It's that time of year again...

the sun makes it's appearance

it warms up

flowers start to bloom

trees start to bud

and Daddy makes an appearance before 5 pm!

~~~~~

Good-bye, Tax Season!

Hello, Daddy!

Our weekend

Our weekend started with a little artwork.

The kids are painting canvases to hang in the family room.

I'll show the final results once they are on the wall.

Emma loved being able to paint whatever color

she wanted, wherever she wanted it.

Ryan had a design in mind.

On Saturday, we had a surprise visit from Uncle Rick.
He and Emma jammed on the keyboard and pink guitar.

It takes a manly-man to play one of these!

The kids tried out their new butterfly nets.

It was such a gorgeous day...so nice to have the warm weather again.

Emma enjoys playing in the sand...I think it makes her think of the Oregon Coast

Waiting, oh-so-patiently, for a butterfly

Our first tulip...gorgeous!

This was the view on Sunday morning...beautiful sunshine.

Emma got to help Nana make the whipped cream for

her delicious lemon cake with fresh strawberries....Yum!

Uncle Max hid the eggs and then sat the kids down

to discuss the rules. I think the first one was...for every egg you pick up,

you have to give me two!

Emma's a bit spoiled...she convinced Ron

to put her shoes on for her.

"This egg is empty! Uncle Max, did you eat it?"

He even hid an egg under Aunt Amanda's high heeled shoe!

Ryan didn't know it, but Max had been stealing eggs from his basket and

putting them into Emma's.

Bob came home from the office long enough

to have lunch and watch the kids hunt for their eggs.

Then, it was back to work!

Those are some pretty big shoes to fill!

~~Update on Jon~~

I'm including one photo...but it's not the disgusting ones.

Promise!

This shows the streaks that had moved up his arm from

the 1/2 inch (if even that big) cut caused by the steak knife.

After spending Wednesday through Monday in the hospital, he came to our house last night

and spent the night here. His lungs appear to be fine now, and he had his appointment for his

hand today. It is progressing as it should. It looks like we'll have

a happy ending to a bizarre and scary situation. The kids

were so happy to be able to play with him again, without any

tubes or machines hooked up to him.

~~~~~

We hope that everyone had a great weekend.

We are looking forward to some wonderful freinds from Portland arriving this

Thursday. It will be so nice to see them again...pics to follow.

~~~

On a side note, I had created a goal of walking 60 miles this month.

However, due to the many trips to the hospital, overnight house guests and lots of drop-in visitors this weekend, I haven't walked since Thursday. I'm decreasing my goal to 40 miles to avoid getting discouraged and not walking at all!

Update on Jon

We just got back from yet another trip to the hospital. They've moved Jon into a regular room and is only using the oxygen when he's sleeping. Things are looking up! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.

A warning...please read

My oldest brother Jon is in the ICU in one of the hospitals here in town. Here's what happened...

He was at a friend's house for dinner on Monday night when he dropped his steak knife. He tried to catch it as it fell; however, it stabbed into the palm of his hand. It wasn't a bad cut. He licked it (gonna have to ask him about that once he's on the mend), cleaned it and bandaged it. He noticed that his hand hurt on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he woke up with a very swollen hand and streaks running all of the way up his arm. He went to the hospital. They discovered that he had a staff infection in his hand from the cut and saliva. They put him under and removed all of the bacteria from his hand. His friend that was there with him was told that he would be out in the recovery room in a hour. After several hours had passed, he still hadn't come out. The doctors finally told her that he was having trouble breathing. What most likely happened is, since they put the breathing tube in while he had food in his stomach, he regurgitated some of that when they pulled out the tube and sucked it into his lung. He's able to breathe on his own, but his body is not absorbing enough oxygen. Therefore, he's on a full oxygen mask. They think that his hand will recover and that the bacteria was taken care of. However, he has to stay in the ICU until his body is absorbing the oxygen as it's supposed to. He has a mass in his lung, and they are not sure what it is. It could possibly turn into pneamonia...but hopefully not. He'll likely be in the ICU for a few more days before being moved into a regular room...assuming everything continues to improve.

~~~

So, three morals:

1. Let the knife fall to the floor and then pick it up

2. Keep saliva away from open woulds (you know how you'll stick your finger

in your mouth after a paper cut or knick on the finger tip?)

3. Jon recommends avoiding full anastesia unless absolutely necessary

~~~

This is such a strange course of events with odds stacked against it every happening to anyone ever again, but we've all been struck by what damage can occur to a body by

getting saliva into an open wound. I thought I'd pass it along to all...

Happy Birthday, Jamee

Adam and Jamee with Baby Clara

A few things I love...

::My sweet husband, who is oh so glad there's only six days left of tax season::

::My big blue-eyed boy's smiles::

::Miss Emma's hugs::

::Laughter...this is Emma with "horns"::

::Nature's beauty::

Ryan grabs my camera almost every night to capture the

beauty of the sunsets. These are from two different nights.

::The peace and warmth found in a sunbeam::

::Art done by little hands::

These are Emma's Easter cards she drew all on her own.

::Time with family::

We met Max and Amanda at the park near their house earlier this week.

It was a 70 degree day, so we had to take advantage of it. We played tennis,

got a few rides on the skateboard and played catch with Aunt Amanda.

Ready....set...

...GO!!!

Back when I was a kid...

Scene:

Our house.

Last night.

One frustrated momma, one tired eight-year-old.

~~~

Momma (M): pleasant voice "Ryan, please take your backpack in the house and do your homework."

Ryan (R): (slamming sliding door on van...takes quite a bit of force) tired, whiny, loud voice "Why do I have to do that?!"

M: "Ryan, go into the house and sit on the couch. I need to talk with you."

~~Enter house (place of peace and contentment)~~

M: still calm "Ryan, why did you react that way when I asked you do to your homework?

You know that it's due tomorrow and that it has to be done."

R: calmer "You're always asking me to do stuff. I have so much work to do!"

M: maybe a tad bit sarcastic "Oh? And what all do you have to do?"

R: "You make me bring my dirty clothes down everyday and strip my bed when

the sheets need to be washed."

M: silence...is there more?...can that be all? "What else do I make you do?"

R: "That's a lot!"

M: anger starting to perculate...nope...it's boiling

"Ryan, do you realize how much work me and your uncles had to do when we were kids?

eye roll from eight-year-old...yep...it's boiling

"When we were kids, we had to get up in the morning, go outside and chase down

four stinky contankerouse goats. Then, we had to milk them. Then, if there were baby calves, we had to feed them. We had to make sure all of the animals were fed and watered. This was all before school! After school, in the winters, we'd come home to a freezing cold house. Do you know why? Because we only had wood heat. We had to push the wheelbarrow...remember the one that you could barely push last week?...to the woodshed, fill it up, push it back to the house, carry in the wood and light the fire. Then, we had to do all of the outside chores like take care of the animals. Then, we had homework. We also all helped in the house with the household chores. Weekends were spent working in the fields and in the yard. We mowed the lawns, weeded the fields and the garden, worked in the orchards and in the apple cellar, picked up whole fields of potatoes by hand!!! Can you imagine doing that? You have nothing to complain about! Your chore list just grew, buddy!"

R: "Yeah, but I'd have to have a bigger allowance."

M: so close to his face that he could probably see each individual skin cell

"WE NEVER GOT AN ALLOWANCE!!!"

R: "Mom, you just don't know what it's like being a kid."

M: what?!?! "I used to be a kid!"

R: "But you don't know what it's like being a boy! It's harder!"

exit Mom stage left...deep breaths...think calming thoughts

we'll discuss this more later

~~~

~~~

So, I finally did it.

I think that it's a rule you have to be at least 70 before you can use it, but I used the phrase "Back when I was a kid..."

Never thought I would.

I've always had this issue with raising the kids in town. There's almost no work for them to do. We all worked hard when we were kids and thoroughly detested it then. (Jon and Matt much more than Max and I since they were older). However, I'm sure that all of us agree that we are much better adults for it. Ryan does quite a bit of things in the house...taking the garbage out, helping to clear the table, unload the dishwasher, put away laundry, pick up after himself, help in the yard, etc. But, there's not many jobs around the house that take more than a few minutes. It's not that I necessarity want him out picking up potatoes, but a little sweating never hurt anyone! I'm so glad that we live near enough to the farm to spend quite a bit of time there this summer working. Hope that's o.k., Mom and Dad!

And thanks, Mom and Dad, for teaching us how to work.

~~~

Disclaimer: Mom just called and asked that I add a disclaimer on this post.

Yes, Mom, we did have fun when we were kids and we didn't work all of the time.

Speaking for myself, I enjoyed my childhood.

You and Dad did a wonderful job.

I honestly thank you for teaching us how to work.

Is that better, Mom?

Recipe links

Chicken Not Pie
Colorful Cupcakes

April First

So there I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner

when the phone rang. It was Amy calling to see if we wanted to come over

for an April Fool's dinner. Sadly, I had to say no as Bob has been getting home around 6:30 and we leave at 6:55 for Gospel Meeting. So...we did the next best thing. Emma and I headed over to their house after lunch to make dinner together.

While Amy and I were cooking, the kids became artists.

Wyatt was making fireworks on his paper...

...while Emma was hard at work...

...on the flower I'd drawn for her.


They did take a quick break to brush the tops of the Chicken Not-Pot Pies
with the egg wash.


Okay, so our menu was
Chicken Not-Pies and
Warm Up-Cakes

Here are the peas, carrots and corn for the Chicken Not-Pie

(This is later at my house when I was assembling everything.)
Doesn't that look just like the filling for Chicken Pot Pie?


Mmmmm...dinner is ready.

I feel kinda bad now because Bob was quite excited to see

what he thought was chicken pot pie on his plate. We haven't had it forever and

it did look quite tasty. He dived right in...breaking the crust to get to the center.

But, wait...it's cold?

And you should have seen Ryan's eyes when he saw that there were

cupcakes on the table. That's unheard of it our house...I've learned to keep dessert well

away from the regular meal. Otherwise, the kids have a terrible time resisting it.

But, wait...they're hot?

Emma really liked the crust.

This is Ryan's face as he discovered that they were not, in fact, cupcakes, but meatloaf

with colored mashed potatoes on top. You see...he loves cupcakes and detests meatloaf.

He did eat it though...with just a little bit of grumbling.

This is actually vanilla pudding with different pieces of

candy to resemble the vegetables.

Thanks, Amy, for the very enjoyable afternoon. Emmalee and I had a

wonderful time. Just for Ryan...since he enjoyed last night's dinner so much...I'm trying to figure out how to disguise liver and onions for dinner tonight! (Kidding!)