My Hubby...

... is amazing. Last year our heating bills were outrageous, so Jimmy wanted to install a woodburning stove in the basement where a gas stove had been. Does he call the experts? Nooooo! He just tackles it himself! There just isn't anything my husband can't do! (well, okay, he hasn't been able to keep our dog Sweetie from running off...)

The weather has been just amazing here. In the sixties, no humidity. The kids have been enjoying the evenings outside playing and helping daddy. Here's a few pics from tonight...

Daddy put "Xs" where Owen was to hammer a nail in.

Working hard!

Eli, Scout, and Riley hammering nails into a wood stump for over an hour. Since moving out here I've thought to myself hundreds of times, "Who needs toys?!" I love watching the kids use their creativity.

Cheese!

I love to see dirt on my kids' faces! And I'm not even going to give her a bath tonight! :)

She's hammering with a screwdriver, but she doesn't care!

Ames High Get-Together

On Saturday I hosted a little reunion for classmates I graduated high school with in Ames, Iowa that now live in Colorado. Two of the classmates I actually have gone to school with since kindergarten! Six families were able to make it, and we had a great time reminiscing about old times and catching up. I just love my Iowa friends. It was such a pleasure to have them over. There's no false pretense and no trying to impress - everybody is as down to earth as can be.

Josh (the one in the hat) is just as hilarious and fun as he was in high school, and he decided that we should take "senior pictures" and pose in those wonderful poses they put you in. I never had senior pictures taken because my mom didn't have the money (I didn't really care anyway), so here was my chance! :)

Conversation in the truck the other day....

Scout: Mama, I want to adopt eight orphans, because I love orphans.
Mommy: Scout, that is wonderful. You're going to be an amazing mama someday.
Eli: (not to be outdone) I'm going to adopt nineteen orphans.
Owen: Eli, you have to get married before you adopt, you know.
Eli: No I don't!
Owen: Yes, you do! How are you going to take care of all those children by yourself?!
Eli: I'm just gonna change one diaper at a time.

Trout Fishing! (hey to Wade)

I took Owen, Eli, and Scout up to a lake on Saturday.

(This is Jimmy, btw. I thought about writing in 3rd person, but then I would have sounded like a bad Seinfeld episode.... "Jimmy likes fishing. Jimmy doesn't like misunderstandings!")

This lake is called Jefferson Lake and it sits at 10,750 ft elevation. Here's a pic:



Someone told me it was beautiful and not well known. He was half right. It was busy this Saturday.

But, we hiked around the edge of it until I, using my extra special fish-finder abilities (hey to Wade again), found the right spot.

Here are some pics.

Scout pulled off the feat of catching both the smallest and largest trout.

Smallest.... (I called this the Wade Special!)



Largest.... (you guessed it, the Jimmy Special!)



Owen actually got the action started by landing a couple of nice rainbow trout including this one:



Then Eli hauled in this beauty. I'm not sure what prompted him to go Gangsta Style on the cap, but I digress....



It was an all-around great day for everyone, including Donna who got to take a long nap on a rainy Saturday afternoon. She even went so far as to suggest I take the kids fishing every Saturday.

My sweet girls...

Scout and Riley love to give me massages! How blessed am I?! Owen took this picture after I just received a most relaxing back and arm massage from the girls. The past few days I've been sick and Scout and Riley gave me a foot and leg massage! Owen is not the touchy-feely type, but he did offer to read to me before bed since my head was aching and I couldn't read my own book. He read to me from a biography of Eric Liddell, and it's very interesting.

The kids and I are driving to Iowa tomorrow to visit my family for one to two weeks, and I'll be sans computer (yes!) so there won't be any posts until we get back!

Hiking

Jimmy took the boys hiking on Saturday to Mt. Rosalie (elevation 13,570) and this time they took pictures! They left around 8:00 in the morning and arrived home about 5:00 p.m. I was hoping the boys would be wiped out when they got home and get to bed early, but only Jimmy was wiped out. :\ Here's a few of the pictures:

A Present-Day Hero

I want to dedicate this post to a present-day Hero of mine, named Zandra.

Six years ago she decided to give our son, Elijah Thomas, life instead of killing him in her womb. Two and a half years later she made the same decision with our daughter, Riley Alexandra (middle name in honor of her).

Zandra wasn't blessed with the greatest of parents - in fact, she had a very rough life growing up. She started living on the streets in her teens and survived by numbing the pain with drugs and supporting her habit with prostitution.

Fast forward to June of 2002. When Eli arrived in our home as our foster child, I fell madly in love with him immediately. I felt incredibly honored and blessed to have him, but at the same time I felt a lot of sorrow for Zandra. I thought of how much her heart must ache to have this precious baby taken from her arms. That hour I decided that I would pray for Zandra frequently, and also seek her out and let her know that I loved her and that she did an amazing thing. I eventually did track her down and maintained frequent contact with her through a few dinners and phone calls.

September of 2007 Zandra gets arrested and is sentenced to four months in jail. We find out she's pregnant. We maintain contact with her while she's in jail.

December she gets released from jail. What now? Well, she did thee most incredible thing. She moved in with the father of her baby - which is way across town from her old stomping grounds - and she's never looked back. She hasn't touched drugs since September 2007 and she's raising the most beautiful little boy, Zechariah, and doing a fantastic job.

I think about Zandra a lot as I watch Eli and Riley grow up. I just have this deep, deep gratefulness and love towards her, and we're soooo glad she's in our lives now. We talk on the phone and receive notes from her, and she even sent Eli a birthday present this year.

Zandra, you are strong, courageous, brave, resilient, smart, witty, bold, loving, and just AMAZING to me, and I am so proud of you, and grateful to God that He allowed ME, of all people, to raise the babies YOU CHOSE LIFE FOR. You are my hero. The world will never be the same with Eli and Riley in it, because they are going to do mighty things for God. We love you!

Footnote: I did ask Zandra for permission to share her past on our blog and she said she was okay with it.