Gettin Ready!

Well summer is finally here! School ended last Thursday and Friday I was in charge of the missionary zone lunch so I was busy and gone most of the day. So today is the first day that feels like summer vacation because we have nothing on the calender! We can go to the Rec and swim, walk to the park, or anything else. Of course we still need to clean the house from the weekend, drop the car off at the shop and make sure we have everything ready for the upcoming trip.

I love to get multiply things done at the same time so I think I will drop the car off at the shop 3 miles away and then run home. That will take care of my run for the day and get the car in so we don't run out time this week. Driving a van with 226,000 miles on a long trip would make me nervous if we didn't always take it into the shop for an inspection before we leave. (Needless to say we pray for the van too!)

We also finally ordered a camera. I was not going on vacation without a camera. Our camera broke (Naturally Sydney was last seen with it) back in October and we have only had cell phones for pictures since Thanksgiving. Hopefully it will get here in time for Jason to bring it with him. It took a while to decide on the camera and then find the best deal. I think we did a good job.

Well I am off to make more lists for the trip...

Stopped in my tracks!

The other day I was running down the road. (I really don't like running. I have been working out diligently now since January and am only just now getting to the point where the first mile doesn't feel like torture.) Anyway, back to my point, while I was just running along I stopped dead in my tracks. A smell hit me and I had to stop and take it in. It smelled exactly like grandparent's backyard! I can't describe what the smell is, I just know it. It brought back a flood of memories. Jason's grandma passed away this past Thursday and it made me think about my grandparents.
I never met my mother's father who passed away before I was born and I had only met my mother's mother once when I was 2 before she passed away. So I knew my father's parents best. From the time I was 8 they lived only a few miles away and we saw them all the time. I miss them and I wish I had been able to know my other grandparents. My memories are nothing grand, but they are comforting and happy. We never went on trips, lived on a farm, or even went camping. I wonder if the memories are more poignant because they are remembered from the untainted and innocent view of a child since there is nothing other than ordinary life in my memories. Whatever the reason, here are some of my happy memories of my grandparents...
The "Milk Man" - It wasn't a real old-fashioned milk man but more like a Schwann's guy. I just remember that when we were visiting she would get popsicle's and ice cream bars from him.
TV Trays - They had these beige fiberglass TV tray with fruit pictures. They are hard to describe but we all remember them. The best part was when we stayed overnight we always had breakfast in the family room with Lucky Charms and PERFECT toast. I don't know what it was about grandma's toast but it was perfect! Of course we also got the watch Saturday morning cartoon! (This was before cable when that was the only time to watch cartoons)
The Oak Tree - I am not sure how many hours we spent up in the branches playing house or who knows what from our imagination. I remember pretending to do ballet on the branches that ran parallel. Of course I rarely got to be in the top "nest" because I was not the oldest. It is sad that the old tree is gone now. It was a happy day when we were finally big enough to get into the tree ourselves and play.
The Backyard - Pretty much the whole backyard was awesome. We would set up Croquet, hide in the bushes in the SE corner, talk to the neighbor on the west side, pull out the plastic covered patio furniture pads, and just run around. Of course one of my favorite memories was of grandpa walking around the patio and smiling at us. Which leads to my next memory...
Grandpa's Cigars - I am not a fan of smoking but I will always love the smell cigar smoke because it reminds me of grandpa smoking his cigars in the backyard.
Family Dinners - When I think of family dinners of my childhood I think of grandma's. Now that I am older and have been responsible for a few brisket dinners myself, I am even more grateful for all the work and effort that went into those family dinners. I know I wasn't appreciative of it then so I guess my way of saying thanks will be to do for my family what was done for me and hope that they will have these memories for their future.
Angel Food Cake - Nothing was better than grandma's angel food cake with fluffy white frosting for your birthday. I have never had anything that compares. They were simply the best!
Games - Mastermind, Cribbage, and others. I can't think of any other specific games but I remember the closet in the hallway that had lots of games.
Red Room and Blue Room - Many hours were spent playing house in these rooms. Nothing was better than to play in the red room and climb up into the cut out above the built in dresser or sit at the dressing table in the blue room and pretend you were a princess.
Reel to Reel Classical Music - Grandpa had probably hundreds of reel to reel music. All carefully cataloged in the basment. I think my brother still has them.
p.s. We did ride bikes and trikes in the basement when the weather was bad. We didn't mind the dust but the open stairs were scary when we were little.

So these are a few of my favorite memories from grandma and grandpa's house on Pawnee Ln. Such good times and wonderful memories.

Making cards

I really like making cards and scrapbooking. It is one of the only creative outlets I am good at since I am a left-brained dominant person. I just made a huge batch of cards for my mom so any family reading this will recognize their next birthday card. My favorite part of crafting is doing it with friends or late at night while watching a chick flick. (By chick flick I mean any one of my versions of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, or other select period dramas) Unfortunately I haven't found a friend to craft with here nor do I have the great space I have had for the past 9 years. I really miss that. It gets old sitting cross legged on my bed with a cutting board for a table while my legs go numb...just sayin'. Oh well, I still love mixing papers, creating balance, and adding a little embellishment. The odd thing is that I like doing math problems just as much!

Playing cars like Jason did.

This car mat has been in the Furnell family for who knows how long! It was actually made by Aunt Dorothy for Darrin Furnell and was passed down to Jason and now to another generation. Just the other day Jason was complaining that the boys didn't entertain themselves as much as he did as a kid. I guess he got his wish, well at lease one of the boys.

Dapper Dude turns 7!

Today was Fancy Nancy/Dapper Dude day for Kindergarten. Just what Luke needed to make his birthday feel even more special. He has been waiting and ready for this day for a long time. So dressed up in his shirt, tie and favorite cut off army shorts, we slicked back the hair and off he went. (No luck on finding his sunglasses that diappeared into thin air. I am sure we will find them tomorrow.) He also got to bring the share bag to school today and we tied a small roll of sticker onto a pencil and eraser for him to give to his classmates at school.
We tried to play dumb this morning and pretend that we didn't remember what day it was when he asked "Do you know what day it is today? You know 7, the big 7 that looks like this!"
So I made his favorite breakfast of french toast with the "fat" bread and dropped him with all his loot at the school. Jason will be surprising his at lunch to take him out and then Aunt Meghann and Uncle Dan are coming over tonight for a small family party. All in all I think he will have a great birthday. As long as we get him to the store to spend some of that birthday money he has already gotten!
Now I just need to fit in some exercise, run to the library with Sydney, get all the sheets washed and back on beds, and finish cleaning the house for company tonight...all in a days work for a mom! It's just a good thing Meghann is making the cake:)

Here is the best french toast batter recipe that I got from allrecipes.com
Fluffy French Toast
Texas Toast
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 pinch salt
3 eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbl sugar

Reunion-Vacation!!

We always say that we are going on vacation when we head out to Florida but really it is just the way Furnell's do family reunions. We don't camp or own a farm so I guess that leaves the beach! And really isn't a family reunion what you call it when all the kids, spouses, and grand kids pile into one house for a week, while sharing cooking, cleaning and activity responsibilities? So in 26 days I leave for my "vacation".

It will include:
3000 miles of driving with over half of it just me and the kids.
2 1/2 days with my brother and family.
2 1/2 days with my long time friend and family.
9 days with the Furnell clan on the beach!
6 days with my sister and family.
2 movies - Cars 2 with the cousins and Harry Potter with my sister. (Yes the movie opening has been part of the planning;)

Now I just have to lose those horrible 5 pounds that keep coming back, decide all the different things we will need for 3 weeks on the road, pick a few new games for some friendly family competition, get all 6 of us haircuts for the family picture (add in a color for me:), make sure we have the right clothes for the picture, finally give myself that pedicure I have been planning on doing since the beginning of May, and make sure everything is taken care of for us to be gone for an extended time.

So whether you want to call it vacation or family reunion it is going to be great!

Field Trip with Blake

Friday I farmed the younger kids to friends and babysitters to take Blake on his school field trip. We went to Greenfield Village which is a historic village focused around 1880's, the time of Henry Ford. (This is Detroit after all!) There were exhibits on Henry Ford and how he changed the automobile industry, Thomas Edison one of the people that inspired Ford, and other building that show what life was like on farms and in schools during that time. It is really pretty cool when you think about how much the personal mobility that was made available with the invention of the automobile has changed the way we live. It was cool to see the ways life has changed and the ways it really hasn't changed all that much in the last 130 yrs. One thing that I am pretty sure that hasn't changed is how fast kids grow up. I am still in denial that I am entering the age of teenagers later this year! So here is a picture of Blake on an old bridge striking a goofy pose, because goof and sarcasm is what he does best.