Church Retreat

We got to spend a good chunk of our weekend out at Camp Mennoscah for church retreat! The weather was ideal and camp provided a much needed break for our family.

The boys both LOVE to play carpet ball. 

 Levi spent the first hour at camp taking me around and doing every activity he could find to do.  Noah pretty much hung out with his buddies the entire time. They were busy playing football most of the weekend!

 We even managed to set up our tent and get our beds ready all before Ben even got to camp!

 Levi and Delaney tested out the river.

 We ate delicious food - and there's just something about being at camp that makes me feel hungry and food always tastes better while camping.

 The boys ate meals with their friends, too! I think Levi was first in line for each of the three meals we ate there.

 Saturday evening we enjoyed a variety show that included music, juggling,

 Minute-to-Win-It games and other fun and funny activities. The evening activities ended with a campfire under the huge, star-filled Kansas sky. After that, we let the boys stay up for a while longer playing and then finally it was time for bed. Unfortunately, we didn't sleep very well due to a yard light shining down on us, allergies and other nigh time noises.

 But when morning came, it was nice to wake up all together in our snug tent. That's my favorite part of tent camping - waking up together in the tent. During the night, the tent can make me feel vulnerable but then in the morning with the sun shining it feels like our own little bubble.
After breakfast we enjoyed Sunday worship together.

 The kids loved singing camp songs and eventually loosened up to act a little crazy too.

 The boys had waited all weekend for "after Sunday lunch" so they could finally get in the river!

 These boys even played football in the river!

 We had a wonderful time at camp!

House Progress

We're just days away from moving into our house! Over a week ago, we moved everything from our storage area in the farm house to our storage room at the new house. 

 The boys were super helpful, Noah drove the 4-wheeler and Levi kept me entertained while I unloaded the trailer.

 We made a fantastic team, and thankfully Noah was very careful even on our bumpy yard.

 I snapped a few photos around the house, although these don't come close to showing all the progress that's been made.

 Kyle came and hung all but a small handful of light fixtures.

 Ben moved dirt in so our front landscaping beds will be ready for plants. Speaking of, landscaping is like a whole other beast. My goodness. We're are thankful for the landscape plan we had drawn up so all we have to do is follow it and we know that in the end we should have a beautiful yard. It'll take us a long, long time...

 The half-bath downstairs is pretty much done - just waiting on the faucet!

 The butcher block top for our island arrived. It's beautiful solid maple (this terrible picture doesn't show it well).

 Jeremy got the ceiling detail completed in the sun room, too.

 The island top has been broken in with spelling sentence homework by Noah. The first of many hours of homework to be done at the island.

As of today, we started moving in furniture, dishes, pots and pans. We've brought in rugs and chairs and desks and bookcases. We hope to spend a few more days this week moving more stuff and then we'll wrap it up on Saturday when friends come to help us move the big furniture!

House Progress

The house keeps moving forward, day after day, more and more gets done and we're closer and closer to having a place that feels like our home. 

One of the biggest struggles, stresses, predicaments we've faced while building has been our septic system. I never EVER thought I'd be so concerned about what happened to our poop. Some of the issues have been, high water table, sandy soil and the flood plain. For a good couple of days, Ben dug holes out in the field with the skid steer and then the men would gather around with their hands on their hips to see if the hole would fill with water. 

Just last week a crew started installing our mound septic system. The first thing that went in was our lovely new septic tank. I took this photo looking out our living room window - thankfully it's all covered up with dirt now!  The mound hasn't been put in yet...so at this point we're only half way to a full septic system.

Our kitchen island is looking lovely, no? :-)

Our garage continues to be a wood shop, full of painted wood. I'm guessing Kenton and Zach will be very happy to not see white paint for a long time after they complete our house!

 Our new kitchen appliances arrived today. That's the back of the fridge - the range and dishwasher are hiding behind it.

 Kyle has been busy installing lots of light fixtures around the house over the last week. Today, the yellow barn lights for the office went up. I was so nervous about those lights, but I think they're just right.

 The downstairs hallway is coming together. The lights are up, and Kenton has been busy building and installing the built-in shelving.

 Our kitchen (the photo is dark because none of the lights in the kitchen are working just yet) has come along way this week. We got counter tops, back splash and lights.

 Paul, our patient and perfectionist tile guy is just about done. He's tired of spending time in our master bathroom and he'd be done if I hadn't decided to extend the back splash above our vanity. Next week, he can wrap it up and call it quits for good.

 Paul's done amazing work and we're loving our bathroom.

 Carpet was installed in the boys' bedrooms. There are two shelves yet to be installed on the red (and in Noah's room, blue) wall and then their rooms are done.

 A ton of my time has been consumed by picking out towel bars, cabinet knobs and handles, mirrors and medicine cabinets and as of today, I think I'm done. It felt so good to place that last order and feel like all those little/really big decisions are done.

We've decided on a move-in date, October 4, and that feels good too. We have a date to work towards. We don't have to rush and the house will completely done by then (assuming I quit adding things to Jeremy's list). 

Goodbye Harold, Hello Cancer

To say life has been full lately would be an understatement. On Monday we said farewell to our beloved dog Harold. On Tuesday, my mom had a lumpectomy. Not the best start to a week, for sure.

Just going in chronological order...Monday was a sad day. We got Harold from the Humane Society back in November and Ben worked so hard to train him and it worked so well. Harold was a quick learner and he adored Ben.

 He was playful,

 curious and sincere,

 always ready for an adventure,

sometimes so ready that we had to hold him back.

 But this summer, in the middle of July he got sick. He wouldn't eat and even after spending a week at the vet he never got better. He would eat, but sparingly and he would often throw up. He was miserable, although he continued to be a cheerful dog. Then over the weekend he stopped eating. And so on Monday we said goodbye. Here he is on Monday morning, skinny and tired even though he just got up. It was so hard to decide what to do with him, and depressing to watch him decline more and more.

 We're missing him. He was a constant companion around the yard and made every walk and bike ride an adventure.

The boys claim they're ready for a new dog, but I don't think Ben and I will be ready to start over again with a dog for a little while. 

Next up: cancer. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer about two weeks ago. After a biopsy, the unusual spot found on her mammogram was determined to be malignant. Small, seemed to be contained, but malignant nonetheless. 

**Apparently, I have no good pictures of my mother...these are the best two recent photos I have of her...**
Anyway, yesterday she had a lumpectomy done. It is certainly an odd reality to face the fact that your parents, in this case my mother, are aging. I know, I know, I know. Breast cancer happens to people of all ages, it has nothing to do with her age. I get that. It's just that this is the first health related issue that's happened to either one of my parents since my dad had melanoma when I was so young I can only remember it with the fuzziest of images in my head. They are healthy people. We haven't sat in waiting rooms waiting for a surgeon to come and talk to us. We haven't walked this path. But now we are.

We're awaiting the pathology report on the lymph node the surgeon removed. We're praying that it's clear and healthy. If it's clear then mom does 6 weeks of radiation. If it's not then the journey takes a left hand turn toward chemo, followed by radiation.
It's been quite a week around here - and it's only Wednesday!

Water, wind and fun

We had a whopper of a storm blow through the other night. Winds brought down trees and branches and wiped out our electricity. Levi and I didn't sleep well with the storm raging outside, but Noah and Ben got good rest. All together we got more than 4" of rain overnight!

On Labor Day afternoon, the boys took full advantage and played in the water!

 Harold and I hung out on the bales. :-)

 And while some of my flowers blew over in the storm, and others are simply worn out from a summer of growing, a few bright zinnias remain.

We're thankful that we simply had some tree clean-up to do and not more. Others near us had more damage from the winds another reminder of how powerful nature is!