Where Has Summer Gone?

Well, one bad thing about not posting in so long is trying to remember what all has happened in the last month and a half. I see that the last one was July 2 and I know that we had Heather's birthday cookout on July 4th, as we usually do. She always likes a cookout with hamburgers, hot dogs and a flag cake (white cake/white frosting with blueberries and strawberries making a flag on top). Then we shot fireworks as soon as it was dark enough. The next week, I left on Thursday afternoon and drove to St. Louis. The St. Louis 2008 mission trip began on Friday, July 11th. I had to leave on Tuesday, the 15th, so I could catch up in the office and get ready to head out to Denver on Wednesday. Heather and the kids went with me. We left at about 10:00 pm and drove through the night so that the kids would sleep most of the time. When we got there , we already had a hotel room to go to because Jenni, Justin and Stuart (GEM's summer team) had arrived the day before and we shared Jenni's room on Thursday night. It was Jenni's birthday, so we ate at the Aquarium. This shark was so gracious to pose with the kids. We moved over to First Baptist, Aurora on Friday morning and got settled in our rooms and set up for registration.

Todd flew in on Sunday morning and we went to the airport to pick him up. We got back in time to hear Pastor Abraham from FBCA preach. Todd was the speaker on Monday and Thursday mornings and Heather helped me with administrative stuff. But we did get to go to the zoo on Tuesday --our day off. It was a good week and we started home Friday night and pulled in about 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

Then Sunday, Doug and Wendy and the kids arrived. Doug had to leave on Monday for a conference in Orlando, FL, but Wendy and the kids stayed with us. When he came back on Thursday, they all moved over to Carlene and Larry's and stayed until the following Tuesday.

Bailey had fractured her arm on the playground in Houston, so we had not seen her with her arm splint until they got here.

The cousins all got to play together and then on Friday morning they got their picture taken. We all met at Dave and Carol Wright's house, because they have such a perfect house and yard for the pictures we wanted. They were very generous to allow us to invade their space for a couple of hours with eight little cowboys and cowgirls. Sarah Boyd of "Captured by Sarah" met us there and photographed Pappy and I with all the grandkids. The kids wore blue jeans, white shirts, boots and cowboy hats. I can't wait to see the pictures. I'll let you know when you can check them out on Sarah's website. Thanks, Lindsay, for posting the pictures you took. They turned out really good.

Then on Saturday, our kids surprised us with lunch at Springfield Brewery for our anniversary. August 10th, 1968 was our wedding day....40 years ago! Besides all our kids and grandkids... Karla, B.J., John & Beverly, Cozy & Steve, and Curt, Amanda & Jackson were all there. Here's our beautiful bunch!

Well, it's late, but there's more to show and tell, so I'll have to continue this another time.

Goodnight!

Yikes!

Time Flies When You're Havin' Fun!

I have some more cute pictures to show off since my last post. On Friday, the 13th of June, Wendy and Bailey flew in for Heather Smith's wedding. It was Bailey's first time to fly on a plane!They stayed until Monday and we drove them back to Tulsa Airport to fly back to Houston. It was a great weekend. On Friday night, Wendy and I did some scrapbooking. Bailey stayed all night with her cousin Allison. On Saturday night, we had a cookout with all the kids, B.J. (my brother) and Karla (my sister). Bailey and Gavin stayed all night with us.

On Sunday, we went to church and then Gary, Wendy, Bailey and I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch (Gary's choice for Father's Day.) Here's Dad and his girl:

That was the day we got the wonderful news about new baby Wallace. Matt, Lindsay, and Gavin brought Pappy a card for Father's Day and signed it "Matt, Lindsay, Gavin and new baby Wallace (due December 16th).

Sunday evening, Wendy and Bailey went to Mimi and Papa's (Doug's folks) for dinner. Then Monday morning our dear friend, Micky Kittleman met us at our house and rode to Tulsa with us. It was such a good visit for all of us, except for the saying good-bye part.

I spent the next week making my final preparations for Vacation Bible School, June 22-26. Sunday was the kickoff with hot dogs, dunking booth, inflatable pirate ship bounce, an Army helicopter which landed on the parking lot, fire trucks, and a sheriff's car. It was a fun time!

Here's Gavin driving the fire truck:

And in the army helicopter:

VBS theme was "Outrigger Island" with tropical activities and decorations. Here's my room. I was a Bible study teacher and taught a different age group each night.

I also loaded some pictures from Wendy's camera. Here is one of Bailey and Ruthie after they had been to Libby Loo's at the Galleria mall in Houston. It's a strictly girls' store where they can get their nails painted, hair done, some glitter make-up and had a really fun time.

Here's Micah, the cowboy!

Well, this has taken me all day, so I'm going to quit for now. The summer mission trips are less than 2 weeks away, and we have so much to do. I'll try to post again before I leave on the 10th of July, because I won't be back until the 27th of July.

Hope your weekend is glorious!

Donna

The Big News!!

Probably everyone in our world already has heard....but, if you haven't, I am so thrilled to announce that Matt and Lindsay are expecting a baby in December. Wahoo!!! This will be the 10th time for Pappy and I to get this news and then anxiously await the arrival of a grandchild. Each time has been no less exciting than the first!

Let me recap:

1999: Lucas Andrew Bischoff, May 3
2000: Bailey Rebekah Bischoff, November 29
2001: Gavin Matthew Wallace, August 1
2002: Micah Steven Bischoff, May 20
2003: Karis Rose Wallace, August 29 (who went to live with Jesus the same day)
2003: Ruth Ann Bischoff, October 9
2004: Jadon Creed Wallace, October 17
2005: Woops, missed a year
2006: Haven Elizabeth Wallace, June 3
2007: Another dry year
2008: Jude Ezra Wallace, February 13
2008: New Baby Wallace, December 16

I'm thinking about my mom today who passed away before any of these little miracles came into being. She lived and breathed for our three children and was the best grandma in the world to them. I can only imagine how she would have loved on their children!

Lord Jesus, thank you for these three families who love you and serve you with all their hearts. Thank you for blessing them with these children and for the way they are raising their children to love and serve you.

Hope you have a glorious and blessed day!

Mema and proud of it!

More from our Houston trip

Continued from yesterday's post.....

Here's Micah practicing his drive with his new "golf ball club" as he calls it.

Lucas got this swingball set from Unce Todd and Aunt Heather. He loves playing.

Ruthie loves her pappy and Pappy loves his Ruthie.

Well, Sunday morning we went to church at HFBC with them, then came home for lunch. It was Doug and Wendy's 12th anniversary and they both had a meeting at church at 5 pm, so we took the kids to the Houston Zoo and they went out for dinner at The Melting Pot after their meeting.

Here's Bailey and Ruthie at the petting zoo. There is a bucket of brushes at the entrance so the kids can pick one out and brush the goats.

Monday we had to catch our plane at 10:35 a.m. so we left as the kids were leaving for school. We always hate to say goodbye.....

Wednesday night was the last night for Awanas at church for the summer. They had bounces set up on the parking lot for the kids to play on and then handed out awards.

Here's Jadon and Gavin on the big slide...

Talk about a Kodak moment.....

Have a wonderful day.

Until next time,

Donna

Here, Birdie, Birdie...

Well, I have several things to catch up on. The first is my new hobby. Bird-watching. Well, I guess technically it's not bird-watching like going into the woods with binoculars and finding rare species. It's more like sitting on the sunporch watching the bird feeders, hoping some pretty little birdie will decide to partake of the feast that is before them. We have hummingbirds, yellow finches, purple finches, cardinals, blue jays, bluebirds, orioles, grosbeaks, woodpeckers and others that I haven't yet learned what they are. I just love watching them... they're kind of hard to see in this picture.
Oh,... Mother's Day. I had just a wonderful weekend. Todd and Matt's families met Gary and I at Red Robin's on Saturday and it was so fun. Then, Gary took me to Nakato's on Sunday. Since it was just us two, we had to sit at a table with seven other people. It was a mother, her two daughters and their children. In the course of our conversation, they mentioned they were from Osceola which is north of Collins and west of Nevada. I said, he (pointing to Gary) is from Schell City (which is between those towns). They looked so surprised...they had graduated from Schell City high school! Gary went there through his Sophomore year. They knew a lot of the same people and families, even though they were younger. Now isn't that crazy that we would get seated with that family! Anyway, it was fun!

Then, the next weekend we got to spend with Wendy's family. We drove to Tulsa on Friday, the 16th and flew to Houston. We arrived and rented a car and drove to their house. We brought some Cardinal outfits for the kids to remind them of their roots. No Astros, Yes Cardinals!

Saturday morning, they had tickets for "The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian, " so we all went. The kids had seen the first Chronicles movie and had been playing like they were the kids in the movie: Lucas is Peter, Bailey is Susan, Micah is Edmond and Ruthie is Lucy.

After the movie we ate at a bbq place and went to ride go-carts Fun, fun! That night we had the boy's birthday party. Lucas's birthday is May 3 and Micah's is May 20. We got them each a set of golf clubs. Pappy wants to get them started playing golf at a young age. They live about 5 minutes from a golf course.

I have more pictures, but I'll post again tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Is It May Already?

Okay, remember in my first blog when I said I would probably be lucky to post once a week.....well, make that once a month!


I was reading my past blogs and discovered that I need to update you about my fishponds. When the ponds finally unfroze, I found that there are still two fish in each pond. The koi pond has two black fish and the goldfish pond has two orange fish. Now....how to keep the racoons out. One possibility is to put new handrails and gates on each side. But I bought these fake lily pads with lights on them. One has a sun sensor and the other three have bulbs, so they light up at night. It might work. I just need to get a set for the other pond.






Let's see.....what else is new. Jadon and Haven love to find frogs in our backyard. This day they each found one to carry around. Jadon jumped on the trampolene with his and every time Jadon jumped, the frog croaked.






Friday, Heather and I took the kids to Silver Dollar City. We had to get there, because it was the last day for the WorldFest. It was a beautiful day. Here's Jude...first time at SDC!



Oh, something else I remembered as I read old posts. The fire-bellied toad, Poison. We had him about 3 years. Gavin picked him out and named him. He wasn't allowed to hold him without gloves on because they secrete a kind of poison as a self-defense mode. Not enough to hurt humans, but not something you would want on your hands. Anyway, we have bought crickets to feed him and cleaned out his house for the past 3 years, but early this year, he died. Somehow he got under his water bowl and was smashed flat. Well, I knew Gavin would want to bury him, but he was gone to Maine at the time, so I put Poison in a baggie and stored him in the freezer. I did show him to Gavin when he got home and he took it pretty well, but the weather was bad and the ground too hard to dig a little grave, so we forgot all about him. I guess we better get him out and schedule a graveside service for him. As toads go, he was actually a pretty cool one.
I didn't think a picture was appropriate at this solemn time.


Gary and I are flying to Houston on May 16th and I can't wait. Lucas's birthday was May 3rd and Micah's is May 20th, so we will get to celebrate with them. When I figured the cost of gas and food and a hotel room, it was just as cheap to fly out of Tulsa on Southwest plus get there in half the time.


Well, that's all I have time for now, I guess. Have a wonderful day!

Til next time,


Donna