Memorable Memorial

Hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day weekend! We usually go to the family cabin in West Virginia, but we always miss our dearest friend's Memorial Day party. So, this year we forfeited the cabin to be with friends and boy was it a hoot! Matt and Audrey O'Brien kindly shared their home (even their rocking chair) with us and several of their friends from college. Here's Ben tossing a bean bag in the tournament.

Here's Cason and our dear friend "Gless" on the moped

Chris' wife, Kim, being braver than me
Ben showing off for the camera lady ;-)

On the home front, we are now a biking family! Dad W got us bikes for Christmas and we're finally able to break them in. We've taken three trips to Tuscora Park in the last two days! We may have found a new hobby!

Z's first ever Carousel Ride at Tuscora Park. This is how we started out...

...this is after he reached for me...

...this is how we finished the ride.

Z loved watching the kids at the pool behind the Carousel and we couldn't get him to look at the camera with them behind it. So, we stood and watched the kids jump off the high diving board for a while, then we rode our bikes home. Z doesn't like his helmet very much, but he keeps it on his head and is a good rider. Sometimes he plays with Daddy's back pockets and shirt. He's so much fun. We're looking forward to sharing him with my mom again when she arrives this weekend.

By the way, I think I'd like to surprise my grandparents from TN when they arrive at the end of June and not post the living room pics yet. Maybe we'll even have the dining room done by then (they helped me pick out the color for that). Today, I'm going to plant flowers at the airport and I'm kind of excited about it! I picked the flowers out this morning. I need to make lunches for Ben and myself so we can eat while I'm out there. Off I go!

Accolades

Guess what I got? Somebody made it up, and I got it! Very prestigious! Actually, I was really flattered when Deanne nominated me for this for my Zerbik site. I don't like to "tag" people, and obligate them to do things, so I'm just passing this award along to one person: Jana and her blog, "The Joy Box". Her blog has been a frequent source of spiritual challenges which I super appreciate. I bestow this humble award to her without any obligations to tag another.

Just so happens I was recently tagged by Kristina with a meme to list 8 (or so) random things about myself that you may not know. Since I'm fresh out of pictures to share. Did you know...

1. I have a CCW (Carry and Concealed Weapon) License in the state of Ohio, and am a member of Tusco Rifle Club. I couldn't kill anything, but I like to target practice and am eternally flattered when my husband compares me to Annie Oakley.
2. I'm a super big proponent of abstinence, though I'm not for making people feel bad who aren't. I just know how much trust can be built in a relationship when you watch each other be self-controlled during the dating years. What a great foundation for marriage!
3. I like to organize big events. Once I organized a Go-Kart Race with bails of hay, trophies and all. It was the biggest event I've ever orchestrated.
4. I've been to 24 countries that I remember: U.S.A., Mexico, England (lived there 5 years), Scotland, Wales, France, Spain, Monaco, the Azores (Portugal), Germany, Austria, Italy, Vatican City, Holland, Andorra, Switzerland, Leichtenstein, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia (when it was such), Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Israel and Turkey. I've stopped in Canada and Ireland to change planes, but never left the airport, don't think that counts.
5. I have my independent license to counsel and prefer marriage/couples counseling to any other.
6. I've ridden in a C5, C130 and watched a jet be refueled from the bottom of a tanker (the pilot actually gave me a thumbs up from his plane, no kidding!)
7. I won the award for memorizing the most Bible verses two Vacation Bible School summers in a row at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church near Chattanooga, TN.
8. I used to lead youth group with my hubby for four years, was in a youth group band with him and the kids and led worship on our college campus every Sunday night for "Prayer and Praise."

I think there might be one in there my best friend doesn't know already. I am inspired by my friend, Molly, who had the chutzpah to say, "I tag no one!" So there! I'm busy these days planning my baby's one year birthday party for next month, and getting the house in order. Speaking of which, give me a few more days and I'll get a picture of my NEW LIVING ROOM to y'all!

I realize I did take some pictures this past week, all at the Rifle Club. My sister in law, Biz, came down from Toledo and went with me to the "Women on Target" day last Saturday. Thanks to my sweet husband I was able to go and volunteer, and got some great shots (no pun intended) of Biz trying out different guns. Turns out we have a natural trap shooter! Biz was amazing, and drew a small crowd to watch her! I only got to shoot one gun the whole day, but it was a doozy! A Tommy gun from WWII! It can be fully or semi-automatic. It was so heavy I hurt the next day from lifting it! Here's Biz and her amazing self.

That day was also kind of hard because Z had a mild fever that wouldn't go away. Needless to say, he was not happy for Daddy while I was gone. We later took him to the ER since all the docs were closed Saturday and we didn't know what it was. No infections, just a virus. That was our first fever that lasted more than a couple hours! So scary!!! He's all better now.

Our friend, Matt, is home from Scotland and posted pics on his site. Grandma and Grandpa H will return Friday from Israel and Chrisie is back from CA, so thanks for your traveling prayers!

Iowa!

This was taken just before we left. I was doing dishes and gave Z some bubbles to play with. Of course they went straight to his mouth! We had so much fun with family in Iowa. From left to right: Z's mommy, Z's great great Grandma Grosvenor, his great Grandma VN with Z, and Z's Grandma (my mom)

My Great Grandma Grosvenor and me. She always says, "Say pickle!" when we take a picture. She's so funny and has great stories about her grandma smoking a pipe and her grandpa owning a fleet of ships in Sweden. I interviewed her on video camera to get some of the stories on DVD. I also got her and my grandparents to video a message to Z for when he's older.

So there was no cell phone coverage or internet service where I was, so I'm just now able to update everyone. Now that I'm back, others have gone. My best friend is visiting her folks in California, Ben's grandparents are in Israel for a tour and our good friend, Matt S, is in Scotland for a week. Please keep their safety in your prayers! Thanks!

I feel like I earned my mommy badge trying to manage a 10 1/2 month old on the plane. Two out and two back. Layovers weren't easy either. I could tell God hand-picked who sat by us each plane ride. Lesson learned: Don't travel with wiggle worm unless a short direct flight and absolutely necessary!

Eggstra Interesting

Yesterday, I went to Olga Piorkowska's (Pure-koff-ska's) house. I met her at the Tuscarawas Center for the Arts where I took my pottery class. She was teaching a class on decorating eggs. Olga came from Poland 47 years ago with her family. She lives here, in New Philadelphia, Ohio. She was so kind to want to share her craft with me and actually decorated an egg before my very eyes. She's amazingly talented. I thought she painted them with paint, but no! She paints with hot wax then dyes them like we do at Easter, then adds more wax, then dyes again and again!

She then made yummy apple crepes for me! It was all so fascinating I just had to share it with you!

I finally finished knitting my first dishcloth (the very first one was tragic). I used Carolyn Majestic's easy dishcloth recipe and her fancy cotton yarn from her store, "The Giggle Patch". If you ever are in Dover, Ohio, you MUST visit!
They have beads AND yarn, heaven on earth I tell ya!

I watched Good Morning America today and they calculated that the average stay-at-home mother would be worth a whopping $138,646 per year in the business world if they were to be paid. This was based on a fairly low wage for multiple jobs (daycare, cleaning, etc.) for a 90 hour work week, which most mothers would laugh at. I did. Moms work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Can I get an Amen?

Finally, I discovered something interesting on my friend, Kristina's website, called "Bloglines". It's helpful for those of us that check a lot of people's websites to see if they posted. So, if you're my grandma, and this is the only website you frequent, this is not for you. Basically, you go to their site, sign up, then you add all your favorite websites to a "feed list" of sites. Then, when you look at the list you can tell who's updated and who hasn't. It uses a split screen to show you both your list and the site you click on. They even have an easy button for your toolbar to add sites to your feed list! Everything about this saves me time. Which enabled me to share this snappy information with you!