Things I learned on our Camping Adventure

*When going camping, garbage bags should be packed and brought along.

*To properly roast a hotdog over a fire, one must place the hotdog perpendicular to the roasting stick.

*Threatening that “whoever cries in the tent goes in the motorhome to sleep” works!

*Foot-powered air pumps with cracks do not pump up air mattresses nearly as quickly as battery-powered pumps.

*You don’t have to go far from home to have a fun get-a-way.

*Crows like to march across the tops of motorhomes and screech at 4:30 in the morning.

*Camping + marshmallows + playgrounds + gatorade = very sticky dirty children

*Very sticky dirty children + one Grandpa + two parents + fresh air = Very Happy Children

This is one of the few pictures of me camping. My friend Melissa did this on her latest camping trip and I thought of it when I saw the reflection of the sky and trees in the back window of our van. Thanks for the idea!

All my happy girls and my guy in the tent in the morning. What a good dad to sleep in the tent all night with those turkeys!

Thanks, Grandpa/Erik for taking us camping! WE LOVED IT!!!!!

Click here for a web album of more pictures!

Why I am not spontaneous and other bits and pieces of the camping adventure

*I am not spontaneous. Not very often, anyway. I found out this weekend why that is the case. When I am being spontaneous, by definition, obviously, there is not time to properly plan for the spontaneous event. When there is not time to properly plan, (and make a proper and complete list), I am bound to forget something. And when I forget something, such as my contact lens case and contact solution, I get crabby. And when I get crabby, then no one wants me to be spontaneously camping anymore. Trust me.

*Overheard on the camping adventure: Ed: "Elise, what would you like to drink with your dinner?" Elise: "I would like beer." Hysterical giggling around campsite. Ed: "Elise, you wouldn't like beer, would you like a juice box?" Elise: "No, I like beer, I really, really do!" More hysterical giggling around campsite. Ed: "No, Elise, beer is only for grownups like Grandpa. Would you like a juice box?" Elise: "But I am a grownup. I'm 3!"

*Sitting around the campfire: Elise: "I want gatorade like Becca!" Ed: "Why don't you try some of Becca's to see if you like gatorade before I give you your own bottle?" Becca: "Here, Elise. Try my gatorade. Drink it slowly. It might have wine in it."

*Apparently our children need some instruction about alcoholic beverages...

Silver Lake and other stuff

My FIL Erik has been here the last few days and we’ve been having a lot of fun thus far. I hope this weekend goes well – we’re headed out to go camping with him at the local KOA on Saturday & Sunday. We’ve also had the pleasure of having Ed’s cousin and her daughter from California in and out over the past few days as the daughter is playing in an international softball tournament.

Wednesday’s PotD: dinner with Erik, Brenda, & Emily

Thursday’s PotD: the girls helped Erik assemble our new wheelbarrow and then had fun giving each other rides and dumping each other out.

Friday’s PotD: on the slide at Silver Lake today.

We had so much fun at Silver Lake! We almost had to forgo the trip since I left to run errands this morning and drove over a bolt and got a flat tire. Thankfully my dad wasn’t too busy at work at the moment and could come rescue me. I was in the middle of a country road and was so glad I didn’t have to call AAA and then wait 2 hours for them to find me. Dad to the rescue again! So, anyway…We knew we needed to get new tires soon, but were waiting until next week when the Costco coupons are valid. Unfortunately, we had to get the tires TODAY because the one with the bolt in it was…ah…not repairable. So we got new tires, finished some of the errands, had lunch, and headed up to Silver Lake only about 90 minutes behind schedule. Good job, Les Schwab in getting me new tires quickly!!!

Click here for a web album of our fun in the sun at Silver Lake!

Happy Birthday!

Today marks the 500th birthday of John Calvin. I was recently impressed again about the influence of his writings on the world when I attended a Calvin College Alumni event. The president of Calvin described how professors, from all over the world, are clamoring to be able to teach at Calvin College. Their respect for the theology of John Calvin and their desire to impress this upon college students in their subject area is growing, not waning. He talked about the resurgence of Calvinism, especially in Korea and other places where I did not expect Calvinism to be the emerging philosophy of young people. It's truly amazing and wonderful to see how God has used a simple man like John Calvin to bring His truth around the world for half a millennium. John Calvin did not set out to be remembered 500 years after he was born for his theological writings. He simply studied the Bible and shared what he had learned. God took care of the rest. I know there are many aspects of Calvinism that I am not totally verse in. But I do know a few things: God used John Calvin. God can use me. God can use anyone that allows Him to work in their life.

And Calvin College rules.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

I really should be the Mariners’ Official Good Luck Charm. They should buy me season tickets, provide a limo for transportation, and treat me like royalty. The Mariners have won EVERY game at Safeco Field that I have ever attended. My record is now 12-0! I suppose occasionally they’d have to make me stay home so that other teams wouldn’t try to accuse them of cheating and so that no other teams found out about my status and try to steal me away, but really, isn’t that a pretty incredible record?

We went Monday evening to the M’s game against the Orioles. It was our Father’s Day gift to my dad and we had a great time. We left home in pouring down rain and were a bit concerned that we might get wet and cold but by the time we got to Seattle, it was sunny! It wasn’t warm, but we were never cold and it was a fabulous evening. We started by going to one of the Nintendo DS downloading stations where you can download an app to get stats and games and such on your Nintendo during the game. This proved to be very useful since none of the electrical boards in Safeco Field were working Monday night!

Then I wanted to take Becca into the Children’s Playfield, sponsored by Children’s Hospital. She had fun in there and then requested that I take this picture of her with Ichiro! I couldn’t be more proud.

The game, as I said before, was great. Washburn pitched what could quite possibly be the game of a lifetime – one hit, no walks, 100 pitches in a complete game – and the M’s won 5-0. We all had a lot of fun.

In fact, apparently we were having so much fun that we even provided entertainment for the folks sitting behind us! As we were leaving, the lady tapped Ed on the shoulder and thanked him for sitting in front of them. She said they loved watching our family and the girls were so entertaining! I thought, man, if we had brought Elise, then she REALLY would have been entertained!

I don’t have a PotD for Tuesday – the day just got away from me – but here’s one of my fireworks pictures from the 4th.

I didn’t do real great taking pictures – partly because I missed my class last week when he gave tips on taking fireworks pictures, partly because there was so much ambient lighting where we were standing, partly because I don’t have much of a zoom lens, and partly because I just plain didn’t know exactly what I was doing. But, I at least got something relatively decent to show for my efforts and I learned a few things along the way. I had my photo class last night and learned more stuff – I am so glad I am taking this class and am already anxious for next week!

Fourth of July weekend

That’s Friday’s PotD, even though it was taken on Thursday. It’s me taking pictures at Whatcom Falls for my motion blur assignment.

We spent the Fourth with all these lovely people. We like them even though they went to that other college. It was an absolutely wonderful day with the Boon’s and DeVries’…parade, candy, DQ, swimming, Wii, chatting, the beach, steaks, pie, fireworks…awesome! Did you notice how many of the things listed involve food? How often isn’t that the case when we get together with loved ones?

That’s Sarah and her friend Kylie – they’ve been best friends since Sarah was about 12 weeks gestation and we announced to the Boon’s that we were having a baby. Ky was 17 months old when Sarah was born and they’ve always gotten along great. We haven’t lived in the same town for many years now, but we’re so happy they’re back in Western Washington and that we can see them at least occasionally!

Yes, that’s Ed. He’s 16 in that picture! Goofy hair, right? ;) I think his bangs were as big as mine then! :) Anyway, the 4th of July is the anniversary of when Ed & I started dating…we spent the day with the youth group and my mission team at the beach and then went to see fireworks at Milesquare Park. I don’t think either of us even noticed the fireworks that night, we were so busy talking to each other. I knew I was falling for him then, but I knew I would marry him the moment I took that picture up there. I watched him with those kids at VBS and I knew that he would be a good daddy someday. I loved that about him then, and I love that about him now. There are other things, of course, but that was truly the moment. On the 4th, we celebrated 18 years of being together – our 15th wedding anniversary is coming up next month. I can’t believe we’ve known each other for over half our lives! Amazing. God is good.

Oh, and that’s today’s PotD.

Spontaneity!

Well…I’ll start with the boring stuff…

My mom picked more berries. I froze them. The strawberries were good this year, but the season got cut short by a few too many days of hard rain. We’ll enjoy these in smoothies someday:

And now for the update on Ed: he is now less wise than he was before. Finally, on Tuesday evening, the dentist was able to remove Ed’s cracked and very painful wisdom tooth. We had first gone on Monday evening and the dentist tried to clean it out and grind it down and such in order to lessen his pain and buy him some time until he could see the oral surgeon. That didn’t work. So, Tuesday I took him back to the dentist and we got it out. So nice to be on the road to recovery. We decided on the way home from the dentist, that it takes a very special sort of person to be a dentist. You have to be OK with seeing people in pain and you have to be OK with causing that person more pain that may stay with them for quite some time, even though it in the long run it’ll probably be good for them. Pulling teeth is a seriously violent task.

On Tuesday afternoon, before we went in to the dentist, Ed said, hey – what do you need me to do that I won’t be able to do for a few days once I have this done? I said MOW THE LAWN! I’m so mean. So, he did. He’s so nice. Sarah helped.

On Wednesday we mostly did stuff around the house and I ran a few errands. I took this picture in the evening. No photo editing. I promise. I think it’s cool.

Now we finally get to the spontaneity. I was sick and tired of not playing with my kids and only telling them what to do and all of us not enjoying our time together. I want so much to have fond memories of these days and I want them to have fond memories of these days. The stress of Ed’s tooth business and all finally kind of got to me and I have not been in a good mood. The kids have been disobedient. I couldn’t stand it. I read in Proverbs yesterday “A child left to himself disgraces his mother.” Okay. I was not going to leave my children to themselves anymore.

I decided we were going to Whatcom Falls Park. Ed was going to come and I was going to carry a lawn chair for him to sit on in the shade. It was a hot day, so playing in the creek sounded like fun. Plus, it was close to swimming lessons, so we could just go straight there. Everyone seemed skeptical when I first suggested such a stunt. How on earth could we just up and take off for the day? But we did! And it was fun! Here’s the story:

I have never in my life played in the creek or jumped from the falls at Whatcom Falls Park. Disgraceful, I know. I couldn’t have my children growing up with the same thing.

Oh, see there?! I first practiced motion blur with my camera on the falls by the stone bridge. Cool water, don’t ya think? Then we went wading.

Sarah said, “Look Bethany! Let’s swim to that rock!”

“Okay, Sarah!”

Now what?

“Let’s jump!” “You go first, Sarah!” “Okay!”

SPLASH!!!!!!!

Bethany’s turn!

Back on the rock: “Do you think we can swim to that rock, Sarah?”

Should we?

All right. “Sarah, you go first.”

 

And they’re off!

They’re swimming back?

Oh wait, now they swam back to the rock and climbed up.

Oh. Now they’re coming back down. Hm.

Did I mention Ed was taking all these pictures? Well, he was. Here’s proof!

So, now I can say I have gone wading in Whatcom Falls Creek. Technically, I haven’t jumped. But, I think the experience is close enough to cross it off the Bucket List.

Back to the story:

 

They’re back on the rock. Do you think she’ll jump? Will her mother let her? How is that possible? Has the mother lost all of her common sense? Was it she that had a wisdom tooth pulled?

Go, Sarah! She jumped! She really did! Kind of out and not up, but she jumped!

Did Bethany?

Jump, Bethany, jump!

She did jump! Ed took these pictures and didn’t know I had it on “continuous” and he could have just held down the shutter release to take picture after picture. But I promise, she jumped. And if he took this picture and then she didn’t jump, that’s be a mighty feat, I tell you, for her to go backwards from there.

Besides, look how proud she is!

An update

Update on our life…Ed’s tooth is still causing great pain. He’s hoping to see a dentist tomorrow. It’s pretty swollen now too, so that can’t be a good sign.

Sarah is home from camp! Hooray! I think she had a great time and she didn’t get wet and cold or have any bug bites for me to soothe. She handled everything fine. My baby is growing up. I love hearing her stories and listening to how excited she is about it all. I’m sure more stories will emerge as more time goes by.

The garage sale went great. We had superb weather and made plenty of money and sold a lot. We were thrilled… Then my mom & dad together took all the girls berry picking after picking up Sarah from camp. The berries weren't great because of the rain we had last week, and Ed wasn't feeling too good because of the pain meds for his tooth, but all in all, it was a pretty good day!

And now for pictures! Ed managed to back up all my pictures on his new hard drive, so he could delete some off my laptop, so I could finally get pictures off my camera. It’s your lucky day! Here are the PotD for this entire week:

Monday, June 22

Boo to Sam! This mask is scarier than yours!

Tuesday, June 23

Sarah outside her cabin at Camp Shiloh. I really didn’t have much trouble leaving her there that day, but I sure did worry about her at night time. Like I said though, it was needless worry, as usual.

Wednesday, June 24

Raindrops on my newly blooming shrub roses.

Thursday, June 25

Elise at swimming lessons! Good kicking!

Friday, June 26

Just a little sneak peak at a gift I’ve been working on.

Saturday, June 27

One of my class assignments

Sunday, June 28

Another assignment

And that was our week!

A few more...

random thoughts, that is...

*no new pictures yet. I'm out of memory on my laptop.
*my great husband bought an external hard drive or something like that so he can save my pictures until I'm ready to use them.
*once he unloads my laptop, I can upload my pictures and post some cool stuff.
*unfortunately, he's got such a bad toothache, I'm afraid it may be a few more days.
*he woke up with the toothache during the night, thinking he must have been grinding his teeth.
*it got progressively worse during the day, so he called his dentist, thinking he probably needs to finally have those wisdom teeth extracted.
*got an appointment for July 15, but a consultation with an oral surgeon for July 2.
*both of those seem too far away now, as nothing, not even four ibuprofen and some excedrin, even come close to touching the pain
*and ice makes it worse
*so he'll be calling again tomorrow and we'll see what happens then
*so if you don't mind, say a prayer for his pain and whatever he'll have to go through in the next few days
*cause I don't really have time for him to be incapacitated ;)

*I'm suffering from bad mom syndrome...didn't send a raincoat with Sarah to camp...and it's been raining for two days...didn't send bug spray with Sarah to camp...and killed a mosquito in my bedroom...I cannot wait for that child to come home on Saturday so that I can put cortisone on her bug bites, warm her in a blanket, and hug her forever. I miss her a lot.

*swimming lessons are going great...Elise is proud to just accomplish "stay by your teacher" and "listen to your teacher". She needs no introduction to the water - she's fearless as some of you may recall. But she's having a blast. Becca is proud to be the only one in her class to jump in like a "big girl." Translation: from a standing position, into the water, with no help whatsoever. Bethany thinks the survival float is hard. From her description, it sounds hard. I thought it was the new politically correct term for dead man's float. But it sure sounds a lot more complicated than floating on your back was when I was a kid. But I guess that's a good thing...it's supposed to be how to survive after all. But she is proud to be the best back stroker in her class.

*garage sale coming up this weekend...hoping for no rain...not only for the sake of the garage sale but for the sake of the berries. It's time to have some more strawberries in this house and to get some frozen for our future smoothies and other yummy treats. My lovely mother takes the girls berry picking and then I freeze the berries they pick. It's a great arrangement if you ask me. I think she agrees...but she doesn't want to take them in the rain...I can't blame her...I don't want to take them in the sun or the rain.

*all done

Random Thoughts

*I need to post a few pictures. Maybe later...
*Brought Sarah to camp yesterday. I'm praying minute by minute for her...and for me. I can't wait to get her home again on Saturday. But I know this will be a great experience for her.
*Swimming lessons started last night for the younger 3. Bethany has a male teacher and two boys in her class. She's not thrilled with that arrangement, but did OK. Becca has only one other little girl in her class with a female teacher. She told me the other girl was cute and they could even talk to each other. Elise succeeded in her quest to follow my continuous reminders to "stay by your teacher."
*I had my first photography class at the community college last night - very enjoyable!!! I have homework, so I imagine you blog-readers will get to see my homework photos occasionally over the next five weeks.
*Getting ready for a garage sale this weekend. Can't wait to have all this junk out of here.
*Summer is filling up fast. Will life ever slow down?

Happy Father’s Day!

My husband is such a great dad – he’s the yes-man. Whenever they ask, “Dad, will you read me a book?” or “Dad, will you throw me up in the air?” or “Dad can I climb up you?” or “Dad, will you do a puzzle with me?” he always says yes. Just today, I asked him to help fry the corn tortillas he wanted for his Father’s Day dinner.

Would you look at that? He even said yes to the Pooh Bear apron (the only apron in the house that would fit him) so that he didn’t get oil splatters on his nice shirt. Wow. What a guy! But it was worth it for these:

Yummy! We really enjoyed our dinner of fried corn tortillas with all the taco toppings that Ed chose, so thanks, dear! You may have just converted me from flour tortillas…at least occasionally. And honestly, Ed is a great Dad and we all love him.

That’s my dad, me, and my girls. My dad is also great and a great grandpa. See the fence & arbor behind him? He built that for me. He does anything for me. That’s cause I’m his only girl. I love that. ;) And plus I live close to him and he’s never been able to say no to me. Just ask my brothers. But, seriously, if they lived close, he’d build them an arbor too. I’m sure of that, cause he flew across the country to install windows for my brothers. He’s pretty handy. And fun to have around. Anyway, here's a tribute to him, written by Sarah:

G is for Great helper for school projects

R is for Really likes the Calvin Alma Mater

A is for Absence of hair (Okay, Sarah didn’t write that one. My baby brother did.)

N is for Naughty but nice

D is for Dad of my Mom

P is for Papa John’s Friday night dinner

A is for A Lumberyard man

:) Love it! Thanks for everything, Dad!

Happy Father's Day also to Erik! We love you and miss you! When are you coming to visit again?

And of course Happy Father's Day across the globe to Jim! Thanks for keeping us updated with your photos, too! We all send our love.

Last Wednesday I had the privilege of taking this sweet baby’s one-year-old portraits:

She was not exceptionally smiley, and didn’t want to stand, but she didn’t cry and I got some very cute shots. It was so fun!

Thursday Elise decided to comb her own hair:

Nice. Now you really look like a boy.

All this past week Bethany’s been going to soccer camp. Here she is with her good friend on their last day:

Saturday I finally found Elise’s webkinz sign-in info, so the girls were “helping” her:

In case you don’t know, Webkinz are little stuffed animals you can buy (most very cute) that come with an online code so you can play games online with your pet. You can feed it and take it on a carousel and play the “Wheel of Wow”. Don’t ask me what that is. I have no idea. But the girls think it’s the greatest. Whatever floats your boat.

That’s all, folks.

Three going on Thirteen

Ever since Elise turned three, she’s been acting mostly as a typical 3 year old would…doing puzzles, drawing, harassing her sisters, you know…typical. Sometimes she also regresses and acts like she’s one…baby talk, can’t do anything by herself, harassing her sisters, you know…typical. And then – every once in a while – she acts like she’s thirteen and harasses her mother. Case in point:

Pulling out of the parking space this evening, ready to head home, Elise yells at me from her seat (she’s quite a backseat driver, actually, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog) “Mommy! Drive home now!” And when I didn’t respond to her the very split second after sound stopped coming out of her mouth, she yelled again, “MOMMY! DRIVE HOME NOW!”

I said, calmly, “Elise, it is not nice to talk to mommy like that. You may not yell at mommy. Now, what do you need to say to mommy?” I was of course thinking that she would say “I’m sorry, Mommy”, which she is very good at. Do you know what that child said? With just a wee bit of thirteen-year-old-attitude?

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Ball.”

What? Did she just call me Mrs. Ball? My three year old?

“No, Elise, you need to say, ‘I’m sorry, Mommy.’”

“Oooooh. I’m sorry, Mommy.”

In the background Bethany just can’t hold it in any longer. She’s in hysteric-giggle-mode. If you know her, you know what this is like. The rest of us in the van can’t hold it together any more either, so now Elise thinks that calling Mommy Mrs. Ball is funny. Great.

So much for the pictures

Look what happened to dear sweet Elise today

Actually, it doesn’t look as bad as it did when it happened. See the goose egg on her forehead above her right eye? She did that at the park today. My 3-year-old seems to think she can do everything her big sisters can do and tried to leap from the platform up to the monkey bars and grab the monkey bars with her hands in order to hang from the bars. Well, of course, she couldn’t hold herself when she did grab the monkey bars, so she fell to the ground and smacked her forehead on the nearby upright post. That bump on her head was twice as deep as it is in this picture and a dark purple and that happened almost immediately. I had my steel water bottle with ice water with me, so I put that against it right away, but within about 2 minutes she was fine and wanting to try her stunt again! I’m telling you, this child has determination. (I like that better than saying she’s stubborn...though I may have to concede that she’s hard-headed ;) ).

Anyway, I thought maybe I’d have to take her to the doctor, but my friend Amy said her kids had bumps like that before and they were fine, so we’re going with that. And she has been fine all evening…animated, in fact. However, I was planning to take Elise’s 3-year-old pictures tomorrow. Maybe not…

In other news

I finished one of the projects on my list! I used to have collages of the girls at age two-months on this wall, but then I needed those frames in the living room instead because they match the new “theme” I’m doing in there, so then I had to figure out something new to do with the girls’ baby pictures. I had Elise & Becca’s both on my computer because we had digital for both of those. For Sarah’s & Bethany’s, I took a picture of one of the pictures on their collages and cropped them and blew them up to 8x10 and then made them all a “chocolate black & white” and then had them printed at Costco. Elise’s is still a little dark, but I’ve already printed hers a few times (long story, no need to go into that here) and so I’m living with it for now. Anyhow, I mod-podged the photos onto 8x10 artist canvas (which was 40% off when I bought it!) and viola! A new display of sweet baby faces. (That’s Monday’s PotD).

One more

Here's one more link for the rest of the photos from our relative visit. I promise - all done now!