Happy 10 year anniversary!

May 12, 2012:

Here's what we did-

• previous night dropped son off at Grandma's house (the farm)
• got up early on a Saturday
• rode our bikes to the Ottumwa Park (avoiding traffic)
• walked The Race for the Cure 5K race in a little over an hour
• hubby was proud of me, because I was able to keep his pace. 
• rode our bikes back home
• went out for lunch at Appanoose Rapids in downtown Ottumwa- yum! 

 Hubby's lunch. Yes, that is a burger sandwiched between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches!

 I had their Pork Tenderloin, no I didn't eat it all! :)

Beautiful example of what could be and should be in downtown!

• Went to scrapbooking store Craft & Hobby Connection for a project I was doing- that's complete now, more on that another time. Yes, hubby went in with me- you know he really loves me if he went in there! 
• Went to our first movie in a long time! Before 6pm, so we still didn't pay $8/ person. Yup, you guessed it- The Avengers. 

•  Ended the day with a hot dog cookout and s'mores at the farm and also, we picked up our son (here he is being silly). 

• Here's our 4 year old son (our only child) playing 'Captain Jack Sparrow' and Papa John and Grandma Shirley by the fire! 

Hard to believe 10 years has gone by since that cold, windy day at the campground where we got married! 

Time flies when you are having fun, though! 

Fun, Food, Friends, and Fishing!

Friday night we had some friends over. We invited more, but some were busy- that's okay. We had about 12 people including our family. It was so much fun to get some new and some old families together- meaning some that have hung out before together with one family that hadn't. There were 5 kids under the age of 4! The 3 three year olds were fun (Stephen, Christopher and Be'lin), they've hung out together before. But then again there was a finger slammed in the bathroom door, bubbles dumped on somebody's head and marshmallow stickiness smeared in the same person's hair! Then there was Lola- she's 2, and sometimes she was in her own little world, but got into playing with the other kids eventually. Then there's Veronica, who just turned 1 and wants to do everything the 3 year olds were doing! We started the party inside (silly rain), but it stopped raining later in the night so we could move outside and let the kids run off even MORE energy and make some s'mores. One person in the party had never had s'mores before- can you believe it?! Crazy! But he liked them!
What an awesome way to kick off the summer with food, friends, fun and good times! 

On Saturday- Christopher got to spend some time fishing with Grandma, his Aunt Vicky and Uncle Mike while they were in town for a day.

Waiting for the fish to bite... hard to believe he's 3 1/2 this month! 

Cutest fishing boy I know! 

 He caught one! 

Christopher had a pretty great weekend, spending 2 whole nights at grandma's house- which is rare, because usually grandma can't keep him over on Sunday nights because she works. He was really good, and was lucky enough to stay up late and even slept in early- why is it he does some things at grandma's house that I can't get him to do at his own? 

Summer has begun and we have our summer reading books for the week- even mommy joined the adult summer reading program at the local library! Grand prize is an hour long massage from a local massage place called 'Time Away.' I won't win, but just thinking about getting an hour long massage makes me start to relax! All Stay-At-Home moms need relaxation time! 

Weddings and Photography

So on September 5, 2009- this past weekend- my mother-in-law got married, again.

It's not every day that your mother-in-law gets married, and being that I have known her for 9 years, I have never known her to be married! She's been in and out of many relationships, but never engaged- until recently- and never married until this weekend.

She's not Shirley Howk anymore... she's Shirley Waite. I know it's weird, and it'll take some getting used to- but she and John have been seeing each other for almost 2 years! I guess when you know it's right- you just know! Don't they look happy? This photo was taken of them in the horse drawn carriage after a long ride from the farm to the reception at the church! So they are truly man and wife in this photo.

It's her story, but her husband, my husband's dad, died 10 years ago of a heart attack when he was just 50. It's been a rough road for her and her 3 kids, but they've all survived, and so will she- even happily ever after!

It was a beautiful day- as opposed to my wedding which was cold, cloudy and windy, or my sister-in-laws, which was pouring down rain! She said the only way that you can tell it's raining in her pictures from the wedding, which my husband took, is the ducks that are swimming in the puddles just feet from the picnic shelter!

My husband and I took the photos for my mother-in-laws wedding as well, I took the snapshots with our digital camera, and ran the video camera and the company that he's laid off from was nice enough to lend them their professional digital camera for the event! So out of those three options my mother-in-law will have gotten a pretty good mixture of photos of her second wedding!

The wedding was held at the family farm, where the two newlyweds will live when they return from their honeymoon. It was a good location with a corn field as a backdrop and people sitting on wooden benches made from concrete blocks and wooden boards.

Being out at the farm for a week prompts me to take advantage of the beautiful creation God has provided us. So I took some time to take some photos of what you might see if you were to visit the farm yourself sometime. We took a lot of flower photos... but I like this one. It just says to me, though there may be rough times we all have to go through- like death of a loved one, there will be new life at the end of all of that. John 10:10 tells us this "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." And so a new life is started- with a new marriage in this family!

See more photos I've taken here.