Busy, busy, busy!

Blogging has gone out the window because I have been so awesomely busy. I spent most of a week working for the Board of Elections, mainly stuffing absentee ballot envelopes. (It wasn't as exciting as it sounds!).

Then, on Thursday we got SmallDaughter off of her school van and drove into town where we rented a car (since I do not trust the green van, and it has been making a suspicious “clonking” noise—more on that later!). We loaded everything into the rental in the pouring rain (the rental was boring, except that it was a “ key-less push button start” which was pretty weird!), and drove over to Pennsylvania (about a 4 hour drive), where My Favorite Gentleman has been working for several months.

We got to stay at his motel with him, where SmallDaughter had a GREAT time, because they had a pool—perfect for her, only 3 feet deep all the way around. We had breakfast (also perfect for her, scrambled eggs, sausage, hash-browns and toast—she ate every morsel, and scrounged bites from the rest of us!) BigGirl and LargeBoy really liked that the diner in the motel (where we had breakfast) had a jukebox (3 songs for $1), so we ate to the strains of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, “Sultans of Swing”, and “Duke of Earl”. Then we went to run errands, and when we came back SmallDaughter swam for 4 hours. I did My Favorite Gentleman’s laundry. After we got some lunch, she went swimming again!

After My Favorite Gentleman got off work, we drove for an hour to the cute town where my dear Aunts live, and went to our Family Reunion. It was really fun to see and spend time with so many Anderson Cousins.

On Saturday, the whole group of us went to “Living Treasures Animal Park” which is a nifty cross between a petting zoo and a zoo. You can feed almost all of the animals, and you are close up and personal (and it is clean and well designed, too!). Because we took The WonderDog, all of the big predators came REALLY close to the glass to check us out! Literally “Lions (a male and a female), Tigers (an orange and a white) and Bears (just one, but he was big!), OH MY”!. Also, alligators, boa constrictors, llamas, camels, ostriches, goats, ponies and lots of different monkeys. And what was the scariest? The peacocks (of course!).

Afterwards, various other grownup types stayed with the little kids, and the other adults went to a State Park to see the historic mill and do some hiking. It also happened to be the Heritage Festival, so we got to go on a hayride, (with Abraham Lincoln!), visit with reenactors, see (and hear!) the cannons, etc!

On Monday night, my sister M and her hubs (with the 3 cutest little boys) drove in from NY, and we had a fun day on Tuesday (mostly cleaning and getting things ready, with some YouTube mixed in!). My sister A and her hubs and 4 cutest little girls got here around 6ish, just as we were leaving for the park. It was a truly perfect evening. The leaves are all turning beautifully, but it wasn’t too cold, we had the entire playground to ourselves and all the cousins (and dads!) had a riot!

On Thursday, I took the big girls on the “Metro Amish Country Fieldtrip”. We went to Planktown Hardware, which is the store that sells all of the lotion & soap making supplies. I bought: cocoa butter (yum!), coconut oil, kaolin, essential oils, and deodorant tubes and I am going to try making my own deodorant. Then we went to Planktown Market, and got nice bulk type things, and then to Country Fabrics, which is always fun!

We got back about the same time Friend Lisa showed up with her 2 boys, and shortly after that Friend Vanessa and her 2 girls arrived! We played for a little while, then loaded everybody up, and took them to ride the carousel. SmallDaughter was in heaven! She rode a bunny and a kitty, but we got there just before closing, so they only had time for 2 rides!

Next we went to the Harvest Festival that they had at the Assisted Living Facility where our sister V was dancing. She is always a hoot to watch. It was a perfect festival—very low key and mellow, totally handicap accessible, and nothing scary for the little kids. SmallDaughter really liked the maze, petting 2 alpacas and the cake walk. The bigger kids liked the giant rubber band catapult to shoot apples at targets!

After the sun started to go down, we went over to dear Aunt A’s and celebrated my nephew’s 5th birthday. We made a super cute cake, with cookie crumb “dirt”, and sister M found such a clever technique—we printed out a picture of a dinosaur skeleton, put it in a protector page, then traced it with melted white chocolate. After it set up, we just popped it on top—and it looked amazing! (We broke it into pieces to look more "fossil-like").

A Grand Day Out

I didn't have time to post today, because we had a field trip. To the costume museum. At Kent State University, which has one of the top 3 fashion design programs in the country. AHHHH. So good! BigGirl and I went together, with the 4-H Food, Clothing & Sewing Board members (she is on the FCS board). SmallDaughter went and had an awesome playdate with her friend Hannah, for which I am amazed and grateful to Hannah's mommy! We saw displays of Resist Dye technique from around the world, Civil War Fashions, Swimsuits of the 1800's, and a really cool designer who is one of the instructors in the Fashion School. She had some amazing wedding dresses, which (of course) I loved. The displays are completely changed every year, so none of them were the ones I saw on my last visit. LargeBoy has left for his Utah trip, so he is somewhere in the middle of the flat states tonight. I also talked to my beloved brother for his birthday! No matter how old you get, N, remember--I am always that much older than you are!

Busy, busy, busy...

There is a reason I have been so silent. Actually, there have been lots of reasons.

Sewing some awesome Christmas gifts--including an original design for a fleece lined wrap around apron for my dear sister (the other person who suffers from an icy butt all winter long!), a matching set of capes for my 4 year old nephew and his bear, and cute jammies for some nieces. An actual knitted project for my dad (well- I cheated and used the knitting loom, but it was still a lot of work, and it did turn out quite beautifully, if I do say so myself!)

Then we had the fun of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then, the day of playing games the next day. Then we had New Years Eve. Then--we went to New York City.

No, I have never been before.

Yes, our trip was awesome.

No, I can't get any of the pictures off the dang camera (yes, again, I KNOW!!)

Sorry.

I will keep trying.

Vacations, Houseguests, & Birthdays, Oh My!

I have found that for me at least, the rule for vacations is: it takes just as long to recover as the vacation took. That means it takes 3 days to get back into my groove after a long weekend, and 3 weeks to get back into it after along vacation. This is also true for other exciting events. The last 2 weeks have been CHOCK FULL of cool happenings. Truly something (or several somethings) every day.

We have had houseguests. Both the "Yay!They are finally coming!" kind, and the "Yay, they are finally leaving!" kind. With that said, all the visits were neat, and the one that I had been dreading was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be--we were both on best behavior, and once again, good manners saved the day!

In my mind, I picture myself with a fabulous guest room--bright, spacious and airy, with thoughtful amenities that make the guest feel loved and cared for (a water glass on the nightstand, a thick fuzzy robe and towel set, a basket of toiletries, thoughtfully chosen books in the nightstand). Yeah. Well, I'm not there yet. If you come to see me, the airy guestroom is still in my head, but you will be loved and valued, so I guess that counts for something--even if the only shower is down in the corner of the basement and may or may not have a few little spiders in it (@#$% spiders!).

We had a wonderful Easter. I love celebrating not only spring, but truly the most important part of the gospel--the Resurrection, with other believers all over the world.

We went to Kirtland, which will be another post.

We talked, we visited. I seriously think Heaven will be enough time to finish all the exciting conversations that we started here! How I love spending time with my family.

I love the flexibility our school has--infinite! When cousins come from far away, they get to be our first priority--we are not on someone else's schedule of what is important.

LargeBoy has been planning his birthday party all year. It wasn't even really that close to his birthday, but it was when we could get all the cool people here!

All he wanted was to have his Uncle R (age 16), his various big guy cousins (ages 20, 18, & 14)and his two best friends to go play with him out in the fort in the woods. We are blessed to have such great guys in our family. When I think of what selfish, self absorbed jerks most guys that age are, I am even more grateful for these strong, kind, loving examples of manhood that my son idolizes.

They had a cookout and threw marshmallows at each other, and a great time was had by all. Super easy on me too!

The Good Life

Yesterday was great. Church was uplifting and fulfilling. I love to be needed--and to be loved just for who I am. I also have a great time in my current calling--where I get to work with the primary kids every week.

After we came home (which is a 45 minute drive), we hurried and finished up the cooking and house tidying--so we could have a big surprise party for my good friend E, who turned 18--which is pretty shocking to me. If I thought about it, I would probably say she was "around 14". I think I am getting that old person worldview--everybody is turning into a "young 'un"!

It was so nice to eat good food, be surrounded by a lot of fun people of all ages. I have so much to be grateful for in my life.