Lots of Fun!

The day before my wisdom teeth were taken out, we filled a bunch of our time with lots of fun! Grandma, Clara and I started off my making a morning trip to a children's museum. This was Clara's first time and there was lots to see and do! The little explorer seemed to have quite a good time! Though she seemed to find watching the other kids almost as interesting as exploring new exhibits!

Here are some fun pictures. Some aren't too clear, but some of those have kind of a neat effect! Thankfully, we had both of our camera's along, because mine ran out of battery. So, quite a few of these are Mom M.'s!

Here we're pulling a ring up around us, which creates a bubble wall.












After our exploration we headed to Stephen's work. Mom M. treated us to some yummy KFC we picked on the way. We joined Stephen for his lunch break!

After lunch time with Daddy, we headed off on another adventure... which will hopefully be covered in our next post.

If you missed the wisdom teeth up-date, it's below.

Less Wisdom... Teeth!

Well, yesterday was the big day for me, as I got all four of my wisdom teeth removed. Stephen took the day off and drove me to the dentist and Mom M. took care of Clara for us.

The procedure was not too fun... but the dentist (a friend of ours from the chapel here) and his assistant did a fabulous job! They did not put me to sleep, just numbed me up. However, I put myself to sleep. In other words, I passed out. It wasn't even during the procedure, but during the numbing process. I don't do the best with needles and here is this needle going into my mouth and poking away. Both sides of top and bottom had to be done and sometimes I think it was multiple pokes per area. I lasted through both sides of the bottom part of my mouth, and I think he may have started on the top and then that was it. Out I went. It was a very weird sensation waking up. The dentist was talking to me and blowing air from one of their machines on my face. I kind of had this vague sense of who it was and what this had to do with, but it was like, "surely this isn't real." But real it was. Anyway, they put me on oxygen and added some sort of gas to help me relax, and I remained on the oxygen for the whole procedure. I wonder if the killer sore throat I ended up getting had anything to do with that? But I made it through the rest of the procedure without loosing consciousness. The bottom ones were the hard ones, but the top ones came out super easy, as they were practically all the way in already.

Stephen and Mom M. took such good care of me afterward and I am feeling much better today. Mom M. is still fixing food, doing tons of the caring for Clara and encouraging me to rest... so I'm a very blessed lady. I do look sort of like a chipmunk today, it's mostly just on the side that had the tooth that was pretty badly impacted.

Anyway, it wasn't very fun, but I was blessed with good care and lots of prayer... thank you to all of you who were praying! And I seem to be on the mend!

Grandma M.!

Grandma M. is here!!! She arrived yesterday, and already, good times have been had by all! It's such a treat for all of us to have her here!

We took off for a beach visit this morning. Once again, Clara had a blast, and kept us on our toes as she marched into the water again and again and kept toppling over. We'd rescue her and on she would go. That girl! She will march deeper and deeper and who knows how deep she would go if we didn't stop her! I don't know that she has the concept that it just keeps getting deeper out there! Anyway, she had lots of fun and was a big mess in no time. She probably could have stayed "forever" but it was quite warm and sunny and we didn't stay too long.






Where did my chunky baby go???!!!





This evening we did one of our little family traditions and made crepes! We went all out and did both savory and sweet! It was great to have Mom M. here, helping with them! For the savory we did a spinach and feta cheese mix in the middle with a Marinara sauce, using tomatoes from the garden, on top. For the sweet we did nutella and bananas in the middle, with berries and whipped cream and syrup (depending on who was making it) on top!!! And of course some fun was had after Grandma made the whipped cream.

Mama's "Helper"

Somebody tried on one of Mama's aprons today...

It's Almost Been A Week!

IT's almost been a week since I last posted! So, it's high time for some news. First of all, here is a picture of Clara that I think is adorable! Got to love that look! I was taking the picture to show one of her new interests. You probably can't see too well, but she is sitting next to Daddy's backpack. Lately, she has had a fascination with trying to do the buckles on it. She will sit there for quite a long time (for her) and work away! I don't think she has managed to snap a buckle together yet, but she sure does put in a lot of effort.



In other news, I'm recovering from a nasty sunburn I got when we went to the beach and pool this week with some friends. Clara had fun and so did I, but doing hardly any sunscreen was not a good idea. Oh, well. Hopefully, I'll do better next time. I'm also soaking my foot right now, trying to help deal with an infection under my toe nail. Part of the nail got ripped up from the nail bed this week and now it's infected. So, I've felt a little sore this week... but am much better now. And I know it's all really nothing compared to what so many others go through! It was striking me how very fragile we are, in a way, and yet how very healthy and free from pain so many of us are so much of the time! It's amazing and miraculous if you stop to think about it! God did an amazing job of creating us... just think how very many things the body heals from on it's own! That NEVER could have happened by chance!!!! The only possible way that could be is that we have an amazing Creator, Who created everything in the first place, and also continues to hold it all together!!! And His continued care and protection is so much more then we deserve.

We are looking forward to Mom M.'s visit, starting this Monday! We're hoping to get out and see some sites while she's here and it will just be so nice to have her here visiting! It will also be a big help, as I'm scheduled to get all four wisdom teeth out this Thursday. Hopefully, I'll recover quickly so we can do some more fun outings before she leaves.

Here's another picture taken recently. Clara likes books a lot! And even though she is a very "on-the-go" personality, she will go and sit quietly by herself and look at books for a little while!


I've done a little more canning recently. Our canning supplies that I had ordered arrived and I was able to use them with the last batch, which was our second batch of peppers. The garden things that are still producing pretty well are some of the tomatoes, basil, some peppers, and the butternut squash.

Stephen's been staying busy. He put in extra hours this week so that he can take off the day that I get my teeth out. Isn't he a dear???!!!! He has also been doing some more speaking at chapel lately.

We've sort of been into Civil War stuff lately. It got started on that weekend trip we took and has continued since then, as we've watched "Gods and Generals" and "Gettysburg", and took another tour. Stephen has also run into people that are fairly knowledgeable about the war and enjoyed some chats. Earlier this week, we went to the home of the Captain of one of the ships Stephen had spent time on several years ago. We were sitting around chatting with him, his wife and son and Stephen brought up the topic of the Civil War. He was quickly corrected. "Do you mean the War of Northern Aggression?", he was asked. :-) So, it even has a different name, depending who you talk to!

Well, there's a few bits of what's been happening around here lately.

Cuteness

Battle!

Lately, we've had some fun with "sword fighting"!

Learnin'

Canning. That's one of the things I've been learning lately! With the encouragement and help of my hubby, advice and input from friends and info. from the internet, and recipes from pickling spice bags, etc. I've been trying my hand at it. It's been rather fun, with plenty of frustration sprinkled in there. For instance, did you know it can take a pot of water a VERY long time to come to a boil? And after my second batch, I pretty much decided I would not can another jar until I had a jar lifter. I was through with trying to use tongs instead!!! Well, I've since done canning two other times, the jar lifter has been ordered, but we are still waiting for it to arrive, and my brilliant husband suggested wrapping rubber bands around the ends of the tongs, and that worked wonderfully!

So, here are a few pictures of my endeavors....


Peppers


Pickles... obviously, I needed some instruction about filling the jars!


Tomatoes


Second batch of pickles.

Well, no one has died yet from my canning attempts... but then, we haven't eaten any of it yet either! :-) It's been a neat learning experience!

Chuck E. Cheese

Our little friend, Kailey, had her first birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, and we got to go! Clara seemed to enjoy it quite a lot (despite the sober looks in these pictures)!!! She liked marching around exploring, climbing and riding on the different little vehicles that move. Here are a couple cute shots!




Here she is with the birthday girl... somehow, I don't think Kailey is enjoying this! :-)

Finally...

I've been meaning to take my little girl to the beach for the longest time. I figured she would really like it, and right I was! We finally got there today! I know, we are already well into summer and I could have been there long ago... but alas, meaning to do something is simply that... MEANING to do something!

Well, like I said, I actually finally did it today. And wow, a simple trip to the beach is quite the production! And I only have ONE 14 month old!

There's the getting us both ready. And the looking up directions on how to get there and how to get to the store I want to stop at on the way. And there's the collecting of towels and a snack for Clara (which she ended up having when she got home), and a drink for Clara, and cameras and beach toys and GPS. And finally we're off. And then there's the stop at the store and we grab batteries for the camera and sunscreen and sweet tea for Mama (one of my favorites!!!). Then off we go again. Then there's the stop to try to search the GPS for some help, because I'm not totally clear on the directions.

Finally, we get there. Then there is the discovery that while those swim diapers Clara is wearing are designed to not absorb the whole ocean, they also don't absorb and hold much of anything and she is now pretty much soaking wet. So, before making it down to the beach she has a new diaper on and is going to be just using that and her swim shirt, as the diaper covers she was wearing are wet.

Then we try to proceed down to the beach with Mama carrying a bunch of stuff and trying to have Clara walk along. Of course, Clara has no clue what fun is ahead of her and is pretty much distracted by all kinds of things around her, so the walk down is somewhat frustrating. However, thanks in large part to Clara, before we even get down to the beach we have some new friends... a nice lady and her two boys who are also headed down to the beach. We end up setting up near them and chatting. I get to hear the interesting story of there Russian adoption and surprise birth of their own.

Well, now that we made it down to the beach, did Clara ever have a fun time or what!!! The sand, the mud, the rocks, the water!!! She liked it all!!! She spent a very happy 1 1/2 to 2 hours playing about and making even more friends. Enjoy the pictures!!!















The trudge back to the car with Mama carrying stuff and a very wet, dirty girl walking on her own, was NOT fun, but we made it.

After getting home, getting dressed and eating some lunch a tired little girl went to sleep quite quickly for her nap.



What a morning! It was quite the production, but it can be so neat to see your little one having fun! And it was a lovely day and we were blessed with some neat friends! Oh, and the water is nice and warm here!!! And Lord Jesus willing, we'll be doing it again!