lots of random stuff...

2007-06-30-2344-34

2007-07-14-2150-18

this summer has been a whirlwind. i can't believe we only have 2 weeks left! our weekends have been packed with family visits and lots of fun. in the past month we've been to charles city, ankeny, and i got to go to chicago last weekend. i have a lot of fun pictures to post from charles city and ankeny, but i haven't been organized enough to sort through them all yet. so here are just a few, but maybe more to come soon.

we had such a great time in charles city! kurt's sister and her family from washington state came, as well as his two sisters and families from des moines. 7 kids and 7 adults in one house - and 2 teenagers and 2 adults there but staying in another. at least we weren't outnumbered! :) we ate lots of great food - kurt's brother in law is a chef and i'm afraid he gets stuck with all of the cooking when we get together. he let anna help him make creme broulet (sp?). she's still talking about it! charles city is such a quaint, neat little town. they have a HUGE july 4th celebration. we didn't make it to much of that, but we did sparklers. we also chased lightning bugs, played mini golf and did the slip n slide. we also enjoyed a lot of toga's special jungle juice (what did we call that again?). some of us enjoyed it more than others (steve!). :D

we also were in town for ankeny's summerfest. uncle john and aunt tall were there and we had a great time then too! we went to the parade, the carnival, fed the ducks, and enjoyed our iowa / grimes peaches and cream sweet corn. we went to the mall and got to have chick fil a too. we don't have one of those in omaha and the girls really miss it. lol! we also just enjoyed hanging out at mimi and papa's and getting to play.

last weekend i got to go to chicago for the craft and hobby assocation's summer show. kelly brought a few of us it kit girls and we got to help her pick out stuff for her kits. we had SO much fun! thanks SOOO much again, kelly, for taking us with you! the booths were full of gorgeous layouts and projects - so much inspiration there. and seeing all of the latest products all in one place - it was overwhelming and so fun at the same time. it was so great to get to meet people face to face that i know online and friends of friends. except i was sooooo sad that i gave kp the wrong cell phone number! :( i am just a mess! we'll meet next time for sure!!!

this weekend was pretty quiet. i finished up the last harry potter and we did some school shopping. i spent quite a bit of time on this fun website - goodreads. now i have a huge list of books i want to read. i'm not sure my family will be very excited about that - i tend to get really engrossed and they get neglected. lol!

ok - now that i've written a book of my own! lol! have a great week!

jdrf

as many of you know, my dear friend becca NEEDS a cure for diabetes. she does amazing work for this cause. this year i get to participate with her during the walk for the cure. here is a letter i'll be sending out to a few of you. if you can, please help by clicking on the link and donating. thank you!!! here is the letter:

Greetings!

I'm writing to you to ask for your support in a very special cause.

This year, I'll be taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk to Cure Diabetes along with a half-million other walkers across the country. Our goal: To raise $90 million to help fund research for a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.

Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating, often deadly disease that affects millions of people--a large and growing percentage of them children.

Many people think type 1 diabetes can be controlled by insulin. While insulin does keep people with type 1 diabetes alive, it is NOT a cure. Aside from the daily challenges of living with type 1 diabetes, there are many severe, often fatal, complications caused by the disease.

That's the bad news... and yes, it's pretty bad.

The good news, though, is that a cure for type 1 diabetes is within reach. In fact, JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 diabetes research to date. And JDRF funds a major portion of all type 1 diabetes research worldwide, more than any other charity.

I'm writing to ask for your support because now more than ever, EACH of us can be a part of bringing about a cure. Each of us can make a real difference

Won't you please give to JDRF as generously as you're able?

Together, we can make the cure a reality.

Thank you,

Holly Koenigsfeld

Please visit my Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close I am to reaching my personal goal:

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=86714219

poor ella!

it was HOT today! and yesterday. and both girls were exhausted from being out in it. so i'm thinking that was a little bit of the reason behind this story. but it could just be ella's amazing imagination. the girls were playing with the neighbor kids in the backyard. they had hoses going and there were little mud puddles everywhere. ella came running into the house in frantic tears. i was sure she had slipped and fallen. but then she started telling me that she thought her friends and anna were really turning into frogs. and she was hysterical and SO serious! she told me they all had eaten frog eggs and then crawled into a hole in the mud. and when they came out their feet were covered in mud and they were already hopping. and she didn't think anything would be able to change them back. of course the big kids were just playing a game, and the frog eggs were just candy. but poor ella was terrified. it took me almost 20 minutes to convince her that they really weren't frogs and that everyone would be ok. bless her heart! even after i thought she was convinced i saw her standing by the window and watching them just to be sure. i felt so bad that she was so upset. but at the same time i was amazed and proud. because if her imagination would allow her to believe that someone could turn into a frog for real, i wonder what other amazing possibilties are floating around in there.

the august IT kit...

is for sale starting right now!!! everything in the kit is SO gorgeous! click here to check IT out!

happy birthday wilson!!!

i can't believe he's already one!!! here are some unedited pictures of him eating his cake. he wasn't too sure about it at first so his sisters had to show him how to do it. he dug right in after that! lol!

happy fourth!

hope you all had a great one! we grilled iowa chops for dinner and had this wonderful dessert - red, white and blueberry trifle. i somehow messed it up and had really runny filling, so i added another brick of cream cheese and a little more sugar. it turned out ok! my cooking is getting better - at least now when i mess up i know better ways to fix it. lol! tonight i'm attempting chicken tenders for the second time. the first time set off smoke alarms. so keep your fingers crossed for me. lol!



after dinner we did sparklers, snakes and smoke bombs. and watched as our neighbor boys lit off lots of big loud fireworks. anna LOVED it! she did a lot more sparklers than ella, but i didn't manage to get a picture of her because she wouldn't stand in one place long enough. she was so excited. ella did much better this year than last. she's still pretty afraid of the loud booms, though. it looked like a war zone in our street when they were all done. and amazingly wilson slept through the whole thing!

happy birthday ella!!!

i'm a few days late - it was july 1. we were at grandpa k's for the weekend. aunt lisa, aunt debbie and uncles cory and toga helped throw together a great party! she LOVED all of her presents and of course her barbie cake. everytime she opened a present she gasped with excitement. she is so cute! i can't believe she's already 4. she's growing up soooo fast!!!