the forking

Fairly early on August 29, one week after school began, Terry exited our house to begin a run and discovered an interesting phenomenon had occurred to our cars and lawn the night before. Either some person(s) defaced our cars and lawn OR there has been sufficient billions of years for this random mutation of window paint and forking to have taken place. Frankly, I think people were responsible. 

Forks in our lawn!

Forks up the deck stairs... 

Forks down the driveway, not to mention the cruel window paint! 

"May the forks be with you!" Ha! As if we're fork pantheists around here.

There were even forks under the windshield wipers and car bra.

We know who it was. And I will even be so bold as to name names. NATASHA!!! JAZMIN!!! EMMA!!! 

Saturday night Jazmin let it slip to me that she and Emma were staying the night with Natasha, who lives only about a mile from us. The last time they had slept over they ended up at our front door with silly string, which they sprayed on us upon the threshold. A lengthy water fight ensued after we endured this offensive action. When I learned that Jazmin and Emma were again going to Natasha's I informed Jazmin that they should not dare to inflict more silly string upon us, innocent as we are. She ensured me they wouldn't...but then we woke up to this!!! The horror!

Most would say the second sleepover, after the events of the first, is more than mere coincidence and corroborates their involvement in this newest contemptible exploit against us. However, I have more evidence. Our neighbor witnessed two girls in a white Jeep at our house that morning (Jazmin drives a white Jeep!). In addition, when I opened Evie's curtains that morning, I beheld with my own eyes Jazmin and Emma driving by very slowly and taking photos of our yard before speeding guiltily away. Furthermore, at youth group last week Natasha drew the exact likeness of the same angry face on my name tag as was painted on my window!!! Bam. Nail in the coffin.

Photographic evidence of our neighbor's presence across the street.

Terry, Noah, and Ezra were pretty happy with their likenesses painted on the Envoy windows. Er, I mean they were posing with the evidence for future examination... Well, I guess Ezra was more interested in putting his fork in the Envoy's tire tread.

Evie and Samuel loved their paintings as well, but as you can see, I was rather downcast about my angry face depiction. 

Evie the princess. 

Samuel with his crazy Harry-Potter-stand-up-and-never-lay-flat hair. 

Next we had the kids collect the forks for DNA testing.

Terry was terribly upset by the incident. 

Look how it addled his brain became. He couldn't handle the emotional pain that was inflicted by with such a malicious act. 

Noah won the most forks...but he forgot to wear gloves to protect the evidence.  

Looks like they all forgot gloves. 

But perhaps the very worst aspect of this entire crime was my own unjust painting. I am sure I have never made such a face in my whole life, especially to Natasha, Jazmin, or Emma. What did I ever do to them to earn such a horrible depiction. I am scarred from this terrible, hurtful representation. 

I will point out again, Natasha drew this exact same face on my name tag. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!!

I had so many desperate feelings, words were not enough. I needed Noah to snap pictures to fully represent my heartbreak. 

I will never be the same.

long live summer

I think on this first day of fall it's appropriate to say how much I love summer...not fall. I hate being cold and during every other season of the year I am cold. So summer is rather enjoyable. Plus I love the long days, the golden light, and sandals. I don't like wearing coats, much less wrapping four children, okay two children, in coats, snow pants, boots, mittens, and hats. Blech! 

Long live summer!

On August 28, the Sunday after our first day of school, I posted this photo to Instagram declaring I never wanted to let go of summer. I especially mean that on this gloomy, dark, sleepy fall day. 

Terry filled up a few water balloons for the kids.

See the golden light?! It's wonderful!!! 

Good bye summer :(

Poor Terry: What Happened the Night of the Sleepover

The first weekend after school began we had our second sleepover swap with Asher and Elle. While driving home with some Papa Murphy's pizza I pulled into the National Guard parking lot to take in the incredible storm that was moving in.

The sky opened up once I was home and we were highly entertained, or terrified in Evie's case, watching the storm from the windows while dinner baked in the oven. Terry was nice enough to rescue my poor twice beat up fuscia from the hail. Man, I should have rewarded him better than I did...

Once dinner was done I snapped this picture and sent it to Frannie, just wanting her to see what Elle was up to.  

This is what she sent back to me.  

I couldn't stop laughing. HA! So, because I'm a mature adult I forwarded both pictures to our Lead the Cause group of students and leaders. During that trip, one of our only diversions was to send bad pictures of each other to the group. I thought they would enjoy this picture of Terry. Yeah, they did.  Hilarious. Poor Terry. Later that night Silas sent this photoshopped gem back to the group, reminiscent of what he did to Jazmin the entire LTC trip. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Nighty night time for the girlies.

then and now on the hill

Hanging on our fridge because I love it so much, is this picture of Terry and I from our early dating days. Actually, it's possible that it could be the first picture of us after we started dating. As I recounted in my post about our recent four wheeler ride to the top of this hill, shortly after we started dating, Terry drove me up his hill, gave me roses, and took this picture. I distinctly remember having to borrow shorts from Shari because it was blazing hot and I only had pants. It was August of 2002 when I was almost 21 and Terry was nearly 24. Golly!

So when we drove up there to explore and take family pictures in August, I wanted to recreate this old photo. It was a nice thought, but perhaps it would have been more pleasant for my ego to forgo the side by side comparison. We've both gotten older and I especially look terrible! No makeup, bad hair, bad clothes, no magical golden light. Perhaps we both need to go back to that hair. Oh well. It's still fun. Maybe we should do it every ten years or something :D

I like this desaturation a bit better. Helps mask some of the differences. 

My, how we've grown!

Fair 2016

On the third day of school, Wednesday, August 24, 2016, we went to the Central States Fair with Terry's dad, as has become tradition. When we first moved back in 2012, Jerry surprised me and took Noah and Evie all by himself. In 2013, Jerry and Alice took them together along with Grace. 2014 was the first year Terry and I went along and discovered what great fun it was. Last year we missed because we were on vacation in Kerkhoven with my brother and Ana. This year the six pack was back at it. Plus Grace. :D

The first thing we did was the ferris wheel, however, Ezra and Samuel were terrified.

They were clinging to us and crying and begging to get off. But we just knew that if we held out, they would enjoy themselves. And that's totally what happened! We rode the ferris wheel two or three more times that day at their request. They ended up loving it the most out of anything. Sometimes you have to push through the complaints parents! 

I think we hit just about everything this year. 

Next we went to the carousel. Two years ago Ezra couldn't even hold on all by himself. He's such a big boy now! All potty trained and everything.

Two day apart cousins! 

"This is nothing compared to Grampa's roller coaster!" And it wasn't.

This Condor ride was the one big kid one that Terry rode on. He's not a fan of things that go in circles and at the fair that's all there is. 

Grampa went on the the biggest swing with Noah (he has a yellow shirt and his hands up, on the left). 

I said I could hold up well in spinning rides so I rode along with all the kids on the spinning bears. I regretted it half way through. I guess I'm not as young as I like to think. 

Near the end of the day, Noah and I separated from the rest and rode all the big kid rides. After waiting like 45 minutes we finally got on the big swing. I wasn't about to put my arms in the arm like Noah. 

Back over to the little swing. 

We did the slide all together also. 

I love this moment of panic on Ezra's face. Ha! 

Noah and I went on the biggest, scariest ride twice. This big arm spun you around and then turned you upside down. It was awesome. 

Okay, the little driving vehicles might have tied for favorites with the ferris wheel for these littles. 

Carousel with Daddy. 

Reminded me of two years ago:

AWWWW!

Evie waited in line for quite a while to finally ride the smaller swing and then we headed to dinner at Culvers. We were quite starving after four hours at the fair!