Yard Sale

I am a big fan of going to yard sales. We have found some neat treasures in other people’s junk. One of my favorite yard sales is the Houghton VFD yard sale on Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends every year. We have had two yard sales ourselves. One in Waterloo, before moving to Houghton, and just this last Saturday as we are preparing to leave Houghton and head back to Waterloo. I was not impressed with our yard sale in Waterloo. 5&20 is a decent location but it definitely was not fun… Saturday’s yard sale was fun. I just love living in Houghton. It is such a small town that you know, or at least recognize, everyone. Stopping at the Jubilee or the DG after church is like a reunion. I am going to miss it! Anyway, we had a yard sale on Saturday at our friends’ house down on 19. We had a few big items (like dressers and Caleb’s old power wheels that he had outgrown) that we really didn’t want to move because we had convinced ourselves that we didn’t need them anymore. (Simplify, simplify). A friend helped haul the stuff down Friday night and we went down to set up Saturday morning around 7:30. We put up a couple signs at the college entrance and one at the dump advertising a sale from 7:30-noon and sat down to relax. As we sat and visited under the tree with the Sampsons and the kids played on the big trampoline lots of people stopped by, many of them just to visit. It was a really fun morning and the best news is that we sold all our big items, yeah! I have decided that the most fun place to have a yard sale is here in Houghton, too bad we are moving. :o(

Lydia's not so short prayer

Lydia, has begun praying now beyond "Dear God, Amen!" and has reached the stage where she is thankful for everything. Her normal prayer is something like this..."Dear God thank you for my plate and my cup and juice and mommy and Caleb and mumble and mumble and peanut butter and bread and pizza and baby sheep and dooley and Bethany and Paul and Hannah and milk... Well I think thanked God for every vehicle on the property at Earl Sorenson's. All of us can learn a lesson from Lydia and be thankful for everything we have as well.

Caleb and Hannah saying Psalm 23

This was the third of fourth take which explains the giggles.

Lydia knows how to say her name...sort of :-P

Dangerous Picnics

We have been eating our lunches outside the last three days as the weather has been nice. Today, while we were eating at our picnic table, Hannah took off her shoe and told Lydia to hold still. She then proceeded to smack Lydia up the side of the head with her shoe. When Sonja asked what was going on Hannah explained that there was a bug in Lydia's hair. A bug, to Hannah, is a very good reason to use a shoe on her sister's head since she has picked up a bugaphobia from her big brother Caleb. They are improving though as they are at least willing to try and kill bugs instead of screaming and running away. Anyway, we think it should be safe for anyone to be around her even with a bug in their hair as she now knows not to use a shoe on people. :-) Hannah is listening as I read this out loud to Sonja and she just told Sonja she will try not to use a shoe on people anymore. She is a little sweetheart (just not to bugs.)

Russ and Camy's shower

This past weekend we went to a wedding shower for Sonja's brother Russ and his fiance Camy (They are the two at the far right). We had a fun time with them and many old church friends at the shower. It was also fun for Glenn to play basketball with Camy's cousin Dutsu (blue shirt in the middle) who we met on our trip to Ohio in February. We were also able to spend time with Sonja's Grandma Hansen and also her Dad, Roger Nelson, as well as hang out with her Aunt Amy and her Uncle Paul and their kids Zack, Ehren, and the infamous Kyle. Over all it was a good weekend and it was fun to get out of Houghton for a while.

New Baby Sheep

One of our kids' favorite things to do is to go and visit the sheep. About a half mile up the road is a barn that has 6 sheep and an alpaca that we take a walk to visit just about every day. Over the last few weeks 5 baby lambs have been born. Three of them have been born in the last 48 hours a set of twins and another baby whose twin died. Here the kids are pictured petting Cinnamon. She is also pictured with her mom and twin "Midnight." Lydia ran just about the whole half mile to the sheep barn today saying "See baby sheep, see baby sheep." We have to keep a more careful watch on Lydia these days when she is outside because she wants to walk and see the baby sheep by herself. Caleb caught her really close to the road running down the driveway going to "see baby sheep" yesterday.