One more update

Bradley took hunters safety this past week. And Saturday he passed his test with 100% he was SO excited!!! He and his Dad will be able to go deer hunting now... wonder who will gut the deer??... Probably Dave.

Doug's job change

Doug left KnR Truck Sales and service, doing body work (sanding , painting , body work) on Semi trucks, to being an Estimator at Elhart Collision. He started 2 weeks ago. He LOVES it!! It's a clean environment and he's in air conditioning in the summer and the people are so nice, totally different atmosphere. He's got room to grow too! He said it's amazing to go to work and have your boss respect you. It's very family oriented. Doug can even stay home from work with a puking child and they won't be upset about it ( yes I asked this question when they offered him the job) They are all Dad's and have to take their turns also. I do everything else except pukers... So never again will I have to hear " I can't stay home, I have to go to work" Besides, he's on salary and will get paid still..... I won't!

That's it for the back tracking for now, I've got things to get done before work today in 2-1/2 hrs.

Boy Scout Camp- still back tracking

These two pictures are of Bradley working on his canoing merit badge. You had to pass the BSA swimmer test to be a blue swimmer to be able to do a lot of the water front activites.. Brad passed, Doug was a level below Bradley.

One of the many fun compatiotions they had at camp.

Fire bowl, these were a big hit
This is either rifle or shotgun shoothing, you'll see Bradley looking at us and Matthew next to him and then Tyler ( you see a pattern with these over achievers)
Bradley doing his fire-starting.
Doug repeling off a 50 ft. building
Bradley repeling off the same building.

They had a great time at camp. Last night at the Court of Honor they had a DVD of camp and we saw our kids in a lot of the scenes, the boys LOVED watching it, they were laughing, and singing camp songs along with the DVD... now tell me camp doesn't have a huge impact on these kids forever. Bradley got his merit badges last night, which included Canoeing, Rifle shooting, shotgun shooting, woodcarving and leather work. He also recieved his Patrol leader patch last night because he's a patrol leader and then he recived his tenderfoot neckkerchief and then his 2nd class scout badge. He went up 2 ranks since the last court of honor. It's amazing how Scouts has really changed his life. He's doing so many things he wouldn't of done otherwise without it, he's so responsible. Some other kids that are in sports instead don't realize how strong this kid is, they think he's wimpy because he doens't want to play football and he's a stick figure. They have no clue what this boy can do. I'm so proud of him!

Ryan is signed up to be a wolf scout. We have yet to hear from the leader. He Doug and Bradley did go on the Family camp out a few weeks ago.. and yes, I was given a hard time by the Scoutmaster that I was not seen there.... THERE WAS NO PLUMBING!!!! Im' not a roughing it person! That was a Cubscout/Boyscout activity. They are trying to incorporate 4 of those types of activity's per year to help build the Boy Scout troop, a strong cub scout troop makes a strong boy scout troop. Bradley wants Eagle Scout so bad he can taste it! Did you know Neil Armstrong left his Eagle Scout patch on the moon? And President Ford was an Eagle Scout.... Brad does.

More back-tracking

Bradley, Tyler and Matthew.. They were voted by the Scout troop to be the flag raisers for the Memorial Day Parade. What an honor! The three of the have already gone up 3 ranks and are already 2nd class Scouts. They also earned 5 merit badges each at camp... more on that later.
Ryan finally lost one of his front teeth, they had been haning there. This was about a week before school was out.
The last day of school at Bradley's baseball game, Ryan lost his other front tooth, you can already see a permanent one coming in. ( They are over 1/2 way in now )
The boys and the neighbor girls swimming.

Back tracking

Brad and Doug cooking dinner ,the boyscout boys slept in the tent.
Our campsites.. we were in the pop-up
This is the site they wanted in the rustic campground, I have to admit it's beautiful. The spot was available the day we left, so our friends packed up from the other campground and moved here for a couple more days. Doug and I had to work, they took a few more days off. Right by the water was a little beach and the little fish would swim right up to you, the boys would of LOVED it. The boy Scout troop has stayed here before about a month prior.


When I posted last before the basement thing, I mentioned we were going rustic camping.. Well on to that.


We were not able to get a spot at the rustic campground everyone hoped to get, so we ended up at a campground that had running water, toilets and showers... right next to our campsite, it was AWSOME!!! I was not able to contain my happieness when I found out about the available sites, and the best part was there were 2 together. We had so much fun!!

Workers were here

Well, I thought our worker's aka Uncle Ray and Kenny were going to be here tomorrow night, because Doug works late on Monday's and Bradley had his Court of Honor tonight for Scouts, When the boys and I got home, There they were, already had the other side dug out. How great are they? By the sound of it, we'll be ready to lay bricks this weekend. Dave & Denise ( our friends we hang out with all the time ) came over to check out the mess and then Rich another Asssistant Scoutmaster came over to check it out too. The both offered to help with whatever we needed help with and another friend also a fireman with Doug, has boys our boys ages, and in Scouts also said he'd help this weeekend. So I think we'll have lots of help. The neighbor guy showed up Sunday to check it out and he stood there and said, wow what a mess..... Have fun we're going to the beach... We are really fortunate to have great relatives and some great friends!!

Today would of been my Dad's 66th birthday , August 19th was 10 years ago that he passed away. Still feels like yesterday.

It's a start

We got the basement project started today. Here are some pictures of the progress. We will go back at it Tuesday evening, Doug doesn't get home until around 8:30 pm or so on Mondays , and Bradley has his Court of Honor for Boy Scouts tomorrow also. Did I mention Doug left KnR Truck Sales & Service?

Been too long

I realize it's been way too long since I last posted!! Sorry! It's been a really busy hectic summer, hard to believe it's almost over!

We've had a bad week... so I thought I would share. We finally got a lot of rain over the weekend. Monday just before I left for work , I heard a terrible sound, I thought a tornado had hit, then I looked outside and realized, it was rainy, but calm... then I ran to the basement, and the north end of the basement wall had caved in... Mind you we were not doing to well financially when this happened, so this hasn't helped... My uncle Ray is here today and cousin Kenny and they are helping us to rebuild the wall and fix the drainage problem so it won't happen again!! I've taken pictures!! When it rains, it pours.... I have been taking pictures of the start of the repair process!!