Chris and I have a day off.......together!! {insert gasp here!!!}

We spent the morning with Jon at the local museum looking through pictures and files from when Hillcrest was on this property!!   Do you see the little tiny house on the far left?  That is the other side of the duplex before they added on the other side.

The investigators!!

These guys were amazing....i wonder if they had any dear of heights

or if it just became second nature being up that indescribably high!!!!

Tree Planting after a clear cut......

Little School House!

And no day off with Chris is complete without......

Isaac and his amazing teacher Julie Marie.....its nice picking the boys up together.

A quick snapshot of an incredible night.......

Jon Mark's Carnival Photobooth!!!

This guy has skills: jonmarkphotography if you want to google him!!  But he made everyone look great, and so many people {campers AND staff} have already changed their facebook profiles to included his pictures!  Ah....social media!!   Here are a few of my fav's with some of my fav people!!!

 We aren't sure who this girl was....but she and isaac would play alot of the games together.....

 

Carnival Night!!

The afternoon was pretty low key....campers played on the water, beaded, hung out.....here is Mandy showing isaac how to do a basket weave....while he did that, i got a little camera lesson with Amber...so you will note that alot of my pictures will be a little washed out...so, sorry about that, but i am learning here people!!

Not much to say about the day....but here we are after a great chapel {i love chapel...and please note, i never used to!}..but a few of us joked that what you are about to see tonight in the gym is the 'other woman' in my marriage.  My husband would go to her, everynight for the last 2 weeks...sometimes until midnight!!  I am hoping that she was worth it, but that he will be coming back to me now!!

Yes....he is washed out...but it captured what isaac is really like right now....always whispering in my ear, scheming, planning, negotiating, for what ever he wants next....i mean, look at that tongue!!! sheesh.

Lisa!! 

My neighbor for the next 8 months....she likes to make cookies, i like her.

The view from my favorite spot at the bonfire.......taking it all in.

Isaac and his webface

We wanted to take a nice family shot at the photo both with Jon Mark

....ummm.. we didn't, thanks alot isaac.

My man of the hour......such a rock star.

Campers loved the photo booth!!

The plasma car race track was a total hit too!!

I loved this shot of Calea!!

Jax did pretty good considering how late he made it....{doesn't R look fab in this shot?}

R.'s man of the hour!!  He rocked the popular tractor rides!!

I think he was pretty happy tonight with his job....he is blending so well here, everyone

loves him to pieces.....

The dynamic duo!!  Finally!! 

After so many years of planning and dreaming....they are together with

their first official retreat under their belt and it was amazing!!!!

Tractor Ride with Rachel and Elliot!!!

Vertical Playground belayers!!

Elliot!!!!  he actually won at darts this evening....had to pop balloons....the kid actually has a good arm.  I was concerned for Megan who was at that stall, she just sorta stood to the side while they threw.  She tells me, she was pretty nervous with isaac throwing, but elliot was more steady.  Isaac got frustrated {as i would have}, and threw his dart into the garbage pail of the replacement balloons and popped a bunch as the dart fell down....sigh, oh isaac.  Elliot doesn't like getting his face painted, so he got his balloon's face painted enstead....genius!!

McAlary, Burdge, Christie.....

Sister wives take carnival night!!

She makes looking like a rockstar so easy......

Our old neighbors who live down the road now!  Sweet couple.....

So, the night was a success.  Isaac, again, came in at 11pm....elliot and i crawled into bed around 10:30pm...... 

It was a fantastic night....for 140 campers and 60 staff!! 
I hope they understand why we do all this for them.....

fall teen retreat begins....

There will be many shots of this weekend i believe....but here is the beginning, just to give you a feel and give me the memory that this happened when i read it 20 years down the road!!!

Rachel captured this sweet shot of our boys sitting with the big boys at dinner last night....love it!!!

 Isaac is 7 1/2 right now....in a grade 2/3 split....learning to read.  Here he is with Max during staff meeting with his Pokeman book that he snagged from the parents garage sale last weekend.  This boy carries this book with him everywhere and gets help from whoever is around with words that he can't get.  I am so proud because this shot is with Max, who is a great reader.....Isaac reads it to Max slowly, sounding out each syllable, and then Max would read it back to him faster so they could understand what is actually happening in the book.  {mitch told me the other day, that it was also Pokeman books that got him to read when he was 7 as well!! No wonder those 2 get along so well--isaac is like a mini-mitch 12 years ago!!}

Isaac also wrangled his dad into letting him stay up during the night game {"find camper jimmy"} and mug up--he got dropped off to get to bed around 11 last night...and he was up this morning at 8:15 to head down for breakfast at 8:30.

Like father like son....we need to get him setting tables soon, i think......get this kid a job!!!

This is what we live for......

I love what is happening in our family's life at this moment.  And in reading that '1000 gifts' book, i have learned that when you name the gift, its like saying thank you....so i am going to say a few words to name what i am feeling so thankful for tonight from the last 24 hours of 'gifts'.

1. Thursday Night dinners all together at the Rentons....kids running around, laughing....and all us adults just 'being' together.  It's all so new, but feels so comfortable....like we've all been friends for ages.

2.  Mitch coming to visit the boys and i yesturday.  Mitch has a spot in this family forever.....but i loved that when it was time to go...he was walking away across our deck, and Rachel arrived and was walking towards me, across our deck.  One staff in, the other staff out....tag team--it warmed my heart to see these young staff cross paths on their way to and from our house.....i don't know, maybe it sounds weird, but i noted it as it was happening, and it made me happy.

3.  Sarah walking my boys to the bus stop {don't worry sarah, i will put the picture up once i download my pics!}

4. Getting spanked at Jazzercise with Rachel and celebrating with a Big Mac afterwards!! {sorry mom...}

5. Running into Nicole and Adessa and hearing Adessa whining from across the thrift store we were in, and knowing it was her before i even saw them!! 

6. Best part of the evening; walking into the dining room {fall teen retreat has started} and being mobbed, hugged and attacked by summer staff whom i have missed and missed!!!!!!

7.  Watching my new old friend watch her kids play up at camp....so far, it doesn't get old that she is back on ground with me.

8.  Just being at camp...watching my boys be at camp.....happy, running, laughing.

9.  Watching Chris in his element.....i love him, alot.  But i am more than ready to see him slow down and come back to us.

10.  Best part of my whole life:  Holding elliot in my arms as he's falling asleep in chapel tonight and singing the song "He loves us, oh how He loves us" as i hold him.  I know it sounds cheesy to the readers of this blog who don't believe or who don't walk with jesus.....but alot of the readers here do believe and can relate to how solid those moments are....and i hope they stay on the brink of my memory forever. 

Kevin spoke tonight.....a small part of what i gleened from what he was trying to tell the teens is this:

Our experiences cannot define what we believe.

Mull that for a second, will you?  Because it was a good one for me to really soak in.  

To not let your theology be based on lukewarm or negative exeperiences that you have had.  Just because you only have certain experiences with the 'church' or 'christian people', you have to base your beliefs on something more solid than that.  Is yours based on your experiences with or impositions of other people, or on the One who has given you so many blessings in this life?

It's going to be a great weekend retreat with these teens....because THIS here, right now, this weekend with these kids, is really what we live for.

Subdivision Education

Super cute house, isn't it?

Here are the specs: 2 bedroom, 1 bath, on a 1/3 of a 'subdividable' city lot {very sought after since city lots are a little harder to come by}, 5 houses down from the Christian school in a family oriented area close to trails and the river.

Listed price: $225,000
Negotiated down to: $200,000
Subdividable lot assessed at: $110,000

So...there it was...sounds like a good investment, non?

Well....we have learned over the years, that opportunities come across your path and you need to investigate and trust your gut since both sorta work together.

We love our simple life...no mortgage, not a ton of real debt (stupid quad)....but at the end of each month, there isn't alot left over for retirement, you know? So, flipping has been our side job for the past 7 years.....

BUT---savings are slowly going down and it seems time to try to add to them again? Enter, stage left, sweet yellow house with subdividable lot!

Education in subdivision begin.

Turns out, you can just walk into city hall, demand to speak with a city planner about the lot you are interested in....and they will buzz one right down to you!! wha??? oh, ya, of course they would...cool...i will wait here.

SO.....enter sweet female city planner with maps and drawings and colors.....fancy...but i tried not to look impressed.

I tell her my grand scheme to get rich! She points to my goldmine on the map and says:

"Its a beautiful area, but this area has a high density population already.......{and then the bomb dropped}, so even though the lot is technically large enough to subdivide....we would not subdivide it to make a dense area even more populated."

I sighed.....thanked her for her time....and kicked the door open on my way out with my hands in my empty pockets......

I suppose my ship will be coming in, another day.

I relayed my educational tidbit to the realtor, who was surprised as well....but on the upside, i may have secured a job in his office within the next few months? This was a good reminder that i love this realty game, but would never want to be a realtor.....but maybe being an assistant could be fun?