July

okay so last month I realized that my titles make no sense, I put up the next months' name when I am really talking about this months.

So I corrected it this time, which means there are two July headings, hope that doesn't confuse anyone. Just read from this July heading to the next, then you are all caught up for the month.

And oh what a busy month, you might have to push the previous post button at the bottom to see it all. Summer time here is busy and cram packed of fun.

I didn't even talk about zoo camp, which Courtney and Aiden did this week.

Next month is just as busy with Youth camp for Thomas next week, followed by camping and DNR day camp the week after. Then its hopefully a trip to the amusement park with the free library tickets, and finally a close to all the summer fun with a three night 4 day trip to the smokey mountains with some friends of ours who were able to get us a smoking hot deal due to being related to the cabin owner.

Hope you enjoy my chatty posts!!!

The Reason I Yard Sale

Winter gloves, tommy hillfigure shorts for Thomas, a like new jacket for Aiden and a Andi brand hoody, material for locker hooking, books for our homeschool library and oh so many more items of designer clothing, for a total of $18 for the table full.
A five dollar score, that will be painted to hide water damage

A seven dollar find that will be sanded and painted a glossy black and new brushed nickel handles.

And that my friends is why almost every friday from May till Late September you will find me out yard saling.

It's DONE

This is where my hubby spent most of his last days working on the reno. soon to be rental home
and this is where I spent my last days on the rental, applying tape down along the bottom of the trim around the floor of the whole house.

Hmm.... who got the better deal. Okay so definitely I did. It is times like these that I live in blissdom knowing nothing about plumping, and allowing my husband to do it all, while i scoot around the floor on an old outside chair pillow, applying tape along the floor to protect it for when I paint it.

Poor guy he was down there for days too, fixing breaks and sending me to Lowe's over and over for more plumping parts when another pipe burst (by the last trip by the way, I knew a thing or two about plumbing parts, so I guess I don't live in entire blissful ignorance any longer). But now we are down to one mystery leak, a bit of dust to clean up, and one more flower bed to dig the weeds out of. The "for rent" sign is in the van, and will be in the lawn tomorrow. And Lord willing it will be rented by September, to people who will care for it with the same love we gave to renovating it.

I will take the camera tomorrow for final pic's for you to enjoy next month!

The Benefits of the Libraries Summer reading Club

See those ice-creams they were FREE, yep!!! got to love FREE as you all know I do! Our local library has a great summer reading program where each week if you meet the reading totals you get coupons for various free food around town.

I think the kids favorite coupon though (at least my two little daredevils, Thomas is not so keen on it) is the free all day ride passes to Indiana beach, a roller coaster park a little over an hour away. Aiden and Courtney are already discussing which rides to enjoy, while Thomas will stick to his usual 3, and that's okay with me, I too am not a ride lover, I got about a 3 ride limit till whatever I ate over the last 24 hrs makes a quick exit, so I understand Thomas' less than thrilled attitude towards amusement parks.

He however is a big lover of the FOOD, being 14 you can never fill that child up!

I love seeing my children read. I often go up to bed at 7:30 just to snuggle up in bed and read. Courtney now has caught on to my habit, and grabs her book and takes over dad's side of the bed (who works till midnight so his side is free) and reads along side me, LOVE IT!!!

A Hot Week At British Soccer Camp

Thomas making a Goal

Early in July the boys had the opportunity to spend 5 evenings working with top soccer students from Britain. I signed them up for the program mostly cause Thomas was so bummed because he was too old for all his favorite summer activities such as zoo camp, and DNR camp (department of Natural Resources) . Aiden also missed out on most of his winter indoor soccer games due to breaking his collar bone while sleighing, and the fall league cause the new one I tried out got cancelled and it was too late to get in our usual league. Turns out both boys had a blast and definitely want to do it again next summer, even though the temperatures were in the 90's every evening!

Finally Biking and Loving it

There was a time when I thought biking would not be in my daughters future. that made me very sad. I love to bike and I invision the day when she and I can bike for miles together in the country side both of us in our own little "la la lands" with a cell phone to call daddy when we get lost.

But from day one, the odds seemed to be stacked against that dream. Age 4 I believe it was, I took her to biking trail near us with her peddle bike with training wheels. Try and try she might but she could not get that thing to stay on the path. So she proceeded to get off the bike yell at it, kick it then lift it over her head in a sort of Godzilla like fashion and throw it in the ditch. I ran up to her from the 100 m I was behind her, and got the bike out of the ditch and proceeded to lecture her on how this was not okay behavior all the while trying no to let her see me laugh, cause boy I tell ya when that bike went up in the air, she looked like a mini Jack.

The next few years biking was few and far between till last fall when I found her the above bike at a yard sale for just $13 brand new (the family was moving to England and was selling everything) . She saw it and fell in love with its aqua color and pink bubble design and she wanted to ride it bad. This time I took Jack out to help, which didn't go so well, you see the two are very alike when it comes to tempers, and by a quarter mile in I could see some definite butting of heads.

I then took over, and I did not do much better, I went into Lecture mode. Oh dear, not good... Then I resorted to "Your a Tucker and Tucker's don't give up" which then my husband whispered in my ear "actually dear she is a Huizinga" oh ya well then......ummmmm......OH I KNOW BRIBERY THAT WILL WORK. Ya low parenting point for sure, but it was hot, and my daughter loves ice-cream so I leaned down and said, Courtney if I see you trying your best and putting some real effort into this, I will get you and the family ice-cream when we are done, you pick the flavor. AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, like that she was off, and my hubby stared at me and said "WOW, you can really work magic, what did you say?" he was less than happy with the ice-cream bribe, but admitted later that it worked well.

Ever since that low parenting example day from both Jack and I , our little gal has been begging to get out bike riding whenever she has the chance, her bike is in the back of our van almost 24/7, ready for any opportunity to use it.

Oh and one more thing, that outfit she has on cost me $1.50 I LOVE YARD SALES.

Fourth of July Fireworks

(well the the 3rd of July really but whatever)

The first bang, and as it went off we all went running for a better view.

Aiden striking his old man poise.


I think the town loves our family. When we lived at our Spencer home the 4Th of July fireworks were at the park off the river walk and could be seen by us simple walking across the street and taking the stairs to the top off the hospital park aid.

We moved and guess what that same year the 4Th of July fireworks moved to the soccer fields which are situated just across the river behind our house, and you can see all but the low fire works from our daddy built playground.

Different communities host their fireworks on different nights through the weekend. Marion does theirs on Saturday night, which was the 3rd this time around.

The hardest part of the fireworks is the waiting, Thomas gets more and more anxious by the minute, while I get more and more tired, this leads to something I call cranky mom syndrome. You see it is not dark enough for fireworks till after 10pm that is over an hr past this early birds bedtime. Add the anxiety of overly anxious 14 year old to my "trying to stay awake for the sake my children's summer memories" and you get well, lets just say next time I am, taking a nap, drinking a Starbucks after my usual 4pm caffine cutoff, and not telling Thomas a specific time, just repeating the words "after dark" so as to avoid it again. Still the evening ended well, and all three went to bed, thanking me for the great night melting my cranky mommy mood and making me feel so incredibly blessed by my life.

I am back on EBay

About 2 yrs after we moved here, I started reselling things that I got for cheap at yard sales on EBay. Then as things got worse with mom's health, I put it aside. I have wanted to pick it back up again for a while but haven't seemed to fit it into my schedule.

The success of the yard sales and book sales for raising money for our anniversary however, inspired me to keep going. So I set my next goal at enough to take the kids camping in early August for 3 nights (possibly 4 if all goes well). This time I am mainly selling things we no longer use, although in this book lot pictured above I got some of the books for twenty five cents a piece at a yard sale just to fill out the lot more (bigger batches of books bring in more $ per book).

I also wanted money for 2 cots for sleeping in the tent for Jack and I since our travel trailer (pop-up) is broken and I am having the hardest time getting it fixed. Now however it appears that me earning the money for camping and being daring enough to go it alone with the kids has inspired my husband to get out there and look at the trailer himself and see if he can't rig it somehow for 3 nights.

He at first laughed at my idea of fixing the supports with PVC pipe, and the broken vent with some wood sealed with roofers gunk, but now he is second thinking my country hick, suggestions. I told him he is blessed to have a wife of such class, as I slurped on my Hardee's sweet tea and sat cross legged in my skirt while knitting in the passenger seat beside him! He shook his head and smiled from ear to ear, who knows what that man was thinking! But if it gets my pop up fixed, I will take it!

(update Jack, just had me purchase a vent off ebay! hopefully it is here before we leave, although if you ask me a wooden vent with roofing guck for when it rains and a interchangable mesh vent for when its not raining would of done the job (but that's just the country hick gal in me talking)

Ah Summer!

Summer here where we live is filled with afternoons or mornings poolside at various locations.

One of our new favorite locations is White's Resort. The pool is fabulous, the deck chairs Divine. The company is like no other. And their decorator well, she is so good she should have a monthly spread in Better Homes and Gardens.

This month however has been slow in the swimming department, not because of the weather but because, I have had my leg in hose for the past 3 weeks. I finally got in for the operation to remove my varicose vein that I first developed carrying this little fish pictured above. Over the years it has gotten bigger and more painful, and so I decided to get it removed.

Jack watched the whole procedure so if you want details you will have to ask him. All I will tell you is it felt like my leg was being treated like a human yogurt tube. 3 weeks has passed now and all that remains is a few bruises and small scabs from the incisions so we plan to SWIM IT UP through August to make up for the 3 weeks we missed.

The Summer of VBS' or CVS if your my daughter

Summer here in Indiana means VBS, or Vacation Bible School. If you are Courtney however, you call it CVS, no matter how many times your brother, mother and father correct you. And CVS is of course the drugstore where I play my coupon game and get lots of products for FREE but that is for another post.

Back to VBS. This year my children when to 4 different VBS' back to back. You see our original church split into two and their friends landed at both churches, and our family landed at another church all together, so they get invited to both and attend both, and then their is a cool reading one that I let them count as a half day of school, and then there is the one pictured above.

This is the Mnt. Olive VBS, now our church was actually having their VBS this week, but my two children who are still young enough to go to VBS begged me to let them attend Mnt. Olive instead. The reason why you ask?? Keith Connor of course!!! He is a local celeb. with the kids, known for all his crazy songs with great moves. He can really get a crowd of kids worked up..... and then send them home with their parents at 9pm so that they can spend the next hour praying that they will fall asleep cause its past YOUR bed time.

Seriously though, I love watching this guy work his magic with the kids, and seeing my kids get all pumped up for Jesus!

And this year Aiden received a CD of Keith Connor in honor of his Birthday, so now we can bring Keith and his crazy music with us where ever we go. Oh ya man, we are totally "doing the sprinkler" while we drive down the bypass.

The Last Birthday for 2010

His favorite Ice-cream sandwich cake, very easy to put together, but very messy, and you got to be quick about it otherwise it is even messier.
the Birthday Boy opening up his cash

Aiden has the last birthday of birthday week. I must admit, by the end of the birthday week, this mom is feeling a bit tired, and our home is a little worse for wear. 3 days of party party party will do that to a mom and her family and home. But I believe in finishing strong, in giving all I got to the very end. So with that ingrained in personality, Ai en had a great day.

He started it out with presents from the family. Mostly money, since he wanted video games. After breakfast we went to "game stop" to pick out a few new games, followed by lunch at Ryan's. For those of you not familiar with Ryan's it is a huge buffet style restaurant with an ice-cream bar. Aiden at carb's, carb's and more carb's till his carb loving heart was stuffed, then he topped it off with an ice-cream sundae.

The afternoon was spent playing video games. At 4pm, 3 of his video loving buddies came by and the stuffed themselves with pizza and pop, and finished the night with smores on a campfire. At
least that is what his dad told me.

You see I am an early bird, my body seems to like to rise sometime between 4 and 5 each morning, and that is an alarm clock FREE rising. That means it likes to sleep right around 8:30 and well 9 pm is pushing it for me. And wouldn't you know it now a days children consider 9pm to be too early for a sleepover night!!! So dad the Night Owl who rarely makes in into bed before 1 a.m., took over where I left off, (or rather dozed off) and that is when the backyard campfire took place.

Surprisingly when this early bird got up to sneak out for a run, those same boys who were up with my lovable Night owl, were already up! But easily entertained with video games and fed with pop tarts and sugary birthday treat cereal, so that I could run while the Night Owl slept.

All in all a great birthday week, and a memorable one too. Now I have just one child in the single digits!!! My babies are getting so big.