Girl Swallows Nickel!!

I've gotten so much done the last 2 days. Thanks to Brad's sister, Theresa! She was coming through yesterday & took the 4 younger kids with her for the week. We'll get them either Friday night or Saturday. I already have all their rooms completely packed up & their carpets vacuumed & shampooed.

I called to Theresa's house today & Flagan was babysitting. All was well on the homefront. A couple of hours later Flagan calls & says, "Aunt Terri, how do you get Cooper to take a nap?" So, we talked for awhile about that & hung up. A little while later he calls again, in a minor panic saying, "Chloe swallowed a nickel & she threw it up but there is blood in it!"

Flagan got initiated into babysitting today with kids who would not nap & vomit. I think he handled it very well--probably better than I would have! Chloe is fine by the way, the nickel must have hurt her throat though, with her tonsils being taken out recently. Aunt Theresa's keeping a close eye on her, so I'm not worried.

This picture of Chloe makes her look so grown up. What a big girl! Who now knows NOT to put money in her mouth...

Hot Dog

What a whirlwind week! We got to keep 3 of Brad's sisters boys this week & had a great time. They were a big help packing & playing with the other kids. The plan was to have them spend a few days at our house & a few days with Grandma & Grandpa Dillan...but Grandpa Dillan had a heart attack & was flown to Lincoln on Wednesday.

He is doing well, didn't need surgery or anything. That is an answer to prayer. He'll have some recovery time at home & hopefully will not have any more problems. He is at home & hopefully resting for when we come to visit him this week! This week seemed to fly by very quickly worrying about Pete, packing & having a house full of 8 kids.

We did take another big load of stuff to Minden yesterday & also took our nephews home. I miss them being around! Hunter ended up staying here with a friend of his & was in charge of coming home to take care of the dog. He did fine except for one minor flaw--he was worried that Sunny would get too hot inside so he turned the air conditioner down. Way down to about 56 degrees. AND turned it to ON instead of AUTO. So, guess what happened?

When we got home tonight it was about 84 degrees in here & there was about 1 1/2 inches of ice on the air conditioner. So, we pried all the windows open (when was the last time we had them open??) & are trying to air it out. Sunny was definitely a hot dog. And we were worried about him being too hot OUTSIDE!

We went to the E Free Church in Minden today & liked it a lot. We've met a great couple there who have already had us over for lunch (thanks Doug & Angie) & lined up more help for us to put up a fence in the yard. The kids had a great time at their house this afternoon while we worked at the house.

It was much harder than I thought thinking of going to a new church this morning. I even ended up calling & talking to Alice on the phone at CWC. She let me "cry on her shoulder" over the phone as I was driving from Kearney to Minden. Thanks Alice! I'll miss my CWC family so much.

We saw Brad's Grandma Neva tonight on our way home. She looks so much better than she did a few short weeks ago. She is in the hospital in Cambridge until there is a spot open in the assisted living complex. She is very ready to be at "home." She thinks she's drank about 2 gallons of milk of magnesia the last 2 weeks. They keep slipping it to her she says! She definitely hasn't lost her sense of humor!

A Big Thanks goes to Sharp's for mowing our yard--it looks great! What a nice suprise to come home to. We'll miss great neighbors like you for sure. Can Jared come & stay with us for a few days in Minden? We'll sure miss him around our house.

I also had a cupcake catastrophe this week. I love this new muffin pan I got that cooks 24 in one pan. It's GREAT until you drop it as you are putting it into the oven & you have 24 cupcake liners filled with batter all over the bottom of your hot oven. Flagan was so sweet--he offered to clean it up for me, though I didn't let him since the oven was hot. And he kept telling me how good the cupcakes were! He knows how to butter his aunt up!!

POW!

Pow had a double meaning for me this weekend...We've been watching Super Heroes of Mega City during Children's Church & one of the characters is named "Pow." He & his sidekick "Kabaam" are up to crazy antics each week during their superhero training.

Pow also meant a broken mirror. I decided to go wash the suburban about 9:00 pm Saturday night. All was well on the way to the car wash, although once there the car wash wouldn't work, so I never did get to wash. I was going home & there is all kinds of construction on the main street in Imperial. There are those reflective cone/barrel things with

BIG

signs on top of them (about mirror height) that say things like "keep right" or whatever.

Well...as I was jamming to my new Lincoln Brewster CD, I'm not sure if a cone/barrel was shoved into my lane a bit or if I just wasn't completely in my lane. All I heard was POW!!!!! Not pow,

POW!

Sure enough I'd hit the sign with my mirror & it is now cracked. Great. Didn't even get the suburban washed out of the deal.

The only thing that made me feel better was that when I told Brad about it after I got home he said, "I hit one the other day too." So, I guess it happens to the best of us...

Day I Won't Forget

What a great day at church! Our precious friends hosted an after-worship dinner for us as a farewell. What a great time to share memories. The SONShine Gardens' kids (pic above) were great, I will MISS them so much. Just as I told them this morning, I will be praying for them even though I'm moving away.

Thank you for the wonderful going away gifts--they were unexpected! You are all so generous. Parker loves the Superhero stuff! We love you and will miss you...But as I told someone this morning, we may be back to visit so often you'll say, "I thought you left!" :)

P.S. Sonja, see how our hair is the same color??

Dance Camp

Kamrie had a fun time at Dance Camp this morning. Here's the 3-5 year old group during their performance. Chloe didn't get to go this year, since she had surgery 2 days ago. Parker was the main camera man for the performance.

Sagan & Elisha

(in the last picture with Kamrie & Chloe) have been our babysitters for several years now. Pretty great to have twins come over to watch 5 kids! We'll sure miss them after we move. Maybe they'll go to Kearney to college & we can still call them to babysit...I'll have to ask them about that. They will be seniors this year.

Chloe

is doing great after her surgery. She is a super-trooper, no complaints so far. I just keep pumping her with tylenol every 4 hours.

Neva

is still in the hosptial in Lincoln, but they are talking about releasing her on Monday. She has not had surgery, but is feeling slightly better, so that is a PRAISE.

Thank You

for lifting our family up in prayer.

Tonsils, Tubes & Adnoids, Oh My!

Chloe

is doing extremely well after her surgery yesterday. I woke her up every 4 hours last night to give her pain meds. If you ask her how she's feeling she'll say, "Good." I ask, "does your throat hurt?" She says, "Yes." No other whining. She is a bit uncooperative this morning about taking her antibiotic, but other than that she's doing super.

Firemen's Fun Day, July 4

Surgery Day

Chloe got her tonsils & adnoids out & tubes in her ears today. She did great. We're pretty tired, though, after getting up to leave for North Platte at 4 am! Sor far she's doing great, just napping off & on & keeping the tylenol with codeine in her. She's happy about having to drink lots of koolaid & eat pudding & popsicles.

Grandma Neva was transported to Lincoln today for gall bladder surgery. It is a pretty risky surgery given her age & health complications.

Keep praying for thest two ladies!

Thanks to our church family for the fun balloon bouquet & toys!

Competition

Imperial's fireworks were awesome, as usual! The lightning was pretty fierce competition, enough that we were in the car most of the time. We heard reports of golf to baseball sized hail headed our way, so we went home just before the show ended.

Chloe will have tubes put in her ears, her tonsils & adnoids out on Thursday. I stocked up on jello today. I showed her some pudding I had bought also, and she said, "Is that my prize?" I don't think she knows what she's getting into...

Brad's Grandma Neva (Pete's Mom) will have her gall bladder out on Thursday morning as well. She's been extremely ill the last week & in the hospital. Keep them both in your prayers for a super-speedy recovery.

We took a load of stuff to Minden this weekend (actually to storage in Kearney) & the kids got to see the house. They are really excited about the pond across the road. Mommy is a bit nervous about the pond across the road. The above picture is looking to the house from the pond.

Grandpa Bond took us for a ride in the Model A & we had such a good time. All 5 kids, Grandpa & me. It was a bit crowded but great.

Hope you have a Happy 4th of July!