Jordbruksdagarna

...or Ag Days if you're not Swedish.

My mom and I took all 4 kids to Bishop Hill on Sunday. It's one of our favorite festivals they have there and we try to get there every year. The kids love it. The adults love it. It just happens that this particular weekend, everyone was out of town or busy, so it was just the kids, mom, and me. It's so fun for the kids.

They get to hear stories...

Make their own bricks...

Brooklyn
Emmy
Jack and Tyler

Make popcorn...

And a few other things.

Mom and I get to pick out our pumpkins and a few fall decorations. The kids get candy from the Colony Store. We have lunch in the park. And this year...Emmy even won a pumpkin. She did tell us after she won that she had actually prayed that she would win and that is why she won it. (You can tell they go to private school;) Anyway, good times had by all!

The neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood didn't know what it was getting when the Chatterton's moved to town! There seems to have been an incident last week with this guy:

and an innocent little neighbor girl.

Ugh.

I'll give you a little breakdown. Jack was sitting at the dinner table looking rather sad.

Me: Jack. What's the matter?

Jack: I feel bad that I hurt Addi's arm. I didn't mean to.

Me: Well, what happened.

Jack: I just fell on her.

Brooklyn: It wasn't his fault, mom!

Me: Of course he didn't do it on purpose. Did you? Were you wrestling?

Jack: No! Why would I wrestle a girl?

Me: Well, because you wrestle your sister all the time. Anyway, I'm sure Addi is fine.

Jack: They were on the way to the doctor.

Me: What? Are you sure? We'll go down and check on her later. I'm sure they were just going to run errands.

The evening gets away from us and we don't get a chance to check on Addi, so Friday after school I ask Brooklyn if Addi was on the bus. "Nope. She got a cast."

Ugh.

So, I ask Brooklyn to give me all the details from the night before. Apparently Jack was giving Addi a piggy back ride around her house and he'd already been around it 5 times and got too tired so he fell to the ground. Right on top of Addi's wrist.

The kids took balloons down on Saturday morning and said there would be no more piggy back rides. I haven't gotten the full details of the injury, but whatever she has on her arm has to be there for 3 months.

Ugh.

Let it Be.

Can I just say, I despise calling the All Kids Hotline?
As many of you know, when our insurance company dropped Olivia last year, she was thankfully picked up by the State's All Kids program. To date, we have had no problems with them at all, which is also a blessing. However, I called to cancel Olivia's coverage back in June, but I keep receiving a statement saying we owe them for her July and August premiums. I've been holding off on calling them because it puts in me in such a weird place when I call. Why, you wonder? No matter what time of day I call, I'm always put on hold forever...like 18 minutes and 26 seconds forever. And the problem with that is the fact that they have the most beautiful, simple, keyboard music playing "Let it Be" in the background. The first time I called, I remember, so vividly, sitting in Olivia's room in the hospital just listening to the music. It's actually a wonderful memory...but, it makes me miss her so darn much every time I call.
So, if any one from the State is reading this, could you please change your "hold music" or take care of our account so I don't have to call again. I would really appreciate it!

...And then I go to my email to read my daily devotion and needed to come back and share this snippet...

"His perspective on things that are troubling me starts to over shadow my anxiety. Like shade on a hot summer's day, I feel relief in His presence. I know that He is preparing me for what I will need throughout this day. He is already standing in every minute of my day and He sees what I will face. So, He's equipping me to be able to handle what is ahead of me with His gentle boldness, quiet strength, and loving grace."

God is good all the time and all the time, God is good! Guess He's just trying to tell me to "Let it Be."

It's been a while...

Since I've shared a few blessings with you that we've experienced lately.

One of our good friends from Galesburg is running the Chicago Marathon which is huge in and of itself, but he is also running it in memory of Olivia! Be sure to check out his website: www.active.com/donate/upsfordowns2009/SHickey7.

I mentioned in the last post that my mom, Brooklyn, and I walked in the American Heart Association HeartWalk. While we were there, we were able to enjoy so many people. During the "warm-up" time, one of Olivia's former nurses, Angela, came up with another person and said she just had to introduce us. Long story short, this woman worked in the OSF billing office. She said she would come across these enormous bills and think about this particular patient and what a fighter she was. She knew Olivia was a heart patient (she was a former cardiac nurse and could tell from the bills) and could just tell she was an amazing little girl that had been through so much. She said she would pray for her and cheer her on every time she saw one of her bills. She asked Angela if she knew this little girl and if she was at the walk. When she mentioned that little girl was Olivia, Angela just knew we had to meet her.

It was awesome meeting this complete stranger and hear how Olivia had touched her life, too.

We still haven't heard anything from the birthday balloons. Oh well. We'll just have to be sure to send more next year and pay the extra 30 cents for the "hi-float" stuff they put in the balloons to make them last longer.
My only fear now is that some farmer is going to get the balloon stuck in his combine and come after us. Wouldn't that be just our luck?

Another crazy, busy weekend!

Where to begin...I'll try to make this short and sweet, but it was one big weekend.

Friday evening we went to the Dunlap game to watch them beat the Morton Potters...Go Eagles! Saturday was a day full of hard labor (only appropriate for Labor Day Weekend, right?)

Zac actually laid this...

and finished this...

and worked on this...

I was so excited! It was getting really frustrating to look outside at this all the time...

Especially when the workers up the road were also planting sod at a house that they started building the day that we moved in!

Mom, Brooklyn, and I also walked at the HeartWalk with a lot of Olivia's former nurses, doctors, etc... I have no pictures, but some good stories to share, but I'll save that for another post.

Saturday night...a fun-filled family evening. We decided to get together with the family and have a football-themed night. Everyone picked their favorite football team and brought food and a beverage from that city. It was very entertaining to see what everyone came up with. We had everything from Low Country Seafood Casserole, to Chicago Style Hot Dogs, to Fried Ravioli, etc... Good Food, Good Times.

Sunday was the first day for the kids to go to Sunday School here. Jack was soooooo nervous, but once they got in there, they both noticed kids from school and loved it! We then spent some more quality family time at my parent's house for the annual Family Fantasy Football Draft. This is the real deal, folks. I mean, my cousin flies in from Florida for this. Normally, I boycott the event, but this year I decided to partake in the festivities. Let's hope I have a good team!

Monday...a lazy morning. I took the kids to the Labor Day parade. It was a really nice one. The perfect length with a lot of groups you just don't normally see.

Then last night, Zac's parent stopped by for a visit, the kids played around the neighborhood, we ate some Chinese, and hit the sack!

I'm ready for a quiet week, but it's not looking like that's in the cards. We'll see what comes of it!