in and out from the cold! He even was brave enough to splash himself and others AND try to eat the water! We have video!

Later in the afternoon we took a boat ride with Lucas tubing behind the pontoon. The pontoon was slower than a motorboat, but it was fast enough to give a good ride. Finally Alli and then even Ethan had a ride. (Ethan was nervous, but loved the whole thing)! I tubed after supper with my little "fans" yelling, "Fall off! Fall off!" as I left. I fell off on purpose one time. Then one time I flipped myself on my back. We hit a big wave and I went in the air. The "spotter", (Luke), wasn't watching though and didn't notice for a minute that I was no longer on! It was a blast!!!! I kept trying to hit the big waves as I like to flop all over the place!

We ended the night with enormous marshmallow s'mores, watching teeny bugs attack the door trying to get to the light inside, and dodging rain in a run in the dark for the back door.

We woke to thunder storms Sunday and the promise from weather men that we were in for storms all day. Ha! The thunder storms passed away and we were left with gorgeous sunny skies and beautiful weather. We swam in the late morning/early afternoon and tubed again. We left right before supper, visited Great Grandma for a while, stopped at McDonalds, and left for home. We were all glad to get in our own beds again!

We had a wonderful time! And Minte did great most of the time in the car and during our visit!! We head back up for Labor Day weekend! Hopefully skiing and tubing will be on the schedule sometime then too. But not behind the pontoon!

Blowing Candles King

 What's this little guy interested in?

Mama's cake, that's what.

 But it isn't the part with the gooey brownies that he's interested in. No, he's interested in the things above it!

 The candles.

Fortunately, he's adorable and Mom doesn't mind anyone helping her blow out all the candles.

 So Mr. Minte gets to help Mommy blow out her candles!

 He's so proud! And check out the smoke!

There were in fact, 40 candles! Ana counted.

Late Fourth of July post!

 I now have pictures of our Fourth of July!!!! As you can see in this picture, Ana, Ethan, and I made rice krispie treats and then spread "red", blue, and white frosting on top to make a flag. The flag looks kinda sick, but it was yummy!

 Every once in a while, Ana wants her braids to be pulled into a pony tail and decorated. She wanted it done that way for church! It was a very busy hair-do!

 Towards the evening we headed out to go see fireworks.

 We waited FOREVER!!!! Even though there were no fireworks, Ana and Ethan had a difficult time posing for pics. as there were too many interesting people and stray fireworks to watch!

 Here Dad is looking at the sparklers. These sparklers didn't seem to want to work for us!

And here is E-E! Doesn't he look grown up?

Yo Dude! Peace Out!