Research Woes

First of all, we went to St. Johns for the 24th, and while we were there Daddy told me all about his schooling and showed me the pages too.  It makes me so excited!  I feel like that's something I could do!  I actually have a few days before the deadline to sign up, and it kills me a bit, but I've decided that I need to not do it this year because my little guys need me to be present.  I have waited so long.  I suppose waiting some more won't kill me, but I am excited to start!  Someday...

I looked over the BYU-I website, and I've kind of decided to do the University Studies degree.  I have to do a minor and two clusters or two minors and 1 cluster with the degree.  I know 2 of the things I do are English and Family History. I think I'll do a Family History minor with an English cluster, but I don't know what else.  It's exciting to think about, though, and I have time to figure it out.  All that doesn't start until after Pathway anyway, so I'm good.  Anyway, even though I have to still wait, I feel like I finally have a good fit for what I want to do!  I didn't want to do just creative writing, and I think my days of being a music major are done.  This would be so great!

And speaking of Family History, I'm still working away on that Badger book.  I do some work on it almost every day.  It's a labor of love, but it's also quite frustrating at times.  It's hard to track down all those people who married nonmembers!  And just yesterday I was working on a couple from the McAllister family, and I was STUCK.  It drives me nuts!  I'm the kind of person who wants to fill in ALL the blanks, and when I can't it just kind of eats at me.  I know where these people are buried, but I cannot find where they died.  I have a long list of resources I usually go to, but all of them have been exhausted several times over, and I can't find any more info.  I think today my plan of attack may involve actually calling the cemetery.  I don't like calling people!  Ha ha!  The pains we go to.  And since MyHeritage doesn't have the partnership with the newspaper archive place, I don't have that amazing resource to use at this time.  Darn it!  That was so helpful!  I may have to break down and just pay the $10/month to get the subscription.  And then after doing all that work to document these people it kills me to just leave their work undone.  Part of me says, "I did the work!  I should be allowed to take the names to the Temple!"  But another part of me just feels really sad that it's not getting done.  I hope someone will find it!  And I'm very glad to be a help if I can.

The other thing is that sometimes these people actually have been married more than once, and the people they married were also married more than once and so on.  And that means a whole lot of work tracking down these people.  I've found a lot of information and filled in lots of blanks over the last few months, but man!  Sometimes when I find out there's one more spouse and then one more and then one more I just wanna smack 'em! ;) But then I calm myself down and remember why I'm doing it (and probably get some lunch because that's probably one reason I'm so worked up in the first place).

School starts in just less than 2 weeks (August 10).  Hyrum and Joshua will have about a week and a half of seminary before college starts.  I think I already said that.  We'll have 6 kids going to 5 different schools this year, unless you count Seminary, in which case it's 6 schools.  It sounds crazy, but I'm not really worried.  Well, at least I'm not worried about the number of schools.  It's just an interesting bit of trivia to me.  I will be getting Benji all registered for middle school next Wednesday, and then we'll only have a week left.  I am curious to see how Timmy does with his new class, and I'm curious to see how Joshua does as well.  I'm glad that his schedule isn't hard.  He'll be done by 11:00 every day, except for that drawing class on Tuesday night.  I just worry about him staying on top of assignments.  He always had trouble with that in public school because sometimes he missed the assignment announcement in class.  Jeremy assures me that every assignment will be in the syllabus, because if it's not the students can appeal and the teacher can get in trouble.  We'll just have to post those syllabuses on the wall.  (My computer says syllabi is not a word.  Darn it!)

Here's another bit of trivia.  Timmy deals with the heat by taking off all but his underwear as soon as he gets home.  It makes it tricky when we have to go somewhere and i have to track down shoes AND clothes.

Also, my dryer is on the fritz.  It's not heating up, so it takes at least 2 cycles to dry anything.  If it's not one thing, it's 2 or more others.

Yesterday I made a bajillion cookies.  I've decided that my Bosch just probably isn't meant to make a quadruple batch in one whack.  Next time I'll just make two double ones.  Good thing chocolate chip cookies get mixed up quickly.  I sent 2 dozen with Hyrum and Joshua for their last day of painting class, and I took 3 more dozen around to different people who I thought could use a little something.  I've decided that's my niche.  I make cookies for people.  It's just what I like to do.  It's a little awkward - the part where I actually give them.  I do not have super people skills, and when I get to the door I don't know what to say.  But maybe I'll figure it out.

OK, that's enough for now.  Maybe I'll start a fresh post and add some pictures.

Opinion

You don't really have to read this.  I just want it written down, and right now this is the most convenient place to write it.

We have such wonderful Sunday School teachers!  They always say some little thing or other that I just needed to hear.  And sitting next to Sister Whetten during it and kind of basking in the warmth of her faith - it's just cool. :)

So anyway, this last Sunday a remark from the teacher caught my ear.  It was kind of a little thing he happened to say kind of off on a tangent, but it really struck me.  He said something about when he's met with people who oppose our church, and particularly his own beliefs.  He said, "They have to decide for themselves, but I KNOW this church is true.  I KNOW it."  That first part ("They have to decide for themselves.") really struck me.  I've been really struggling lately with the fact that three of my siblings have left the church.  I realized when he said that that I was once again shutting down.  See, when I am confronted with people who have strong opinions, I immediately assume I must be wrong in my own opinion and I just kind of shut down.  Knowing I'm wrong is like the worst thing ever, and so it all just eats at me until I realize I'm doing it again (because I don't realize it as topsy turvy because everybody else is always right and I'm always wrong, so I just assume...), until I remember that they have to decide for themselves, and that that doesn't make my opinion or my beliefs invalid.  Hallelujah!  You know?!  What a wonderful thing to realize!  It made me feel so free.
I've clung to the church because it makes me happy, because it brings the fruit that it promises, and because it strengthens me... well, and because it's true. ;) But as I see my siblings who have strayed I feel like they must think I'm so foolish for staying.  I hate feeling like someone thinks I'm a fool.  It kills me inside.  Well, this that Brother Stevens said was kind of a band-aid.  I feel so much better.  It doesn't matter if they think I'm a fool.  Chances are they don't, but if they do, well, they have to decide for themselves, but that doesn't mean that I'm wrong or actually a fool at all.  I feel empowered.  And the other good part is that I can still love them and do my own thing.  I like that.  I'll take it!

Just Stuff I'm Thinking about

We have Hyrum and Joshua registered for fall classes, and we'll have it paid for on Friday, I believe.  Jeremy sold some stocks to pay for it.  Speaking of which, it has been neat to watch him make money with stocks.  He usually consults with me before he buys or sells, and usually my reply is, "I don't know!"  I don't know anything much about it, but he's gotten some good returns with it, and I'm glad for that.

Anyway, I think it'll be a good school year.  Hyrum and Joshua will have Seminary for a couple of weeks before the college starts.  Hyrum is taking a full load for the first time.  I am a little nervous about that, but he should do fine.  If he was going to high school he'd be taking a full load anyway.  Ha ha!  So the classes he has are Chemistry 101, Intro. to Psychology, English 101, Men's Chorus, and Class Piano.  His easy days will be Tuesday and Thursday.  He just has Seminary and choir those days.  I'm excited for him!  He's wanted to take Class Strings for a long time, and he was going to finally do it, but it conflicted with 1st hour Seminary, and that's the one he really wanted.  He decided to do piano instead this time, which will really be just fine.  It will be a good foundation, especially if he wants to be a music major someday, and he says he does.  We'll see.  I'm really glad he'll be in choir.  It's going to be so great!  I think he'll really like it and that he'll learn some good stuff.

Joshua only has about half as many credits this time.  We put him in the same Seminary class as Hyrum.  We're going to get Jeremy's bike fixed so they can ride to Seminary.  I needs some new tubes, so nothing major.  Hyrum's not really looking forward to that.  He's not feeling really confident about his bike skills.  I think this will help his confidence.  And Joshua, I know, would much rather ride his bike.  Anyway, he also has a basic math class, a computer class and a drawing class with Andra.  I think that will be great.  Nothing to serious, but he'll be making some progress and learning things that will help him in his chosen career path, which for a long time has been computer animation.  He's been doing a lot of drawing and playing around with modeling things on the computer.  He has an account on DeviantArt that you can go see.  I think it's really fun to go look at.  I don't share the same fascination for horror stuff, but I still like some of those things he's done.  I was looking at it just now, and he made comments on some of them.  I like that he's so willing to share.  I like seeing a bit of what goes on in his head too and hearing him comment on it.  You can go see too if you want.  The link is here.  The page it takes you to has a little place where he tells you about himself.  Then if you click on Gallery near the top it'll take you to where you can see his other art.  There are some folders to the left (a green P, a pencil, a hammer, and a box).  Click on any of them to go see his stuff.  There's one with a decapitated kid that I kind of like.  None of his stuff is gory.  He's not into that kind of horror.  I'm glad.  Ha ha!  Anyway, go see.  Cool stuff.  Also, he and Hyrum are taking Andra's oil painting class this month.  Yesterday they were supposed to bring pictures to paint from.  Hyrum brought one of the light pictures they made at the campout, and Joshua brought a picture of a sandwich.  Ha ha!

Summer has been so busy!  We usually go to breakfast and lunch at the school.  And sometimes on Mondays and Wednesdays we go do the craft at the middle school library between 10 and noon.  There's a free movie at a church/theater on the other side of Safford.  There's swimming, and there's the library.  We've been all over.  Busy!  But I have liked having a schedule, and I've liked that nobody seems to be bored.

My feet are still giving me trouble.  The pain has kind of localized itself into my heels, but mostly my right heel.  I can't stand to put weight on it, and when I get up from bed or from sitting for a while (but mostly from bed), it kills, especially if I've been on my feet a lot during the day.  It makes me feel like I can't exercise or it'll make it worse.  It's so frustrating.  We finally have a treadmill...

And that leads me to another point.  I need to stay away from junk food.  Several years ago I started using it as a coping mechanism, and the only time I didn't was when I was exercising regularly.  I feel stressed about my stinkin' foot and my perceived inability to exercise, and so I eat garbage.  Counter-intuitive, I know.  But that's how it is.  I just don't know what people do who can't exercise.  I'd be running if I felt like I could.

And that also reminds me - I feel like going to the doctor would be pointless.  Jeremy says he'd just say to stay off it, elevate it, and ice it.  He's probably right.  I don't know how I possibly can.  It's so frustrating.  What am I supposed to do.  I guess I'll keep toughing it out because that's all I know to do.

And now that that rant is over, on to other stuff.

Timmy and Bubby have both been so volatile lately.  It worries me.  Bubby needs to be potty trained.  I think that will help in more ways than one.  But Timmy?  I'm at a loss.  We've been trying to hold him for a while every time he starts showing that he's stressed out, but even when he feels better from that it doesn't last forever.

Yesterday we went to the library, and I finally caved and got Timmy a library card.  He LOVES that thing.  He's already lost it a few times, but at least he only lost it at home. :) He even took it to bed with him.  I'm glad for him.  That's great.

Henry has been teething.  Poor fella.  Thank heavens for teething tablets!  Those things work great and so fast!  We ran out, and I had to run to Walmart last night to get more, but as soon as he got them in his mouth he felt so much better!  Hallelujah!  He's such a sweet boy.  His grins make my day! :)

Jeremy didn't take the 4th of July off because he was on call anyway, so he got to take the day off this Monday.  It was great!  We took him to breakfast (Dry waffles!  Oh, boy!), and we got a new washer.  There's a guy in our ward that offered to take a look at our old one, but he couldn't fix it, and the laundromat costs so much!  Anyway, I think this one ought to last a while.  Hooray!  It's a lot nicer and is a better brand but was still the cheapest one Home Depot had. XD And then the guy who came to fix the washer helped Jeremy fix the kitchen faucet.  The hot water runs slow now, and I don't think I quite understand why, but it's not nearly as slow as it used to be, and the cold water runs great!  I'm so happy!  I also cleaned the scode out of the dishwasher that day.  Man, that was yucky!  In the process, I think someone might have run off with a piece.  Maybe.  I don't know for sure.  We got it all back together, but it makes some funny noises.  I feel really bad about that.  I don't know how to fix that.  Well, you can't win them all, I suppose, and maybe I should stop taking things apart.  What was I to do, though?  The dishes kept coming out stinky.  Jeremy said he was surprised I'd take it apart right then, and I told him, "Well, I'm a surprising person."  Ha ha!  Well, anyway, it was a nice day.

Andra's art has been on display as the featured artist at a little gallery in town.  We went a couple of times.  It was so fun!  I hadn't seen her since the day we got our floor done.  She is such a talented artist, and I sure love her!  It was fun to chat.  I'm so glad that she can get to know my boys.  I really hope that Joshua will open up to her so she can really get to know him.  I think she could really be a help to him.  Anyway, yea for Andra!

Pictures Again

I'm just going to come right out and say - Facebook is so much easier than blogging.  I have found myself using it spur of the moment like I used to blog, just because it's so much easier.  Even with an app on my tablet for Blogger, Facebook is just easier.  Still, there's worth in this here blog, so I'll continue to try to add to it.

First off, Henry has been learning to say, "Bah-bah-bah." :D It's so cute!

Now, for some pictures.  I saw that not all of the ones I told blogger to upload last time made it, so I'm going to try to get those up along with some newer ones.

One thing I don't have pictures of is the scouts' super activity.  In June the teachers and deacons went on separate camping trips and did all kinds of things.  Hyrum and Joshua went to Fossil Creek near Strawberry, and Benji went to Big Lake.  Hyrum and Joshua got to do a zip line, and Benji did some fishing.  Joshua told me that they listened to country music all the way there and back and didn't like it.  He told me the three things that he thought all country music is about.  I can't remember what he said, so I need to ask him and write it down.  It was spot on!

And another thing - there's a church here that is also a movie theater, and they have free movies for kiddos every weekday morning.  They have a different movie each week.  Half of them so far have been things we didn't want to see (The Smurfs 2 and the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie), but we've been to two of them, and it's been fun.  And since it's families we don't have to worry so much about our wiggly guys.  We saw Hotel Transylvania 2 and The Croods.  We've seen both before.  I don't really like The Croods a whole lot.  (Jeremy calls it The Cruds.)  But the kiddos wanted to see it, so away we went.  Hotel Transylvania is, of course, great!

Here's a big part of our summer so far: eating at the Safford Middle School cafeteria.  We go almost every day for breakfast and lunch.  The 4 little ones mostly love it, and the Benji and Michael sometimes come too.  I like that it keeps a schedule and is part of what keeps them from being bored.  The food is usually at least OK, and often better than OK.  And they give me a tray for Henry, and since he can't really eat it I give him little bites while I eat most of it.  Works out great!  

Some days Benji and Michael walk over to the Safford Library afterwards, and then I pick them up after a couple of hours.  One day there was a tournament for the card game Magic.  James gave our boys some Magic cards a while ago (maybe last family campout), and Benji and Michael went to the tournament.  It was free, and everyone who participated got a new deck.  Hyrum really wished he'd gone!  And now they have a new friend that they go play Magic with at the library some days.  There's also a Lego club that meets a couple times a month.  We tried to sign up for the summer reading program, but we were too late for the younger groups.  Hyrum and Benji went and did a live Pac-Man game there.  They had a Pac-Man board drawn with tape on the floor, and the dots that Pac-Man munches were little candies like miniature candy bars and Jolly Ranchers.  Fun!

We also got a family pass to the pool across the street at EAC.  It's been great!  Hyrum comes with me and helps when Jeremy can't.  Benji and Michael like to go over there on their own a few times a week, and I try to take the little ones at least once or twice a week.  That's Hyrum holding Bubby, and that's Jill holding the rail.

Benji and Timmy

We now have some dollar store floaties, and they've been great.  Jill is doing great learning to swim, even though we couldn't do swimming lessons.

I got a new swimming suit.  I don't look amazing in it, but I think it's a cute swimming suit, and I've had fun going swimming this summer. :)

Another horrid thing that happened in June (It was a hard month!  So far we're still dealing with the after-effects.) - our washer broke.  It smelled like burning rubber.  Not cool.  We haven't been able to get it fixed.  I've been to the laundromat 3 times, and Jeremy's gone once.  Benji really liked it the first few times.  You pay with a card instead of quarters, and he liked using the card.  They both liked watching the wash cycle.

The lady at the laundromat was crocheting these headbands.  She says she sells them.  Anyway, she finished one and then asked Jill, "What's your favorite color?  It's pink, huh?"  Yep. :) And then she made this one for Jill, just cuz. :) Such a nice lady.  She even helped me fold the last few towels last time I went.

Oh, one more thing about the laundromat - last time I went was last week.  I had everything washing and was just waiting, and in came Sister Brenda Stevens, our bishop's wife.  She said she saw my car there and wondered if she could help.  Yeah!!  We spent some time just sitting and chatting while waiting for the washers and dryers, and then she helped me fold most of the clothes!  And that wasn't all.  Before she came to the laundromat, she actually stopped by our house and dropped off a bunch of food she'd bought.  I was blown away!  Hyrum called me at the laundromat to tell me that some lady from the ward had brought food, and he described her.  He was so touched, and he put it all away too.  I'm touched too!  I'm thankful!  I wrote her a card and made her cookies on Sunday.  We are so blessed!  Thank heavens for people like her!  :) I'm glad I'm getting to know her a bit.

Also, her husband was Paul and Kelly's bishop when they were at EAC.  Cool, huh? :D

Sweet Henry!  I can't get enough of my sweet babies sleeping!

Henry discovered his toes!

Jeremy sent me this one of him at work.  I like it. :)

One of the places where they have free lunch is at the splash pad park up the street.  We walked there one day, but I don't think we'll do it again.  They hardly ate anything.  And I didn't want to do swimsuits.  I told them they could get wet in their clothes if they wanted, so Jill did. :) 

Sweet baby

One thing the little ones have enjoyed is that the Thatcher Middle School Library has a craft day every Monday and Wednesday from 10-noon.  We can go do a craft and check out books.  I thought this book sitting on the counter looked pretty cool. :) I have pictures of some of the crafts later.

Jill turned 7! She wanted a skyscraper cake for her birthday.  I wasn't sure how to do that.  I knew I didn't want to try to make just a tall cake.  I'd have to figure out how to stabilize it.  And it would be a lot of cake.  And I only have 2 square pans.  Anyway, so we decided to make sugar cookies shaped like skyscrapers.  Jill helped me cut these shapes.  What a fiasco that cake ended up being!  It's been so hot, and, like I think I said before, we only have 2 air vents in the entire downstairs, and one of them isn't really attached to the hose.  HOT!  So baking cookies is kind of a bad idea, though we've still done it a few times.  We have a sun oven, but it can only fit like a toaster oven size pan in it.  I didn't want to mess with that.  I put these out in the van to try to bake them in the windshield.  It did not work.  They got warm and spread, but they didn't cook.  Oh, well.  I brought them in and stuck them in the oven.

Here's the finished product.  Ha ha!  Jill was happy with it, though, and that's the main thing.  I made 4 small cakes and stacked them, but they were kind of all different sizes.  I had 2 almost-the-same-size square pans and 2 almost-the-same-size round ones.  The result was the sides were lumpy and funny-shaped.  Jill decorated the cookies with pink frosting and flower sprinkles.  She made that big one, saying it would be the centerpiece.  It was funny making this with the kiddos.  We've been watching Nerdy Nummies on YouTube a lot lately, and my little ones have picked up some new words as a result.  Jill used the word centerpiece, and every time we cut out a cookie Timmy would exclaim, "Take off the excess!" 

Here's a side view.

Present time!

Jill wanted a Ken doll that can go in water with her water Barbie.  I got her one, along with a suit for when he's not swimming. :)

Michael loves to buy his siblings birthday presents with his own money.  He got her some bubbles in bottles shaped like ice cream cones.

The Little Mermaid movie!

Happy little brother turned 6 months old on Jill's birthday! :)

Here's a better picture of the birthday girl, but still not a very good one.  Darn!  I love my girly!

Timmy has made lots of hats at school.  He made a bug hat and an octopus hat and several others.  This one is a dinosaur hat.  He loved it!  He also loves microwave burritos. ;)

School has been great for him, but it's also been hard on him this summer.  Well, technically, it's done now.  It only lasted for the month of June.  He wet the bed a few times, a sure sign that he's feeling stressed.  He also yelled and screamed a lot.  We found out that one reason for all the yelling and screaming is that a kid in his class yells and screams a lot.  He just thought it was fun.  And his brothers like to tease him, especially Joshua, which means that he screams even more when they're around, and now Bubby has picked it up.  Oh, joy!  I'm a little worried about that Timmy at school.  It seems like things should even out in the end, but for now, he's had a hard time getting up and having school be early in the morning instead of in the afternoon, and he's had different teachers and different kids.  Poor guy.  And he'll have to go through it all again in a few weeks when school starts.  I'm worried about that.  At least church is the same, huh? :) His helper there is Yolanda Hunter, and she's wonderful!

Henry is sitting so good!  I can sit him with a little pile of toys and he'll stay entertained for like 15 minutes or more sometimes. :) He pulled forward onto his tummy once to reach a toy he'd accidentally pushed away, but then he was sad.  Cute fella!  This stuff doesn't get old.

Hyrum babysat for a few minutes, and Henry fell asleep. :)

More lunch time!  This time was chicken stir fry.  They even had these cool Chinese food boxes, shop sticks, and fortune cookies.  Bubby loved those fortune cookies.  And since it was Friday they gave us a treat too.  This time we got blue raspberry slushies.  It was all very yummy!

This was Henry's fortune.  Uhhhh....  Ha ha! The only people I can think of who are from his past are the people at the hospital. XD

Jill at Library Con!  The Safford Library had a convention kind of like Comic Con, and we went.  That Magic Tournament I talked about was part of it but was a few days earlier.  We all went together.  We didn't stay long, but it was fun. :) There were all sorts of things to look at.  There was fan art and a cosplay competition.  They only had female picture boards like this one, but there were all sorts of other things.

There was a couple missionary helping at the mask table, and I've seen them there one other time too.  I wonder what their assignment is.  They're from South Carolina, I believe.  Anyway, the kiddos got to decorate masks, and then there was a bucket of props to take pictures with like the one Benji's holding, and some backgrounds with cardboard cutouts, like C-3PO there.

Hyrum

Joshua and Michael

Henry

Jill

Jill in her other mask

Timmy

I don't know if you know it, but Timmy is obsessed with Mario.  He called that guy on it Master Mario.  He made it up.

After Library Con we had to stop at Walmart.  We haven't taken all the kiddos to Walmart at once in a long time.  It's a lot of work, but I like doing it now and then.  We had fun looking at these fish.

And we played with emoji pillows.  Here are Jill and Timmy.

Michael

Angry Papa

Purple Hyrum

Here's Timmy wearing both of his masks.

I can't believe how this guy has grown!  I took this picture because he's changed so much since the first time he sat in this seat.

Here's a picture of that :) <3

We got Henry a stroller, a walker, and a high chair.  They've been great!  I bought the stroller used, but we had to buy the other two new.  The only walker that was in our price range was girly, but he doesn't care.  Michael put them both together.  Henry LOVES that walker, and he figured it out really quickly.  He zips around pretty much everywhere.  He struggles with carpet, but he's getting better at it.  It's so fun!

Michael LOVES this baby!  He talks to him all the time and tells him he's a sweet, sweet baby. :)

I thought Henry looked pretty cute in his white shirt. :)

Here's one of the crafts at the middle school library - a sun with sunglasses.  It's made of foam.  I think all of the crafts are from Oriental Trading, so they don't last long, but they're fun to make.

Here's Timmy's

and Jill's.

Timmy made this pocket for his Valentines at school way back in February.  He decided it was a mask and had me take a picture. :)

He made this out of Play-Doh.  It says apple.  By the by, he's learned all his letters and their sounds.  Pretty awesome!

Jill loves to carry Henry around.  It freaks me out a bit, but it's also cute.  I remember a little Susie doing the same thing with huge old Hyrum.  I had to avert my eyes on numerous occasions.  Sometimes that's the thing to do.

Timmy loves our down comforter.  Sometimes at bed time, during scriptures, he falls asleep on our floor with it.

Happy Henry!

Jill and Henry on my bed

It was stripped because Timmy had wet it.

Timmy has been working hard drawing.  It's fun to see what he makes!

Happy 4th of July!  There was a fire-engine wake-up, and then they parked across the street from our house, and people got on, and then they paraded down to the elementary school field.

Here's Michael headed over there.

Michael and Jill on the ladder truck

Benji was on the same truck, but he was a little earlier, so he got to get in the bucket.

After that we packed up and cleaned the house a bit and headed to Globe.  We met Jennifer there, and she took our 4 oldest boys to the Badger campout near Heber.  The rest of us stayed and spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa.  Jeremy worked that day, but at least he didn't have to drive forever home that night, and we got to see him for lunch! :)

Hyrum, Thomas, and CJ

Timmy found a gug and suctioned it to his face.

Bubby, Henry, and cousin Jesse (Joe's boy)

We went to the church in Miami to watch the fireworks.  We brought poppers, sparklers, ice cream sandwiches, and popsicles.  It was fun!  I don't think Timmy or Bubby had ever done sparklers before.  We had a ton of them, and we still have some for when the older boys come home.  And the best part was that we were able to share all of that with the people around us.  That made my day!  We've been the people that the others around us have shared with in the past.  It made me so happy to be the ones to share this time! :) 

Here are Grandma, BreAnna, Joe, Jesse, and Bubby.

Papa and Henry

Jeremy got that hat for Father's Day.  I want to get him a leather one someday.  He also got a chain mail tie. :D I need to take a picture of that.  It's awesome!

Jill

Bubby

Grandma

Grandma and Timmy

Timmy

I stole this one from the internet.  There was a program at the field where the fire trucks stopped that morning.  There was a band that played.  The kiddos whined to leave, but I made them wait until the band had played at least one song.  See that brown building at the left?  It's the middle school gym.  We were parked right by it.  This was taken soon after we left, but we saw them hosting this big flag.  It thought it was pretty great. :)

I also pilfered this one from the internet.  Paul took it.  There are my boys and my dad doing a flag ceremony at the Badger campout. :) I was so happy to see this!  I can't wait to see those boys!  Jennifer will drop them off at Grandma Burk's, and Jeremy will bring them home after work.

Here's another craft at the library.  This was yesterday.  They made buckets with ladybugs and grass.

I like this library, so I took a picture to show Jeremy

The best thing about the library is the big windows!

There ya go. A bunch of stuff.  I'll try to say more stuff in the near future.