HCA Devotions

Obed spoke at the Heartland Christian Academy devotions on Thursday. We found this picture of him (Junior year in high school) behind a baby picture that his mom had given me when we visited them. It was really good to hear him speak again. This is the first time he's ever spoken since he moved up here 2 years ago. I was sitting next to my mum during the devotions and at the end she leaned over and told me "He should speak more often." Then later on that afternoon, I had a meeting and Laurie Sharpe mentioned to me that she didn't know he was 34yrs old . . . and that he did a very good job speaking in devotions. I'm so proud of him!

Milk Promo Adventures

I went on another milk promo last weekend to fill in for my sister. There were 4 of us that went to Peoria, IL. Two girls were dropped off in Pekin just south of Peoria and Casey and I drove another 40min to Eureka . . . Every milk promo has an adventure - Pekin has one way roads everywhere - it's crazy trying to find the store sometimes. I ended up accidentally driving the wrong way down a one way road - only for a block, but . . . talk about freaking out! I was trying to find my way back to the store to pick up the other girls at the end of the day and not only did we have to deal with all the one way roads, but they had the main road blocked off for a concert + carnival! I turned down this road, then asked Casey, "Was this a one way road?" she said, "I don't know, I didn't see a sign" . . . then I saw two cars turn toward us - one in each lane . .. so we cut across the road into a parking lot . . . what a rush! Then we got lost trying to find the hotel . . . but that was more because you had to go into the mall around the back and down a side road that had a tiny sign to the hotel that was surrounded by highways and only accessible through the little road at the back of the mall - and there was a tree growing in front of the sign telling you to go through the mall . . . so we drove on each of the highways around the mall before spotting the road and trying the mall. You can read the sign "Use Mall Entrance" when you're already at the hotel, but that's just not very helpful when trying to find it. But we had a great time - definitely an adventure on this one! While driving around, we also found a Target with a Starbucks inside - so we stopped by in the morning for a cup of Go Juice!

Obed's Birthday

I know it's been a while . . . again . . . but Obed's birthday party on Sept. 3rd was great - lots of people came over . . . sorry, no photos b/c we really need to get a camera. We didn't have all the screws to put together the BBQ - so the guys were hanging out downstairs in my sisters apartment using her husbands grill. Mum, dad, James, Cathy, Josh, and I put together some money to buy Obed an ipod - but I didn't get it b/c the store was out of stock and I was going to have to order it online . . . we ended up just giving him the money and it was a good thing! Two days later the 80G was $100 less and they came out with the itouch. Which Obed says that now he would prefer waiting for the second generation itouch - b/c it's way cooler! Everyone had a great time - we had grilled chicken, rice, beans, hummus + pita bread, deviled eggs, hot dogs on hoagies, nachos and cheese dip, BBQ baby hot dogs, and bread rolls. Thanks to my mum and sisters who helped with the food. Darin and Christy's girls, Taya and Emily, played with their Dora dolls under the table - it was their little hide out . . . we have a counter height square table. They were so cute! I wanted to get an ice cream cake for desert - TCBY was the only ice cream that I could figure he might like - he's an ice cream connoisseur of sorts. But the day I planned to go to town (45min - 1hr drive) without him (we always go together) . . . didn't work out. So since he was right there with me and there was no way I was going to keep this a secret to surprise him with this cake . . . I decided to just let him pick it out . . . then we came to the conclusion that if we bought a couple of boxes of fudge cake and a bucket of ice cream . . . there would be more cake and ice cream to go around . . . and possible some left over. =) So I made him a fudge cake - it turned out really good! There were no left overs. My brother James brought over his Wii, which kept the guys occupied for the rest of the night. If you've never played - you ought to try it. James likes to play video games, etc. so we all tried to convince to him to wait and not buy it for a while - see if he really wants it or if it's just a spur of the moment purchase . . . he got it a couple weeks later and now we all enjoy playing it. We even got mum to race cows with us! I don't usually like gaming b/c all the buttons you have to push. The controllers on Wii are so much easier to understand - some games don't even use buttons, you just tilt the remote - that's how you race cows, tilt forward, left or right, to slow down you just tilt back (kinda like pulling the reigns on a horse) ... so that was really fun!

So, I didn't realize people were actually reading this blog . . . so, we've been busy lately. Last weekend Obed and I went on a milk promo for the Heartland creamery. We drove to Muscatine, Iowa and sampled milk at Hyvee on Friday and Saturday. It was fun b/c the promo only goes till 5 or 6 in the envening, then we went to the movies and saw "the Bourne Ultimatum" . . . and our hotel was paid for! On our way home we stopped by a pet store . . . we stop by pet stores a lot, just to look around. Speaking of pet stores, there's a pet store in Quincy that we like to visit when we go drop off tapes - they have 4-5 large pens that puppies play in and we can go in and pick them up and play with them . . . that's where we'll probably get a boxer from when we get a house. Yesterday, we went shopping for curtain rods b/c we had bought some light curtains to block the light coming in the windows a little while ago . . . and I hung them on rolls of Christmas wrapping paper . . . hey, it worked! So, we found some real curtain rods and hung them up last night . . . Christmas is coming up shortly and we may need that wrapping paper. =) At Biglots we got Obed a grill - it was $130 and we got it on sale for $75. Next to it on the clearance rack was a wooden rocking chair - it was considered a "porch swing" and all the patio stuff was 75% off . . . so we got the chair for $12 - that was such a cool deal!!! I can put a seat cusion on that and stick it in the baby room.