piles and piles and more piles

There's not a whole lot to update this week. No drama in our lives which is a good thing. We've got dinner at one of the elder's houses tonight, a baptism tomorrow, and we're getting ready to head off to our retreat in WI Sunday afternoon. James brother is running a marathon out in San Diego on Sunday. Can't wait to hear about that. James is out on the front porch working on his sermon...at least he was until his butt fell asleep in the chair. I made bagel chips this morning and need to get off my butt and clean the house this afternoon so we can come home to a clean house next Friday. I guess I always remember Mom wanting to have a mostly clean house when we came home from a vacation. It's like getting into a nice warm clean bed at the end of a long day. Speaking of which...I need to change the sheets on the bed. I've got lots of work to do. There are piles on the kitchen and dining room tables, and more piles of clothes to be washed and folded and piles of dishes to be washed and put away. I know...me...piles...never!!! I love my piles. James hates my piles. Such is life.

Graduation

Before the day began...








So awesome... They gave Tom Ewald his doctorate.



Yep... That's my Man.



Go Sis. Joanna and Dave are moving to New Hampshire in July to take a Preaching position at Londondary Christian Church. But evidently during graduation they said that Joanna was taking the preaching position, not Dave. So we had fun calling dave the preacher's wife.

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Caleb is captivated by his Uncle James. My smart man graduated Magna cum Laude. I'm so proud.



Dad and Barney... Old time college buddies.



Graduation party time. Sunday after church we had James graduation open house. My mom and Shannah stayed after to help me out and I'm so glad they did. I needed help. Dave and Jo came over about 2 and helped out as well. Just before we left to get the cake at 12:30 James and I went for one of our last rides in the truck. A guy came over from Galesburg and is buying the truck. He'll be here to pick it up on Tuesday. James pointed out later that he's always prayed for God to get him through college with that truck and that it is no coincidence that God sold the truck the day after graduation. It's a sad day. That truck holds sentimental value for me. I might have shed a tear or two. Oh well. All of this marks a new chapter in our lives.

Wowzers

In the last 3 days James brother graduated, James and Joanna graduated, we had two rockin parties, church, the last youth group of the year, and sold the truck. The last three have been nuts and the last 8 have been quite full. I will break up the posts so that they won't be so long. I have pictures to share. :) For starters. Last Sunday morning the kids planted flowers for Mother's day at the church. Gisela, this pictures for you.

I also got the garden planted. James tried to sneak up on me, but I was already done and couldn't get the tiller started again, so I just posed. That thing jerked me all over the place. I planted corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, and cantaloupe. Now we wait to see what happens. Hope it grows! James has his "play in the dirt" shirt on, but he wasn't playin in the dirt!

Busy Day

Marranda spent the night last night and James got his cuddle time in this morning. They sat and read a book about firefighters.



We went to some garage sales this morning, James friends house, James parents house, then we took Marranda home and came home so that James Mom could put up the border in the nursery for us. It looks really cute. Here are some pictures. (The border says "Now I lay me down to sleep.") We have a meeting a week from Monday with Mike from Illini. Hopefully we'll be able to get this homestudy done soon. :) Now we are off again to another friends house to talk about their wedding. I'm tired! :)

Firefighting

James got up at about 1:30 this morning to the sound of his pager going off. He ended up going to the a big fire in Clinton that made headlines in the Pantagraph this morning. You can read the story here. He even got his picture in the paper, but you can't really tell it's him. He said he could tell because of his coat.

photo ops

This is what happens when the cookie monsters requests cookies and his request is denied. He tries to do it himself, messes with my tools, and leaves a mess behind.

This is what will be the nursery. Spent the last few days painting. Now we wait on the border. Should have it up by Sunday. Don't have any new news on the baby front. Still waiting to hear from Illini.

This is James new ManCave. You may remember the one in the basement. The picture of that one was posted a few months ago. This one is much more manly.