How to Avoid Boredom in Menards

When your Dad is a carpenter by trade, there are times when he has to go to Menards. Okay, make that there are times when he does not have to go to Menards and times when we have to go along. At least, it used to be have to until we got old enough to take ourselves around the store and do all the fun stuff there is to do there. In case you ever find yourself in Menards and not actually shopping, please refer to the following list of suggestions to keep yourself from being bored.

Sit in the king chair, like a king. Allow your kingliness to soak in to yourself and all the passersby.

Try out the ultimate "no touchy" porch swing. Make appropriate faces at each other.

See how many people you can fit into the king chair. It is a good idea to check the weight limit on the chair before attempting this, or use small people.

Practice being a butler and opening the door for the deck of Emily's dream lodge. This takes more practice than one would think and should be perfected just in case you land an interview for the job after the lodge is built.

Relax on the patio furniture and look through the ads for all the different window manufacturers. There are some amazing ideas in there.

All this requires a little break, so try out the beds to see which is the softest.

Randomly take up the entire aisle. Or, skip the randomly and do it everywhere you go if there are lots of you.

Practice your fencing skills with sprinkler stakes. Careful, sharp objects, not for children or adults who act like children and don't seem to know where their eyes are...

Blow butterfly shaped bubbles through lawn ornaments. Or at least pretend you are doing it. It causes people to do a double take when they walk by.

There you go! Something for everyone! No one need ever be bored in Menards again.

The Look-out

While he was in school, Dad stayed some weekends down in Omaha at a place called Nirvana Point. While there he discovered a really cool lookout just around the corner that also has picnic tables. He waited until the weather was conducive and took us there after church to eat our lunch.

Standing on the 'altars' you can watch the airplanes land at Epply. Very cool....

Standing next to the 'altars', you can take self portraits that display your new hair. :D

There is also ample room for dancing around....

And of course the lookout, where you can see for miles and miles and miles.

The 'altars' make very nice king of the mountain battlegrounds. Here is where Emily tells Timo not to cross this line.

And here is where he tries... Sorry, Timo, keep trying... :D

Thanks, Dad, for taking us on another Sunday afternoon adventure!

Rubber bands...

A few days ago at dinner Dad commented that there was nothing that the Hipps kids could not destroy or laugh at. In response, we pounded on our cracked dinner plates with our silverware and roared with laughter. I have been thinking about how clever of a quote it was (and how very true) and last night I was summoned outside to watch the newest invention/amusement. It proves at least the latter part of what Dad said, we can be amused by just about anything. I think in this case most of my readership will also be amused....

They called it the human slingshot but I think a more apt name is the giant rubber band snap. First, you get into the loop made out of inner tubes and get a lot of siblings to hold the other end.

Then you crawl like crazy one direction while they pull the other direction. Physics majors, you can start laughing now. Everyone else, keep reading.

When you have crawled whatever the group of siblings judges to be a sufficient distance, they will all yell and let go of their end. This causes you to do two things. One, suddenly you will have zero resistance and hence go flying in the direction you were originally moving. Two, get a giant snap on your backside from the part of the inner tube the siblings were holding. Of course, both of these reactions cause the siblings and all bystanders to laugh hysterically.

And this is where we prove we are the Hipps and there is nothing we can't laugh at. It also tends to cause whoever was getting snapped to roll around in the grass also laughing hysterically. I took a few short videos for the benefit of anyone desirous of attempting this awesome trick at home. Side note to these people, we would suggest wearing a few extra pairs of underwear...




While I refer to this trick as the human slingshot in this video, as previously mentioned the name was changed after observing it a few times. Please note Rosie's response, a typical Hipps laugh...

And there you have it. Ingenuity and old inner tubes meet again. When I was a kid we used them to roll each other down hills, but I guess we also had bigger inner tubes back then. :D

First Week off School

This last week was my first full week off school for the summer. I partied pretty hard. :D My dear friend Naomi kidnapped me for several days to help her clean houses, hang out at the Madison County Library, eat ice cream, talk, go for walks, and pretty much have a wonderful time with some of my favorite people.

The Hemphills always make me feel like a part of the family. Even leaving me greetings when they have to leave for work before I got home...

As previously mentioned, we spent a lot of time at the Madison County Public Library. Naomi is the assistant librarian and when I come to visit I am the assistant's assistant. This is actually a really fun job, made even more fun this time by the kick-off for the summer reading program. All the kids who signed up got a free ice cream sundae handed out by yours truly. The theme is many countries, one world, hence the sombrero. No, they did not force me to wear it, in fact it was hard for them to get it back...

Traditionally on our last day of cleaning houses Naomi and I get Chinese food and eat all we possibly can. Sigh, I think I temporarily gained 5 pounds after this lunch.

After Naomi brought me home, I washed my laundry then crashed for the night. I was up again by 4:30 the next morning on my way to Des Moines for training for the Iowa kids conference, NICHE. The Gradys were very generous and offered carpooling which I am glad I took them up on. It gave me several hours in the back seat visiting with Betsy who was so kind as to ink my arm on the way home. I briefly contemplated getting it done permanently since it was so lovely. Thank you again Gradys!!

When I got home, we had one little thing left from Becca's birthday to attend to.... A grand pizza party from Grandpa!! It was indeed grand and anything but little. Thank you, Grandpa!!

Michael and Sarah gave Becca Jello and Jello molds, which she has been having enormous amounts of fun with. This picture is for you, Sarah!

And, the news you all have been waiting for, although it took me so long to get the picture probably everyone knows. Leah has her driver's license! This was a long project in which Leah might have learned more about patience than she learned about driving, but not only did she log all 50 hours, she also passed the driving exam on the first try!! In other news, she also got a job for the summer working at the local chicken processing plant. A job, a licence, pretty soon she is going to be taking me out on the town, right Leah? :D

That's all for now folks! Until next time!

Becca's Birthday

The day before Becca's birthday, she had an unfortunate meeting with a barbed wire fence. Thankfully, it only scratched her lightly and a few steri-strips had her all patched back together.

She was a very good sport about it, and about spending her birthday with steri-strips still attached to her face.

Becca's cooking skills are flourishing, and Dad got her a cookbook and her own cooking utensils to practice with.

Becca opened gifts twice on her birthday since Trina was bringing home all the gifts from the family out in WA with her in the afternoon.

The second round, with presents from Mom and Richard, Hillary, and Trina.

Birthday food is the best. I mean, when else do you get to eat chicken fried steak, tortilla chips, massive fruit salad and dirt cake? Excellent choices, Becca.

Happy birthday, Becca dear! May your 12th year be as full of blessings as you are full of smiles and sweetness. I love you!!

Summer Break

A few years ago I started on the journey to getting my teaching licence. I call it a journey because that is exactly what it has been. When you start out on a journey you have an idea of where you want to end up and some of the things you might encounter on the way, but not really any clue about a lot of things which will be major parts of the journey. So it has been on my quest for a licence. Through many "you shall hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it" experiences, God led me to Western Governors University, an online school where I have been studying for my Bachelors in Arts, K-8 Interdisciplinary Studies for the last 2.5 years. Since I started my studies at the community college in May of 2008 and WGU goes year round, I have not had the summer off of school since 2007.

Hence, my life for the past 3 years has looked a lot like this...

Not wanting family life to stop just because I am in school, it has also looked a lot like this. Side note: I have the most supportive and encouraging family ever. I would never have made it without you guys!

WGU has all their classes online, then sets up a student teaching experience with a school near the student. However, before a student is eligble for student teaching, they have to complete all their classes, pass state exams and a handwriting course. Yep, a handwriting course. In cursive and manuscript. All of you who have ever gotten handwritten letters from me will be amused to know I was a stellar student in the handwriting course, earning almost all A+'s.

This week I finished all the class work standing between me and student teaching, hence for the first time since 2007 I get the whole summer off. This was cause for great celebration, as is evidenced by the above picture.

The celebration was made even more special by all the people who joined by eating ice cream (or something) to celebrate. It made me feel very special to know that so many people were eating ice cream on my behalf...

Here is to a summer off of school! Thank you Lord for bringing me this far on the journey. I can't wait to see where it goes from here. :D

Typical

It has been a very busy week, and once again my computer contains a very eclectic selection of pictures. Some of these pictures are from before this week, but still a 'typical' sampling of life with Rosie, and everyone else.

We watch movies on Wednesday nights, as family nights. We also watch movies when Dad is not home because we miss him. Seriously, it is because we miss him, not any other reason.... :D

"And the chocolate chips that melt into my eggs, and the longer that I look at it the more I wonder if it will taste great..." Hillary, this is for you. It is fried eggs with strawberries and cool whip. Oh, and raisins. John requested it and Leah made it. I think we need to write a new verse.

Leah recently made unexpected contact with some metal parts of the tractor. It produced one of the most amazing bruises I have ever seen. Being brave like she is, I hardly even heard her complain about it after the first day. Look for more exciting news about Leah in the future, just as soon as we are able to procure pictures to go with it.

The fruit trees bloomed this week. I was so glad to get pictures because the same night it rained all the petals off.

Everything is growing. The grass, the dandelions, John and Rosie...

Few things melt my heart like people bringing me flowers. John brought me these dandelions (I know some people hate them, but I am partial to the way they make a boring green yard look interesting) and told me that they were to show how much he loved me. Melt....

And so you have it folks! Life is never as sweet as when spent with the ones you love. Right now my life is like a turtle fudge sundae.... :D

Weekend With Caroline

Last weekend I went to visit Michael and Sarah, and of course Caroline. We hunted snakes, went on a walk, ate steak, went to church and otherwise caught up on some long overdue sibling and Auntie time. It is awesome when your brother gets married and instead of losing a brother, you gain a sister. It only gets better from there when they have a baby and you become an Auntie... :D While I did not get pictures of the snake hunt or other activities, I did get some darling pictures of Caroline. Enjoy!

Caroline was being very photogenic (as always) while Mommy was hanging up the clothes.

Mommy introduced her to lilacs...

She liked them!

Thanks again, Michael and Sarah, for having me over! Love you guys!!