Wednesday's Walk - The Basement

This post is going to have a good old Wednesday's Walk feel to it, okay?

Just a little walk down memory lane...

There once was a time when I was in high school. My dad was finishing the basement in our new house and I was helping. It was drywall hanging time and it was my job to hold the drywall up for my dad while he nailed it in place. It was a very simple job and going very well, if I do say so myself... until the phone rang. My boyfriend was calling. And I ran from the basement to grab the phone.

Problem: I dropped the drywall. on my dad. to get the phone.

Result: Unhappy Dad and years worth of teasing from the family

Fast forward to this past weekend.

Once again, my dad was finishing a basement. This time, in my parents' condo. He spent the weekend framing the walls in so that it is ready for the plumbers and electricians to come in this week.

Occasionally, he would yell for someone to come and hold something for him.

Elayna helped a little. Jeremy and my brother-in-law spent some time down there... even Abby lent her little hands to help Grandpa with the basement.

Well, on Saturday morning, Dad yelled up the stairs, "Jeremy!"

To which I replied, "He's still sleeping... .what do you need?"

"I need someone to hold something."

"I'll come down." I said.

The drywall story had already been told a few times over the holiday weekend so I knew what everyone was thinking.

Jenilee is going down to help HOLD something?

Surely everyone knew that I've grown up. And I can certainly hold something for my dad.

Down I went with Abby and Elayna following (with the camera, of course).

My dad got me set up on a ladder.

And then he handed me this big piece of wood to hold.

Ok, I was able to hold it up there for about 2 seconds before I was yelling, "Jeremy! I need you!"

My dad was busy nailing up the other end and I could NOT drop this beam. Absolutely could not. 

I even cut my hand on a splinter and did not drop the beam.

"Elayna... go get Daddy... hurry!"

By this time, my dad was back over to me and he took the weight of the beam in his own hands while he nailed it up to the ceiling.

Jeremy came down and finished helping my dad.

Seriously, look at him. One handed and no ladder.

So, I suppose that I didn't completely fail this time. Instead of running for the phone, I called in a replacement.

A nice, strong replacement.

Yes, that's the story I'll tell myself.

Later, the girls got to use permanent markers to write their names on the walls of what will be the granddaughters room in the basement.

6 Granddaughters: Elayna, Annalise, Abigail, Elizabeth, Sloan and Myla

My mom is working hard on finishing the basement so it will be ready for our next Michigan trip in August.

Thankfully, on that trip, the drywall will be hung and painted BEFORE I arrive.

 
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A Little Wednesday's Walk

In the past, I've done a weekly Wednesday's Walk...

How I love getting old things posted here on the blog so that they will always be saved in this bloggy scrapbook. 

These two pictures are on our fridge...

They are two of my favorite pictures ever.

A new family of 5.

September 2006 - Elayna 3, Annalise 1, Abby 6 weeks

Elayna is clutching her bird book that her Daddy made for her. It was filled with printed pictures of birds so that she could identify them and learn their names. It is a book we have added to over the years and she still loves it!

Jeremy as a dad to three girls. Dodge, our dog, sitting patiently while I snapped a quick picture before the sun set that fall day.

Do you have an old picture you could pull out and post today?

If you do, let me know in the comments and I'll be sure to come by for your walk down memory lane!

My Favorite Posts from 2011

We have been having a wonderful Christmas vacation...

Our Christmas this year was a little bit different because of Christmas falling on a Sunday.

The girls opened a few gifts on Saturday...

My mom got the girls 18 inch dolls and made them doll clothes, doll hair bands and matching aprons. 

She is planning to open an Etsy shop soon! I'll post more about that later...

Anyway, on Sunday, we had Christmas lunch after church and then opened presents.

Then on Monday, we had our normal Christmas breakfast and let the girls open their stockings.

Talk about extended Christmas traditions, but it was fun to celebrate in a different way this year.

Because of that though, I don't even know what day it is... being on vacation will do that to you.

I missed Top Ten Tuesday but I want to post a list today anyway!

A list of my Favorite posts from 2011...

1. When Was The Last Time - a post about flirting and marriage

2. 29 Years with a follow up post explaining #6

3. 10 Things I Want my Girls to Know

4. 10 Things I'm Dreaming of... and how God answered a few of those dreams this year!

5. Unconventional Toys - with a really funny video about a fly

6. Bike Ride Tips and a post about a bike ride with a cute video of Abby

7. My Nature Boy at Camp and a silly trick

8. My favorite post of the whole year... A Fairy Tale Day

9. The day my Oreck came in the mail

10. Going on a Big Bike Ride with Jeremy and our new Schwinn Bikes

11. 10 Attempts at Getting a Family Picture

12. Our Family Christmas and my girls Christmas pictures by the tree for the past 8 years

And those are my favorite posts from 2011...

I so enjoyed going back through my blog and reading about our year.

What a wonderful year it has been! It makes me excited for what 2012 will bring for the Goodwin family.

What are your favorite posts from 2011?

If you do a post like this, stop by and let me know so I can visit!

Happy New Year!

The McDonalds Hotel

The Sunday we left for our Chicago/Iowa trip...

"So, Jen, are we leaving today?" my husband asks with a hopeful tone in his voice.

"Well, since I'm not even done with the laundry and haven't started packing and we are about to leave for Sunday church, uhm... I wasn't really planning on it." was my poor attempt at keeping him home just one more day.

"Let's try to leave today, k?" he said.

Now, I'm all for vacation but Jeremy is still just a little bit better at spur of the moment fun than I am.

We got home from church and Jeremy went to work on getting us some cheap hotels via Priceline.

I got the laundry done, finished packing, cleaned the house and made sure the girls were ready to go.

We packed up, piled in the truck and headed out of town. Again. for like the 50th time this summer.

We are pretty good at packing these days...

We stayed our first night in Indianapolis and then got up the next morning to drive the rest of the way to Chicago for 2 days of city exploring.

After touring the Willis Tower, we drove to our hotel. Remember, we booked our hotel using Priceline. When you use Priceline, you really never know what you are going to get. It is risky but it usually pays off.

This time Priceline did not let us down. Our hotel printout reservation said "The Lodge at Mcdonald Campus". We had literally know idea what that meant.

Until we turned onto the road that was supposed to have our hotel. The road was long, full of turns and wooded on both sides. We drove past a security station where our GPS said, "You have arrived."

Arrived where? No hotel in sight.

So, we pulled into another check point and pushed the talk button.

"Uhm... our GPS said that our hotel is here?"

Seriously, that's what we said.

We heard, "Pull through." from the speaker.

Ok...

We drove down the lane and saw this... our hotel.

That's THE M. Like the McDonald's M. The restaurant. The Golden Arches. That M.

What kind of hotel did we get? I'm picturing fast food...

But, we pull around to the front entrance where there is valet parking and this amazing big old tree.

The hotel sat right next to Hamburger University. Did you even know there was such a thing?

I walked in the entrance and approached the front desk.

"Excuse me... what hotel is this?"

"It's a Hyatt but we are on McDonald's Headquarters property so we are also called The Lodge."

"Ok, well, we have a room here... I think."

Sure enough, we scored a room inside McDonald's Headquarters.

The rooms were amazing...

The decor fully McDs but yet very elegant and clean.

And the scenery was amazing... being the Goodwins that we are... we journeyed ourselves right outside to explore.

We found fountains and trails and ponds...

I handed Jeremy the camera because I had little people to chase after on the rocks.

Come on... Get back up here...

We crossed over a bridge and down the other side they went...

Yes, that is me pulling on the hood of Abby's sweatshirt. She was all set and ready to dig out some pretty "shells" she saw in the water. Uhm. No.

Once torn away from the amazing rocks and water, we followed the path to see what else we could find.

What did we find? A helicopter pad?

Pine Trees...

And, apple trees...

Yes, we have fun wherever the path leads.

After a little exploring, we met up with Stephanie, one of our college friends, for dinner!

We really were impressed with our McDonald's hotel. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't make it down to the pool/spa area but Jeremy and the girls said that it was totally awesome. Steam baths, Jacuzzi tubs, swimming pools, saunas...

If we are ever through Chicago again, it is seriously the place to stay!

We sure had a great time!

*linking this post up with Christina for Wednesday's Walk

Wednesday's Walk - Friends

 There are 8 grandkids on Jeremy's side of the family.

4 boys and 4 girls.

They are all growing up and getting older.

This is a picture of the 4 girls from November 2008. They were playing with makeup and having a blast.

And, this is a picture of the 4 girls this fall...

Great friends...

Enjoying their time together...

"Cousins are those childhood playmates who
grow up to be forever friends." - Anonymous

Wednesday's Walk - A Book from Grandma

My girls have a book they love to read.

It is a very special book.

A book written and illustrated by my grandmother. My dad's mom made all of the grandchildren a book.

This is mine.

At the very top of the first page it says, "To: Jenilee Haynes - 1988"

I love to hear my girls reading it, enjoying the sweet pages about the animals they see while on a walk in the woods.

They point at the pictures and talk about the drawings on each page.

Annalise is reading now and doing a great job! She asked me to make a video of her reading this book.



The second generation of grandkids reading Grandma Haynes' book.

Now that is a walk down memory lane!

Update: I just realized that Annalise is 6 right now reading this book and I was 6 when I got it for Christmas. How fun is that?

The Hand of God

Yesterday was a big day in our house...

We had some church/ministry stuff going on in the afternoon and I had just finished telling my mother-in-law about all of that when I got a text from my mom.

My dad had been in a head-on collision but he was fine.

I sat right down and cried.

I cried because God is so merciful and I was in awe of Him.

You see, I had been up the night before.

I wrestled all night with feeling like I needed to pray for my family. My dad was on the front of my mind and I prayed and prayed for his safety, for others in our family, for health and relationships. I got up in the morning feeling like I hadn't slept at all.

I went in the bathroom that morning and told Jeremy that I had been up praying all night for my dad and my family. I felt quite miserable actually.

I called my mom around 9 or 10 just to check in but I didn't want to tell her that I'd been praying.

How silly is that? But, in our family, when someone is praying specifically for us, quite often, it is God's hand of protection on us because something is about to happen.

I could tell you story after story of answered prayer... prayer lifted on our behalf.

The power of prayer and the importance of obeying when the Holy Spirit prompts us to pray.

And, yesterday, I felt the weight of that prayer but I didn't know why.

Until my mom's text message around 4:45 yesterday afternoon.

I couldn't believe it.

About an hour later, we started finding news reports of the accident on Harrisburg, PA news websites.

Here and Here... my dad is the semi-truck driver.

My dad said that when the car first hit his truck, his coffee didn't even spill. He barely felt the impact and then his truck kind of just laid down. He said is was slow and easy and his seat belt didn't even tighten up.

God hand. His mercy and protection. I am incredibly thankful.

I got to talk to him around 8:30 last night and the girls yelled "We love you, Grandpa" into the phone.

It was wonderful to hear his deep voice.

I heard my dad's voice and then I could sleep. I went to bed last night knowing that God is watching over us.

What a wonderful thing to feel His hand.

And, I'm going to link this post up with Christina for Wednesday's Walk! She is hosting this weekly meme now and I know you are going to love getting to know her and linking up with her each week. She is a creative blogger and you will enjoy reading her posts. Head on over and say hello!

The Last Wednesday's Walk

Well, I've decided that today will be the last Wednesday's Walk here at The Goodwin Family blog.

There hasn't been alot of interest in it lately and I am going to be really busy for the next few months. So, this is one thing that I can take off my list of things to do.

Are you interested in taking Wednesday's Walk on your blog? Just let me know!

For my last Wednesday's Walk post, I thought I'd post a fun memory that just happened yesterday.

Jeremy, being the mountain man that he is, called me on his way home and said, "I'm almost there... bring out a rubbermaid container."

"What size?"

"Doesn't matter... just grab one and come out here."

Now, it was pouring rain so I grabbed one of the girls toy bins, dumped it out in the playroom and ran outside with the bin over my head.

"What did you need this for?"

He was smiling like crazy and opening up the door to the bed of his truck. I wish I'd had my camera for the moment.

I peeked in the truck bed and found 3 box turtles in various places of his truck.

He pulled the turtles out and put them in the bin.

"I saw 2 turtles and knew the girls would love them so I looked around and found a 3rd turtle so they each could have one."

"Have one? We aren't keeping turtles..."

"I know... we'll let 'em go later."

So, we now have 3 box turtles in a bin on our front patio.

The girls love it. They open the front door every 30 minutes or so to check on them.

When the sun came out, they had to go outside and "play" with the turtles.

You see, according to little girls, turtles need celery, leaves, and plenty of dandelions.

Lots of dancing is required while gathering dandelions for these pet turtles.

The turtles names are (from left to right) Dan, Frank and Hephzibah.

Now, a bunch of Goodwin bonus points if you can tell me what movie my girls must watch ALOT to have named the turtles those specific names.

Anybody?

These girls love their mountain man Daddy who brings them all kinds of fun things.

To make this story even more exciting... because of the ways of nature and how my husband happened to find two of these turtles... Hephzibah just might be laying some baby turtles here in the near future.

Today, Jeremy moved her into another part of the yard and we are hoping she just might lay some eggs!

Our neighbors are going to be "turtle sitting" for us while we are away this week. So I'll be sure to keep you all posted, okay?

Thank you to all of you who have participated in Wednesday's Walk with me. I really do enjoy this meme so if someone would like to host it on their blog, I'd be happy to join in sometimes!

If you happened to write a Wednesday's Walk post this week, just leave me a comment and let me know and I'll stop by when I can.