Random Thoughts

Lots has been happening around the Christner house. We have had a house full of boys since Wednesday. Two years ago at Simpson Park Camp, Hunter met Jake and Luke Champion. They live in Lapeer, MI. Last summer, Hunter could hardly wait to get to camp to see Jake and Luke again. On Wednesday we drove about half way to their house and met them with their mom and they have been staying with us. What a couple of great boys! I love the relationship we are building with them. I say we because they are not just hanging out with Hunter, but the 3 boys have included Emily in what they are doing and recognize that she is younger and is a girl when they have been rough-housing. We were also joking around and I told Jake that he couldn't have something because it said "family" on the bag and he said "But I am family." He is so right. I feel like Emily has 3 big brothers that will watch out for her now. We have all laughed so much the last few days. Things are winding down and we will be taking them back home tomorrow. One of them counted the days until camp tonight. It was cool to see them looking forward to seeing each other again.

Em has been busy too. She has been at a friend's house this week and is now staying with Aunt Amy, Uncle Dave and Jackson for 2 nights. Tomorrow she will go back to Vernon and Erma's with Jackson while Amy goes to work. She is excited to go back and see everyone.

I think we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with paramedic class for Tim. I am so proud of him for all the hard work he has done and continues to do for this class. He will be finished in December. He is just finishing the module on Cardiac Emergencies. This has been the toughest yet. He has to look at an EKG strip and decide what is happening with the heart and determine what actions to take. For example, is it a shockable rhythm and what meds should be given?

As for me, well, I am beginning to feel a little closer to God again. I have to admit that I have not put much effort into that relationship over the past several months. To be honest, I haven't put much effort into any relationships recently. I have been just sort of "coasting" along through the days. I am ready to find some of myself again and put some effort into things again. I must say though that I really don't want to put the work in. I really struggle with this. Most of you know that I have depression and take medication to help with the symptoms. The meds work wonders. I feel like any little thing used to just set me off and I would get so upset about things being out of order or a change in "MY PLAN" and now I have a hard time sticking to a plan and my attitude is that "I will do it later." I have described it feeling like a pendulum with one side being super uptight (before meds) and the other side being very relaxed, not really caring about much and being lazy (after meds.) I feel myself getting back toward the center, but know that I have quite a ways to go before I am where I want to be. I don't really have much else to say tonight, so I will end by posting a few pictures of the past few days.

Who Knew...

Who knew...that football lessons could happen on the lake. That is what Tim and Hunter are doing in the following pictures. Tim was teaching Hunter how to tackle his opponent and be sure to bring him down. We'll see how much Tim really knows this fall, since Tim played soccer in school.

Who knew...that the girls would have so much fun today. We had several girls over for Girls Club from our church. It is a group of girls in 3rd through 6th grades that get together once a month to do something. This month we had a get together at our house. We grilled hot dogs and swam. We also played board games and Guitar Hero while it stormed outside. I will now be taking this group over as the current leader's daughter will be in 7th grade this fall.

The girls swam out to the middle of the lake using the kick boards.

Who knew...that such a simple picture could be so beautiful! I love this picture of Emily's piggys next to her sand castle!

Tonight we are off to another ball game!

Finally...

Okay. Finally logging in to update the blog. Not much new to report. We had a great 4th of July weekend. The weather was incredible and I learned that I am not necessarily as young as I feel anymore. On Friday we went to our friends, Anne and Glen's, for the day and I went tubing. The hardest part was getting back on the tube after wiping out! Not near as easy as it used to be!

Too cute not to post. A couple weeks ago, we spent the afternoon at Amy and Dave's (Tim's sister) and went swimming. This is our nephew Jackson.
Hunter wanted to make cookies one afternoon, so we got everything out and made good old chocolate chip cookies.

Our newest friend, Daisy the duck. She is nesting in our yard by the lake. She started out with 7 eggs, but there are only 5 left in the nest. Jake wants to be friends with her, but she keeps running/flying away every time he tries to check her out. She will stay until he gets into the weeds. I am amazed at how close she allows us to get to her.

Emily showing off her braces. I don't know if you can tell or not, but she got purple/lavendar put onto them!

My boys hanging out at Anne and Glen's.
One of my favorite recent pictures!

Anne and Glen's. We spent the day by the lake relaxing, playing, eating and boating!

Anne and Glen's daughter, Lucy. She is so much like Emily! She's into dressing up and talks as much as Em, too. Didn't know that was possible!

The day was completed by sitting around the campfire eating Smores. There were also lots of fireworks. Many people at the lake shot off fireworks, plus we could see the display from Angola. This is Em with Katie, Anne and Glen's oldest. Their youngest, Sara, was at her Grandparents for the day, so no pictures of her. There were LOTS of people there! Probably 8 to 10 families!

Saturday was spent between the baseball diamond and hanging out on our beach with Scott, Wendy, Trevor, Megan (my brother and his family) and my parents. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of that.

Sunday we worked on the beach and moving rocks out of the swimming area up to the shore. Later in the afternoon, Tim's family came out for a boat ride and supper.

Hopefully I can be better about updating this page! I am also asking for prayers for our friend Holly. She is having dizziness, nausea and headaches and doesn't have any answers as to why yet. We know her from Simpson Park Camp, where we will be going in a couple of weeks.