Missing his sister

Today, Garrett and I were working on grammar, and I was reading through a list of nouns to label as common or proper. One of the nouns happened to be Laura. I asked him, "What is Laura?" He answered, "Missed!"

Laura's travels

I don't know if she'll actually update while she's there, but Laura has a blog to journal her trip to Ecuador. Thelowlytraveler.blogspot.com

Recital pictures.

Garrett

Lincoln

Heidi

Emily

Charlotte

Abigail

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. Love you!

Happy 15th Birthday, Charlotte!!!

We love you very much!

Happy 7th Birthday, Garrett!!

We love you very much!!!

Dinner Party

The other evening, Todd and I were gone at supper time.  I just found the pictures of the evening the kids had.

Greeting the guests

Providing the entertainment

Happy 11th Birthday, Heidi!!!

We love you very much!!!

2 Down - 5 To Go!

Happy 18th Birthday, Laura

We love you very much!!

Bunnies

Abigail has a really wonderful talent for crocheting stuffed animals. These are her latest creations. She made this family of bunnies (it also has a baby bunny which we didn't get a picture of) and stuffed kitten for a couple of our young friends.

A dog who hates a bath

Loyal can't stand to have a bath, but Monday was beautiful and pretty warm and Loyal definitely needed to be cleaned up, so the kids decided it would be a good chance to get her smelling a little prettier.

This is Loyal's normal color

As soon as her bath was over, she ran to our burned out bonfire pile and rolled around in it.

Apparently the shampoo didn't work so well...

Her bath was Monday - this picture is Friday. I wonder how long she'll be a gray dog!?!

Sending her off with lots of love!

 

A new phase begins

It is a little emotional around our house this weekend.
On Tuesday Tamara will be taking Laura up to Chicago to start a new job.  We have known we would have to cross this bridge eventually, but it is much harder than we expected.
On one hand it is a perfect job...
Ralph and Evelyn are a dear older couple in Chicago that Tamara knew when she was growing up.  Evelyn is getting forgetful and Ralph can't drive anymore.  They have been able to live on their own until now, but now need someone to live with them, take them to doctor appointments and be available to help them if needed.  Laura will be able to continue working on her online Associates degree and she will will only be a couple miles from Grandpa and Grandma.

But it was a little sudden...

Earlier this week Ralph and Evelyn asked Jeff if he knew anyone who would be available to help them and Thursday after Daryl's funeral, Jeff mentioned it to Laura.  Thursday evening Laura talked to Ralph and Evelyn's daughter and all of the sudden she is leaving!

We are going to miss her

She has been a big part of our life for almost 18 years (she will turn 18 next Saturday) and we can't imagine what life will be like with out her here with us.  We will miss the times she sits at the piano and plays by ear.  The times she and her sisters sing together and make up harmonies as they go.  We will miss piles of clean laundry (several years ago she appointed herself the chief laundry lady and does 3 - 5 loads everyday!)  We will miss her Godly influence and kind heart.  Her sisters are going to miss their best friend.  Her brothers are going to miss their piano teacher and tutor. We're going to miss her.

We know this is not a permanent arrangement and we will see her again, but we also know that she is leaving home and it will never be exactly like it was before.  It is hard to let go of our little girl, but we are glad she can stretch her wings and fly on her own.  We are looking forward to her coming back to visit the nest before too long.
-Todd

Ladd

Last Saturday morning was a sad one around here.  The kids spent a lot of time outside Thursday - and spent a lot of that time playing with and brushing Ladd.  Friday he was lethargic and didn't seem to want to eat.  When we checked on him Saturday morning, he had passed away.  We are glad we were able to have him with us in his last years.  He really was a good dog, and we miss him.

In memory of Daryl Roberson

I have been blessed to have several Godly men to look up to.  Men that know God better than I do and that are closer to Him than I have been. Men that have been mentors,  advisors, counselors, and examples to me.
Tomorrow we will lay to rest one of them.
Daryl was only 63 when he passed away on Friday from an aneurysm on his aorta. Some of his last words were,  "I'm not afraid."
As it says in his obituary, "He loved God and served him with his whole heart. He enjoyed reading his Bible and encouraged all who knew him with his faith and wisdom."
Every one in our family loved him dearly and we are really going to miss him.
Here is a link to his obituary.
-Todd

Visiting Miss Helen

We have been wanting to visit Helen M. For a long time, but since she is about 7 hours away, we just haven't made it. The kids have mentioned over and over that we just need to go - Helen is in her 90s and we would feel terrible if we waited so long and it got too late. In May, for my combination Mother's Day and birthday, they told me that they would pay for Todd and me to go visit her. I knew that she would appreciate it more if they could be with us. Summer came - everyone was busy. The kids were coming and going and some of them were gone more than they were home. We were gone for our vacation, finally got into our school schedule and then decided to head to Mississippi and combine a weekend of convention there with a visit with Helen. She normally is there for convention. Except this year she wasn't able... So we had wonderful days at convention and then stopped in at her assisted living apartment on our way back north. She was certainly surprised by our visit and we loved seeing her. She loves company!

2015 Vacation - Heading home

We found a hotel with a small waterslide and waterpark that the kids played in Saturday morning.

In the afternoon we headed to our cousins' Greg & Sara's (wish I had gotten a picture of their family) and stayed with them through Sunday lunch.  Then we headed the rest of the way home - stopping in Indy for a gospel meeting. We were all glad to be home, but also sorry for our trip to end.  It was a very relaxing but very busy couple of weeks!

Greg and Sara had plans to go to a friends house for some music Saturday afternoon so we met them there. (Hope you don't mind me borrowing your picture, Becca!)

It was so nice to be in meeting with Becca on Sunday morning.  

2015 Vacation - Laurel Caverns

Pictures didn't turn out very well of this, but it was a fun tour of a cave. I think this may have been the boys' favorite part of the trip (or at least it rivaled Hershey!)