Stormy is 1 year!

It's Stormy's 1st birthday! We nearly missed it - I thought it was tomorrow! LOL Not that it matters, but I thought it would be fun for the day care kids to celebrate his birthday. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow. Tonight we gave him a tuna treat with sprinkles on top! LOL Damon bought him the glittery Halloween mice on Saturday. Stormy loves those things.

Water Ski Show

We went to see our local water ski team perform. Pathetically we've lived here for 14 years and never have seen them perform!  Of course their shows are on Wednesday & Sunday nights when we have other plans.  It was fun to go yet this summer. Beautiful weekend for the game Saturday night and show Sunday night! The Rock Aqua Jays are very talented, accomplished skiers - they were 2nd at nationals this year.

Snappers Game

On the playground while Damon bought tickets. Huge cheesy smile!

At the game with Dad!

There was pizza, slushies, ice cream and ring pops!

And lots of goofiness!!

Running out of cash! The kids couldn't believe it!

Brett & friend with Snappy at the Beloit Snappers game. Brett does not like costumed characters. The kids stood in line & when they got close Brett looked up at me & said "I'm freaked out" with a frown. If Ellah wasn't there, he wouldn't have done this. I bribed him with a ring pop!

They won! In the bottom of the 9th after being tied for several innings! Fireworks after the game too!

MI State Shirt

From Auntie Shanda

Brett Helping

I asked Brett to help the little guy get his "shoes" off. Brett said "He's such a smart little guy! And he's strong!" I will miss his help after school starts!

Brett Said

• "Look Mom! I'm a cat!" He was looking at his shadow on the door.  (It's a twisty balloon for a tail.)
• Damon went to bed early. Brett was ready for bed too. Damon pretty much always tucks Brett in after he tells me good-night.  He hugged me and walked away saying "It looks like you'll be tucking me in tonight."  
• Brett found out my middle name is "Lynn".  I asked him if he liked it. "Yeah, but I'd like it better if it was Rachael."  Why?  "I just feel it's a good name for a girl."
• During meeting: He put two bookmarks in my hymn book. One at #1 and then at #11. He whispered, "I marked your pages so you can find all the Jesus songs."
• Wearing his football gear: "I bet it would be hard to sleep with all this stuff on."
• The kids were talking about pets dying. I said "They don't live forever." Brett said "Nothing lives forever...except clouds."

Josie in the Window

Wordless Wednesday

Door Co & Wkend Pictures

The rest of our pictures are here: Door Co & Wkend

We went to stay the weekend with these people & they took us to Door Co. 

Cave Point

We went to lunch at Al Johnson's - the Swedish restaurant with goats on the roof.

Stopped here for a few things, including pickled beans & hot garlic pickles, which the guys sampled in the car.

We got to see these people (and their dog) and their new house. It was Sarah's birthday!  Fun weekend!

Blissed Out

Stormy is snuggling under a blanket on top of the dryer (on of his favorite places to sleep). The one little girl that *loves* him is here again today and she's been playing baby with him. I think he really enjoys it! Spoiled is what he is!

Brett in Door Co.

Over the weekend we went to Door Co. with Duey & Kandace. Thanks for the very fun weekend D & K. It's nice when you have friends you can feel so comfortable with. Great hosts with a beautiful home too.  Thanks too for driving us around all day Duey! It was our first experience in Door Co. Can you believe that?! I always thought it was farther away (although it's still a hike from here). Here's a few pictures of Brett. I'm uploading the rest of our pictures to Flickr now! Funny thing - while we were in this area, we (guys first!) spotted one of my previous day care mom's!  I haven't seen her in 1 1/2 years but we ended up running into each other way up there.  Fun.

Stormy Inspired Art

By Blaine, 4 years

By Alli, 7 years

Playing with Stormy

Stormy is such a good patient! The kids were playing Dr. with him again this morning. He allowed them to play with him for a good hour! He's sleepy so he just lays there while they do their thing. This time we gave him treats so that helped.  I love that they can play with him. Finally he went under the bed, something he rarely does, but a cat has to have some peace after a while! 

He's even wearing beads in this picture.

Puppies {Eight of them!}

Over the weekend we got to see Mom & Dad's 8 new German Shepard puppies! They will be just 2 weeks old tomorrow.  Dayna's such a good mommy!  Daddy dog doesn't get to be near, not even in the garage, or she barks.  They're just too, too cute!

Drawn to Life

Brett wanted this game after seeing a friend play it. He talked us into getting it for him and he's played it non-stop *more than he should have* over the last week. I figured the nonsense will end soon anyway with school starting.  Yesterday he mastered it. One week.  The goal is to "find Heather" (my understanding - I really don't know all the details) & he did it. You'd think he wouldn't want to play it anymore now. Nope.

Week 2

It's Damon's 2nd week at his new job. It's going like, well, how new jobs go!  This morning he sent a picture of his desk so we can picture where he's at.  

Layout of the Week

I'm thrilled to have the honor of having LOTW at Shabby Shoppe!  I'm looking forward to spending the $10 gift certificate on more scrapbooking kits. Their stuff is the best!

PS.  Last night when I told Brett I loved him at bedtime, he said "I love you 500 ft higher than the tallest building." I love that one too! ♥  I've been thinking:  kids who know such great love when they're small, {hopefully} will know great love when they're older.  I couldn't wish more for him than to have a spouse/family to love, close friends, parents he can fully look up to & love and especially a great love for Truth which seems to be growing in him already.

Interior Design Class Projects

I've been wanting to put this together for a while, and I did start way back when with this living room perspective project.  I know these projects are old and outdated looking (these are nearly 20 years old!) but they are part of my {very small portfolio} and I want to include them. I might someday need it, maybe not. Either way, it's been fun!

This was the class that I became excited about something specific: windows.  Even though it involved plenty of math, it was the kind that made sense to me. These projects were turned in with measurements/yardage requirements. This class is why I chose my first job at House of Blinds and then went on to work at Eddie Z's doing Shop At Home sales. Loved that job! The weekends and expenses of driving my own car became too much so my next job was at a small furniture store in town. No design knowledge necessary there really, just sales but that was OK too.

Perspective drawing class. These were fun projects! Some people's looked like photos, they were so good.  I was just pleased mine turned out this well!  It was a good skill to learn - not that I could do it now! - but I'm sure computers are used more than actual hand drawings. I interviewed at Ethan Allen and they wanted to know about my rendering skills. When I was at Thomasville we did floor plans and some girls did color renderings. I felt it was more time consuming than it was worth.

I don't remember what class this was for - did we have just an accessories class? Maybe - we did floral arranging too- or maybe this was part of display?  Anyway, accessories make a room!  My "client" for this project was loosely based on the lady I lived with at the time.  I love all the details in a dining room but lots of homes-like ours-don't even have them any more except the bigger, grander homes.

This really isn't my style of room, but we were given the type of furniture to draw. I like the color board. Not the drawing so much.  That's one thing about the program - I went in really favoring a specific style {traditional} and left appreciating all of them and favoring more of a transitional style. These classes were so fun & I pretty much got all A's. I'd love to go back someday & finish the next degree, but I think I have enough education goals for now with ECE!  I have more class projects & actual decorating job projects too that I'll post eventually.

Swim Playdate

Last night Brett was invited to swim with a neighbor/day care friend. K is crazy about Brett. We've known her since she was just 4 months. Her big sister was gone though. It was warm and the pool was a perfect size for him. I visited with the mom for 1 1/2 hrs about gardening, school, work, etc.  A great way to spend one of the last summer evenings before school starts. Which we're really not talking about that much...we bought a new lunch bag and some Sketchers. Suppose we better get some school supplies next week!  We went to registration on Wednesday so fall pictures are done, all forms are turned in and we're all paid up. We're just not ready for summer to be over yet so we're going to deny it a little longer...another week or so!