Thomas in real life

It's not really Larry's birthday yet (not till the 14th), but we wanted to take him on a special trip and today was the day. In North Judson, Indiana there is the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum where you can take a trip on a train and tour some trains they have there. Since Larry has always been fascinated by trains and had a model set as a kid we thought this would be a great present. Maria liked the ride, but was a little unsure of the whistle, but we did teach her to say "choo, choo". Don't you like her engineer overalls, she fit right in.

We have plenty to praise God for; another birthday to celebrate for mi querido.

not just blowing hot air

Maria really enjoyed watching them inflate the balloon.

We were lucky enough to get invited to ride in a hot air balloon, well, a tethered ride anyway, which was enough for Maria. The church secretary's husband works for REMC/Touchstone, who sponsors the balloon we got a ride in. The balloon pilot is Cheri White, who is a National Women’s Hot Air Balloon Champion from Texas. They were having a balloon glow at the Marshall County Blueberry Festival in Plymouth tonight. And just so you know "Located in North Central Indiana, Centennial Park in Plymouth will come alive with the 42nd annual Marshall County Blueberry Festival. Held over Labor Day weekend the Blueberry Festival is one of the Midwest's premier events and has been named a "Top 100 Event" in North American by the American Bus Association in 1997, 1999 and again this past year, 2007. " We thought that maybe the top 100 event was just a self-proclaimed title when we heard it, but apparently the American Bus Association has dubbed them with this title, whoever this association is. Which is good, considering if it was a self-proclaimed title, we would hope they would at least put themselves in the top 10. To us though it appeared to be just another festival, with lots of food, vendors and PEOPLE...everywhere! But we did get a good blueberry shake.

We have plenty to praise God for; generous people with great connections to awesome experiences!

me time

Maria really enjoys reading books as she sits on the potty, which my sister thinks is hilarious, so I had to post a picture of her in the act.

We have plenty to praise God for; a little girl who will actually tell us she has to use the potty, well, most of the time.

"Number Five is Alive"

Wow, remember the movie "Short Circuit". Well, that's the line I thought of when the computer made that lovely hum and Windows sound when I turned it on last night! YEAH, it's not fried.

We have plenty to praise God for; the lovely sound of the computer turning on!

Snickerdoodle Yummy!

Doesn't this picture make you hungry??

Experiment: Yummy Snickerdoodle French Toast.
Experiment taken from: Notebook Entry March 13, 2008
Directions: Here is the basic recipe. For complete directions visit here to try your own yummy breakfast.
We thought this sounded very tasty and it was. We are so glad we tried it. We are also trying to win a flip camcorder, how awesome would that be! It was an easy peasy recipe and so good results!

We have plenty to praise God for; French toast, ooo la la.

stay in bed

The culprit

The victim

There are just some days you shouldn't even get out of bed....take for instance the day I decided to plunge the tub because it wasn't draining very fast, well, fast forward to the ceiling leaking in the kitchen right on the table where the laptop was sitting, thanks in part to an old corroded iron pipe! Yeah, I should have stayed in bed! We are waiting to let it thoroughly dry out to see if it is fried or not?? Could you say a prayer for our little hunk of plastic!

We have plenty to praise God for; uh, the tub is working fine, thanks to the plumber! Maybe I should just stick to calling the professionals.

a toy story

Well, apparently Maria thinks she makes a pretty good fit for the toy box and that maybe, just maybe she looks like a cute stuffed animal or doll. She hopes anyway!

We have plenty to praise God for; a child who can easily entertain herself..we're not sure how exactly she got in there, but she sure had fun throwing the animals out!

Yes!

the cupboard is finally done, meaning the bathroom is just about complete...just the grout issue and then a window treatment, the flooring will have to wait, I didn't like what I saw at Lowe's. I am pretty happy with the result. Here is the before and after pictures.

We have plenty to praise God for; cheap oops paint at Walmart just the shade I needed.

a day of boating

My parents were in town for the weekend so we spent the day on the lake with the fishing boat my dad has. Maria didn't know what to make of it at first, but then had fun "steering" the boat. It was a gorgeous day, although we all got a bit too much sun!

We have plenty to praise God for; a wonderful day.

Betty Crocker...eat your heart out!

Yes, I made this pie...I must admit the bottom crust was one we had in the freezer, but not that lattice top. It is cherry rhubarb, thanks to Dottie for the cherries and the Szymanski's for the rhubarb. It was delicious!

We have plenty to praise God for; pie!

to the beach...

We decided it was finally time to hit the beach here at Lake Maxinkuckee. We met some friends there for the afternoon. Maria was enjoying her own personal pool, compliments of Abby the girl in the picture.

We have plenty to praise God for; the beach (even though I loath sand!)

shades of white

I was excited to get this project done...I didn't like the shiny gold chandelier and fixture in the entryway...especially since they were rusty and tarnished. So now they are simply white! I also added the medallion above the chandelier. I love how everything turned out...what do you think, and of course I forgot to take a before picture, just imagine shiny gold color. I also did the bathroom exhaust fan cover, the bathroom light fixture, and two in the upstairs hallway, they just aren't very exciting to post a picture of.

We have plenty to praise God for; easy fixes for eyesores!

corn fanatic

Maria sure didn't take long to figure out how to eat corn on the cob...

well, almost figured it out!

We have plenty to praise God for; generous others who share their extra corn with us.

dreaming of snow

Maria decided that she is ready to don her new snow pants, thanks to grandma for them, and head out to play in the snow. She is just a few months too early. She was too funny walking around the house in them...even when we tried to take them off she put them over her head and wore them like a bib around the house.

We have plenty to praise God for; a silly girl who never fails to keep us laughing.

spending the day with violet

well, violets to be exact! We HAD a flowerbed full of them... Before!

and we conquered them! Larry and I spent about 4 hours weeding, moving some plants and mulching. It was a long day, but the result was well worth it.

Maria helping mommy and daddy!

Yesterday I finally finished the bathroom(scroll down for before pictures), put things back on the wall and cleaned up. I am pretty happy with the results. I plan to paint a couple more things; the vanity cupboard, the light fixture(the metal is rusty), the exhaust fan cover, and the door and then I need to clean up some grout, re grout in a few places, and seal the grout. I am hoping to eventually redo the flooring, but that will be the last thing I do.

EggplantPeppersTomatoesHere are a couple pictures of some of the goodies that we can't wait to eat. Since we had to transplant things from DeMotte here, we haven't had as much as we would have, a little moving shock for all of us!

We also were blessed by seeing a hummingbird at out feeder tonight. We were excited since we had put one up in the past and never saw anything. We put this up two days ago and they found it already.

So it was a busy couple of days, and we are ready to relax on Sunday...may you a have a blessed Lord's day.

We have plenty to praise God for; great cool weather to get lots accomplished.