June's Date Day

Our continuing monthly date night adventures.

A little over a year ago, I had been trying to figure out what to give Tim for our seventh wedding anniversary. At the time, Tim was looking into purchasing a handgun and all of the necessary equipment (i.e. gun safe because we have curious children and an anxious wife) and training classes. I thought that he would love to have an afternoon of shooting at the local shooting range. However, I was pregnant with Isaac at the time and after talking with the shooting range manager and my obstetrician, I changed my mind and decided to put off the shooting range date until I was not pregnant with Isaac.

 Rabbit trail alert... Did you know that the sound waves from a gun shot could damage a baby's development? Neither did I until I researched it. 

Back to the date...I kept this idea in mind as I planned out the dates for the year and added it to the June date night.

As the date got closer, Tim and I were talking about it and decided that neither of us really wanted to spend about $100 at the shooting range (gun rentals plus bullet and target purchases really add up!). So, we decided to drop the boys off at their grandparents and spent the day working on some projects that we've been putting off. Be still my beating heart! Finishing projects without children interrupting us! How romantic!  I worked on finishing the second Real Hope quilt and making some bibs for my grandparents. 

Tim worked on setting up his Raspberry Pi to make some sort of *mumble mumble* insert computer speak *mumble mumble* way over my head description of what he is doing *mumble mumble*.

Even though I have no clue exactly what he is doing, I am thrilled to have a husband who deals with all of our techie problems.

Although we didn't do our planned date, we did spend time together shooting down our projects on our to do lists. (Eh, eh? How do you like that joke, Dear!)

Our Trip to Roseburg

It's been about three weeks since my family's visit and I am just now sitting down to write about it. Sigh! The life of the busy Mama!

Anticipation had been running high in the Whittaker household. Great Grandpa, Great Grandma, and Aunt Nancy were planning on taking a train trip to the Pacific Northwest and they finally arrived! I picked them from the train station and brought them home to enjoy lunch with the boys.

Then it was time to pack all seven of us and our luggage up in the suburban and head down to Roseburg.

Shoehorn, anybody?

We were all so happy to get out of the suburban and play.

Great Grandpa is the best wrestler!

Block towers were built (and destroyed)

Cousins were loved on.

Baby kisses were given.

We woke up on Tuesday morning and went searching for the Easter eggs that Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Nancy hid around the yard.

Who cares if it's two weeks past Easter! Grandma wanted to give her grandchildren some candy!

We enjoyed relaxing together...

And walking through the neighborhood...

The cousins all cuddled up in their Aunt Nancy quilts for some group photos.

Trikes were ridden around the patio...

...with the help of an older cousin

Aunt Nancy's hand tasted so good (and was so helpful and getting those first two teeth in).

Wednesday dawned hot and shining, so we walked to the neighborhood slime filled "waterfall" to watch the water flow.

When we got back, Great Grandpa was playing the Wii. We just had to watch him play.

Soon it was time for us to leave for the Kumar's house for a delicious Indian dinner and pretzel salad (to celebrate my birthday)

We were serenaded by the children who were staying at the Real Hope Center.

The boys enjoyed watching the kids and clapped along with the singing.

We were having fun and really enjoyed each others company.

Then Thursday morning rolled in with it's death and sadness as one by one the Whittaker clan succumbed to the dreaded stomach flu. Nobody actually died, it just felt like a possibility.

Tim magically appeared in the middle of the night (Greyhound is magical, right?) to take his ailing family home to rest and recuperate. Before we left, I insisted that we get the four generation photo.

Crafting Corner

A few months ago, my sister handed me a box of fleece material that she had on hand and asked if I would be willing to sew up some twin size blankets for the students of the Real Hope Center.  

What's the Real Hope Center you ask? I'm glad you asked.  Real Hope is a ministry that my sister and brother in law started in southern India.  They hike out to remote villages and provide some basic hygiene products and talk to the villagers about the love of Jesus. They saw a need for schooling for the children of the villages, but had no way to get the kids down the mountains to the school. Monsoon rains would wipe out the roads and herds of elephants would pose a threat to anyone who ventured too closely. Remember the scene in Dumbo where Mrs. Jumbo became enraged over some kids mocking Dumbo? Apparently, elephants rampage when humans get too close (although they don't use their trunks to spank bottoms). Who would've guessed that the sweet elephants at the zoo could be so vicious. 

Anyway, my sister and her husband purchased land and built a center where the villagers could send their children to live while they go to school. Until Real Hope gets enough donations to get real beds, the kids sleep on mats on the floors. These blankets are to warm them and make their beds a bit softer.

The material that my sister gave me had been sitting in my closet as I crafted Christmas gifts for my family, gave birth to Isaac, recovered from surgery, and through the first 4 months of Isaac's life.  Needless to say, it's time to get it out of my closet and back to my sister before they leave for India this June.  

I organized the fabric into color coordinating sections and started cutting and laying out the blanket.  Then Tim stepped in and made the blanket pattern so much better than my attempt.

It was then time to sew all of the squares together. Before I could I do that, my sewing machine broke. I don't mean a jumbled mass of thread break. I mean a 3 week stint in the repair shop break.  There wasn't enough time for me to finish the blanket before I went down to my parents house for a visit, so I brought it with me to work on down there.  Unfortunately, I became extremely ill and couldn't finish it. My aunt, however, finished the top of the quilt for me before she became ill with what I had.  Now, I am waiting for my mom to bring the quilt back up here so I can finish the back of the quilt. At some point, this blanket will get done!  Fortunately, for the kids in India, there was a huge donation of blankets that will get sent over for their use.

Tim picked up my sewing machine this week and I am itching to get back to sewing.

Pinterest Fail!

I admit, I am a Pinterest junkie. It's such a nice way to keep recipes organized in the way that I want it to be organized. It has some great homeschooling ideas and endless craft ideas that I have neither the time or money to do (but I must pin them to my crafting to do board!). I recently found this idea for a sofa fort and thought, "That's awesome! The boys will love it!"

So, I tried it out the other day when I wanted to vacuum and not have them running around me while screaming  like banshees.  They first started to comment about how dark it is. Easy Peasy fix. Here's a flashlight, boys.  Then came the "I can't breathe, Mama!" Umm...

Then came the monumental crashing of the fort.  This was definitely not a fun fort. It was a death trap. Bad Pinterest! You've failed.

The boys were still wanting to have a fort, so I pulled out the over the table blanket fort that my sister gave to me to remake into quilts for the kids at the Real Hope Center (but haven't done anything with yet *ahem*) and let the boys eat their lunch in it.

They also took their naps/rest time in the fort too (Yeah, no resting actually occurred, just whispers and laughter).

A Weekend Snowpocolypse!

This past weekend, the Pacific NW was hit with freezing temperatures and snow. Schools were closed. Roads got icy and jammed up with accidents and slow moving vehicles. Tim got a 3 1/2 day weekend. But as the temperatures dipped, we enjoyed some relaxing family time in our warm apartment.  So, Tim (with the "help" of Beniah and Elijah) took the time to put together Isaac's exersaucer since Isaac just isn't happy laying on the floor or even sitting in his chair. He has to stand even if he is too little and can't properly hold himself upright yet. 

 

 The next morning, I bundled the older two boys up and we headed outside to play in the almost 4" of snow that accumulated in our back patio.

 

 

Isaac stayed warm inside with the cat (and Tim who was working from home).

Being the Pintrest junkie that I am, I decided to try out an outdoor winter activity that I saw pinned and I let the boys blow bubbles just to see what would happen when they froze.

 

 Although frozen bubbles look kind of cool, they're a bit anticlimactic.

Then it was off to explore the great white world of our neighborhood and to see if the US mail really does deliver in all sorts of weather. *We did have mail, but it could have been there for a few days since I always forget to check the mail.*

The roads were still too hazardous for us to venture out to church on Sunday, so we stayed home, got online, and watched my sister and brother in law talk about their ministry to the tribal regions of Southern India. The boys were excited to see their Aunt and Uncle on tv and slightly confused when their names were mentioned on tv in a shout out by my sister.

Life returned to normal on Monday when the warmer rains came and the roads cleared up so Tim could get back to work. But I had a nice view for a little while as I worked in the kitchen.