new name for miller girl #4!

not eleanor! angie and matt decided to call their fourth daughter, elles. like ellis island. elles angela miller. lissy for short. i visted her on saturday with jack and my dad. elles is sweet. can't wait to see her again. angie is doing ok. she is still in pain from her c-section. she is still in the hospital. hope she can get the help she needs to take care of the 4 girls in the next weeks. pray for them. thank you.

baby girl miller #4

my sister, angie, had her baby today sometime around noon. it was her 4th c-section. the baby girl was 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 1/2 inches. she has thick, dark, wavy hair. angie says that explains the heartburn. the tentative name is eleanor angela. jack, my dad and i are going down to see the miller's tomorrow. i can't wait! this is my 5th neice. think of the great slumber parties i can have some day! will post photos as soon as possible.

my little helpers

hello lily, isabelle, ava, and sterling. cousin molly is sorry she hasn't posted a photo of your visit yet. i have been trying to catch up on blogging all the fun and interesting stuff that has been happeing lately. i promise to either post more photos or e-mail you some. ok? it was great spending so much time with you and your mom and dad. i am praying that you can move back to MN SOON!!!!!!!!!

1st photo: jack pushing his buddy ava; 2nd photo: belle, bri and lily helping me snap beans under the willow tree.

my dahlia

this is one of my dahlias. gorgeous. the plants are a bit rangey. they needed to be tied to some support and i never got to it. the flowers, though, are a wonder. i have white, red, and this wine/white mix.

my veggie garden

i have a lovely veggie garden. i have green/yellow/puple beans, cucumbers, leaf lettuce, spinach and carrots. i am hoping to have pumpkins, broccoli and cauliflower. i love the purple beans. alas, their color turns green when you cook them. i have 10 bags of beans in the freezer so far. i hope that the produce i get offsets the cost of seed!

this old farm show days '08

i am so proud. my husband took a pile of junk garden tractor and restored it to this lovely state. this is a 1969 simplicity land lord garden tractor. it is pretty buff, i don't know if it comes across so tough in the photo... but it is! it also has a snowblower that attaches and dan says you can also get a cultivator for it! that would be great for future gardens. when dan got this (for free) it was rusty and ugly. he sandblasted, primed, painted, got new parts, and even machined a few parts for it. he is amazing. he creates.

there is a neat little place in brainerd, MN called "this old farm". it adjoins "paul bunyanland". every fall t.o.f. has a "show days". they run the machinery and staff the buildings that are usually just for looks. i bought popcorn and a rootbeer float for us in the sweet shoppe. we saw men threshing barley. we watched men make planks in the sawmill, nails in the black smith building, and shingles in... what? a shingle shack?:) there was also a tractor pull (good clean red-neck fun), and a tractor parade. mostly it was regular tractors, but there were a few garden tractors. too bad jack's hat slipped down. for dinner we partook of a pig roast. yum! now dan has another garden tractor to restore. maybe next year i'll be in the parade!

of how silly of me. i forgot to mention that we were also interviewed for the local news that day! they showed a short segment of dan's interview, but i was there. looking like a scared rabbit and squinting into the sun. it is hilarious. we videotaped the newscast. so come on over and see me looking like a moron. oh, and dan sounds like kermit the frog.:)

top photo: sawill; middle photo: pastor skog, dan, jack; bottom photo: dan & jack in tractor parade

road trip -- star wars exhibit

well, this post gets a lot of tags. photo, yes. nora, yes. DUMB STUFF I DO? yes!!! oh, i made such a mess of this one. nora (super awesome friend from pcc) and i planned to meet at the Science Museum of MN to see the Star Wars Exhibit. we were so excited. well, i was horribly late. i got lost and my phone needed a top-up. disaster. well, we both tried to keep a stiff upper lip (love that brit expression), but things continued to trip us up. nora's kid didn't like his lunch. there was a ton of people in the exhibit so it was hard to do any of the activites... oh yes, and we both had our toddlers along.:) bless their little hearts. they were good little boys. jack sat very nicely for the robot theatre with c-3po. they liked the wampa from hoth. maybe they thought he was a teddy bear? with a hunk of fake bloody meat?:) i think i might bring jack back there someday... like when he is 10. at least i got jack a cool souvenir tee shirt.

note: that is THE landspeeder from star wars episode 3. cool.

are we confused?

i ran into a girl i had e-mailed about winning my blog contest. she was uncertain who to enter the contest. all you have to do is LEAVE A COMMENT on the contest post. there is a little green phrase on the bottom of the stuff i have written that says "Posted by gypsy jean at 1:55 PM 2 comments". you need to CLICK ON # COMMENTS to get to leave a comment. there are only 2 commenters so far. so, comment away! and good luck and God bless.

vbs '08

alas, this year i did not get to attend all of Deerwood Baptist Church's Vacation Bible School. it is such a great, life-changing time. i have to work nights so i can stay home days with jack. the olympics was the theme of our Church's VBS this year. i wanted to "do my part", so i was the art director and head arteest. my fave art/decor installment was the gigantic (10ft? 12?) flaming torch at the front of the Church. the flame was a bunch of crumpled tissue paper glued to some poster board. and glittter, oh yes, there was glitter!:) the flame shimmered. i also did a twist on the wordless book with the olympic rings. i was very pleased.

jack got to "help" pastor choose some songs for opening night. pastor loves jack. i think they'll be buddies.

flashphotograhy portraits of jackers

jack had portraits taken at 13 months. this is a cropped scan from one of the collages. precious.

it came!

my print that i won came in the mail friday. i was so excited! the mail lady actually drove up to my house with it. she honked and dan, jack and i all came rushing out to get the mail. i figured it was for me. the artist, ellen, was so sweet. she HAND WROTE me a note (a shocker these days) and included an adorable business card... and a card! bonus art! and of course, included was the print. it is so whimsical. it is going to look so amazing against the green walls in my living room. i can't wait to get it framed.

still tuned?... happy 250th post to me!

sorry i have kept you waiting. i am still here. i have been insanely busy (just typed in "busty" instead of busy. ha ha!). yes, busy. i had a beloved cousin and family come to visit. a beloved sister and fam come and visit. a roadtrip to see a beloved college chum, and a house to clean and veggies to pick and freeze. busy. breathe. so, do you want to win something? it is super fun to win. i don't usually win contests. but i did win recently and have been inspired to have my own contest.

to win all you have to do is leave a comment on my blog. perfectly painless! the prize will be whichever of these original paintings you fancy. i did these children's illustrations a while back and they never found a good home. hopefully one of them might catch your eye.

the contest will close at 8 am on september 6th. good luck and God bless!

I AM A WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes, you read that right. i ... am ... a ... winner!!! i meant those capitals. i am so excited. i have just won something from someone that i have never met before.

my friend lauren (moberly) pope has a great blog that i read all the time. (and you should, too!) i followed from her blog on over to soule mama's blog. good blog. soule mama has a book published and i will have to look into maybe getting it. anyway, lauren started having contests -- i did not win. soule mama had a contest -- i did not win. ellen crimi-trent was a fellow non-winner that told soule mama she was having a contest. i followed on over to ellen's blog and I WON ELLEN'S CONTEST! i am the cynical type when it comes to contests and the internet... but i am usually an optimist. ellen's blog seemS like it is coming from such a nice person that i am squealching my unlike-me pessimism and i am bordering on ecstatic. hoorah!

what did i win????? ART!:) i love art. if i am correct, i am receiving a print of some flower illustrations. if so, i will frame it and it is going in my living room. if it is the owls or house, it goes in jack's nursery.

also note: this is my 249th blog post (as second breakfast, not including gypsy jean boo teek). i may have a contest of my own in celebration of my 250th. stay tuned!

jack's first fair cont.

here is jack on his first pony ride. maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all... that pony was huge and fast. i had to walk reeeeally fast to keep up. and i had to watch that i didn't get stomped by the hooves. jack was a little unsure at first... but at the end he was laughing and making motor noises. he loved it.

jack's first fair cont.

here we are in an army tank. i was determined that jack wear that awesome helmet. too bad he was too little to appreciate the coolness.:)

jack did appreciate the animals. he loved the rabbits and chickens. the kiddie barn was a blast. he also very intently watched the pig races.

jack came home with some souvenirs: the balloon, an orange "mills fleet farm" key chain, a red button so he will be sure to vote for john ward, and a book my mother won for him -- "llama, llama, red pajamas"!

jack's first fair

jack's first fair! it was the best time i ever had at a fair since i was a kid!!!!!!!!!!! we were there 3 hours and still only saw about half the stuff. jack and i shared a "monster ear" (large, flat, cinnamon-sugared doughnut) and a FOOT LONG corn dog. as i walked by with the corn dog i heard a gentleman say, "look at what she has!". it was a bit embarrassing.

in the photo you see jack's free fair balloon, and monster ear bits in his stroller tray.:) woo hoo! all sugared up and ready to go.

chocolate and vanilla