Never too young...

...to start learning. Besides, we have a drummer and a guitar player around here, so a pianist is in order:)

Love your neighbor(s)...

...I sure do:) Last month we took our house off the market after almost a year of trying to sell. Besides the fact that we are confident and content that God has a specific plan and timing for when we should move, here are some of the reasons from just the month of May why I am not disappointed that our house didn't sell yet. Here's to Cameron Drive,where neighboring is not a lost art...

Miss Mary is like family to us. We took a walk up to the ice cream shop to celebrate her belated birthday.

Miss Sharon let the boys drive her tractor around the circle as she hauled some of our rocks to Miss Gayle's house for us.

Miss Connie, our neighbor from Korea, brought me 2 whole rolls of this amazing sushi so I could "try" it.

Mr. Rick took Jayce to the hill where he has taught other neighborhood kids how to ride their 2 wheelers and after 10-15 minutes of coaching him with Ry's help he had him riding solo. Several other neighbors were present to offer their moral support:)

The neighbors' grandkids have become great friends to Jayce and Ty. They have as much fun together as any boys ages 3,4,5, and 6 would!

I better watch it because if people only knew the kind of neighbors they would get, they'd be lining up to buy this house!

Rocky Road

This picture sort of sums up my day...it wasn't really bad just a little stickier and at times more frustrating than most. No particular reason really, I just never felt like I got into my groove-whatever that feels like.

Thats OK though. We had some positive moments. And we did manage to deliver the Rocky Road Cookie Pizzas (which is what called for the caramel in the first place) to our neighbors. And what called for the Rocky Road Cookie Pizzas is the fact that our kind neighbors came over on Saturday and offered their unsolicited help to finish yet another rock removal project we had been working on so some thanks was in order. We've been removing rock from our landscape ever since we moved in. I actually wrote about it in my first ever blog post. The process is lengthy. I, however, think it is a bit therapeutic to do the mindless yet time consuming task but Ry in no way agrees with me which is why the kindness of our neighbors was very appreciated. They were probably just happy to move the project along since the area will look much better once we get grass growing there. At one point we had 5 young boys, 3 men, and myself working out there. I wish I would have gotten better pictures...the boys and their friends kept showing us how much bigger their muscles were getting as they worked. And they also each enjoyed a wheelbarrow ride from Mr. Chuck as he returned from dumping the rock at his house where he is going to use them for a project of his own.

Just another reason I love Cameron Drive and the neighbors we have here.

Oh, and here is the finished product of the "test run" Rocky Road Cookie Pizza I made for Ry last night. A little more appealing than the first photo. And no, I didn't cut the neighbors' in the shape of a heart:)

Better than Folgers

I love starting my day with a run early in the morning, especially on the weekends when the sun is shining and everyone is seemingly still asleep except the birds and their song. I haven't been out of the house before the world wakes up in a very long time. Which is partly why I loved my morning. Oh how I loved this morning. Kaleah woke me up early but not too early. I talked to her and she cooed happily to me for a while. Then I thoroughly enjoyed a peaceful morning walk to Meijers and an exhilarating jog home. And this morning it was my great privilege to have this beautiful, sleepy, 3 month old along.

Yes Kaleah, being your mom is such a privilege. Happy 3 month birthday!

Today I took my boys on a bike ride. The bread store was our destination but we found the bookmobile so we ended up borrowing a bag of books. Then we added 2 bags filled with bread, buns, bagels and---donuts. Because, best of all, we decided to stop at the fire station on the way home to take them a treat. The boys' most beloved firefighter was on duty. I biked down the boulevard, past a few garage sales and then returned home-barely. Between the boys, the books, and the bread, the bike trailer had become rather bogged down. But,we didn't care because, by then, we were beaming at all the fun we had and I realized that, unlike years past, big and little brother never bickered once at being belted in.

week in review....

For no particular reason I wrote this random post filled with random snippets from my life last week. Some good. Some bad. Some significant. Some not so much...

Jayce mastered the monkey bars. Turning 5 gave his bravery a boost and he did it:)

I exercised twice! (real impressive I know:) But I did get back to all running instead of alternating between running and walking every half mile like I had began to do at some point in my pregnancy.

Kaleah became quite interactive with her smiles and coos. I even heard her giggle in her sleep on Thursday.

I learned that even though you buy something at Salvation Army's $.99 sale you should not assume it has been worn and washed enough that it will not bleed and therefore disregard the washing instructions :(

We showed our house twice. Love showing it when flowers can be cut right from the back yard to be put in vases instead of bought from a store.

I received a call to do an interview at a nursing home I had applied at months ago.

We found that our Woolly Bear Caterpillar who had been inside his cocoon for several weeks finally-and apparently sneakily- emerged from his cocoon as an Isabella Tiger Moth and was hanging out in our coat closet!

Tyrus completed his first year as a Cubbie in AWANAS and Jayce completed his second year.

Our Science Experiment

Our friend and neighbor, Miss Mary had given a caterpillar to the boys on Palm Sunday after finding him at her house. We read some articles on the internet about how to keep caterpillars and then made him a simple habitat in our dining room.

We watched as a couple days later he spun his cocoon. He started one evening and completed by the next. (this pic was the morning after he had started)

Several weeks later as I was getting something out of the closet, I happened to lean in far enough and turn my head toward the wall when I saw what I thought was a huge bug. I'm not usually a sissy about bugs but this looked like quite a large one and startled me. I asked Ry to get it and he said," Thats not a bug it's a moth...probably the one you've been waiting for from the cocoon." I thought he was teasing me for sure. I went to look carefully at the cocoon that we were planning to cut open and examine the next day since we really thought something had gone wrong. I was amazed to see a tiny opening I hadn't noticed before.

He had stayed inside for more than two weeks and when he came out he was (not) a beautiful butterfly. (I couldn't resist a little Eric Carle reference:) Thankfully our research had prepared us to expect that our Woolly Bear Caterpillar would turn into an Isabella Tiger Moth. Jayce was a bit disappointed because he really wanted it to be a butterfly but it was a fascinating process to observe none the less.

We saved the moth overnight and set him free the next morning. But only after "tender heart Ty" shed tears and told him goodbye. Then, I had to laugh as I heard him call to Jayce with his voice quivering, "Jayce, come say to the caterpillar---Bye."