Thank you mall security

I had a rough morning today. Ty and I met my sister at Kohls. I went to leave the store and my car wouldn't start. Annie came over to give me a jump. While I am waiting for her to come I have the hood of my van up. A couple got into their car next to me. I could see them looking in their mirrors debating whether or not to see if I needed help. They decided against asking if I was ok and drove off on their way. Nice!

Being the independent girls that we are Annie and I get the jumpers hooked up and I go to start my van. It won't start. I go back out to check the connection. Yes, I did have black on black and red on red! My van has a stupid feature where the doors lock when you turn the car on. Most other cars only lock when you put the car in gear, well Kia had the bright idea of locking the doors with a mear turn of the key. So, you guessed it. I go out to check the connection shutting the door, not realizing that the doors are locked. Where is Ty you ask? Sitting in his car seat. Yup, 9 mo old locked in the car, in the cold, not buckled. I run back into Kohls to call security. Mean while Ty is standing up holding onto his seat screaming his head off. Annie is outside trying to talk to him so he won't fall out of his seat.

Finally, the security guy finds us, but of course he doesn't have the right tools. He ends up calling in reinforcements. The new security guy comes and gets the door open! Ty is safe! Poor kid. He's crying, Annie and I are crying...what a mess! Nice move mom!

YUMMY!!!

Ty had his first spaghetti dinner the other night. He loved it! I don't know that I fed Jake and Lindsey spaghetti at 9 mo. I think that is the "benefit" of being the 3rd child. Just ignore the pink bib. We grab what's in the drawer. Lindsey has been known to wear boys undies. It works!

We had a great Thanksgiving with the DeJong's filled with a wonderful turkey dinner followed up by a couple games of bowling. Jake and Lindsey both scored over 100! Thanks to bumpers and a handy ramp to get the ball down the lane! Mom and Dad didn't fare so good.

As I reflected back over this past year we have so much to be thankful for. One year ago we were anxious to meet our little baby and now he is crawling and pulling himself up getting into everything! Last year we were struggling with where to send Jake to school. We made a decision and have been blessed with wonderful Christian teachers. He has made so much progress in the past 3 months. A year ago Lindsey was hardly saying 'mom or dad'. Now she is talking in full sentences and we can even understand her! Her speech has improved tremendously since we enrolled her in school. She is also blessed with a wonderful Christian speech therapist that loves working with her. Ted has had a good year with his job. He has had steady work coming in while many others have been struggling. We are blessed and we thank God for his hand in our lives.

The Big Fire

On Saturday we had the fire department out to the farm house. They did around 3 hours of training in the morning and then they set the house on fire. It was an amazing thing to watch. Withing 4 minutes you could see tons of smoke coming out the roof. By 21 minutes the house was fully enflamed. Within 28 minutes the all the walls had fallen down.

It was great to provide this opportunity to the fire dpt and it was great to not have all the work/clean up of tearing the house down!

The Farm House

This summer we purchased this farm house. This house and the property are adjacent to our house. The house is in very poor condition. It is hard to believe that people lived in here. We have spent a lot of time cleaning up the property.




This is the view from our house looking at the farm house. Lots of junk to clean up!




Ted took over 100 tires and 20 gallons of old oil to the drop off. This is a picture of the barn where the farmer once kept his pigs and other animals. There were no less than a dozen cats in the barn when we bought it.



The plan is to burn down the house and barn and clean up the property.

Stay tuned...picture of the big fire coming soon!

Sunday Afternoon Nap

There's nothing better than a good Sunday afternoon nap at the DeJong house!

Dad Said.......

I came home from work last week to find that Jake had a new haircut. He took it upon himself to do the honors. I am not sure this is his calling! When I asked him why he did it he said, "Dad said I needed a haircut." I tried to tell him that he isn't allowed to do this, but I couldn't help but laugh. At least it wasn't Lindsey. Then I would have cried!












The New Cut....








You ask who was watching him? My mom was in charge. She felt bad, but still laughed. At least we won't have to worry about a haircut until my birthday!

Halloween Fun

We had a fun Halloween this year. Jake dressed up like a tiger.

Lindsey's clown costume was the same costume that I wore when I was 3.

Ty was the happiest chicken you have ever seen!

Now it's time to get the candy out of the house.