My Favorite Guys

So, I got my boys matching shirts and they actually wore them. They both look good in blue!! We had lunch at Bandana's after church. YUM!! My choice since it's almost my birthday!!

Love this picture!! And the amazing part is Shayne will hardly let me take his picture anymore. Got lucky today!!

JULY so far

So, we've been having lots of fun lately. Spent July 3rd with our friends the Carothers. Ate BBQ and swam in their pool. Shayne could spend all day in their pool. It was perfect day.

Celebrated Mom's birthday while Luke and Andrea were in town. Luke enjoyed helping his Great Grandma blow out her candles and eat some ice cream cake. YUM!!

Spent time at the ZOO. Here is me feeding the stingrays. It is a very awesome experience.

Had dinner with Alli and Sean while Alli was in town visiting!! Always enjoy a good steak and good company!!

Then we celebrated out beautiful niece Tori's 13th birthday. Pool party at Scott and Kathy's. She got tickets to see Justin Beiber...that made her excited. Me, I have just a little clue of who he is. He's on the cover of this Tiger Beat.

Summer is going quickly but we are enjoying it. Really we've just taken it easy. Jeff has about 1 1/2 months left in Paramedic school. He's working hard with class and clinicals on the weekends. Hope you all are enjoying your summer too!!

Johnson Shut Ins

We had a wonderful time at the Shut Ins. Didn't get many pictures because my camera took a little dip in the water and stopped working. Shayne and his friend Jacob jumped off rocks into the deep water holes. That's why my camera dipped, I was trying to get to a place to take their picture and turned my ankle. I think the adults have more trouble at that place than the kids. I saw many adults (mainly Moms) with stressed and haggered looks on their faces. Kids just climb with no effort and get right back up. So, it's a beautiful place to spend the day. The campground is brand new and VERY nice. Great family adventure!!

Looking Forward To

spending time with my boys
camping at Johnson Shut Ins
my Tuesday night Bible Study
hanging with my prayer group
4th of July with my family
fireworks
reading a book
hugs from my son
stalking my friends on facebook
walking the dogs at the Humane Society
long summer (which is already going to fast)
cooler weather
sleeping late
BBQ with new friends
holding hands with my sweetie

Already enjoyed this summer:

Hanging with my sisters
70th birthday party
graduation parties
walking on the beach
Navy Air Museum
reading
sleeping late
playing with Star
camping with The Boys
Camp Ne-O-Tez
BBQ Pork Steaks
fires in the firepit in the backyard
watching the stars at Ne-O-Tez
catching lightening bugs

What we've been up too

We've spent the last week or so being quite busy. We started out last week heading down to Camp Ne-O-Tez to work. It was K-2nd grade kiddos. They were so good and we had a great time. Here is some of the kids during the shaving cream fight.

Vicki and David came into town. Marsha, Vicki and I spent 2 days hanging out. We spent one day at the Botanical Gardens. It was fun.

Then it was off to Sean's college graduation party. Had a little rain but not too bad. Turned out to be a good day.

Here's me and my sisters with our Daddy. We each gave him a new lawn chair for Father's Day. A week early since Vicki was here.

Jeff's still in Paramedic School, I'm still working about 3 days a week and Shayne is enjoying his summer off. Have big plans in a couple weeks to camp at Johnson's Shut Ins. Very excited about that!! More later.

a little bit of our weekend

CONGRATS ANTHONY!! Our nephew graduated from St. Louis University High School. He was 12th in his class of over 250 students. He is headed to Loyola in Chicago in the fall. Way to go Anth!! Friday night I went to Florissant Church of Christ for their musical. It was an awesome performance! Can't wait to see what they do next year now!! Awesome show about Esther!

Sunday we headed to Camp Ne-O-Tez for PreCamp session. It's only until Tuesday but they pack a ton of activities in for those kiddos. They have a blast and are wiped out by the end. Jeff and I were too....we slept late this morning and took naps this afternoon!!

Ready to "start" the week now. My sister Vicki is in town and us sisters will be hanging out for a few days. Always fun!!

Bittersweet

My baby finished 7th grade today. It's so hard to believe that he is that old. 13 now. His voice is changing, he's a tad bit taller than me now and creeping up on his Dad. It seems like we were just praying for God to send us a bundle of joy and now he's so big I can't even hold him. The sweet part about him is that he still "wants" his Momma. He'll still hug me, let me tuck him in at night and tell me that he loves me. Now my prayers are for him to grow up to be a mighty man of God. I pray that we are giving him a strong foundation and a faith that will carry him through as an adult. He amazes me so often. Things that he'll say that just sound so grown up or just "wow" me. He sees things differently than I do but I love to see how he sees. He really makes me think a lot.

So, now we will enjoy the summer. He says he's not an 8th grader til next school year starts. I love you Shayne and am very proud of you!!