This is perhaps the oldest object in our home. It is a small hymnbook of John Wesley’s Hymns. It contains 769 hymns. Just words, no music. It has no publishing date. It was published in London. The only date written in the book was on the second page where someone had written this name and the date in a sepia fountain pen (it looks like).
The cover is quite worn and the spine of the book is coming apart. I would guess it is probably near this old, but not sure. Sam picked it up at some garage sale once. I included some of the text from the book on my page just because I thought the language used was interesting and it kind of states why these small hymnbooks were made. If anyone would know more information about this book, I would be interested in finding out more about it.

I spent a lot of time this weekend in the yard…here is one spread in my journal that resulted from it. Savannah had painted this page in my journal several days ago, and I drew the lawn mower on top of it.

Today is our 12th anniversary. I can’t believe that twelve years have already passed. It just doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. On our date, we drove up to Lansing to eat at Carraba’s Grill..a restaurant we had never been to before. It was pretty good…and I drew this picture of our table.

As I was drawing the waitress came and asked me if I wanted my meal boxed up, cause I had hardly touched it (because I wanted to draw it), I felt kind of weird for drawing, and told her I was letting it cool. Anyway, after our dinner we went over to Barnes & Noble’s to hang out and look at books…but we spent a little too much time in there and by the time we wanted to go, it was already almost 7:30. Luckily, there was a small theatre right there and we saw the only movie that had just started the previews…we bought tickets for Bewitched and got in our seats just in time. It was a cute movie.

During the time we spent together we reminisced about the stupid things we used to do, how things used to be and our wedding night, we talked about how great our kids are and how when we got married, we never imagined that 12 years down the road we would have the three awesome kids that we do. We talked about how we love each other and Sam told me I am a great mom and wife (of which I sometimes have doubts) and that he can’t imagine life without me. Even though I know he feels that way about me, it is still so nice to hear it.

My daddy. The other day we were talking. He told me he is proud of me. I have a lot of great memories from my childhood of my dad.
When I was four (1974) he built my sister and I this awesome snow fort. We had a huge snowstorm and the drifts were over my head. He dug out part of a drift and inside made benches and a table which he covered with a piece of cardboard from a box. Mom brought us hot chocolate to drink while we sat in the fort. It felt like we were in an igloo at the North Pole. My dad was the coolest.
I remember when I was probably around 7 he planted this big garden in our back yard. He was very proud of it. We all worked hard on it. He was devestated when one day he went out to the garden and every plant had been pulled up and layed there wilting in the sun. A jealous neighbor boy had done it (we found out later)…but I can still remember the look on his face.
I remember him leaving to go hunting on my birthday…I asked for a deer for my birthday. (I didn’t even really want to have a deer…but it seemed like the thing to do since my birthday is the same day as the opening for deer season in Michigan).
When I was 9 we moved to a house that had a lot of trees and a huge yard. I remember spending hours raking all the leaves in our yard. Then dad would let us jump in them and throw them up in the air over our heads. It was a blast. He played in the leaves with us.
I remember one time when my dad found a 12 pack of beer in the trees behind the parking lot behind our church. He brought it over and we went out behind the barn and emptied every one of them out. I can remember how gross the warm beer smelled and I promised never to drink beer.
I remember talks about friends and boys on our monthly trips to the orthodontist. We had to travel at least an hour to get there. Sometimes we would eat breakfast at Burger King. Those trips were our special times together and even though I was growing up, I still liked being with my dad.
…so a lot of time has passed since then. Now we talk about raising kids. He sometimes asks what I think about specific situations relating to how they raised us. He asks us for ideas about raising kids (because he teaches parenting classes at his church). It’s really different now and a lot of times we all laugh about things that happened and how he and my mom handled things. I learned from some of those things though.
My dad taught me a lot…but one thing I admire the most about dad is his incredible patience. There were times when we were growing up that any other man would have walked out…but he stuck to it, he made things work, he loved my mom, he loved all of us. His love for our family was much stronger than any problem that we ever encountered. It seemed like nothing ever bothered him (though I know it did). He was (and still is) a very strong person and I hope I can be patient and have the perserverance and integrity that is still evident in his life. Thanks dad for being a great role model for me…so many people I know never had the opportunity to experience a father like you and I am so grateful to have you.

I drew this picture in my journal from a photo that my mom took and titled “The Sleepy Husteds”. It was taken toward the end of November 1974 when I was around 2 weeks old.

This afternoon as I was just beginning to get the kids ready to take them to a friend’s house to swim, Sam announced we were meeting his dad for lunch at 2:00. What? I said, it was around 11:30 and this was the first I had heard of it. It was a last minute thing, as it usually is, but I had already made plans and told the kids what we were doing. So…ok, I told the kids we were just going to go out and play in the pool in the yard and we’d go to the pool tomorrow. I didn’t really feel like driving for 45 minutes to go eat lunch and then drive home. And actually it ended up being 3:00 that we were to meet them, and we had to be at church at 5:30 for Vacation Bible School tonight…so we weren’t going to be able to go home first. Anyway, my point is, even when I don’t feel like doing something, taking my journal along gives me an opportunity to look forward to something. I didn’t actually open it till we were on our way home, but it made a trip that I didn’t feel like making fun. I love drawing. I decided to draw the road as we were riding along…something I haven’t tried before. It was challenging, as the scenery was always changing…but I still like how it turned out for the most part.

This afternoon while the boys were napping, Savannah and I spent some time in the back yard. I mowed our new grass finally…I’ll have to mow it again tomorrow…it was so long that a lot of it just layed down and didn’t cut. After I got so hot I couldn’t stand it, I splashed water from the kiddie pool over my face and neck and went to sit in the shade and drink some water. I brought my journal and stuff outside hoping to draw some. Savannah found a bunch of strawberries, and I asked her to save me three so I could draw them first. After sketching them I found some flowers to draw and made notes about them. Does anyone know what kind of flowers they are? I am not familiar with too many flowers and I would love to know what they are.

Tonight, my drawing class met at the Mt. Evergreen Cemetery. I think it was probably the first cemetery in Jackson…not sure though. It has some very old graves…from the 1800’s. It is on the south side of Jackson, only a quick drive from downtown. Fred said that when it was established, there was some controversy because it was so far from downtown. It can’t be that far though…maybe 3 miles…anyway, it is on a high hilly area…with tons of old trees. It’s so beautiful…and because it is higher than the residential areas around it, the noises of the neighborhoods are not as noticible. We could hear so many birds, and it was so beautiful, peaceful and quiet, and although some of the group was not too sure about drawing in a cemetery, we all remarked about what a wonderful place this was to draw. It was so relaxing and I am sure everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I did.

Max turned three yesterday! I was out running around grabbing things for the party, and as I was driving, it was about the time that he had been born. I can hardly believe it was three years ago already! Max woke up today, bursted out of his room and announced “It’s my Birthday today!!!” He was very excited and could hardly wait till his party later that evening.

We had a Finding Nemo Party at Uncle Jason and Aunt Mick’s House…they had a pool, and we all thought that would be a blast! But as it turned out, Friday was pretty cold…and only the most daring souls braved the water. Actually the water was warm, but the air was definitely too cold to be enjoying a swim…thank goodness for the hot tub, which quickly became the place to be!

Here are some really cute pics of Max…thought you might enjoy them!

This is what I get when I ask Max to smile for a picture!

The Rescue Heroes were a big hit!

Thanks to our good friends for hosting the party for Max and thanks to all the friends and family who came…it was a blast! The best was watching Max open all his presents…he was so excited he was shaking!

Tonight…even though the weather was cold and rainy…we met out at McCourtie Park in Somerset Township for our first ever letterboxing adventure. It was an adventure…and now we are hooked!

This is Mary when she found the first letterbox

This page only shows 5 of them. I did the 6th one on another page, but it’s missing the 7th (because we couldn’t find it) so I will scan it later

My Camera died after 3 pictures and I am bummed, because none of these pictures even show the coolest part of this park…the bridges. It’s ok. We have to go back anyway and find the last letterbox. It was getting dark and the clues were confusing so we had to leave before we found it. There were 7 hidden in this park and the clues were written as a story, so it was a lot of fun…(shoot! I just itched my foot on my leg and I still have my pants on…I stepped in so much poison ivy…yikes)
Anyway, we made a big list of stuff to bring with us next time. So if you ever decide to try one of these fun adventures, you may want to follow the tips on our list!

*make sure you wear pants – there was a lot of poison ivy
*bring baby wipes to clean the stamps
*spray yourself down with some OFF!
*don’t wear sandals – wear shoes that cover your feet…and socks
*Julia brought us a blanket to sit on…that was a great idea
*walkie talkies for when you split up (if you go with friends)
*extra copies of the clues for each person
*more snacks…especially for a long adventure like this one!
*if you have to be to work at 10:00 make sure you leave in enough time to get ready. (Cyndi!)

We had so much fun with this…and we are planning to do it again I am sure. Our challenge for the summer will probably be to put together some letterboxes and plant them around here. We have a lot of ideas of where. There are no letterboxes in Jackson county, so we hope to change that. It should be a fun thing to do in our little group.

If you want to find out more about letterboxing check out the Letterboxing North America website.

click here for a larger view

Karson was born in the fall, just 2 weeks after school started. I took off 6 weeks for my maternity leave. Knowing everyone would want to see pictures when I went back to work, I made up this little book to show off my family. I did not use anyone else’s idea for making this, I totally contrived it on my own, although I had seen small book necklaces before…I had never seen this. I actually started making it without really knowing what it was going to end up like. The pictures inside were printed from my inkjet printer on photo paper in a really small size…14 pictures 1.5 x 2″. I made the black paper strips just a slight bit bigger, so the actual folded size of the page is more like 2.25″ x 1.75″. The cover was cut from matt board and covered with a shiny finish paper that is printed with a mosaic pattern…and had hints of green and purple, which ended up being my color scheme.

The cover dimensions are 2.5 x 2 and it is about a half inch thick. I attached a ribbon to the spine under the end paper which is easily slid over my head to wear as a necklace. That made it easy to carry around. The closure was made by attaching an art bead with wire through two holes in the spine and twisting it together. I attached a loop of ribbon to the front which just fits over the bead tight enough to hold it closed, but it’s pretty easy to slip off as well. It was a little difficult to figure out how to engineer the whole clasp thing, but I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. The pictures inside were pictures of my kids: 7 of Karson, 5 of Savannah, and 2 of Max…some of the pictures have Savannah and Max and Daddy in them with Karson. I got so many compliments on it. That wasn’t really the point of making it, but maybe people just liked it because it was a different way to show off baby pictures…I don’t know. Several of my friends said I should teach a class on how to make them. I was thinking of making up some instructions and posting them on here.