Family pics

I conned the kids into taking some family pics last night. It's usually a MAJOR pain, but they actually cooperated this time. We got some great poses and looks, but I blew the focus in quite a few. :( It's hit or miss doing it remotely, and last night had more misses than hits. We did get at least one that I really liked that's also worth printing. Yay! (these aren't the ones--just thought they were fun!) One of these days, I may have to break down and hire someone else to do the work. Nah... probably won't happen. I'm way too cheap!

Right now, I'm taking a break from the packing, etc. as we leave to take Ty to Tech tomorrow. Say a prayer for us---I need to keep my sanity!

Blowin' a new horn

Today, we went to the music store to buy Lance a new trumpet. Last year, we were lucky enough to borrow one from a friend. Since he's going to continue playing, we decided it was time to buy him his own. The store was a popular place to be today, filled with kids and parents preparing for the upcoming school year.

The new trumpet is shiny and pretty. And expensive. I think I need to go into the instrument business! :) Actually, while the instrument itself is expensive, they make it as painless as possible to afford one. The store offers all sorts of options---and they'll take it off your hands if your kiddo changes his mind. But, I've decided if playing trumpet boosts Lance's lung function as much as I think it did last year, he will play FOREVER.

Lance is pretty excited about his new toy---it's much improved over last year's model. And it's all his. I think he deserves it!

Summer Reading

Ahh the joys of honors classes... This year, Lance had two assigned books---The Giver and a choice of 1 of 6 or so other books. He chose Summer of the Monkeys for his second book. Hadley was not given a choice. She had to read Life of Pi and Genesis and Matthew from the KJV of the Bible.

Last year, Lance finished his summer reading before school even let out for the year. When it came time to take the test at the beginning of the next year, he didn't remember too much. So, he decided to wait til closer to the start of the year to read. Good idea, I said! :)

Tyler actually has a summer book to read, too. They gave it to him at orientation and I don't think he's even cracked it open... I tried to say something about it and David informed me that it is now up to him to get it done. Guess I won't get an ugly email if my son hasn't done his homework--they'll just fail him. And you know what that means. AC Badgers all the way! Maybe that'll pull more weight than a scolding from his mommy. Time will tell...

Dorm Cool

So this is one of Tyler's recent purchases: pajama pants with Mario Bros. gaming stuff on them and a t-shirt with Chunk from Goonies on it... He thinks it'll be cool to wear around the dorm. ;) I think he's all set!

Red River snaps

Just sharing a few from our trip to Red River before we picked up Hadley and Tyler from camp. We had a great time. Lance enjoyed having our full attention, and we relaxed and enjoyed our time very much!

We, well "they", fished a LOT. We hit the little pond there in RR, as well as the river and some beaver pond areas a few miles outside of the town. Lance caught his limit every day--and then some! We only kept five--threw the rest back for some other lucky person to catch. :) While they fished, I read and took pictures, of course!

We had an ongoing game of Risk during treatment time. It lasted the whole trip! That is one LONG game... Our condo had a catwalk and loft area where we slept--Lance thought it was about the coolest thing ever. We rode horses, did some hiking and had a picnic. It was a very nice few days...

Dixie's Funeral

Here is a sampling of the snapshots I took at Dixie's funeral. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post them.

If you want copies of these, I have set up a trial account--good for two weeks--with a company that will host the photos and allow you to download the full sized images. You can also order prints through them. Since this is all new, I don't know much about that option. (It doesn't benefit me in any way for you to order prints, so please don't feel obligated to order!!) The company doing the prints should be a good one, so if you want to use them, feel free if that's easier for you. If it were me, I would probably just download the full sized images and print the way I normally print my own digitals.

To get to the site, go to janicestewart.zenfolio.com. Click the Fortenberry gallery, then enter the password "dixie". Click on any shot you'd like to see larger. From that larger view, you can right click and choose "download original" and a save box should open up on your screen for you to save to your computer.

I hope this makes it easy to share photos--please let me know if it doesn't work for you! According to a message on zenfolio, they will have site maintenance late tonight into early morning tomorrow. If you can't access it during that time, try again later.

Let me know what you think--I'm considering opening a permanent account with them so I'd love to hear your feedback before I do that. Love you all!

Update: no cavities for Hadley or Lance and they decided to let Lance's last baby tooth come out on it's own. Yay!

Also, we got Lance all registered. He has a couple of classes with friends that we've talked to so far--hopefully more as we get to talk to them. We ran into Chris F. and Jennifer as we were leaving. Hopefully, the cousins will have a class or two together again this year.

Happy Tuesday!

Posting from the waiting area in the dentist's office. So far, ty has one cavity and a chip to repair. Lance is getting a baby tooth pulled and the rest TBD. Yippee! (That was sarcasm, by the way.)

After this, we head to registration for Lance, a vball game and then to girls night out for me! Yippee! And that time I mean it!

Wedding

Went to a fun wedding this weekend! A dear friend's daughter got married to a wonderful guy. It was an outdoor wedding at a beautiful home with a private lake, swimming pool and gazebo where they said their vows. David and I could totally live there! :) Unfortunately, the humidity was very high and the high temp for the day was near 100. Needless to say, we were all melting! The colors of the wedding were orange and hot pink--I was not sure how it would look, but it was terrific. Loved the combo! She had fun paper lanterns in orange and pink strung all over, with lights everywhere. It was really pretty.

Stan and Jennifer lived here when Jenna was born and were among the first of our friends to have a baby--Jenna became all of ours! They moved away when she was about a year old.

Jenna and Caleb had some amazing engagement photos and a while back, I shared a link to their unique proposal. Here are her bridals, if you're interested...

Anyway, because of the unique proposal at the Chick-fil-A grand opening, Chick-fil-A provided some free food and of course, the cow! I didn't take a lot of shots---I was busy visiting and havin' fun but these are a few of the shots I did take, along with one David took of me and Jennifer. (should have taken that at the beginning of the evening instead of the end. ay yi yi!)**the two attendants on the left of the collage are the brother and sister of the bride, and her little sister is shown again on the bottom left.

All in all, it was a very fun evening!

Happy Wednesday!

Sorry for the blog drought lately... I've got lots of pictures to go through and post and I just can't seem to get it done. I'm working on a way to post some of the pics so that anyone who was interested could download full size images for better prints. I probably won't put all the images up, but at least the family events like Dixie's funeral. Anyway, it's coming. :)


We took Hadley over to the church parking lot the other day to teach her how to drive a standard. She was amazing!! The jeep only died twice the whole night---she's got great coordination and picked it up right away. We even let her drive some by herself~note the one-handed driving already... If we get the paper work and initial classwork done, she can get her learner's permit in October. Watch out world!




Another Duct Tape week... We've been hosting this group of kids for our youth's in-town mission trip. They've worked at a downtown shelter a couple of times, spent some time with a group of special needs kids, did a car wash to benefit a resource center, etc. Lance has had a great time. The boy on the left was "in charge" at our house--he's going to be a sophomore. The next kiddo is Rena Madeley Adams' son. He will be a freshman. The next two kids are just entering the youth group and will only be in SIXTH grade. Yes, that's right. They are one year younger than Lance. Yikes! They've been a great bunch of kids and we were happy to host them.

**Grandma--the boy next to Lance is Tammy Nash's son. Tammy's mom or grandma or both--can't remember for sure--is an acquaintance of yours. I think Tammy grew up in Happy?? Maybe mom will know who I'm talking about if you don't. Anyway, thought you'd be interested to know that! :)

Hope you have a great day!

Crazy kids

This was Hadley and her friend, David's, grand entrance to Alli's birthday party tonight, complete with the Superman theme song blaring from the radio. Ah, to be young and crazy again!

I've got a lot of other pictures to share--I'm sorry I haven't gotten them up yet. Soon!

Goggles

Just a fun picture to share. Lance looked so cute as he went off to swim with the youth group tonight that I had to take the shot and share it with you. Don't ya love it??

I've got others---from our trip to Red River and from Dixie's funeral, but I haven't had a chance to wade through them to see what I ended up with. I'll try to post those soon.

Have a great week!

Family

Some of our family has gathered to attend the funeral service of my sweet great aunt, Dixie, who passed away after a long battle with cancer. While I hate the reason we're together, I love the time it affords us with family from out of town. Tonight, we went to Jen and Jim's for sandwiches and lots of talking and laughing. And, I must say that I think I come by my love of photography naturally...

Just because it's so much fun...

Tyler has been SO picky about his car since he got a new one... He doesn't want anyone else to drive it---he doesn't even want to use it to mow! So, of course, while the cat's away, the mice will play. Ha!
**I'm printing this to send to him at camp. It's so much fun being a parent!

Boy. It's remarkably cheaper to eat out with only one kid at home!


Cheaper still when your Daddy foots the bill. :)

Doctor's Visit

Lance had a check-up with our specialist on Tuesday. Things were ok, but not great. He's lost a little weight----more than Dr. N realizes because of the forgotten PSP game in his cargo shorts' pocket--oops!--and his lung function was down a bit. Dr. N could hear some crackles, too so we started an antibiotic and upped the treatments a bit. I don't think it's anything too serious, just something he's being proactive about.

We saw the doc in his new office. It's really nice~all brand new and modern looking. He has joined a private children's practice here, rather than working through the medical school. I think it will be so much more convenient as compared to the last place he was officed.(At the old place, we checked in at the desk on the first floor and waited to be called. Then we walked to another area of the building on the same floor for vitals, PFT's and our visit with the respiratory therapist. If they were ready for us, we then went from there to the third floor for the exam and visit with the doctor and the med students, who always ask the most curious questions... If they were not ready, we went back down to the waiting area where we checked in and waited to be called to the third floor. After the doc was finished with us on the third floor, we went back down to the check-in area to check out!! **'course that doesn't even consider the times we did x-rays or bloodwork**I will NOT miss that! I know Lance won't either.)

We do have a little glitch in our insurance that I hope will get worked out. There is conflicting information regarding his network status. If he's not in our network any more, we can't see him. And just when I had decided I really liked him... Ha! His office assures me that he IS in the network, but the insurance rep says he IS NOT. Guess we'll see after this first bill goes through. Anyway, just thought you'd like to know about the visit.

And just so I don't have a boring post without a picture---here's Lance hanging his head off the roof of the patio. Ay yi yi. Have a great Thursday!

Our 4th

Here are a few snaps from our 4th of July. It was pretty laid back, which is just fine by me! We started out the morning by watching the annual hotdog eating contest at Coney Island--which an American won. Again. :) Crazy how they can eat that many dogs... Yuck!

David mowed the yard and put our flag out. :) Lance and David cooked up some delicious steaks for dinner. After we ate, we watched the city fireworks---which we can see from our neighborhood!! Yay! We tried sitting on top of our house for a better view, but some dern trees were in the way. We can sit on our neighbor's sidewalk across the street and see, but opted to drive over a few streets and watch from the topless jeep instead. It was a grand show--they do such a nice job every year.

Then, we headed back to the house for some warm peach cobbler and ice cream. Yum!

This time of year, I'm always especially thankful of the men and women who sacrificed so much--sometimes everything--to give us the freedoms we enjoy today. Thank you to everyone who made it possible. We are forever in your debt.

I hope your fourth was as enjoyable!

In no particular order...

Saw this beautiful butterfly at camp and had to try for a capture. I think it turned out nice!



After we left T and H, we went into Las Vegas to eat lunch. We ate at the Spic & Span, which wasn't so spic-and-span. :{ The food was pretty gross, too. Although we must have been in the minority in our opinion because the place was packed. And now that I think about it, we were in the minority in several ways. Ha! Was this a place we used to eat at back in the VBS days??



Had to get the kids at the sign. This is Tyler's last time as a camper. :{



Walking the beam...



Waiting with friends Z'Ann and Zoe to get registered. Zoe is Lance's age and was attending camp this session. Z'Ann is Hadley's age and will attend the next session.



Hermit's Peak from the car as we were driving down the road.



Nearly there...

I got my computer back today!! Yay! Still don't know what's wrong with mine, but it's up and running so I guess that's something. The kids' computer had a bad cable, with potential for a bad motherboard. He wasn't sure how much longer it would last... Boo! It's less than two years old.

I'll probably post some 4th pics later... Have a great Tuesday!

Arrrgghhh.... I'm posting this from Tyler's laptop. Why? BOTH--yes, BOTH of our desktops are out of commission. The kids' computer crashed a week or so ago and won't reboot. My computer, which crashes multiple times every day, will not reboot after the last crash. David has just taken them to the computer hospital to see what the dx is. :( I just wanted to let you know it may be difficult for me to check email, etc. the next few days. (Tyler is not too thrilled to share his new toy.)

I'm sure the shop is closed tomorrow and we may not know anything until next week sometime. That means if you need to get a hold of me, you might have to use the phone. :) That also means limited or no blog posts... :( Oh well...

Happy 4th everyone!!

More summer fun

I've been dying to get up to the pool to take a few pictures. Unfortunately, it is no longer cool or even acceptable to have your mommy snapping photos...

Rather than miss it completely this year, I decided to give it a try today without being spotted. Originally, I'd planned to stand near the entrance and snap. But, once I got there, I realized he'd see me. Or one of his friends would for sure.

SO... I took this from the car a long way away, wishing I'd brought my longer zoom lens. Anyway, I got lucky and caught Lance and his friend, Barrett, waiting in line for the diving board. I snapped and he has NO idea. :) While it's not the shot I envisioned or even wanted, I will take it for now.