Beautiful weather..

Sophie receiving Emily's gift: a home made pinata.

Yes, this is my hubby's butt. I couldn't resist.

Princess.

This is how germs are shared among families.

Here's my home-grown band, complete with 1-yr.-old drummer.

We are having some fabulous weather here. Clear air, sunbeams streaking down through the tree branches, cool mornings. You know, the kind of weather that makes you want to inhale deeply. I can feel the summer slipping away, and the demands of schedules and the business of fall coming. Oh well, time marches on. But life continues to cycle, as my good friend just found out she's expecting, unexpectedly! That drumbeat keeps on even though we get busy with other stuff doesn't it? Congratulations!!!! Sophie is about to turn 6, and we celebrated as a family last night. She is so cute. She wants me to start calling her "Zoishia" (the Polish version of her name, which I'm sure I've butchered). Yes Nancy, that's your fault! :-) Bret is off again to St. Louis for a boy scout trip. He had a great time at his Steubenville retreat last week. We're getting ready to go and visit Gramma and Grampa for a week as well as my sister and her family. It'll be great for the kids to play. The kids are most excited to fly somewhere! Anyway, laundry calls, so I'm off to fold the multiple baskets.

I smell smoke

I smell smoke, because I smell like smoke! I spent the better part of today clearing up debris in the yard and burning it in the firepit. The girls meandered in and out of my work, in-between finding lots of busy fun in the yard. Michael is the same way, except he likes to freak me out by filling his mouth with hickory nuts, then running. We had smores for lunch. That rocked. Rachael likes to point out that she ate a turkey sandwich previous to that, which was a healthier choice. She's right, of course. But let me say again, I had smores for lunch. We stopped briefly to head to confession this afternoon.

It was a sparkling summer day, nice and breezy; it felt more like early fall than July. It's supposed to be that way again tomorrow. I'm drinking it in. Things in my life feel a little clearer altogether too. It would be too much to write in here, but let's just leave it at that.

Michael was stung by a really evil-looking hornet yesterday. I think he tried to pick him up and got bitten on the thumb. Poor baby cried for an hour at least. He kept holding his thumb up like a hitch-hiker. He's fine today. Last night the girls had a handful of friends over for a slumber party. They played guitar hero, ran outside around a campfire playing "ghosts in the graveyard," and stayed up too late playing hide and seek and watching movies. It was a great success. Bret is away in St. Louis at a Steubenville youth retreat. I can't wait to hear how it went. Next weekend is TOTALLY packed with fun busy-ness for us. And once again, Bret will be in the St. Louis area, this time with the boy scouts for their annual summer adventure. Must be nice! :-) Things here are nice and calm. Maybe I'm just appreciating the good times more because one of our little leukemia friends passed away today. He had relapsed twice in 7 or 8 years, and just couldn't hang on after transplant. It was so sad, he had fought so hard. Anyway, not to end on a sad note, because it's not sad, he's totally content! But that's about all the update for tonight!

4th of July, and hair

We spent the 4th at our friend's the Strini's place, swimming and eating and generally having fun. Michael had fun throwing anything he could lift into the pool, including most everyone's abandoned shoes. Late in the day, he decided the pool was fun to jump into, repeatedly. Now, he has no fear of water; crap. My husband is accumulating a fan club of people that think he looks like Keith Urban. I guess he's some country music singer, don't know, never listen to the stuff, but since he's sporting a beard and long hair, they think he looks like him. I remember marrying a clean-cut guy, which has always been appealling to me, so I'm really struggling as um, well, clean-cut is SO much more appealling to me. So, I try and grin whenever the next country-music-fan gushes to my husband that he looks "just like Keith Urban!" and wonder, painfully, how long this phase will last. This is one of those marriage things right? What I like, and what I had is gone, and now I have to embrace the "new and not-so-improved" (totally in my opinion). Sigh. The struggles of being married to famous look-alikes.

Two posts in one day?

My dad, Michael and me at the zoo.

Bret and his friend, and fellow MOC volunteer, Kathleen

Dad, Michael, and Rachael playing in the zoo's "Nile River"

Mom and I, dorcus and dorcus keeping out of the sun.

Sophie, dad and Rachael

Here's some pics of my parent's recent visit. They were here for about 30 hours! We can sure cram a lot into a visit...we just don't sleep! lol.

Back in time

My grandparents as I always remember them! Gram and Gramp!

Nancy, my "new" cousin! Standing under our common heritage! lol!

My grandfather is about 18 here, and is in glasses.

This is my grandfather's childhood home, his sisters, and parents.

This is my grandmother's family. She's about 17 here. We think it's all but one sibling, (and she had a twin that died at birth) and my gram is the second one from the left. My kids think I look like her, and I'm kind of amazed at the resemblance too.

So, I reunited with a long lost cousin (we share the same great grandparents) and it's been really cool to catch up and try and figure out the nuances of our family. Thanks to you Nancy, I have new pictures of my relatives. (and info!) My dad and I recently tried to piece together much of my grandfather's life chronologically, and it's funny to realize how much we don't know! That stoic generation of MEN, "you just don't talk about that stuff." Anyway, it's interesting and enlightening. Summer is going by, and the 4th of July is upon us. From here it always seems to go fast right into school. Bret has been volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity summer camp as a counsellor. That's been fun for him. I think he's crushing on one of the girls there. (insert eye-roll) We're getting some stuff done around the house, but trying to just take it easy before the busy fall hits again.