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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Blueberry Bitterness, Fundraising Success, and the Holiday Weekend

Well, I lied. I did not come right back and write about blueberries. I am sure y'all were on the edge of your seats waiting, but the pain was too fresh. Ok, well, I am partially kidding--I DID have a horrible time picking blueberries with Thing 4 and didn't really feel like re-living it through telling the story. She screamed the entire time and was miserable, it was swelteringly hot and I lost my very favorite silver earring, one I purchased in Africa on our trip to get our daughter and it had huge sentimental value to me so it really made me so, so sad. See why I didn't come back and share my awesome story? ;) However, it has a semi-happy ending because I did go again, ALONE, to pick berries and it was fabulous and then I baked a blueberry almond cake which was even more fabulous so I have now forgiven the blueberry patch. Almost.

Anyway, on to exciting news-my hubby rocked his triathlon-WOOHOO! He did GREAT and through that and some other generous friends, has now raised all the money needed to pay for his trip. THANK YOU to all of you who have given to his trip! But, here is the fun part-$ is still coming in for his trip so he is working to raise an extra $2000 to put toward some special projects while there like goats, water, home improvements, etc. It is SO awesome to see his excitement and enthusiasm to serve the fatherless. I cannot wait to send him off, even though I hate the thought of him being gone. (However, I will let you in on a secret. I am super excited to pack his stuff. No really. I LOVE packing for Africa-I cannot explain it and it is weird and not normal, but it is like a fun game for me to make it fit all small and organized and airline approved. I know, seriously not normal.)

Aside from all the fascinating blueberry news I have to share (I may even go again tomorrow-I know, I am FASCINATING! ;) ), we are just gearing up for a fun 4th of July weekend. My sister in law is here in town with us for the weekend so we are excited to have fun swimming and doing parades and sparklers and cook outs and all the fun things that go with July 4th. I love the 4th because it is just fun, no stress with presents and fancy foods-just having fun outside and celebrating! I am off to go plan what foods we will be making for the cookouts and what fun other stuff we will be doing. What are YOU doing for the long weekend??


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A CRAZY Prize For YOU and Just Our Regular Craziness, Too

Oh my goodness, I remember when summer used to be about being lazy and just hanging out having fun. Well, making sure my kids are having all that fun is EXHAUSTING! This week has been our church's inaugural "Summer Kids Club" and it has had an amazing turnout (over 240 kids!!) from our church and all around the community and has really been a ton of fun. My oldest Thing, however, opted out of the SKC for....middle school volleyball camp. Now, my kids go to an AMAZING private Christian school that is a fabulous community to be part of and I am so happy about her desiring to play volleyball and her spending time with those awesome girls but....did you catch the "middle school" in there? THAT is where I am not happy. I am not sure at all when my sweet little baby became a middle schooler but I am pretty sure I am not ready. Sigh. Anyhoo, the days have mostly consisted of getting sleepy girls up, driving one to volleyball (and feeling sad about it, every day-yes, I am that kind of mom...I know), driving the others to church and checking them in, then taking Thing 4 to do some other sort of crazy thing like blueberry picking (b/c I am not in my right mind...I will write about that disaster tomorrow-try to control your anticipation...) then turning right back around and doing the picking up of all the said Things and then feeding them all and then collapsing from tiredness. We were just not built to be a family that is on the go all the time-it makes me tired and maybe sometimes a wee tiny bit crankyish, possibly...

However, we have one more BIG EXCITING thing to end this week of crazy and this is where YOU come in!!!! If you have been around this blog much in the last couple years, you know we have a big heart for Africa and for some of the people living there who are in need of things we cannot imagine being without-things like clean water, food, PARENTS!! I have gone to Ethiopia a couple of times in the past year and now this summer my hubby is going to Uganda and Ethiopia. You can read about his trip and the background to his going on the trip and doing the Tri here. (he has his own blog now, how fun!) To help fund his trip and beyond, he is doing another triathlon THIS SUNDAY!! WOOHOO! The cool thing is that by him doing this triathlon, YOU could win some AWESOME stuff pictured below:


THE MEGA PRIZE PACK OF AWESOMENESS!!
•Any 1 Item from The Mama Sheep Shop – your choice!
•“Got Love” Beach Bag
•1 lb. bag of authentic Ethiopian coffee – whole beans or ground (BEST in the world, no joke)
•“Go-Mug” stainless steel and wood grain travel mug from Gobena Coffee
Dude Perfect T-shirt – you pick the size – and bumper sticker
Living Water International 25 oz. water bottle
•Baby Juddah’s Mustard Seed basket
•Gary Smalley book collection: 'Change Your Heart, Change Your Life', 'Great Parents, Lousy Lovers' and 'The DNA of Relationships'
•Mystery item from Uganda, to be revealed soon!
•who knows maybe something else, too…



Here is how it works-for only $10, you can enter the prize pack giveaway by guessing the time in which he will complete the race. The closest guesser to the actual time wins all that awesome stuff in the picture above and more! And as the donation amount increases, your number of guesses you can make (read:chances of WINNING) increases. And you don't even have to run, bike or swim. Oh yeah, for reals. Go to his site HERE-NOW! Go! and enter your guess-the tri is in just 4 DAYS! (I am considering entering a guest under a secret name so maybe I can win it all...but he may be suspicious when he sees the stuff around our house, hmmm....) If you don't want to do the guessing/winning the prize thing, there are also opportunities to sponsor him or his good friend who is also joining him to help raise $ (but who is not going on the trip, he is just doing it to help my hubby-what an AWESOME friend!) so you can jump in there, too. I feel as though my summer-induced exhaustion has made this whole explanation make not much sense so, go here to his blog and read for yourself and get in on the mega prize pack of awesomeness!


Are you still here? GO ALREADY!





But please come back tomorrow for the riveting story of blueberries and tears...I mean, who would want to miss that, right??

Monday, June 20, 2011

Check, Check....Is This Thing On?

Anyone? Anyone?......Bueller?.....

(one of the best movies ever, btw)

Well, I meant to take a bloggy break, but before I knew it it turned into almost 6 (much needed) months off! But, I have missed my bloggy peeps and lots of life has happened in those months so I thought maybe we might just pick right back up again, what do y'all think? If you are still around to say hi, give a shout out in the comments.

OH! I also need to catch you up on a cool prize opportunity you can get in on THIS week, too! I shared it on facebook but wanna share it here too so look for that in the next day or so :)


Missed y'all! :)