Texas Trip Spring Break 2011

I wish I had more time to write about everything that we loved about our fun trip to visit the Miller family over our spring break!! It was just so marvelous!
-great visit with Uncle Will (we stayed with him both on the way out there and on our way home)
-we toured Texas stadium (sorry I didn't take my camera that day, but it was ENORMOUS!)
-we went to Fort Worth Zoo--it was freezing that day--upper 40s, but it was still a really neat zoo to visit, and we went to Panera afterwards for coffee and goodies!
-Stan enjoyed helping lead the Arlington Corp after school band activities for three days
-Abby took us to a really cool park near their home
-we shopped a couple of times (the metroplex area has tons of amazing shopping!!)
-we went to Six Flags over Texas on Friday night--exhausting but fun
-we went to the Rain Forest Cafe on Saturday night--a bit overstimulating but always an adventure
-eating, playing, talking with the Miller family--a delight
-seeing Abby and Andy serving the Lord with gladness in their wonderful Corp in Arlington--we're so proud of them and grateful for the Kingdom work they're so committed to there!
-singing a duet with Abby Sunday morning was a really special moment
-hearing Andy's awesome sermon Sunday was a true treat--let's all be a chuckwagon--drawing people to the food of LIFE that Christ offers us all!
As I said, there's so much more I could tell about, but I just don't have time to write it all! It was a precious time that we will chrerish memories from for a very long time. So very grateful that the Lord helped work it all out so we could go.
Here's the link to my Texas photo album. I had troubles getting the slideshow to load properly, so go and see yourself! I give up! I already spent too much time trying to get the slideshow created properly, and then when I looked at it, it only had like 5 photos in it! Ach! Who knows what happened, but I don't have time to figure it out, so here's the link to the album:
http://s661.photobucket.com/albums/uu335/sarogowski/

Tampa trip

We had a great time hitching a ride with Stan's middle school band as they went to Tampa, Florida for a performance and a visit to a water park and Busch Gardens. We loved the water park and Busch Gardens was incredible!! The animals are amazing, and the kids loved the whole experience. We got back late Saturday night and then went to church in the morning and left after church to drive to Montgomery and then on to Arlington, TX the next day. It was kind of a wild way to begin our spring break, but it was a lot of fun.

Garden Update

Last week Benjamin and I spent one day tilling, and one day spreading peat moss and organic fertilizer, and then we planted. I went a little simpler this year and planted lots of small plants instead of just all seeds like last year. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, green, yellow, red and orange bell peppers, and then the rest was done by seed--sweet corn, green beans, peas and sunflowers and zinnias. I did a small container of cherry tomatoes and a small container of herbs. I'm hopeful I'll have some success. I'm starting a good bit earlier than I did last year, so hopefully that will help, too!
Benjamin was a real trooper. The gnats were pretty bad one morning when we were working, so he disappeared inside the house and then came back out dressed in quite a get-up! He was covered head to toe as you'll see in the pics. I don't think a gnat could've bit him if they tried!
So here are a couple of pictures of what things look like in progress. I really hope to be able to show you pictures as things grow! Lord, bless these efforts!

Stop! Tiller Time!

Ahhh yes. It's that wonderful time of year again when we pull the tiller out and break the ground up in our little garden plot in the back yard and begin trying to coax it into producing food for us. I'm hoping our second year will be even more fruitful (or should I say vegetableful?). Last year we had pretty good success with green beans and corn. Our squash and zuchinni never did much, sadly. This year, though, I'm interested in doing lots of corn and beans and hopefully peppers and cucumbers, too. I think I'll do tomatoes and herbs in smaller containers. I'm looking forward to seeing if there are any improvements in my second year. I'll try to keep some photos posted of the progress. It's looking pretty rough out there right now. Yesterday I raked three wheel barrow's full of leaves out of it--its winter blanket. :) Pretty sure it's warm enough now to get ready for planting, though, so we'll be working at tilling today if the weather will hold out for us. It's a very overcast day with a cool breeze--perfect gardening weather (as long as the sand gnats don't descend!).

Trip to Montgomery to visit with Will

Will treated us royally this weekend! We left Albany on Saturday morning and arrived there in time for a splendid picnic lunch down by the river. We spent Saturday afternoon touring his marvelous church, Frazer Memorial UMC, and then we just had a relaxed evening of legos and Wii playing. Will had made his marvelous chili for supper. Sunday morning was a marvelous time of sharing in worship at Frazer. I'm just so completely impressed and proud of all that Will is doing in ministry there. It is an amazing morning of worship! We had lunch at a terrific barbecue place, napped a little and then we got to experience Will's ultimate frisbee church gathering at Shakespeare park--a truly sublime location, and the weather was spectacular! This morning (Monday) we drove home and were sad to say goodbye, but we really hope to get to go over there again this summer. It was a sweet time of fellowship, and I'm just sorry we haven't gotten over there as a whole family before now.

Daddy/Daughter Dance Feb 2011

We had so much fun going to Albany on Thursday night and staying through Saturday morning. Stan took Olivia and Dad took me to the AFUMC Daddy/Daughter dance on Friday night, and we had a blast! What a sweet time! I'm a rich, rich woman!

The Atkinson Boys Came for a Weekend Visit

Great weekend with the nephews! Love those Atkinson boys. I wish Abby and Andy were closer so we could have those little boogers over to stay with us, too! Someday, maybe! We had such a fun time. Friday night we had spaghetti with meatballs and watched the movie Alpha & Omega. Saturday morning we watched cartoons (a word that my kids hardly know, actually--cartoons used to be those shows that ONLY came on on Saturday morning), we ate eggs sausage and banana muffins, and the kids bounced on the trampoline and would periodically run in to warm up in front of the fire and then head back out. Before lunch we took a ride in the neighborhood on bikes and bigwheels. Jonathan was impressing us all with his newly learned training-wheel-free bike riding skills! Lunch was grilled cheese, apples, Sun Chips and chicken noodle soup--yummy! The afternoon was lots of lego building, sword fighting and eventually a trip to the park. We left the park and went to Uncle Stan's band room where we had quite a rockin' good time--lots of drum beating and horn blowing and boogying. When we got home it was time to go to Aunt Adrienne's Barber Shop. David & Jonathan and Uncle Stan all had their ears lowered and they all looked great! Saturday night we all made our way to IHOP for pancakes (and cheeseburgers for a couple of the kids who wanted to opt out of the pancakes--they're nuts!). It was splendidly sticky by the time we left with our crew. We hit the bath and read Officer Buckle and Gloria, a Bible story and then hit the hay. The kids and I went to the early service (I didn't make it in time to sing in the choir, but it was nice to sit with all four of them in the congregation.) David and Olivia had Sunday school with Mrs. Stein and Jonathan and David went to Miss Janet's class. Since it was the day before Valentine's day, they were showered with sweet cards and candy and special treats by these wonderful teachers. We zoomed home for a simple lunch of pb&j, strawberries and more Sun Chips. The kids got in a good last jump session on the trampoline while I cleaned up, and then we were on our way to Darien again to meet up with Aunt Carrie Beth.

Fave moments from the weekend:

1. Seeing Jonathan get so comfortable that he did a ballet dance for me in the kitchen --complete with arabesque and lots of spins and pizazz! :)

2. Hearing the kids singing "Ring Around the Rosies" while running in circles on the trampoline (how much longer will they do this?--so sweet!)

3. Seeing all four of their little pajamied bodies cuddled together for cartoons Saturday morning.

4. Me pretending I was the plane's captain on the drive home from Darien to Kingsland and then back again today--this is totally a Don Adams' special, and the kids love it.

5. Olivia begging me to make up one of my "Bippy & Jippy" stories (something I've done on and off for years with her--just spur-of-the-moment made up stories about these two bunnies who are sisters) on our way back to Darien today. My story got so convoluted and ridiculous that it lasted about 20 full minutes which helped make the drive go by pretty quickly. My personal favorite part of this Bippy and Jippy tale--Beebo and Bobo, their cousins, came to visit, and they went to this special secret bunny club park. At this secret park there was a huge slide that had loops and curves and went on forever, but the best part was that they landed in a pit of marshmallows. And have you ever seen bunnies with cheeks full of marshmallows?? Its ridiculously cute. Let me tell you, and Bippy and Jippy were stuffing their cheeks, and suddenly they got tickled. They began laughing so hard that their mouths became marshmallow machine guns--popping all of the marshmallows that had been crammed inside. Yeah. It was a pretty awesome moment in the story. There was more frivolity, and as always in my B & J stories, there was a moral. Beebo and Bobo had to learn a hard lesson.

6. Walking hand in hand with Stan in our neighborhood and watching these four kids zooming and laughing and squealing ahead of us on their bikes and big wheels.

There's more I could say, but I'll end here. It was a sweet time. Grateful to have these opportunities--precious days.

And we didn't take a single picture. We were too busy having fun and living it up. :)