Graduation Day!

Well, we made it through one big change in our lives! One of my babies is all grown up and graduated from high school! The service was nice - Pastor Mark Bishop spoke and she received her diploma after singing a few songs with the school choir and with Eric Wilson and Fransisco. It was a great night! I have mixed feelings about letting go and feeling old, etc., but I guess that's normal! I will post pictures later this weekend. I sent her some flowers to school on Wednesday and surprised her! Her dad, Michelle, Grandpa and ma Melchor, cousins Sam and Rudy and Matt and Emilie all came along with my dad, Teresa, Mom, Heather & Brian, Aunt Tara, Trisha, Nana and Len, Grandma Reid. We took lots of pictures! Amber is a little nervous as well (and should be:) about a new chapter in her life beginning! She is all registered and paid to go to Hyles Anderson this fall. It was neat, Trisha brought a photo album that had pictures of Amber and Brooke in it. There was one picture of Trisha at her graduation holding Amber and Amber was crying. She found out that Trisha was going away to college and thought she was leaving that night! How sweet! So, we got a picture of Amber and Trisha that night!

I have been oh so tired all week. Summer's are hard because it is so doggone nice outside and hard to be inside because of it. I love being outside and therefore the housework gets ignored and then its rush rush rush to get everything ready for the next day, resulting in me not getting into bed til 11pm or so and then getting up at 4am and hoping I don't get awakened inbetween those times by anyone which is never the case! I am so thankful I get to sleep in tomorrow! I went to Kyle's open house tonight and got to see a lot of people from First Baptist that I haven't seen in a loonggggg time! That was fun! Jeremy went to the property to get wood to build chicken cages and hunted for turkey for awhile before coming home. The chickens go to the meat market Monday morning...

Thursday night, we let Isaac have fun with a toy for his birthday - we couldn't wait to give it to him (his birthday is Sunday). We bought a go cart for kids 6 and up and he loves it. He was a little nervous at first, but after learning how to drive it and control it, it's the greatest thing in the world! It has a remote control so if we need to, we can kill the engine for safety reasons! The chickens were flying when he tore through the yard by their shed! Thank goodness none of them died of a heart attack! He loved the horn on the cart as well!

Well, I've got everyone else to bed and sleeping so I'm off to bed as well. I hope to take the kids to the mall tomorrow morning for a few things and then we have another open house to go to (maybe 2) in the afternoon. Busy day again! Jeremy is going turkey hunting in the morning again, rain or shine. Sunday we are celebrating Isaac's birthday and then going to his kindergarten graduation at 6pm at church and the kids' school awards are that night as well. I will post pictures tomorrow hopefully. Have a great weekend!

One more Picture

The whole gang for the "hay" ride
Jeremy is the designated driver
One more pictures

More pictures

Like Brooke's new doo?
Grandpa and Erin
Grandpa and Lyndsay
Curt and Nikie
Grandma Teresa and Lyndsay

Pictures from Memorial Weekend

Curt in Mid air at the sand pile
Jeremy getting the kinks out of the minibike
me bouncing around...
The swamp on our property
Grandma Teresa and Erin learning, I hope, how to sew (Grandma already knows how)

We had fun today as well - went to the property for lunch and got to ride the toys a little as well - even us "old" folks had fun! I probably won't be able to move tomorrow morning!

Memorial Weekend Fun

Hi there - what a busy weekend! Friday I got to go on the field trip to the Birch Run Wilderness Park with the kids. It was soooo cold! The park was a lot nicer than the last time I went (about 10 years ago)! The kids loved the lions and tigers. They had all kinds of animals! I left there around 12:30pm partly because of the cold and the teens went to play putt-putt and the younger ones were just playing on the playground the rest of the time. I met Jeremy in town and we got some weed mat for the garden and went home to plant the garden. We planted most of it before getting the kids from school at 3pm. Then planted the rest as I had help with the baby. The girls made cookies and left for a youth activity at 5pm. I watered the garden by hand, then planted flowers in my pots and next to the shed. Jeremy tilled up my flower garden out by the road and I planted some seeds there as well. The kids were having a blast playing outside.

Saturday, we did more yard work, uncovered the pool to get that going, and got things ready for the big picnic in Millington at our property with family. I went to a beautiful wedding at church at 2pm while Jeremy took the boys out to Millington to get things ready and mow. After the wedding, the girls and I went to the property. Jeremy's mom, Len, sister and her girls, brother and his family were all coming for a picnic. I invited Heather and Brian, but they didn't come. It was a spur of the moment thing, but was a lot of fun! The dogs all enjoyed each other and the kids were in seventh heaven playing on the go cart, dirt bike, and sand pit. We had to send Amber out to get them when it started getting dark! We had a campfire and smores and I left to come home at 12:00 midnight!

Sunday morning, went to church and then left to go and visit my dad and Teresa up north. The kids had fun. The mosquitos were bad so we didn't stay outside for too long. We went for a short walk up the road and down by the river. But, we visited and watched a movie I remember my dad taking us to see when I was about 6yrs old called "The Song of the South". He found it on DVD at a flea market. I've never seen it for sale anywhere! I remember my dad laughing in the theater at the laughing place! We had pizza from Shananjacks (very good) and Dad showed Brooke a few things on the guitar before we left at 9pm to come home. Today, I am going out to the property to see if Jeremy, Pastor and Jack want any lunch, then will come home to relax a bit and get things ready for tomorrow. It looks like rain today! I wonder if anyone will shoot a turkey out there today?! Yesterday morning, I went out to feed our chickens/turkeys and had my PJ pants on - they have flowers on them. I quickly knew they were the wrong choice when the turkeys started eyeballing the flowers on them! They can hurt now when pecking at things! They are cute- they follow you everywhere! I will post some pictures later today, but have to get going! Have a great day!

Chris

One More Picture!

She is tired, but Oh so Cute!

Bear with me as I update...

Erin in Grandpa's "pool"

Maggie loves baby Lyndsay!
Isaac
We stopped at Simons in Millington to get gas on the way home and saw this in the yard next door! She was actually petting it when we left!

I said before that I'm learning the different ways to post pictures, etc. I am trying to move the pictures to the right into the original post for those pictures instead of the continuous line on the right that kept adding up. So, some of the pictures have been removed and put with the blog for that day in the archives. I can't do it all in one sitting so little by little it will change as I get the time. Anyway, we get to sleep in tomorrow and go on the field trip to the zoo (Birch Run Winderness park) with the kids/school! Erin is very excited! Here are some more pictures to enjoy of last weekend, etc.

What a week!

Hi there - think I gave up? Well, my husband was home last Friday with the stomach flu/virus. Finally around 3pm he was feeling up to being out of bed. We went out to Millington after I got home from work. Erin was so excited to finally be "making our beds" at the camper! I have to admit that I was, too. We went for a nice walk that night and scared up some deer in the back field. We were listening to the turkeys in the woods and could also hear fawns crying for their mamas. We had a campfire that night and went to bed very very tired! Erin fell off the bed some time during the night and slept on the floor for part of the night! During the night, I got the chills, etc. along with a belly ache and ended up in bed most of Saturday or laying on the couch in the camper. It was bad! My father in law came over at around 2:30pm and took Isaac and Erin (who were bouncing off the walls) for a ride in his truck around the property while I crashed with Lyndsay. He came back and offered for me to go to his house so he could help watch Isaac and Erin. I was back in bed and told him I didn't really feel like going anywhere! (Jeremy had run to the store that morning and got cereal for him and the kids and then took them into town with him a few hours later and came back with chicken strips and potatoes for lunch). So, he offered to take them to his house and I told him I would come and get them after the baby woke up! She and I woke up at 5:15pm! I went to pick the kids up and they were having a blast. Erin had taken a nap, they had both fallen into the water hole where his pool used to be (the wind knocked it down this winter) and had their clothes washed and dried. While I was there, Erin and Isaac went back outside and looking out to check on them found Erin in her sweatshirt, underwear and nothing else running back through the water again! So, we gave up, got the cameras out and took some pictures! We went home that night. Sunday was church and then back out to the property to have dinner (steaks on the grill!), then back to church again. Jeremy got some biolage planted out back and the corn is also planted as well. Back to work on Monday. All of the kids have been getting belly aches and bathroom blues all week! Hopefully they won't get it as bad! My sister got it as well over the weekend. Monday, she ended up having to put one of her old mares down - she got sick during the night and wasn't going to get better. Amber stayed home from school til 1pm to help her because she was watching my girls that day. Long day for her! Tuesday was yard work day and we stopped at the Greenhouse to buy garden plants and flowers! Tonight we did a bunch of running around - new garbage disposal to replace a leaking one, to Walmart for a few things the kids need for their field trip to the zoo Friday, and to Gander Mountain for a turkey call and more seed. I'm tired and am off to bed! I hope to post some pictures in the next day or two - got some neat ones! We have Fri-Mon off from work! Oh, I did go and get my hair fixed (don't remember if I said that already, sorry) and my nose is finally returning to normal looking - the people at work got a kick out of my story! By the way, nose hairs to come in handy for certain things, but I won't discuss that here!:) Have a great day tomorrow and I'll post more this weekend!

Chris

Thursday night...

I'm waiting to go to bed... We seemed to have caught a stomach virus or something - our babysitter was sick Wednesday so who knows? Jeremy really wasn't feeling well tonight and even came home before dark from the property! I plan on spending tomorrow night in Millington at the camper so I thought I'd post a little tonight. I had Monday off and we didn't have any power from 4:30am til 11:30am. Jeremy said I picked a bad day to take off - it was cold and rainy. But, I took a little siesta with Lyndsay at 9am til Erin woke up at 9:30am and took a nice swim in the hot tub with Erin in the afternoon while Lyndsay napped. A leisure day for me which doesn't happen very often. I went out and mowed the lawn (which I thoroughly enjoy doing) after that while Lyndsay napped again! So, I feel like I had a great day off for the most part! Tuesday night, I got hot dogs ready for supper at the camper and went to Millington with Jeremy. He took off to disc the field so our neighbor could plant corn. I was going to start the campfire so we could roast the hot dogs (easy right?). I went to light our handy dandy propane torch (Tim the tool man would be proud) and held it too close to the ground while waiting to get a match to stay lit. BOOM - backdraft right into my face and knocked me to the ground. I stood up, saw smoke coming from my head, thought I might be on fire and dropped and rolled! I got up, asked Isaac (eyeballs as big as saucers) if I was on fire anywhere - he nodded NO. My arms and nose were burning! Poured water over both and felt my hair - very scary! My hair was singed and stuck together - so much for my highlights and cut the week before. I found some antibiotic cream in the camper and applied that, then went to my father-inlaw's to wash my hair and see what the damage was. Lots of hair in the tub. Tonight I went and had my stylist fix it for me and it looks fine now - thank the Lord! I have no nose hairs left and most of the hair on my arms is gone. I singed some of my eyelashes off and have a blister on the end of my nose and my left nostril! I also have a burn on the inside of my left elbow. I'm glad I had my glasses on because my eyebrows and the rest of my lashes would probably be gone! It took Isaac and I an hour to find my glasses! Jeremy said he would light the campfires from now on:) I did go back and get it lit and roasted hot dogs for dinner! We didn't get home until late. Last night there was an accident on the highway on the way home so we didn't get home until 5:30pm. My sister watched the kids for us yesterday and when we got there to pick them up she had a delicious spaghetti dinner waiting for us! Thank you Heather! I'm way behind on laundry (and everything else), so tonight we caught up on that a little - I was gone for 2 hours with the haircut appt., meijer's and TSC stops. Thank goodness the kids are having a picnic at school tomorrow and don't need lunches and we ordered a rib dinner to split for lunch at work, so that made getting everything ready for tomorrow a little easier! Hopefully I'll post with more exciting news from this weekend at the farm and pictures as well! And, don't worry, I'll leave the campfires to Jeremy!

Have a great weekend,

Chris

Post #2 more pictures

Isaac and Chelsea at Bavarian Inn (not much eating going on!)
Erin all decked out!
Our table - we had all the kids sit at the other table behind us!
Mom and Bill
Lyndsay in her pretty princess dress - she was sooo cute! She was actually sitting up in this chair all by herself! Curt's teacher/our assistant Pastor and his wife gave this outfit to her after she was born! I had to have a sweater and bib on her all day so we didn't get to enjoy the outfit until picture time. I meant to have someone take a family picture of us today with the baby, but forgot:( Maybe next time!

Happy Mother's Day!

Chelsea opening gifts
Dad Bohn, Amber and Isaac
Grandpa playing the guitar
Watching Grandpa playing guitar
Carly, Curt and Alli today at Bavarian Inn

Happy Mother's Day! Well, it was a busy week as always - I probably can't even remember everything that happened, but will try my best. Monday my dad came over at around 6pm as we were sitting down to dinner. The kids all enjoyed his guitar playing as well as myself! Isaac and Erin's attention span are not quite long enough yet, but they did good! I especially love sitting around a campfire and singing songs to the guitar. No campfire yet, but it was still fun - my dad gets better and better every time we hear him play. I wish some of my parents' talents (and stepparent/inlaws talents as well) would rub off on me! Monday at work, my right leg was bothering me worse than it had on Sunday so I went to medical at work and then called my doctor who told me to stay home from work Tuesday and go in. So, I got to sleep in Tuesday (poor me!:) Doctor sent me to Covenant later in the day for a doppler ultrasound which came up negative - no clots thank goodness. So, back to work on Wednesday. Friday night we went to the property after going to Walmart and TSC in Clio, visited with the neighbors for a bit before coming home and getting to bed about 11pm! Worked Saturday while Amber stayed home with the 3 little ones. Came home, went to the Mother/Daughter banquet at church for the speaking part of it (missed the dinner), then took Amber to her Grandma's/Dad's house. I stopped at my cousins house to pay for fundraising stuff I ordered and got to visit with them for a few hours while the kids all played together. That was a lot of fun - I wish we could get together more often! Hopefully their house is still standing! This morning at church Amber, Brooke and I sang Cherish the Moments together. Nana, Grandpa Len, Aunt Jenni and her girls and Grandma Reid all came to church and then we went to the Bavarian Inn for dinner (22 people) along with my Mom, Bill, Heather (Carly and Maggie), Phil and Chelsea. That was loud, but good food. Just didn't get to visit with everyone as much as we would've liked to. We looked around in the shops a bit as well - the toy store downstairs is cool - they have a "nursery" full of babies! Maggie and Erin (mostly Maggie, though) got a kick out of those! Back to our house to have Chelsea open her birthday presents. Now it's 9pm and we're winding down, getting ready for bed.

A little funny for you - 2 nights ago, Isaac woke up to go potty at around midnight. I took him in there then shooed him back to bed so I could go. I walked by his room and noticed he wasn't in there and heard him giggling on the couch. I told him to go to bed! He got into bed and I could again hear him just giggling and belly laughing almost! Told him to be quiet before he woke the whole house and then he came into my room saying he was looking for something (GO TO BED). Finally, he quieted down and went to bed. Saturday morning I called him from work and asked him what was so funny at 12 at night. He said he was laughing at daddy snoring! Then I asked him what he was looking for when he got up and came in our room and he said the F--T cushion (whoopie cushion). I started laughing - he was going to try and compete with daddy's snoring apparently and thought it was pretty funny to boot! Boys, I tell ya! Have a great week and here are a few pictures to enjoy!

Sunday post #2

Isaac and friend Emily
Erin's favorite!
Isaac's favorite
My good friend Jennifer, her daughter Ethne and Erin

Sunday fun at the big day at church

Isaac waiting in line

Brooke with Erin
Curt
Brooke

Today was our big day at church - lots of good food and fun games to play. The weather was great, a little windy but beautiful! Enjoy the pictures again...

more pictures!

At the property today - love the field full of dandelions!

pictures for you!

Plowing fields at the property...

Smiling with momma

loving the chicks

The camper, tractor and fields...

forgot something...

I forgot to tell you that Tuesday, we drove down to work because some guy at work gave Jeremy a small lathe he didn't want anymore. Since we drove down, I called and got us into the dr. at 4pm. We left work at 2:30pm and stopped to pick up Isaac, Erin and Lyndsay before going. We also stopped in montrose for some tractor weights for the International so Jeremy could plow with all 4 tires on the ground! Erin didn't wear shoes to the babysitter so we had to carry her in everywhere. Doctor's office visit was rushed (she had to be somewhere and we were 10 minutes late). I did get her to give us both antibiotics and refer me to a vein specialist for my left leg. Jeremy went right to the property and I stopped at the grocery store and then the pharmacy in Bridgeport before going home. When I got home, I saw my Dad and Teresa were sitting in their car in the driveway! They just got home from Florida a few weeks ago and came to town. It was 5:30pm when I got home. We had a nice visit! Their little dog is so adorable and pretty! I was going to take pictures, but Amber took my cf card with her to Walmart:( The kids got lots of "hugs" from Nicki and hopefully tired him out! I was glad to see them home safe and sound! Teresa brought me an orchid which yes, is still alive after almost a week! The girls got some pretty watches as well! We visited until after 8pm and about 5 minutes after they left, Amber Brooke and Curt got home from their dad's. They were not happy to have missed out on seeing them!

Today, we went to the church at 10am for singing practice and then to my sister's to see my mom who came down yesterday. We goofed around outside and the kids played and watched the horses, etc. before we had to go and get other things done before going out to the property. We got lunch at McD's, went to Danielle's grave and worked up the dirt and re-did the edging before putting my fake daffodils back in! Then went to Millington and were happy to see the camper back in it's place! The thing looks brand new! Jeremy and I put the awning out and he ate his lunch before going back out to continue plowing. He said he left a patch on the outside of the fields so we could still go for walks, etc. So, we started out and found no, there wasn't a path around all of it, but enough to get around with only a little mud... After he discs it and plants it, it won't be so bad. We got to the back field and thought the rain was ahead of us, but it started to come down, not too hard at first. We finally made it back to the camper and did it ever start coming down hard then! Thank goodness for the new awning! We stayed until around 5:30pm before heading back home. I got a pizza for dinner on the way and stopped to get some groceries for the week as well. Now we are home, watching the chipmunk movie that I fell asleep during last night. I will go out and watch it when it gets to the part I fell asleep at! Anyway, here are some more pictures and I will post again soon - have a great Sunday!

Chris

Hi there!

Well, it is Friday evening, Daddy is holding Lyndsay, and everyone else is sitting nearby, watching a movie. Amber is at the Patch the Pirate play with some friends at First Baptist. Bear with me as I am learning more and more about different things I can do on this blog thanks to my oldest daughter. My dad will call and ask me a computer question and I'll refer him to one of the girls usually!



We were done at work at 3:30pm but had to wait for some of the other riders on our van who didn't get done til 4pm. I fell asleep on the way home and woke up at 5:09pm only to find we were still in Flint. Apparently with the rain, there were quite a few accidents on the way home and traffic comes to a standstill it seems at each one. So, we got off in Flint and skirted around to Pierson Rd. and got back on 75 to make it home by 6pm! Two hours to make a 1 hour trip! So, Jeremy and I picked up KFC and a few movies to bring home. It is raining and we'll take advantage of that to rest a little! He's going to bring the planter into the garage tomorrow if it's still raining and work on that. He hopes to plant 5 acres of corn at the property and get our neighbor to combine it for us when it's ready. All other land will be planted in hay hopefully! So, I'm sure he'll also be out there plowing this weekend. Wednesday, I had a hair appointment scheduled and I called to see if Kim could "repair" Erin's haircut and she said I could bring the boys as well instead of bringing them Thursday night as scheduled. So, I did. The only bad thing is I think while doing haircuts in between my color, the highlights got left in a little too long and I look a little "blond". Oh well, everyone says I look really young now! That's not a bad thing, right? Atleast the gray is gone:) Erin's hair looks much better and Kim pointed to her license on the wall and told Erin she had to have one of those or be a mom in order to cut hair from now on. Do you think she'll listen? Probably not! After haircuts, off to church and ladies' group practice. We are singing Sunday morning for the big day. Mother's day me and hopefully all of my kids are singing Cherish the Moments. If worse comes to worse, it'll just be me and the girls. We have some practicing to do yet. I didn't get home til 9:15pm that night, then rush rush to get everything ready for the next day!



The chicks have been doing great outside. We let a few out of the pen to run around and let the kids play with them as well. We have to be careful Erin and Isaac don't step on any and hurt them! The turkey's are a lot of fun. Today, we had to call after school and have Brooke go out to shut off the heat lamps and check on them. When we got home, she wanted to take a shower cuz one of the turkeys had jumped onto her head when she bent over. He must really like her! Most of the week we've been playing outside a little while after work before coming in to get ready for bed, etc.



Wednesday, Heather babysat Erin and Lyndsay for me. They had a great time! Erin was so excited about going over there - she was no problem going to bed Tuesday night! She and Maggie enjoy one another! All of my kids love Aunt Heather's house and Aunt Heather! It's hard to get them to leave once they are there! But, that's a good thing!



I got Isaac's costume for their play for Kindergarten Graduation. He is the pig and I had to order a costume on line. When it came in the mail, Brooke opened it to see if it would fit him and he said he wasn't going to wear something that was for girls! Pink was for sissies! Oh boy, what to do? I thought about trying to dye it a black or brown, but don't want to ruin the fabric I paid good money for and don't have time to order a new one, if needed. So, I told him he'd have to wear it after all there were pink boy pigs at the fair! I did tell his teacher she may want to consider having a girl play the pig part in future plays. Hopefully all will go well. His K5 graduation is Sunday, June 1st (also his 6th birthday) at 6pm. I can't wait - they've been practicing for a long time!

Well, I'm off to get the baby who is now fussing. I'll try and take some pictures this weekend and post again. Have a great weekend!

More Pictures!!