This and That

Tonight I am wishing for another refrigerator and freezer for the weekend. My family is growing by three teenage boys, and I have been making food for the Jackpine Retreat.

I still have a bucket of apples in the refrigerator I would like to make into apple crisp, and I would like to make some blueberry muffins for a friend and possibly visit her for a few minutes tomorrow.

I made some refried beans for our taco dinner Sunday and splatted them out of the blender onto the ceiling. I certainly hope nobody gets a piece of my spoon because it is a tiny bit chopped up. ha ha ha (I guess I was not trained well in blending foods.)

Tonight I sent Mike and the older four kids to town for soccer practice and sent them a list of stuff to do afterwards. I was called about an hour later with the sound of, "Are you coming to the meeting?" I TOTALLY forgot about the meeting I was supposed to attend so threw the three little ones into the vehicle and headed to town. That is the fourth trip to town we made today.

David is getting ready to stand on his own and maybe take a step or two. We have caught him standing alone a couple times already.

Aaron and I picked up one of our lawn mowers from being repaired from one of the Jackpine boo-boos, and I about died when I paid for it. The belt was a dollar over the twenty I was expecting, but the labor is what got me. They had to nearly tear the whole thing apart to get the belt on.

After we picked it up, I had Aaron do some mowing at the church building. There was some sort of problem, and the deck is now smashed. He said he could fix it with a pipe wrench though...

Melissa wanted a fire when we got home so I made her a small one. It was not as much fun without the big kids though--she only lasted around two minutes. It was enough to make her happy though. I suppose part of it is that we had no more marshmallows to roast. :)

We have a gentle rain falling. I also have the radio going. I love the "Music Through the Night" programming.

Hmm...no new pictures to post.

I will see some of you this weekend. The kids have a soccer game tomorrow afternoon.

Soccer Game

We had our first soccer game yesterday. Both the junior and senior teams lost but played hard.
If anyone who is coming to Jackpine is interested, they have games on Friday at 3:00 (Jason and Emily) and 4:30 (Tracy and Aaron) in Warroad as if packing for camping is not enough to cram into your day. :)

Happenings

Sunday
Church
Tracy went to a CTI concert.

Monday
Tracy and Aaron went to water balloon volleyball.
Mike and the four older kids went to a soccer practice for the juniors.

Tuesday
We did school work.
Tracy and Aaron had soccer practice.

Wednesday
We did school work.

Thursday
We did school work.
Mike and the four older kids went to soccer practice while the younger three and I did errands in town and went to the park.

Friday
We did school work.
We had a long day because we were supposed to have a soccer game which got canceled.

Saturday
Mike, Tracy, Aaron, and Emily went to a Kid's Day at our sporting goods store.
In the evening we were invited to a birthday party.
Aaron is now at a Bible study, and Tracy would like to drive to go pick him up.

I did not get letters sent out to the grandparents this week so hopefully some of them will see this. :) We did a lot more, but it is the "little" things I usually write to them about.

Three Down, One to Go

Well, we now have three mowers out at the Jackpine campgrounds not doing a bit of good. :( Did I ever mention I think mowing is a waste of gas, time, and everything else?????? It does smell good when it is freshly mowed though. :)

Canning

I have been busy canning tomatoes, applesauce, peaches, and jelly. We have been busy with soccer and other activities and will start on the fourth week of our school year tomorrow. Other than that, life has been happening; it is quite busy. :)

Congratulations, Tracy!

Tracy studied hard this summer memorizing Bible verses and studied the book of Colossians. Saturday she was in a competition in the cities. She placed 6th for her age group! Yeah, Tracy!!!!!

Itasca State Park

We finally made it to the state park with the youngest two kids.

David at the base of the tower. Because of the HUGE amount of people and limit of six on the tower at a time, I didn't even bother trying to take him up. Had he been awake, I would have considered it.
Laura climbed all the way up.


David at one of the pine trees.


Crossing the headwaters of the Mississippi River...






Trying again...