The Finger Saga Continues....

You may remember that in mid-February, Brooke broke her left pinkie finger while sledding. In March, she had surgery, and after her recovery, she started occupational therapy. So far, the OTs aren't pleased with her progress. She cannot bend the first joint on the finger at all. So, yesterday, they made her this contraption, which she has to wear several times a day, to try to bend the joint. Their ultimate goal: regaining flexibility without losing extension--or something like that!!


And believe me when I tell you it's a "contraption". It's made out of velcro and gauze and fishing tape! Let's hope it works!

Never a dull moment at the VeStrands........

For your viewing pleasure.....

A few more pictures from our great day at HersheyPark.

Evan, Payton, and Jonah ready to hit the water park!

Sydney and Isabella with the bears they won playing "Whack-A-Mole".

Sydney and Isabella enjoying the train ride.

Sydney and Isabella riding with a very nervous friend they met in line!

A view of "The Beach" from the ferris wheel.

Some of the new water slides at "The Beach".

A crazy, tired bunch of boys in the Chocolate World store as we left the park.

The Sweetest Place on Earth

This past Thursday, we had a great time with the Ferbers at HersheyPark in Hershey, PA. Believe it or not, even though I grew up less than an hour away from Hershey, this was only my third visit to the park. And it was definitely more fun with the kids!!

We had a beautiful day, even a little on the cool side, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the new water park and all the rides. We found out that Payton is the daredevil in the family--he rode every single ride, except for one. He even rode the Super Dooper Looper but I couldn't talk him into buying the tee shirt! I myself even rode a roller coaster--not once, not twice, but three times! (Everyone in my family should be very proud of me!) Although I would have been perfectly happy taking the Chocolate World tour over and over again. You know, because they give you a candy bar on the way out and it smells sooo good in there!?!?!

In addition to having a blast, we saw some interesting "sites". If you are a people-watcher (like me), amusement parks are prime people-watching venues. Especially amusement parks with water parks where people are permitted to walk around in all manner of "swimwear". I did determine a few things while people-watching on Thursday.

• The Secretary of Health and Human Services should pass a law requiring bras (real bras, not just linings) in ALL swimsuits. It would be healthier for the wearer and a service to all humans.
• No one larger than a size 2 should be allowed to wear anything emblazoned on their rear end. (We don't allow our girls to wear any words on their bums, but something about a very overweight woman wearing tight shorts that exclaim "Hottie" across her buns just turns my stomach.)
• Speedos are just wrong. There's no other way to say it.
• Women who don't believe in wearing pants (for whatever reason) should be banned from amusement parks. I'm sorry. I respect their beliefs but amusement parks cannot be "done" in a skirt or dress. If I'd had my camera, I could show you proof of this!
  
• There are parents who name their daughters things like "Amarylis" and "Casio".
  

Lastly, as soon as I'm done with this post, I am off to send an e-mail to Stacy and Clinton of What Not to Wear fame. We decided that they could get three years' worth of shows just by spending one day at Hershey Park, and I even came up with two "spinoffs" for them.

• What Not to Hair (hair edition)
  
• What Not to Bare (swimsuit edition)

Interesting "sites" and people watching aside, we had a GREAT time!

Sawyer, Payton, and Sydney in the "Chocolate World" Store. It was amazing!!

Payton and Sawyer had a great time in the new water park!

Isabella and Sydney (3rd and 4th from left) enjoying the Frog Hopper, which they rode about 10 times!!

Sawyer and his friend, the Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar.

Fruit Salad....yummy, yummy

Fruit salad is one of my favorite things about summer. I don't like most vegetables---or most fruit for that matter. But, for some reason, I make an exception for fruit salad. During the summer, we usually have fresh fruit with dinner rather than veggies. This was our fruit salad from last night's dinner. YUM!!!!


**UPDATE** This was just strawberries, grapes, and nectarines. Today, I got blueberries and bananas and watermelon to add! Yum!!

Someone once said...........

is good. And it's a good thing because we are undergoing lots of change at the VeStrands. For some of you, this will be a repeat, and for that, I apologize. For others, who have no idea what's been going on in our lives over the past six months, I hope this will be exciting news.

Before I explain, I want to share the words of the following song, sung by Bebo Norman and taken from Psalm 121. It has been our "theme" song for the past six months as we've faced some big decisions and uncertain times in our home.

I will lift my eyes to the Maker of the mountains I can't climb
I will lift my eyes to the Calmer of the oceans raging wild
I will lift my eyes to the Healer of the hurt I hold inside
I will lift my eyes, lift my eyes to YOU!

We are about to begin a new adventure in our home. At the end of May, Jeff resigned his pastoral position at Mountain View and accepted a teaching position at Liberty Christian School that will begin this fall. Early this year, after much prayer and deliberation, Jeff and I knew that our time at Mountain View was over and so he began to earnestly search for a new position. We also knew that we needed a break from full-time church ministry, which made things interesting as all of Jeff's education and experience are in ministry positions. But in God's perfect plan and timing, he clearly opened doors and worked miracles. Fast forward six months and here we are! I am no longer a pastor's wife and Jeff is a teacher.

Of course, change rarely happens in a vacuum, and so lots of other things are changing too. We have found a new church that we love. The kids are thrilled to be attending church with lots of friends from school, and Jeff and I have already started the process to serve in various ways--including music and worship, which, as most of you know, are where our talents and passions lie. Because the church, the school, and my office are all about 30-40 minutes from Mt. Airy, we have decided to sell our home and, hopefully, move closer to the school, church, etc. So right now, we are in the process of doing some repairs, remodels, etc. preparing the house to sell. It's going to be a delicate balancing act as we need to sell our home before we feel we can look for another and because we'd like to move sooner than later.

So, for all of you who have followed our adventures over the years, this is the next chapter in the "Adventures of the VeStrands." God is faithful and has shown himself to us in amazing ways over the past six months. Thanks to all of you who have so graciously supported and encouraged us over these past months. Now you can adjust those prayers to ask that our home would sell quickly (there are already four homes on our street for sale!) and that we would find the "perfect" home for our family at the "perfect" price ( no small feat, if you know anything about housing prices around here!) We are very excited about what God has in store for us and we look forward to sharing all of that with you in the months ahead!

One more thing for all of you who might be wondering about the kids. After some initial tears and fears, they are doing very well. Sydney, Payton, and Sawyer are thrilled that Jeff will be at school with them every day. They are also very excited about living closer to school and friends and look forward to being more involved in after-school activities, such as sports, clubs, etc. Brooke is equally thankful that Jeff isn't teaching at HER school (I'm only half kidding!) and is particularly excited about our new church and the youth group, where she has already signed up to audition for the youth praise band and is looking forward to attending summer camp for the first time with a group of church friends. When we began this process, the kids and their feelings were our biggest concern. Thankfully, they have all adjusted well and embraced the upcoming changes with excitement and eagerness. God is good!

As promised...

Some recent random pictures of summer so far at the VeStrands...

Sawyer enjoying the pool during his end-of-the-year school party.

Sawyer warming up after a swim.

Sawyer received an award for being the most forgiving student in his class this year. We are very proud of him!

A boy after his mom's own heart---Payton totally focused on "The Door Within" while taking a break from basketball.

Robert, Payton, Julea, Levi, Sydney, Moriah, and Sawyer The Blazer and VeStrands kids (minus Brooke) in DC.

Sydney, Sawyer, and Payton enjoying some ice cream treats in DC.

The beautiful Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC

We're alive!!!

Hi all! I know you've probably missed our updates. Or I will delude myself into thinking that you have anyway!

Lots going on at the VeStrands lately. I will give you a quick run down and post all the specifics later--hopefully with some pictures.

• School's out for summer. YEAH!!! No more homework or lunch packing.
• Had a wonderful but too short visit with our missionary friends from Brazil.
• Dogsat Webster--our adopted 90-pound goldendoodle who we LOVE!
• Celebrated Father's Day with dear friends
• Made our annual trek to DC with friends and crammed as much as we could into a one-day trip.
• Made vacation plans (we are headed to Myrtle Beach in August!! woo hoo)
• Moved everything out of the master bedroom and bathroom so the "worker guys" could get in and do the remodel! woo hoo
• Continue to spend lots of time at the pool

More details to come! I promise!

Love & Uno

Today, Sawyer and I were playing a game of Uno. And, as usual, I was getting beat. (Although, in my own defense, I had just won a rousing game of Go Fish!) Sawyer laid down a "Draw Four" card and I knew the end was near. I pretended to be sad and told Sawyer that he was hurting my feelings and now I was going to lose. He got up, came around the table, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then he said....

"Don't worry, Mom. Every time I give you a "Skip" or a "Draw Two" or a "Draw Four", I will give you a kiss."

And, of course that made it all better!

ERRoneous ERRands

Etymology anyone??? Etymology is the study of word origins, and my brief errand-running escapade in our small town tonight actually drove me to some etymology of my own this evening. Believe it or not, History of the English Language was my very favorite class in college. I loved my prof (Dr. Bartholomew) and learning about the origin of our language. Not to mention that many things I learned in that class have been very helpful over the years! (Can you say "Balderdash"?)

First, a little background for you: This weekend, some very dear friends, who serve as missionaries in Brazil, are coming for a visit. I have been busy laundering shower curtains, wiping fingerprints off of appliances, washing canisters, organizing the pantry, etc. You know, all those important things that guests really notice. (You think I'm kidding??) Anyway, like all good hostesses, I am also carefully planning five days' worth of yummy meals. So tonight, armed with a detailed list and my coupon organizer, I ventured out into "town". And I decided since I was out sans children, I would take care of a few other errands at the same time.

Stop #1: Brand new local UPS Store to mail a baby gift. I should have sensed trouble when the wide-eyed "customer service associate" (hereafter referred to as CSA) was standing in the store window, watching me walk across the parking lot. I would be willing to bet that store hadn't seen a customer all day. I was dead meat. Mr. CSA met me at the door, quickly asking how he could help me, while Miss CSA asked me to place the gift on the scale and fill out a form with more blanks than an IRS tax form. I quickly complied as Mr. CSA surveyed their vast assortment of cardboard and carefully chose the perfect box. What ensued may have been comical, except that I was in a hurry. I kid you not, Mr. CSA put my gift in that box fourteen times. He put it in, took it out, put it in, took it out, wrapped it in plastic, put it back in, took it out again, lined the box with bubble wrap, put it back in, got more bubble wrap to drape over the top of the gift, stood back and satisfactorily exclaimed "Now, I'm happy with that." and finally, for the love of all that is holy, sealed the box. And sealed it, and sealed it, and sealed it............

While Mr. CSA is busy "embalming" my gift, Miss CSA is busy screwing up the mailing label. She insisted that the address and zip code I gave her did not match; the computer kept suggesting a different zip code. I calmly explained that I was mailing this to an address that I mailed things to several times a week and I had never had any problems with the zip code. She figured out how to override the "required" zip code (after a small conference with Mr. CSA), and we were back in business. She handed me the printed labels and asked me to verify all the addresses and sign the bottom. Immediately, I spotted the cause of our zip code issue. She had typed in the street address incorrectly. (I guess it hadn't occurred to her to check that earlier.) No problem; it would only take her the better part of an hour to void out the old label and start over. I tried not to sigh too loudly and smiled rather disingenuously. After what seemed like another half hour, Miss CSA handed me the new label for my approval. Believe it or not, the suite number on the address was still wrong, but I decided to take my chances and signed the label anyway. (I didn't have another half hour.) Then she told me the total; I nearly fainted, paid the bill and left. As I was walking out the door, Mr. CSA happily said "Enjoy the beautiful evening." I kept walking.

Stop #2: Local Grocery Store. I was armed and ready. Unfortunately, someone forgot to inform the grocery store that I was coming, which meant that they were out of lots of things I needed/wanted, necessitating another trip on an already-busy tomorrow. I ask you, how in the world can you have Edy's ice cream buy one/get one free and NOT have "Fudge Tracks"? Isn't there an unwritten law about that? And didn't they know I needed Mug root beer and caffeine free Coke?? The fun really started when I was about four aisles in and the power went off. (Do you know that grown women scream when the power goes off in a public place like that??) Thankfully, it came back on quickly, but of course, all the registers were "off line" so there were some very unhappy people waiting in line while they got all that taken care of, not to mention more than a few abandoned grocery and produce items left on miscellaneous candy displays at the end of the register lanes.

And, true to form, the cashiers and baggers at this grocery store have it in for me too. I even helped them out by putting all of my cold/frozen items together so they might, just might, get the hint and actually bag them together. But, alas, they aren't that smart. A frantic last-minute dive on my part saved the hot dog and hamburger buns from certain "smushing", and I nearly had scrambled eggs in my grocery cart, except that Miss Bagger figured out that putting the gallon of milk on top of the eggs probably wasn't a good idea. Now, I've never been a grocery store clerk, but to me, it doesn't take a whole lotta smarts to realize that you don't put a bag of marshmallows underneath four pounds of strawberries. But I digress......

Stop #3: Quiznos for a much-deserved salad. (They are YUMMY if you've never had one.) Mr. Quiznos had not one, not two, but three silver balls in his lower lip and one in his eyebrow. His hair, which was also serving as a visor, was a very unnatural shade of black, and he had a few lovely tattoos on his arms. I'm ashamed to say that my first thought was "Great. Here we go again." But Mr. Quizno put me in my place. He was more than friendly. He gave me extra hard boiled eggs on my salad and offered me double the dressing (who turns that down?) He was whistling while he made my salad and he seemed like he, oh I don't know, actually KNEW what he was doing! Which is apparently a novelty in our town these days.

Now, are you wondering what the heck "etymology" has to do with this? As I was driving home, I began to wonder if the words "errand" and "error" came from the same root word. Surely, I reasoned, there had to be a connection since every time I run errands, errors abound. After a quick search of the Online Etymology Dictionary, I found out that there's absolutely no connection whatsoever. The roots are entirely different; they are from different languages even. However, I would vehemently contend that merely running "errands in this town is an "error in judgment" and one should always "err on the side of caution" and stay home or one might find one's self behaving in an "errant" and "erratic" way.

Summer Snacks

Even though the calendar doesn't officially say so, summer has started at the VeStrands, and we are spending time at the pool almost every day. That means we are also spending lots of money on "Pool Snacks". The kids love it because they only get these treats during the summer for the pool, and they are only allowed to eat them at the pool; no "pool snacks" at home!!

Last week at Safeway, I found these Limited Edition Carnival Skittles and they are YUMMY!!! I did a quick google search and apparently, they are very hard to find (I even saw someone selling a bag on www.craigslist.com, if you happen to be in or near New Jersey!) so I snatched up another bag tonight while I was there.

The flavors are bubblegum (my favorite), cotton candy, candy apple, green slushy, and red licorice. I'm not a huge "regular" Skittles fan but these are good!! The only flavor they missed is "funnel cake" but I'm not so sure how that would taste as a Skittle!

Lazy Days of Summer.....

School is out in 4 days, and we've been enjoying the pool, and Jimmie Cone, and time with friends. Sydney spent the afternoon with her little friend, Isabella, on Saturday and discovered that the Ferber's hammock was lots of fun!!!