the silver van

May 8th, 2008, our silver Chrysler Town and Country went down in history. As Terry says, "It was in an accident," as if the van collided with the back of a right turning semi truck of it's own accord. The van must have forgotten that, yes, semi's make wide right turns. The van probably didn't see the right turn signal and thought the semi was turning left and so proceeded to go around the RIGHT turning semi.

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It was, of course, my fault. Completely and totally my fault. A stupid mistake. I was just glad that Terry was only concerned about me and the kids (b/c, yes, the kids were in the van - Evie slept and Noah only said, "Big truck!"). How nice of my husband not to freak out like I expect people to do when I make a mistake.
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Here is the van the day I hit the semi. It caught me by the driver's mirror and pulled me in.

The bumper falling off.

Terry thought about selling the van to a junk yard but the money was too little. So he wanted to fix the van. The problem was that he had no tools, expertise or know-how. He needed someone who did this kind of thing out of his garage and would help him.

Enter his lifting partner, Kevin. Kevin knew just such a guy: Kip Larson. Kip details cars out of his sweet garage. Kip had the tools, the expertise and the know-how. So, Kip has helped Terry along.

Terry bought cheap parts (a bumper, fender and door) from a Dodge Caravan at a junk yard and they fit the Town and Country. The two of them sanded the green paint off the fender and door, filled in the rough areas, painted, clear coated and polished. Actually, they polished the entire van so it's ALL shiny. And now it's ready to be sold. And baby, do we need it sold. God had provided a gold van 2 days after I crashed the silver one for half the price we paid for the silver one which was already very cheap. God will provide a buyer to take care of us too!

This is the original bumper. Terry puts lotza screws and such in it to hold it up (b/c they got pulled out in the crash and that's why it was hanging down) and rivets to piece together the crunched parts. His plan was to get a car bra to cover these up.

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There's the sweet car bra. I think it looks great.

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You would never know that van was in an accident from looking at it now! Great job Terry!

towels and things

The parsonage we live in was sparcely furnished with window coverings when we moved in a year and a half ago. Since then I had been continually "remarking" on how I thought they should be included with the house since all windows are different. Make sense? Well, we felt bad asking. We got our courage up when there was a big sale at ShopKo this week and got the okay.

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This is our room before. Nice towels.

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It's soooo sparce looking!

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And this is our room this morning. Doesn't it look GREAT!? Makes it look like the windows are more substantial than they are.

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The best part will be getting to OPEN the curtains and have actual light in our room. Woo hoo!

...The shelves used to be in Evie's room when it was our office. I really like them in our room. It's so big it wanted filling up.

We have yet to get something up in our bathroom and Noah's bathroom, both of which have towels still... We'll get there though!

shakes the phone

Yesterday afternoon we planned a walk down town to shop for a smart phone that Terry needed for work. Our phones from home just don't cut it since there is no Verizon down here. Plus, if you remember, his palm pilot was stolen in Utah.

And since we were doing that at the adjacent block, we thought we'd pop in for some ice cream too b/c that of course sounded soooo good. However, the last time we went for shakes we had a less than satisfactory customer service experience - we received peanut butter instead of chocolate and a hassle when confronted. But, Terry figured and I agreed that she probably just had a bad day.

And what did we get? A perfect chocolate shake and no hard feelings. We're glad we went back. Here are some shots of our time together.

Noah was blowing rasberries and Evie thought it was great, though mommy did not.

Noah enjoying the last bits.

It was so difficult to get him to sit still so I could get a clear shot of his face and shirt...sugar musta worked fast, plus the fact that he's a 3 and a half year old BOY.

This is why boys need mothers: laundry

Sweet...

thanks mom

We received a really nice blender from Terry's folks last Christmas (thanks B's) but since I saw Terry's cousin's Magic Bullet I thought having one of those too would be cool. I saw Tamera blending up broccoli with the Bullet and serving her son right out of the cup - it comes with all these cool little containers you can blend with, serve from and then store, complete with lids. I thought it would be very useful and convenient for baby foods.

When my mom was here I told her about my idea but she had a better one. Perhaps the small container from her old blender would work with the new base of ours - we had had her old blender (that they received as a wedding gift!). I remembered this today and tried it out - it worked great!

Our new blender glass container vs. mom's old plastic cup

A clear winner for the easy clean up award.

And how did the baby like her food? A little too much. She grabbed the cup and pulled out the spoon since I was messing with the camera.

It might take a week to get all those strawberry seeds out of her neck folds!

She's like a baby bird - priceless

6 months

Yesterday Evangeline was 6 months old! At her checkup on Monday she weighed 16lbs 5oz and was 26 inches long. She's right at the 50% percentile which makes her average. We thought she was taller last month (95% percentile), but I think it was a mistake since her head might not have been at the top of the measuring tape.

So when we got up from bed yesterday, Evie's hair was in fine form. It's getting so long...on top anyway. The sides are quite a bit shorter b/c of her sleeping.

Waiting for her breakfast.

Noah said he was tired and went to "sleep" on the love seat.

Peek-a-boy

We have single pane windows on the front bay window and so it gets foggy once it's cold outside. The mornings are pretty chilly anymore so I keep a sweegie and towel there to clean up the condensation. Terry said to me, "Think he's seen anyone doing that before?"

She's getting pretty good at sitting.



Yummy toes.

the obedient boy

Some people seem surprised at the way I've been potty training Noah. I can sit him on the potty and leave and he'll stay there. It's just that simple. I tell him he needs to stay there until he goes potty and he does stay put. - I have to do it this way b/c he doesn't understand certain cues his body gives him to tell him it's time to go. - He usually always stays there until I come back to check on him, which is quite often. I just leave when I need to do something - put the dog out, get Evie in her chair, change her diaper, answer the phone, whatever.

Today I had to wash the laundry and since Noah wasn't going as quickly as what he's been doing lately, I told him to stay there while I started the clothes. He did. When I was done a few minutes later, Evie was whining in her toy, but more importantly, Noah was doing some considerable crying. He's been known to fake some crying to get out of going potty, but this wasn't one of those times.

So I rushed in there and sat down on the edge of the tub and asked him what was wrong. And he, with tears running down his face, told me there was a spider. I looked all around him and said that I didn't see a spider and told him he could get down. So he rushes over to me, sits on my lap, puts his arms around my neck and cries, telling me over and over, Spider, spider, spider on the wall, scared, scared. Poor guy.

Yeah, so I let him off the hook for going potty. =) I told him we'd go get dressed and put him down to follow me to his room. I was in the doorway to his room and he wasn't with me so I turned around and saw that he was just closing the bathroom door. Here you have to understand that I always leave the bathroom open, and so does Noah. Noah said "Bye bye spider" and locked it in the bathroom. ... Awww

In the bedroom he said he was safe now.

Oh, and Noah loves Charlotte's Web so I don't know what his deal is.

cutest Evie giggles

Sunday evening we went to Terry's cousins house (Tawnya) for their two youngest kids' birthdays. Kellen turned 3 and Kallie 2. Kellen had got a new guitar and drum as one of his gifts so we headed downstairs to see it. Noah went off to play with Percy the steam engine and wasn't interested but Evie thought the drumming was great! I've never heard her giggle like this before. I'm so glad Terry was there with our camera to get most of it.

we made his day

Noah can get obsessive. I think he gets it from his mama. I get so into things sometimes. I LOVED Jennifer Knapp for the longest time. Then I LOVED Caedmon's Call. Then I LOVED Derek Webb. I LOVED Lord of the Rings. I LOVED Harry Potter. Now I LOVE LOST. I LOVE The Office. I LOVE Heroes. Yeah, I get quite excited about some things. Terry doesn't quite understand it.

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Noah is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. He LOVES to play with his Thomas. He LOVES the books. He LOVES the videos.

Prior to today, he only had one Thomas engine to play with, and the jet engine it came with. He is the littler metal version that doesn't fit on the normal wood tracks. So, after a visit to my friend Karla's house last week where her youngest boy has like just about every Thomas train available and Noah had SUCH a good time, we decided this might be something we could start investing in. However, the nice wood trains that fit on the wood tracks are expensive - $15-$20 for just one. Terry went in to the North Platte Walmart to get him one as a treat last weekend and they didn't even have any! So, that left us with almost no options.

Thank goodness for the internet here in the barren Nebraska cornfields.

When we got home Terry hopped on Ebay and bid on one set that looked good out of like 12 pages - 40 engines all in pretty good shape for a reasonable price. Of course, when he started bidding, the price went up, but he won with a good price too. Something like $3-$4 a train. Don't do the math... HA! Or else you'll know how much we spent.

So the package came today and we sneakily gave Noah a few new toys and hid the rest. He got a Thomas, Annie and Clarabel (his coaches), and Thomas' friend Percy, so he had someone to play out the stories with. Yeah, Noah's always telling the stories as he plays. Quite cute.

after the tower

Yeah, so, after The Golden Spike, we went to Cody Park to further entertain ourselves...or rather, to just plain entertain ourselves since we were all a little bored at Bailey Yard. Well, I guess Evie did chew on and perhaps eat a little brochure...

Anyway, Cody Park is pretty much the hub for all the festival's activities. Most of the vendors were packing up but all we really wanted to do was ride the little kid amusement park rides and have some ice cream. I took Noah there last year for this when Terry was at the junior high rally Surge an hour away. Noah had soooo much fun last year. He was like laughing and hooting and hollering he was just having so much fun. It was all brand new! The most exciting thing he'd been on before was a swing. These weren't that much more impressive, but still better.

Oh, and then we had some chocolate ice cream (b/c why would you have anything else but chocolate?). It was great...in a dish. Last year Noah and I stood in line for like 15 minutes to get our cone. We were walking away and had got a couple licks in when it fell off the cone onto the nasty concrete. I'm sure they would have given me another but I was so ready to go.

Here we are on the merry go round carousel. Root! Root bird!

Evie is hanging out with dad and chewing on one of his 26 pairs of sunglasses.

Noah on the little train.

This ride just goes around in circles. Terry didn't think he could stomach it (sensitive w/spinning) so I went again. I have some of the BEST pictures on my phone from this last year. If only we had Verizon down here I could upload them.

Evie giggling later that night...video to come.

The tower

We made a break for it Sunday after church.

We're always complaining that we don't have anything to do (well, one of us is anyway =) ) so we just packed up the kids, fed them in the car and drove to Rail Fest! Yes, Rail Fest. That sounds so Midwestern, doesn't it? Well, fortunately, we live in the Midwest and Noah LOVES trains.

Rail Fest is a festival of trains. Duh Eva. A brochure we picked up says Rail Fest is Home of Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world. It further says that Bailey Yard:

• covers 2850 acres
• has enough room to enclose 2800 football fields
• where 3000 cars are sorted each day
• has 18 receiving and 16 departure tracks

It's a pretty big deal for trains buffs, but Noah's not quite there yet. They just built The Golden Spike which is a tower that overlooks the whole yard. It's 8 floors or 95 feet high with a 360 degree view. It was okay. Yeah, just okay. Paid $12 for Terry and I to be there w/the kids for like 45 minutes. So just okay. Noah had fun coloring on a computer screen - yes, he was supposed to do that. There were four different blank pictures you could select from and then pick a color to fill in all the various parts of the train, or dude, or whatever.

Here Noah is coloring.

About to spring up the binoculars.

Awww. He looks so cute.

Here is Noah and I in front of the tower. I had to hold his head towards the camera b/c he wouldn't. Silly boy.

counting feet

Terry just told me this story while we were at the park w/the kids and it cracked me up. He said that he was in the kitchen for lunch and had just made some lemonade. Snap came in the room and Terry took the opportunity to teach Noah that Snap has 4 feet. He crouched down and counted each Snap foot individually out to Noah. He said, See, Snap has 4 feet and no hands. Noah looked at his feet perplexed and then grabbed one of Snap's front paws and gestured to Terry that YES he does have hands, "Right here!"

Terry laughed and said, No, Snap has 4 feet and no hands. Noah proceeds to walk over to Evie in her highchair, grabs one of her feet and says, "Foot!"

What a boy we have.

harvest festival

Saturday the 20th was our town's annual Harvest Festival. There's a parade to start things off and then the park on the main drag turns into fair ground central with food and other assorted vendors, kids games and competitions.

At 10am we headed over to Terry's aunt and uncle JoAnn and Herb's house who live on the main drag directly across from the park! We had premo seats, although when the sun got above the trees, we were pretty hot and squinty. But it was good nonetheless. And we had company - Terry's family and some other friends from church. Last year it was pretty chilly and we didn't know anyone. This year was much more enjoyable. Yeah, and last year Noah had no clue what was going on. He just had this inquisical look on his face the whole time. We had to get the candy for him and everything. This year he knew just what to do, although he calls candy "candle." Habits are hard to break.

After the parade we had lunch inside while Terry wrangled up some high school kids to help with the kids booth. The (very) small Christian school puts on a kids booth with a variety of games to raise money and asked Terry to help last year. He did again this year, although the kid helpers grumble somewhat, but at least they helped!

Firetrucks!

Candy retrieving. Next to Terry is Andrea Carlson, the blonde girl is Kalli (Tawnya and Tim's youngest), Kellen w/the hat (T & T's middle with a heart defect - 5 heart surgeries and 2 brain surgeries), JoAnn (Tawnya's mom and Terry's aunt), Herb clapping (JoAnn's husband).

Gothenburg marching band just passed.

Why yes, that's a llama. Yaaeee! I'm a llama again!