Birthday weekend

As I closed out of my Thanksgiving post, I realized I forgot to mention my birthday. I took Friday the 16th off for my birthday and got to spend a wonderful day with Jim. We dropped the kids off to their Aunt Kims (on their moms side) and Jim and I spent the whole day together (until he had to go to work that night). We went to Lowes and Kohls to register for our wedding. Our first stop was Lowes and Jim parked the truck and I looked over and he was saying a prayer....I think asking the Lord to give him strength to be patient, It gave me a good laugh! Actually Lowes turned out better than he thought...once he got in there and we started, he chimed right in and thought of things to register for that I hadn't thought of. Then we went to Kohls and he was in charge of the scanning gun....he thought he was practicing with his real gun, it was too funny to watch. I registered for a pink....yes pink Kitchenaid mixer and he stood there for the longest time trying to convince me to go with a different color-honey, how many times will you be using it? :) Then Jim took me out to eat for lunch, we went home and I actually got to take a nap with him before he went to work. I then watched his niece and nephew while Dani got her hair done (her husband works second shift) and then I went to ride with Jim for a few hours in the police car!

Saturday our church had a women's Holiday tea....with 600 ladies in attendance. I took Grandma Deatsman and we had a very nice time. That night I went to Walmart and registered for our wedding, I will have Jim look over that one and add anything that he would like and then we are done with that.

Sunday was house work!!!!

Sorry for the posts being out of order...I am older now, so my memory is slipping :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our blog readers!

Zach has a Thanksgiving program at preschool today...unfortuneately they only allow two people to attend this one, so Jim and Zach's mom will be going, I will sit this one out. That is o.k., I am looking forward to his Christmas program.

We will be going to Jim's grandparents house in South Bend for Thanksgiving. Looking forward to that. It will be very difficult without his brother Brady this year....but with the family all together, we will get through the day. I plan on going to my parents house that night and Jim will go to work. Maybe a little shopping on Friday in Warsaw and then a Thanksgiving gathering for his dad's side of the family. Saturday a family gathering for lunch at Jim's moms house and then my cousin Joy's wedding that afternoon. Sunday, finish putting up Christmas decorations. We brought our tree up last night and Jim and the kids decorated it with the kid friendly ornaments and I will finish putting on my ornaments that my Grandma Marshall made me on Sunday. We didn't even test the lights on it.....oops, hope they work, I told the kids we would not be turning on the lights until after Thanksgiving.

Until next time....Trish

Major update

O.k....I am sure some of you have given up on my blogging. So sorry for the long delay in posting...been harder to do than I thought since we don't have internet at home.

Things at our house have been busy this fall.

Jim-He is loving his job at Syracuse Police Department. He had a great opportunity to attend a week long drug interdiction training class in Mississippi a couple of weeks ago and loved it. He is gearing up for Police Academy which will begin in January.
Zach-Loving school, puzzles, asking a zillion questions and pestering his sister.
Isabelle-Loves to play with her babies and being a monkey see monkey do type of sister.
Trish-Working and planning holidays and wedding.

Wedding-Things are going well, kind of at a stand still with planning. Jim and I will be going to register next week at a couple of places. I know he is just thrilled about this :)

Hope you enjoy the pics...they are out of order (this blog site is not the most easiest to use). So if you want to go in order...scroll down to our engagement pics and work your way up.

Happy Fall

Zach's school

A couple of weeks ago Zach was the leader for the day. This means it was his special day, he got to lead the Pledge of Alligence, bring treats and 2 show and tell items.

Just this week Daddy and I were in charge of games for their Halloween party (a few days late). Here is Daddy helping Zach with the craft of the day.
"Daddy, you want me to do what?"
Mrs. Conley gave Jim this hand puppet of a bear. The kids were to be resting while they each took a turn washing their hands in the restroom...so to get them up and seated for their snack, Jim had to touch a child on the back who was being quiet. This child was then able to go sit down for snack time. He went around to all the kids and poor Zach was last....you can guess this was from trying to show off since Daddy was there.

So we tried our own scarecrow. For the most part he turned out good, ours is just in the permanent sitting position.
Here are the kids with Lee....where did they come up with that name?
What would Halloween be with out Jack-O-Lanterns. Daddy informed me that we were using to big of knives (hence the cleft lip on the pumpkin to the left)

I just realized this is the one and only pic that I got of the kids in their costumes...Isabelle was a lady bug and Zach was a transformer (he was done with his mask by the end of the night). Here they are with Grandma Dixie.

Fall Pics

We visited Jim's sister Jodie and her family in Ohio in October. These are some pics of Freeman's Farm. We had a great weekend together...thanks Chuck and Jodie.
Chuck, Jodie, Tyler and Gracie
Getting ready to make a scarecrow
Have you ever seen two grown men making a scarecrow?
They did a great job...here is the outcome, isn't he adorable

Fall Pics

Isabelle, Zach and Tyler on the hayride
Zach, Cousin Tyler, Isabelle and Cousin GracieThe kids playing around at Freemans Farm in OhioJim was a helper in Zach's class as they went to Mrs. Bishops farm to pick out a pumpkin and go for a hay ride. Daddy had to use his muscles this day as he got the job of lifting all of these kids into the wagon!

So many to choose from....

Sorry this took a few posts....blogger only lets you add a certain amount of pictures at a time. We had these taken Saturday by Al Disbro...what a great guy. He had us all over Winona Lake and even gave us the history of the town. Thanks Al!!! After 2 1/2 hours and over 400 pics later...Jim still wants to marry me :) He must love me. This is good, becuase I love love love this guy. Can't wait till May 24 honey :) Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

More pics

Engagement pics!!!

We had our engagement pics taken on Saturday. Here are a few, I will try to post more tomorrow...enjoy!!

Time flies

Well-where does the time go? uggghhhh, so much for my weekly updates. I am so sorry, hopefully you all haven't given up on me and still check out the blog once in a while.

Zach still has his cast on, should get it off Oct. 3. It has not stopped him one bit. We had to deter him from using it as a club :) He is still loving school, comes home and talks about different class mates all the time. It was so cute last night, Jim was working and the kids and I were at home. Zach had a book order to turn in on Monday, but he did not want to pick out books until his sister went to bed. He loves his sister, but you can tell he is starting to get to that big kid stage and he doesn't always want his sister around....escpecially in his room. Oh Lord help us explain to a two and a half year old why big brother doesn't want her in "his" room.

Jim's job is going great, loving it every day. It is awesome to listen to his stories when he comes home. He had his first meth drug bust this past weekend, that was pretty exciting...go hunny go, get the bad guys (as the kids would say). He will be going to Missouri for a week in October for a Drug interdiction class and then in January will be starting Police Academy and will be gone Mon-Thur every week for I believe 10 weeks :( At least he will be able to come home on the weekends. He sure knows how to get out of wedding planning, ha ha he he

Speaking of wedding plans, they are coming along good. Got the caterer booked last week, so one more big thing done. Two of my bridesmaid and I went looking for their dresses a couple of weeks ago...that was fun. Hopefully we will get these ordred by December. I also mentioned to Jim that we need to start thinking about registering somewhere...I am sure he will be thrilled to do that.
Well, I think that is all for now...until next time!

Poor Mr. Zach

Well it happened the first of a few I am sure. Yep, Mr. Zach fractured his wrist on Wednesday night. Jim got a call from Zach's mom on Thursday asking him to take Zach to the doctor and here is the outcome.

What a trooper he was...did not even cry when they put a cast on. He will wear this until Oct. 3 and then they will take another look at it. It was called a "buckle fracture".

Have a good weekend.

Sisters

I saw this picture scroll by on my screen saver and thought I would share with everyone as I thought it was a good picture of Jim and his sisters.

Jodie is on the left...she is married to Chuck and they have two beatiful children, Gracie and Tyler, they live in Ohio.

Dani is on the right...she is married to Jason and they have two beatiful children, Jaycie and Reise, they live just a few miles from us in Pierceton.

I can't wait to "officially" call them my sister-in-laws :)

Catch up!

Well what happened to my goal of updating our site once a week???? Well, I will try to update the last few weeks in this one blog.

Here are some pics of the Harman family gathering in South Bend. What a nice day it was...I think a good time was had by all. This first pic is of Isabelle and her cousin Jaycie sittin back trying to stay out of the sun. Jaycie is the one that we so graciously get hand me down clothes from!!! Thank you cousin Jaycie.
Took the opportunity to have a photo op with my hunny...may see this one in a slide show at the wedding :)
There was a community pool across the street from the park we were at...so a bunch of us took advantage of that.

Here are some pics from our camping weekend at Yogi Bear. Even though it rained quite a bit, we tried to make the best of it.Oh how we loved Daddy's smores that he made for us...they were yummy.

Despite the cold temps, the pool was heated so we got lots of swim time in...we love the water!It is amazing to watch the kids and how much better they get each time we go swimming. This time we put little swimmer floaties on Isabelle and she just swam all over that pool...hard to believe she is only 2 1/2 years old...not afraid of much.

Daddy and the kids husking sweet corn for me our first night of camping.

And finally....Yep, First day of Preschool for Mr. Zach. He loves it!

We had a good holiday weekend. Jim worked security for the Blueberry Festival in Plymouth 3 nights and we were actually able to spend the whole day together on Monday.

This pretty much wraps up the last few weeks in a nut shell. Hopefully I will be better with posting in the future!

Weekend plans

Well, we have another fun weekend planned with the kids. We are going camping at Jellystone in Pierceton. We did this last year and the kids loved Yogi Bear...so right now we plan on making it an annual tradition. Maybe in the future we can plan more weekends doing this as it is so close to home and we are fortunate to be able to borrow my mom and dad's camper....Thanks Mom and Dad!!! A downer is....the weather is suppose to turn for the cooler, like Saturday is only to be 75....oooh that will be cold swimming. There are several other things to do, so hopefully we can keep the kids busy if we don't go swimming as much as we would like to. This weekend the theme is "Halloween", so maybe the kids will get to do some early trick or treating.
After we had this planned, Jim had the opportunity to work a few hours doing security at an Amish auction and I was invited to my cousin Joy's bridal shower...so Aunt Dani will be watching the kids for us a few hours on Saturday....Thanks Aunt Dani!!!

Jim has had Army all week in Fort Wayne for part of his annual training...so he has been off work, but the good thing is, he has been home every night with us :) We love that.

Isabelle is doing pretty well at potty training. We had a rough night Tuesday night...accident while eating dinner at home, accident in Wal-mart and accident in her car seat on the way home from Wal-mart. Do you know how hard it is to get car seat covers off to wash them....wow enough to make one scream! Jim gave up trying and took the garden hose to it, later on I gritting my teath from my frustation with the difficulty of dealing with it got it off, but then had an equal difficult time getting it back together after washing it in the washer. Anyway, amazing how the "big ordeals" as we think they are...really are just minor things in the big picture.

Zach is getting all ready for school. He starts Tuesday and can't wait. It will be a big day...escpecially for Daddy!

Hopefully I will hae some pics from the upcoming weekend to post next time.

Take care

School time

Well Mr. Zach received his letter in the mail for Preschool!!! We had a letter from his teacher Mrs. Conley along with her picture. Oh he is soooo very excited. He was even more excited when Daddy took him to get his hair cut Friday night and found out that Mrs. Conley is the wife of his and Daddy's barber...he just thought that was cool.

This weekend was filled with wedding plans with my mom and the kids (Jim had Army). It is an exciting time. We went Saturday to look at the ampitheater (another time of many to come I am sure) and the kids loved it...they ran and ran all over...wish I had that much energy! We were trying to visualize how to set things up and discovered that I will need two guest book areas since there will be people coming in at two different places. Sunday was a work day at home cleaning out closets and the kids picked up all of their toys in the basement...then Daddy called and needed us to come and get him, he was a mile down the road and his tire flew off of his car. Yikes...very scary. We are fortunate that he did not get hurt and no one else was coming or the tire might of hit them. What a way to end the week...his car was towed to the mechanic.

If it weren't for bad luck, we wouldn't have any luck at all as we say in our house :( Main thing is everyone is o.k.....no injuries.

We are looking forward to the Harman family picnic in South Bend this Saturday. We will let you know how it goes :)

Wedding plans!!!

Wow-First I can't believe I am getting married..but 2nd, I did not realize all the little details needed for a wedding! Maybe we should of taken up my Dad's offer of money to elope. Just kidding.

Well we have the date set-May 24, 2008...place-Winona Lake Ampitheater...reception-Shrine Building at the fairgrounds...DJ-Jay Michaels from Willie 103.5 fm...Hair-Janel Montel (friend and part owner of Expressions Day Salon)...Bridesmaids-all picked...Groomsmen-1 picked...Wedding dress-on order.

Hopefully I will get the photographer booked today and start making appointments to sample caterers. Looking at the Bridal time line, I am in line.

Anyway-this weekend should be pretty quiet. Jim has Army Saturday and Sunday...so the kids and I will get to hang out and then we will spend time with Daddy in the evening.

Have a good day

Favorite Sites

I forgot to mention that I added a couple of favorite sites. The one is my sister's blog and the other one is a link to the website for the Village at Winona. When you get to that site and click on venues and select the Ampitheater you will see a picture of where Jim and I are getting married.

We got paper work with all the details of Zach's Preschool!!! He will be starting school on August 21. He is so very excited....we will see how long that lasts in his school days.

Have a great day.

Productive weekend

Well we had a productive weekend. Friday night my nieces spent the night with Aunt Trish and we had a ball. I was cleaning up from dinner and found Miss Hallie standing in our pool with all of her clothes and shoes on. So I stripped her down and she played the rest of the night butt naked and Kerstin was down to her underwear swimming and playing :) Good thing we have corn around our house this year, or I might of been turned in for exposing the child. Agh-the freedom of living in the country.
Saturday I mowed my parents and my grandma's yards....so glad we got that rain last week, the lawns look more lively. Saturday night I got to spend with my honey....yep in the squad car. Hey I have to take any time that I get to spend with him now that he is on night shift. I patroled with him until midnight or so. It is pretty awesome to watch him do his job and catch the "bad guys" , as the kids say.
Sunday we went to church and then I mowed and did other house work...had to try and stay quiet as Jim got some sleep. The kids came that afternoon and we played the rest of the evening at my mom and dads.....oh got to love the dirt piles over at their house. The bath water was brown that night!!!
That wraps up our weekend.
Have a good week

Water park pics

Well I finally have our water park pics back...here are a few.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. We spent a lot of time on both of the lazy rivers.
Sissy-you can't hide from us.
Mr. Zach
Daddy is crazy, yep that is him on the right slide....straight down.

A few pictures from the summer

O.k., I got these pics out of order...this one goes with one at the bottom...we were in a parade this summer.
One of the two concerts we put on at the fair. This is Jason Michael Carroll, he sings Alyssa Lies (country music)
2nd concert-Bucky Covington (past American Idol contestant)

Zach was in a parade this summer and the theme of his float was M*A*S*H. Boy did daddy have a good time painting his face in camo paint (after this pic was taken).
We put Zach in a one week class at his preschool that he is going to be attending this fall. He had a blast (hope this means he will like school). This is a volcano that he made that week.
My favorite snuggle time is jammie time!!!!
We were in a parade as a family-the kids thought this was way cool...they got to ride in daddy's police car.