Birthday Marathon

Today is supposed to be my day off from work but it seems it will be a very busy day where I have to go to work to relax from it! This morning Kyle is sick. His asthma is really bothering him and his inhaler was out. He had a coughing spell in the middle of the night so didn't get much sleep. His 18th birthday is today. What a way to spend a birthday!!! (BTW, Happy Birthday, Cheryl!)

Tomorrow is my birthday. It will be a day of work and then taking Breanna and her friends out for her birthday. Hers was Sunday. Tonight for Kyle's we will be ordering Chinese takeout...his favorite food. We're taking Breanna and a couple of friends to Wild Buffalo Wings because they have a $.35 per wing deal which makes it very cheap (comparatively). I'm always glad when this whirlwind birthday week is over. It gets a little bit much after a while. I always tried to make it special for them and not just have one party for all of us.

I'll need a week off to recover from all this partying!

Breanna's Special Friend

Doesn't she look happy? This is Matt and they are friends. They really enjoy each other's company. We like him, too, and his parents are very nice.

Famous Violinist!

Our great violin player is at it again!

Even more photos...

The pictures of Mom and Dad laughing is because I was trying to take them kissing and the camera was slow so every time, I'd get it afterward. I kept asking them to kiss again and it was very funny to them and to us!

More Photos

Pictures of anniversary party...

Still in love after 50 years...

50th Anniversary Open House!!!

We had a great time yesterday at the Open House for my parent's 50th anniversary. It was a real neat trip down memory lane. It enjoyed seeing all the people that I hadn't seen for years and years. I have been trying to upload photos but they aren't showing up on the blog preview. I'm going to post and see if they show up. If not, I'll try again with another post...

Thief stopper!!!

Yesterday, Dustin was out on his bike riding to his mom's house. On Middlebury street, two teens came up on their bike and demanded he give them his! He called from his cell telling me about it and asking me to come pick him up. I got in the car and stopped at the end of our street. Here riding down the street was two teen boys on bikes pulling Dustin's bike between them!! I got really brave and drove up beside them and told them, "That bike doesn't belong to you!" I kept right up with them telling them it belonged to Dustin and it wasn't theirs. The one guy rode off but the guy pulling the bike asked me Dustin who? I told him the last name and that he lives with us. The guy said that he thought the bike was his friends, told me his name, and let me take the bike and put it into the car. I went and picked up Dustin and told him his bike was in the back. We were both so surprised that we had gotten it back!

Later I thought about what could have happened if those guys wouldn't have wanted to give it to me! I stayed in the car, though, until I knew they were going to surrender it. I told Dustin that I hadn't prayed about it and he said that he had! God is so good. I figured we'd never see the bike again (a $300 one).

Countdown to 50th Anniversary for Parents

Things seem to be coming together for my parents' 50th anniversary open house. The picture is what was in the paper last Sunday. When my sisters get here, we will have a lot of cutting up veggies and other stuff to do. Hope they come ready to work!

My sister-in-law is doing a great deal of work in getting the decorations and setting up for it. She's so good at that part of it. She will do the cake and I'm in charge of the rest of the meal.

Fun Weekend

We spent Labor Day in South Haven, Michigan with Amber and Matt and Matt's parents. We had a picnic and then walked down to the pier and along the beach. It was such a fun day! Matt's parents are very nice. It was a very relaxing day. Breanna was the only one who went with us. Amber and her had fun getting each other soaking wet at the beach in the pretty cold water! I got stung by a yellow jacket but it didn't swell up too bad. The bees were so bad around our lunch. I was sitting eating when I must have pinched a bee as a moved my leg. It hurt but not enough to keep me from walking the beach and going out on the pier. It still itches a little yet but it's not bad. I'm thankful I'm not allergic to it so that I would have had to go to the hospital!!

A few days of single parenting!

I spent two nights and three days as a single parent while Bob worked in Michigan over an hour away. He camped out at the modular home he was building a porch on. (The first picture is how he entertained himself in the evenings while he was all by himself and the second is the house!)

Handling all the decisions about chores, homework, and discipline isn't much fun without a dad coming home to help out. It went well as far as that goes--no major catastrophies! I realized how much I take him for granted and have thanked the Lord that He's seen fit to give me a wonderful husband who gives so sacrificially (by popping me corn whenever I want and rubbing my tight shoulders). I've realized now that I'm working 30 hours a week, how much I had gotten away from the sore shoulders from working at the computer all day. I can really feel it. I have to think about taking a break once in a while and swinging my arms to stretch those muscles.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you at the 50th anniversary! Hopefully the gas prices won't keep you away!

Life after school starts

I'm getting adjusted to having the kids in school and working 30-32 hours a week. I have Mondays off and work 7 1/2 to 8 hours a day the rest of the week. It's quite an adjustment from working only 12 or 14 hours a week!

I love hummingbirds and wanted to show you a few pictures of them with my nifty digital camera. The one with the bird in her nest is at Sherrie Byler's parents' home on the lake. It was so tickled to be able to get a good picture of her. The others are at Grandma Brenneman's feeder.

Pray for us as we may face some "heat" from Dustin's mom because of her child neglect. Her mom is moving to the area in a few weeks to take Kim to court to get the kids. She has dropped them off at people's houses (including mine a couple times) and hasn't come back when she says. During this time we are sure she is using crack. Last Saturday she dropped her kids off at a friend's house for a haircut and said she'd be back in 5 minutes. She never came back until 6:30 p.m. Sunday! They kept taking the kids back to her house and finally gave up at 11 p.m. on Saturday night. It happened to me twice but not as long. I kept them overnight twice but she did call each time a couple hours later than she was going to pick them up to say she wasn't going to come. It's a sad story! One of the kids said, "Mom doesn't know how to come back."

This weekend Kim's mom is coming for Dustin's baptism and there could be a big blow out over all of this. Kim's mom is staying at our house!

Lots of Travelling!

Yesterday, we travelled to Indianapolis to Breanna's MRI. Bob went with us. We stopped and picked up Amber on the way. We had to leave before 6 a.m. We were all pretty tired.

Breanna wasn't able to get to sleep and said she only had 1 hour of sleep! She was pretty emotional when I took her in to the MRI. Fear was really gripping her. Earlier this year, she had talked with us about how she is finally realizing what a tumor could mean for her. We had prayed with her and let her cry and God had spoken to her heart about how she was in His hands and it would work out for good. As she got ready for the MRI, those fears (mostly of death) came back. She cried through the MRI. I prayed for God's peace to rest on her before she went in. Then we received the good news that the tumor has shrunk a little bit and that was all Breanna needed. She was so excited. It's like God brought her through the valley of death and then gave her a feast!

Breanna stayed in Muncie with Amber and will come home next Wednesday, the day before school starts.

These pictures are from our trip. We met Glory Ali for lunch after our doctor appointment.

A busy week!

This week at church we will have a funeral today and a wedding tomorrow! It was a bit hectic in the office. The viewing was held at the church (a first for Tri Lakes Community Church, I think) so while I was working yesterday, the funeral crew brought the body in the casket around 9:30 a.m. and the family came around 12:30 or 1. The viewing began at 2. (It was Bob Miller and he had had a series of strokes over the last year. He died just after his wife put him to bed for the night with another stroke. He was 71 years old and an old friend of my husband's. They were neighbors to them before the tornado destroyed their house.)

I had to do the program for the funeral today and for the wedding tomorrow evening. Today I help with the funeral dinner. After the funeral, we go to a friend's house for an evening at the lake. Should be fun!

I'm glad you all enjoyed the photos of the Brenneman reunion. I'd love to begin (maybe next summer) a Merle Graybill family reunion. What do you think?

Great Time in Iowa

As you can see, we had a great time visiting relatives in Iowa last weekend. If you would like to see more, let me know by sending me your email and I'll invite you to see the whole album.