argh

It used to irritate me when Huggies "improved" their diapers while reducing the number of diapers in the bag and raising the price... (okay, it still does irritate me ~ I just don't have to face it daily like I did many long years ago)

So, Blogger, what is the deal with the NEW template designing stuff?!?  I was quite content with my design from hotbliggityblog... Then I got notice that it would disappear on Aug 1 for whatever reason.  So I went shopping for a new design and ended up with the blue flower one from cutestblogontheblock.  Today I decided to look again (after battling to get my links to show up in a different color) Quit trying to change text color and found another cute design at hotbliggity.. But for some reason it won't appear on the blog ~ except the hotbliggityblog logo?  Bleh.  So I picked a template from the minimal Blogger choices, and here we are.  :p

Bright spot:  The links are now clearly seen.  And I'm provoked to get up and do something else with this day come back and spend yet another hour messing with the format.  Okay, I'm done now.  I think we'll have to live with this for a few months.

Please don't miss the post on Prague now that I've posted this rant!

who's going to the Czech Republic?

Julie asked me to  

Tell more about the Czech Republic trip?!

I'm sorry! ~ I thought I had posted more information than just the button with a link in the sidebar, but I can't find anything else... So here you all go!  And thank you for praying!

Miss Music Box (pictured below on right) and her dad and about 30 other volunteers and missionaries will be leaving September 10 to travel to Prague.

They are going with Couriers for Christ, a ministry of Wyldewood Baptist Church in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  I was excited to find the website for Missionary Jon Rettig who has ministered with his family in Prague since 1994.  They will be assisting the Rettigs and the small church there by distributing these John & Romans (which were printed at Branson West, Missouri, Conny!) and inviting the people of Prague to learn of Christ and attend an evangelistic meeting toward the end of the campaign.

There is a great need for prayer for this campaign.  

God is the only one who can change lives for His glory.

• Pray for the precious souls of the people in Prague where atheism is prevalent.
• The Czech Bibles that will be given to those attending the final meeting are having production problems ~ They are coming from Korea and need to arrive in Prague before September 10 instead of later in  September.
• One of the team members has recently had surgery and is having lingering effects. Pray for Holly's health and strength to make the trip to Prague.
• Another team member's wife is due with their third child shortly after his return from Prague ~ Pray that Doug's wife doesn't go into labor early!

Miss MusicBox will celebrate her 17th birthday in Prague ~ Pray that this will be a meaningful time of growth in her walk with God ~ And please pray for Tim also, who is weary from our long year of housebuilding in addition to his usual responsibilities.

Dekuju! (deck-oo-you)

Thank you!

P.S.  There ARE links in this post ~ I haven't figured out how to make them show up better with the new format.  Move your mouse around and hopefully you will find them!     Okay, changed the format again, as you can see  ;-)

And, here's a link to Mrs. Rettig's blog that seems to be hosted/posted by their sending church...

the crazy life

Here's my FB status from last night:

.what.a.day. After dropping off E, we hit a bookstore, Target & Kohls in Ankeny (and Bosco's for half-price gyros!), then on to Ames for groceries and a "quick" stop at the mall... Left home this morn ~11 and just got home again at 8:50pm. Do I need to mention that I had my teenage shopping queens with me?

And to prepare for such an unexpectedly long day, Miss MusicBox and I were shopping online until after midnight Monday night ~ I finally shut it off when we lost i-net service in the thunderstorm.  Smart?

Monday we finally finished cleaning out the old house (Tim still has a pile of trash and a few things in the garage) ~ whew!  I need to bake bread today (yesterday)... And the Computer Geek has a paper route to deliver today.  I should actually cook a meal for my family?  Church tonight.  Friday begins "tax-free weekend" for back-to-school clothes shopping (um, which we sorta did a LOT of yesterday)... So they gave us $30 of store credit at Kohls to be used Friday or Saturday.  And since I have several things to return, maybe we will brave the crowd on Friday morning?  ugh.  Friday night we need to celebrate the CG's 14th birthday, because on Saturday we will be at a family reunion...

Next week...
The Cattleman's Sunday school teacher gave them the "Romans 12 Challenge" this summer (in competition with the high school class) ~ The younger class appears to be winning the challenge, and their prize is a camping trip!  (That's next week)  And we have Tim's nephew Matthew and his new bride Jessica coming for a few days (to work on the house! yay!) ~ and maybe Kayleb too??  Miss MB has a day of babysitting for a friend, then she and Miss Artist are to go to the State Fair with their high school Sunday school class to help run an evangelistic booth... I think Miss A has agreed to an evening of babysitting.  Youth group is invited to a swimming activity on Saturday.

And in just five short weeks, Tim and Miss MB need to be packed and ready to travel to the Czech Republic!  (thus my 'willingness' to marathon clothes shop yesterday)

Crazy?!


I should like to look forward to heaven because I will see my Blessed Savior ~ not just because I'm tired of life on this earth...

"Hezky den" (hess-key den) 

"Have a nice day" in Czech  :-)

~ ♥ ~

garage floor prep

Must have been Wed, July 14 ~ Kayleb returned for yet another long weekend of helping us!  Wednesday night we were up until 1am getting the floor ready for a Thursday morning pour (or so we thought).  This meant installing a drain... which meant drilling/knocking a hole in the wall  ~ Through how many inches of concrete?!

(sorry, can't turn these two pics ~ cock your head to the left)

But yay!!! the drain pipe is through the wall!

Here the girls are helping "staple" the pex tubing to the styrofoam ~ Yes, we are putting heat in the garage floor too.  We baby our cars.  ;-)

Another day Kayleb put another hole through the wall, this time encountering re-bar (oops), in order to vent the stove hood.

Not much else on that roll of film besides messy closets and kitchen  =)  So here's one more of Smokey happily relaxing on the front stoop while the guys worked on the garage floor ~ and the kids enjoyed quite the lightning show before the rain.  Didn't capture that on film.  It was the branch-all-over-the-sky type lightning ~ very cool.

Oh, and a little miscommunication about the concrete pour ~ they eventually came on July 21 to pour the floor.  Just a minor speed bump.  Those pics are still undeveloped.  That's life with one-time-use FILM cameras.

finally pictures

First the surprise... that is difficult to do justice with photos ...

...such a cool gift with our farm's name painted on an old barn board  =)  Tim got it mounted on the wall yesterday morning.

Thanks, Amber!!!

I've lost track of which day the Computer Geek accomplished this project... creating a 'sidewalk' to the front door.

(photos by Miss MusicBox ~ actually all but one? in the whole post!)

The daily battle for the boys is to conquer the weeds ... the hills of dirt make them even more impressive oppressive.

Anyone recognize this prevalent plant?

Smokey seemed to be enjoying our new home... but she disappeared last weekend  :-(

We found a new pink wildflower to add to our collection ~ Anyone know what this is??  The plant must be about 3 feet tall.  We moved it from the old ditch to the new one this week (thanks to the ComputerGeek).

Tim must have been moving the fence the same evening that the CG was building the rock sidewalk.

She even captured the cattle on the move...

Must have been Monday night I finally got to this project... which was a lot more work than I expected.

First I changed my mind about which wall to put it on... got it taped up there level and centered. Then you have to peel off the backing... without taking the letters with it...

Then it's time to make the letters stick to the wall while peeling off the top layer...

while standing on a step stool, leaning across the piano... stop, roll the shoulders... while Miss MB tries to get me to make funny faces at her for a photo  :p

Whew... no need for all the in between photos...

This corner looks like home at least!

Meanwhile, Tim was moving more appliances...

And the Cattleman learned how fun it is to reattach the bottom grill on an upright freezer  ;-)

Miss Artist is enjoying the variety available in the ditch and pasture for making 'flower' arrangements...

five day countdown

...until August 1.  It is our current goal to be completely OUT of the old house this week.  Thus, my ADHD thinking is "focused" on...

• Where will we put that?
• I forgot the bread bags again!
• This laundry room would be big enough if it wasn't so full of dirty clothes.  ;-)
• This kitchen IS bigger ~ why is it full already??
• Another appliance moved = another icky corner to clean.
• The piano is really loud here without any carpet or curtains to absorb the sound.
• I love having all the leaves in our table all the time  =)
• The bombshell bunker style house makes dropped calls a regular thing ~ need to find the right place to sit/stand (not usually where I could multi-task) 
• Who wants to paint this wall (again) and that closet??
• I love having a large living room to gather in with my family.

According to a FB friend, the heat/humidity is back today  :-(  Yesterday and Sunday were sooo lovely.  I should have done more.  We need to make a few trips of hauling s.t.u.f.f. this morning.  This afternoon I think we'll make the errand trip to Ames ~ lots of stops so I'd better get a good list in hand.  Oh yeah, and laundry and supper plan B.

Yesterday I did get my calendar hung up ~ It's really hard to put a nail in a beautiful solid wall, ya know?  I was discussing the need for a daily chore list/routines with a friend.  I was thinking September 1 would be a good date to adopt a FlyLady attitude again, but maybe August 1 would be better?
And last night I labored to get this verse stuck to the wall.  Miss MusicBox took a bzillion photos of the process, so one of these days I'll borrow her card and upload some pics.

Wish I had a picture from yesterday.  We arrived at the old house to gather another load, but couldn't even get in the driveway.  A couple of young girls had somehow driven their car into our ditch ~ at a very deep/steep point which we don't even mow (that's how steep it is).  The tow truck had his cable attached, so we sat and watched as he pulled/she drove herself back out again.  (Meanwhile I got out and directed traffic ~ ha ha ~ in my "not-going-to-town" clothes  :p)  Her car didn't appear damaged ~ just lots of mud/grass stuck to her front bumper ~ so after paperwork with Blake (the tow truck guy), they were able to drive away leaving us wondering....  You see, it's been almost 8 years we've lived there on the curve of the highway out of town... and we've had several unfortunate people leave their mark in our ditches, fences, etc.  We actually live on another curve on this gravel road ~ but I'm hoping we are on the road less traveled and will live with a little less excitement here  ;-)

Ahem, yes, Iowa does have some roads with curves  :o

good morning to you!

My far-away blogging friend Felicity gave me this award, bless her heart! 
♥  Thanks so much!  ♥

Now to pass it along to 12 of my favorite blogs...
(in alphabetical order, because I'm like that...)

Amber Waves of Grain ~ Amber

And then I Married a Missionary ~ Sarah

CiCi's Corner ~ Lea

Faith, Hope, and Love ~ Angela

Felicity's Thoughtful Spot ~ Felicity (right back at ya!)

From the Heart of My "Haus" ~ Conny

Granola Mom 4 God ~ Jodi

Heavenly Homemakers ~ Laura

Herding Grasshoppers ~ Julie

Home Joys ~ Gina

Julie's Thoughts ~ Julie  ;-)

Letters to My Airman/50 Chubby Toes ~ EMichelle

Oh, but I have more than 12 favorite blogs!  Check them all out in the sidebar  ;-)



To receive your award copy the picture above to your blog and then post 12 of your favorite blogs underneath.