Summer Days

Where have we been? Enjoying a very busy and full summer!

The first of June found us in Tennessee talking about marriage and child rearing - our boys weren't thrilled about those topics but they were thrilled to spend HOURS here:

Then a quick stop at Cades Cove - we just missed seeing a bear.

Then on to the Smoky Mountains for camping.

We went back to Mile High Campground because the views there are unbeatable.

We had a very nice secluded camping spot and that is happiness for little boys. Through the week we saw a total of 11 elk that came through our campsite - one not even 10 feet away - that's a little too close for comfort. One morning we woke up in the clouds and that was really neat.

While camping there were times to walk through bamboo forests

and wade in streams.

This time we learned a very important lesson: when you leave on a hike, no matter how pretty the sky looks - close your tent. A thunderstorm can develop very quickly in those mountains and if you leave your tent open, everything will get wet. Thankfully Cherokee, North Carolina has a laundromat that made quick work of pillows, sleeping bags, blankets and clothes so that by the time bedtime arrived, all three monkeys had a warm dry place to lay their heads.

Then back for a few weeks to focus on caring for the garden and working on some painting projects.

 Some baby birds in the Boston fern on the porch.

Then a trip to AL for Pell City Camp but....the new camera I was given never left it's case. But when we got back I did take a picture of Daniel who lost his first tooth.

Then my nephew came for a visit and asked for a "Hobbit Hole Cake" so I dug out the cake decorating materials and did my first Hobbit cake. From my son's reactions - I'll probably have three more over the next year. (And just as we were about to walk out the door one of my boys gasped and said, "Mommy, you forgot the golden doorknob." So we remedied that before it was delivered.)

It was then time to say goodbye to a great friend who is leaving to do an internship for the next year. How we will miss Darnell's laugh and stories but so thankful forwhat God has been doing in his life and looking forward to what God has ahead for him.

Then a few days away in Amish Country to celebrate 12 years of sharing life together with this man:

And enjoying some beautiful, relaxing, country scenery before the rush of another school year returns.

And now Philip is away preaching his last campmeeting, the boys and I are home picking blackberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. This next week we finish preparations for the first day of school. Such a busy summer! But what a great one!

Monday

This was the beginning of New Student Orientation week. Philip went back to school on the 11th for Faculty/Staff week so we're getting back into the groove of being on a school schedule. My sister-in-law, Charity, is here to help her sister, Chelsea, settle in at GBS. Monday morning I peeled the cucumbers for cinnamon pickles and put them in the lime water. I cooked four pints of blackberries and extracted the juice to make jelly later then began working on a cake for my nephew Alex's party. Alex turned one at the end of July but we celebrated with the Brown's and his Grandma Fredrick on Monday night. Theme: Monkeys and bananas.

Last of the weddings

                      The last wedding cake order for this summer was filled yesterday! Just in time for the pregnancy induced carpal tunnel to set in. I'm hoping this time it won't be as painful as the last two pregnancies. Very simple cake...no decorations other than the ribbon and the flowers. Easy - just the way I like them :o)

Weddings

Most of this week was spent preparing for Sherilyn Stetler's wedding Friday night. The general design of the cake was a square (18, 14, 10 and 6 inches) in which each layer was to be a different flavor (butter, chocolate, strawberry and marble) and have a different design. That was a challenge but very fun! She allowed me enough space to be creative which is always nice. The bottom tier I decorated with fondant stripes that I'd brushed with pearl dust. The second had edible fondant pearls on it. The third tier had the quilted look and then the top tier had random piping. Her color was celedon green and terra regina (coral). I thought the cake turned out very "Sherilyn - looking". I wasn't able to go to the wedding since I'd also volunteered to help with the food for the reception and that took every minute that could be spared apart from the cake. It was fun to see a lot of old friends at the wedding and even a former professor (Mr. Ed Overdorff). At 11:00 I got home, dropped into bed and lay there trying to decide if I'd get up early to take things to a yard sale I'd said that I'd help with. Sighh...Daniel made that decision for me since he was up before 7:00...again. So, we spent some time volunteering at the yard sale (which we're doing again next Saturday if anyone is interested), did some laundry, generally red up the house, and got two meals. Philip set up the boys swimming pool, watered my flowers and sprayed the mud off of our driveway, watched the boys and graded distance education papers. Good, busy day and now we're getting ready for the Lord's day tomorrow. Blessings!

Whirlwind week(s)!

Last Monday - finished purchasing items for Jackie's cake Tuesday - made 6 batches of icing Wednesday - began baking. I baked the 14 inch heart first because that size takes an hour to bake. I ran over to the cafeteria to pick up our lunch leaving instructions with Allan not to touch the cake. He had been begging me all morning and though I was tickled he was asking for food (he's lost 7 lbs since Thanksgiving) he knows he's not allowed to have the wedding cakes. I promised him I'd make cupcakes out of the leftover batter and he could have as many as I wanted. When I returned the first words I heard were, "Mommy I had cake!" And bless his heart he had...1/4 inch was eaten out the entire perimeter of the heart. The conversation went like this, "Allan, what did mommy say right before I left?" "Not to touch the cake." "What did you do?" "I touched the cake." "Allan what did you just do?" "I disobeyed." Sometime I just look at him and think, "Are we not putting two and two together here?! " So we "fixed" both the cake and the disobedience and went on. Thursday - finished baking - was one cake mix short so I had to run to the store. Forgot to put the eggs in one cake so I had to do that batch over again. Psalm 34:1. Finished making the snowflakes. Friday- iced and decorated as much as I could. Saturday - did set up, came home and got everyone ready to go to the wedding, went to the wedding, I had the job of cutting the cake so I was there until the very end...all day affair. I forgot my camera so other people had to help me out. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures yet when the fountain was turned on. Oh, well.



This next week is unreal! Today I babysat, finished Christmas shopping (Philip took care of the boys from 1:45 to 8:00) YEAH!!!
Tuesday - Allan has Dr's appointment and the GBS Faculty/Staff Christmas banquet is tomorrow evening. Wednesday - making a meal for a family who just had a baby last week.
Thursday - Daniel has a research study visit at Children's Hospital and his one year checkup with his pediatrician. Our pastor is having the church board members and their wives for supper.
Friday is our church Young Adult Christmas get together. Somewhere in there the gifts will get wrapped, Christmas cards addressed and yearly letter written, and I'll continue to enjoy seeing Christmas through the eyes of little people.

For advent this year we've been focusing on the three aspects of Christ's coming. 1. Christ is coming again for His children 2. Christ comes in many ways all through our lives 3. Christ came as a baby. Last week we dealt with #1 and did a review on Saturday. We asked Allan if Jesus was going to come again and why he's coming again. Philip then asked him if he was going to go with Jesus when he came back and Allan answered that he was. So Philip asked him, "So how are you going to go to heaven with Jesus?" We were expecting his version of the plan of salvation (which he knows and has explained to us) but instead he said, "First you have to get in a REALLY BIG crane and it lifts you up!" Hope all of you have a blessed week!

Some Cakes done recently

I had a bridal shower cake for Jackie Pearce (who's wedding cake I'm doing this coming Saturday) and a baby shower cake for Dorcas Hallam. The baby shower cake was patterned after a cake her grandmother used to make. The key was getting it to look like a cradle without having it rock!

Updates from the Brown Clinic

Let's see: the last time I posted Daniel had just started his second round of antibiotics. That was when life got interesting. October 23 - woke him up to take him to get his one year pictures and he's running a fever of 103. Got home after pictures fever was 103.5 - took him to urgent care. Ear infection much worse and he (according to the chest x-rays) had pneumoniaitis. Started on ear drop antibiotic and continue the oral one. October 24 - the fever broke and he seemed to be no worse for the wear. October 27 - Allan began running a fever of 103 and stayed on the couch all day long (for a 3 year old this means they really are feeling rotten!) October 28th - Allan had two seizures 2 hours apart and began to complain of sore throat. His fever broke after the second seizure. October 29th- Allan complains of sore throat (I see nothing upon inspection) October 30th Daniel goes to the Dr to be sure that the pneumoniaitis is gone. It is but he still has the ear infection so we begin the third oral antibiotics. October 30th - Allan is crying while eating supper saying his throat hurts (we thought that the sore throat was coming from the muscle strain of the seizure) so I get a flashlight and look. Fiery red throat and white blisters. November 1st - Allan to the Dr - he has Herpangina. Tylenol for pain and plenty of fluids. The Dr decided to check Daniel's ears to see if the third antibiotic was working - ear are worse so she faxed a referral for him to have tube put in at Children's Hospital - we are to see the specialist November 13th. That's the update from the clinic - may I say that I'll be glad when the clinic is able to close it's doors due to having no sick patients. I'm very thankful that God has kept both Philip and I well through this ordeal. (I do cringe when I think this is only the beginning of cold weather!)

Other wise: My brother, Jonathan Slagenweit, stayed with us during the Ministerial Leadership Conference last week. We've weaned Daniel down to 1 bottle a day. I had two more cakes: one for a voice recital and the other for a baby shower. OH, so many more things happened but since I have the opportunity to get an extra hour of sleep tonight I believe I'll get some work done so that I can take advantage of it (not that children understand that we can sleep an extra hour but I'd like to think it could happen!) - 

Happenings

It has been a whirlwind month at the Brown residence. The short news is: 1. Philip has completed the RHB (Reader's Hebrew Bible) dubbed "The Project" by Allan. YEA!!! It's in China waiting to be printed and should be released next spring. This allows for some extra family time which we have all loved.

2. Daniel has 4 teeth, seasonal allergies, double ear infection, and we're weaning him off the bottle - not an overly happy camper but it will get better.
 
A cake done for a church's pastor appreciation.
3. Allan has been enjoying the fall leaves, campfires, poking dragons (this one I don't totally understand), and taking advantage of the last few warm days to play in the sandbox.
4. I've been trying to keep the normal working machinery of a home working smoothly while starting fall housecleaning and canning some apple pie filling. Throw in GBS Homecoming, revival, Pastor Appreciation, Dr.'s appointments, the never ending laundry pile and you have very full days! But we love the fall and are starting to think about Christmas...Philip even suggested that we start playing some Christmas music. That was a surprise! (he's the one who slept until 8:00 the morning of our first Christmas! Never in my life had a met someone who slept in CHRISTMAS morning.) I think perhaps I'm having a good influence on him :o) Have a great week!

This week's doings

Biggest news: Daniel finally cut his first tooth this week. It has been a long, fussy process but it looks as though he'll have at least two or perhaps three by this time next week. Hopefully even bigger news: Philip is working frantically to finish the Reader's Hebrew Bible for Zondervan tonight. The deadline is tomorrow. This is been a huge 2 1/2 year project that BOTH of us will be glad when it's done. He was quoting Psalm 34:1 just a minute ago which isn't a good sign :o)


 Let's see: Did two birthday cakes - one Thomas the train and another baseball theme. The top of the baseball is actually a molded candy plaque. Allan received this wonderful ensemble from Grandma Slagenweit. Today the boots arrived and so he wanted his picture taken. He wore the boots the rest of the day! Side note - when I went to Bob Jones University in 1999, I wanted to be prepared for the rain they so often get. Not wanting to loose umpteen umbrellas to mistaken identity I decided to be different (or a total moron) and purchased a frog umbrella just like this one except adult size. I never did loose my umbrella by the way!

Celebrations

We celebrated Daniel's birthday at PopPop and Gramme Brown's house on Friday evening. He loved his cake and stuck his fingers in it and made a mess. I did a stand up train for him just like I did for Allan. When you put the money into a pan it's a shame to only use it one time. He enjoyed the books that he received for his birthday. The other cake is one that I did for a bridal shower. The strings hanging out of the cake were attached to the charms they wanted in the cake. Since the wedding colors are navy blue and burnt orange they said I could just stick with the blue - much safer!