China!

Not really something that we consider worth celebrating, but WOW! they sure know how to put on a show! (You'll want to scroll down and mute the music on the blog.)

China's 60th Anniversary national day - timelapse and slow motion - 7D and 5DmkII from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

We enjoyed a short visit from our friends Dan and Donna from Oregon. It is always so much fun to get together with friends that we don't get to see very often. Our friendship, based in Christ, just picks up where we left off last time we were together.

Time Competition

Everything competes for time. I have the same problem as many of you....I need another 5 or 6 wakeful hours (preferably after the kids are asleep) to get things done. I want to quilt, there are books I want to read, sewing to do, digital layouts and blogging. All that after the cooking, cleaning and taking care of kids and husband. And school.

Here is a bit of what we have been doing over the last few weeks.

Oh, give me a home.....

....where the deer and the antelope play. This is what we saw in front of our house when we got home from school on Friday.

Field Trip

Saturday we went on a homeschool co-op field trip. We made three stops along the way: the Oregon Trail ruts, Register Cliff and Ft. Laramie. I took Janelle, Taylor, LiAnne and Josiah. It was a 2 hour drive, and we traveled in a caravan of 12 vehicles. It was a fun day.

Birthday Girl!

Six years ago a baby was born in China. Through many loses on that end, we received one of the best gifts ever to be given....a sweet daughter. I wonder today what her birth mother must be thinking. I wish that she could know what a beautiful daughter we have, and know that she is loved and cared for. Today we celebrate LiAnne's 6th birthday. She is excited to be six, and please, can I have a white and pink princess cake?

All Ready for AWANA

Awana started last week. Taylor and LiAnne were so excited about starting again. Last night they both passed 4 or 5 sections, and are working on next weeks verses now. Janelle attends the youth Bible study while they are in Awana.

I started a job last Wednesday--cooking for our church Wednesday night dinner just before Awana. We have served over 100 people both weeks so far. It is a lot of work, but I really enjoy doing it.

Still Proud to be an American

Music

Oh man! I changed the music here on my blog a while back, didn't like it and thought I had deleted the changes. Seems that it is still the music that I don't like. So, just mute it for now, and I will try to get back in the next day or two to change it to something better.

911 to the Rescue

August 26th I got up early to read my Bible, have some coffee, and be ready to start our first day of school. Once I heard the kids waking up, I put on a pot of water to boil to make oatmeal, then went into the bedroom to make the bed and piddled around doing some other things. I then heard a popping sound, and wondered what the kids were into, so went back out to the living room. What I found was a nice fire on my stove. What? How could a pot of water catch fire? Took me a while to figure it out, but I had turned on the wrong burner, and heated up the small skillet of oil that I had left from a couple of nights before. I quickly called 911, since way too many house fires are small fires that get out of hand. I put a lid over the one pot, and mostly got the fire out. Carried the pan out the back door, and burned my hand doing it. By the time the firetruck got here I had the fire out. It was a good lesson in when and why to call 911 for our first day of school! Taylor was pretty impressed that the fire turck/men were here. I thought to hand Janelle my camera, so we have some picture of them here.

Thankfully, the damage was just in the stove area and didn't get out of hand. My hand blistered up pretty well, but is almost back to normal now.