15 YEARS

This lastThursday marked a milestone for my wife and I.  We were able to put up with each other for 15 years.  I love more now than I ever did before.  We have accomplished so much.  We have 3 wonderful kids, family and friends who love us, and a roof over our heads.  In our 15 years we have had our ups and downs(seems like more downs than ups) but with our love and God's grace we were able to over come any challenges that came our way.  I love you, Brenda, and here's to the next 50+ years.

Brenda surprised me this weekend by having the kids stay at the Hancock's and Grandma and Grandpa's for the whole weekend.  We had the weekend to ourselves.  We did go to Montana Mike's and to see a movie(American Reunion) on Friday night.  Saturday we cleaned the house a little, went to resale shops, and that evening we DJed at the Sager wedding together.  Sunday after church, we went to Hovey's to eat and after Brenda's boy scout meeting will go out to get our children.  It seems like we may have not planned to do alot this past weekend but the fact we did not have rush around to go anywhere.  We were able to take our own sweet time doing things.  It is good to do this every once in a while.

                                                  LOVE YOU LOTS, BRENDA!!!

Caden's tubes

On Tuesday of last week, Caden had tubes put in his ears.  He has had trouble hearing and fluid behind the eardrums. 

Caden and his friend after surgery!

Everything went OK and in a few days maybe I won't have to yell at him anymore(ha ha)

Easter weekend pics

He doesn't look happy

These are pic to go along with my previous post about Colin's fight with the wire.  He made it through the painful week of not being able to play or run.  Sometimes the pain of not being able to do something is more than the physical pain itself.  He's doing great now that the week is over.


Easter weekend pics:

Caden and his search for the eggs with his cousins.

Kendra and Colin and cousins waiting for Grandma to say GO

so they can hunt eggs.

Looking for the not so easy to find eggs!



The kids got plenty of candy and played with their cousins.  There was 4-square being played and kites being flown after the Easter meal at Grandpa and Grandma Kocher's house.  Luckily there was no school the next day because they would have been grumpy.  And don't worry the Easter bunny did find our house and did hide eggs in our back yard.  Another Easter day successfully came and gone.

Colin's collision

Thursday evening, Colin was at Gavin's ball practice playing with Maddox.  While chasing a ball on the tennis courts, he clotheslined himself on a wire holding a net.  He doesn't remember much of the details after that but he had bruises and a goosegg on the back of his head.  We kept an eye on him thruout the night.  The next day we had the doctor look at him and he said he had a mild concussion.  No activity or PE for a week.  What are we going to do with the boy??  He is slowly getting back to normal but it is going to be hard to keep him from running or playing 4-square for a whole week.  Pictures will come later when I get them off the camera. 

Spring Here Already??

I can't believe and worried about the weather we are having now.  Above normal temps and record highs for this time of year.  I can expect the pollen season will be horrible and my sinuses are going to be bad.  But like my grandpa always said " Not much we can do about it".  A lot of good is coming from it: kids outside playing, furnace is not running, and flowers are blooming.  We are getting a lot of compliments on our tulips in front of the house. 

The tulips have been there for the last 7 years and always look good every year. We will be keeping  an eye out for the rose trees when they start blooming.  They always look wonderful too.

  Now that I got my blogging caught up I have to do another spring time favorite   MOWING!!!

Enjoy the spring!!!

Week of the Birthday

  The past week was very busy and I was down in the back on top of that.  My back is alot better now and I am still babying it.  Like I put in the title, last wednesday was my birthday and I am creeping closer to that 40 year old mark.  It was a good birthday.  We ate at the Ole Tyme Steakhouse and the kids talked to the waiter to bring out a dessert with a sparkler lit in it.  I think the kids were amazed at it in it's glory.  It was a wonderful family outing.
  Saturday was 4-H shooting sports but after that I took the kids Geocaching.  For those that don't know what that is I will explain.  First you go on www.geocaching.com and pick coordinates for a cache near you.(they explain it on the website).  Insert the coordinates into a GPS and follow the GPS to where it leads you.  It should lead you to a box or canister hidden with trinkets and a log book to sign.  To the kids it was like treasure hunting.  We found six caches that afternoon and they did not want to stop.  This is a go way to get out and enjoy nature.  Other than gas money and a GPS, it is cheap entertainment and the kids really enjoyed it.  Now they want to go every waking moment.  Future Indiana Jones's!!!

Very First Find!

Another cache bites the dust.

Pinewood Derby Races

Well this was the big day for Colin's Cub Scout Pinewood derby race.  He picked the design of Perry the platypus (imagine that).  He did most of the work on it and I thought he did a great job.  I probably pushed him to try and get it perfect then realized just let him do the best he can.  Looks just like a platypus!! 

This was one of the heats he was in.  As I was helping with the races, I took pictures.

The last picture shows his car (third lane over) flying down the track.  He races 4 times and came in first two of the times.  A computer was used to time the races and calculate the winners.  It also figures the speed and one of Colin's speed was 127 MPH.  Now that is fast!!!

GOOD JOB COLIN !!!!!!