Swim Lessons

Swim lessons started this week and are going strong!  All 4 kids are taking them this year, yes even David.  That kid has been PETRIFIED of water since day 1!  I was very surprised when he asked to take them with the other kids this year!  *Crossing my fingers* that it all works out!

We are on day 4 now and they are still going strong!!  I am so happy that David decided to finally go for it!

A Magnificent Monday!

Even though I am incredibly tired!  We had a lot of fun this weekend, so it was a little rough getting out of bed at 4:30 this morning!

We surprised the kids with 2 birds.  Keith has been asking for over a year now!  We finally caved :).  Fred jokingly called them "oink" and "doink", and I informed him I thought those names fit.  Especially since "Doink" (the blue one) bit him when he was trying to get him out of the box!  The kids love them and love going to check on them!  Roxie does not know what to think of them yet!  She is a little concerned with birds in the house, especially since she is a bird dog!

Ironically we found this little guy in our yard last night.  We believe he is a Morning Dove.  After reading up on them for their care, we found out that Mama Morning Dove's will just kick the young out of their nest when they are ready for a new set of babies.  They do not have a lot of loving care. :(

This was a freakishly large moth out by Cody's kennel.  I almost stepped barefoot on it! YUCK! It stayed right there for 2 days!

The beautiful sunset last night!  I love watching God's handiwork like this!

Saturday night we went over to a friends house.  We had so much fun!!!!  The kids were very wore out by the time we got home(and so were we!)

We got a visit from my sister-in-law, niece and her little guy!  We all had so much fun!  I miss those chubby baby cheeks :)  My kids are as obsessed with babies as I am!  And Uncle Fred does pretty good with them too :)

And finally just a few of my flowers out front that finally opened!  LOVE!

Our busy weekend

Our weekend started out not so good!  As I was getting ready to head out to deliver some cookies, Keith decided he wasn't feeling well.  He ended up getting sick once and when he did he yelled out and grabbed his right side!  NOT A GOOD SIGN!  So Fred got him dressed and went right into the ER. 

After I got my delivery and grocery shopping done, I called Fred to see how they were doing (3 hours later) and they were now waiting on the x-ray tech.  So we decided to switch out with parents/kids.  I arrived at the hospital to stay with Keith right as a Tornado warning happened.  So we all got to spend a little over an hour in a small center room in the hospital!  Luckily at that point he was starting to feel better(off and on anyway).

They x-ray tech got there right as the warning was released and we got him checked.  Nothing was immediately showing up.  So they are having us watch him very closely for the next few days.  It could be very early signs of appendicitis.

Sunday he was feeling a bit better so we all went out and did a bunch of yard/garden work!  I was so proud of Keith and David.  They tore the tops off of 3 buckets of beets and 1 bucket of carrots!  Along with picking some beans!  We got quite a hall!!  I spent this morning making pickled beets!  YUMMY!

As a reward for their hard work, the kids got to have a water fight, which Roxie of course joined in!  That dog and water!!  Then we had an amazing supper!!  Steak(from a cow from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law), mashed tatos and yummy salad!  Along with cookie brownies!

Up date on Fred...

Art Pape Transfer

July 16 at 2:52pm ·

I am pleased to announce that Fred Norder is beginning work as our Safety Director on Monday 7/20. Fred brings 20+ years in law enforcement as well as experience as a driver to our organization. I am confident that this unique perspective will allow Fred to help us stay safe and compliant in the face of ever increasing regulation on our industry. Please help welcome Fred to this new role at Art Pape Transfer.

(From their facebook page)

You can read the first part of this post back here.

I love baking!

I have always loved baking!  Since I was a little girl my mom or grandma would have me in the kitchen helping them out.  So it is just a natural thing for me to want to bake.  A few weeks ago I posted pictures of some cookies I made(on facebook).  Because of those posts, I have gotten quite a few orders for parties and they keep coming.

I am having so much fun with them!!

Fred went to the store and bought me some fun containers for ingredient storage and some amazing shelves for drying racks!!  I truly am a spoiled girl.

Big Changes ahead

For those of you not on facebook or have not heard through the grapevine, Fred put something out on facebook last night...

Not sure how to put this other than to be straight forward; I've resigned from the Sheriff's Office this week. I wasn't going to turn to Facebook but my phone has been blowing up tonight after the announcement. After 21 years of law enforcement; nearly 19 of which being at Lafayette County, this is going to be an adjustment. This decision didn't come lightly, as Carrie Norder and I believe this is a positive move. Most of this career was positive...a lot was horrifically burned into my mind. Lafayette County you have an excellent sheriff's office with caring people and you should be proud. I've met so many great people and made countless life long friends here. All the best to all of you. God Bless!- Fred Norder

We thank everyone who has called, texted, visited, messaged.....with all of the kind words.  This will be a big adjustment for our family.  Living in the Law Enforcement family is not just a job, it becomes a lifestyle, a certain way of living.  This is all our kids have ever known.  But we are so excited for the new opportunities that God is bringing our way!  We have been blessed with some amazing relationships!  Stay tuned.............

Our Garden

There wasn't a summer that I do not remember my Mom having a garden.  She always seemed to have a natural "Green thumb".  I am slowly learning how not to kill my plants ;)  This year I am so proud of my garden!  Well besides the stinkin' blight on my tomatoes!  Anyone that has suggestions on how to get rid of that, I am happy to hear!

We got two buckets full of green beans, 1 of beets and a small bucket of peas.  The peas are not making it to the stove top though!  Every time we get some, the kids pop them open and start eating the peas!  Believe me when I say "I am not saying anything to them about it!!".  I struggled getting Keith and David to eat anything green.  So when they sit and eat raw peas right out of their garden, how could I complain!!!

The beets we make into Pickled Beets.  I never would have thought my kids(or honestly myself) would have eaten pickled beets, however they LOVE them!  The only downfall to these is my house STINKS while I am cooking them!!

Our annual Kentucky Trip

The start of our trip(actually this might have been half way through).  David is always a good comic relief, but you can see that it didn't last long!!  All of the kids passed out at least once on the drive down, but stayed wide awake the whole way home(which surprises me because we got very little sleep the night before).

This silly over stuffed bear was the source of much entertainment and a few fights!  As you can see David had it quite a bit, but Camryn fought pretty hard for it also!  I laughed every time, especially the picture of David on the couch on it!

Joseph got to ride in Uncle Gary's sweet ride!

We had a few campfires with S'mores and a new Norder midget favorite, MoonPies!  They ended finding DOUBLE DECKER moonpies at the local store!

Camryn got to make her Aunt a necklace and Mama a bracelet!  

While the girls spent the day at the spa(sorry only picture I got!!), The boys spent the day with Dad and got ice cream!!

The Fireworks on the Damn were amazing!!  I would seriously love to know how many people were there(for local people it completely compares to Madison fireworks! So many people were there!).  We went with Uncle Gary, Aunt Bernadette, Kevin and Robin and 3 of their kids and the 6 Norder's.  The kids had a blast and were actually mad when we had to leave :)

I love this picture of the boys, they were so into the fireworks!

By far my favorite picture of the trip!!

We shot some guns(oh yeah I feel pretty awesome doing it and I even hit the target!)

We had one gnarly storm come through one day!!  I honestly don't know if I have seen such a hard downpour!

Joseph is getting to be a pretty good shot and a lot more confident with the gun!  I love seeing them grow!

We did our own fireworks at their house also.  Fred was in heaven when we went to the Fireworks store.  and my kids had never been in one before.  I thought their heads might explode!

Bernadette, myself and these 3 crazy kids stopped at the local Amish run store.  The kids each got a rock candy(because why shouldn't I feed them pure sugar!?)

Yes that is my husband riding on a shopping cart through the Wal-Mart parking lot!  This is a part of him that will never die!

Love this picture of the 4 midgets!  They loved riding in this!

Daddy photo-bomb!!

Nephew and Aunt working together in the kitchen!

We ate breakfast at this restaurant on the Ohio River one day.  The kids loved it, you could watch the barges come into dock as we ate!

We visited Papa while we were down there.

Such beautiful drives!!

While we were at the Amish store I had the two little boys try on some of the amish hats!  How cute are they!    I was going to buy them for them to play with until I saw they were made in Mexico(nothing against it), but I wanted actual Amish made ones!

We went over to see Gary and  Bernadette's ailing neighbor.  We always try to visit her when we are down.  Her husband just recently passed away, so it is a difficult time for her.  I really think having the kids visit her helps!

My beautiful daughter!!

Oh David..........enough said!

While we were down there, we bought some Blackberry Moonshine!  I have never tried Moonshine before and was nervous.  I do not drink hard liquor!  This was decent(tasted like super strong wine), but man my tongue was a little numb after!

This was a major picture dump!  We had a great relaxing time!  Love and miss you all!