My birthday Celebration

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. I had a great day. I went and had a mani/pedi in the afternoon (Thanks Jan and John!) and then Ronnie and I went to a Twins game last night. We had a really good time. The Twins beat the White Socks 7-0. Not only did they win, but we were able to watch the score board and see that the Angels won, too.

Here are two pictures from our night up in the cities. I forgot to take the camera so these were taken with my phone. A little blurry, but not bad.

Happy Birthday

To Me!!!

I am 41 today...and loving it. The only hard part about being 41 is that Ronnie is still in his 30's and that just doesn't seem right. :)

Don't leave me a Happy Birthday wish. I just always need to shout to the world that it is my birthday! I have done that now so my post is finished.

Have a great day everyone!!

Back in the car....ugh

We had quite a long day today. I will recap it for you...

• Ronnie to church at 8:00 a.m.
• Ebby, Hunter and Cole to church at 9:30 a.m.
• Ebby serving in the Cafe since they were short handed.
• Church at 10:30
• Lunch with Allison Eckert
• Pick up Veronica at chruch at 1:30 p.m. She returned from Sonshine Fest.
• Take Hunter to the pool at 2:30
• Ronnie back to the church at 3:00
• Ebby, Veronica, and Cole to the worship ministry picnic at 5:00 p.m.
• Get Veronica to the church at 6:00 p.m. to work the product table for Decifer Down, who was one of three groups giving a concert at the church tonight
• Cole and Ebby home by 8:45 p.m.
• Ronnie, Hunter and Veronica home by who knows when tonight after the concert. Hunter went from the pool to the concert with a friend.

That is a busy day for our family. Especially since we have to pack and get ready to leave at 8:00 in the morning for North Dakota.

Our family is going with the church youth group on a missions trip. We will be going toTurtle Mountain, ND tomorrow and returning on Saturday. The week is going to be fine, but the drive won't be. We just got through driving two days from SC to MN, and now we will be spending about 10 hours each way in a car again. That is the only down side.

Well I hope you all have a great week. I will post some pictures from our trip. This will be the furthest north I have ever been so I am sure that I will take lots of pics.

Hunter and Veronica

I came across these two videos today. I took them before we left North Myrtle Beach. The first one is cute because Hunter is playing along on the guitar and trying to protect Veronica all at the same time. The second on is a little boring at the beginning but is cute at the end with all the kids singing a Johnny Cash song.

Hunter has taught himself how to play the guitar. I am amazed that he doesn't have to look at it constantly while changing cords. Just like his father!

A peek in a window

Today Hunter, Cole and I went to surprise one of Hunter's friends. Unfortunately they weren't home, but on the way I saw a store with a 1/2 price sale sign in the front window. The store was on Broadway, which has very little parking. We had to park around the corner and walk. As we were getting out of the car I saw a store window that looked interesting.

We walked around the corner, saw nothing of interest in the store, and started back to our car. I pulled Cole to the window and we were peeking in. The store looked closed and didn't appear to have anyone inside. We were quite surprised when a young lady opened the door and invited us in. Hunter caught up with us and we all went inside to have a look. Along with the tour of the store we got a story.

The store was Sculptures by Hugh Butt. Mr. Butt is a 98 year old man who learned to weld about 30 years ago. After learning to weld he began making metal sculptures. The ones that we saw were so neat. You could see how much he liked faces. A majority of the sculptures had faces on them. I am betting that I could go in that store 100 times and see something new every time. The young lady that let us in was Mr. Butt's granddaughter. She was in town for a visit since her grandfather is sick. Her father was in the store with her. She went on to tell us that she actually found a sculpture that Mr. Butt made last year. It was dated 2007...he would have been 97 years old. What a life this man has had.

Needless to say it was a real treat to be welcomed into Hugh Butt's store and take a peek at his art work. The funny thing is that a couple of days ago I told Ronnie that I want to take a welding class and then a woodworking class. I want to make furniture out of metals and wood. It was encouraging to hear that this man learned how to weld in his 60's. I am in my 40's so I think that I can do it too.

I am very glad that we stopped to take a peek in the window today. What a treasure it was.

Beware! Complaining ahead!

I try not to complain on here too much. I want this to be a blog where people can come and catch up on what our family is doing. I don't want people to come here and listen (read) to me complain.

Well that is going to change for just today. I am still sick! Not as bad as I was, but still sick. I have a sore throat, cough, sinus gunk, overly tired and this morning I woke up with a fever AGAIN! What the heck?!?! I took two naps today and still feel like I could go lay down and take another one. Geesh!

The bad part about me being sick still is that we are supposed to leave on Monday for a mission trip to North Dakota. Our whole family is going with the youth group from Monday through Saturday. We are heading to an indian reservation and having a mini camp for ages 5-18. It should be fun, but if I still feel like this while we are there I won't be of much use. I guess I could over see the "lay down and take a nap" portion of the day. Or how about the judge for the "see who can sit still and be quiet the longest" game?

I ran into my friend Jessica today at Target while I was out getting a few groceries. She had her two precious boys with her. Watching her do such a good job of keeping them wrangled up made me tired. They are small energetic boys, and for a split second I was glad that my boys were with their father at church. I couldn't imagine keeping up with two boys right now with the way I feel. As much as I love little babies today I am very thankful that my children are all self-sufficient.

Ok enough complaining. One to more important things. Hunter gets to play the drums for the youth group worship team that is going on the mission trip with us. He is so excited. He worked with Ronnie today to figure out the music and how Ronnie would like him to play it. Ronnie is going to play the bass guitar. What can't that man play? I can't even hum...but I'm not jealous. :) I will be working with the drama team and the basketball team while we are there. Basically I am a float and will be put where ever there is a need. It should be a great time.

For those of you reading this and your children have been around me lately...please don't worry. I don't think that I got this from Veronica and no one else in the family has gotten sick. I think it is just something I have and haven't passed around. If you or your child come down with anything please know that I am very sorry. Wasn't intentional....I promise.

Hope you all have a great evening!!

Ebby Ray

Back on line!

Well we finally have internet at our house. I will finally be able to post on a regular basis. So much has happened over the last couple of weeks. I have included a few pictures at the bottom.

The most recent happening is that our family was under one roof for the first time in a while last night. It lasted a whole 9 hours, but at least we were all together. Hunter came home from California last night and then Veronica left for Sonshine (a music festival up by the twin cities) this morning. It was nice having all of us together even if it was just for a little bit.

Hunter had a blast in California. He stayed with his Great Uncle John and Grandma Jan. He was able to attend surf camp, go to the Arizona desert and play golf, go to Huntington Beach to surf and boogie board, and Cousin Molly took him to Sea World. Most of all he just got to experience the life of an HB beach bum, which I think is a dream of Ronnie's. I am sure that Ronnie would love to be an HB beach bum.

Last night after I picked up Hunter from the airport he was telling me all about his trip. It was fun listening to his stories and hearing how much fun he had. One of the things he told me was that as much fun as surf camp was he learned a lot more surfing with Greg.

This was a trip that Hunter will never forget!!

As for the rest of us...nothing new has been going on. I have pictures from a couple of different activities we have been to. I have been trying to slowly get us unpacked, but it isn't working so well. I can't seem to get over this cold or whatever it is that I have. Ronnie is working a lot, and Veronica, Cole and I were just hanging out some.

Veronica...doing I don't know what with her hair, but somehow it kind of works.

Some of Veronica's friends showed up the morning we were leaving for MN.

Veronica took this picture of Cole F. Cole came and visited with us in N. Myrtle Beach for 6 days and then drove to MN with us.

This is Wayne. We celebrated the 4th at his house.

This is Wayne's wife, Jennifer. This is Heidi, Anna, and Brandon. They were also present at the 4th of July celebration. There is also a little baby in the belly that is due in August. This is Anna. She is actually at our house hanging out right now. Ronnie. ...It is so good to be able to take pictures of him and put them on here.

Ronnie and Veronica....doing.....I have no idea.

Cole watching the fireworks. I don't know if you can tell, but Anna is in the bottom right corner of the window. Veronica is with her. This was where Anna watched the fireworks. She also had her hands over her ears when they went off.
As things are settleing down here I will hopefully post more. We have a mission trip coming up and Ronnie and I are going to a Twins game for my birthday. Both will require picture taking.

Still Sick..no longer frustrated...and...

Yes I am still sick. I am no longer frustrated with Mayflower. They delivered our things this morning.


And....I got a job yesterday. I will be working at Olmsted Medical Center starting July 29th. That is a great birthday present. Long, but great, story on how the job came about, but it is awsome.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Sick and Frustrated!!

I am sick! Thanks to Veronica I am pretty sick. Sore throat, runny nose, headache, my eyes and teeth hurt, coughing, sneezing, my throat is really sore...and I am tired. Veronica was sick for a few days before and during our trip back to Rochester. She is fine now, but she so graciously passed it on to me. It was a very kind jesture, but one that I really could have done without.

I am frustrated. When we scheduled our moving company they told me several times that we would have to be available for the delivery of our things between July 1 and July 7. If we were not available then it would be a fee of $300 per day for storage.

Last Friday I got a phone call telling me that our things wouldn't be here until July 9th. That is two days after our scheduled delivery time. This morning I got a call and they told me that our things wouldn't be here until July 10th. Now I am getting a little frustrated!

There is a family that is graciously letting us stay with them, but I am sure that they didn't think that it would be indefinately. Although I love their house and they have made us feel VERY welcome I don't want to take advantage of them.

So here is the question. Since we would have had to pay $300 per day for storage if we weren't available for our things to be delivered do we get a discount when they keep pushing back our delivery time?

Sick and Frustrated!!! That's me...Ebby Ray

We are back in Rochester, MN

Well we made it to Rochester all in one peice. The drive was good, but on the second day i got a little tired. I was the only driver and it was 11 hours the first day and 13 hours the second.

I am going to back up a little bit. Last Friday the movers came to load up our belongings. All I had to do was sit on the couch or steps and watch the men carry everything out of the house and put it on the truck. I was so happy.

On Tuesday morning we were getting ready to head out when several of Veronica's friends showed up to see her off. It was very sweet.
This is my parents dog, Cissy. This is usually the view I have of her. She likes to get right in your face and stare at you. She also does her best to lick you.
This is Cissy and Trouble. We tried to bring them with us, but my parents wouldn't let them go.
Saying goodbye to my parents was very hard!!!
Cole F. and Veronica. Cole is from Rochester. He flew into Myrtle Beach and spent 6 days with us and then drove back to Rochester with us. Veronica calls him Best Friend Cole.This is just a random picture of the sunset over Wisconsin as we were driving through.

We are here waiting for our things to be delivered. In the meantime we are staying with a wonderful family. Tomorrow night we will be spending the evening with a group of friends celebrating the 4th of July. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

And we're off!

We are leaving for Rochester in about 5 minutes. Lots has happened over the last few days, but I will have to wait and post pictures and blog about them when I get to Rochester, MN.

I just wanted to tell my mom and dad that I love them very much and will miss them greatly. Thank you for everything over the last year. Spoiling the kids, fixing dinners, picking the kids up from school, helping me pack and clean the townhouse (ugh!) and just loving us. You have always loved us but it has been from afar. Thank you for the up close love over the past year.

We will miss you so much...and we love you so much we just can't concel it. We love you so much it's a wonder you don't feel it.