Happy Father's Day and Rod's Birthday

 June always gets a little nuts around here. We have numerous birthdays, Father's day, end of year celebrations for all the kids activities, and most years a wedding or graduation or both. Throw in Owen's medical appointments and we have a recipe for chaos. Rod decided to make things easier this year by having his birthday on Father's day, saving us the hassle of two separate celebrations (Yes, I'm kidding. I know it's hard to tell on the internet)!

 The older kids decided that Brenna was the best "bow" for the top of the present.

 Rod got a grinder for sharpening things like lawn mower blades and machetes.

 And a bunch of clothes. Kristi and Cassi got him clothes too.

 We went to my in-laws for lunch, where Rod and I received a much wanted zoo pass and a new mailbox. Why a new mailbox? Because sometime after the mailman had come by Friday and before we went out to check the mail someone knocked over our old one denting it badly and demolishing the post. When we arrived at Rod's parent's house there was a nice big mailbox in the living room. We were astonished that they had gotten us a new mailbox since we hadn't told them ours was broken again (we are on our 4th mailbox in 4 years). It turns out that Grandma had ordered the wrong mailbox for their house (it's huge) and couldn't return it. Talk about providence! Rod's brother got him a book subtitled "experiments you can do at home, but still probably shouldn't". I'm rather worried that some of those experiments will become the topics of future blog posts. Kristi and Simon also got us a couple of gift cards as Kristi knows that my favorite present is the ability to buy my own present.

 In other news, My stepdaughters have a pretty rough day coming up tomorrow. Prayers would be greatly appreciated. One thing you learn as a parent is that things don't always get easier just because your kids are grown up and on their own. Sometimes it gets harder because you can't make things easier for them like you can when they are still little. Sorry if I seem a bit cryptic about this, but the situation isn't really mine to go into detail about.

 My Dad finally got good news about his medical issues. It seems that the pain he has been in since his latest surgery is actually a sign that the nerves are working again and the doctor was able to start him on a new (non- narcotic) medication to help. He's already feeling better!