My Summery of Adventures

I do not have a smart phone or an iphone or anything fancy pants like that. My phone, i've heard, is called a dumb phone. I doesn't do much more than provide me with an ability to text or call and take a few pictures. But! Who needs a phone that does more than that? 

My wonderful little phone camera has been present for some of my favorite summer adventures and since I have come into possession of an SD adapter, I am now bring the stories of adventures to computer, phone and tablet screens near you! My summery of summer in picture form! Here now!


~June '13 ~

Gross cousins stop in Iowa City as part of their grand adventurous out West!! 

 These gorgeous girls were in my living room!!! waaaa!! During this stop, they met my friend, Brooks. This was especially wonderful because their choice of entertainment in their hotel room the previous night had been a show called Breaking Amish which led them to ask the most wonderfullest of questions and it was rather entertaining to listen to the conversation. Brooks eventually took them to an Amish family and had them ask their questions there instead. 

 What's an adventure without a sketchy van in a sketchy ramp? Well.. I mean.. it's just a good idea to check it out closer up. 

 I got to show them a little of my life in Iowa City and they got the grand tour of the Old Capitol. "This would be a great spot for a date" was stated several times, I think. 

 This summer was one with the most early mornings I've ever had ever. Not even school will usually find me out of bed by 5:15am, but more often than not, I'd be most my way to work as the sun began to rise. 

 Of course, just because you've seen the sunrise doesn't mean it's okay to be awake. One day I arrived at work to find that my 6 year old had set up my favorite chair with a pillow and one of her blankets so I could sleep whilst waiting for them to wake up. Awwwww.

Okay so one day at work, I came across the most AMAZING POP UP BOOK EVER!!!!!!! Hello, the LIGHT SABERS LIT UP WHEN THEY POPPED UP!!!!!!!! I was really amused by this for at least 32 minutes. 

 Besides the 6 year old putting 50 bows and clips in my hair my first day of work and then threatening to cut them out with a scissors when they got stuck, when the kids ran out of paper I was used as their drawing sheet. At least they wrote nice things.. 

I love bubbles. I had some really fun days at work. 

 When I went home for a bit we got to help mom with groceries. Rather than walk them through the porch, south living room, yellow room, and back hallway to the kitchen, we used the 10 of us "children" who were home and assembly-line styled the groceries to the kitchen. We were laughing hysterically and it was a lot of fun. 

 Every time I went home I got breakfast in bed. The week I went home to be with my cousins I got to sleep in Kit's room on the 3rd floor and it has THE BEST VIEW when you wake up! My little brothers were super sweet, too, because they even made me coffee with my eggs. I LOVE MY FAMILY SO MUCH!!!!

Goodbyes are always hard for our family... This was not posed, this was real life. Kit had to leave us for a man camp thing. Sad day. 

One of my favorite nights ALL SUMMER! I laughed so hard I got the hiccups. So.. As you can see in the top picture, Ken is handing Carissa a cat. What actually happened was that Ken had captured the cat successfully. He had captured it upside down and continued to hold it upside down and he rocked it like it was a baby. He then passed it off to Carissa and it proceeded to poop on her and then run away. 
The owner's mom in her most sympathetic voice said, "Awww... you squeeshed him too much"

Carissa then spent 20 minutes wetting and soaping her hair and her shirt and then lifting her hair up to her nose and exclaiming "I still smell it! It's still in my hair!" all the while we all kept laughing and laughing. After a bit she realized she had poop on her wrist and that's why she kept smelling it when she lifted her hair to her nose. Heeeheeehee. BEST.NIGHT.EVER. 

Baby kitties also make my heart really happy. The friend with the cat that was "Sqeeshed" too much had kittens that we loved to cuddle. 

 Idk why this picture is SO BLURRRRRYYYYY... but, my sister got a new puppy this summer named Aurora, or Rorry for short. SO CUTE!!!! I like da puppy. 

 Monopoly!!! I was winning! Mwahahaha! The best kind of jobs are the ones where you are payed to play monopoly. Which I did for 3 days in a row. I had all the best ones with hotels all up in everything. My kid was badly bankrupt and I would let him do things like wash dishes, clean the kitchen, fold laundry, etc to be payed by the $500s. Which was a win win win situation for me because the house got clean and the kid had more $$ to pay me with when he landed on my properties.. which was all the time. Eventually I had to let him lose. What a fun game. 

One night after work I got invited to supper with some friends and was told I'd be picked up. I must say, the night was gorgeous, the company was great and the ride was fantastic. I LOVE THESE GIRLS! I've known them since my very first connection group with Salt. They're so great. 

I made a lot of bracelets this summer. This was my first. They tended to get more complicated and intricate and colorful as the summer went on. So fun! I love art things. Art makes me happy. 

One time I drove home into the sunset (well a couple times) and all I could think was, "And she lived happily ever after." Not in a dark sense thinking I was about to die, but only that at that moment I was perfectly happy and knew I was driving towards more and more happiness and joy.  

~July '13~

 For the 4th of July I painted my nails so as to be a little bit patriotic. I haven't done a ton of nail art since high school, but I'm pleased that I haven't lost the feel for it all together. I love nail art. It's some of my favorite. 

This was another time I drove home into the sunset. It was so beautiful. Sometimes I think the Lord does those sorts of things just for me specially. I feel so loved. I feel loved by sunsets and nature. The Lord loves me. 

Communication on the 4th is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing. Pow wows and phone number exchanges are good to keep moms happy. 

 Sometimes we have to pack ourselves like sardines into the van so we all fit. (Not to worry, we are pros at this). We've been doing it since, well, forever. One time over the 4th,  11 of us were traveling in a van and a car to South Dakota to visit my brother and grandparents. The car broke down half way there and so all 11 of us, plus our suitcases and baggage, AND A GIANT VASE OF LILIES, all packed ourselves into the 7 passenger van. 

 We were able to secure what seemed like THE PERFECT place for fire work watching and settled ourselves down whilst waiting for it to grow dark and the show to start. When it got dark we realized we'd parked ourselves right under a street light. So... apart from having a spot in my vision for a while after the fire works were over, it was lovely. 

 Brooksy Bear though it necessary that he have 3 blankets for his firework watching experience. 

 Cuddling is a given in our family for everything. 

 They worked on roof tearing upping for a while too. What men. 

What is summer with out a trip or two down the river??? We did this. I LOVED IT!!

 One evening after connection group, we rolled piggies. I don't know how else to explain this game other than you shake the pigs and roll them like dice.

I spent most of my summer in pet land petting puppies. Besides the ones that peed on me, I really enjoyed this a lot. 

 There was a day my children dressed as cows and got free meals from Chic-fil-a. So fun!

This was the evening from my Joy in Chaos post. I painted the top picture and the other pictures are of Amanda and Nikki respectively. I love them so much!! SUCH great friends. At about 10pm on this night we decided to drive to Kalona for an adventure. 

On our drive down to Kalona we heard an Amber Alert for a kidnapped girl and it was frightening enough. Being a little shaken by that, we decided to read bible passages and listen to uplifting Jesus music to bring peace back into our hearts after hearing that. Upon arriving at the house where we were told we'd be meeting some men who would escort us out to the bonfire location, we noticed that all the lights were off. We got out of the car and we all kind of looked around a little skeptical. 

Amanda-"Are you sure this is the right place, Fern?"

Fern-"yes. Brooks just said there would be people here to greet us."

Nikki and I walked toward the house not really sure what we were getting into and slightly frightened at the dark. 

Nikki-"I don't know about this. I don't want to run into kidnappers :( "

At that moment, my friend Shawn jumped out from behind a vehicle yelling "KIDNAPPERS!!! AHHHH!!!" And he had a very large gun in his hand. We all screamed bloody murder and our heart rates increased exponentially. Poor Nikki. I turned around at that point only to see she had already sprinted the 50ft back to the car.  

I'm not sure if there were any apologies offered. I think, perhaps, there was. After all, they tend to be gentlemen. But at the same time. I doubt if they were sincere apologies as the amount pleasure that showed in the laughter that came from the three of them seemed far more legitimate. 

I can't say that I didn't find it quite thrilling, though. That whole night was my favorite night of the whole entire summer. And I like being able to say we were jumped by men with guns. That just adds to the adventure. Of course getting to say that we were then led into the woods for a little jont through stinging nettles and other such business as that is also a fun story to tell. Who gets to say that? Ah, my life is blessed. 

Kalona is beautiful. I LOVE Kalona. I have quite decided I shall spend all my retired years in my old maidenhood living peacefully on a quaint little patch of land in Kalona. It's glorious. I'm fairly certain God modeled after part of his heaven. Perhaps the part of His garden He wants to share with me most. I just feel loved by God when I drive down there because it is so incredibly beautiful. 

One day, we moved. I had stayed up til 12am packing the night before and was up at 5am getting ready for my friends who were to help me move. This day is one of the days I felt SOOOO loved by the Lord. It was a fun day!! So, I had guys show up as early as 8am and had guys with us even til 10pm. 
Talking was fun. Packing the people into the van amongst the furniture was fun. All of it was fun. I laughed so hard my sides ached and tears streamed down my face. I love my friends.  Plus, acts of service is one of my very top love languages so besides feeling loved by my friends, I just felt like is was Jesus. Jesus blessed me with the hands that made the job a lot less stressful and so I'm so very thankful for that. 

Oh man. The mud on my van. THAT is a story. So, I grew up in rural Iowa. We have two kinds of roads: Paved and dirt. 

Well, I mean, we call them "dirt" roads. I learned that there is a difference between dirt and gravel. I have always called every gravel road a dirt road. 

So, one day we were driving to Kalona. Amanda and me and a girl that we'd met in a coffee shop one time. (Poor girl just had to jump right in with our crazy adventures, what a champ). And Amanda's GPS said we had to take this certain road. We had passed it the first time and Amanda had me turn back around. As we approached I was like, "what?? Are you serious? This isn't a road, it's a field entrance!" Amanda insisted that the GPS said this is where we needed to turn. 
I was super hesitant and I asked, "You're sure? This looks sketchy?" She was quite sure. 

I looked at it and saw that it curved and wasn't just a dead end and since the GPS said this was the way, it had to be the way, right? OH my goodness gosh. Quick sand. That's what that road was made out of. 
It was a "dirt" road... at one point, i'm sure. It had rained that day and so what we'd actually gotten ourselves into was a mile long stretch of 6inch deep mud. As I got my whole van into and realized my van was slide ALL OVER THE PLACE we quickly realized that had been a poor decision. As it was, there was no stopping and no turning back otherwise we'd be stuck forever. Or.. at least until we called on some boys to rescue us. But, as we skidded and slid, we considered that it wouldn't probably be a willing rescue and probably not prompt, so we kept going. I was driving and at no faster than 5 to 10mph I had to turn my wheel all the way to the left and all the way to the right quite quickly as we fishtailed our way through this muddy field. Whether our new found friend from the coffee shop knew we were into Jesus or not, she found out quite quickly as I'd learned from previous Kalona adventures that praying outloud is always a good idea. I was praying, a lot. It was so stressful that I may or may not have shed a tear or two. EVENTUALLY, completely by the grace of God, we found ourselves on a gravel road. I've never been so thankful for gravel. We all burst out laughing as that had been one of the most ridiculous things we'd gotten into. What a mess. 

 The brotherhood came to town!!! YAY!! I loved this a lot. It ended up being a crazy weekend and I was blessed to have them their for that. 

 This girl!! She's hott stuff. I got to go to her dance recital one lovely summer's night. She's gorgeous. 

One night in Kalona, we went in the ditch. At 12am. I had worked 15 hours that day and was to be at work at 6am the following morning to work another 12.  We were backin' up, backin' up, backin' up, backin' up, cuz our daddy taught us good. Well.. apparently not good enough. ( I wasn't driving). 

However!! There were some nice men that LIFTED the car up and eventually tugged the poor thing outta the ditch. What a night. We arrived home at 1am and I got 3 hours of sleep before returning to work. 

  

 Last weekend was a grand meteor shower!! I asked my kalona friends for a field and I was offered a cow field and a non-cow field. I accepted the non-cow field. However, we ended up in a cow field anyways. So, this one night in Kalona.. My sister and her roommate and another friend and I drove down to look at the stars. We were offered to feed a little baby cow and of course we all accepted. We were told to climb onto the 4-wheeler so we could go find the baby cow.Being there 4 of us girls plus Brooks (the owner of the baby cow), I was elected to be the hood ornament. This being my second time a 4 wheeler ever, I've decided that hood ornament is not as great as riding in an actual spot meant for riding as i got TWO moths/bugs in my eyes on account they're attracted to the headlights. 

It wasn't too bad tho. We fed the baby cow (which is what the picture is but you can't really tell) and then we fed the steers and then toured Brooks' house and then learned about his family and then learned about quilt making and then about the Amish and then about how his house was fused together... and eventually made it to the field where we were to watch the stars. What a great night! I loved it so much. 

One day at work I arrived at 8am and heard some banging and noises outside. I asked their father (who was still there at the time) what was going on and he explained to me that they had a chipmunk trapped in a rain gutter. :/ Oh joy. SO, for the next 3 1/2 hours they poked it with sticks and banged on the pipe to try to coax the thing out. (Poor thing.) Around 11:30am, the oldest one ran by telling me he had a brilliant idea. "What idea??" I asked. "I'm gonna get the HOSE!!" He replied. (Poor, poor chipmunk)
"I don't think that's a great idea. You've already caused him to go deaf and you've poked him with sticks all morning. Drowning him isn't very nice either." Never mind what I think about being nice to chipmunks, the hose was gotten and I was soon called outside to see it. As you can see, the water caused it to poke it's cute little head out of the storm gutter. Me and the three kiddos watched with awe and amazement at its cuteness as it slowly made it's way out. I took a picture, of course, because it was cute. Shortly after the picture was taken, the chipmunk exited the gutter with one final leap. YAY!!!!!
We cheered for a good three seconds before the dog ate it. Awww.. (poor poor POOR chipmunk). 

This is now. LAST NIGHT! Oh my goodness. Did I mention yet that the beauty of Kalona makes me feel loved by Jesus?? Well, it gets better. I have been WISSSSSSSHING and WANTING to go on a hay ride for five years now. FIVE. Yes five. Every year I have searched and hoped, but have not come across one at the right time. :( I just love them a lot and being in Iowa City the last several years has been quite difficult as my heart very much belongs in the country. I'm a farm girl. I'm a nature girl. I love corn fields and green grass and dirt and fire. 

So!! On Sunday my sister invited me along on a hayride she'd been invited to and had been told she could bring friends. My heart skipped a beat and than sunk quickly as I had already committed myself to babysitting for a church meeting Sunday night. *sigh* All my dreams. To wish for it FOREVER and have to turn it down. 

Have I told you that I have been blessed with the BESTEST kind of friends?? My best friend, who could have gone on the hayride as well, chose to give up the hayride and take my place baby sitting so that I could go instead. Whaaaaaaaa!!!!! Oh man! I looked forward to it all day and then it came and it was the most wonderfullest thing ever!!! 

I could write a book about last night alone. The people were welcoming and kind and loving and I felt so full of joy. I can't even begin to describe how loved I feel. I love the community there. It's like Rivendell. And I shall be like Bilbo and retire there in my old age and live amongst the Mennonite elves and be happy forever. 

Today was my last day of work. We side walk chalked for hours. Then my oldest child rolled in the chalk til he looked like a pink and blue smurf. I told him to hose down. And he hosed me down. It turned into a big water fight with everyone. I was fighting for the hose when their mom got home. Haha.. so there was the baby sister soaked head to toe, hosing down the three children and the neighbor girl who were all attacking at once. :) What a fun last night. I'm sure the adventures are far from over, but it was a good summer. I left a lot out. But every moment was wonderful. I have blessed. I am loved and I am blessed.