Pssst...pssst.....I have a secret....

come closer...

a little closer....

I have a secret.

a dirty little secret.

not sure if I should tell you.

only my family knows.

its something that is constantly nagging on me.

i try to hide it.

i try to cover it up.

i'm embarrassed about it.

i don't know how to tell you.

i'm going to have to show you.

are you ready?

i don't think you are.

prepare yourself now.

it may shock you

or not

so here I go

going to bare it all

and show you a part of me i don't often show others.

i hope we'll still be friends after this.

just promise me now

that you won't think less of me after that.

I bet you feel better about yourself now

yup, that's why i did it

and that's why I keep it this way.

this is supposed to be my pantry

slash passageway to the basement

 who's door happens to be in the floor.

every once in a while I clean it.

then we need to go down in the basement.

so I have to empty pretty much the whole area out into the kitchen to open the trap door.

after we are done down there

I just toss it, pack it, throw everything back in there

yup, that's how I roll.

can we still be friends?

Nature Walks

I decided this morning that today would be an excellent day for a nature walk. So after we finished up our most important subjects for school we all loaded into the van with Daddy and headed to town. We stopped at Burger Kings for lunch ( a big treat) and headed out to the town's nature center. Unfortunately we couldn't find it ( I'd been there before but couldn't remember where it was and even after calling a friend we must have taken the wrong turn. We ended up closer to home and decided to check out a nature trail I had heard about from a friend in Grove City.

 It was by the old softball field that I remember going to with my dad when I was little when he was on a church league. The kids thought this was just great. They ran the old bases even though the field was overgrown with grass and weeds.

 

 There was an old swing set and teeter-totter there too and the kids thought that was just awesome. I don't know if they'd even been on a teeter-totter before! I could tell they were getting the butterflies in their tummy's when they'd go up and down.

  We headed out on the trail keeping our eyes on the lookout for anything interesting. The kids caught grasshoppers, slugs and tried to catch a butterfly. We brought home a bag full of pretty pine cones to use for our fall decorations. They climbed as many trees as they could and Owen held tight to a big fat toad that they caught for him. Audrey even learned how to say toad and tried to kiss it a couple times.

 This is one of the many reasons I love homeschooling. The freedom to just head out instead of doing our books for spur of the moment field trips. I love seeing the fascination on the kids eyes when they are learning from nature. And I especially love that I know that they are learning about God from His Creation. 

Blake's Photos

Click on the video to see Blake's Pictures:)

Ethan's Slideshow

Click the video below to watch the slideshow

Clint's Photo's

Click on the video below to see Clint's photos.
I really wish I know how to put this up so you could see it right here on my blog but the only way I could get you to see it is I take you to my Picase Web Album. If you know how to do this please tell me how so I can switch it! Enjoy :)

Audrey's Photos

Click on the video below to see Audrey's pictures from yesterday's photo shoot:)

Owen's photo slideshow

Yesterday I took the kids out in the bean field out behind our property and did a little photo shoot. I put a slidshow together for each of the kids. Hope you enjoy them:)

Click the video below to see photos of Owen in a slideshow.

Ethan the Adventurer

5 on Friday

1. We started school last week. Its been going good. The first week went great. We got up early, ate and did our little chores around the house and we were starting by 8:15 and done about 1. This week has not been like that. Its my fault, I keep shutting off forgetting to set my alarm. Naughty teacher. I'd much rather snuggle in bed with Owen when he gets in my bed at 6 every morning. Next week will be better. I hope!

2.We have a problem with keeping cats alive. Last spring Ben brought home 2 mother cats and all their babies. All the babies died or ran away. Then a few weeks ago the kids found a littler of kittens up in the hayloft of the barn. They brought them down to the main floor and Bruits ,our monster dog, killed most of them. The mama cat moved the rest of them. Then last week the kids found them again but it looked as if they had been neglected and we tried to save them, we brought them into the house ( if you know me at all this is HUGE- I hate having animals in the house!) kept them in a box and fed them. When we felt like they would be okay in the hayloft again they were put back up there but they ended up getting distemper and the last 2 died. The kids are pretty bummed. Daddy brought home a medium size cat home this week that was already tame and friendly. Hopefully for the kids sake this one will live awhile!

3.I've been dreaming again. And boy have they been weird. They've involved our house getting attacked by spiders while we were sleeping, My sister and a cat that she had leased with a Chinese Yo-Yo thingy??, Me peeing on Owen's pillow( not really sure about how I feel about this one!) I actually had to get up and check to see if I had really peed on his pillow- thankfully it WAS JUST a dream!

4.My sister Christa and I have been hired to perform some little acts as the Traveling Tulips coming up in November.

 What's that?

You haven't heard of us?

This is us-

yes I know- you are all jealous of my super hot looks in this picture!

Ben is one lucky man!

 ( he actually HATES that I do this! HAHA!)

We like to do little shows for Bridal Showers, we've done them for MOPS and a Mother/Daughter Brunch.

We are busy trying to find some good ones but we are pretty sure there will be a "seminar" and maybe some "I can smell you breathing" performances. I was so happy find some new wigs for us that are similar to our old ones that my dad accidentally burned. Oh and since Mildred ( my character) had got a new "do" I've decided to change her name to Milly. We are getting excited. We love doing these little acts!

5.I'm going to be an Auntie again! My little sister Jaclyn just called last night to tell me she's "on the nest" again! She is a wonderful mommy already to her little Zander. I can't wait to find out if it will be a little girl or boy. I'm really hoping she names her child after me. Since of course I am her favorite sister- that's right Jessica and Christa- I said it and we ALL know its true :) Anyways looks like the little one will be arriving in May. Hopefully that will make the long fall and winter go a little faster! Congratulations Jaclyn and Justin, you are such great parents! Almost as good as me ;)

Camping on Mille Lacs

I know y'all have been wondering when I was going to show all the pics from our camping trip to Father Hennepin on Mille Lacs.

 The answer is now!

We had such a wonderful time camping. The weather was great. Not too hot. It was pretty windy but that was a good thing because the mosquitoes were really bad.

It was beautiful. The beach was long and sandy. The trails were paved and the boys spent alot of time riding their bikes on them.

After we arrived and got camp all set up, we headed out on the trail to find the beach. It was probably a little less than a mile there through the woods which were really pretty. The kids had fun running on the beach and sticking there toes in.

Brrr...that water was cold!

Audrey went right in the water right away ( in her clothes!) and then proceeded to get caked with sand!

Ben and the boys collected so many pretty rocks on the beach. We came home with a quart jar and a couple other cups full of them!

Remains of a Crayfish

The next morning we set of on the trails to attempt to take some pictures of the kids. 

Here are a few of almost 200 I took. Hardly any turned out and the ones that are somewhat acceptable aren't the best. My camera has been having problems with focusing.

Blake

Clint

Owen

Ethan

Audrey

The whole gang

 I'm not really sure what was going on here. I was adjusting the settings on my camera and noticed this when I uploaded it to my camera. I like how Owen's finger is in his nose and the other boys seem to have found something interesting on Owen's head.

 It is really really hard to get a picture of all 5 kids even looking in the same direction, much less smiling. And then my camera wasn't focusing very well so I didn't get many group shots.

I guess I have to be happy with what I got.

Later in the day, my parents and 2 younger brothers came to camp with us. The boys had so much fun, mostly catching these..

 You might be wondering what these are...they are crayfish. And you are also probably wondering why they are catching them. To eat them of course!

Yup, they cooked them up and ate them. I even tried one and they weren't bad. Kinda tasted like little lobsters.

The Cray fishing gang.
Blake, Ethan, Michael, Clint, Ben, and Josiah

While the boys were busy fishin', my mom and I took Owen and Audrey swimming. It was so cold they didn't go in the water too far.

There were hundred if not thousands of Dragonflies everywhere at the Park. If you looked up in the sky they were swarming everywhere. It was really neat. Owen just kept repeating "dragin tchry" over and over and over!

We found one on the beach that was just about dead and Owen played with that thing for a long time.

This is an Albino Deer we saw as soon as we drove in to the campground. I've never seen one before and I guess this park has several living there. Very neat to see!

We had such a great time at this park and we will definitely be going there again sometime next year.