Lilla Rose Flexi Clip Giveaway

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In Which I Am Sooo Mad At Myself, Part B

OK, so I'm not really very mad any more. But since there was a Part A, there should be a Part B, right?

Now just to remind you (and me) of what I am doing . . . I am, in two posts, rapidly covering the past two YEARS in which I did not post a single thing. These two posts go backwards, because I started with what was most fresh in my memory. (I read somewhere that you're supposed to do that. It was advice from somebody like the Scrapbooking Institute or something. And that last remark is an inside joke which I won't bother to explain here.) So, for this current post, that leaves me needing to cover from the Spring of 2011 back through the Summer of 2010. A mere nine months or so! I can do that!

So, let's begin--or let's end, if you'd rather look at it that way.

Spring 2011

Awww. Back when Sunday was a little kitten,
she loved hiding under this chair!

Resurrection Day - April 24, 2011. Ooo, don't we look nice?
(This was 6 days before JoJo was born, btw.)

And here I shall tell you that my dear little JoJo deserves his own separate post in honor of his birth. And so I shall make one for him sometime soon and come back and put a link to it right HERE.

After Joe's dedication, we went to a playground that was

near our old house, for old times' sake.

Zeke with the tulips that he planted last fall.

We celebrate Andy's 16th birthday
at a Mexican restaurant in Marysville.

Then it's cake and presents back at home.

Mmmm. 

Sweet Sarah turns 14.




A little snippet of a song Andy wrote as Sarah's birthday present.

Working backwards again now, I present . . . the winter.

Winter 2010 - 2011

Mary and Sarah after Mary's dance class performed
the snowman dance on the street in Marysville.

Our family in PA before the Christmas Eve service
at Wheatland Presbyterian.

A visit with dear Sara on the farm in Souderton.

One last visit with our precious Aunt Peggy in Lansdale.

All the Stuarts and Petersons in Millersville, PA.

We rode the train in Strasburg.

Mary and Elias after visiting the East Tennessee Discovery Center
in Knoxville, TN.

All us Petersons in Knoxville.

This beautiful artwork that looks like palm trees
is actually just frost on our deck wood.

Sissy and Elias build a snowman.

Not sure why we went for a cold treat in the middle of winter,
but it looks like it was fun!

Yay! David has a birthday!

Fall 2010

We found out we would be having another baby in 2011!
What great news!

In our backyard leaves.

Mary turned five in October.

Zeke turned eight in November.

Zeke stuffs our Thanksgiving turkey.

 And finally, on to the last section of this post . . . the summer of 2010.

Summer 2010

One thing I know is that we went on a great trip to Florida! I can't believe I only have about three decent pictures from the trip to post here. It's very possible that I have more that I just can't find, so who knows? You should  probably come back and check this every day for the rest of your life if you want to see if I ever post any additional pictures.

The warm and welcoming Walkers of Toccoa Falls, GA
took us to see the Falls.

We went to Disney World!

We went to The Holy Land Experience!

And we went to the beach!

And the rest of these pictures and videos will be in completely random order! Of course, they all occurred during the Summer of 2010.

Best event of the summer: Zeke was baptized!

I love these boys!

What a cutie!

Elias turns two!

This is Sarah's handiwork.

Staining the cabinets that would become
part of our built-in-bookshelves.

Another nice sunset.

I don't know why we took this.
Maybe cause we're all just so good looking?
Or maybe to show off our new world map wallpaper?

Our kids and their wonderful grandmas!

I have to admit that I don't know if this one

and the next one are from the summer of 2010.

But they deserve to be in a blog post somewhere.

Joan made us these baskets. Isn't she incredible!

This is Andy's TeenPact group.

Andy, Sarah, and Danny went on a trip out west with my parents.

And Bob went along too.

Danny turned ten!

Something I would like to point out here is that doing all of your pictures and seasons backwards is a horrible idea. You should never do it on your own blog. I have done it, and I am thoroughly confused.


Well, I am done! On my preview, it looks like I have some font problems right here at the end. But I am going to just be done. That's it!


I will write one more post about JoJo's birth, and then I will be all caught up. Now won't that be great!

In Which I Am Soooooo Mad At Myself, Part A

I am almost in tears when I realize how long I've been neglecting to document my family's life, both here and in my scrapbook. How will I ever catch up? How will the children know I loved them when they were young if there are no pictures here to prove it? If something happens to me, will the documentation of my youngest child's birth and some of the other children's baptisms be lost forever? It makes my stomach get all tied up in knots. Does anybody else worry about this kind of stuff? Is anyone else as far behind as I am? I want to lie on the floor and groan, and pull out my hair, and kick myself and slap myself about the head.

 But that is not what I will do. That is not me. I will pull myself up and build a blog post that pieces together the last two years the best I can. No matter how hard it is or how long it takes. I know I can. Picture by picture, caption by caption. Who's with me? . . .

Oh yeah, it's just me. Well, here I go! Hmmm, I wonder if I should go forward or backward in time. ?? "There's no time like the present," I hear in my head. OK, let's go backward, starting with now.

JULY 2012

One of the things my kids do around the house.

JUNE - JULY 2012

We had an incredible time on our big trip out west. Here I can only hit a few of the highlights. (You know, since there will have to be TWO YEARS' worth of stuff in this post.)

Here we are at one of our first stops, the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home.

Sarah in the Badlands.

Danny at Wall Drug.

Andy at Mt. Rushmore.

Elias at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

Zeke at the Golden Nugget pool.

Our whole crew at Grand Canyon.

Our family at Monument Valley.

Stuart Family Reunion in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Also at the Stuart Reunion.

Our 22nd anniversary.

My dad's cousin Sunny with his daughters Penny and Joy. Great folks!

At Grandma Lancey's grave outside of Pink, OK.

My dad and I at my great great great grandpa and grandma's
(Elijah Alpheus Johnson and Delilah Hunsaker Johnson) grave in Joplin, MO.

Elias celebrates his 4th birthday in a Missouri motel.

Spring 2012

Andy and Sarah (and our dear friend Christy) attend their first Celtic Ball.

Danny seems to delight in the fact that he was maimed by a boomerang.

David turns 49.

Everybody loves getting their Bunny Baskets.

Our family on Resurrection Sunday.

The boys plant my new apple trees.

Kimie and I (and JoJo and Braden Dunsmoor) at our Faith Group Retreat.

JoJo and Zeke on a beautiful spring evening.

Mary loses her first tooth.

Danny tries to eat a tablespoon of cinnamon.

On April 30, JoJo turned celebrated his first birthday!

Andy turned 17 on May 28 and celebrated by taking us all to the zoo.

Sarah - still my little princess.

OK, let's see. After spring comes winter, when you're going backwards. On to winter!

Winter 2011-2012

OK, well, if there are some winter pictures, other than Christmas, I can't find them. See--this is exactly why I am so disappointed with myself. Well, at least we do have Christmas.

OK, this Christmas card here makes me consider taking back everything bad I
said about myself. This is a fabulously nice-looking Christmas card; there's no denying that.

Christmas in Pennsylvania with the Stuarts.

Christmas in Tennessee with the Petersons.

 Perhaps someday I shall discover the missing winter 2011-2012 pictures, and I can edit this post. For now, on (or shall I say "back") to the fall of 2011.

Fall of 2011

Just three photos here. There may be more, but who knows?

Mary turned 6 on October 28.

The kids went on a Generation Joshua campaigning trip to Virginia. These nice folks from Minnesota stayed at our house on their way, and gave some of our crew a ride too!

Zeke turned 9 on November 15.

Summer 2011

So I was thinking, "Summer - Didn't I have Sarah made a guest blog post about her trip during the summer of 2011? That'll be great! But it turns out that it was a trip during the summer of 2010. So once again, I am further behind than I realized. So, I will go digging through my files and see what I can find. These are a bit out of order, but all from the summer.

Mary gets baptized! (on some date which I hope to figure out

in the future and put here through the magic of editing)

When the time comes, her arms will already be strong for her tasks.

We held a Neighborhood Bible Club at our house.

This tree was outside the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum, which we visited.

Mary is enjoying our new baby JoJo.

Our dear Christmas with her firstborn Sunday and her new twins Saturday and July.

Zeke and Sunday enjoying our rookie attempt at raising meat chickens.

Elias turned 3 on July 8.

Danny turned 11 on September 12.

Choral Camp 2011.

Mary hostessed a tea party at our house.

We all had a great time at our Faith Group's retreat.

I was not able to determine whether I am plum worn out or plumb worn out. In either case, I am tired and losing focus, not because there are so many pictures, but just because of the sheer gravity of it all--the passing of time, the adorableness of the children, the enormity of my task. And because the blog composing page and the preview page on Blogger do not match each other! So I shall stop, and whatever problems there are shall have to remain. Besides, I have never even tried to get any followers on here, and maybe no one will even see this. And someday, very very soon, I shall go on to In Which I Am Soooooo Mad At Myself, Part B.