Christmas in July ????????

No actually i'm talking about Christmas in DEC-2009. Yes grandpa and i went to Worthington this morning and have the Holiday Inn Express [same as the last few years] reserved for Friday the 25th [christmas day] and Sat. the 26th. We can arrive any time in the afternoon on christmas day [we usually checked in around 1:30 or 2:00] and need to check out on sunday forenoon sometime. What we usually do is have our Pizza Party and gift opening the second night we are there--which would be sat. night.Grandpa and grandma furnish the pizza. Friday night you are on your own as to where you want to eat or what you want to order in.
We have the party room reserved and also have a crib reserved for Zoe.So hopefully most or all of you can make it and if not --- we understand.We hope you people understand as well that we just have to set a date and go from there.So start marking your calenders!!!!!
Last year we had 2 queen suites with pull out hide a bed-with frieg etc. plus 4 queen standard.
This year we went with 3 queen suites and 3 queen standard.L0ve grandma

Florida

Hi everyone,

Just to clarify, Jana played with an Iowa select team at this tournament in FL. She got to start and play every minute of every game. She had a blast. It was an international tournament so we played teams from the USA, Dominican Republic, Italy, Puerto Rico, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Manitoba and more! I have never seen such good volleyball. Jana was by far the smallest middle hitter, as every other team we played had middle hitters averaging from 6 ft 3 to 6 ft 7!!! Our team tied for 2nd in pool play but lost the tie braker, so went to the silver tournament rather than the gold tournament that they were hoping for. They did very well considering we only practiced together 4 days before the tournament and some of the teams they played have played together for a year. She had a blast and really enjoyed the girls she played with.

The weather was great and Den and I had a great time relaxing between all the volleyball games.

We look forward to seeing Jody and Shane on August 7-9. Scott is there right now visiting with them.

Jana is working this week and next week at volleyball camps at PC.

The summer is going way to fast.

Take care,
Arla

well hello everyone i hope your summer is going well (mine is going by waaay to fast). soon school will be here and it makes me sad thinking that. well once again nothing real exciting here in chandler, our family (arvin, delaine and myself) are kind of landscaping our lawn. getting some new flowers and putting up a new border... were almost done :). ive been busy working at the chandler/jervels grocery store. thats been going well and ive just finished up volleyball league and this tuesday is my last basketball league night. i also just got back from a dordt bball tourny and our jv team played 3 varsity teams and only 2 jv teams and still got runner up to 3rd (and no thats not 4th place, it was weird rankings) out of 10 teams half of them being varsity! so we were pretty happy about that.
Jess and Darci are going to be here on sunday/tomorrow for a while so im looking forward to that aswell. who knows what we will be doing. probably playing some good old card and dice games. those seem to be the on going traditions we do everytime they visit.
ill be leaving with some friends to a cabin this week then i have a northwestern volleyball camp for 3 days with some other girls and then in 2 weeks on friday my mom, dad, and i leave for OHIO!!! :) im looking forward to this trip very much! and then after all that my mom and i start volleyball back up again. so there really isnt much of summer left sadly but its been a great summer so far! well i hope you are all doing great and enjoying the warmer weather while we can :). ill talk to you all very soon!
Love Deidra

and the decision is .....DENTURES

I went to the dentist today and had the stitches removed and had a long talk with the dentist and decided on dentures. I will go back the first week of august and have impressions made of ny mouth and he will send it away to have the dentures made. I will then schedule an appointment with the oral surgeon. I will keep you all posted. Vonda

trips

Hi everyone,

Den and I are leaving early Tuesday morning to head to Florida to watch Jana play volleyball. We will get back on Sunday, July 26. Then the weekend of August 7-9 we plan to go visit Jody and Shane in Milwaukee!!

Take care,
Arla

Family vote....

I had my mammogram on Monday and had good new. Everything looked good and I could go back to the yearly checkups.

However, on Tuesday I went to the dentis and had 2 teeth removed. That makes 5 teeth total (not including the wisdom teeth) i have had removed. I go back in next Tuesday to have the stitches removed and then I will have to decide a plan of action. 1.) have a partial plate made to replace the teeth that were removed and then continue with visits correcting the issues with the other teeth (which there are many issues) 2.) have a bridge put in (just like the one i had a few years ago when my other teeth were removed) and continue with visits correcting the issues I have with the other teeth or 3) become like Mom (love ya Mom) and have all lthe teeth pulled and wear dentures.

I know which way I am leaning but would love to hear other opinions both pro and con on the matter.

CWAV - Spirit Lake

Thesee are the last of the pictures from the CWAV weekend. Hope you all enjoyed them.

It hasn't been a great weekend for me as I started to get a toothache Friday night and I woke up Saturday in alot of pain. I found a dentist who saw me as an emergenct patient. He presecribed some antibiotic and also put some medication into the root of the tooth and i go back on Tuesday to haved 2 teeth pulled. So I am not in as much pain now but it is quite uncomfortable.

Tomorrow (Monday) I go in for a follow up mammogram, from the biopsy they did a few month s ag0.

Vonda

CWAV - Spirit Lake - more fun at the lake

CWAV - Spirit Lake

Taking a break........

Do you think they are having fun?

She was having fun ----- she just doesn't like it when I take her picture.

Waiting for their turn to go on the boat.

The smile says it all.

Mom, remind me next time I am home and I'll explain the Wiz, Bang, Bounce game to you and why we were laughing so much through out the videos. Vonda

CWAV - Spirit Lake - Playing Wiz, Bang, Bounce

So much fun ----- I bet we play it again next year.

CWAV - Spirit Lake - just hanging out

Shingles ---- and not on a roof :(

Playing hangmanMaking ice cream

Eating watermellon

Playing hand and foot (I think)

More hangman

I went to the doctor today and I have shingles. There is a bright red patch of blisters on my back and as night came yesterday it started to go around to my side and to the front of my stomach. The back is by far the worst. The doctor gave me cream and pills to take to help control the spread of it and the pain. I caught it really quick so the paid isn't bad just really itchy and kind of feels like pin pricks. The biggest problem now is trying to stay cool as any type of sweat or heat makes it worse. So good thing I have air conditioning and a security door down stairs and my apartment door locked becasue unexpected visitors wouldn't be good right now as clothes wearing is limited.

I'll be off work till Thursday by then the blisters should be opened up and no longer contagious. If you had chickpox I am not contagious but if you havne't had chicken pox then I am contagioius becasue the virus is in the same "field" as chicken pox.

So, Tony and Danielle I did ask about Zoe since I held her briefly for a picture and since she wasn't in direc contact with the rash and for the short length of time I held her ( I had my picture taken with her and gave her right back to Sandy so maybe held her for a minute or so) the doctor didn't think she would get it but told me to keep the parents informed just in case. Sorry,......... I didn't know.

Miscellaneous......

The first picture is to prove something to Jana and Darci.....I was talking to them both about how I remembered the time that Danielle, Darci, Jody and Jana arrived at Adrian park about 11pm at night with suitcases full of clothes and came to spend the night with me in the camper and then left again the next morning. I remember this becasue I had put the fire out for the night and was just heading into the camper when the four of them pulled up in the car just laughing and giggling and that they came to spend the night with me. I don't know when it was, or why the Van Zantens were around but I remember the night. Darci you were behind me when this picture was taken as I wasn't able to get you all in the shot.

The ironic part us neither Darci or Jana remember this so I had to take a picture or my picture to prove it to them. So Jana, even though you don't remember it - you did come camping with me once before. Scott stayed behind at Grandpa and Grandma and played rook.

Danielle or Jody --- any idea what year this was??

This is just an adorable picture I took of Zoe today.

CWAV - Spirit Lake and the gigantic marshmellows

THEY MIGHT NOT LOOK BIG IN THE PICTURE BUT THESE MARSHMELLOWS WERE HUGE!

JASON MAKING A SMORE WITH ONE (THAT'S RIGHT) ONE MARSHMELLOW~!

enjoying the pictures

Hi everyone,

Vonda, thanks for posting all the pictures of the CWAV weekend! We enjoy looking at them.

We hope you all had a nice July 4th weekend. Den had Friday off as well. We didn't do anything to exciting, just sort of hung around and enjoyed sleeping in and playing it lazy.

Really don't know much at all, just wanted to say "hi" to everyone. I know how I enjoy when other people make a post on the blog, so thought it was about time I did one once again.

Tony and Danielle, I hear you are heading up to Milwaukee tomorrow. Jody and Shane are looking forward to having you. Have a safe trip and a fun time!

Hope all is going well for all of you.

Arla

CWAV - Spirit Lake

Jason

Heather

CWAV - Spirit Lake

CWAV - Spirit Lake

Notice the "slow - sneak attack" on Darci ....and Jess's claims of not doing anything. I'll let you all be the judge of that.

Happy Birthday Scott!!!

Whiz - Bang - Bounce

(video coming another day)