Exiting Stage Left

Yep, The Life and Times of the Wildwood DeVries is about to go silent for 10, agonizing (for my loyal readers who won't get to hear about the latest coming and goings) days. Yeah baby! We're headed off for vacation at the Larsen cabin (thanks Uncle John and Auntie Diane). I was just talking with the kids at breakfast and telling them that this is where the summer really heats up ... action wise. We have this trip, during which we'll see some good friends from college, the Hobbys, and their six kids, then we'll see Auntie Diane and Uncle John, then we'll get home and Grandma and Grandpa D will be there and Auntie Jane will be there for July 4th, then we'll have Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Fred come for a visit, then our friends from CA, the Armstrongs (and their kids who are the same age as Em and Tim), will be visiting, then there's day camp for Emma and a trip to Auntie Jane's house (just her and her cousin Sarah), and somewhere in there a new cousin will be born!!!

Whew ... why don't you just site back and take that in for a bit ... that's a lot of action!

So we're off; we're hoping to leave around 10 ... drive to Bethany, MO where we're staying the night at a hotel (with indoor pool). Tomorrow we'll meet up with my cousin Marc to get the keys and have lunch together (maybe see his new house and puppy). Then it's off to the cabin for a week plus. The Hobbys will join us from Arkansas for a Sunday/Monday. Then Uncle John and Auntie Diane will be there the last weekend with us. Can't wait!! I took a poll at breakfast and Timmy, Emma, and I all voted that we were most looking forward to the fishing. Apparently we're becoming quite the fishing family. We decided that the best plan would be for Cyndie to be the pilot of the little boat, and the three of us would fish (and she would probably read)!

So enjoy the peace and quiet that I'll leave you ... expect more when we get back!

Star Trek, a review

Gow and I hit the fabulous Showboat Theater on Saturday for a view of Star Trek. Here's the take:

Star Trek (3.9/5)
I very much liked this movie. Not being a Trekkie (my Star Trek exposure is limited to The Wrath of Kahn and watching the Next Generation on TV), I didn't have much in the way of expectations, at least in regards to who the cast should be and how they should behave. That said, I expected a "big", "summer" movie, lots of explosions, action based plot.

The movie delivered on that, plus more. Now it was no Oscar type film, but it was a tight, well told story with more depth than 90% of the summer flicks. The acting was good, the effects top notch, and the team was able to tell the "origins" story for this iteration of the Enterprise while also giving us an interesting adventure/story.

Kudos all around, I recommend this movie.

Movies I've seen recently:
Juno - 4.8/5
Slumdog Millionaire - 4.6/5
Iron Man - 4.2/5
Wall-E - 4.0/5
Traitor - 4.0/5
The Dark Knight - 3.9/5
Star Trek - 3.9/5
Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist - 3.7/5
Kung Fu Panda - 3.5/5
The Passion - 3.5/5
Valkyrie - 3.5/5
The Incredible Hulk - 3.4/5
New in Town - 3.2/5
Horton Hears a Who - 3.0/5
Jonah, a VeggieTales Movie - 2.4/5
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 1.9/5
Burn After Reading - 1.5/5

Good Stuff, Reader

Yesterday was fairly typical ... had the Caspari kids around all day as Amy and Dave where down in Chicago for some tests on his liver function (please keep them in your prayers). But the fun thing I wanted to share today was what I discovered this morning when I went into Emma's room to open her curtains and let some light in. I'm in there, like I said, opening the curtains. Emma's not there. She walks into her room with her nose in a book (Cam Jansen ... thanks for turning us onto those Amy and Sarah). She's reading as she walks, and kind of wanders over toward me. I ask her for a hug, and she complies, then kind of settles onto my knee (I'd knelt on one knee to hug her) and leans back against me to use me as a chair while she keeps reading. Good stuff. It would appear that our "summer reading program" that we've instituted to try to challenge her a bit to read longer/harder books is already paying off!

In other news, we booked our trip to Cancun in July for our 15th anniversary. Cyndie and I spent some time, just before bed, looking at the website for the resort and anticipating the trip! We're excited!

Many Zeros

So, following up yesterday's post, the high did indeed come today when we checked (online) our account balances and saw that they had gone up SUBSTANTIALLY! Yeah baby!

So we had a celebratory dinner ... steaks all around ... with Laura and Gow and Sally. Followed up with the boys going over to my friend Eric's house for a late night of Settlers (with a sweet victory for me in the second game ... swiping it out of Gow's hands at the last second!).

This morning we set about using some of the money ... we're going to immediately pay off about 60% of the loan on this house, the remainder of the car loan, and the heater/AC bill, but want to do a little research and praying about how we want to invest the rest of the money.

The rest of the week will be scurrying around getting ready to leave for the Larsen cabin for our week of vacation there. The Caspari kids are up here with us today as Dave has some tests done to check his transplanted liver's functioning properly ... pray for that one.

Complete! Finished! Done!

The house closed ... whoohoo! Yeah God ... you did some cool things.

So, we've officially closed. After all the wrangling and phone calls and emails over the last month, it's seems like almost a little bit of a let down to just receive an email from our realtor which "just" said "Yay!!!!! We Closed!!!!". Especially because there was no immediate large check in our hands. I suppose that high may come today when (supposedly) the money is wired to our bank account.

Anyway, God is good, and he was very faithful during this process. Now we're really praying a lot about how to invest the money and how we can be good stewards of what he's given us now that things will be a lot less tight.

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!

Timmy the fisherman

So we've been doing a lot of fishing themed things lately. We got some poles for the kids to take on the camping trip a week ago. But Timmy's was too big, so I went and got him a 2.5 foot pole. He does great with that. Friday, while Emma was at a birthday party, I set up a game for him in the yard where he stood behind a line, and then had to cast into a big circle about 20 feet away. He was very patient and got pretty good at that. Saturday evening we went down to the Lake Geneva dock and fished for about 40 minutes. Timmy caught two little fish! Emma, not so much. And let me tell you, she was not happy that her little brother caught two and she didn't catch anything! Then this morning we had church at the camp, Covenant Harbor. Afterwards was a potluck, but there was plenty of time for the kids to play in and around that. So the kids fished a bit, and Timmy caught another one! He's doing awesome. He casts it well, and is very patient waiting for the bobber to bob (though he'd rather have me hold the rod ... maybe he gets bored during that time). So Emma and Tim each have their own little tackle box. But they want some more stuff, so we're going to go to Walmart now and buy a few lures and stuff with their money (Emma's idea). I'm also going to pick up a fishing license because I'm tired of watching them fish!!! So we're having a great time fishing as a family ... Cyndie enjoys it too, though just as much watching and sitting in the sun as fishing herself.

A friend, Eric, who works at Covenant Harbor, and I and possibly another friend are trying to arrange going out on one of Harbor's pontoon boats to fish with the kids ... that would be a blast, so we'll see where that goes. More fishing news as it breaks!