Making up for lost time.

Grab a snack, sit back and relax, because this is going to be a long post, I've got a lot of catching up to do! Father's Day we spent at Les' parents. I am so thankful for Les' dad, Keith, and what he has passed onto Les, who inturn, is passing on the same morals and values to our children. I couldn't have chosen a better grandpa and father for my children than these two men that God placed in my life. Anyone can "teach" the Bible to their children but it is another to actually LIVE it and to be men of integrity and for that I am truly grateful. Keith & Gwen also raised their beautiful daughter, Lisa, who truly has a heart of God. Below is a picture of her with "Grandpa Graber" and his other two cutie pie grand kids, Alton & Kaelyn. It is so nice to have a family who worship and serve our Savior Jesus Christ together and in today's crumbling world of values it truly is a rare gift to have the unity within the family and I just love them all to pieces!We've been busy getting 4-H projects completed. Megan has chosen "INTERNATIONAL" as one of her projects. She chose the country of Guatemala. She has to research the country and turn in a notebook of all the she learned about the country. One of the suggested activities was to make a food dish that was common to the country. We found a recipe for Guatemalan Spanish Rice. These are pictures of Megan shopping for a few of the ingredients at the grocery store.
This is Megan stirring it all together. It smelled wonderful cooking! Above is the finished product that she took to her 4-H meeting and did a presentation to the club on Guatemala and had the club do a taste test survey of the rice. Most everyone liked it...the ones that did not like it were people who just didn't like rice, itself. She also took a rain stick that Courtney brought me back from her Medical Mission Trip to Guatemala and showed it to the club as well as some of Courtney's pictures from her trip. She did a fabulous job speaking in front of the group and I would have NEVER gotten up in front of a group of people to speak when I was 10! She is a natural "leader" and it drives me absolutely crazy sometimes when I am trying to discipline her because she tends to have her "own ideas" about how things should be done but I know God gave her those qualities for something and in this instance of giving a presentation those qualities really did shine! She chose everything herself of what she wanted to speak about. I was so proud of her!
Megan is also showing Libby, our dog, in the 4-H Dog Show this year. This has been VERY time consuming but Megan, being a natural with animals, is doing really good with Libby and working with her alot to get her to obey and follow through with the commands. Here is Megan working with Libby on some of the agility equiptment at the Thursday night 4-H dog club. I am still amazed that Megan can get our nearly 12-year-old dog to jump over and run through all the different agility skills.
I guess you can say that 4-H Dog showing is going to be a family affair this year...Megan has 3 of her cousins showing dogs in the Daviess County 4-H dog show, and her cousin, Jessica, showed her dog, Jack, in the Vermillion County 4-H dog show. Jessica won Reserve champion in her class. Way to go Jessica!Kaelyn is showing her dog, Shorty, in Mini 4-H this year too! Shorty likes this exercise, Down and Stay, the best!
Here is Connor with his dog, Kobi, working with the agility equiptment. Kobi is a very smart dog and usually pretty obedient.
Miss Cassie is showing their dog, Max, this year also....she has the biggest challenge of all....not only is MAX a BIG dog....he pretty much has a mind of his own...but Cassie can be just as stubborn as he is and is working really well with Max. He's such a pretty dog I think. Max & Kobi are my dog nephews...they are so friendly...they come running to greet me every time I pull into the Heller's drive...in fact Max jumped right into my van the one time...I think he wanted to go home with me or was after the long lost french fries hidden under the van seats...I got a real work out trying to get him out! hee hee. Dog show is alot of work but I think the kids have been having alot of fun with it and it is fun to do with their cousins as well! Plus we get to see this little cutie-putie pictured below at the meetings as well! Isn't he just precious! He was mesmerized by the leaves blowing on the trees this night at dog club. OK so that was just Thursday of last week...Friday was a big day again. We got baby turkey in on Friday morning... I can' even remember which days we were there but we had been down working in the brooder to get everything ready. So around 2:30 a.m Friday the electricity went out at our house as well at the turkey barn...in the process of Les leaving here our little dog, Zac, some how managed to get under Les' truck and he ran over him!!! It was awful...he felt bad...but had to attend to the turkey barns and get the generator running so we wouldn't have a bunch of dead turkeys...so as soon as the vet's office opened up Les took Zac in there...he had a huge gaping wound across his left front leg/shoulder area. It was pitiful...Griffin was so sweet he wanted to give Zac a treat before he went to the vet and Zac was just shaking and wouldn't even nibble at it. Griffin got his face right up to Zac and was petting his head and was saying "It's OK Zac, I love you, and Jesus will make you better". (yes I was about to cry it was so sad to see Zac like that and he and Libby are two of Griffin's best friends!) He ended up getting from 40 to 50 stitches but NO BROKEN BONES! PTL! He spent the night at the vet's office because he was so groggy from being put under. Les went and got him the next morning and he perked right up when he was home sweet home...He's still not 100% but he still shakes his little tail when you come out to see him and talk to him.
(You can see where his hair has been shaved off and right at the top of his legs is where the stitches are..they go all the way across.)

So Friday afternoon, after already getting our baby turkeys unloaded into the brooder that morning...Les said he had about 100 bales of straw that he wanted the girls and I to help him load onto the wagon...It was stinkin hot...but the trick to get the girls out there was...Daddy was offering "Tractor driving lessons!" And we got to drive the 4-wheeler out to the field....the girls are all about "driving" things these days! Of course then it was.....who got to drive first! Megan drove the 4-wheeler to the field so Natalie got to drive the tractor first. Good thing Griffin was at Grandma Graber's or else there would have been three fussing over that! hee hee.

Here's Natalie getting ready to drive the tractor in straw field. (Megan's so strong and always has been!)
Megan helped stack straw bales while Natalie drove the tractor and Neal & I threw straw bales onto the wagon. She did a fine job navigating through the bales.

Then Natalie helped stack bales while Megan drove the tractor. Natalie cooling down with a fresh drink of cold water after we got all the bales picked up.


Of course she wanted to climb up on the bales and pose for a picture! She's pretty cute even after sweating from all that hard work!
Megan striking a pose on the tractor. She loved driving the tractor!
Here are my little farm girls unloading the load of straw into the barn. They would throw the bales down to daddy and Neal so they could stack them in the barn. I'm pretty sure Daddy was proud as a peacock seeing his little girls getting right in and working their little hearts out.Then it was back down to the brooder to check on the baby turkeys and to top off their feeders.
Griffin caught back up with us at the turkey barns and got in on helping out too!
You'd think the day should have been about over but it wasn't..... Then it was back home to change clothes for the 3rd or 4th time for the day and head back down to the Gasthof at Montgomery for the girls cross country practice! They have been practice on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, one week it will be at 8:00 a.m. and then the next the practices will be the same days on at 8:00 p.m. Their cousin, Mallory, has been coming up to run with them.
It seems like that is how our summer days have been going lots of things packed into one day...coming home into the house around 9:30 to 10:00 p.m. And then waking up to start the next day.....Which brings us to Saturday..... The girls got up at 5:00 a.m. to help Les in the turkey brooder... Megan had dog class...thank goodness for The Hellers they were going too so they stopped by and picked Megan up and took her with them because Griffin got to go to Camp Illiana for Charlie Brown Day Camp which happened to be at the same time! He was super excited about finally getting to go to camp just like his sisters! I've never really had to worry about the girls making friends because they have always had each other to fall back on...but Griffin is a pretty social little guy and right away jumped into having lots of fun with the other kids. This is what he was doing when I left. He was in the red group and his little friend, Ethan, from church was also in the red group, which was a pleasant surprise. He was wore out when I picked him up but he had alot of fun. When I was tucking him into bed a few nights later...he told me..."mommy, I about cried one time at camp because I wanted you". (awww so sweet). I asked him when that was....and he said "When I was at the top of the water slide! But then I went down and it was OK." hee hee..I guess he is used to mommy there telling him it is OK...so he was BRAVE all by himself! Way to go Griffy!Sunday we went to church and after lunch me and the kids headed to Evansville for my friend, Kiersten's little boy, Evan's 6th Birthday Party. It was held at Pump it Up. He had his party there last year too so my kids were completely stoked about getting to go again this year. They love all the inflatable slides, obstacle course, and bouncing rings. The girls really got into the boxing gloves this year! They were hillarious to watch them "boxing". The gloves were as big as them and just as heavy I think! hee heeIt was followed by yummy cupcakes and ice cream. I had a few stops I wanted to make while in Evansville and Natalie had a gift card to Justice that she had gotten for her birthday. We had went into Dick's and then TJ Maxx (Love that store!) and got back into the van about hour or so later and I realized I was missing my cell phone! UGH!!! So I traced my steps remembering I had it in my pocket when I went into Dicks so we went back in there and sure enough some precious little girl found it and turned into the sales clerks!! Yippee! That little girl is my hero! I wish I could thank her but she was long gone by the time I realized I had lost it! Then we headed to Justice and Natalie found an adorable little outfit...very girly...and so her. Then we stopped at Sonic for quick supper and Aunt Lisa called and told us her neighbors were going to be setting off fireworks and told us to we could come watch if we wanted. So we decided to head home for that. One the way home...near Mackey...a car was literally crossing the center line heading straight for our van...My heart was racing...and I was slowing down and veering off to the side as far as I could and the car kept coming until FINALLY swerved back over into her lane!! I said out loud THANK YOU Jesus!!! And my heart started coming back down to normal rhythm about a minute later down the road....Griffin is shouting "THANK YOU JESUS!" and I was like what is he saying that for...there in the field to west was a couple of dear running across the field! He was so excited to see them and I was like THANK YOU JESUS they didn't run out into the road! I hadn't even seen them b/c I was still recovering from the near miss a few miles back! I really think my guardian angels were putting in over time! I truly am thankful that He kept us safe!!

We arrived home grabbed sweatshirts and headed up to Lisa's for the fireworks. Griffin especially loved them! He said "Do it again, again, again!" I think he could sit and watch them forever! Monday the girls woke up at 5:00 a.m. again to help daddy at the turkey brooder and I picked them up around 7:30 a.m. at the turkey barns because we had cross country practice and they were sleeping on the concrete pad outside the turkey barns! But they woke up and didn't complain about running. We came home and they both took naps...and I made Les his favorite Jello Cake since it was also his 40th BIRTHDAY!! He has been so busy trying to do hay and catch up on all the farming since our Spring was so rainy...we barely see him much...so we had birthday cake at 11:00 p.m. and then it was off to bed because the girls were going to Bible Memory Camp the next morning. Cassie came along with us to take the girls up to Brown County. We also took Katelyn & Sydney to camp with us...Griffin got to stay with Les' Aunt Debbie...since we took the truck due to needing to pick up a fish fryer to take to the camp as well. He absolutely loves going there! So it was an pick up full of all girls!! Needless to say I'm sure Les' nerves would have never handled that! There was lots of squells and giggling the entire way~ YAY for GIRLS!! We got Natalie, Katelyn, and Sydney settled into their room and took a picture of her counselor and friends before we headed up to Megan's room. By the way I LOVE the purple Bible Memory T-shirts they got this year!! This is the first year that the girls haven't been in the same cabin/dorm. Megan was chomping at the bit to get with her friends! She wanted a top bunk so badly....and when we got there there was just one left right next to her buddy Taylor that she has become good friends with through Bible Memory. So Cassie & I helped Megan get her bed made on the top bunk. There was no one else coming and the bottom bunk below Megan was empty and I sat Megan's suitcase on the bottom bed and told her she could just leave it there and it would be easy for her to get her things in and out of...she promptly told me in a quite voice with her lips pierced..."Just put it over there". (as if I was embarrassing her with such an idea) I was like OK we'll do it your way. So I had all the girls hop over to Taylor's bed and gather around for a picture. When the picture was through Taylor noticed her bottom bunk was empty and she all excited and perky said "No one is sleeping on my bottom bunk so I can use that to put all my stuff there and Megan you can do the same thing because no one is under you either!" To which Megan replied all happy and smiley...Oh yeah that will be good!" Then Megan gave me that look like "I can't believe my mom was right!" I said Wow, Megan! Some how that must just sound like a much better idea coming out of Taylor's mouth than your mother's? She was giving me the look like just leave and don't embarrass me anymore and she was saying "bye and kind of shewing me away as she was waving". So I sucked it up and left without giving her a hug...because I know she loves me and she knows I love her too...and I am so not cool like 10 and 11 year old girls at that moment in time! I am just absolutely thrilled that she loves church camp so much and making friendships that will last her a life time and making the best memories of her life. I know Natalie is too and she too loves it just as much as Megan! I know they will have grown in their faith in just these few short days and I can't wait to see them and hear all their giggling and squelling stories on the trip home tomorrow. It sure has been quiet around here without them here...I guess I better enjoy the quiet because it will all change when they are home! hee hee