Yay! As you read in my blog title, I'm finally catching up on blogging! Well, sort of. I still need to do September. 😱
August was buried to the hilt with busyness. There were several unseasonably chilly days toward the beginning of the month. It was so chilly I was wearing sweaters and fuzzy socks! A little taste of winter. On the 5th, a group of us drove to Lumas, NE for Ataley Smith's (now Hochstetler) bridal shower. We had a lot of fun!
Dad has been praying about another elder for our church to help him in the work. After much prayer, it was decided to have the men vote. Leon was chosen unanimously. It was amazing to see how God worked through each of the men to fulfill His plan for our little church. On August 20th, Leon was ordained as a second elder for our church. The solemnity of the occasion never ceases to awe me with the massive responsibility that gets placed on a man's shoulders. This man has a whole group of people that he is responsible for now. He must answer to God if he leads them astray. The responsibility isn't all on our elders' shoulders. We as the flock of Jesus must do all in our power to support them. They need so much prayer now that they're in a vulnerable leadership position! Well, anyway, sorry about that bunny trail. It's kinda one of soap boxes. Dad rented the community Center for the occasion. We're so glad we did since we had 42 guests come! You don't know how thrilling and exciting it is to a small church to have so many visitors!
The Monday after the ordination, a bunch of us traveled to a small park in Amazonia, MO to watch the solar eclipse... but I'll talk about it in separate post.
August 23 marked exactly three months since I got braces! I'm thrilled to say that my two very crooked front teeth are actually starting to come together! Actually (as of September), they are touching in the middle now! 😃
Starting at 9am one Thursday morning, Abi and I cleaned two houses, getting home just after 1pm. I ate a quick lunch, then Mom and I helped a young mom clean her new house before they moved in. As we stood talking, her 3 year old daughter, Lucy, brought a large world map to her mom saying, "Mommy, where does Emmawee live?" It was all we could do not to burst out laughing and embarrass the little dear! We finished her house about 4:30. At 5, Abi and I left to clean another place. We got home a little after 6. What a day! I was so tired!
I made an appointment with a different doctor to see what her opinion was on my hair loss. She looked at all my labs from previous appointments with a different doctor and said that everything looks great. She didn't think my thyroid levels were elevated, which was a relief! I told her about all the vitamins I'm taking- zinc, magnesium, calcium, biotin, and D3. She told me it sounds like I'm doing everything I can... She did advise me that it would probably be beneficial to cut my hair. Everyone's hair grows to a certain length and fulness, then stops. She thought maybe my hair had reached it's limit. So, a few days later, I cut about 18"off my hair. It was so sad, but I'm hoping it helps! I think my hair is growing back. I've got a fringe of thin, fine hairs all along my hairline. But, my hair is still falling out. 😥 I don't know what else to do about it!
I finished the month by getting sick with a cold and fever. Wasn't that nice of me? 😆 I was sick for a couple days...
A Starbuck's S'mores frappuccino makes everything better! 😍
I found a Speed Queen washer on Craigslist. It's amazing to be able to do laundry like a normal person!
The old dance hall in Griswold
Little Pumpkin
Several of us went to visit Iris.
These little cuties... 😍
Alaina helped Abi put groceries away.
Doughy loves all things tractor!
She was trying to spray me with the hose. Thankfully, her little hands weren't strong enough to push the handle on the sprayer. 😅
What a mop!
On our way to Ataley's bridal shower
Yummy cupcakes and Kiley's delicious iced coffee
Someone got ahold of my phone...
Yikes! look how fat my arm is! 😱
The next Sunday, Valeria got my phone.
Oh, boy! Now this is a story! Mom, Abi and I were shopping in Council Bluffs. After one stop, Abi shut the automatic sliding door, but it wouldn't shut all the way. We tried everything we could think of to get it shut! Nothing worked... So... we drove home with it open. Unfortunately, it was on the driver's side where everybody could see. It seemed like everybody did see us, craning around trying to get a better view and staring. We had a good laugh feeling like the hillbillies from the sticks.😂
The boys crashed on the patio after a longs days' work.
I love hanging clothes out on the line!
Aunt Carol wanted to celebrate her birthday at Pizza Ranch.
A group of boys played a rousing and very noisy game of Yahtzee one Sunday evening.
I got one drawer pull for my desk! I've been shopping around for others, but I can't quite decide on what style to get for the other drawers. Any suggestions?
Abi stores all of Sandy's milk in a fridge in the garage. Whenever someone from church needs any, they just come and help themselves!
The guys pulled these retro/vintage bathroom fixtures from a bathroom remodel. Abi and I spent one morning scrubbing them clean so that we could post them on Craigslist. It's a whole set, bathtub, toilet and wall mount sink. Anybody interested?
We youth girls cleaned the apartment over church. It hadn't been cleaned since Ricardo left so it was pretty dirty! Meredith pulled all those dumb carpet tacks out of the closet.👍
Lois tried to take the base off of a rocker that had been fixed up for Ricardo. She needed a drill!
Valeria cleaned the bathroom.
Abi, Anna, Brie and Elarie cleaned the kitchen.
KK showed up later to help us with some of the heavy lifting.
I washed windows, then washed the kitchen floor. 😝😷
We all brought a packed lunch and ate it at the park.
My cousin, Taylor, and her husband, Josh, had their second baby, Quinn Renee on August 16. This picture is of big sister, Evan, holding Quinn. So cute!
Teaching Pumpkin how to lead
Bob and Annabelle celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary!
Annabelle's sister wanted everyone to give monetary gifts instead of gift-gifts as she wanted to surprise them with an all expenses paid vacation to Hawaii. They were so surprised!
I made a new dress! 😉
Leon's ordination
One of the boys found a bull snake.
Sam loves making his bed all cozy. 😂
Resting on the deck after a busy day
Josh bought a Jersey bull calf as another milk consumer. Fess has the blue collar and Pumpkin has the pink one.
The littles were being particularly cute one afternoon while we were babysitting them.
I let them take toy plates outside and gave them dry cereal to eat. They had a ball!
Tired lil' Bloopy
Sunset on the prairie
Abi and I canned peaches one afternoon.
There were some real beauties!
Taking a walk later that day...
This was my life for a couple days...
When we get a lot of milk, Abi skims the cream off to make butter, then gives the skim milk to Mabel to make yogurt. It's nice how everything works out! 😉
Abi makes the butter in nice, easy to handle pats.
To cap off this post, here's a sweet picture of Laina babe
