Summer Days

With the passing of May and our grand entrance into the beautiful month of June, it would be far from the truth to say things have slowed down at all. In fact, we found that summer in the country brings along a lot of outdoor work and plenty of other activities that can hardly be labeled as work.

We ended the month of April with a trip up to Lester for Drew and Lanna's wedding. Two days later, our baby nephew was welcomed into the world - little Garret John (Tim and Laurie, Matt's sister). He was born twelve weeks early and remains in the hospital at Iowa City making slow but seemingly steady progress. The family could certainly use your prayers. He has a 18-month-old sister waiting for his safe arrival home. I forgot to take pictures both times I saw the tiny baby, but here is a picture we received from the parents. (I hope I am not infringing on anyone's copyrights...)

Little baby Garret - 5.5 weeks old, just over 4 lb.

The rest of the family shortly before Garret's arrival

The next weekend was Zach's (Matt's brother) baptism, along with a few others in Burlington. It was a blessing to be able to share in the weekend with him and be encouraged by new souls finding their salvation through Jesus Christ! Several friends and family came for the weekend, including Steve and Julie. We had the privilege to spend some time with them and the rest of the Schulz family on Sunday evening.

On the Saturday before Mother's Day, we had my family (Massner) over for a fish fry. The boys helped catch some of the fish and Dad fried them up. It was a nice evening and the weather even cooperated for us to eat out on the deck! On Sunday evening we went to the Schulz gathering at Brian and Lorna's and had a great time there as well. 

Here are a few of the fish. I can't find the picture of the fish Matt caught with Trevor at Troy and Joni's pond, but that was the main source of fish for our fish fry. 

These are the two biggest crappies he caught.

Jesse's first fish at our pond! 

Dad frying up dinner.

The next weekend was graduation, so we spent two days grazing on our meals. Congratulations to the Class of 2014! 

Another day in May, Kelli brought the boys over to go fishing while their dad was away! 

I fish.

They caught four fish that we could keep, so we had a mini fish fry afterward. Yummy! 

For Memorial Day weekend, we flew from Burlington down to St. Louis for the weekend. We spent some time downtown, went to the Arch, the City Museum, several places to eat, Historic St. Charles, and the Science Museum. We used the Metro to get almost everywhere, but got to ride with a local couple to the St. Louis church on Sunday morning. We enjoyed the get-away, also referred to as our first family vacation. :)

This picture would be way cooler if you could see the entire arch, but unfortunately then you would not be able to see Matt touching the arch. Therefore, I took multiple shots of the architecture. 

One of several "Selfies at the Arch"

As Matt's great luck would have it, there was a Rib Fest going on in downtown St. Louis that weekend. Of course, we had to stop and sample a few. This particular stand was from "Highway 61 Roadhouse," which obviously reminded us of the recently-closed restaurant in our hometown, so we had to get our ribs from them. Did I mention BBQ Ribs are my husband's favorite real food in the whole wide world? "Real" excludes ice cream and fruit. 

Outshine took this picture (who would have guessed?) at the Rib Fest. We got free popsicles out the deal and then they emailed us our picture. 

This tie collection at the City Museum made us think of my mom's Christmas gift to Matt. 

Only this guy would be capable of fitting through such tiny tunnels at age 25.999...

This was difficult. I apologize that you don't have a good enough view to perceive the difficulty of fitting down this skinny wiry contraption. 

After the City Museum, we walked down the street to Pi Pizzeria and learned how to recite to the umpteenth digit of pi. And for those who weren't learning, there was also some really good pizza.  Ok, we did NOT learn about pi, except that it is the first two letters in pizza. Our waiter didn't know pi past 3.14 anyway.

We went to the science museum on Monday (instead of the zoo because this place was air conditioned). This was one of the exhibits Matt analyzed much more than the average museum attendee. Clue to the unobserving: He designs power lines for a living... 

"Helping kids" learn about the building and structure of an arch. This exhibit was entirely relevant because we were in St. Louis and there is a really big arch there by the river. That we also visited. From which you already saw the pictures... ok, next picture. 

I would put the picture of Matt waiting for the trolley, but for the sake of being somewhat fair to him in the proportion of pictures of each of us on this blog, I am putting this one here. That black security vehicle behind me is getting ready to come over and tell me to get off the curb. So I really should have put the picture of Matt on here so I didn't look so silly. 

One of a hundred pictures of our flight on Air Choice One. It was a great flight- we were right behind the pilots on an eight-passenger plane and got to watch everything they did! This would not be at all cool enough to photograph unless I was married and my spouse had the camera. I am and he did.

Thus ended our lovely, exciting mini four-day trip to St. Louis.

The next weekend was Tim and Wendy's wedding in Mediapolis, and it was a very full Sunday in church for a beautiful wedding! We wish the new couple God's richest blessings and nearness in their new lives together.

On June 2nd, Matthew turned 26, so now we are 7 years apart until I turn 20 in a couple weeks. I tried to make his 26th birthday happy by making him supper. Yes - I actually MADE supper for him! Ever since the weather has been cooperative, we have been lazy about eating and making anything for supper, but this was a special day. To celebrate, we had Orrin and Christa and Travis and Kenna over for the evening and for root beer floats. Twas an enjoyable evening!

We finished celebrating on Friday at my family's house with a real birthday party with real presents and real cake and real candles and a real birthday song and a real birthday hat.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

YUMMY! 26 years!

Phil and Kelli's boys came over on Saturday for supper and the evening!

This is what happens when you tell four boys to smile and act like they like pizza... 

This is what happens when Brandon wants his picture taken.

The Burlington Sunday School Picnic was Sunday!

I thought this water balloon launcher was a pretty nifty contraption. They went high and far... 

Like so far that my highest zoom could only do this well in getting a picture of Matt catching one in a bucket. 

Other than all the excitement, our lives are pretty dull. ;) In the meantime, we do things less worthy of photos, such as working in the garden (namely, weeding the garden), watering plants, caring for fruit trees, working on projects, mowing, maintaining the place, and, of course, cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Ha, I make it sound like those last three things actually get done around here. Nope! Only right before company walks in the door. Speaking of company, have you been over lately? That's what I thought...it is (partially) your duty to keep our house clean by showing up once in awhile. ;) At least I think that's how it works...

El jardín. Lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, green beans, onions, tomatoes, peppers, maybe some cantaloupe and cucumbers, potatoes, and strawberries. I have gotten several pickings of lettuce and spinach and it looks like the peas will be ready any day now! Not that I have any idea how to cook or preserve any of these veggies... 

One last picture of this handsome man working on his latest project...a floating dock for the pond!  

If previous trends continue, I will be giving another update come October...but please stay in tune, just in case I surprise the world and post in the next couple weeks! :)

We hope this month of June has and will continue to bring you and yours many blessings and memories with each passing day! Though it takes work to keep up the garden, landscaping, and yard, it sure is wonderful to see God's handiwork written everywhere in nature! Just as we are rewarded for our labors now, our reward will be so much greater on that Harvest Day when the Lord brings His laborers to their eternal rest. Let us labor now so He will reap a fruitful harvest!