Best Friends & Baby

Mandy is my best friend. I met her 24 years ago when I moved to a new house & new school. We had a few rough spots, but for the most part were very close growing up. But then, you know, we grew up. We got married, moved away, etc. One of us started popping out babies....several of them :). It was rough, I can only imagine. We still do our best to be best friends. We shop a few times a year, always meet up for birthday dinners. And finally, we join each other in the role of motherhood. Side by side. I might be considered the pro & her the newbie.

What makes this so special & miracalous is that Mandy never expected to bear children herself. Many, many years of problems, treatments, doctors & specialist. Late last year Mandy came to the point where she just accepted this was how it was gonna be. I felt my heart sink when she told me she was scheduling her hysterctomy in a few days. Only a few days later she called me frantically to tell me to check my email NOW! What waited for my eyes to see was the most precious sight ever....an ultrasound picture of her baby!!!!

Even though she wasn't due for another 3 weeks Mandy had to have a sudden c-section, which appeared to be worse than my 6 deliveries combined. I joined the rest of the family at the hospital for this special day. And we welcomed Drew Daniel into this world.

One of the things I love about blogging is the exchange of ideas that takes place; after all, what mom can't use a new idea every now and then!

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The Hearts at Home blog covers a variety of topics, such as practical mom tips, recipes, book reviews, and advice for tackling tough mommy issues.
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Balloon Festival

This past weekend Galesburg held its annual Balloon Festival. We took the kids to the night glow & walked around. You could be up close & personal with these balloons. A few even let the kids climb into the baskets (although we didn't do it ourselves). It was fascinating.

Then this morning all of the balloons lifted off from Lake Storey. I got up & was out there at 6 a.m. None of the balloons were up & going yet, but many were getting ready. It was neat to sit & watch it all happen. There was at least a dozen balloons that lifted off within 15 minutes or so.

For the first time they incorporated a 5k to go along with the other activities. You bet your life I was there bright & early to participate in this. It had a small turn out (about 40 people), which is normal for its first year. My run was...well, ok. Not awful, but not really fantastic either. I slipped out of gear for about 1/2 mile and really began to drag. I won't bore you with all my theories as to why. I'm not even 100% sure on my time and I think the course was off a bit anyway. They never hollered out my 1 mile time, my 2 mile time was awfully slow and compared to my finish time it just didn't all add up. Another fellow running friend confirmed my suspicions by mentioning the same inconsistencies with his run. So who knows, but I ran, and enjoyed doing so. I got a nice new shirt and new award for my efforts. I like adding different looking awards to my collection that hides in my basement.

Just like dad

Andrew is fascinated with this tie. He brought it to me & inquired what it was. When I explained he perked up with the conclusion that it's "just like dad." Bingo! So he has been parading around with this tie on for days....just like dad. And if you ask him where he (Andrew) works he'll tell you "in an office.....just like dad".

I didn't forget

July is a "big" birthday month. Only in that it's the only month where two members of the zoo have a birthday. I know in the past I was really good about blogging about any one persons birthday on the actual day. This year I let it slide. I could chalk it up to my *old* age. Especially since this month includes my birthday and I can now offically claim to be in my mid-thirties. I'll be here for the next 5 years before I can move my status up to late thirties.

My birthday (15th) was quite the day as it included a lot of planned driving. Yeah, I do occasionally PLAN pure craziness into my life. I hit the road early with 2 of my girls and a friend & her girls. We drove to the next town over & picked up 3 more girls to drive them to Moline. Once in Moline I dropped off the 4 of the girls to attend dance camp for the day. We got right back on the road & headed to Coralville. We snagged 30 minutes of shopping (and good sales) at Kohls before we loaded back up to head to North Liberty. There we met someone who gave us a trumpet for Mandy (see post below). After that brief encounter we headed to lunch at one of my favorite places to eat, Olive Garden. We took our time & enjoyed some girl time complete with the OG staff singing me some cheesy birthday song and presenting me with a birthday treat. AND it really was a treat because Andes thin mints are one of my all time favorite pieces of candy.
Just as we were ready to hit the road I met up with another friend who had driven over from the DesMoines area to bring me 2 of her kids. Anna & Ellie came to stay the week with us. (What's a few more animals at the zoo anyway?) We left with just enough time to get back to Moline to pick up the dancers & transport them home. But not without a stop at the mall & McDonald's. Phew, so about 300 or so miles logged within 8 hours made for a long day. The rest of the day was quiet. I was surprised the next day when Angel (on behalf of the kids) baked me a birthday cake completely from scratch, even the frosting.
Come on, you do see all those wrinkles on my face, don't you?!?! And look, the candles completely surround my cake. Time to start filling in the middle!

Mandy's birthday was also this month (23rd). Since she was at church camp for the week we did not get to see her on her birthday. That is a first for us & a bit weird feeling too. I did my best to make her day special & arranged for some cupcakes to be delivered to the camp for her to share with her cabin.
I also sent along her presents & cards that she received in the mail that week while she was gone. Once she was home a few days later we had a small gathering of friends & famiy to celebrate some more.

The Music Man

Last weekend Angel, Mandy & John participated in the production of The Music Man. It all started back in May with auditions. Each kid was awarded a general role. Angel was a River City dancer. Mandy & John were River City kids. Since this was their first jab at community theather we were very excited for these roles. The kids put in many, many, MANY hours of rehershals and quite honestly loved every minute of it. We also bought the sound track and barely had a minute of rest from the non stop singing and dancing in our own home. In a sense it consumed us, but we were very pleased that this is what kept the kids busy for the beginning of the summer.

There were 3 productions put on for the community to come & see. Although I wasn't able to record the actual production I was able to get some snipets during dress rehershal. So enjoy the videos and pictures.(I couldn't use flash while taking most of the pictures, so some of the quality is not too clean) (And don't forget to turn off the regular blog music - scroll down to the end to find that button)

76 trombones

The Wells Fargo Wagon.

To help build excitement the cast & crew came out to welcome the REAL Wells Fargo Wagon. The mayor of Galesburg and the mayor of River City (the town in the city) issued proclaimations during this event. Some of the kids & I got to take a ride in the wagon.



For a breif scene Mandy was a Wah-Tahn-Nee indian girl.

This is the song Marian the Librarian. In the first picture you see Angel right in the front row. For a portion of the song Angel had to dance with a book in her face the whole time. It was amazing how they got it to all work perfectly. Wish I had video of it.

Angel dancing during Shipoppi.

Blessed

We have once again been blessed by God in providing the needs for our family. We were blessed a few years ago when Angel needed a saxaphone to start band. I took the same approach with the trumpet we needed for Mandy to start band. I sent out an email asking all family & friends if there was a trumpet out there in need of a home. We didn't have a problem with paying a small price for a good used trumpet, but it was indeed a small price compaired to the cost of renting one or buying a used one from a music store.

Once the email went out we know that friends & family also forwarded it on to other family & friends. We had a few offers come in, still a little higher than we wanted to pay. Finally a friend of a friend of a friend had just the trumpet for us. It was FREE! The guy was upfront in telling us that the trumpet sat in storage and was exposed to poor conditions. The instrument needed work. The estimate he was given was nearly the exact cost we were willing to pay for a regular trumpet minus any repairs. So we made the arrangements to meet this total stranger who was kind enough & willing to give us the trumpet for free! He was pleased to see the instrument go to a new home & have a new lease on life. In return we promise that if we no longer need the trumpet in the future we will turn around and bless another person with the same gift.

As you can see from the picture it looks in great condition. Yes, it needs some internal work, slides need to be clean out & re-lubed, etc. More than anything though we see this beautiful instrument as yet another way that God takes care of our needs/wants/desires. He gets all the credit!

Think pink

I need to back track a little bit. This happened right before we went on vacation. I was too focused on getting ready for our trip that I didnt' blog about it.

I had another theme day for my cycling class. In a moment of inspiration I thought PINK! So we set the date, I prepared my treats (a must on my theme days) and we all dressed in pink. I personally had on 7 different shades of pink. I also got a nice playlist put together that included songs like the theme to the Pink Panther, Pink Cadalliac and various other songs by the singer Pink. We had a blast, as always, despite the grueling workout that we endured.

If you have any theme ideas you'd like to see me try, let me know. I'll consider anything.

Ok, ok....

So I've been slacking a little bit on here. I did sort of a hit & run with our vacation pictures. I knew you'd all figure out that we had a great time! We set a new camp record by not needing to take any of our children to see the camp nurse. That is the first time ever! Of course, we are already signed up to attend family camp next year. We wouldn't miss it for the world.

Since then things have been hum-ho. A little of this and a little of that. Trying to just enjoy summer. I went berry picking at a friends house last week. I got enough wild black raspberries to make a yummy crisp. It was an educating experience to pick berries. I learned about the difference between black raspberries vs. blackberries and saw what gooseberries are and what they taste like. I also got a lovely first hand experience in nature, more specifically bugs (one of which kept attacking us and caused me to drop my bucket & run screaming like a little girl.) The kids weren't too fond of this berry picking idea. They stayed inside in our friends airconditioned house while we were out in the sweltering heat. (Their life is so rough!)
Some more nature we came across amidst the berries. We were careful not to disturb the eggs, although I had to move the branch it was on to get to a patch of berries.

I'll try and get back into a good bloggin routine. There is always something going on in our zoo!