Jen and the kids come visit!

August came super fast and left super fast! Jennifer called me on August 20th and asked if her and her family could come visit that next week! She told me that was planning for her (a week in advance). I would take them if they told me they wanted to come tonight! This was super special to me because growing up, my family would go visit my Aunt Debbie in Tennessee at least two to three times a year and I remember how special those times were. Ideally, I would have lived in the same town as them to go on super fun dates every other day like we use to but I will take what I can get! So that next week they showed up, our week went as follows... 

Tuesday:
Chick-Fil-A
Hanging out at mall
I had school so nick took them out to dinner and a park that night    

Wednesday:
Chick-Fil-A
Living History Farms

Thursday:
I had to work so they hung out with me then went to see the birth place of John Wayne
Dinner at Outback (Jen and I love this place)

Friday:
They got up and left to go see where Walt Disney was raised in Missouri
They ate Chick-Fil-A

The point is we had alot of Chick-Fil-A. Here are some fun pictures of our time together!

Maverick took the camera and this is what you get.....

Here is the Cobra dance Maverick taught us.....

Here is the Rattle snake he taught us.....

They left Friday and we went up north to Nicks moms lake house on Lake Tatonka in Minnesota!
Nicks Aunt Beth and family drove all the way from Florida to come for Labor Day! I love going to the Lake house because we do a whole bunch of nothing! This time my wonderful husband stopped at antique stores with me and we played Bingo with all the town folk on Saturday! One of my favorite things about being married is driving in a car and taking long rode trips with Nick! I don't care where we are going, what we are doing but we have a lot of fun together being stuck side by side for many hours! We had a ton of fun being able to spend some good quality time with his family playing games, eating and just hanging out! Here are some pictures of that weekend!

Two in one week!

I am going to finish my month of July so I can catch up to possibly posting about August, September and October.

My birthday was July 30th and we had thought we would go visit our kids that moved to the shelter in Nebraska however my mom called me a few days before the weekend and said her and my aunt Sharon wanted to spend the weekend with me for my birthday!! It turned out to be one of my most favorite birthdays ever! It started off with Thursday night my husband grilled for the three of us girls and we sat and had dinner and just laughed our butts off! I am sure Nick was thinking he married into a family full of crazy women.

The past two summers Nick and I started a summer program in a government housing facility. We do a bible study, games and snacks with the kids. We usually have 20 to 40 kids a week that show up with 90% of them being kids of refugees from Sudan, Kenya, Somalia and other places in Africa. Well this year my friend Rianne helped out and her mom who owns a christian book store invited us to a christian concert for kids in Pella, Iowa. So since my mom and aunt were in town, the two of them, Nick and I, Rianne, Ryan, and a few of the kids that were chosen based on their attendance and participation in the program headed to Pella for a awesome kids christian concert!

Late Friday night around midnight the Gautlaks (the family that moved to Nebraska) came to Iowa. They called and asked if the kids could stay with me all weekend and of course I was super excited and said yes! So in our home we had mom and Aunt Sharon, and six of the seven kids staying with us all weekend! Saturday morning we met my good friends and old roommates Justin and Allison Meyer at the Downtown Farmers Market!  My Mom and Aunt loved it, its always something I like to take people from out of town to. Allison gave me an old suitcase full of stuff for my house! She could be the next Martha Stuart, she has such an eye for decoration. She can help a sista out when it comes to making a house "homey". Thank you Allison!!! We came back home and got ready for dinner  at our house with my in laws. Then we took my mom, Aunt and the kids to the hot air balloon races in Indianola. This was so pretty to see over fifty hot air balloons in the sky at once! The kids loved this!

Here is another story, Sunday we had my friend Heather Guck over for brunch! I just love Heather so much because she is a woman after my own heart. Heather had two orphaned girls from Columbia in South America come stay with her for a month, Derly who is 14 and Angelica who is 12. She did this in hopes they would be pursued to be adopted. Their month here they met many families interested and thank the Lord they are being pursued. We had them over because that Tuesday they were headed back to Columbia and I really wanted to see them before they headed back! So Sunday we had my Mom, Aunt, Heather, Derly, Angelica, Carla,(one of our sweet friends who translated for the girls) the six kids, Rianne, and Nick and I which made for a full house! I loved every minute of it!! Oh and I forgot to mention, Derly and Angelica were baptized Saturday, such a sweet moment for Heather and awesome to see many prayers answered!

I had cute toenails to go with the fun weekend thanks to my birthday date with Jenni Van Wyk who had a wedding the weekend of my birthday! We went the Monday before to get our toes done! Thanks Jenni!

Also the week before, my awesome friend Jill Trost decided I needed to have a phone that has style and bought me the cutest Juicy Couture cover! You Rock Jill!!

I had the best birthday ever!!!! Thank you to everyone who made it so sweet!

Second Half of Summer

Okay so like I said not good at blogging....

Two months later and here we are. After I am done blogging you will see why I have no time to blog. The month of July and August was one big blur, it was so wonderful though! I'll start off with my trip to New York with the family I nanny for. This was our second year in a row, and a five day trip. Ting takes me to help her out with the kids but loves to show me around the city so we both win! We stayed in a hotel about two miles away from her family. She has a huge Laotian/Thai family, that are so welcoming and loving. Friday we went to the Empire State building, Saturday we went to a family BBQ in upstate New York. That Monday we went to China Town, Little Italy, Time Square, and walked around SOHO to shop and have lunch! Ting's neices Isabella, Angel and Joslyn wanted me to   be a client in their beauty shop so of course I did. My nails and hair turned out beautiful, here are some pictures from that trip...

My boss asked me if I wanted to fly to Michigan or back to Iowa, of course I could never refuse a trip home! I then spent a week in Michigan, it was such a great time because I had nothing on the agenda. The only thing was my sister was due two weeks from the day I came in so I prayed my butt off to be able to meet my new niece! The Lord answered that prayer and she was born that Thursday with three days left in my trip to be able to love on her! Ruby Sue Combs, was happy and healthy and eager to meet all of us. The other great part of her coming while I was there is I could help out as much as possible with the other three! I took the Mega Bus to Chicago that Sunday to be picked up by my husband and spend the day with him in the city. Nick picked me up and handed me a big box (a week before my birthday) and I opened it to find a "I love Coke-Cola" shirt. I acted super pumped about my birthday present to open the shirt up and find a new IPHONE 4. For those of you who really know me I have never had a nice phone. I usually acquire phones from my little cousin Chelseas friends old ones. (I am Cheap) So this was such a wonderful sight for me, I totally appreciate my husband!!! After my present we went to a yummy Greek restaurant and walked around town! It was a great day date! Here are some pictures of my new neice!

 

Okay so that was just the first three weeks in July, I will have to finish July in another post! I dont want to make these into books, but my life for two months was just really busy!!:-)