Birthday Bash

Last night was our yearly Birthday Bash for my dad. Tradition calls for the whole clan to get together and Mom makes her famous apple dumplins. They are awesome and labor intensive - so it's a very special treat - once a year! One trick to eating this wonderful food is making sure that you have enough ice cream to evenly distibute a little with each bite. If you do not budget your ice cream properly you may come up short - which is unfortunate - but frankly, the dumplins are delicious with or without the ice cream.

This year was extra special because my little sister and her family were in town! So we were all together!! As you can see Dad has quite a cute bunch of grandkids. Here they all are minus Brad, who had to run off to his new young adult small group (Bible Study)

The big one

So you have "met" Ray, Hope and Micah. Now it is time to meet Brad. I'm currently twice his age - but he'll always be my baby. I could not be more proud of him. Poor thing, he has certainly inherited many things from me. Most notably, power brows, dimples and my giggle - don't get him started. The best thing about him is his love for the Lord and passion for people. I hope in some small way he got a little bit of that from me. Although I think Uncle Danny has had a powerful influence on that.

It's funny, this year we both became staff members of churches... he beat me though, his picture is already on Loveland's website - http://lovedtolove.com - note the power brows :) Our churches are opposite sides of the Little Miami River, yet both are Loveland addresses. Lots of fun!

The pretty girl with him is his girlfriend, Hilary. She has power brows too :)

Trolls

Well, you've seen a picture of Ray and Hope together - Now here's the little guy. Yesterday as usual I took him to the bus stop for his ride to kindergarten. It was such a beautiful day I decided to go a little early and sit in the sunshine. To help ease the wait, I began telling Micah a story about a troll that lived under the street where the drainage grate is. He was very lonely as he watched the children get on the bus everyday. So his parents suggested he dress up like a human child and ride the bus to school. This story went on until the bus came.

My little man marched across the street to the bus. He seemed to linger a bit with the bus driver. She popped her head out and said, "Nice story Mom!" then she rolled the bus up the street a bit, popped her head out again and said, "Good luck with the trolls!" Wow! in just a few seconds she got all that from Micah... my shy little guy! Silly me - I worried he might not quite be ready for kindergarten.

Bad Habit

I should explain the whole, "Does that make sense?" thing. My sweet husband has pointed out to me that I OFTEN say, "Does that make sense?" after I explain something or tell a story. The funny thing is, to him it sounds like I'm saying, "You idiot, do you understand me?" But, the truth is I'm usually feeling pretty insecure and don't feel like I'm explaining myself very well. So in my head it sounds like, "I'm such an idiot. Do you understand me?"
Guess I better work on that.

It's a start

Well, now I've done it. I've been enjoying other people's blog for some time now. It's my turn.
I wonder if anyone is interested in what I have to say and as always...
I'll wonder, "Does that make sense?"