Our Aweful Beautiful Life

For as long as I've been around (and even way before I was a part of the Stockment Family) you could always identify Brad Stockment with Excel Coop. I don't honestly know of many times in the last 5 years, that I've seen Brad is much else other than his Excel Appearal. So, imagine his delight when Colton had to borrow one of Uncle Jacob's old sweatshirts to go for our ice cream/road farming drive... Earlier in the evening, Colton tried on Uncle Jacob's moped helmet --  All tuckered out!

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 We fair'd it up all weekend, and of course, I was in hog heaven. Literally....hog heaven. HA :) Anyway....here are a few pictures. Saturday night I emcee'd the White County Fashion Revue, then we hung around for awhile, eating supper with Mom & Dad, and watching the Queen Contest. Sunday night was Tippecanoe County and we went to watch Laura in her Fashion Revue, and see their animals. We never did get to see her calves, but we had fun. We're going back tonight, because I never did get a taco salad....so we might have to indulge, and perhaps a milkshake while we're at it....hmm....I love fair food. Let's face it....I just flat love the fair. So many good memories from my childhood! Enjoy! Colton enjoying a Hot Dog with Mom at the fair...I love the first picture --even though he's got a mouthfull of food and we've got a dumpster as our backdrop! HA He's appropriately saying "cheese" -- ...

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 Well, I took the plunge, and took a new job. I'm about 2 1/2 days in, and I'm still having my woes about moving. Granted, things were no walk in the park with Conferences, but at the very least it was stable, and I don't know, up to date? Since I started on Monday, I've found out that my main boss, Bill, doesn't even have a computer. His secretary receives his email & voice mails, writes him notes, hands them to him, he hand writes a response back, and then she emails back his response. Okay...interesting, I thought -- but that's not exactly my problems -- it's his & hers. However, after spending a portion of the morning trying to figure out how to check my voice mail, passwords, etc -- I called the phone office to have them reset it, and viola...I found out that I don't get voice mail on my phone. I go to Paul, my immediate supervisor, and ask him what's up with that...and his response is th...

A couple of weeks ago, I had to go to Fort Wayne from Tuesday through Sunday. On Friday, the group I was hosting took tours all day, and they let me accompany them...and typically, I wouldn't do that, but this particular group was going to Shipshewana, and I've NEVER been there, and if you know me -- you know I'm totally infatuated with the Amish. I don't honestly know where it came from, but seriously, they fascinate me. Here are a few pictures from the day... This is the education center -- what did I learn? That Mennonites came before the Amish....who knew!?! These are just random horse & buggy shots -- I love how in the first one, the dad & kid are on van seats or something of the like...anything to pad their tushes! LOVE the Amish! That night -- Jason and Colton came to Fort Wayne to join me for the rest of the weekend. We swam & went to dinner Friday night, then they slept in/napped while I worked some on Saturday morning. ...

Monday, 06 July 2009 Yesterday afternoon, after a long weekend of camping, and a overnight with Grandma & Grandpa Stockment, I took Colton up to Wolcott for a quick retirement reception for Mr. Juncker. I could tell on the way there that he was pretty tired, but like a true trooper, he hung in there...until the ride home. We'd no sooner pulled out of Mom & Dad's driveway headed for Brookston, and he fell fast asleep. As much as I'd of loved to let him sleep until we got home, and then some -- I knew I had to stop in at the IGA and get a few things. So, against my better judgement, I carefully unbuckled my sleepy baby, and threw him up on my shoulder, where he was content to keep sleeping. I hauled a 25+ lbs. baby around the IGA with one arm, and successfully got my groceries/pushed my cart with my other arm, all without waking him up. The icing on the cake -- I reloaded him into the car without waking him, and got him into the house at home without ...

Wednesday, 01 July 2009 Well, after lots of excitement in the month of June, and plenty to share in pictures....I'm doing a pictureless post, because I left my camera at Mom's this weekend, and well....can't upload pictures of all the good times we've been having without the camera. So, I'll do a speedy version in a bullet format: I've survived June -- and it wasn't easy. In the kind of job I have, work in the summertime means pedal to the metal until about August. The workload I carry in months other than June pale in comparison to the craziness that is June. And this June, we added a few things...isn't that fun? Let's recap June in Kim's world here:     I hosted over 1000 4-H kids in the month of June for various 4-H camp programs We had 200 cheerleaders & 400 older women here for other camps, plus 200 glittery sequin clad chorus women over the age of 60 YES - it was pure & total chaos and headaches and business...

Tuesday, 16 June 2009 Just when I start to get a bad case of working mothers guilt (you know, where you start to realize you don't spend near enough time in a day swinging "twinkle, twinkle little star" or going through colors or animal sounds or all those other things that will make your child a genius by the age of 3) -- my child starts randomly doing this... God Bless Pam, and thank you to her for doing all the things that I can't while I am at work all day. Being a working mom isn't easy, and certainly, there is daily guilt for not getting to do these things myself with my child, but overall, Colton knows he is loved, and loves to spend time with me, as much as Pam....we're lucky to have such a great daycare provider. And of course, a cute kid.....don't you love the way his head bobs? HA