Somebody Help Me

My washing machine is slowly but surely ruining my ever so teensy, but very thought out and hand selected wardrobe piece by piece. And I don't know why or what to do. The machine is only a little over 3 years old. The collars or sleeves come out with a black line on them that I cannot get out. Maybe the clothes are getting stuck under the aggitator? Any suggestions or ideas? The picture does not do it justice. It is much worse than it looks. This is after I soaked the collar in bleach. Please help; my clothes are begging to be saved from the black mark.

The Week in Review

We have had a busy but fun couple of weeks. My mom was here for a week while my sister was at camp. And while I did accomplish a lot while the live-in babysitter was here, we also had a little bit of fun too. Mom treated Elle to some play time at Pump It Up and let me just say that it is worth a million times more than the $5 it cost to play. We'll be attending many more "free play" times soon! I took Elle to her first movie at the theater. They do summer kids flicks and have shows at 10 AM for just $3 including popcorn and a drink. The movie was one we had seen but I wanted her to have the experience (and I wanted to do it cheaply first in case she got antsy and wanted to leave early!).
I thought I would let her have Sprite for the occasion. And I must admit, I was kind of happy when she labeled it "yuck". I also finally finished an outfit for Elle. Now I am working on two more dresses plus a birthday outfit for Grady?!

Mom left on Thursday and on Friday, we headed to my sister and brother-in-law's place on the lake for the weekend. We did some kayaking and a little boat riding and a lot of eating. Elle is still not too keen on getting her face wet and since there were no steps for her to play on (only a dock), we didn't do much swimming. Grady took a little kayak ride but I think something about being choked by a life jacket took some of the enjoyment out of the ride. Oh well. We had fun being with family anyway. And the views of the lake from their house are breathtaking. It's a beautiful place to be. Thanks, Rhonda and Luke, for having us!

Bringing Back the Group Date

We had such a fun date night this past Saturday. It was sort of a late surprise birthday dinner for Steven (and me!). He was really surprised and I think everyone had a great time getting together. It was nice to actually be able to eat an entire meal without having to 1) share my food with someone under 4 feet tall 2) get up from the table multiple times to meet a need or take someone to the bathroom and 3) have more than a 30 second uninterrupted conversation with an adult. Plus, we had not seen some of our friends in over three years. And like Amy said in her post, we are missing community with believers. Thanks to all for coming. We loved it! And even though there were six married couples there, we did sit girls on one end and boys on the other.

**I have been trying to post this since Monday, but cannot get my pictures to upload for some unknown reason. So, here is the post without the pictures. I will put them on here if I can ever get it to work?! For a picture, click here.

Birthday Bashes

We had a weekend full of birthdays at the Salter household. Steven's birthday was Friday, along with his sister--yes, they have the same birthday, four years apart. (**side note: Elle and my sister, Madison, also have the same birthday. We like to make things easy around here and keep the birthdays consolidated).
Steven worked all day but came home to a house full of pirates (really just Elle) and a sad attempt at a pirate hat birthday cake. At least Elle had a great time helping me "make" the cake by making sure the spoons were licked clean.


Yesterday was our neighbor's third birthday so we partied down at their house all afternoon. The girls had a blast. The plan was to have the party at our local park, but the afternoon down pour put the party in the garage. This picture was after the girls had gone down a slide in to a pool of balls about 400 times. That is sweat in Elle's hair. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of her feet. They were totally black. Good times, huh?

The Thrilling 30's

Sunday, July 6th, came and went and with it, I passed in to what some would call the "thrilling 30's". My aunt and uncle so graciously passed down this coffee cup to me so that I could be reminded of this fact each morning as I sip the beverage that I now need to stay awake the entire day... or at least until afternoon nap when all three of us snooze for a little while. Elle is showing for you in pictures just how thrilling the 30's will be. It made me want to do a flip too, but I probably would have injured something.

Hope Eternal

I have been wanting to write about our week at the beach and post some pictures and I will soon. But my heart has been so sad and heavy since some of our college friends, Billy and Hope, lost their 4 year old daughter, Alaina, last week. Most everything else in my life seems to pale next to this tragedy. I can't seem to think about much else. Please continue to pray for them. The services were yesterday and I'm sure things will begin to quiet down and in the quietness, grief will manifest itself. They both have amazing faith in the Lord and He will see them through this. Otherwise, there would be no other way to survive something like this.

He's Walking!

Grady actually took his first few "steps" at exactly 10 months on the date. But in the weeks since then, he is gradually perfecting this thing we call walking. It's much too easy for him to just walk; he likes to make music with his maracas at the same time.