A Post for my Male Readers

Something Matt and I saw in the Walmart parking lot last weekend: a true feat of engineering. A physical beauty. A beast of horsepower combined with the physique of a supermodel.

I'm lying, here's this ridiculous car we saw. :-D

The men working in the truck next to it were staring and laughing at it as well. We watched the guy get out of his DIY gull wing door and slam it down with all the airs that accompany someone who has a real sense of accomplishment for this vessel of genius he drives.

Do feel free to note and mock the blue painter's tape around the headlights, fresh out of the body shop, er, this guy's garage. Ah yes, because we needed a bit more  evidence that this is the most handmade car in the entire world.

What's the best part? That would be the door handle. Because no, the car doors don't really close, and yes, there are metal handles on both doors of this car.

I thought you all would appreciate it. Matthew and I certainly laughed and laughed and laughed. We just couldn't get enough.

Another fun vehicle from the 4th of July Parade in Millville, Pennsylvania. Note Pennsylvania was not a member of the Confederate states during the American Civil War. Note we don't have much at all historically to do with the Confederate states or associated emblems. All right here you go!

Had a decal on the back of the bed that said "Lift it high - Fat chicks can't climb." Classy, America. This is why people don't like us.

So there ya go!

:-) See Y'all!

TFMM

Road Trip Recovery

After a small vacation from our vacation, Matthew and I both returned to work and school and real life. We spent all of last week in the car  on vacation with my family in Pennsylvania, Thomas and Lara and all. Lots of fun times were had - the day we arrived was a retirement party for my dad and celebration of all 6 kids being in the same location for a whole 24 hours. Throughout the week, we (my parents and Matthew and the kids) went on exciting adventures to World's End State Park, Reptiland, the park, Lorson Mountain, and all kinds of other far off fantastical realms. Here's some pictures!

On our way to the park to try out the Birthday Boy's stomp rockets and giant paper airplanes!

Expert Navigator of this wagon ride.

A picture of the baby dinosaurs missing their mommy with Lara. In honor of her mommy! Thomas and Lara invited their mommy to come to Pennsylvania with us next time so she could see all the cool stuff.

Miniature Paleontologists!

A definitely NOT miniature snake!

Butterfly and bat wings in the Reptiland gift shop.

One of my stepchildren...I mean, wait, my fiance, a grown up. Yeah...

Climbing on the jungle gym at Montgomery Park.

Another stepkid, I mean, grownup.

Having the time of his life :) Color coordinated to a T.

Nanny Nanny Boo Boo, Daddy got higher than you do!

Lazy Lara in the enormous swing so she has to have someone push her.

The skateboard-less skate park adventure

Running down skate ramps is so exhilarating!

4th of July Millville Parade - super hot, super fun! And LOTS of candy!

Handsome boys :D

As you can see, we had a wonderful time. :) I refrained from photography during the backbreaking 16 hour drive to and from. There may have been slightly less happy faces. But we survived, and everyone gained a newfound appreciation for their own beds by the end of the journey home.

See Y'all!

TFMM

(Speaking of which, I've been doing lots of work on my Wedding Registry - how much FUN is that! If anyone wants to see the flippin' sweet stuff we love, check out Target and Amazon :-D)

Well isn't that Eerie.

This was my devotional email for today. Brothers and sisters in California and Pennsylvania? A baby named Mary Lou?! It caught my eye, that's for sure. And it's fairly stream of consciousness, which I know everyone loves.


The Way Things Should Be

So Dad comes off the mountain that he was wintering on.  And big sister flies out on spring break from California.  And little sister and her husband fly out from Washington, and I walk over from my apartment four blocks away.

I don’t know when it happened, but sometime ago it became normal for a nuclear family to live in four different states.  Sure, sister’s in Cali, brother is in Pennsylvania.  Sure, we see each other every few years and shake hands like strangers who happen to be in the same compartment of a train.  I don’t know when it became the way things are, but I don’t like it.

Maybe it’s because twenty years ago the anchor of this family was buried in a Grand Rapids cemetery.

This February a little baby girl was born, name of Mary Lou, same as her grandma’s was.  And by March the far-flung clan was all here.  Dad was sleeping in my apartment; the girls were over with the baby.

The time passes fast and then it is the last night and with one sister already gone we go to dinner at a nice Italian place and there are two decent bottles of wine and it’s two weeks to Dad’s birthday so we sing happy birthday in the restaurant, like any family does, except we’ve never done this before.  We didn’t really do birthdays after a while.

Afterwards we go home and there is the lazy debate over what we should do, but we don’t really do anything.  We end up with the two blonde-haired girls and the dark-haired girl playing a banjo and a piano and singing old hymns, and Dad being Grandpa on the couch with Mary Lou on his knee, and the boys sitting around with books.

I’ve got Faulkner in my hand but I’m not really reading it; I’m listening to the beautiful voices and I take a sip of the wine and man, I feel good.  Like this is the way things are supposed to be.  Like this little miracle baby is what the family needs: a new heart, a fresh and pretty thing to gather around and to take that name, Mary Lou, and not make us forget, no never to forget, but change it around somehow so that the sorrow enhances the joy she brings, making it more true, more honest.  Not a joy of ignoring or naiveté or even innocence, but a joy of full-eyed measure.

Sitting there, I knew that things can get better, and I get an idea of what is meant by heaven.

"And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new!'" (Revelation 21:5).