Birthday Party

Although his birthday isn't until the 29th we celebrated Jeremiah's first birthday today! His mom and dad had a houseful, that's for sure! Not to mention the fact that Mindy had spent days getting ready for this party! Celebrating with Jeremiah were Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Tom and a host of friends. We ate cake and so did Jeremiah, we ate ice cream and he opened all his presents. It was such fun. Even Jeremiah enjoyed himself. (Just take a look at that picture of him in his new car) He went outside and played in the sandbox, swang in his swing, visited with his friends. I am so glad we could be here. He has been such a blessing to all of us. I continue to be in awe of the way God is at work. He has his hand on Jeremiah's life already. I am excited to see how that will all play out in his life. God has big plans for him!!! Our constant prayer is that he will grow in stature and wisdom and godliness, and that he will live out God's purpose for his life.He has a great start.

Mission Accomplished...sort of

This morning at 6 am-waaaay before it was light enough to take pictures--they pulled the garage out the alley and down the road. I got 0 pictures of them pulling it, sad to say. But the building is resting nicely in a new home. Then, as you can see by the next pictures comes the problem of all the "stuff". Here's where I really could have had a 'garage sale'. At first, I thought Ron had done a great job of getting rid of all the... volumes of stuff... that were stored in there since we moved in. He had, after all, made a couple of trips to the dump. But then I turned around. YIKES! Unbelievable. And I know the rule: It will get worse before it gets better. I have visions of cement being broken up and snow covering the whole back yard before it's all over with. What's a girl to do?

Head 'em up, Move 'em out!

Well, it looks like the new garage might actually be a possibility before the end of the year. The new one will go in the same spot that the old one was in. They even have to take out the old slab of cement. So today they braced up the old one, then jacked it up then stopped and had some discussions. Things I overhear: "don't call these widowmakers for no reason"..."What if we cut these bars? Wonder how hard it would be to weld them back on..." (this in reference to the rack they were using.) Get the big one.... We measured everything by an 8' standard and we wouldn't have had to. (Greek to me)

They started working on this in the afternoon and got it into the alley by 10 p.m. They will pull it out tomorrow. Then we will be left with a slab of cement, ruined rhubarb, and the chore of ... well, lots lef to do! I'll post some more pictures as they pull the garage down the road.

Summer Endings

I can tell summer is ending. As usual, it makes me feel sad. I am always aware of how fast these warm days fly by. Except for gazillions of kids at the library I hate for summer to end. But the big thing about the end of this summer: Ivan moved out today. School starts for him next week, but he has an apartment with 4 other boys on campus and today was the first day he could move in. Back with guys his own age. Who could blame him! He got here the first part of June and has been a fixture around the house. I wondered how it would all go. How can we tell what will go down when we add a complete stranger into the mix? But his schedule and ours meshed pretty well. We took several weekends and headed camping and he volunteered to watch Buster. That was a big help. He helped clean up all the shingles Ron threw in the yard as we were re-roofing the house. Wow! He went with us on some family outings and took a great liking to the grandsons. He joined us for church. He let us know what his schedule would be on a daily basis. He had his own computer so I never had to share. He didn't even hog the remote. Very impressive. We have been his host "family" for two years now, but it has taken us this long to have the time to really get to know him. It was really worth the effort! He can come back anytime.

Getting a fix

How about taking a look at two cute boys! Busy, energetic, daring!

August Word: Extravagant

Extravagant: lavish, Exceeding reasonable bounds, outrageous, immoderate
This is my August word of the Month to live By! I have been pondering this for several weeks here-after someone told me to have an "extravagantly good day"! How would that look for me? Would it be like Romans 12:1: "in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God....Maybe John 10:10 is more appropriate "I come that they may have life and have it more abundantly"


1.Share extravagantly with at least 2 people every day. Be spontaneous.
2. memorize a new verse (an extravagance of my mind)
3. practice a spiritual discipline (fasting, prayer walking..)
4. Extravagant in encouragement, extravant in giving, in enthusiasm
5. Listen. Spend time paying attention to what God has to say to me.
Already I find this much harder to put into practice than it is even to write about. It's way too easy to fall into old habits, to let my circumstances get me down, to let emotion run away with me. I hate it.
Casting Crowns has a song that speaks it all Jesus Your Love is Extravagant. absolutely.

Camping and More!

Forgive me for pointing you to the slide show on the sidebar. It's all you 'll ever want to see of our camping trip. And just think, we have another week of vacation and pictures to share with you in the future. Aren't you lucky!