Missionary Friends

When Rick was deployed to Japan last year, he came in contact with a very special missionary family. They encouraged him so much, that when he got home, we started sending them boxes of encouragement. They are so sweet. After we sent them a Christmas box, they found out we were having a hard time. They sent us a box. Imagine that! I'd never heard of any missionary giving back like that. I've never met them, but I love them.

Please remember the Aaron Miller family when you pray.

Our Favorite Dog

Not much has been going on around here. That's why I haven't posted for a little while. Rick has been out of school for two weeks now. We have one more week of "normal" life left before the whole thing goes crazy again. What I mean by "normal" is that Rick goes to work around 6 a.m. and comes home between 4 and 6 p.m.

I thought that I would post a picture of my parent's dog. His name is Jack. When we go to West Virginia to visit, Julia loves to pet him. She has known Jack all of her little life. Jack used to come up and sniff the baby carrier when I was taking her into the house.

Jack can be a little rambunctious at times. He jumps over the gate and onto my grandma's back deck. There are cats up there. I guess he likes a little excitement. LOL. Jack also loves to take long walks with the family. He runs excitedly, and hopefully, up the hill, when anyone comes outside. He's ready to go!















Here's our favorite dog.

The Cool Sleeper

Last night, Christopher was wearing his sunglasses. When I was getting him ready for bed, he still had those glasses on. I thought he would take them off before he went to sleep. He usually throws anything that doesn't belong out of his crib before going to sleep. So, when I checked on him a few hours later, I was so surprised to find that he still had them on. I had to walk out of the room. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even tell Rick what was so funny. When I finally told him, he just had to take a picture. It was just too cute! No, we didn't turn the light on. Rick just used the flash.

Our Seventh Anniversary

Rick and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on Sunday, July 20. Of course, we couldn't go out to eat on Sunday. So our friend Lisa Boardman kept our two children on Friday afternoon, while we went out.

When Rick suggested that we go to the Chrysler Art Museum in Norfolk, I thought "just lots of paintings and statues." It was so much more than that! I actually enjoyed looking at the paintings. But there were also exhibits from all over the world. We got to see a Pharaoh's coffin, armor from Japan, masks from Africa and Glassware from all over the place. We saw the work of many great artists. There was also a piano, which was carved very beautifully, that Rick asked the guard for permission to play. That was our favorite part. The acoustics in that room were just wonderful. I still don't care for modern art so much, but I did develop a better appreciation for art.

After we had gone through the museum, we went out to eat. Rick took me out to Aldo's Italian Resteraunt last year. It was his turn to pick the kind of food we would eat. we went to the Emperial Palace for Chinese food. We had chicken on a stick and shrimp for our appetizers. Rick had duck and I had sweet and sour chicken with pineapple, green peppers and onion. It was so good. I even tried some of Rick's duck. It tasted alot like turkey. This wasn't just any old Chinese buffet. It was fine dining. Candles on the tables, curtains on the booths and cloth napkins. They even had a hired piano player for dinner music. It was a great experience.

We couldn't take pictures in the museum, and I didn't think of taking one of the building itself. But I did get Rick to take a picture of the kids on Sunday. They both looked so nice in their Church clothes.

Independence Day Cake

I used the holiday as an excuse to make a cake. I just love to make cakes and decorate them! Rick doesn't like cake that much, so I usually only bake one for special occasions. I made half of the batter into cupcakes and the other half, I made into an 8"x"8 cake.

To me, a cake is like an empty slate. You can create any design you want in any color that you want. I knew I wanted a flag on my cake, but didn't have time to mix up all of those colors. Then, I remembered my red sugar sprinkles. Could I make them into stripes without making too big of a mess? I did it! I used little candy hearts for the stars. I had so much fun!

My cakes are not perfect. I just started decorating a couple years ago. I'm learning new things all the time. Here is a picture of my latest creation.

Our Fourth of July

I guess it's time to post again. It's been a little while now. Anyway, I have some new pictures to share.
We spent our Independence Day on the beach. We were on the beach for about 2 hours. The kids played in the sand and in the water. Rick flew his kite(or rather, he tried). I sat on our straw mat for a while just watching sand crabs. My favorite thing to do at the beach is just listen to the waves. I watched the kids play and just enjoyed the quiet.
After the beach, we went to KFC and then to Sandy Bottom Nature Park to eat our supper. Then we went to Ft. Monroe to watch fireworks. We got a little bit wet near the end of the show. A bad storm was rolling in. They finished the fireworks just in time for a downpour.
When we got home, we had a piece of my Independence Day cake, then got ready for bed. It was a good day. It was full of fun and family memories.


































































Chris got all tuckered out.




























The kids enjoying their food. Yummy!

Time To Cool Off

We've had a heat-wave over the last couple weeks. It was in the upper 90s and even got up to 103 on a couple days. I thought it was time to get the pool out for the kids. In the end, I decided to let Rick do it. It was too dirty for me. But I did get out the sprinkler. The kids just loved it. Chris didn't know what to think of it at first. He never ran near the middle, but he enjoyed running through the edges.

Rick cleaned the kids pool out, patched the little hole, and filled it up on Saturday. The kids got to play in it for about an hour. The first thing Chris did when he got out was to go sit in the dirt. Just like a little boy! Rick had to spray him off before I could change his clothes. Oh well. The most important thing is that he had lots of fun.

I took pictures of the kids in the sprinklers, and Rick took pictures of the kids in the pool. I'll try to get a few of those pictures on here.