me and peekaboo

Sarah and I took our camera outside yesterday and had a little photo shoot. I took pictures of her and she took pictures of me but my favorites are these pictures of us together.

lessons from Hank

So, Pappa always said that when I found a spider I should name him and make him my friend...he must have taught the same lesson to Sarah or I did because she found a freind and named him Hank. Hank is a little spider who lives on the right rearview mirror of my car. We first noticed Hank on Sunday as we sped down the freeway. Hank was hanging on for his life as we boogied along at 55 miles per hour. I remember noticing that he was quite tenatiously holding on. Over the last few days I've found myself looking for Hank when I climb into my car. Sarah and I noticed that Hank scurries off his web the moment my car starts, and climbs down underneath the mirror. I've become impressed. I've decided Hank can be a good influence on me. Every day I watch Hank scurry for cover and then re-build his little web and life every time. Hank seems to be prepared for the winds that buffet him and he takes it in stride and then re-builds. So, right now Hank is my inspiration. Life can and is buffeting me, making me duck for cover but then when the winds calm I need to stop sulking and get my butt out of hiding and re-build...hopefully something better.

Finally!!

I'm finally remembering to share pictures of Sarah in her track uniform. She had a great time. She participated in the 100 meter and the long jump. She's going to do cross country in the fall. (mom, if you click on the photo it'll blow it up big enough to see sarah in the group photo. She is in the second row from the top, on the end on the left hand side).

Abi's dance recital

Yesterday we went to Abrianna's dance recital. It was quite the production. It was at this 'church' in Tualatin that had a huge parking lot with the different parts of the lot 'named' after various books in the New Testament. the recital itself was in their auditorium, complete with two big screens to view the production on the stage. the auditorium itself was huge, larger than many college auditoriums I've been in. Did I mention the church had a coffee shop and a gift shop in it?? There were two 'Acts'.....we only stayed for one...the one Abi was in. She danced to 'Over the Rainbow'. She did quite well, even though she spent a lot of tiem rubber necking to try to see herself on the big screen. 'Cedes sat next to John and I and had a running dialogue all through the performance. When Abi's part was done she looked at me and said 'well, that was a miracle'. I'm guessing Abrianna said something very dramatic before her performance about it being a miracle if she got through it...and 'Cedes took it very seriously. I think 'Cedes was a bit envious that Abi was a star but Seth said 'Cedes is going to be in next year because seh's going to be taking dance as well.

Hallelujah! Camp is done!

Our Activity Girl's Day Camp was yesterday! I'm so relieved. The weather was perfect (overcast & about 70 degrees). No injuries or major accidents occured., and very little squabbling occured! We had a near disaster when John became ill with a high fever on Monday. He slept all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday. I had decided that if he was not well by Wednesday night I was going to have to figure out how to teach Archery but he pulled himself together and was able to be there for the girls. Whew!!

We had 15 girls. We have approximately 18 girls who participate in Activity girls and 6 girls not at camp, so the math is interesting! We had a full day of activities. We made visors and necklaces for our crafts.

WE taught first aid (taught by Anne Mortensen) and made first aid kits and orienteering (taught by Amanda Brierley) and made compass inspired crafts. We had Archery (taught by Johnny). We sang silly camp songs, signed each other's t-shirts and invited daddy's to our campfire dinner! We ate s'mores and got silly. There was much giggling at our giggly girls day camp. It was fun! I'm glad we did it! We'll do it again! I'm exhausted and glad it's over!!

This touched my heart

Abi & Cedes visit

So, this weekend we had Abi and Cedes spend the night. They came Saturday in time for dinner and stayed through church on Sunday and Sunday dinner. I had told the girls that maybe if they were super nice and asked sweetly Uncle John might teach them archery. Abi lit up she was so excited, so Sunday as soon as John was home from church she started by instructing him to take her to do archery and then alternately begging and cajoling. She did finally get him out there, and Cedes followed. They were so cute. I mean, these bows are as big as they are, and these are the small bows. they seemed to enjoy themselves. I'm sharing pics.

funky, skunky weather

So, Thursday was wild. About 25 minutes into our activity Day Girls meeting John calls to tell me that there are high winds headed our way and that I should make sure that anything that's loose outside should come inside. So, I tell my other leaders the news and minutes later it gets really dark and high winds come roaring through. Minutes after that massive amounts of rain come out of the sky and it got cool. I got a panicked phone call from a parent saying that it is tornado weather. There are alerts on the emergency broadcast system to stay in doors. One of Sarah's friends call shortly after to say they saw a tornado funnel start to form over their home. The girls were wonderful, they all thought it was the best adventure they could think of. Our Activity flew out the window though. The storm only last about 20 minutes and we suffered no ill effects, even the branches on our trees that have been broken since December didn't fly off. We heard reports of downed trees and electricity losses but feel blessed that we were passed over. Count this down as another adventure.

more favorite pictures

I just wanted to share.