It has been a busy couple of days. I've been helping my mom with her estate sale and we have done plenty of playing as well. We spent 7 hours at the waterpark yesterday! Fischer had an absolute blast! He went down the big water slide 7 times, and spent hours in the wave pool. He loved the wave pool! Let's just say that getting him to leave the water park was work!

We also visited the Petting Zoo at Domino Farms. Yes, I do find it strange that Domino Pizza's headquarters has a petting zoo. However it is really cute. Fischer had a great time feeding the ducks!

We made it to Michigan. Michigan has to be one of the prettiest states. As soon as you cross the state line from Indiana it's a different world. Tree lined highways, beautiful farms. Last night we took Fischer out to my parents farm. Besides the mosquitos, there's nothing like driving down a dirt road at dusk with thousands of lightning bugs nestled in the growing corn. Beyond the corn there are beautiful old farmhouses and bright red barns.

The kids ran around for hours and hours, and PaPa made them a tire swing. Mom has been growing vegetables in the garden. Even though I didn't plant them, there is something so gratifying about picking vegetables from a garden and then eating them.

Here are some pics from last night:

I am rare. I'm 30 years old and have four living grandparents. I would say that is rare, wouldn't you? I also knew both of my great grandmothers. All of this to say, that my paternal grandpa isn't doing very well. We always joke and say he has nine lives because 10 years ago we thought he was going to die from congestive heart failure. He is really struggling every day and has such poor oxygen levels that he is confused most of the time. He and Granny spent a month in MI with my parents. My mom told me that he had a moment of clarity and said, "How is Tracy?" My mom told him I was doing fine and that the baby was fine. He said, "I sure can't wait to meet that little fellow. He is going to be a live wire!"

Even if my grandpa doesn't make it to meet the little guy, our little one will always know what his great-grandpa thought of him :) I just hope he isn't right!

I just got done telling my hubby what horrible communication skills I have, so I am certain that what I am trying to say will not come out the way I want it to.

Today I went over to Sharons(Sam's mom) house for our Thursday Bible Study group. Of course we weren't planning on studying anything, just helping Sharon around the house if she needed anything. Turns out, she just needed to talk. What an amazing woman.

Here are just some of the comments that were spoken by this sweet, gentle spirit:

"I am not going through anything that God himself did not go through."

" I am accepting that this is God's will. So many miracles have come out of Sam's death."

"I am experiencing sorrow and pain, but I also have so much joy."

WHAT? Did this woman just lose her precious son? She is overjoyed with the miracles that have come about since Sam's passing. People in her family who have reconciled, people in her family that want to study the Bible, and complete strangers writing emails and explaining how Sam's sermon has changed their life. While we were talking, one of the girls told Sharon that her neice had uttered these precious words, " Sam lived his whole life for God, and I want to live that way too." Sharon cried and was then joyous that her neice had expressed an interest in God.

I wish that everyone could sit in a room with her for 2 hours and listen to her express her love for God in the way that I did today.

Sharon told me today when Sam was in utero his estimated due date was October 4th or 5th(which is our little guy's due date). He was born on June 16th though. That means he was born around 24-25 weeks. What a fighter he was. That was a pretty big miracle considering it was 14 years ago, when the technology is not as good as it is today. Sharon knew that his life would have purpose if he survived those three months in the NICU. After his recent sermon he wrote for LTC, she just knew that he was destined to be a preacher. Even with his slight speech impediment, he delivered a flawless sermon to the congregation a few months ago. As our minister Jim expressed a few weeks ago; Sam has preached to more people in the past few weeks than most preachers will ever be able to do. Preachers dream about reaching millions of people with their thoughts, but Sam did that very thing. All you have to do is type in Sam Thomsen Sermon on Google and you will be amazed.

Sam's life was a wonderful testament to his parents abilities to love and raise their child in a Christian home. Love is evident in their home, in their pictures, in their spoken words, and in the Bible laying on the kitchen table. I hope that Franklin and I can be the kind of parents that Sharon and Larry are.

Finally a break in the severe weather so we could enjoy our deck! It(the severe weather) should return tonight or tomorrow so thought I would post some pics of Fischer swimming. We made smores last night on the grill, and as you can see Fischer enjoyed painting with the chocolate. He has a little touch of OCD(not officially diagnosed, just by us) so whenever he chooses to be messy we encourage it!!