New Digital SLR Camera

Okay - I LOVE our new digital SLR camera! It really is amazing.... I didn't ever consider that we could have great pictures and the ability to shoot them endlessly for FREE! However, it is causing problems. Remember when I used to get pictures up on the web relatively quickly to share with friends and family? Well, now there is a bit of a problem with that. I was already sifting through 200 or so pictures a month to pick out the best 50 or 60 pictures to look at. But now, I have 500 pictures from June and OVER 1000 pictures from July(!) to go through. It is a daunting job and not one that I'm looking forward to.... therefore the delay in getting pictures uploaded. Sorry! Hopefully I will learn how to let go of (and therefore delete) the less-than-great pictures soon. Otherwise, we are also going to have a harddrive problem too!

Book Club Reports

June Book/Candy's Pick:
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
So, I'm a bit belated posting this review.... but here goes. This book was really good. The book was really written in a beautiful. It felt very much like a smooth flowing, gently told story; it was so graceful and melodic. I loved the bee theme that wove its way through the whole story. I thought it was wonderful that the author was able to write like this while writing about such deep and disturbing topics: domestic abuse and its effect on children, racial discrimination, neglect, interracial relationships.... this book really got me thinking about these topics and how I REALLY feel about them.

July book/Kathy's Pick:
The Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney
A really slow starter but after about page 150, this was a pretty good book. It was about four women that formed a group and become great friends. The book rotated from whose perspective it was being written. That was a little hard to get used to. It took me awhile to be able to change gears between the characters. But as you read the book and learned more about each character and the issues that each of them dealt with it, it really started to draw me in. the women's issues went from an abusive relationship, to a terminal disease, to infertility problems, to being in love with a married man. Yet they were all woven together wonderfully within this one book as each women leaned (or didn't lean) on her friends. This book spoke to me about what a friend can be and how I can be better at it.

Upcoming - August book: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (which was picked, by the way, BEFORE he died last Friday...)

11 years ago....

It was actually 11 years ago yesterday. I'm quite ashamed that I forgot.... Yesterday was Sarah's birthday. I remembered earlier in the week and thought about doing a cake in remembrance. I thought about starting a tradition to give my kids some way of knowing her and giving her a "place" in our family. I was having trouble with figuring out a good way of introducing the whole thing... then I mentally put it down... and promptly forgot. I'm so ashamed of myself, I forgot my Sarah's birthday. I know that it is a good sign that I'm not caught up in the past and that I'm fully living here. I'm just having a hard time with the feeling that I let her down. No, that's not quite right. That I let myself down in remembering her and what she, and what she brought to my life, means to me. I don't want to forget her or the wonderful closeness that she ushered in between me and my heavenly Father. I don't want to forget.... but I did.

Petit Jean 2008

For those that don't know what Petit Jean is, it is a mountain in Arkansas on which is a state park where Ben's grandparents host a family reunion every year in June. We try to make it every year, but last year we weren't able to go because Ben was graduating from seminary. That made it all the more important and exciting to go this year! However, with flight prices skyhigh and three tickets to buy, we decided that we would drive instead of fly. This would be our first roadtrip with two kiddos in the minivan. It would be four 7-hour days on the road round trip. I spent 3 months before the trip just mentally preparing for it! AND the kids did great! I had been told by numerous people to be prepared with a DVD player but had decided that we would only pull out the laptop and a DVD only in a dire emergency scenario, and we didn't need it! I was very impressed at how well they did. The first day, Ben and I were very strict about having a quiet time from after lunch until 3pm (that is their normal nap time). Madelyn didn't have a problem with that, but Greyson woke up early and we made sure that he knew that he was supposed to be quiet and then at 3 gave him a big snack and lots of attention. He caught right on and didn't have a problem the rest of the drive days! (That is MY smart boy!)

Another treat was being able to stop and spend time with the White Family on the way down and back. Thanks White Family for taking us in! We loved seeing you and the kids had so much fun with Charlie! And I LOVE the mohawk!

Every time we go to Petit Jean, there is a hike down to a waterfall the first morning we are there. It is a pretty hefty hike but a cool tradition. The last couple of times we've been to Petit Jean, the falls has been pretty puny. This year it was much better. (I'm sure that is much to the dismay of the Midwest, who were being flooded at the same time.) It is so fun to hang out around the falls and visit. We are thinking that Madelyn may be ready to hike it next year, or maybe the following year. We'll have to see.

Living in Minnesota, it is hard for me to remember how hot and muggy it can be in the south. It hit me like a brick on this trip. In the cabin we were in, the AC was running non-stop it seemed. the first dinner (which was a "birthday dinner" for everyone), Aunt Lou handed out these kiddie windmill toys. When Mike got back to the cabin, he set one up to spin in the AC breeze. If only we could have harnessed the power generated! Because it was so hot, we took the kids to the pool to go swimming - the first time this year due to the cooler weather in MN. Madelyn absolutely loved it. Greyson not so much. I'm not sure what he didn't like. He likes his baths. Maybe because the water was on the cooler side...

It was great seeing Stephanie prego too. She is having trouble with swelling in her legs and feet but otherwise seems to be holding up well. The rest of the family is great too. I love seeing them and I especially love seeing them interacting with my kids.... It is always such a blessing to experience family loving on them. This trip was the first one that I really felt able to just stand back and let Madelyn venture out and interact on her own and it was wonderful to watch! I especially loved meeting the new members of the family - babies Anna, David, and Logan and new cousin-in-law Josh. They all seem to fit into this eccentric family well!

On the second night, we have a family talent show. We had a great time this year cutting up and having a good time. Madelyn dressed up in her dancing outfit and danced to Ben's 5 aunts singing "I Love Being a Girl". She also insisted on getting up and singing songs to the crowd - of course, "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "A,B,C's". I think she could have sung to us all night. I told her that we will have to work up a special song for next year!

And besides me going OCD about a tube of hydrocortizone cream, it really was a great time!!

a special treat - 4 generations of Rhodes boys