MSM at 500!

MSM has reached a new milestone!  500 clients!  It's still hard to believe how fast John's company is growing.  John has worked hard and we are so proud of him and we are grateful that the Lord has blessed his work.  The boys and I surprised John with a little celebration after dinner tonight.



Wasson Fiesta

We are wrapping up our study on Mexico and Central America, so we had a fiesta dinner tonight with Mexican food.  (Josiah was assistant chef tonight so he learned how to make homemade salsa and fajitas.)  The boys made Mexican-style tissue paper flowers that we used to decorate the table. 

Happy Birthday, Miss Jolene

I don't know what we'd do without her!!!  We love Miss Jolene and she just had a birthday.  The boys enjoyed celebrating with her tonight when she came to babysit.



My Weird Accident

The mechanical pencil fell out of my notebook.  I didn't know it until it landed on my little toe.  Ouch...  that hurt.  I picked up the pencil and put it back in the notebook and kept going.  A little later my toe was still hurting so when I actually looked at it I realized that the pencil lead had not only broken off when it hit my toe, but it had also pierced the skin and gone all the way under.  Immediately I thought about the possibility of lead poinsoning.  Ah, John said there is no lead in pencil lead - it's actually graphite.  Relief.  Then the fun process of trying to remove the "lead" from my toe.  Ouch.

P.S.  Here's the latest costume Will is wearing at our house - he's so cute!  It's hilarious watching him walk around in John's big boots!

Fire Station Field Trip

Yesterday we got to go visit a fire station with our homeschool group.  John got to go with us, too, so that was a really neat treat!  I love that John's schedule is flexible and our whole family can do stuff like this together!  It was a lot of fun...  my boys had a great time.  They loved climbing through the fire engine!

Waiting in line...

Going in...

John and Will inside the truck...

Will coming out with the fireman's help...

Our whole group...

New Costumes from GKS

The boys have so much fun dressing up to play - in fact, they are in some kind of costume almost every day - so we got a few fun new costumes from GKS.  The boys were EXCITED when we showed them what we bought!  They could hardly wait to start trying them on. 

Will loves BibleMan!

Shepard is a "jedi" boxer! :)

And Josiah makes a great Prince Caspian!

No matter what the costume, they almost always become jedis or someone with a sword...



GKS Fall 2010

Some pics from this last sale... I'm still wiped out and trying to recuperate.

Still shopping in the rain...

Working the concession stand at the sale!  Shepard got to go work this time as a "trainee".  He was so excited!  And he had a blast.  Here Josiah and Shepard are working with sweet Megan.

Sometimes a boy in training needs some extra training. :)  John is a great dad!



I'm 40!

Here's a few pics from my birthday.  The boys were sweet to help me celebrate.

My gift parade...

Getting my birthday serenade - I love it!

Grandpa Willoughby's 95th Birthday

In late August we got to celebrate my Grandpa's 95th birthday! 

We got a four generation picture while we were all together - Grandpa, Dad, me and the boys.  Will was really tired by this point and not eager to look at the camera.

Someone took this picture of me and my sibs that night - sure reminds me of days when the three of us were much younger and growing up together in this house! 

Catching Up

I should say I'm "trying" to catch up!  Right now life feels a bit like a merry-go-round that is moving too fast for me to get on.  I'm running though...  and any day now I may just try to jump on the merry-go-round.  I've been so anxious to update my blog!  I've got some pictures to sort through first.  We are getting back into the routine of school now that the Growing Kids Sale is over.  I'm finding that I just can't keep up with anything else while we are doing the sale and then when it's over and we are trying to wrap it up, life just sort of hits at full throttle again...  just when I really think I could use some rest! :)  Maybe my bum shoulder is making the transition more difficult this time...  it just hurts to do normal activities, so everything is going slower.  And now my other shoulder is going "out" too - yikes.  I've been depending on the "other" shoulder to get me through the recovery from my surgery so I'm feeling a little nervous about that.  But, then I'm reminded of several friends and family members who are enduring so much more and it brings a new perspective.  Then my heart cries to the Lord to give them healing and relief.  All of this journey of life is meant to bring us to the Lord and search Him out and learn His ways...  so may all our trials bring us closer to Him.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get some pictures and updates posted...