Stricken!

Well so much for saying I will not get it! Oh my! Talk about a whammy....I got it. Around 2:45 yesterday afternoon i started feeling funny. By 4:30 I was sicker than a dog. We were quite the couple. Troll was at the chiro on Tuesday for his siatica. By EARLY Wednesday morning...he couldn't move. So I ran the kids to school and then hit some stores on the way home. Got home and dropped Troll off at the doctors. Then headed back to pick up the kids. We were early so i took them to the park to play. I could feel the nausea creaping up on me. By the time I got home i was in the throes of this sickness. Troll was in the chair having been told that his nerve was very inflammed. So there we were...he in the recliner and me in the other chair. By 7:00 I was in bed. Freezing and fevered. So nauseated. Troll ended up in Jetta's bed aroun 8:00 cause he couldn't handle his pain. So the poor kids took care of us. They did such a good job of helping out with the little ones, too. I was proud of them. Very rough nite....me with high fever, nausea and etc., Troll with pain so bad he couldn't sleep. Around three I got up to get a cold cloth for my head which felt as if there was an elephant sitting on it. Found Troll downstairs with ice pack!!! I took 3 pills and went back to bed. Woke up at 8 this morning and aside from feeling a bit nauseated and very weak...I feel ok. Troll wasn't here so evidently he went to school!! I did talk to him and he said his back felt fine now. But the pain down his calf is unbearable. Hopefully it gets better soon. And hopefully he doesn't get this sickness. And hopefully our kids don't get it again!
A great big thank-you to our church people for plugging along without us last night at church!!!

Wedding Bells!!

Well, here's to another year in the books for our parents. We just wanted each of them to know that we hope they had a wonderful anniversary. My parents' anniversary of 37 years was yesterday and Troll's parents' anniversary of 37 years is today. Congratulations, guys!!! We love you all very much!!

The bug!

Well...as u can see from this picture....life has gotten interesting at our house. We dropped off our kids at the Ellison's house on Friday evening and headed to Williamsport for an evening out; something we haven't had in probably a year. We ate at Olive Garden and went to a couple stores. Then headed to our motel after deciding we were exhausted. Saturday we got up and headed back to school for the KCEA competitions that were being held there. Let me tell you..it was really neat. Hundreds of students from all over came to compete in different things: Sacred Piano, piano duets, preaching, art, handbells, bands, etc. Troll was one judge for the preaching competitions. He started at 10:30 and judged until 3:30!!! I went to the Mt. Rd. church and listened to choirs and choral groups compete since I didn't feel like sitting in the modular building with TRoll to listen to sermons all day!! Sometime around noon I headed to the dining hall for lunch and thought I'd best call to see if the kdis were ok. Vonnie answered and informed me that Reag had been throwing up and had the squirts since the eve before. Ugghh!! I felt terrible. She didn't want to call since we'd already paid for the motel room. Bless her heart. So I headed over to their house and picked up four kids that I could stuff in the car I'd borrowed and headed home. Reag continued to be sick that eve and then woke up this morning fine. Austin got sick right before church so he, reag, ethan, bia and i stayed home. Jetta got sick this afternoon with it and Austin was a tad better. Just this evening Ethan got it. Now Bia has asked me to kiss her tummy as it's hurting. So it's hitting hard and fAST!!! So the above pix is what my life has consisted of in the last 24 hours. I'm hoping and praying that it just continues to hit fast and leave so we're all better for next wks. senior trip. Don't think mom wants to keep sick kids.

Poses

Jetta got this dress from my mom and she just had to wear it on Sunday. I did her hair up in a french twist. She looked just like a little lady. Someone at church saw her bending over the alter to get a tissue and wondered who she was!! Just had to share these.
This one is my favorite. I'm having so much fun with my new camera/software. I thought it turned out really well.

Can't believe she'll be ten this summer. My babies are all growing up on me.

Kids Kommentz

Yesterday I told the kids that they had to clean the truck out as soon as they got home from school cause I was tired of looking at the mess in there of toys, babies, trucks, etc. They came home, grabbed their bags and out they went. They worked until supper (20 min. later) and then informed me while they were eating that it was almost done. So I figured I'd just send Austin out to finish it. He came back in about 15 minutes later with a look of stupified horror written on his face. I knew immed that something had happened.

He said, "Ah, man."
I asked him what was wrong.
"I was walking back down the street with these bags and a lady walked past me. You know the baby Bia had in there? Well, right as that lady passed me that baby knocked against my leg and said 'I love you'! Ah, man, I can't believe it!!"
Troll asked him what the lady did and Austin told him she just kept walking!! LOL!! The poor guy was mortified to think that that lady might have thought he was the one that said it!!! I thought it was pretty funny and will never forget that look on his face!!!

Latest Cake

A family at our church asked for a baby shower cake for their sister who is expecting twin boys. This "Two Peas in a Pod" idea is what I cam up with. I think next time I'll make the peas a bit smaller. This was the smallest round cake pan I had so I'll have to cut them some how. I thought it was pretty cute.

Birthday!!!

Just wanted to post on here that my big boy has turned 11 today! Wow! Wasn't it just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital?? He such a wonderful young man. I did miss him today as I had to stay home and do things for the W.O.W meeting tonight while Troll took all the kids on adventures for about 10 hours today. But anyway, happy birthday, Austin. I'm so proud you are our son. The years are just flying by so fast. I can't even put my chin on top of his head anymore. My nose fits pretty good, though!! We love you, big guy! Hope you had a great day.

And from the other night at devotions:
Troll was doing Bible Trivia and asked this question... What do a farmer, a shepherd and a judge all have in common?? Austin raised his hand and answerd, "They all stink?" Ha, ha!!! That wasn't the answer Troll was looking for but I have laughed about it ever since. I think he had it covered.

Golden Olden!!

Here are two pix to show u how beautiful my family was!! The first pix was at our house on the mission field in New Mexico. The second pix was just a family portrait.

Goin Salin!!

So...have u ever done something where u wondered why u did it??? I did such a thing this morning. Course I ended up lauging like a gigantic clown, too.

I was working on bills this morning and sorting through mail and coupons. I was sitting on Troll's office chair and going back and forth to desk and trash can. Wellllllllllll....ya ever get tired of using your legs to make a chair go and decide to just bend? It's allot easier. Until the one time u decide to bend the chair doesn't lean with ya. Well actually it does. Just more than u thought it would. I leaned over to throw away some trash...the chair scooted like I've never seen an office chair scoot. It flipped me right out onto the hard wood floor in a muddled heap!!! And trust me...when hard wood floor meets backside and hip...it's exactly that...hard. I sat there and laughed SO hard and thanked my lucky whatever that we didn't have any hidden cameras in the house. I'm sure the bruise I'm bound to have is gonna be the size of Texas!!!

cakes

Here are the latest two cakes I did. The first one got kinda top heavy and ended up squishing a bit. So the sides are not nice and straight. :( However, the young lady it was made for liked it. And as I've said before....that's all that counts. It was for her 16th bday surprise party.

This cake was made for her brother. His mom asked for something John Deere. This was what I came up with. Trust me...it took me a few weeks to decide what I could do. I had allot of fun with this one.

A bunch of cow...

Ya ever feel like this??? Well....this is exactly what I felt like this morning around 1:00 a.m. when I finally got to fall into bed. In fact this IS me!!! Troll took the picture right when i walked in the door. Lovely isn't it??!!

Actually....of course you know it's not me. However, this is what I felt like I was. Yesterday me and the two youngest went to a friends house to help with the cutting up and processing of mountains of fresh cow. Thanks to her three boys we whipped through the numerous mounds of hamburger in no time. And then came the steaks. All kinds of steaks: t-bones, rib eye, sirloin...etc. Then there were the unbelievably ugly steaks. The kinds that you had to shut your eyes and hack at: arm steaks (whatever in the world they are), round steaks (that the dear lady kept referring to as "flinstone steaks"AND that her dearest husband kept insisting there were only 10 of them when actually there had to be close to triple that amount and we were ready to start throwing them at him. ) and etc. By the time I left at 11:30 p.m., after being there all day, my feet felt like stakes (no pun intended) had been driven into them and that one of those banana boxes of round steaks had been attached to my back the entire day. The poor, dear lady I was helping had to been feeling quite the same and I'm sure WORSE as she is pregnant. And let me tell ya...when you see a cow tongue up close and personal like that..... there's just nothing right about it! Looked like some old woman's high top work boot in that pan boiling away. Just plumb nasty!!

Anyway.... that was what I did yesterday. It was fun (until we kept unearthing all those dumb round steaks the size of Arkansas) and I was very happy to help. I came home with two coolers and a box of meat. WOW!!! Another huge, huge, huge blessing. Our freezer is groaning and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it sitting in the basement tomorrow having succumbed to the sheer weight of things. I guess it kinda feels like a cow sat on it now!!!! Thanks, guys, so very much for the gift. We are so grateful and pray the Lord blesses you for your kindness.