to the pond

ronan positively screeches when he hears the quad turn on. odin wanted to take his dump truck for a dip in the pond. the pond has sadly reached that point it gets to every year when there's not much left of it but a sloppy goo. there isn't an inch of water that isn't occupied by a thousand mosquito fish and a dozen frogs and loads of pond weeds. but that doesn't sway my adventurous men from wading across it to inspect that rock or turn over that boat. they are always finding things.

i usually join them on their journeys to the pond, but i don't usually go in deeper than my ankles, and that only to keep an eye on ronan's own investigations of water and wildlife. i don't feel so inclined to slurp through muck. i don't trust it not to end up with some kind of ooky water creature that might rather eat me than slink away. i am pretty sure that the camp is Nessie's summer home. but i do enjoy a boat ride when they happen, i like to get out to the middle where it is still mostly water, even if only two feet deep.

by this time of year we sure look forward to seeing the water come back in winter, all snowy and icy, clean and clear. this year i think we will have to dredge the pond before the weather hits and clear out all the funny things that have ended up there over the years. i mean what is it about water that attracts tires?

I am so in love with my boys!

give us the biggest smile that you can
this is what we got!


ronan likes to pretend to eat everything. 'pretend' doesn't mean that the slobber and drool stays out of it. smack, smack, smack he goes.



some post-scripture reading wiggles. well, odin is a little occupied with his scripture treat.

we are really enjoying the family these days. we have been doing our best to get things in order around here before the baby comes. not that four more months isn't a lot of time to get ready, but with the holidays coming and the fact that our living situation tends to slow us down, we felt we needed to get it together. the result, more free time and more fun time with each other! i even had time for a few projects this last week, which i normally don't have. i didn't take any pictures and now they are off to their new owners, but i sure enjoyed doing them. time to pull together some more!
DADDY!

odin said 'we need a picture of daddy' so he took one. mark had just come home from work and odin hit him for a smile. way to go dad!

this is the favorite time of the day for everyone-sometimes we go to the pond and go frogging and watch the ducks while crazy odin eats a minnow or two 'i can eat it?' he asks. the boys get to wrestle with their dad or help him on the computer. and i can go get dinner fixed while mark watches one or both kids, sometimes i can even squeeze in a rest. it is nice to have a wonderful hubby daddy who gets home in the middle of the afternoon. we'll enjoy it while it lasts.
odin teases ronan. it never ends. but here is the fun that they are up to:


mark built us a comfy bench for our living room. we found that four and a half of us couldn't sit on the couch any more because we all want to stretch out and/or climb around-depending on who it is. mark decided to use some scrap lumber from a job site and from around the camp to make it work out.




voila, a few found foam pads and 21 bucks worth of brown vinyl upholstery fabric and we are done. mark did the whole thing and a very fine job he did. now the boys argue over who gets to take up the whole bench. ronan is enjoying some uninterrupted time while odin is at preschool.



hooray for me time!





odin came home from preschool and said that we still needed a picture of him on the the bench by himself. of course we do!