Summer

Is over. Insert very sad, long face here. I really enjoyed it this year, the weather, the time off from school books, the vacation. It's been grand!  

Some big things happened as well this summer, changes in the Keffer home. I quit doing the paper route, and have taken in a 5 year old boy. He's a great fit for our family. And I'm considering taking in one more. I want hubby to not have to do the paper route anymore. It crazy how much life changes from littles to bigs. How much more food they eat, different things they are doing. And we don't do anything compared to some of our friends who have way more on their plate. 

Anyways enought about that. We re did our sons room.

Before;

After;

I love the way it turned out!  We purchased him new furniture & flooring. He wanted to change the paint, but I didn't. (Cause that's a lot of work!!) So I won!

Hubby and I celebrated 18 years if marriage on August 18th. 

Oh, I was 18 when I was married. Lots of eighteens!  We went out for supper, but didn't do too much else. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, as I hyped it up so much it being our special anniversary (18yrs on the 18th). Whatev. I'm hoping we can make a fly trip somewhere this fall, or not. 

So anyways. Ya. Peace out. 

I miss him.

I just had a moment,a realization, that my dad isn't here anymore. (which I've had many of).  That van ahead of us on the highway isn't him driving to a job. The phone ringing isn't him calling to talk.  The text early in the morning while doing papers is not him saying good morning paper momma. 

A friend tells me her dad is in his eighties, my heart breaks. I hear of another friend whose dad takes the grandchildren on a road trip & my heart rips apart. Our kids have no grandpas, on either side. 

My mom is moving from the house he built. I want to take everything he made, which would be the whole house, cause he built it all. The song by Miranda Lambert, The House That Built Me & How Dare You get me every time & I try to avoid any song that will make me cry. 

 

Amused?

Me, not so much. That is in regards to amusement park rides. Ya, I don't do so well with them. I tried, to be brave, and even convinced my 10 yr old to ride with us all. You know, cause it would be fun. I thought I was going to die!!  I closed my eyes for about 90% of the ride. I wish I could have taken a picture of the picture they took of me. I felt sick for the rest of the day. Wanna see what part of it looked like: 

This was an insane incline & drop!!!!!  

Just a little bit of the ride. This part wasn't so bad. The part I opened my eyes. We all went in this one. 

Three of the kids & daddy went on this ride first!  It was crazy fast!!  

Then we saw…

more corn!  Surprise surprise!  

And were bored driving!  

And saw that!!  

Ended up here

The Canadian Mint & saw how money was made.

And here 

Spent too much money here!

 

But really, 

This is where we belong!!  

SONSHINE

We conquered Sonshine Festival and the heat & humidity that was had the week we were there.  We had a BLAST!!!  This is coming from the person who doesn't like heat, outdoors & much music (not the tv channel for those children of the 80's & 90's).  We are considering a subsequent trip in the future.  You should join us, that'd be fun!  But I have to say, I do love live music, so that helps! 

This was Building 4:29, who got their band name from Ephesians 4:29, go read, it's a great verse. 

You can't tell, but this was Skillet.  Great show!!  Wow!  I'm not a huge fan of heavy metal music, but my family is, and this band is growing on me. Shhh, don't tell my family, but this was one of my favorite performances for me of the week. 

The charging station, lots & lots of plugs & chargers! 

My beautiful children! They had an amazing time. 

Good times! Think about it next year, July 16th-19th. We are....thinking about it!  

Corn!!

Did you know, that corn is North Dakota & South Dakota's #1 crop? Well, you do now! And it's everywhere there.  

Yes, these were two different fields. Hard to tell really, but its true. Soybeans is #2. Fun fact!  

Shopping, swimming & driving is pretty much what we've done the last 3 days, including today. Having fun, every mile! Yup, not kilometre. 

We ate at a Cracker Barrel. It was so fun, my dad would have loved the atmosphere. In fact when I walked into the restaurant I almost burst out crying cause I thought of him.  

Antique/garage sale heaven.

A small pool at our campsite. Perfect way to cool off after a very hot day. 

Just a little glimpse at my view. 

Summer time

And the living is easy!!  Well, sorta!  We've been chillaxin' a lot, doing a whole lot of nothing. 

Some hair was cut,

Hahahaha. Just kidding!!  This was in the process to this....

Some fun was had, 

Hubby was in a wedding,

Recycling day finally came, 

*not all in the correct order of occurrence  

Have a happy & blessed summer!  I hope to check in here from time to time, so keep a look out for fun, family vacation pictures!!  Stay safe!!

Some stuff

We've had a few busy weeks!  So glad a lot of it is coming to an end. And really, compared to other families, we aren't even remotely busy. But I like to basically do nothing and have nothing on the go.  I have 5 other family members that have a say in things, so, ya. 

We've gone on a few new geocaching excursions!!  They've been fun, even when we don't find the cache, it's fun being together, and that's the kind of things I like, being together!! 

The younger two girls had their final choir, I wish I could post a video from my phone, but that doesn't work.  So I will post a picture instead. 

It was lovely, but I'm glad it's over. 

We got our recycle bin yesterday, and I couldn't be happier. See when I married this man, almost 18 yrs ago, he came with a few quirks. One was he recycled, everything. So over the years we have had a few chats about the responsibilities, and who they fall on. So, now, we can just walk to our back yard and recycle!  And then pull it to the front twice a month!  So stoked about that!  

That's all for now ladies & gents!  Have a great day!  

Sunday, Funday!!

We had so much fun today, I have to share!!  We had a full day, fun filled one that's for sure. 

This was supper!!  We are in the backyard with burgers cooked over the open fire!  Then after supper we went geocaching again!  

We need up finding three in total, one friends pretty much put it right in front of us, but it felt good finding one!  Because after lunch we tried to find 2 different ones in our neighbourhood but were unsuccessful. So it sure felt good to find 3!  We then went for ice cream! Can't wait to go again! So much fun! Check it out.. geocaching.com. If you ever go geocaching, we sign the logs as Keff6!  We've only signed 3, more to come!!  

What school looks like at home with the Keffers

We pulled our trailer home on Sunday, and this is one of the things we love to do in here!  It was so quiet & relaxing.  Then my son came in...........then it was a wrestling match on my bed!  😁 The difference between boys & girls.  Every family needs a boy in it!  Praying for my dear friends who are expecting #6 to have a boy!  A girl would be a beautiful blessing to their family as well!  👶🚼

Test from cell

Hmmmm, this seems to be working, an it's kinda cool!!!  

Our trailer is now my view!  Love it!!  

Maybe now I will blog more?!  

The Post after THE post

When I come on to the computer to write a new post, I keep wanting to read the last post, and then when I do, I don't feel like writing any new blog post.  I get depressed, and feel like nothing compares to that.  I need to move on, move past the moment in my life that changed me forever.  It's weird how it has changed me.  It's been just over a year now and coming up to what would have been his 66th birthday and then Fathers Day.  It all still hurts a lot, but the tears are fewer.  I sometimes avoid having to cry, if that makes any sense.  I don't listen to sappy songs, I chose to not watch home videos.  I just can't. 

So, anyways, onto other news...oh wait, there is none!  We got our trailer back from storage, aka, the farm.  Don't have any plans to go camping anytime soon.  These paper routes we have kinda put a damper on the get-up-and-go type of weekend.  I would love to quit my route, hubby on the other hand, doesn't.  My kids are getting older, and I would like to get into childcare again, so we'll see. Looking into seeing how that can work, and if there would be any interest.    

 I wish that I could blog from my phone.  I think that I would blog more.  I have all my pictures on there.  Hmmm, I just downloaded an app.....I am going to test it out now!! 

Life

Wow, it has been 1 year since I last blogged.  One full year.  There have been many many times I've wanted to update things, but just couldn't.  For one major reason.  I lost one of my readers.  You may think a few things like; big deal, one reader, or how would you even know you lost one reader.  Well, the reader I lost was one that was very very special to me, my daddy.  The first man I loved.  My earthly father.  My kids grandpa, or papa, which is what they called him.

On April 14th, 2012, just three days after my last blog post, my dad was here, at my house. We had fun, we had a bonfire in the back yard (which is hard to believe, cause right now we have 5 feet of snow back there) we roasted wieners, and laughed, and he was his usual self.  Considering he had open heart surgery in February, and had been suffering from depression.  He just changed, overnight.  We were all happy, and excited that he was getting back to his old self.  Then there was the phone call, "Ara, mom is driving dad into the hospital, meet us there"  What?!?  What do you mean? "She thinks he's having a stroke" Oh my gosh, are you serious.  No, this can't be. 

After arriving at the hospital, and assessing him, it was determined he was NOT having a stroke, but loss of blood flow to his leg.  Into surgery he went.  A simple surgery we all thought.  He'd wake up the next day, we all thought.  Nope.  The surgeon (whom I used to babysit for) came out at midnight to inform us that he in fact has Aortic Dissection.  Very serious.  And not a very good chance of survival, but still a chance.  Having JUST had open heart surgery in Feb of the same year, there was NO way for them to fix this.  They told us that he would die from this, they also told us that he could wake up and live with this, some cases have.  So they told us to wait.  They would try waking him in a few days. 

A few days turned into a week, a week on sleeping meds, a week in a coma.  As they started to take him off the meds to keep him sleeping, they told us he would wake within minutes, or up to an hour. Well, after an hr passed, they seemed pretty worried, as were we.  He wasn't waking.  Over the next few days we could see signs of him hearing us, he would respond to us asking him to blink (his eyes were closed, but they would 'blink' without opening).  We saw his fingers move, and some even felt a slight squeeze.  But it wasn't to be.  We waited 4 more days for him to wake up and after 12 days of living at the hospital the news came.  They did an MRI and it showed very little to no brain activity.  In other words, he was basically brain dead.  We could keep him on life support, have him be in a wheel chair for the rest of his life, never knowing really if he would ever wake up, or we could take him off life support and say our goodbyes.  We knew dad didn't want to live that way for the rest of his life.  We knew he'd be in a better place.  The decision was made, and on April 25th, 2012 at about 8pm in the evening, my dad took his last breath on this earth with all his family by his side.  It was the most horrible thing I have ever witnessed.  But maybe at the same time the greatest thing I've ever witnessed, his body passing from this earth into our heavenly fathers arms.  I'm not quite convinced it was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed, cause I don't ever want to do that again.   

He was a faithful reader of my blog.  He was always a supporter of our decision to home school.  He loved his grandchildren so much.  He had a passion for antiques, and had a good eye for spotting a unique piece of artwork.  He loved God, and was know to often ask his customers if  "they had their spiritual bags packed"  He did!  I could go on.  I am so thankful to him for my life.  There are so many things I could list about him that I am thankful for. I miss him like crazy!!  Life is so different when there is a piece of your heart missing.  And you don't know what it feels like until you lose someone very close to you, I learnt that lesson for sure.  I am so sorry to all those who have lost a loved one, and I wasn't there for you, or I never called you to let you talk.  And to all those in the future, cause it will come, when you lose a loved one, please call me to talk.  Please have Jesus in your heart, without him, I do believe I wouldn't be able to sit here and type this out, and do all that I have done in the last year.  Get your spiritual bags packed so that you know if you should pass away, you will be in heaven with the ones you love.  Another thing that I have learned from this, I am no longer afraid to die.  I used to be.  But now I'm not, because I have someone there waiting for me!!  And I can't wait to see him all healthy and healed and whole! 

Gone too soon, William Gustav 1947-2012

Forever will be missed

I love you