Mendonite Welkers: It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I have last posted. There's laundry that needs to be folded and put away and the kitchen could use a little TLC but I have no energy at the moment, the girls are in bed, and Dave is off to young men's so I have turned on the TV to the Biggest Loser, kicked up my feet, talked to Ashley twice because she "just can't'' seem to go to sleep, and I've taken charge of Dave's laptop to update the blog.

I am not very good at writing a weekly family letter to our favorite Missionaries so I've decided that I need to do a better job of keeping the blog up-to-date so they have something to refer to to see how we're doing. I am extremely impressed with Janee and Linda for doing the weekly letters. Way to go you two!

No major happenings have been going on with our family so I'll do the run down on what everyone has been doing.

Dave has been fighting the cold and ickiness for the past two weeks. Two Fridays ago he did not go to work and this is when you know he doesn't feel good. He rarely takes sick days. He was also suppose to go with his Young Men's group for an over night camp out but he felt so terrible he didn't even do this. He probably wished he had because we had Alicia and Rachel (cousins) spend the night with Hannah and Ashley so it was a "total chick" weekend. He was a bit out numbered but handled it very well.

Last Tuesday, Dave came home from work to find that the sump pump in the crawl space was not turning off. It had been cycling for the past few weeks but now it was constantly running. He went down in the crawl space to find lots and lots and did I say lots of water. After a trip to Lowe's to purchase another sump pump and some 1 1/2 inch hose, both Dave and I were down in the crawl space after putting the girls to bed to dig a hole for the second sump pump and to sponge out the water from our water heaters. Once the second pump was up and running with the bigger line we were able to see the "stream" of water coming into the crawl space. The weather has gotten a bit cooler so the water has slowed coming in but yesterday we got another 16 inches of snow so I'm sure there will be more water by the end of the week when the temperatures start rising.

Dave is leaving Thursday and heading to Island Park for a snowmobiling weekend with some buddies. This will actually be the first time this year he has gone snowmobiling. It's a well deserved vacation. This will also be the first time the girls and I have been in Mendon by ourselves....hmmmmm....could be interesting.

Hannah has had some fun the last couple of weeks with cousins and friends. As I mentioned earlier, two Fridays ago Alicia and Rachel slept over. The crazy girls were up until 11 o'clock watching High School Musical 3 and then back up by 7 a.m. to get some more playing in.

Last Friday she went to a friends house after school for a play date and had a fun time. Especially because this friend has a dog. Yes, we have been under the pressure for a pet! We're holding strong though. No pets in the house and no pets outside until we have grass!

On Sunday we had our good friends Pete and Tif and Chris and Sue over for dinner, which made for six extra kids in the house and lots of playing for Hannah and Ashley. Hannah is still trying to recuperate from not getting to bed until 9:30 Sunday night and having to get up early for school.

Yesterday while leaving school, Hannah shut her thumb in the school main doors. Her thumb nail has turned blue and it really looks like it hurts. We're watching to see if we're (okay, Dave) is going to need to puncture a hole in the fingernail to reduce the pressure.

I am loving Ashley's cute little imagination. A couple of weeks ago when I dropped her off at day care she told me to tell Traci (day care provider) that Ashley was sick but MaKayla came in her place. As the days have passed, MaKayla has spend more and more time at our house and Ashley has moved to MaKayla's. On Sunday, Ashley even went to the front door and knocked to let MaKayla in. She has now resorted to calling me Michelle instead of mom because I am Ashley's mom and not MaKayla's. Oh how I would love to be three again and have an imagination like hers. She use to have a "friend" named Jenny. She was imaginary but very real to Ashley. Jenny could do anything. I mentioned to her on Saturday that I hadn't heard much about Jenny and she informed me that Jenny is sick and can't come over until she feels better. Where do they come up with this stuff?

Nicole might only be 17 months old but to her she is at least four. She tries to do anything and everything that the other two do. She is currently trying to get her eye teeth so she's a bit cranky and fevers every once in awhile but other than that she is a joy to have around. She has found her voice though and is very loud when she is cussing you out, which she did tonight all the way home from McDonalds because she was not ready to get in the car! Man, she was loud!

One more month and she heads to nursery. I cannot wait until this day. Don't get me wrong I love my girls but when you can go to church and actually make it through an entire lesson and leave knowing what the subject of the lesson was, it's a glorious day! I am in the nursery once a month and have been taking her with me so I'm hoping the transition will be smooth.

As for me, I'm still trying to keep my head above water. Some days I feel as though I'm sinking and other days I feel like I'm barely treading the water but nonetheless we trudge forward. I am looking forward to a weekend filled with fun "girl" stuff. With Dave gone my Mom and I have decided to take a break from the weekend cleaning and do some shopping and hit Chili's for lunch. We haven't done this with the girls for quite awhile so we're (I'm) looking forward to it.

Until next time, which hopefully isn't too far away.

Here's some most recent pictues.....I'm sad to say that I don't have a recent one of Ashley. Yes, I am feeling like a terrible mom at this moment. Note to self.....more pictures of Ashley (or should I say MaKayla) this week.

Hannah spend a couple of hours making this Giant book. She taped, cut, glued, and wrote a story to go along with it. She enjoys publishing books at school and at home.