Summer is almost over, Praise the Lord!

This is long...you might want to allow a bit of time. But since I haven't had time in August to get to my computer, you get a month's worth in an afternoon. And an afternoon, I might add, that I still have not put my clothes on yet, and we could have been in Seattle to see the opening game for the Cowboys, but it didn't work, so here I am.

It is not that I don't like summer, I do, because all the kids come home, but the older I get the more the heat bothers me, not that I am that old, you understand, but it is the principal of the thing.

We took Turner to "Craterville" up at the lake for a birthday celebration. We rode a couple of rides and fed a goat. J T really got into that. Grandpa,Amy and Amanda rode the go carts with the boys and JT and I watched.


We did let JT ride the horse. I don't think we put a quarter in, and as you can see, it was a bit traumatic for him anyway. But Parker and Turner helped rock him and helped him hang on!




This summer has been no different for us. It has been hot, but thankfully only for a few weeks has it been in the 100's. Too bad it happened when Gwen and Sam brought their parents to see us in Aug. for the family reunion.


Isn't Gwen beautiful? She rolls around alot, but we wouldn't know because it was so hard to put her down.

All the kids together at one time, going slow enough that I could take a picture...a rare thing to happen, but it did.
Sam and JT enjoyed exploring the house together and climbing on beds.

Sam and JT decided that Uncle Allen had been in bed entirely too long, so they went upstairs and got on his bed and started jumping. It didn't take Allen long to get up. :)



They really played well together. And our blocks have gone to another generation.


It was 110 outside the day of the reunion. The reunion was at the lake and we got stuck in the shelter by the dam where there isn't much of a breeze, so we were pretty much out of there as soon as lunch was over. I felt bad for Molly and Andy, because the reunion was not well attended this year and Andy didn't get to see as many of our cousins as I hoped he would. Oh well. Change the date, change the place and change is just too hard for some people.
I have to say, though that the heat didn't seem to bother JT too much. He sifted through the dirt at the reunion. I loved watching him look at the sand, at his fingers and the joy that he had in just feeling the sand run through his fingers. He did it over and over and over and over again.






Because of the heat, we stayed in the house pretty much the whole time everyone was home for the reunion. We borrowed some controllers from some friends and played a lot of wii. We even had a bowling tournament. It is a bit difficult sharing with 11, 8 and 6 year old boys who can't get outside, but we managed. Anyway I think they just enjoyed playing with Sam and Gwen. Nathan is especially good with babies and loved being with Gwen. Really, I would say he couldn't keep his hands or eyes off of her. That is JT just behind Nathan.



This is all of our grandchildren together. I thought that our living room was kind of big but five boys sure do tighten up the space. A good thing, really.

The four bigger boys shared our "kids" table for dinner Sat. night. Nathan surprised me by sitting with the littler ones. They all loved playing with Sam.
On Sunday evening, I had an activity at church that Molly and Amanda came and helped me with. When we got home, we just happened to have a few water balloons left, so we surprised Andy.

If you look real close you can see a few balloons in mid air about to hit the door. I am not sure we ever got Andy, but he and Allen ran down the block and back throwing at each other. Sam wasn't sure what to think of it all. Grandpa had a balloon for him to throw but he just wouldn't do it. We all laughed and laughed. What a precious memory.


Amy and Jimmy went home on Sunday night and then Amy came to Edmond on Monday to spend the afternoon with all of us before we put Andy, Molly, Sam, Gwen and Allen on the plane Monday evening to go back to Portland.
We all had lunch at a place near Central State U in Edmond called the Flat Tire. Here Ralph and I are with our precious grandchildren. We are so blessed.


After lunch we went back to Amanda's house and hung out (it was 106 in OKC that day, high for them!!) The boys had to check out Taylor, Nathan's Dragon..... Sam held her the last time they were in OK. in the fall. She continues to grow. This is really serious stuff for the boys!



It was too short of a weekend but a wonderful time of relaxed family time.
Allen has gotten back from Portland and gone on to Stillwater to finish his last (hopefully) year of school He will begin job interview process in a few weeks. There is a big job fair- different days for different majors. Engineering has two days because there are so many companies that recruit from the Engineering Dept. at OSU. Hopefully he will be able to get a really good job right out of the gate.

Our neice Lori and her husband Keith had their first baby two weeks ago. Ralph and I are now official "Great Aunt and Great Uncle" It doesn't feel too weird. They will be coming through on Sunday afternoon on their way home from a wedding. We are anxious to meet Landon.

Orchestra has started back at church and I am loving playing my French horn. My range is improving a bit and I am able to play a bit higher notes that before. What a Joy it gives me to play for Jesus. I hope He smiles at me in spite of the bad notes.

Dog days of summer

This is what I WISH!

But It is hot here! Dog days of summer, as Gary England, the weather man says. We are under a heat alert, it is 103 today, tomorrow, the next day the next day, the next day. Please Lord, send rain and a cool front.
I have spent the summer playing with my "kids" at church. We have gone swimming: Dive N Devotion, cooked in the kitchen with Grandma's and bowled, did gymnastics and art. Only one more week. This Grandma is worn out! I only wish it was with my own grandkids.

We are excited about this weekend. It is family reunion time. All of our children and grandchildren will be home for a quick weekend. Andy and Molly, Gwen and Sam fly in from Portland on Friday night late, and leave on Monday evening with Allen in tow. Allen is going for a week of cool vacation, and then back to Stillwater for the winter.

The pickup that Allen bought two years ago, the one that the engine blew up a few months later, finally got fixed. Allen left today with it.....only we can't find the license sticker. Allen has papers to show we have the tag, but I just wonder how many times he will get stopped because the tag is out of date.

So that is the news from here. Maybe more pictures in a week.
Stay cool!

Okay, did I leave the impression that the bathroom worked? Sorry, no luck. The storm damaged the water system.
Maybe next year.

Summer Nights and Fireworks

Last night I had a Summer Nights for the kids at church. The youth group did a sort of field day with them. We had all kinds of fun games. This one that Nathan is doing is a strength challenge. The kids had to stand and hold the hymnal for as long as they could without bending their elbows. It seemed to be much harder than I thought it would be. Nathan won this challenge.


Outside they had all kinds of skill games, catching water balloons, throwing footballs through hoola hoops and carrying eggs on spoons. If you look really close you can see the water balloon that Turner is about to miss. It is camo and just above his left foot. That is little Holly L just to right of Turner.



Parker should have played T ball. He hit this ball so hard (tennis) that it hit a pick up truck at the other end of the parking lot. Way to go, Parker.


I carried dinner out to the kids tonight. This is a shot from the 4th fireworks stand. Don't the signs look good? Makes the stands look very professional, don't you think?



Only 15 year old boys could get into trouble like this. Reminds me of Andy when we first started selling fireworks. Ralph and I would be busy selling and Andy would be in the back watching everyone else do their fireworks. While Ralph, Amanda and Allen were selling, well, Parker and Turner were slipping roman candles out the back to Dylan and Russell. Dylan got his off before Russell ever got his lighted. As you can see, Russell was fortunate that the ball didn't hit a little higher. Ralph and I were livid. And they ALL heard about it- Ralph on Saturday night and from me on Sunday as the waitress was taking drink orders for lunch. (I just couldn't keep quiet another second) poor waitress didn't have a clue what was going on. I didn't even know about it until the middle of church when Russell turned a bit and I caught sight of the black eye.


And here is our almost grown up soon to be 7 year old Parker. Dylan pulled one tooth on Wednesday night and the second came out Thursday morning. The tooth fairy got scared off on Thursday night at the camper because Daisy started barking and scared the poor thing right out of Jackson county. She did come back on Friday night while Daisy was at home.


And the famous trailer. blown over in the storm, damaged on the front and a bit underneath but still good for air conditioner and a table for dinner. The fridge is good too for ice and drinks. Oh we have moved up in the world! The camper is parked between the last storage unit and the fourth stand.

The inside is small, however there were 9 of us in there for dinner tonight. The door at the back is the bathroom, right behind the fridge are two bunk beds and I am squished up against a door that has a queen bed behind it. The outside door is just in front of the chair back that Turner is sitting on. The table turns into a bed and there is a small couch to my right that makes a bed just to the end of the sink on the right.

So here it is, June 30 and we are counting down the days. It wont' be 100 until Wednesday and on Saturday it is suppose to be in the 80's. It is a good year! Amanda says I can stay in the camper on the 4th and do computer work. I like the sound of that alot.

OSU Caravan June 23 08

Thanks for the picture Betty. My husband, Ralph was so sweet. He asked me if I wanted a steak dinner for our 42 anniversary, and I was so excited. He said, “and I have a surprise for you! We will be eating with a bunch of our friends who are going to celebrate with us!” Wow, I said, you are so thoughtful.

He said, “you might want to wear orange” I said, don’t have anything but T shirts, he said Never mind, let’s don’t be late!.... The program starts soon. How thoughtful I said, to have entertainment for our anniversary. But, I just didn’t get it, what is a full back and a line backer?

Jim, Nancy and Betty, Thanks for coming to our party.

In the Summertime at the VanO's

Hi everyone. It was a busy June this year. I got home from Annual Conference in Tulsa to this sight in my front yard. It was the second annual garage sale. Annual because Ralph has decided that a sale at the house is the best place to have the "what's left in the storage units" sale. It was three days of work (really four or five because it all had to be lugged to the house.
Ralph is more than fair about giving everyone the opportunity to pay up with phone calls, letters, etc and more than the required amount of months before foreclosure.
You can imagine our horror, when one of the "shoppers" recognized her things. Ralph said, pay for it and you can have it back. She didn't. Amanda was beside herself embarrassed but the woman should have been the one embarrassed. The woman borrowed money from her friend to buy back one or two things.





Surprisingly, when the sale was over, we only had two small pickup loads to take to the Goodwill donation place.



The dark picture is the night the kids did a fireworks preview for our vendors. We also put an article in the local paper and advertised it. We had rain just before but ended up having a good turn out.
We have also had some storms. Been to the cellar twice (came right back out again, because of a poor little rabbit that fell in and couldn't get out. It was a little smelly, so we went to the Pope's house.) So there has been some clean up to do as well. Thankfully we only lost one stand completely. It was already damaged from an earlier storm, but the 90 mile an hour wind put most of the stand in the Jr. High School parking lot and front yard. There was lots of damage on Broadway and in the Presidents addition. Amanda says she saw a tornado come out of the sky.

Then there was Vacation Bible School at church. On the last day, we had a county fair. The children brought money for our mission project which is to support the start of a new ministry of feeding the general public once a month. Salvation army has lost their kitchen, so there is no where for those without to go to eat. Anyway, there was a pie in the eye contest between Pastor Dave and Pastor Margie. The results are evident, as I wait with two of my friends to receive the pie in the eye.

Each child that learned their Bible verses got to put their name in a drawing to get to throw the pie. Here I am "getting" it. The kids loved it!

We also had a pie eating contest and gave blue ribbons. They were drawn from the same group of names for learning their verses.

I got some farm animals for the children to see- three baby goats, two baby pigs and a lamb who looks full grown. Amy brought JT down to see the animals. He loved the animals but he would not let me hold him with the painted target on my face.




We are in the full swing of fireworks now.

I should tell you that this year for the first time in 19 years we have an air conditioned trailer at the stand. Ralph bought a travel trailer from a renter at the storage unit. It blew over in the "storm" and the guy couldn't even afford to have it turned back upright. So we think we are living in "hog" heaven. It has been nice for eating, because it has a table and a refrigerator. We can keep the flys and other critters away from our food. The temperature has been moderately hot (only in the 90's so far), for that we are so thankful.

Fireworks on the horizon

Good evening my friends. No pictures this time. Just notes.
Fireworks season is about to begin again for us.
Busy, busy, busy.
But we will all be together, albeit, passing in the night.
A-1 called today and wants to bring two 15 year old boys- sons of her friends- this year to work. So instead of 12 (six of which are little people) living in the house we will have 14-
I think we will have to put up sheets over the entry to the dining room and make that a bedroom for 5 weeks.
We get to feed them too! This will be good practice for feeding my grandsons. I never had two teenage boys at the same time. Pray for me!

On a happier (more exciting) note, our orchestra at church is coming along nicely. (I bought a French horn so I could be in it). Many of us have not played in years (43 for me), others not quite so long (35). But we have in three weeks come along very well. I think this week we graduated from "6th grade band" to intermediate band. We actually all started and ended on the right notes and kind of sounded good in the middle. It is so much fun. Our director is soooooo talented. And sooooooo patient. We will play in worship on June 1. I will let you know how it goes. :)