Early summer Fun

here are a few pictures showing what we have been up to the past few months. We have been working on the pool, went canoeing on the river with Christie, Rob and Jacob, Dave has been fishing a few times and Kona had her first experience with fish. The yard is coming together and Dave has been doing more of him fantastic landscaping. I am only in charge of weeding. Apparently I am a "random planter" and most of my plants don't live. Oh well, something to work on. We also have a garden this year and have tomatoes, cucumbers, a pumpkin, a squash and some green peppers. How tasty! I love my husband, but he can kind of be a hill billy... I do not dress him when he wears his river gear.

Madison Bratfest!

At the end of May we went up and visited the Taylor family in Madison. We spent the day in Madison, visited Ben's college house by UW, had a brat at Bratfest, my fav!, and took Mo for her first experience of Trader Joe's. She totally loved it! It is always great seeing the Taylor family and we look forward to seeing them real soon.

Tosca!

This past weekend I sang in the chorus in the RSO's production of Puccini's Tosca. I sang in the chorus for Boheme 2 years ago and was very excited to be chosen to sing again. It is quite the experience to sing with such wonderful, professional opera singers! These singers have performed in opera houses all over the world and it was a great opportunity to have them here in Rockford. We housed a couple from the production staff and enjoyed spending time with them again. Here is picture of myself with fellow chorus members Karen and Beth. I also had the pleasure of working with my friend Abbe on the Opera. Ms. Abbe graciously donated her time to be an extra in the show and it was much fun watching her shine in her spotlight performance! Abbe would like to thank me for giving her this opportunity... even if initially she said she would "never speak to me again," I know deep down she loved it. :)

Thanks Dave and Dad for coming to see me!

Happy Mother's Day

So we had Mother's Day a few days late this year. But we went all out on a dinner for my mom this year. She LOVES lobster and so we decided to cook her a lobster dinner. Rob shipped lobsters all the way from Maine and then cooked them along with other scrumptous sides! It was very tasty and a great time in honor of our wonderful mother. We also sang her a song..."Make Me A Blessing." Although it wasn't our best performance, the thought and the words to that song were much more important and meaningful. Make me a blessing, make me a blessing. All of my life, may Jesus shine! Make me a blessing, to some one today.

Hawaii!!

At the end of January we had the opportunity to visit Hawaii with the Solverson's for a bit of much needed R & R. This was a wonderful vacation! We snorkeled and I took that picture of the turtle underwater, Dave showed us his skills in surfing, and we just enjoyed the scenery and sunshine ( my personal favorite!)

Winter Recap

So it has been too long since I posted. ekkk... that is no good. Here are some pics that recap our winter. My brother graduated from NIU College of Engineering with his Master's and we threw him a party, my friend Kelly is getting married this spring and was in town for her bridal shower. We went sledding and got an insane amount of snow.

On a more somber note, I had my third misscarriage and D & C this winter. There was nothing wrong with this baby either, so in February I went to a fertility specialist who thinks I am low in hormones and will try this with me next time I am pregnant. This was a very trying time for me, but I know the Lord makes no mistakes in what he gives us and that has been a small encouragement to me.

Family Reunion

It was the worst possible day to drive, but our second cousins drove up from the Peoria area anyway to get together for the first time in a long while. It was decided a number of months ago we all needed to get together and see each other and it not be at a wedding or funeral, so the menu was set and they all drove up. We had a great afternoon of food, fellowship, fruit basket upset- at which Aunt Jean was the most fun, and games. Our favorite game was "Name that Hymn" which the girls won thanks to the superb musical memory of the Philip's women. It was great to see everyone and we look forward to getting together again real soon.

Dan and Jo come to visit...and our HS Reunion

Dan and Jo came to visit beginning of November and we had the opportunity to attend our HS reunion with them. Little Jed is so cute and Issac has really grown up and become quite the little charmer! It was so much fun to hang out and take homecoming pictures with them before the reunion. We can't wait to see them in Hawaii this coming January!

The reunion was very interesting. It was cool to see everyone and how we have all grown up and married, and to see who we have married.

God Makes No Mistakes

Haven't updated this in awhile, but I did want to share that I did have another miscarriage at the beginning of October. This time I was only around 7 1/2 weeks along, but the tests have revealed that again there was nothing wrong with the baby. So we are having healthy babies, I just can't seem to continue carrying them. The doctor says I will need hormones next time, but he will be running other tests to make sure there are no other problems. Just continue to pray for us as we wait on the Lord's timing for a little one.

WEEK 1 OF HUNTING SEASON NO DICE!!!!!

Well it all started last week at work when the steel fabarctor said they were out of truck loads of steel to send us. So I was given Tuesday through Friday off! Knowing how fortunate I was to hunt opening week of archery season , I was obviously very excited to have all this time off. So I hunted Monday evening, Tuesday all day- swaying in the tree during a wind storm that evening, and then I started getting burned out on Wednesday. Thursday morning the temperature dropped, which allows more deer movement, so I saw three or four deer, one of which was an eight pointer, but it was too dark to shoot. I also saw a doe and a fawn the size of our Kona bean! Thursday night I was back in the woods again and again I saw two does walk under my stand but it was too dark to shoot! By Friday it was getting just too hot! So, I still hunted Friday morning and Saturday morning, but have officially declared a hunting holiday for myself until the weather cools down.

For the record, Keri thinks I am nuts.

odds and ends

Just some random pictures of what we have been up to in the past few weeks. Dave went paintballing with all the guys and thought it would be a great idea to bellycrawl across the field to take somebody out. Well he had the last laugh when he wound up with tons of chigger bites all over his body! Anyway, you can see the tons of tomatoes we got from our garden this year! my goodness... and this was the second picking. We ended up with over 100.

We are also refinishing a dresser... this has changed from my weekend project to my summer/fall project.

Here is our whiteboard... Dave is getting a little excited for deer hunting season...

And lastly, hanging out at Jer's football game. Dave really likes to be the center of attention!

Dave's Birthday

A few weeks late, but better than never! We celebrated Dave's 29th Birthday with his family a few weekends ago. Dave loves cake... especially Kim's cake and he really wanted Dan to know just how tastey the cake was!

Northern WI family Adventure

So our family decided to risk another vacation together... and we actually went up almost exactly to the same place as last time! I think we enjoy spending 6hrs in a car together... Thanks to Rob and his generous Aunt, we spent a few days on the largest Apostle Island of Madeline. On the way up, all 5 of us kids, and the little bean, took our car up to our land, and then on to spend the day at the Porcupine Mtns. in Upper MI. It was beautiful up there! Diddy loves taking car rides with the little bean, and says, " Kona can sleep on my pillow whenever she would like, I just love dogs." :) Anyway, we hiked and Jake and Dave biked and then we drove to Ashland, spent the night, met up with the rest of the fam in an overloaded minivan, and drove to the ferry and across to the Island. We saw black bears and snakes and deer, so Dave was in his glory. This was a lot of fun, and I think I got a little tan so even I was happy!

Boston- Maine Trip

boy what a trip out East was! I think we went everywhere we possibly could. I started out in Hartford, CT visiting an old friend, and then took the bus to Boston to meet up with the rest of the fam. After a long walk around the city, suitcase in tow, I finally met up with everyone! Boston was very cool. We toured the downtown, Quincy Market, took a graveyard tour and ended at the USS Constitution, our personal favorite. Then Steve, Mo and Dave and I went on to Plymouth, saw Plimoth Plantation and Mayflower...had some winey chowder and traveled to the metropolis of Waterville, ME to see Dan and Jo. We spent the weekend hiking and kayaking in Acadia National Park on the coast and it was a lot of fun. It was a great opportunity to see the east coast, so thanks Dan and Jo for inviting us out!

Spring/Summer Projects

It seems like we never stop doing projects. Mostly this is my fault I suppose. I happenend to mention one day how cool it would be if we added a stone patio off the deck for our grill and firepit, and wouldn't you know Dave was out there like the next day with an axe cutting out the lawn. He is very handy and loves to work outside! Perhaps I should have moved the laundry room outside. :) Here are some pics of his project and the house...

Memorial Day

My whole family got together for Memorial Day this year at my mom's house. My grandpa was there and it was a wonderful time of sharing testimonies, food and bean bag toss!

That same weekend we celebrated my grandpa's birthday...and took one bad family photo!

Noodle graduates

Party at the Taylor's house for Noodle's graduation.... A few words from Dave on the festive celebration: "the food was awesome, it was a lot of fun, best of luck to Noodle. And he pities the fool who picks a fight with her" I think there was something else he said about loving the tea party he had with Ben...Anyway, Mo had some fetish with everyone's feet that evening, so you will see all the latest in footwear displayed here.

Post-Op and Pasta

Okay, waaaaaay overdue for a blog update. Time for some more uplifting blog postings! Here are a few pictures of me after the sugery and you will notice Kona was by my side every minute. :) Aunt Kathy and Uncle Steve drove down and cooked us a wonderful pasta dinner and left enough sauce for 3 months... Dave just finished it all last week! And, of course, enough cookies for the neighborhood! So very thoughtful and sweet. Jake and Katherine also brought us over food as well... thanks to all...