Fun with Daddy

Joel and Ollie have so much fun together. They regularly go work outside: Ollie rakes or sweeps, helps Joel with sprinklers, and tries to fix them.

Here's Joel and Ollie in Joel's shop at work, eating their donuts last week:
Once Joel his home, Ollie follows him EVERYWHERE: outside, to the bathroom, while he showers, and to play in Ollie's room. His favorite game lately is dunking his basketball in his room. (See several posts ago...)

Tonight, while they were playing after supper, they each decided to take a nap...IN THE CRIB!
I sure am glad they enjoy each other! :-)

Happy Birthday Joel!

(I meant to do this post Tuesday, but it's been a crazy week!)

Tuesday was Joel's 29th birthday. I've known him since he was 20!!! It's hard to believe it's been that long. We didn't do a whole lot that day--gave him a card, and Ollie and I surprised him at the shop with Druber's donuts for breakfast. Here's a picture of Ollie on one of their tractors:
That evening I made a carrot cake (Joel's favorite!). This weekend we're going out to Hog Wild BBQ and ColdStone for his birthday with my parents--those are his favorite restaurants. He's getting a good gift or two, as well, but I'll let him tell you about that. (No, it's not Cub's playoff tickets!)

In honor of his birthday, I've decided to write a poem:

Ode To Joel
For nine years now,
I've known this guy.
Smart, kind,
Sometimes shy.

We met that night
At the Nacho Feed,
Over salty chips
And bright orange cheese.

I'd never known someone
Who liked sports so much.
For me--it was a little
Over the top.

But he made me laugh and
Question things,
He was quick to forgive
And could even sing.

I married him
Quite willingly.
(With lots of encouragement
From my family!) :-)

Not much has changed,
As I look back.
We still like nachos
but even more than that...

We enjoy spending time
Together at home,
Playing with Ollie
Or writing a poem. (He's really good at haiku!)

Happy Birthday Joel!
We love you a lot.
I'm sure glad I decided
To give nachos a shot.

Velvet Elvis and some thoughts...

Nope...not this one.
Ahhhh yes. That's the one.

So I read another good book. DON'T STOP READING, BOOK HATERS! Listen, seriously--if you are one of those people who have ever wrestled with parts of the Bible, questioned it's validity, wondered about certain passages, or struggled with knowing what to believe and why--you should read this book!

This book asks questions that I've asked before.

It also brings up points that I had to really think through. (still thinking, actually)

It challenges some ideas that many churches still cling to.

But I LOVED it!!! I can't begin to describe what's in it. There's too much. Just read it!


One specific that this book addressed, that I've been learning in my own quest (reading through the Bible this year): God's heart is for the poor, humble, widows, orphans, etc. Is mine?

God commands that we care for those people and LOVE justice. Do I?

As I think through the New Testament--Jesus meets physical needs. He heals, feeds, raises from the dead...in fact, the only time he addresses sin FIRST is with Pharisees and other religious rulers. This challenges my priorities--how I spend my time, my money, and where my heart is. But I know that as I become more like Christ, these things must take more of a priority in my life!

On a sidenote: interesting website for Biblical history/geography/culture--
www.followtherabbi.com

A star in the making!!!!!!!

Clothes

Ollie's cousin Isaac has kept us well-stocked in the shoe department. Recently, Ollie's size 4's were getting a little snug--so I went downstairs to grab a new pair. I found some boots that I thought he'd love--and he wore them last night to the fair. He loved them so much he wanted to wear them today with his....sweats.
Tonight, because of our unusually cool weather--I went downstairs to see what we had in the 18-24 month section. It's been so cool and Ollie has nothing but T-shirts upstairs. So I brought up two tubs of stuff...and after picking out all the 18-24 month stuff, here's what we have:
(As you can see, we're well-stocked through winter!) These are all from Aunt Karla and cousin Isaac. But in case you think we haven't contributed to the selection, here's what I bought that I'm adding to the wardrobe:
...a single winter coat that I bought on clearance at Gymboree for $5. See, it's not ALL from Isaac!

Labor Day Events

We had SUCH a wonderful Labor Day weekend. It was one of those "I couldn't have planned this better" weekends.

Friday afternoon/evening, my friend Kara and her husband, Brad, came down with their son Braden to visit. My friend Jess and her daughter, Cora, came over too. We ate pizza, played with the kids, and enjoyed seeing each other again. I sadly don't have any pictures of this--but it was so fun!
Oh wait, I found one! This is Cora, playing with a very age-appropriate toy.

Saturday, we cleaned A window (notice the singular tense) and then cleaned more of the house. We figure, if we can clean one window a weekend--we should be good by winter! It was a lot more work then we realized--especially with these old things. But wow it's clean. Who knew the grass was that green in our yard? Sadly, it also illuminated a GIANT spider that hangs out on a web on our porch. I HATE spiders. Anyway--that evening, we had a fun time with Joel's extended family (3 cousins and their families) at his Aunt Marge's house. We were in for a lovely surprise when a rain storm complete with thunder and lots of lightning formed close by. That was fun. After, Courtney and some friends, the Habluetzels, came over for a few minutes because their concert in the park in Newton got rained out. Fun, fun.

Sunday, we went to early service, then drove to Haysville to check out our furniture that we bought (and featured in our previous post) and then went to El Dorado for a fun-filled day with my family. Tyler and Erin came up from Houston to flee the wrath of Gustav. We enjoyed the day with them.

Monday, we drove to pick up our furniture, cleaned a bit, then met my family again in Wichita for some good old Chipotle and a park. I DO have pictures of that...

Addilyn and Tyler. Her bandaid is from a fall (and stitches) at the K-State game Saturday night.(If I were a better photographer, I'd know why these are blurry...)

And here's a sampling from my sister's blog. You can see even more pictures there! (Link is to the right)

Eating at Chipotle
Climbing at Chipotle
Swinging with Aunt Courtney. They sure do love her! Ollie calls her "Nee nee".Ollie running.

I hope your weekend was just as lovely as ours was!

Out with the old, In with the new...

We've been looking for new furniture since we got married...6 years ago. We've had my parent's lovely 20-year old couch for these 6 years, and have tried to do with it what we can--we covered it with a red slipcover. I LOVE the red couch look! But we really wanted more space for people to sit, and something that we didn't have to adjust anytime someone was coming over. So, we had brown in mind...and had been looking around, slowly saving our dollars. Joel happened to check Craig's List Saturday and saw a cute couch/loveseat combo...chocolate microfiber! It was a great price--in fact, the people bought it two months ago--it still had the tags on them! It comes with a 5-year full warranty--and was quite a bit less than they paid for it. They were redoing their living room and wanted a new color! So, needless to say--we looked at it, measured our room, and then picked them up this morning. Here are our before and after pictures:

Before:

After:

The new stuff is definitely darker (especially with our wood) but I think I really like the change!

Also, if you know anyone looking for a good couch with a red slipcover--we're selling ours! It's a comfy couch--just outdated. (Think Cosby-blue-couch)