Another Week of Summer Gone

We had a quiet week compared to the last couple of weeks. We spent some time at home getting caught up on some stuff. Andrew closed on his loan for his office this week with Alliant Bank and they had asked him if they could put up a sign saying they financed the building in front of the office. Andrew thought that was fine just as long as it wasn't too big. We were both thinking it would just be one of those little plastic signs but to everyone's surprise, this is what they put up.
As Andrew said, it is "abnormally large". I took this picture as I was pulling into the parking lot, so it is not the best, but you can see Andrew's sign in the corner for comparison. It is supposed to be there for 30 days and it has sparked a lot of conversation.

We were supposed to have tee ball Tuesday but it got rained out. Then Wednesday we had a bbq for our small group as a last get together and to see of one of the girls in our group who is moving to Kansas City. The day looked good and Jackson and I set up everything outside and cleaned up. Then the storm rolled in, both inside and outside. I was trying to finish up cooking inside and I was trying a new dessert that wasn't working out quite right, Lincoln was following me around crying, Ellie and Jackson were fighting which ended in Jackson being sent up to his room. I had the mixer running trying to make some icing and it had to go for a certain time until it had a certain look. Jackson kept yelling for me and I finally turned off the mixer to hear him tell me he had a bloody nose. I get upstairs and he has blood all over the sink which I had just cleaned earlier that day. I help him out and get him stuff to start cleaning up and head back downstairs to continue cooking. And it was pouring outside. But we got everything taken care of and ended up having a nice get-together, even if it was inside.

Thursday we had Leah and her kid come over to the pool to swim. The kids had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave, but both Jackson and Zach had games that night. So we headed home, picked up some food on the way, ate a quick dinner and headed to the tee ball game. Luckily not many kids showed up from our team, so the batting went quickly and the game was over in 45 minutes. That night we ended up at the LaBeths and they were nice enough to let the kids help them shoot off some fireworks (we just acted like we didn't know it was illegal).

Lissy, Sara and her kids, and Andy, Autumn and their kids came into town on Friday. It was for a sad occasion though. One of the boys from our old neighborhood group, Troy Phillips, passed away Wednesday night. He was only 27. So we all went to the visitation on Friday and the funeral on Saturday. It just doesn't seem right that things like this have to happen and my heart goes out to the Phillips family.

Later that day, Zach came over to play so we got out Jackson's science experiment set and decided to do the volcano experiment. I think we were all imagining a decent-sized volcano but it only made a tiny one. But the kids did have a good time just making things fizz and change color.

Then Zach and his sister Kate came back later that evening to help launch Jackson's water rocket he got from my parents from Easter. It took Andrew awhile to get it all set up, but he finally got it going.

Each of the kids got to help pump (it had to be pumped 140 times).And then it was blast off.

But this happened on the second launch.

Zach's parents showed up soon after this and we discussed how to get it down and just decided to see if the wind would send it down. Well we had a storm early this morning. It took a little while but before we left for church, the inflatable rocket part fell out and then the foam base had fallen out by the time we got home from church. Jackson picked it all up later and everything looks good and we'll try it again sometime soon.

I just had to put up these pictures of Lincoln snuggling with Lissy and I. Every now and then he decides he likes to snuggle and I really like when he decides to do it with me.

It is hard to believe he is going to be one next month. He is so close to standing and walking, just if he wouldn't get so mad when we try to get him to do it. He has stood up on his own a couple times-going from squatting to standing. He took a step to me today from Lissy. He has also become territorial and if he sees someone touching a toy that he has decided is his (even if it isn't) he gets upset. I didn't think they were supposed to do that this early. I still think he is pretty sweet though. One cute thing he does is start saying, "Dada" when he hears the garage door open .