It's finally time....

We'll see how far this update goes before the Internet shuts down! Well, what have we been up to for the last month - month?!?! What? I can't believe it! Well, I won't even try to remember back that far. I wish I had pictures to post - it would be so much more fun! But oh well....

Let's see, we had a Girls Getaway weekend on June 22 - 24 for Katie, that was a lot of fun. Sadie's in laws have this beautiful lake cabin in Park Rapids, MN and they so graciously offered to open it up for us.... So we had about 8 girls all together, and we ate, boated, watched movies, wave ran, water skied, roller bladed, biked, did a great scavenger hunt and had a great time! It was a lot of fun! Thanks to Lauren for her Karaoke machine and lots of fingernail polish, it turned out to be the best girls weekend ever! So then we came back on Tuesday and then had a few days to get back into the groove of things, then all of Sam's brothers and sisters headed back out to Park Rapids for another quick weekend. This time, it was just a family send off for Katie and Mike since it was the last time we'd really have to spend with them before they head out to WA. The weather was pretty crappy this time, but we had a great time playing Tripoly and watching more movies! Then we took old time photos and that was tons of fun - imagine trying to get 9 of us all dressed in costumes and posed for a picture - it was a good time! So we got back late on Sunday night and the next day, let's see, what are we up to now? June 30th? My parents flew in!

We had a great time - a whirlwind trip of working, working, working! On Tuesday and Wednesday, we put Laminate flooring in our family room - it looks so good - I'm going to have post pictures one of these days! Then on Thursday and Friday, my poor parents spent all day arranging flowers for Katie's wedding. They turned out beautiful - but long days for the 'rents! Poor things. Then on Saturday, we had the big wedding and that was an all day affair for me - with pictures and other "bridesmaid" responsibilities! It was fun. We had the dance and didn't get home till 1am! Then Sunday, there was a family brunch and we stayed up late playing Double Pinochle! We all needed tons of sleep by the time they left on July 8th. In fact, my poor mom has been home sick with a summer cold since we wore her out so desperately... I hope she's feeling better...

Then it was non-stop going since then. Tuesday night, Sam was going to head out to Medora with his family, but then they decided not to go and so we went out to dinner instead. Wednesday, we had about 16 kids over playing cards at our house for Rock Solid - Wednesday night activities. The plan was to play v-ball, but we got rained out. Then on Thursday, we had a great family from our church come over for a picnic - then we did get a great game of v-ball in. On Friday, we had another baby sitting adventure at church. So we did some crafts, watched movies, played games and rocked babies to sleep! Let's see - Saturday - I was exhausted, I slept in late, ran one errand - actually this is really sad. There is a local flower shop here who hosts lots of Christmas decorating classes, other informational classes and they are retiring, so the shop is going out of business. It's really sad, but we ran over to see if we could find some bargains and they are already pretty picked over - it's only down to 30% off right now - you can see how much this shop is loved.... Sad.... So then we went home and it was soooo windy out that you really couldn't do anything. So Sam finally got the opportunity to do some painting and I took a nap! Imagine that?! Then around 4pm, we headed out for a 2.5 hour drive to Fargo to help Sadie and Nathan move, but about 30 miles out, Ruth's water pump broke. Everyone we knew in town was in the car with us at that moment, so we tracked down someone going back into Bismarck and hitched a ride with them. Poor thing - she said, I don't usually do this, let me call my husband and let him know that I picked up some strangers.... We totally understood. Anyway, it was really nice of her to bring us back. By this time it was nearly 7pm, so we decided not to turn around and head back to Fargo. Then Sunday, yesterday, we had a brunch to go to after church and headed home and ended up taking another nap - a long one! Then we went for a walk along the river, it was good for Tonto to get out. We had V-ball - which, we won all three games! Then we took Rootbeer Floats over to a friends house and didn't end up leaving there until 12:15! So this morning was kind of hard to wake up! But we woke up to a beautiful birthday morning for me! Sam's got plans for this afternoon. He asked me to take off work tomorrow and won't tell me what we are doing or where we are going. But as we were making the bed this morning, he told me we wouldn't be sleeping there tonight - so using my finely tuned deductive reasoning skills, I've decided we are going camping! We'll see. I guess I'll post on Wednesday if I am right or not! But that should bring you up to date for the moment. I'll go through Sam's computer and get some highlight pictures of the last couple of weeks and hopefully get something posted on here in the way of pictures! Still want to show you all the work done in our yard, even though we've had to pause for the last couple of weeks!

This weekend coming up is our Jr. High Mission trip to Minneapolis, then we get back next Tuesday and Sam leaves next Saturday for Chicago for a week. Then he gets back and has VBS in SD, then leaves the following Saturday for a Boy's trip to the Boundary Waters. So after this weekend coming up, my summer will slow down considerably, but alas, without Sam... Sad...

So that's how it is for me! Sorry for the long posts and infrequent updates, but I'm always saving up for pictures, I should just give up on pictures! I like pictures though! Ok, I must sign off! Later!