Slipping and Sliding

Yes, we had an ice storm in the middle of the night (Thursday) and those are never good. Fortunately we never lost power which I consider a miracle alone. The roads were also not as bad as I thought they would be. My wonderful husband took me into my OB appointment that morning. The kids were thrilled because they had no school. Friday was supposed to be their last day before the two week Christmas break. Guess they scored an extra day!
We already had snow on the ground from Tuesday but it had been too cold for the kids to go out and play. Friday it was a little warmer than it had been and the snow had a nice slickness to it. The kids begged me to let them go sled and I did. The snow is so slick that if they let go of the sleds they will go down the hill on their own with the child chasing close behind! Too funny! I wish I could be out there with them. There is always next year! Until then I will have to enjoy sitting here writing this blog and watching them sled out the sliding glass door beside me. They kept coming up to the window and asking if I just saw that. They were having a blast. Here is some video I took of them sledding.

Owen Miles is Almost Five Months Old!

My mom sent me a picture of Owen playing with his feet yesterday. It was so cute I just had to share it. I can't believe how much he looks like my brother in this picture. He will be five months old tomorrow. Time flies. I can't believe he is that old. Whenever I see him now he just smiles. He is a very happy baby.

Whose that sleeping in my bed?

Just thought I would share a funny story with you.

Sunday night we were getting ready to go to bed. I was the last one because I was doing some last minute laundry. When I finally arrived in my bedroom ready to hit the sack I found that my spot was taken by something very furry. Of course my husband being the way he is plays this up by putting his arm around Dakota and saying "Honey, I think you forgot to shave your legs". Very funny. Dakota is eating this up. At one point even looks back at Matt to give him a kiss. I even tried laying in Dakota's bed at the foot of our bed thinking he would not like that and jump down. No, he could have cared less. He was perfectly cozy with his buddy. I had to get a few pictures before I evicted the unwelcome fur ball to his own bed.

The Name Game

Stop the clock. We have found a name! We had several that we liked, but had not found "The One" yet. The one that made us say "Yes! I love that!". Matt is actually the one who found it and suggested it to me. We looked it up and found out that it is biblical and very rare. It will also make the babies initials the same as his older brothers. Soooo, there are your clues. I will also tell you that it is none of the ones on the poll. So happy guessing! Let me know what you guess!

Jake's with the band!

Jake is in 5th grade this year and that means he could choose to play an instrument in the band. He was really excited about band. He was sure he was born to play the drums, then he came home from school one day with a whole new instrument in mind. The music teacher did some evaluations to help each child decide which instrument might be best suited for them. It turns out that Jacob is a "natural" at the Baritone. He is really excited about playing the Baritone now. As good parents we decided to support him in his decision. I did not realize that the Baritone is one of the most expensive instruments to purchase and one of the largest. Fortunately, we are renting one from the school district this year while Jacob decides if he truly is a natural. If he decides to continue playing the Baritone we will purchase it next year. The biggest problem right now is that this thing is the size of Jacob! I could not help but laugh the first day he had to drag it off the bus and down the lane after school. His sister actually has to help him get it home! We are not three weeks into playing the baritone and he does seem to enjoy it. I don't have to hound him to practice. He does it all on his own. I will be excited when he begins to learn to play actual notes. He is in the getting used to his new instrument phase. Right now the sounds are a lot like a dying elephant. A few days ago his sister was practicing her flute and he thought he could copy her notes. Let's just say he has a lot to learn! I also keep reminding my husband to make sure Jacob's new room in the basement is well insulated!

Apple Cider Time!

Last year we started a new tradition. Matt's grandfather had an old cider press that Matt decided to bring home and clean up. He thought it would be fun to make apple cider. We really enjoyed ourselves last year so we hope to continue the tradition every year. This year Matt's Aunt Mary and his cousins Craig and Jodi joined us, along with Matt's parents who were with us last year also. Mary supplied the apples from her bountiful crop of apples she had this year.

Matt and I scrubbed and sanitized the cider press. I sanitized all the milk jugs I have been saving for weeks leading up to the big day. Shelby and Jake are in charge of scrubbing and sanitizing the apples. After all the cleaning is done we begin to make cider. It is simple really. You throw apples in the hopper at the top. Someone cranks the grinder. Jake loves to do this but usually needs help. Then the apples get chopped up and fall into one of two wooden barrels. When you fill one up you move it forward so it is underneath the press. You put the lid on the barrel and then begin to bring the press down. As it presses down on the apples the cider flows out between the slats in the the barrels, and down into the pan. It is so good!

It takes a lot of apples to make cider. We had several bushels of apples but only got about 5 gallons of cider out of them. Last year we froze several gallons to enjoy throughout the winter but discovered that the kids prefer it fresh. Matt was really the only one drinking it after I would thaw one out. So this year we shared a couple gallons with Craig who is going to try to make apple wine. He makes different wines and beer as a hobby and they are good! I hope he saves some apple wine for me to try sometime in the spring!





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Let there be light!!

Phase 2 is almost complete! The holes are cut and the windows are in. Matt still needs to do some more sealing and trimming of the windows. He also needs to put the window wells in and make sure the water in the window wells drains away from the windows. I love the new windows in the basement. It does not feel like a basement anymore. There is so much light coming in.
We did learn a few lessons during this two week process. Sometimes it pays to pay a little more. Out of about ten places that Matt called to come cut the concrete he only found two companies that would do it. One estimate was really high and the other estimate was really low. Of course we are trying to do this project on a budget so we had the lower priced company come out. Let's just say that this guy finally admitted after cutting the first hole that he had never done this before and it would cost us a lot more to get him to come out and do the second. Well, if we would have known that he had never done that kind of cutting before he would not have done it in the first place. So we immediately called the company that had given us the higher estimate and they came out and you could immediately tell that these were professionals. The first time we ended up with tons of water in our basement (the saws use water) and exhaust fumes throughout the house because the first guy wanted to cut it from the inside. The second guy worked on the outside. We had very little water in the basement and no horrible exhaust fumes. Where the first guy took a day and a half, the second guy took a few hours. The difference in the experiences was amazing. This was definitely one of those "You get what you pay for" jobs.
Well, the drama is over and we are happy with the end result.
I am posting some before and after pics for you to see.

Oh Boy! It's a boy!

We went for our second sonogram on Friday. It was a family affair. Jake and Shelby got to see their little brother for the first time. That is right. It's a boy!! He was not shy about sharing that with us. The sonogram tech said he was not modest at all. It was fun. He was quite active during the sonogram so we got to see him kick me in the stomach a few times, change positions, turn his face towards us, and even open his mouth twice. I read somewhere that this is about the time they start tasting amniotic fluid to get ready for when it is time to eat in the outside world and that what I eat effects how the fluid taste's. Guess this kids is going to like jalepeno's and Mexican food! Everything is on schedule the same as before. I only gained two pounds in the last month so I was happy about that!

Matt is hard at work putting one of the egress windows in this weekend! He is on a mission. I just need to get him to take a break long enough to help me pick out some baby stuff!

Playing in the dirt!

Well, Phase 1 of the basement project was finished about a week ago. That was cleaning, organizing, and getting rid of the clutter. The side of the basement that is going to get finished is down to bare bones and ready to go.

Phase 2 was started this weekend. We need to put in two egress windows since there is going to be a bedroom in the basement. So this weekend Matt rented a Mini Excavator to did the five foot plus holes where the windows are going to be. I think he had a lot of fun. For $225 dollars we could have it for the day and put 8 clock hours on the machine. When Matt got done he had not even put 4 hours on the machine so he took it out on our property and found a spot where the kids could dig. He taught each one of them how to use it and they both spent about a half an hour digging in the dirt. That is the beauty of living on ten acres. Plenty of room to play! I think they all had fun. I was even told that I had to try it. It is harder then it looks. My husband said to trying doing that along the side of the house and not hitting the house! Probably good thing he did that part and not me!!

17 weeks and counting!

I just came from the doctor's office and thought I would give everyone an update. We are a little farther along than we thought. We are 17 weeks! Woohoo!! The doctor did a sonogram and everything looks great. It was wonderful to get to see the little tiger! I am so excited!!! Our approx. due date is Feb. 18th. Pray for Matt, he just lost a month of the time he thought he had to finish the basement! I get to go back in a month for another sonogram and we will hopefully find out for sure what we are having. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

"If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your future plans." Woody Allen

The title of this post is Matt's quote of the week and perhaps even the year. We have had quite a surprise this week. As I have been assured by the doctor's office, three urine tests do not lie. We seem to be pregnant! We are still trying to move out of the shocked stage. We just keep looking at each other and saying "Wow"! My husband demanded that I get a blood test to be sure. The doctor's office said "Hey, if you want to get stuck we will order the test". I explained that our children are 13 and 10 and this was not expected. They laughed! We are still waiting for the results and until then I don't think my husband is going to believe it.
I have an appointment next Friday to find out just how far along I am and to make sure everything is going smoothly. I must admit that I am nervous. I just want everything to be okay so I am looking forward to my appointment. Until then I will be holding my breath.
The kids thought we were joking when we told them and then Jake realized we did not have enough rooms. When we explained that we would be finishing the basement and putting a bedroom down there Jake was more concerned with who was getting the new room than with being a big brother. LOL!

I will give everyone an update when we know more!

South Dakota Final Post

Okay, this is the last one post about South Dakota, I promise!! I just have a few more pictures I wanted to share. This is not even close to all of them, but I don't think you really want to see all 400 pictures and I don't want to bore you.

The first pictures are of our trip to see Mt. Rushmore. I was really neat to see them in real life. Pictures do not do it justice. We learned a lot about how it was built also. It was a good time.

The second set of pictures is of our hike up to Harney Peak. This is a 3.5 mile hike one way. My husband was really excited about climbing to the top. Harney Peak is an elevation of 7,242 feet. It is the highest elevation east of the Rockies all the way to Europe. My husband wanted to say he did it. The rest of us...well we were not to sure. But we got our backpacks with our hydration packs and loaded up on the trail mix and fruit and away we went. I was the slowest. Everyone kept having to wait for me, but I was going to do it at my own pace. The sign said it would be a 4-5 hour hike round trip and it took us just over 4 hours. It was beautiful at the top. We all can say we did it now.

Next is some pictures from our visit to the Mammoth site. It is an area where they have found over 50 mammoths in one area. There is a building around the site and they give tours. There are actually people excavating while you are there. It was very interesting to watch.

The last pictures are of the Badlands. We liked that we were allowed to get out and explore and climb on the rocks.

Okay, I will stop going on about South Dakota. You will have to go check it out for yourself.

South Dakota Vacation Post #2

In my first post I skipped the telling you about our cabin! I must admit I was a little nervous about what our cabin was going to be like. I was hoping it would be clean at the very least. All my expectations were met and exceeded! I loved our little home away from home for a week. The cabins looked practically new and were spotless. The view was my favorite. The deck of our cabin looked out over a ravin and a couple of mountains. It was spectacular. Every evening while we were cooking supper and relaxing from a long day of running around we would see deer and turkeys right out in front of our cabin. It was really cool! The cabin had air and heat but the weather was so perfect that we did not use them. It was in the 80's during the day and got down in the low 60's and upper 50's at night. Wonderful!

Our cabin was in Custer State Park. It is a very beautiful state park. They had some great education programs too. Every night at 9:00 at each of the campgrounds they had a ranger program. We learned all about their buffalo management program and the history of the bison. We learned how they try to prevent and control wild fires. We did not miss a single ranger program the whole time we were there. We really enjoyed them and learned a lot.
The best park about Custer State Park is the wildlife. It is everywhere and you can actually see it! Top on our list was the Buffalo or Bison of course! Did you know that a male bison weighs upwards of 2,000 lbs. and a female weighs around 1,500 lbs.. A bison can jump 6 ft. from a stand still and 12 feet at a run and they can run up to 35 mph!!! We never got tired of watching the Buffalo.
There were lots and lots of Pronghorn Antelope and Prairie Dogs. We did see a few Mountain Goats too. We never did get a change to see the Elk though. They managed to elude us. We also never saw the bobcats or mountain lions but I was fine with that. Another of our favorites were the Begging Burrows. They are not native to the area. In the 30's people used them to give tours up to Harney's Peak, the highest elevation east of the Rockies all the way to Europe. When the tour company folded they just released them into the wild. Awhile ago the park actually removed them because they were not native and they got so many complaints from people that about five years ago they reintroduced them back into the park. They are very friendly. If you feed them they will stick their heads all the way into the car to get more. We bought carrots just so we could feed them! It was fun!!

Another area at Custer State Park was the Needles Highway. It is called this because you have to drive through three very tight tunnels dug out from the rock on it. It it really neat but nerve racking too!! Two of the tunnels actually frame Mt. Rushmore as you are driving through them!

South Dakota Vacation Post #1

I know it has taken me awhile to post some vacation pictures, but I was overwhelmed. We have a wonderful time and did so many things and took so many pictures I did not know where to start. I think I will tell you about our vacation in pieces. I don't want to leave anything out.

We left home on a rainy Saturday morning. This was fine with us. We were going to be in the car traveling across Iowa all day. We loaded down the Jeep and I mean loaded her down. There was no space unused. We hit the road around 8:00 a.m. and set out to cross Iowa. Around 5 p.m. that night we entered Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This was our stop for the night. In the morning we would cross South Dakota to get the the Black Hills with a stop in the Badlands on the way. We found the Falls in Sioux Falls and the kids played on the rocks and we had some fun then went to find some good food at the local Cracker Barrel and of course swim in the hotel pool (hot tub for Matt and I).

On Sunday we traveled across South Dakota heading for Custer State Park. We had to stop for a few classic sights we were told we had to see. The first stop was in Mitchell, SD for the Corn Palace. The outside of this building in decorated in corn. Every year they change the murals. This years theme was "Everyday Heroes". We were there about 15 minutes. Enough to say "Yup, cool, let's go"!! The next stop was in Wall, SD to see Wall Drug. Now everyone we talked to said that we had to see Wall Drug. The signs for this place started in Iowa and we counted around 40 all together before you finally get to the place. All I can say is that now I can say I have been there. I was not impressed. It was quite possibly the largest junk shop I have every seen and in my opinion a complete waste of time, but oh well.

We went to the Badlands which are awesome. The kids played on them for awhile and we drove the loop. I will include pictures of them later. Then we arrived at our cabin around 5:00 Sunday evening.

The first day of our trip we did a Cowboy Breakfast ride at Palmer Gulch Stables. At the end of the week this actually ended up being everyone's favorite thing that we did. We had great trail guides and great horses. I had Keg, Matt had Pat, Shelby had Flash, and Jake had Sushi. We were in a group of about 16 people with 3 trail guides. We took a 45 minute ride up to a lookout area and stopped there for a breakfast of French toast, fruit salad, hashbrowns, and sausage links. Yummy! After breakfast we got back on our horses and continued on for another half hour. It was a lot of fun!

That afternoon we went to Jewel Cave National Monument. It was pretty cool. I will post pictures of our cabin in the next post about South Dakota!!

Introducing Owen Miles Weaver!

HI everyone! We are back from our vacation. We had a wonderful time, but something very exciting happened at home while we were gone. My nephew, my brother's son, was born on Thursday, July 17 at 9:30 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs and 3 oz and was 19 inches long. His momma really had to work at the end to get him into the world but he is here and healthy! Also very, very cute! I went to see him first thing when I got home. I could not wait. Here are some pics!

4th of July and Shelby's Birthday

Less than 24 hours to D-day or should I say B-day!

In less than 24 hours there will be a teenager living in this house! I really can't grasp it. I can't believe that at 8:34 a.m. tomorrow it will have been thirteen years since that beautiful red headed baby girl was laid in my arms for the first time. Matt and I watched her first birthday party a couple of weeks ago with her and Jake and she just rolled her eyes at my gushing the whole time. I know she can't wait to grow up. To her it seems like it is taking forever, but I can wait. I am in no hurry. The red hair is pretty much gone now and we went from loving Blue's Clues to rock and roll. Yes, rock and roll. This child loves the guitar and any band that puts this particular instrument to good use. I think she may have grown up in the wrong generation. When we asked her what she wanted for her birthday she said "Guitar Hero of course". We got it for her last weekend and she has spent every moment she can get trying to win each song. Of course she has one of the horrible mothers who will not let her play 24 hrs a day. LOL!
So tomorrow we will celebrate her birthday with a bang as always. There will be parades, cake and ice cream with family, carnival rides and food, and of course fireworks. It was at least four year before she figured out all of that was not just for her! While all that is going on I will be trying to figure out how to make sure the next thirteen years don't escape so fast! I know! Good luck with that!
Here are some pictures of our own Guitar Hero and a smaller version. Happy Birthday Shelby! Mom loves you!

Project Completed

Project one on our list for the summer is finally done! We had hoped to finish this project earlier in the season but the weather and a busy ball schedule put us a little behind. It was a lot of work mostly on my husbands part. I helped when I could. He ripped out the old fence first. Then he had to dig holes for all the new posts by hand because we did not know where the power for our well and the water line coming from the well to the house was buried. JULIE does not mark those type of things. That was the hardest part. It seemed like everything after that went pretty fast. We were on a mission this weekend to get it done and we did it! It was wonderful to just sit and look at it last night. We went in the house and Matt would say "I am going to go out and look at the fence one more time". When we looked at pictures we could not believe what a difference the new fence made.

Our MVP!

Shelby's softball team played Tremont on Friday night. Unfortunately, Matt and I were not able to make it because we were hosting a 4H Cookout and Campout at our house. It sounds like me missed a really good game. Shelby's team lost by only one run. Shelby was awarded the MVP award for that game. She hit a single and a double with 2 RBI's. Of course this happens the night we are not there. She thinks we are bad luck. Unfortunately she is not going to get to prove her theory because I am not taking a chance at missing that again. She has been hitting really well lately. This time of year we are crazy busy. Both kids are playing ball and we sometimes have games every night of the week but I would not trade it for anything!

There are also a few games I did not put on my schedule below.

July 1 @ 8:00 at Brock Lake
July 2- Double Header starting @ 6:00 at Brock Lake

Ackerson Family Reunion

This past weekend was the Ackerson Family Reunion at Bart's house. We had a really nice time. Both days were bright and sunny. Matt's Grandma Bee (Bernice) was an Ackerson. She was one of nine children! That is a lot of families to keep track of and it does get complicated trying to remember everyone's name and which family they are a part of. Without fail this crew of people gather together once a year. Sometimes the reunion is in southern Illinois, but this year is nice and close to home.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Release of the Butterflies

We did a really fun science project the last couple of weeks at our house. I got a really good deal on a butterfly kit at Hobby Lobby, then I sent away for the caterpillars or larvae. The caterpillars (larvae) came in a jar and we got to watch them climb to the top of the jar to form a chrysalis. It was really neat. Then when they all had done the trip to the top and were in the chrysalis stage I transferred them to the butterfly house. I had to carefully tape the paper they were hanging on to the top of the cage. Unfortunately we did loose one in the transfer. It fell to the bottom of the cage and never emerged. The rest were a success. One after another they emerged and soon we had five beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies! It was really cool!! We have kept them and watched them eat a mixture of honey and water off of sponges for about a week, but it was time to let them fly off and be free! Here are some pictures of the release.

Some Strange Phone Calls

We had a very interesting night. We got home from Shelby's softball game right before a storm moved in. I had enough time to play about ten minutes of catch in the yard with the dog. Then we came inside and proceeded to get relaxed and settled in for a night of t.v. and reading. Well there would be no t.v.. The power went out around 8:00. Not long after that we heard the sirens go off in Mackinaw. Matt and I do what we always do. We sent Shelby (Jake was at a friends house) and the dogs to the basement, then we stepped out onto the porch. Shelby would yell every once in awhile giving us updates she heard on the weather radio. Then the phone calls started coming. The calls went something like this:

Me: "Hello"
Caller: "Where are you?"
Me: "Standing out on my back porch watching the clouds"
Caller: "Um, well there looks to be about three funnel clouds in your area and at least one looks like it is right on top of you."
Me: "Yikes"!
Caller: "Maybe you should go to the basement"
Me: "We are not seeing anything"
Caller: "Call me later so I know you are okay"
Me: "Okie Dokie"

This conversation happened more than once last night. Others called after the all clear to tell us that their neighbor saw a tornado around the conservation area (which is us). You think I would have been scared or perhaps shaken up because of such a close call. Instead I find myself feeling disappointed that I missed it. Don't get me wrong. I never want one to come at my house, but I would like to see one at least once. Perhaps it could just stay out in a field and do no harm. We did later confirm that all the funnel cloud spottings were within a mile or two of our house. Crazy!!! We got power back around 11:30 even though the power company said it would be 3:00 a.m.. Thank god for small favors.

Here is a link to some video a guy to with his cell phone of the tornado everyone thought was close to our house. http://www.week.com/younews/19552009.html

The Simple Things in Life

Sometimes I think we get so busy we forget to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life. Like bubbles. George stopped to enjoy this particular wonder this morning. Now granted I would not go as far as he did (he was eating them), but it is relaxing and fun to chase bubbles once in awhile. If you have not done it lately stop what you are doing, go to the dollar store, buy a container of bubbles, and come home and sit on your porch blowing bubbles. Not only will you smile but you might even feel relaxed. Just something that kids and dogs can remind us. Another reason I love my job!!

Top 20 Things I love about Summer

Not a whole lot going on this week. Jake and Shelby both have their first games this week. I have been working the dirt in my garden getting ready to plant some new plants. It does not seem like school should be out yet. The weather is really throwing me off. I can't believe the kids are done with school as of Monday. I thought I would share my Top 20 things I love about summer.
Hope you are having a great week!

Kiana's Top 20 Favorite Things about Summer:

1. Sun, Beautiful Sun
2. Having my kids to myself for three months.
3. Baseball/Softball (Go, Cubs, Go)
4. Vacation (South Dakota here we come!)
5. Floating in a tube down the river.
6. Flip Flops
7. Swimming
8. Boating
9. Fishing
10.Hiking
11. Biking
12. Camping
13. The beautiful birds return.
14. Gardening and growing new things.
15. Turtles
16. Frogs.
17. Lightning Bugs.
18. Campfire's and Smore's
19. Fireworks and Festivals
20. Parades

A Winner After All!

Jake came home limping after school but I immediately noticed one other thing. The huge smile he had and the look that said he was just busting with news to share. He found out that day during P.E. that he only had to meet or exceed five of the six challenges to get his Presidential Physical Fitness Award. Yes! We are all so happy. Jake is thrilled. There was no way he was going to be running the mile again anytime soon. By the time he came home from school yesterday the whole top part of his toe was dark purple and nasty looking. Just wanted to let you know he achieved success after all!

Toe Trouble

There was a a crisis at our house (at least in a 4th graders eyes) last night. Jake was, well, being Jake and somehow managed to break his right big toe. I don't even know how he did it. He was being crazy after supper. Came into the living room doing something one might call a dance and then he was on the floor. He picked himself up and sat in the chair and said that his toe hurt. At first I figured he stubbed it really bad, but them we noticed that is was quickly turning purple and swelling. Now a broken toe in the grand scheme of things in the life of this child is nothing. We can totally deal with that. After all we have already survived major infection in the fatty tissue of the eye, a second degree burn to the hand that had to be wrapped three times a day for a week so he did not have to have skin grafts, a concussion where his eyes rolled back in his head, and a broken leg that required him to wear a cast and use a wheel chair for 8 weeks. Sigh! Lets also not forget the habeneros he decided to eat straight out of our garden and then sucked on a wash cloth for hours afterward at only 2 years of age. Yes, Nana our neighbor named him lucky for a reason. Well, this is a crisis because for the last two weeks he has been working toward winning the Presidential Physical Fitness Award. He has passed all the skill requirements except for the mile. He ran the mile once and came in 6 seconds too late. The P.E. teacher decided to give him a second chance and guess when that was supposed to be? You got it! Today!! Guess that award is going to slip through his fingers this year. He is totally bummed. Poor guy. He is an accident waiting to happen. People ask me how I can be so calm when my kids get hurt. Well, all you need to do is look at the list above. If I panicked everytime this child hurt himself I would be in the loony bin!

Where has the time gone?

Here is Shelby's school picture. I got it yesterday. I look at it and I can't believe how grown up she is becoming. There are so many times now that I look at her and I see a young lady and I wonder where in the world my little girl went. It is such a tug of war. You want them to stay little forever yet you want to see them grow and become their own person at the same time. Her and I often butt heads and her attitude often leaves something to be desired, but she is also an incredibly funny and loving person. We now share shoes and she steals my makeup. She loves to read. I love to sit side by side with her on the couch and just read. I pray that as she continues to grow that even though there will be times when she can't stand me that we also continue to do things together and find common ground. Ahh, I can't believe she is finishing up 7th grade! It happened in the blink of an eye. Where has the time gone?? It really needs to slow down! Okay, I am done being sappy. LOL!