Quiet boys?

This may look like and ordinary picture, but I had to capture the moment. They stood there quiet and not moving for 5 or 10 minutes. Which for my active boys was an eternity. Joshua is stopping anyone from moving so that they don't cast a shadow over the turtle. Their patience payed off and he finally poked his head out and made it back into the trees. Joshua claimed, "he is our pet, but he lives in the forest." This is added to our other backyard "pets", the bunnies, squirrels, birds, frogs and a little lizzard Jacob found.

Family Pizza Night

Why is it that going out to pizza is such a big deal in my family? It's not because we don't go very often. Maybe it is because pizza is one of the few dinner choices that everyone will eat. Still going out is always chosen over ordering in. Before we moved we had to go to Bertolli's pizza (at Central and Tyler) one last time and talk about how we would miss eating at our same booth and watching them pull pizzas out until it was our turn and they balanced our pizza on top of the giant can of tomatoes that's on every table.

Well we've picked our new pizza place. It's Falcone's (on 15th west of Broadway). It really shouldn't matter if we have a pizza place that we claim as our own or not, but we feel a little more at home, more grounded to know when we say pizza night everyone knows what's in store. The boys even feel like they are doing something noble when they all buy candy from the machine that was put there by Feed the Children.

Brandon's Surgery

Brandon just had surgery for Trigeminal Neuralgia. I thought I would put in a picture for those that haven't seen him since. The recovery is going well and he is hoping to be back to work in a week. The surgery was successful. He had two veins pushing against his trigeminal nerve. They cauterized the veins and everything went smoothly. We couldn't have asked for anything to have gone better , Dr. Sekula is great. I am so glad we went to Pittsburgh and not somewhere else. I am also grateful to Tanya and Monte that took good care of Brandon and I while we were in town. Thank you also to my parents who took a week and a half off to take care of the boys here. I am so grateful to the first ER doc that Brandon saw that correctly diagnosed him. He suffered for 90 days with the worst known medical pain, but it could have been the 4-6 years it takes a typical patient to get a correct diagnosis. Most importantly I have to thank a loving Heavenly Father and merciful Savior for all of the "coincidences" and "lucky breaks" that have happened with this experience. I am so grateful for the Lord's hand in all things.

Jacob turns 10!

Jacob's 10th birthday was Sunday. Brandon and I were still in Pittsburgh so Grandma and Grandpa Sauer threw him a party here. He wanted his birthday cake to be a miniature golf course. When I talked to them on the phone the boys said they voted and this was their favorite cake ever. Thanks Grandma! Jacob loved the cake you made!

Jacob got a basketball hoop for his birthday from us. Grandpa and the boys put it together and dug through our rock solid red clay we call soil.

Pittsburgh

We are in Pittsburgh visiting Brandon's brother and family who are here for a summer internship. This is my first trip to Pittsburgh and the bridges are beautiful.