Happy Birthday #9!

Wesley loves mint chip ice cream, so I made him an ice cream cake. Yum! I told him that he can't get too much older or we would start running out of room for all the candles on his cake.


The only thing he told us that he wanted for his birthday was money or Verticon. Gary and Andrew and Brooke took a trip to Toys 'R Us and purchased this item while I distracted Wesley elsewhere. Verticon is a game where the "floating balls" fight each other and you have to pick which one you think will last the longest. They come with weapons also. Boys and their toys, particularly my boys and their "fighting" toys.

Happy Birthday, to my oldest! I love you, bud. Wesley is a first born child and manifests it well in his drive, ambition, intelligence, and leadership. These qualities are also mixed in with his clumsiness and great compassion. Who would have thought nine years ago that my littlest baby (5 pounds) could grow to be such a big boy (not even a head shorter than me and nearly 100 pounds)? Wesley is most proud of his family; he told me yesterday that he is so glad that God gave him a great family. His best friend is his brother, and his hero is his dad. I don't know where that puts Brooke and I, but we will settle for being the only women in his life. :)

Spider-man is among us

When people speak of "climbing the walls" as a bad thing, I have to now laugh. Andrew loves climbing, climbing anything. His latest adventure has been to climb the doorway openings. Normally, he will just do it. I may be getting ready in the bathroom and next thing I know, Andrew is up at the top of the bathroom opening. Yesterday, though, he put on his Spider-man apparel and did his "climb." I figured that deserved to be photographed. I seem to remember my cousin Frankie doing this as a young boy. Now, I have my own Spider-man.

Santa Barbara Zoo

We took a trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo. One of my favorite parts is the 25-minute drive up the coast. Brooke's favorite was the elephant. Wesley and Andrew loved the gibbon. We stood there for quite awhile and just watched them swing all over the place----amazing.

Who doesn't love a package..........

......especially a package of clothes from Aunt Linda! Brooke and Andrew found such tremendous joy today in opening and inspecting a large box that was sent to us from Michigan. Thankfully, Molly is bigger than Brooke and passes her clothes down to Brooke. Brooke changed her outfit.....I am not quite sure.....but I would have to estimate 18 times today.

Andrew was thankful for the bag of Tootsie Pops that found their way into Brooke's box of clothes. I was also humored by the fact that the sides of the box were all colored----I guess Ryan and Dakota helped with the packaging. Thanks, Molly and Aunt Linda; we love you guys and all of the clothes that you send our way!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July from the Beards! We enjoyed a BBQ and smores and fireworks with several families from our church. We were in charge of bringing the dessert. We settled on chocolate chip cookies (good Rehfeldt tradition) and flag brownies.


Just an update on my last post. We have not heard much in regards to the house. We are dealing with a bank, and they work at their own pace. Our realtor told us that one of the offers was better than ours by $10,000 with more money down, so we counter offered our own offer and raised the price by $15,000. I don't know if this will make a difference. It is in the Lord's hands. We somewhat expect that if we were going to be able to purchase the home that we would have heard something by now. So, we continue to wait.

Thanks for your calls and prayers regarding my tests this week. I actually was also having some severe pains below my chest for this last week. So on Wednesday, I was in the doctor's office all day. One good thing about being diabetic is that the doctors feel free to run every test on you. I know that my heart is in good condition (EKG), my liver is functioning well and my gallbladder is not infected (blood tests). My nerve test also came back with clear results. So, there is no problem with the nerves in my legs. In fact, that specialist said, "You look great, particularly for being diabetic for almost 30 years." Regarding the recent pains below my chest (and lack of sleep), the doctor put me on some medicine and said I probably have an upper stomach infection. Unfortunately, it has not taken away my appetite :)

It was a fun day today, and thankfully, I was feeling much better! Hope you all enjoyed your different fireworks, wherever it was they shot up from!!!!