Summer ... the twilight

Yes, we're in our last few weeks of summer. It has just flown by. My (teacher) sister went back for an in service day on Monday and her kids start tomorrow. Frankly, I can't comprehend that! We still have lots of fun things that we're planning on doing before school starts:

• Go to a Brewer's game
• Go canoeing with some friends on the Wisconsin river
• Go to Magic Waters (Cyndie and the kids are currently there) - a water park down in Rockford
  
• Go to Six Flags (Emma went earlier in with Uncle Gow and a friend from church ... this time Tim and Cyndie are going too)

Hey, I just realized that I don't get to go to the last two events! Poor me. I guess someone has to bring home the bacon!

Last night was my last softball game of the summer. We went out in style with a come from behind victory! It was fun because it was only our second win of the year. We won the first game, lost like 10 or 12 in a row, and then won the last game! I particularly enjoyed it because I had a really good hitting night ... 2 home runs, a double and a single in 4 at bats (if you guys don't mind me tooting my own horn a bit). It was definitely the stuff to make me excited to play again next year (while being happy to have a break for a while).

Cyndie continues to be pretty busy with her photography stuff. It seems like she's had 2 or 3 shoots a week for the last several. While that is only 3 or 4 hours of actual shooting time, it also means 8 or 9 hours of managing the photos and touching them up. That's pretty exciting. Hopefully things will continue to roll along (and pick up steam) during the school year when she'll have more time during the day (with the kids off at school) to do the work!

Yes, I think so, it's finally Spring!

I think I can now officially report that spring time has come to Lake Geneva. We've had some good weather, both warmer and sunnier. Mother's Day we had brunch out on the deck. That was our first real meal there since the crazy 80 degree day that happened about a month ago. The piers and lifts are in at Covenant Harbor, so that means the boat (which we've cleaned out and re-packed since getting out of winter storage) is basically ready to go in. The kids have both had their first ball practice (softball for Emma and baseball for Tim ... both "coach pitch" which is the step up from teeball). I had my first softball game (with a bunch of friends from church, bowling, the neighborhood, camp) which we won in dramatic fashion (we were down 9-0 after the first inning and something like 14 - 3 after two innings ... we came back and won 19-18!). Weather.com says that it is a high of 78 and sunny in LG today! Unfortunately, I'm sitting in a meeting in Baltimore for work on a last minute trip. Boooo!

On the kid front, Emma has been really interested in Cyndie's new cell phone (Mother's Day present) ... so if you get a strange text or phone call from Cyndie, beware, it could have come from Emma. Timmy is VERY into sports right now. He loves to watch baseball games and play sports in the yard ... basketball, soccer, and especially baseball. He's very into hitting, and is getting really pretty good. At his first baseball practice, he hit every single of the 15 - 20 pitches that the coach sent his way. It's fun for me that he's turning into a sports maniac like I am. To close this out, I'll relate a quote from Tim the other day. This from when the Royals and Twins were playing (this for you Jane and Dad) ...

"The Twins should start playing soccer because they are so bad at baseball"

Ha, a man after my own heart.

Making it there

Well, I'd say we're surviving through the week of busyness. It's Thursday, a good day to get to. I think Cyndie is keeping her head above water with work and extra-curricular activities. She's tired, and has a sore neck (from sleeping with Emma one night when Emma had some difficulties sleeping), but at least there is an end in sight. Unfortunately, that end is Sunday night, and not Friday. Cyndie's having a booth for her photography business at a women's trade show kind of thing at the high school over the weekend. She'll have to be on there from 10 - 4 both Saturday and Sunday. Pray for her energy level!

At least tonight is family night. We'll have dinner together, then we're going to watch the Empire Strikes back ... you know, to feed the flame of Timmy's Star Wars obsession. Yesterday, he and I took a walk with the dog, and he brought along his newest light saber (a 1" PVC pipe wrapped in blue painters tape for the blade part, and black electrical tape for the handle ... it actually looks really cool for as simple as it was to make). I swear I had to stop every minute to encourage him to catch up ... I guess talking non-stop about Star Wars and swinging the light saber around makes it difficult to walk!

Emma is really enjoying working on the play at school. She has a small role (it's a 3 - 5 grade play, so the kids in her class are more helping out with stuff and doing really small supporting things), but is enjoying being a part of the production and working on sets, etc.

Midweek today!

Yes, it's hump day even though it's only Tuesday. That's a relief since it already feels like vacation. Mostly it's that way because my cousin and her kids are visiting from Minneapolis for a few days. They were over for dinner and hanging out last night, and since our kids were up late, it felt like vacation ... or at least like a weekend!

It has been (again!) a while since I posted. So, no catchup, just a few random things that occur to me as I write:

• Last thursday was the kids' Pilgrim Dinner at school. That was fun. Grandma and Grandpa D were able to attend. Both kids dressed up really nicely.
  
• Over the weekend I constructed the skating rink for this year. I remembered that I have some materials left over from when the house was built that work great to make the sides of the rink. So, due to nice 8 foot sections of that, we have a 32x16 foot skating rink with nice 16 inch sides! After all the rain we got yesterday, it's probably 40% full! I also built the platform for the sled run. Since Papa Lee cleared out so much of the underbrush down the hill from the mound, we'll have a great area to sled.
  
• Yesterday Cyndie and I worked on putting in the steel pole for the basketball hoop. Timmy was a really big help too. He was in charge of getting the water (3/4 of a gallon ... he got it right every time!). We put 320 pounds of concrete on the bottom of the pole, so I think it will hold okay. The weather was great yesterday (or I should say the temperature). It was a near record high of 67 degrees. However, just as we were putting the concrete in the hole, it started to sprinkle. By the time we had all 4 bags in, it was pouring. So part of our effort was to build dams around the hole so that the water running down the driveway toward the concrete would be diverted! Then the weather changed so that I needed to cover the concrete with blankets since the temps are now in the low 30s!
  
• After a really fun and informative Coffee Shop (our church small group) at Laura and Gows, we spent the night. It was really fun and relaxing to hang out and do nothing! We watched Date Night, which was a really good and fun combination of the reality of married life with kids, and comedy.
• On Saturday morning Cyndie did her first 5k. It was at the local state park and many of her friends from the ladies group she's in also ran. She really enjoyed it, and I think will definitely do it again.
  
• On Saturday afternoon Cyndie had her first paid photo shoot. I think it went pretty well. She's learning a lot, that's for sure!
  
• Please pray for Jane Fraser, her kids, and Covenant Point Bible Camp up in the UP (upper pennisula). Covenant Point is a sister camp to Covenant Harbor here in Lake Geneva. Chuck Fraser, the director up at Point died suddenly of a heart attack last week. He was only 59 years old. He was loved by many, and impacted a huge number of people both directly and indirectly. He will be missed by his family, the staff at Point, and the many campers that go through Point. Here's a link to some thoughts on Chuck and his impact for those who may be interested. I went to Point 4 times (3 men's retreats, and for a week of family camp last summer). At the first men's retreat my dad introduced me to Chuck, who my dad has known for many years. As a result of that connection, the following times I'd visit Point, I'd usually have a 5 or so minute conversation with Chuck. Nothing deep, just being friendly. I didn't know Chuck well, but even in the few times I talked to him, I was impressed by his humble demeanor and servant's heart. Covenant Point will be very different without him.
  

In an effort to not get too behind ...

It's (again) been a while, so I'll try to get caught up a bit. I'll just throw some bullet points out there ... probably in random order:

• Work on the tree house progresses. Between my dad and I, we have the tree house 95% roofed (need to finish off the peak). After that it will just be little things like plugging some holes in the (used) siding.
• Last night I had some guys over to play Halo on the big screen. Since I'd never played before, I sucked! It was fun though. We were kind of doing a last hurrah for a friend who is moving to the UP in a few weeks.
• Cyndie has been working very hard to get ready for a "vendor fair" for the MOPS (mothers of pre-schoolers) group in the community. She's hoping to make some contacts/get some work for her photography business*.
• We went down to my sisters for some cousin time (Laura and Gow and the girls went too) on Friday/Saturday. Fun times. We watched Killers after the kids went to bed**.
• We're trying to get back in the swing of things with the kids doing their chores and getting their allowance. I'm not sure how we got so out of the practice of that! Having that responsibility is good for them, and they enjoy it I think.
• The kids have been playing outside with one of the neighbor kids quite a bit. It's nice that it's still decent enough weather to do that without having to totally gear up for the cold.
• Big news (I almost forgot), we sold the Suburban. We got a price we were pretty happy with. Emma was sad watching the folks drive away, but she cracked us up with her comment, "Hey, they have a big dent on their door" (alluding to the rather big dent that happened when Suburban met tree a year or so ago). So now we have only two cars in the driveway ... Suburban and boat appropriately disposed of for now (the boat is being stored in a friend's barn). We may even get to no cars in the driveway if we put the Subaru in the garage and the Excursion is parked off the drive.
  

*Did I ever mention that on here? She's doing a great job laying the ground work for her business. Now we'll see where it goes! Check out her web site: Cyndie Lee Photography. ** We'll see if I end up with time to write a review on this Romantic Comedy. I'm sure Fred will be waiting on the edge of his seat for that!

Thanks to all who prayed for Cyndie's Grandma Weaver. She's improving, but is certainly not out of the woods yet (Cathy thinks that something may not have gone completely right with the surgery grandma had).

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Until next time, I'll leave you with a few pix ...

Here's the inside of the tree house ... Grandpa and Grandma D brought over some goodies for a "it's nearly done, let's have a tree house warming" party.

Grandpa D with Emma and cousin Sally on the hay ride at Covenant Harbor's fall party for their staff.

Me and Tim on the hay ride.

Carving pumpkins. We did so late (after Halloween), but the kids still enjoyed it!

Tree fort progress ... oh, and it's Friday!

Today's topic ... progress on the tree fort. I've been trying to put in an hour or or two between right after the kids leave (7:45), over lunch, and before dinner in addition to working some on the framing after the kids hit the sack. I'm hoping to have the framing up and maybe the roof done by the end of the weekend. The tree fort/house* is going to have an 8'x8' house part with walls that are 4 feet tall and a peak in the roof at around 7 feet. There will be a 3' wide deck on two sides and probably a ladder or two to climb up (complete with trap door)!

*What's the difference between a tree fort and a tree house? Is one open and one enclosed? If that's the case, I guess this is both a tree fort and a tree house since there will be both inside and outside spaces in this version!

The platform is done ... down in the area Papa Lee cleared.

Framing for one end (where a window will be) ...

Framing for two sides ...

The door to the deck area ($2.50 at an auction Cyndie went to yesterday) ...

Extra wood (Cyndie got all of this for free) ...

So this auction ... Cyndie went with our friend Alissa (the new pastor's wife and neighbor of mine during jr high/early high school). It was auctioning off the entire contents of a house about to be torn down (including many pieces of the actual house like carpet, siding, flooring, etc). Anyway, she got the door you saw, a nice basketball hoop (that'll take a little work to get out of the ground and to our house), and a bunch of glasses/pitchers. It was right down Cyndie's alley!

After that Cyndie did her first paid (I think) photo shoot ... a junior high football game. She was pretty happy with the pictures she got, and learned a lot too.

While Cyndie was at the football game, Emma went with her friend Amya to two different dance classes and had a really fun time. Timmy worked with Grandpa on the tree fort a bit, and then Grandpa and Grandma D joined us for dinner and pie (thanks Alissa). So it was a full day!

This morning as we were setting the table for breakfast, we were surprised by Auntie Laura, Daisy and Sally. They joined us for "Surprise Friday", donuts and fun creamer for the coffee. They hung out with us until Emma left on the bus (Timmy went earlier to go to before school Spanish). Sally really wanted to go on the bus, but she had to be satisfied with a ride on the "big white bus" (the Excursion). She was fine with that once she discovered it had a video screen in it! We drove around the Wildwood loop and then they hit the road and I hit the work thing!

Heading toward vacation

As this week started, it felt like it was going to be tough to make it through a week and a couple of days of work to get to vacation. I was in a Christmas mindset what with the excursion down to Chicago last weekend and all.

Well, I was shocked back to reality on that front with a big project for work. It's essentially a project that would normally take a couple of weeks, but, because of vacation schedules and the client's schedules, we need to get it down by Friday noon. So much for a mental dreamland of Christmas bliss ... reality strikes. So far, it actually hasn't been too bad. The work is progressing well, and I'm thinking there's a decent chance that I might even finish early. However, that could all change when the client get's their hands on the functionality and starts complaining, err testing. We'll see. For now, I'm optimistic.

Tonight is the kids' Christmas concert. My folks will join us for dinner, and then it's off to Woods School to enjoy the singing/band/etc. It will be nice this year in that Timmy won't have to sit with us (or should I say squirm and fidget with us). Since he'll be doing his thing with his class, he'll be in his room some of the time. It should be fun!

The Cookie Train Rolls On!

Well, freight train Emma, the cookie queen of Wildwood Drive, continues to roll along. She's had Cyndie out every afternoon after school to canvas the neighborhood for those poor souls who do not have girl scout cookies! She's doing great (thanks to those of you who bought cookies!). She's now "earned" (won't actually earn it until she distributes and collects the $$) two patches, and may get even further depending upon the weather and her excitement level. She's even got a signup sheet with me today at work.

Tuesday, in the evening while Cyndie was working, I made a spreadsheet for her to keep track of her accounting and expenses stuff. For working far less than full time, and not even really looking for clients, she's doing pretty darn well!

Timmy is continuing to be excited to learn to read. His 4K class really doesn't focus on much more than letters, and he easily knows that stuff, so we're teaching him bit by bit some reading basics. He really gets a kick out of that. The grin on his face when he learns a new word or technique is pretty fun. We were doing some -op words yesterday (e.g. mop), and he wanted a "long" word, so we did "crop", which he read all by himself. Then he wanted a really long word, so we did "crops". 5 letters, yea Timmer!

Friday is Here!

It's Friday, though I was telling Cyndie last night that it felt like a Friday night last night ... probably because we were up a bit later than we usually are. We had a long initial setup/practice/tear down for worship team last night. I think moving to the new building will make the process quite a bit easier in the long run. Cyndie and the kids took Pepper to the pet store to get him some snacks ... wooo, excitement!

Other than that, it's a wet, cool (but not crisply so) fall day. Emma's class walks over to a local apple orchard for a field trip this afternoon, and we have a 24 night scheduled with Laura and Gow for tonight, but other than that, it should be a quiet start to the weekend ... oh, I guess I still need to get through the work day too!

Thursday Happenings

A few things going down on a Thursday for the Wildwood DeVries:

• Cyndie had a successful clothing exchange last night. I believe it was in the neighborhood of 25 ladies and LOTS of clothes. They raised around $250 (that's 1000 pieces of clothing at $.25 each!) for the Agape House girls home charity! Now she's got the big task of packing everything up!
  
• We heard from some friends in TX that their kids have the Swine flu. Also heard rumors that a family up the street may have it too. I guess this is going to be the norm for this winter! Crazy stuff.
  
• Looks like I'll be working from home a lot more in the near term. My boss is saying we'll have a lot to do, so I reminded him I'll have more hours to work if I'm not driving back and forth. Exciting!
  
• Got in the car this morning at 7:30 and the temperature said 41 degrees! It is definitely cooling off. Previously (around 7) I'd gone out with the dog in shorts ... no shirt or shoes (after working out ... I was still hot). But man did I cool off quickly, especially my feet on the cold concrete!
• Tonight is a big worship team practice. Our first at the new building. I'll be getting there early to set up the sound equipment for the first time. Hopefully we'll hit no snags!
  

Freedom!

So a couple of decisions were made in the last 24 hours which will provide much more significant freedom for me this coming weekend.

1) The business trip which I was scheduled to make to Baltimore starting Sunday was postponed, and possibly canceled.
2) I decided that our previously scheduled family camping trip was more important than the recently scheduled church meeting, so I'm not going to take 3+ hours out of the afternoon on Saturday to drive back for the meeting.

So as a result, I'm free to enjoy what looks to be a glorious weekend weather-wise with my family and some good friends. Should be fun.

Since this has become a number list blog today, I'm going to throw in another one for "major questions facing the Wildwood DeVries this weekend"

1) How will Pepper do on his first camping trip?
2) How big will the Vikings win on Sunday?
3) How will Timmy's requested "chocolate chip cookies as bread, roasted marshmellows as filling" desserts taste?

Yes, that's right. Our Timmer is going to be 5 tomorrow and has requested a deliciously (I think) gooey concoction of chocolate cookies and marshmellows for dessert. I'll be sure to report back regarding these momentous questions on Monday.

In other family news, picture day is today at school for the kids, and I'm stopping in Delavan on my way home to pick up Timmy's new glasses!

Floor basically done ... or so the grapevine says

I'm in at the office today ... doing the usual stuff as well as making some arrangements for my business trip to Baltimore next week. However, I did hear some interesting information through the grapevine ... the floor is nearing completion. When the guys left yesterday afternoon, they we're probably 70% done. It looks very nice. It's amazing the difference in two ways. First, just being a uniform look between all the different rooms instead of being broken up in all the different places. Second, having the nice, new, shiny look instead of the faded, pink carpet and the indescribable bird linoleum is obviously a big change. So we're pretty excited. Now we just need to get cracking on some more elements of the downstairs area so that we don't end up with partially finished projects all over the house!

In work related news, Cyndie was very excited last night that she was able to get done during the day (while Tim was at school) all the graphic design work she had planned for yesterday so that she could relax in the evening. It seems like a while since we've been able to do that!

Pre-weekend roundup

Getting ready for the long weekend, so here are a few thoughts ...

• I'm working from home today. Waiting on some responses from some customers, trying to wrap things up and cut out early.
• The kids and Cyndie have 1) order glasses for Tim, 2) picked up a garage sale couch for my sister Amy, 3) had a play date with friends ... all before lunch!
• There's no school today ... it's "Fair Day" (the Walworth County fair is happening over the weekend).
• Had worship team practice last night with a new guy, that was fun (but late)!
• The house is a disaster area right now as we're getting ready for flooring on Tuesday.
• Looking forward to extended family time this weekend ... tomorrow the whole DeVries clan will be at Amy and Dave's for a parade and hang out time, then Sunday up here.
• Good things are happening with our church ... lot of building excitement and interest after having been somewhat dormant for the past several years. Pray that that continues to build and is channeled by church leadership in a unified and productive way!
• And the weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend!
  

That is all!

A weeklong darkness

Did you all feel lonely and lost without "Life and Times ..." posts to read the last week? Apparently I've be negligent in getting my ramblings out there. So sorry, I'll try to be more timely!

Here's what's happening with the Wildwood DeVries:

• Cyndie drove Emma and her cousin Sarah to meet my sister Jane on Friday. The girls spent the weekend with Auntie Jane and had a blast. They set the DeVries clan record for number of parks visited in one day at 21, went tubing (Emma LOVES that), and generally had a great time together. She arrived back home on Monday evening tired, but excited to see Papa Lee and her new cousin.
  
• Cyndie's Dad was here from last Friday evening through yesterday morning. We had a very nice visit!
• While I helped some friends move last Saturday, Lee and Cyndie went to an auction. They bid on a couple of boats, but didn't come home with anything! Oh well, maybe next year.
• On Saturday night we all went out to watch a water ski show ... they were doing jumps and pyramids and all kind of fun stuff.
• Sunday after church we went to see some power boat races at a small nearby lake. That was interesting. We also got to walk through the pit area and see the boats. Good stuff.
• Wednesday night we went to the Lake Geneva Venetian Fest. That's the local carnival/festival, etc. It was rainy that evening, so the kids got to walk on to all the rides (we got them the wristbands so they could go on unlimited rides). They had a blast, and were soaked when we left for home!
  
• Cyndie got her new computer for work. She's going to start up a bit again this fall with Tim in school and needed to upgrade from her 5+ year old machine. She was pretty excited!
  
• On that note, Cyndie's been busy trying to get some work done for a new client and I've been pretty busy with work too, on a new project for Kraft.
  
• Today we're headed to the UP (that's Michigan's Upper Pennisula for the un-initiated). We're going to stay for a long weekend with a friend from college who's family has a island on a small lake up there. Should be fun!
  

Babies, Backs ... life

A few more bullets:

• Congrats to Gow and Laura ... a new baby, Daisy Kate born yesterday, 8 pounds, 8 oz, 20 inches. Yeah!
• The back is finally feeling better today, just in time to help our friends Rico and Julie move on Saturday.
• Emma leaves for Auntie Jane's tomorrow ... she's pretty excited.
• Cyndie is going to order her new Mac and software tonight (for work) ... she's pretty excited.
• Papa Lee arrives tomorrow night ... we're all excited.

Do you sense a theme?

Working at Home

Working at home today. Getting some things wrapped up for work as well as a few other loose ends on stuff for church that I'm doing. A fairly productive day so far.

Last night Cyndie and I worked some more on the front yard. It was slower going this time ... lots of rocks to dig out and old decayed bark to remove. As I write this, Cyndie is outside with the lawn tractor and trailer moving some top soil that we'd saved (can't remember where in the yard that came from) back on top of some of the small rocks (really gravel) that are still there. Hopefully by the end of the day we'll have the front area "done". Then it's crossing our fingers and hoping that the grass stuff that we bought to grow the grass really works!

Day 2 in the Real World

Well we're approaching some semblance of normalcy now in day two back from Cancun. After working from home yesterday, I'm in the office and even being a bit productive! Yesterday Cyndie and the kids had a nice day (parks, swims, etc) with the Armstrongs (minus Greg who also was working ... he has a convention here in town out at Grand Geneva). I got in a bit of hanging out time at the end of the day over pizza.

Not a whole lot else is happening, though we seem to have a lot of things on our plate which we're trying to prioritize so as to not become overwhelmed. The Armstrongs will be here through the weekend, then next week, the kids have Vacation Bible School at a local church (in the evenings).

One little fun twist is that we discovered a rather large hornet nest underneath our back deck. It's right above one of the windows in the basement, which is kind of cool because it allows us to observe nature in action. I went out to spray it last night after dark, but the spray I had ended up not working. We'll try again tonight.

So that's about it ... some odd ramblings and back to somewhat normal happenings.

Holiday Weekend Cometh ...

Not a lot is happening now ... just gearing up for the holiday weekend. Jane comes tonight (will stay with Gowans). Tomorrow we're going to look at a couple more houses. Then I'll work a half day and help celebrate my dad's 68th birthday! Yeah Dad! Then it'll be more family time throughout the weekend.

Weekend Recap

• Fishing ... Timmy caught 3 fish over the weekend (we went a couple of different times ... Saturday evening, Sunday after church). Both of the kids are doing great with it and seem to enjoy it quite a bit. A friend of mine, Eric, works at the camp (Covenant Harbor) and he wants to do a regular time out on one of Harbor's pontoon boats with our kids (his oldest is 3 1/2). I think another friend Rico and his kids may join us too. That would be a blast!
• Church ... had church at the camp, then a bunch of church kids fished together, then a potluck for lunch. It was fun to all hang out like that and get to spend more time with the church family than we usually do.
• Swimming ... at the pool (the lake's too cold still). Good stuff. Both Timmy and Em are doing really well with being in the pool and stretching themselves. I was throwing Emma up into the air ... fun for both of us! She's so light I think I could throw her probably 10 feet in the air! Tim is doing well jumping into the deep end and not being bothered much by getting water in his face.
• Garage sales ... Cyndie and my sister, Laura, hit a bunch of sales on Saturday morning ... got a pretty good haul.
• Movie* ... Gow and I went to see Star Trek ... it was a good one!

*Review to come ... I know the public will be clamoring for one.

Now it's the work week. I think this will it will be pretty hard to focus on work as we'll be leaving for vacation on Friday (to the KS cabin of my aunt and uncle). The whole family is excited!

Speaking of ...

So Emma's speech yesterday went great! I watched the video of it last night after worship team practice and she was very good. A little quiet, but very confident. I was very proud of her for getting up in front of all the K - 5 graders and doing that.

And now one more day, and Spring Break begins! Tonight my folks, and sister and her fam (Laura) will be over for dinner to help us kick of the joyous event. The first big activity will be attending the Dancing Horses show on Saturday. There's even a bird show before hand. Good stuff. I'll also be working from home next week, which will be great!