Jamie had a fun-filled birthday!

We picked up a cake at Casey's bakery on Saturday and had cake and ice cream with grandma and grandpa Pollema on Sunday after church!

Here is our teenager!!

Spent the day with her best friend Josie Kollis on her birthday - getting ready to scuba!!

Jamie went first

Here we go

Next was Josie's turn

First time Mike was in the pool this year and he went also - YEAH!!

Everyone had a great time and Josie and Jamie did it again the next day and went into the deep end of the pool - very exciting for them and they were very relaxed and pros from the get-go!

Smiles are priceless - enjoy your teenage years girls - love ya!!

Our baby is a teenager today!

JAMIE IS 13 TODAY - she is babysitting this girl with her in the picture today and then has volleyball camp at dordt - then so is taking a suba diving class at the pool and then maybe her dad and mom will get to spend some time with her tonight - she loves life and loves it busy - so this is all good - her brother is still gone but was the first one to wish her a happy birthday this morning - he called just when I needed to wake her up so I let him wake her up!! Have a great Tuesday everyone. Life is Good and God continues to bless us daily!

Marcus left on the plane this morning

Marcus took off this morning from Sioux Falls, SD to go to the youth convention with our young peoples in Ashville, NC. 24 people left - we left at 3:30am from church - I helped drive them to Sioux Falls airport - boy did they know when we showed up with 24 people to check in at one time - but all went smoothly and Marcus is already landed in NC - noone got sick and the convention starts tomorrow at noon - 20 young peoples and 4 adults at a hotel tonight that hotel might never be the same :)
The convention theme for this year is LIVING INSIDE OUT - hope they all have a great time and they come back next Wed. the 29th.

Getting ready for FOOTBALL!!!!!

Marcus decided tonight that it's time to get ready for football!!!

Here we go !!!!!

Jamie was nervous - couldn't even hold the camera still :)

Marcus wants to be ready for camp and the heat!!

He looks good - he almost looks army ready.

I went blonde today and spent quite a bit on my hair and we shaved Marcus at home - I'm sure it evens out - RIGHT - sure sounds good!!
FOOTBALL HERE WE COME!!!

Hail Storm 7-9-09

First of all, Mike and I think that we have had at least 7-8 inches of rain so far in July - last July we never got any rain the whole month - Today it rained four times throughout the day and twice we recieved hail with it!

Marcus went running out in the hail to pick up the bigger ones so we could see actually how big they were - OUCH!! He of course said it didn't hurt, he was dodging them!

We were sitting on the deck and it just kept coming.

Some were quite large - golf ball size for sure - this was at around 7:30 - the first round of hail was this afternoon around 2:30. The guys at A & K put all the vehicles inside there shop - so Marcus was very thankful for that - I was bringing a boy home from the pool and I drove right inside of Rock Valley Tractor parts - they had there back door open and I drove inside and waited it out. Mike was at work and the hail wasn't as big then but he does have some dents on his hood and cab of his truck and some chipped paint - we might have to get that looked at. Tonight we were all home and put all three vehicles inside the garage just the back end of the truck bed stuck out a bit.

And, this is our backyard now - lots of rain and it starts to flood back there - we don't have it near as bad as the neighbors though - the corn in the garden looks a little stripped but we hope it comes out of it. I added the first picture to show you the neighbors yards late and now it is the first picture - sorry bout that - a little out of order but you get the picture :)

We are all doing great and our grass has never been this green in July - we have to mow twice this week - if it dries up now!