Yesterday Jordan left for his Science Camp Camping trip. They left yesterday morning, spend the night, spend the entire day today exploring the campground using the knowledge they've learned the last week in the class. Spend tonight at the campground, tomorrow they get up eat, pack up camp and go to the Indianapolis Zoo and then head home. He comes home in the evening tomorrow. I think it is going to be an awesome experience for him. I have to tell you that I think I was having some serious anxiety about this seperation. I didn't even realize it, until mid morning yesterday when I kept asking the other 2 boys questions about Jordan. Like, "do you think we should've taken him a hat before they left, what about a notebook, Oh, I think he forgot his backpack, and on and on I went." They kept answering my questions, reasoning out their answers, it was quit funny actually. Well, then they were extremely wound up. WILD, I guess is a better workd for their actions. I realized that they were just reacting to my feelings, and I had to do a quick "Heavenly Father help me today". I had to put Jordan in the Lords hands for this trip. See, I am extremely protective of my boys, EXTREMELY, and it is very hard for me to let them go away with anyone but Rob and I. The only reason for allowing him to sign up for this camp, was that I personally knew and trusted one of the 2 instructors. In fact his daughter babysat for my boys before, and his wife was Jordan's preschool teacher. My mood changed, and things were much better with #2, and #3. We actually enjoyed our day.

Here was our day. We dropped Jordan off at the school, and off to run some errands. We got Austin's picture taken. Looked around Wal-Mart for a short time. The boys were looking for G.I. Joe stuff, not a single item was found. I did, however, find curtains for the boys rooms on clearance. I was quit pleased with that. Then we went to JcPenneys. I need khaki pants for work. I am having an awful time finding them. What a time for our company to change from black to khaki pants for our uniforms, the same time that Wal-Mart starts requiring khaki bottoms on their employees, and also while it is summer and all you can find easily (and inexpensively) is short pants. UGH!!! Okay, here is our Penny's experience. I found and tried on a pair of khaki pants quick, then in line, which was forever long, the boys are messing around. Loudly, but funny. They were smacking each other in the face, doing Indian burns on the arm, giving shots with there fingers, and laughing hysterically. It was very comical, the lady behind me in line was even laughing. I just chuckled, because they were being so silly. We made it out of there with no big problems. Then to the goodwill store. Which, by the way, I found alot of neat stuff. They were in heaven. They spent the entire time we were there in the back, where all the household stuff, toys and just misc stuff is. They hit the jackpot. Zach bought some binoculars and Austin found a 35mm camera, manual camera that. They were so thrilled, carefully inspecting everything they were considering buying. It was so fun to watch. Then to the $$ store to get some film. HOT DOG!!! They were all set up to be spies now. Isn't that funny. It was so fun to just step back and watch them shop and plan and all the neat things little boys do. In the end I was so happy that the Lord had helped me change my attitude and enjoy the boys so much more yesterday. Sometimes it is so easy to be busy doing the "work" of the day that I forget to enjoy the moments I have with my kids. It is hard to beleive that in 5 years Jordan will be off to college, and in only 10 years my youngest will be there. UGH!!! My how time flies.

Well, off to get some housework done before we go out for the evening.

What does one do with this much mulch. (well, really it was 5 of us) It took us about 5 hours on Friday when Rob's friend brought it to us, and then Rob and the boys worked all day the next day in the yard. THis mulch was free from Frank Miller. If you worked on the Spring clean up day, you get your choice of a few things. One of them being this truck load of mulch. (the other choices were things like a t-shirt or something else like that) I told Rob if he thought we needed mulch this year, this is his chance. We would never have had enought $$ for that much mulch this year.

More pictures of my flowers. My favorite are the orange colored ones.

This is what you do with it. We mulched the entire front landscape area in the front and sides of the house. We also had so much left that Rob and Jordan took up a large area of sod inside the fenced area in back to make a sitting area for us. (see the grill--we use it to cook and just have fires for fun and roast marshmallows of course.) We also had enough mulch to mulch inside the fence around the bottom of the fence where there is no longer grass. It is nice. As you can see one side of my landscaped area grows much better than the other, not sure why. I guess we need to use some miracle grow on that side.

Rob got this stack of lumber from Frank Miller before he left. I guess you were allowed to have up to 5 pallets of fire wood for $15 a piece while you work there. This will be nice for the summer, we can have fires in the backyard. We have been cooking on the wood fires and it sure makes the food taste good. He had hoped he could have gotten green (undried) hickory wood, but the didn't run that. You can see my kids climb on the wood pile. They actually helped Rob stack it too.

(see that wagon--Rob's grandpa got that for Jordan out of the trash when Jordan was like 2--it has been through an awful lot. We've tried to throw it away ourselves, and never have success, so it is still around.)

My flowers are blooming. The rose I wasn't so sure would rebloom this year. I don't know much about flowers at all. It looked kind of dead to me, but we pruned all the dead branches and this came up. I really haven't been able to caputre how pretty the color really is, it is a mustard yellow color. Beautiful. Then we planted the lillies last year, and they grew so much already. I have yellow and an orange color. They hadn't bloomed when I took the picture. The landscaping is looking quit lively this year. We can't do alot at a time, so the first year we planted some hasta and the grass plant, then last year was the lillies, this year a truck load of mulch.

The boys found this bird the other day. Evidently it was on the ground, I'm not sure anything else about it. Well, they tried to keep it. They fed it nightcrawlers that Jordan had left over from fishing sometime, and it was really cute to see them feed the bird. Well, I finally persuaded them to leave it alone so it could find its family. The bird went over to the neighbors house and found "its family". At any rate, here are a few pictures I got of the bird. See Miss Angel wasn't too sure of this bird taking her attention from the boys. She was very kind to the bird, but not too sure of her.

Super easy and Really Yummy Ice Cream Cake

I made this easy ice cream cake. Then after talking with someone at work, I decided to try it with caramel instead of fudge, and M&M's instead of oreos. We liked it much better this way.

Here is the recipe I used.

12 ice cream sandwiches--unwrapped

1/2 c. caramel sundae topping

1 8oz tub of cool whip

1 package of vanilla instant pudding

3 small packaged of M&M's

POUR caramel topping into medium bowl. Add 1 cup of the whipped topping; stir with wire whisk until well blended. Add dry pudding mix; stir 2 min. or until well blended.

ARRANGE 4 of the ice cream sandwiches, side-by-side, on 24-inch-long piece of foil; top with half of the whipped topping mixture. Top whipped topping with m&m's. Repeat layers. Top with remaining 4 ice cream sandwiches. Frost top and sides of dessert with remaining whipped topping. Top cake with remaining M&M's Bring up foil sides. Double fold top and ends to loosely seal packet.

Freeze at least 4 hours before serving.
Enjoy.

I forgot to post this picutre. This little duck kept leaving it's momma to walk up on the concrete where we were sitting to eat the crumbs the boys were dropping. It was so cute, and of course it's mother didn't think it was so cute. She kept "yelling" at the little one.

Happy Birthday Jordan

Jordan was 13 on June 3. He is turning into quit a young man. He chose to use his birthday $$, form us, Rob's parents and my Mom to buy an Ipod Shuffle. He really is enjoying it. He has had Rob put some theology discussions and seminary classes (that you can download for free) onto the Ipod along with some music. Yesterday he was listening to something about Martin Luther and enjoying it so much. It is kind of funny, I now have 2 Rob's in my house. LOL! UGH!!!


Jordan chose to have a cheesecake, instead of a traditional cake. He wanted cherries on it also. The picture didn't turn out the greatest, but oh well. He also got to pick the meal for the day.

Steak cooked on the wood fire in the back yard. YUMMY!
Green Bean casserole
Chessy hashbrown casserole

On Saturday we took the boys swimming it was a beautiful day. Then Sunday we had the Jordan birthday meal and watched the last of the Lord of the Rings movies. It was a nice relaxing weekend with the boys.

Rob started his new job on Tuesday. He is loving it. It is so much more what he was used to from working at the funeral home. Each day is different. You do what needs to be done that day, and it may not be the same project the entire day (that is good for the ADHD person). There are many little perks that he has learned about this week.

In 90 days he'll get a pair of perscription safety glasses, paid for by the city. He gets a $5 a week clothing allowance. That is nice since in the winter he'll need good winter clothing for when he has to plow snow. They will pay for him to get his CDL license, and they are going to start helping him learn. I can't think of anything else at the moment. I do know that his moods are much more calm, and he is not so exhausted in the evenings when he comes home from work.

Jordan will be 13 this weekend. It is supposed to be hot, so I think we'll go swimming tomorrow and then let Jordan pick his meal on Sunday. I'm guessing it'll be steak on the grill. That is his usual request for his birthday. Jordan is going to a science camp for the next 2 weeks. It is only during the day, and then they take a 3 day camping trip in the end. It should be a great learning experience for him. He is real excited about it.

Well, have a blessed day. I must get somethings done before I go to work this evening.