Um.......August? Where did you go?

                                                        TITUS' BIRTHDAY:

It was Titus' 5 yr old birthday last week. Or was it the week before? Yup. It was the week before. Oh. No. Wait. It was the week before THAT. Apparently, in my brain, it's all blending together as one giant, endless (but enjoyable) week. I really meant to relax this Summer. Funny. Micah owns his own ice cream maker, so he made the ice cream. Jarod, my little chef, made the above cake for his little brother: complete with a cherry on top, as requested by Master Titus. Below is Isaac's contribution to the cake decorating process.

                                                      I feel like I always say the same basic, sappy, sentimental type of thing, every time one of my babies turns yet another year old. You all probably grow weary of hearing me say the same exact thing 6 times a year. So this time I'll try not to say anything mushy about my baby growing up & how it's all happened so fast & how I wish he'd slow down & how it seems like only yesterday that he was a just chubby little 10 month old lard bucket who could only roll around on the floor, like a lumpy bowling ball, to get where he wanted to go. His infinite rolls of chub prevented him from up-righting his own body. He was quite the talented roller. And then, somehow, he walked. After that, he turned 5. He has grown to be surprisingly quite petite......and less likely to roll around on the floor, lest he get dirty or wet. That would be my little OCD-boy's worst nightmare. It is bittersweet, because he's such a smart, sweet, big boy now, but he used to be my "little" baby. And this week, he is STARTING KINDERGARTEN (at home of course). *Sniff. Sniff* The end. No mushy stuff. How'd I do?
Titus' nice big brothers gave him presents from their own toy boxes. We were broke that week & had to wait till payday to buy him anything. That kind of thing happens occasionally in a family this size. But he was perfectly happy with what his brothers gave him, so his birthday didn't totally stink. He very much felt and acted like he was king for the day, no matter what presents he received. He was just a happy boy the whole day long (which is highly unusual for him, as he is usually whining about someone getting water or dirt on him.....especially water). He, of course, got his "real" presents from Mommy, Daddy & Grandma later. But I think he liked them about as much as he liked the presents from his brothers.

ABOUT DANNY:

 Last weekend (I'm pretty sure it WAS last weekend), my "adopted" son, Danny, stayed with us for the weekend. There are some things you should know about Danny. He loves Jesus. He can break dance. He likes music. He will eat 2 whole tuna sandwiches with dill pickles, because he LOVES dill pickles. He also LOVES life. He will talk your head off about Jesus' love, touch your heart & make you cry a little. Then he'll go blast some Justin Bieber for the "enjoyment" of the entire household. Eh-hem. He also blasts songs which have lyrics like "super duper cute" in them & which I know, logically, I SHOULD find highly annoying. Instead, I find myself singing along & smiling........because he brings a little extra sunshine into our home when he is here.                                                                 

He is also occasionally prone to random & spontaneous planking. 

                                                           

Random, spontaneous planking is apparently contagious.

                                                        Silly boys!

                          

                                                   ANOTHER CAMPOUT
We went camping on Thursday & Friday. Yes, it was this past Thursday and Friday. I'm sure of it. I think. It was only a one-night trip, but it was wonderful, fun & relaxing.

Isaac had fun. Really.

There was snorkeling,

                                                     T
                                                                    parting the seas,

                                                exploring & brotherly bonding,

                                         floating with no rafts & a little tushy pain from big river rocks.

                                                Happy puppies..

       ......happy boys & unhappy mussels. They found about 200 of them.
     But we had no idea what to do with them so we threw them back into the river.

                                                       Jarod made a friend.

                                                          Dirt happened.

                                                   Mushiness prevailed.

                      Went to the lake on our way home. It was deliciously calm and warm. Justin & Seth kept trying to drown each other. They looked like a couple of bears wrestling on a Grizzly Adam's episode. Not that I would know if bears ever wrestled on a Grizzly Adam's episode. Or did they just snuggle? Either way, this was their father-son way of bonding & snuggling, so it's all the same. Seth actually managed to dunk his dad once. He's now bigger and taller than Justin, which I am still in shock over daily. Daddy's still stronger and tougher, but Seth now gives him a little run for his money.






                                             A few scenic pictures of the land I love.

                              
                                        This, however, is my favorite scenery.
                                           
                                                 

                                                MONTHLY EMERGENCY ROOM VISIT:
       After all the outdoor adventures & possible dangers of drowning & such......we made it home safe & sound. Then, yesterday, THIS happened:

                                             At my friend's house, Jarod decided to use a home-made stilt (yes, the kind that clowns walk with) as a golf club & Micah decided to get in the way of his super-mighty golf swing. So, basically, Jarod (accidentally) hit Micah in the face with a 2 x 4. He felt so badly about it & wanted to accompany Micah to the ER with Justin. Micah said it just felt like a little punch and didn't hurt very much. The little tough guy! He's sore today though. I apologize if this picture grosses you out, but for me......it's par for the course. Eh-hem. Sorry.


                                               In Other News: 
 I am apparently branching out after the finality of the closing of my "baby making business", and am trying my hand at new things. I submitted my "Heather Goes to VBS" essay (which I also posted here a couple months ago) to my friend's publishing company "Freundship Press". It was accepted and will go into THIS BOOK:

                                                          

The SweetTarts have 4 gigs in the next few weeks. One gig is tomorrow at a cool diner, who is giving the band members free food and soda and $25 to share. We're in the big time now, baby!!!!! If you want details to this event you can find our SweetTarts Facebook fan page here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/SweetTarts/199825853393485

Don't Forget About Mama

This has been a bit of a difficult month for me. As you know, I sent Micah off to camp (for. five.whole.days) three weeks ago. True to my word, I followed him there after a few days. I told him that, since he was only nine years old (and not ten, like his brothers were when they first went to camp), he could only go on the condition that he let me "stalk" him. I had only stuffed about fifty-three post-it-mommy-love-notes into all the pockets of his pants, his shoes, his bag of toiletries, his Bible, his note book, his hats, his gloves & his underpants. You know, so he wouldn't forget about his mama. Seth & Jarod remembered, fondly, when I did the same thing for them on their first trips to camp. They lovingly recalled reaching into their wallets for soda money, in front of their friends, and pulling out a love note from Mommy. With such sweet memories in mind, they vigorously begged me not to inflict the same fate upon Micah. Their plea fell on deaf ears, as I did not want him to feel unloved! Or to forget about me. Mind you, I know & trust all of the youth leaders & children's ministers in our church. They are absolutely amazing & I appreciate everything that they do for my children. They are such blessings to our family & are truly a special breed of human. But Micah is my baby and, well, I worry. And I missed him. A lot. I don't really look forward to sending any of my children away. Some people think that makes me crazy. I've never disagreed with those people. His camp went Monday through Friday. On Thursday we packed the camper and drove out to Micah's camp ground. I thought he might be home sick by now. I found him in the chapel, watching and performing skits with all his friends. I didn't want to interrupt, so I snuck in quietly and sat down right next to him.

He suddenly looked up, saw me, turned red, gasped, "MOM!" and buried his head in his hands.

I said, "Hi, honey! It's nice to see you too! Are you having fun?"

"YES, MOM." in a whispery kind of hiss.

"Do you want to go camping with us tonight or do you want to stay one more night?"

"STAY. ONE. MORE. NIGHT. MOM."

"Ok, honey! I love you! Bye!"

"BYE, MOM."

So, even though I knew he would really, really miss me & be very, very sad.........I let him stay one more night. We camped in a parking lot about five miles away, picked him up the next day (when all his friends were getting ready to leave as well), and set off to enjoy the rest of our camping trip.

I was happy to have my baby back. 

The rest of the week went like this:

Camp fires

Shooting lessons from Daddy

Playing in God's play ground

Nature walks

Pretty flowers

Pretty stream and pretty trees

Crazy-weird-cool trees growing out of other trees. OK. I only saw one of those.

Livin' it up in the wild, dinos & all!

"My nose is right here, mommy."

I love that I can send them to their room, even when we're camping.

Sadly, this trip, Jarod still wasn't able to shoot himself a squirrel for dinner, even though he did pack his special squirrel seasonings in his camp bag, just in case. Maybe next time, buddy. He did shoot some killer paper-wear!

Be vewy, vewy quiet. We're hunting wabbits.

The boys' favorite part of camping, I believe.

Such adventures!!!

This one is my favorite.

                                                                 So is this one.

And this one.

And this one.

And this one.

And this one.

                                                           This is my favorite doggy.

This is my other favorite doggy.

After three days we went home, unpacked, cleaned, did lots & lots & lots & lots & lots & lots of laundry & sent Seth off to camp with his buddies.

Seth came home & the next week, we sent Jarod off to camp with his buddies.

Now everyone is finally home, safe & sound.

For the most part.