Happy Easter - Hallelujah
Happy Easter everyone! What a glorious weekend. The weather was so so great, so accomodating. Services went well, it was a beautiful service. The kinderbells played the second service, what a cute bunch of kids. I just LOVE working with them. The Easter egg hunt went very well, too. I have some great pictures, and hope I can get this stupid internet connection less corrupted so I can get some pix uploaded. Anyway, we had six kids hunting this year; Sarah came out on top for once. It was really fun. Mom is here, she cooked (God, how I miss her cooking!) Ham, old-fashioned scalloped potatoes, fruit salad, candied yams...yum, yum yum. We had a steak cookout last night and she whipped up some Apple-Joe. I'm going to gain some serious poundage this weekend. I did stay out of the Easter candy though. But then, we had pineapple upside down cake and pumpkin pie (Dave's favorite) today. Food, food, food...and probably more alcohol than we needed. I drank enough beer to last me until 4th of July...but man, yesterday it was gorgeous. Mike and Robin came down and Mike wanted to play on our Kubota so he mowed the whole lawn - what a sweetie. I got my chores done, the neighbor came over and we put back a few cool ones, and geez, 80 degrees, sunshine and cold Bud-Lite. Perfect afternoon. Jim called too, it was so great talking to him. He sounded a little depressed, but Christ, look where he's at. Let me know if anyone wants his address, just drop me an e-mail. He'd love to get letters. The rumour is still out and about that he's coming home in July, I pray that it is so. I want him home, on US soil and safe. I don't know how Robin does it. Not knowing what, where or how her child is. That has got to be one of a parent's worst nightmares. Robin's looking good, graduating in June and she's lost a lot of weight. She also got her cut. I think that Rob, me and Annie all got chopped this year. She got a new puppy after Allie was killed. A cute little black springer spaniel / lab mix. Her name is Chloe and she's a riot. Finally, a dog Yuna can run with. Tessie is just getting so old, she can't keep up with Yuna. Scottie is here, too. He and Yuna have been sort of getting along. I bought a muzzle for Yuna; just in case she gtries to rip Scottie's face off again! Four dogs made it pretty exciting. Well, three real dogs and a dust mop. I really don't like small dogs. I'll take my 75 pound baby to a yipping, arrogant ankle biter any day.
Last week's surprise party took Jerry by surprise. I can't believe we actually got one over on him. Nat and I were freaking thinking he was on to us and was going to wreck the surprise; we honestly thought for a while he was playing with us. But, no. It was all good. We had guests (his friends) from Ashtabula and Ann Arbor so we covered the bases pretty good. Dave composed lyrics to American Pie that had everyone cracking up. Dave missed a calling there, I think. Not only is his memory of childhood a steel trap, he can pull anything together in a song. We have it on tape. It's just hilarious. Jackie sang back up for him. That's girl's voice is amazing. She manipulates it and sounds like an adult. Scary.
Jackie landed a solo in her spring program. She's singing the first verse of "The Sound of Music". Just, WoW! Sarah's spring show is tomorrow night. It's nice mom is here so she can see her for once. I guess mom is going to hang out for the week and go to Sarah's grandparent's day on Thursday. I get tomorrow off, with pay. Lucky me! Dave, Sam and the kids all have to work. Poo for them, eh? Luke had a pretty rough weekend. I feel so torn about discipline sometimes, but I will not have a child walk all over us again. He's crossed a few too many boundaries this weekend so I took his PS2 and Gamecube priviledges away. He was so sad, it broke my heart. The good thing about that is that I realized how genuinely sad he felt and I felt for him. I've had quite a long haul getting my sensitivity to kids' tears. I had been so de-sensitized after having tears turned on and off like a light switch to be used as a tool for manipulation and emotional blackmail...I found myself getting suspicious whenever a kid cried - Dave did too. I feel very good about getting over that - healing feels good. Especially now that my kids are getting into that sensitive puberty stage!
That's about it for this week. Keep Jimmy in your prayers, he really wants to be home. Oh, and for those of us sending boxes, he really doesn't need any more toiletry items. He's in a pretty urbanized area so if he needs stuff, it's there for hime. He does want movies though, DVD's - he has his laptop to watch them. He says he has alot of the new stuff, he wants 90's action and comedy films. Just an idea.
Last week's surprise party took Jerry by surprise. I can't believe we actually got one over on him. Nat and I were freaking thinking he was on to us and was going to wreck the surprise; we honestly thought for a while he was playing with us. But, no. It was all good. We had guests (his friends) from Ashtabula and Ann Arbor so we covered the bases pretty good. Dave composed lyrics to American Pie that had everyone cracking up. Dave missed a calling there, I think. Not only is his memory of childhood a steel trap, he can pull anything together in a song. We have it on tape. It's just hilarious. Jackie sang back up for him. That's girl's voice is amazing. She manipulates it and sounds like an adult. Scary.
Jackie landed a solo in her spring program. She's singing the first verse of "The Sound of Music". Just, WoW! Sarah's spring show is tomorrow night. It's nice mom is here so she can see her for once. I guess mom is going to hang out for the week and go to Sarah's grandparent's day on Thursday. I get tomorrow off, with pay. Lucky me! Dave, Sam and the kids all have to work. Poo for them, eh? Luke had a pretty rough weekend. I feel so torn about discipline sometimes, but I will not have a child walk all over us again. He's crossed a few too many boundaries this weekend so I took his PS2 and Gamecube priviledges away. He was so sad, it broke my heart. The good thing about that is that I realized how genuinely sad he felt and I felt for him. I've had quite a long haul getting my sensitivity to kids' tears. I had been so de-sensitized after having tears turned on and off like a light switch to be used as a tool for manipulation and emotional blackmail...I found myself getting suspicious whenever a kid cried - Dave did too. I feel very good about getting over that - healing feels good. Especially now that my kids are getting into that sensitive puberty stage!
That's about it for this week. Keep Jimmy in your prayers, he really wants to be home. Oh, and for those of us sending boxes, he really doesn't need any more toiletry items. He's in a pretty urbanized area so if he needs stuff, it's there for hime. He does want movies though, DVD's - he has his laptop to watch them. He says he has alot of the new stuff, he wants 90's action and comedy films. Just an idea.