"Dude! What are you doing??!!"

This morning, after dropping Jessalyn and Ethan at school, I figured I would head straight to the eye doctor to pick up the contacts that have been sitting there waiting for me since August (or was it July?). On my way back, I was driving on Church Street (in Laconia) headed towards the lights in town while talking to Karen on the phone.

Fortunately, I am a defensive driver.

I'm in the right lane because I am turning right at the lights. As I'm driving towards the lights, I see a sweet looking black car pulling out of (I think) the library. The driveway that the car was pulling out of was a bit of an incline. I'm still chatting with Karen and keeping an eye on the car. As I got closer, it appeared like the car was not going to stop, although I was clearly in the right of way....but the car was NOT stopping. So...I believe I said (maybe Karen can confirm this?)..."Dude! What are you doing!!". So, I stopped in the road..and this car continued to pull out RIGHT in front of me...and I mean, like literal inches in front of me.

So I'm looking at the car, thinking about pulling out a little road rage (kidding. really.) and as I'm about to give the driver a look of "what the heck??!!" I realize that there is NOBODY driving the car!!! Oh my goodness. It was totally creepy..and funny..and scary at the same time. I'm still on the phone with Karen..trying to describe (in shock) what is happening to me while laughing hysterically (ok, maybe not hysterically..but I was laughing).

Here I am, stopped dead in the middle of the road while a car with no driver sort of settles itself right in front of me. The driverless car came to a stop. Cars in the lane to the left of me continue on..fortunately, that driverless car didn't go any further or it would have been an accident for sure.

For a brief moment, I am wondering what the heck I should do. I kinda scoped out what was going on around me and noticed a man in a suit across the street doing a double take...and then I witness the jaw dropping expression on his face followed by him sprinting across the street to hop back in HIS car and back it up the driveway! He looked at me like with a look of complete confusion and then I drove away.

I am kicking myself because I had the camera sitting right there in the passenger seat of my van and I didn't think to take any pictures!! What is wrong with me??!! Nothing would have made this post better than actual pictures of the car sitting in front of me with no driver. I guess I'll have to let you imagine the scenerio instead.

As I drove away (this whole time, on the phone with Karen) I realize how blessed I was by the timing of this little incident. Really. How annoying and inconvenient would it have been if I had been 2 seconds ahead and have this car ram into the side of my van. It was creeping out in front of me rather slowly, so it wouldn't have been a major issue, but surely would have caused a dent and probably a call to the insurance, not to mention police documentation and all of the hassle that goes along with that.

I did take the scenic route home to fullfill my duty as leaf peeper (its ok, you can hate me). Since I can't leave you with a picture of the creepy headless car, I will leave you with another picture that I took today!

Its a beautiful day!!

Two years.

Yesterday marked the 2 year date of when we moved into the Parsonage. In one way I can't believe that we have been here for two years already and in another way it seems like it has been much longer. All in all, it has been an awesome two years. I can't really imagine my life any different. I was looking back through my old blog (live journal) and had fun reading and looking at the pics from when we first moved here. It was a very new chapter of our lives. We were moving into the house, Josh was starting in the roll as an elder of the Church and we were taking on the youth group! Owen was little. He didn't have any teeth and did lots and lots of drooling. Before we moved into the house we did quite a bit of re-painting, Butch had refinished the hardwood floors and everything looked so clean and new (as new as a very old house could possibly look!).

The house itself doesn't look much different then two years ago as far as furniture placement and things. Minus a crib that is now a bed and an extra bed in the extra room..mostly everything has stayed the same. It is clear though, that the house has been "weathered" over the last two years. The pictures from then showed a nice new paint job, pictures hung nice and straight on the walls...and brand new couches. Today, the paint on the walls has become scratched in places (or even drawn on!), the floors are scuffed and not nearly as shiny as they were then. One might think, by looking at the pictures on the wall, that a freight train drives by the house on a daily basis (which doesn't happen, although, you might consider my four kids a freight train!). The furniture...well, it has held up quite well, fortunately!

This house has seen a lot of commotion. Our family alone gives the house a run for its money, but then add in the weekly youth meetings, Sunday School in the living room and basement (most of the time) and all of the other gatherings that happen here on a regular basis. This is what the Parsonage should be like! (don't get me wrong, the parsonage dwellers before us saw just as much action...I'm not at all implying that this all started when WE moved in!!)

We love living here and feel blessed every single day that we GET to live here! We try hard to allow the Parsonage to live up to its potential:)

But ya know that "two year itch" phrase? I am in NO way itchy to leave anything, but it is not typical for us to do anything for more than 2 years without a major change. It doesn't necessarily mean a change of living arrangements, although..looking back, it does seem to be the pattern. Its just that there is usually something big that changes for us every 2 years or so..whether it be a move, a new responsibility, a new baby....something. It just feels weird to not have some major change happening in our lives right about now.

So what is it that I want to change? I have NO idea. We are not planning on baby #5, I know for sure that we don't want to leave Meredith, or the Church or the parsonage even. I can't even think of what I 'want' to change. I tried talking Josh into a dog.....but that is a pretty clear "No", in fact I've even heard the words "I'd rather have another baby than a dog!".

So for now, I pray for contentment. The thing is, overall, I feel very content. There is just something about that two year mark. Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just me?? What kind of changes do you make when you get the urge for some sort of change?

In the meantime, while I was reading in my old live journal blog I encouraged myself (can you do that?) to start writing in my blog more often. I had gotten to a point where I felt like if the pictures weren't good enough, or the story wasn't cool enough that I shouldn't bother posting...but looking through the old blog was fun. It was fun to see the silly randomness of my life and remember little tiny things that happened. I am going to try to be more diligent about posting...even if its just for myself to look back on 2 years later and laugh about how drooly Owen was or what Jessalyn looked like on her first day of 3rd grade. That was why I started this blog in the first place!!

So relaxed today.

This is a cool story. True story:)

Early this afternoon, I was standing in the kitchen while Luke, Owen and Elijah were busy playing. I had this overwhelming feeling of peace. I was standing there noticing how relaxed and chilled out I was feeling. I was literally standing there thinking about how happy I am and where my life is right now. I honestly had this feeling almost like I was on some sort of sedative or something. I thought about posting a status message about feeling so happy and chilled out...but couldn't really think of a way to put it without it sounding complete mushy. I stood there trying to figure out what it was about this day that was making me feel so calm...I thought it could be the weather, it could be E and J in school, it could be the smoothie I had for breakfast. I seriously stood there thinking of all of the possible reasons that I could be feeling so good. I even went from there thinking (in my typical negative side)...could this be the 'calm before the storm' and should I be preparing myself for something bad to happen any second? I didn't post anything but continued on with my afternoon at home with the boys...really just enjoying them.

Just a few minutes ago, I received a phone call from Dona Lynn who had some questions for me...but the first thing she said was "Did you see us outside your house today?". I said "No, who was outside my house?" She continued to tell me that on their weekly prayer walk, her and Papa and Mark had walked up to the Parsonage and stopped outside of the house to pray for us and our family and the ministry that happens here in this house. They stood outside my house and prayed for us for about 20 minutes.

In discussing the timing of their walk, and my drug like feeling :) ..it was clear that it was the same time. Actually, we didn't even really have to figure out the timing because even without doing that it was clear as to why I had an overwhelming feeling of peacefulness this afternoon!

Not that this type of thing is a surprise to me, because I am certain that these things are happening constantly and most of the time we don't even notice...but it sure is nice to have such clear reminders as to what prayer can do!

....so from now on, I think I should recommend a daily prayer walk around the Parsonage!!!

This is it...the last days of our summer vacation.

I can't quite believe how quickly this vacation has gone by. It seems like just a few days ago when we were saying good by to second grade and kindergarten....and here we are, prepping ourselves for the next step of third and first grade! We have one last weekday of fun..and one more weekend before the daily grind of school starts next week. We plan to make the most of it though..with our annual (and at the buzzer!) trip to Story Land tomorrow. This will be Owen's first time at Story Land because we left him behind last year. I am sure he will just love it!

Starting next week I will begin taking care of a 10 month old (almost 11 month old) little boy..and he is the cutest little guy! We are excited. I will have him most weekdays throughout the school year. This will be a little bit of an adjustment for us...but overall, I think it will be great.

Our days after school and on Saturdays will be consumed with Soccer this fall. Ethan will be playing on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Jessalyn has moved up to the next level of soccer and will be playing 4 days a week with Saturday games. She is pretty motivated to work hard and is constantly asking me to take her to the field to practice her skills. I will happily do this with her, since it is just as much fun for me as it is for her!

Today is a beautiful day, so we headed down there and played for quite a long time...all until she pulled a muscle! We will have to remember to stretch better before we play next time!

I had some fun taking a few pics of her while she played. I just can't believe the she is almost 9 years old! Crazy to think that Josh and I met when we were both still 13!

A "how to" on the sparkler fun..

First of all, even though it was getting pretty dark outside, I set the ISO on a low setting (my camera only goes to 200)...because I knew that the light from the sparkler itself would be very bright.

The second thing I did was put the Aperture at about 5 or so...so that the background would be more blurry, knowing that the person doing the 'writing' would be moving and that the slow shutter speed would make the nothing but a mess.

Then I brought my camera into "bulb" mode..which is found when you start heading into really slow shutter speeds. I wanted the camera to catch the movement of the light and slow shutter speeds is how you do that. "Bulb" mode allows you to control exactly how long the shutter stays open. You hold the button as long as you want..and when you let go, it closes.

So then we would get ready, spark up the sparkler, get into position and I would say "GO!" then hold my breath (trying to avoid camera shake) and the shutter button while the person did the writing..and hope for the best! You should have seen me when I realized that it worked! I was so excited:) Then when I started showing everyone the kinds of pics I was getting we had lots of ideas flying around about what to do....and then we ran out of sparklers!

I think it would look better in the complete dark..although, I kinda like being able to see the person in the background as well.

And then, like I said in the other post, with Lacy's name I had to flip it in an editing program because she wasn't confident that she would be able to spell it backwards. With the heart it didn't matter.

So yeah...go to the store and by some sparklers and have some fun!

Sparkler fun.

Of course, as soon as I started 'perfecting' this type of picture, we ran out of sparklers. We were starting to have so much fun with this idea....so we will undoubtedly be purchasing more so that I can have even more fun!!!

This was when I started figuring it out..

Kirsten's heart..


So then we moved onto bigger and better things:) (haha)
Lacy wrote her name the regular way from her perspective, so of course, it was backwards when I took the picture. I just did a little flippety flip in Paint to make it read the correct way.


I think next time we will wait till it's totally dark outside.
Need. to. go. get. more. sparklers.
tee hee

Sunsets

It amazes me how quickly the "perfect" picture of a sunset disappears. Josh and I were driving back from Tilton (through Laconia) tonight and noticed that the sun was peaking through the clouds over the lake 'just right'. I happened to have my camera with me in the van, so he pulled over as quickly as he could so that I could jump out and get a picture (he's such a good guy!). By the time I got out and crossed the street to get in a good position to get a picture, the 'just right' scene had come and gone. The pictures I did manage to get still show the beauty of the evening, but I promise...30 seconds before this was taken it looked even better!


..and since I had put in the effort to get out of the van and cross the road to take a picture, I figured I would try to get a bit creative while I was there (which was all of, maybe, one minute). This was just about all of the creativity I could muster at that moment...hahaha. A close-up silhouette'ish shot of these half dead flowers on the side of the railroad tracks:)