Summer's here!

So, we're finally out of school for the summer and loving it! Except for the fact that things haven't slowed down yet as much as I'd like them to. My blog is one of the things I wanted to catch up on so this is just a brief synopsis of what's going on at the moment.

Savanna just finished her softball season and Gideon is playing for the Little League Championship tomorrow night. Right now they are also both going to a daily basketball camp in the mornings. Kelsey is doing basketball and volleyball open gyms, basketball camps and getting ready for Girl's Camp next week. She was put in charge of the music at camp so she got a guitar, created a new camp songbook and is teaching herself to play the the guitar - in a month. Her musical ability is something else! Jacob is crazy for basketball and spends as much time as possible at the gym, weight room and anywhere that it's being played. So, that means lots of running back and forth for Mom.

Seth returned home from his mission last month, stayed for two whole weeks and is already out west with Brooke going to school. I will blog about that soon, but it is wonderful to have him home. Brooke is doing great and having so much fun at college. She loves having her brother out there with her!

We have decided not to go to Montana this year for vacation. Instead, we are going to explore the area around us and do things that we don't ever have a chance to do since we always go out west. I hope to blog about our adventures. We are excited to do lots of neat things together!

Missionary update...

I know it's been a while, but I felt the urge to post tonight. I was reading everyone else's blogs, loving them and just felt like sharing.

Something that is on our minds right now is the fact that Seth is going to be finishing up his mission next month and will be coming home. It is just unbelievable to me that two years have gone by already! Seth has been a great missionary and we are so happy for him and what the Lord has helped him accomplish. In these times of turmoil and unrest in all of the world, what a great blessing it is to have an opportunity like he's had to serve others and be a part of a great, positive and uplifting work.

Back to the grind....

So, school has begun again and our numbers have decreased again by one. It's so strange to only count four heads now. I've been so used to counting six heads for so many years that it just seems odd. My babies are growing up. Although the kids look relaxed and ready for the day, this was actually a crazy morning. I got up later than I meant to, was running everyone around like crazy, trying to pack lunches and get myself ready for school as well. I took these pictures in about 6 seconds flat! We jumped into the car and off we went. Luckily, I got my act together and mornings have been a bit calmer since.

Last week of summer

This was our last week of summer vacation before starting school. I go back to work tomorrow at the school as a kindergarten teachers' aide. I was hired last year in October and loved it. The kids start school on Tuesday. Back to the grind for all of us.

The last week of the summer is always county fair week for us. For those of you who don't know, the Snyders are pig people. That's pretty much all we do at the fair nowadays (show pigs), but it's a pretty big deal. We have one of the biggest swine shows in PA and Steve and the kids love it. Brooke didn't think she was going to get to show this year having to leave for college, but it turned out that she got one more year in. Steve has turned into quite the expert and we breed, raise and sell showpigs to 4-H kids for the fair. And when I say "we" I mean Steve and the kids because I must admit that I don't have much to do with it. The kids know exactly what goes on in the barn but that's not really my department. Anyway, they had a lot of success again this year. No grand champ this year, but we did have a reserve homegrown champ. And the girls each earned reserve champion showman in their divisions and Gideon got third place showman in his division. Jake didn't enter the showmanship contest since he was on crutches and in his leg brace.

One sad thing that happened this past week was that we had to have our beloved golden retriever, Silver, put to sleep. She was old and had cancer. She had stopped eating and couldn't get up anymore. It was a very sad day for us but we're happy that she's gone to a happier place.

A week in the life...

Ah, yes. A week in the life of a lowly freshman football player. Jacob was to join the ranks of the oh-so-revered JV/Varsity football team by starting camp last Monday. Oh, the horror stories he must have heard because not only was he a little nervous, he was scared out of his wits! He was so scared he could barely eat (and that's saying something for this boy) and he was sure he wasn't going to be able to sleep the night before camp. Well, he was able to sleep and was up bright and early Monday morning. I made him eat at least a banana and off he went to camp. I felt like I was sending my baby off to Kindergarten for the first time because I was a little nervous for him. Needless to say, he survived his first day of camp. He came home exhausted but alive and well, nonetheless. He actually loved it, could talk of practically nothing else all week and joined in the team comraderie by getting a handsome mohawk just to prove that he was part of the team!! Alas, along came Saturday and their first scrimmage of the year. Jacob blew out his knee, and we're waiting to see if it's the dreaded ACL or, hopefully, just the MCL, which would be much easier to deal with. So, after all that, our poor little - I mean, big and tough #54 may be kissing his freshman year of football goodbye. So sad...

Before...Can you smell the fear?:

After...Exhausted but alive:

Phone call from locker room that goes a little like this.
Jake: Hey, Mom. Sooo.. can I get a mohawk? The whole team's doin' it.
Mom: (Pause) Oh, I guess.
Jake: Ok, thanks.

Half hour later, after mohawk has been completed and I pick Jake up.
Jake: Mom, why didn't you remind me about the pig show at the fair on Tuesday?
Mom: Yeah, I know. I thought about that a little too late, too.
Jake: Oh, man. Dad's gonna be mad.

However, Dad was not mad but simply said, "enjoy it for now but it's getting shaved off for the show." So we are "enjoying" the mohawk while it lasts.

Uh oh:

You can say that again:

I LOVE SUMMER!

I really do love summer. I love when everything is in full bloom, the garden is producing and the sun is out in full force. Boy, do I need that Vitamin D recharge after the long, dreary winters of southwestern PA. Steve and the kids planted an amazing garden for us this year and it's doing great. So far, no blight on the tomatoes like last year and we're crossing our fingers on it staying that way. I have been finding and creating new recipes for fresh veggies every day and I haven't gone for a full load of groceries in over a month!! We've just been grabbing milk, eggs, butter, bread and cheese. It's been awesome! We have tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, onions, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, broccoli, sweet potatoes, lettuces, spinach, basil, beets, cabbage, watermelon and cantalope. It's amazing how many different recipes you can come up with using these fresh veggies. And our little pear trees are loaded this year so fresh, sweet pears and pear crisp are always on hand. We're eating our own beef, pork and chicken from the freezer. It's my goal to see how inexpensively we can eat for these few months. I love it! I feel so self sufficient.

Not to change the subject or anything, but another thing I love is land. Ever since I was young, I've always gotten butterflies inside when I see a beautiful vista, whether it's a mountain range, valley, meadow, prairie, lake or cornfield. I just love walking out my door and knowing that the 22 acres all around me are mine. I adore the view out all of my windows. The window over my sink frames the most gorgeous, huge maple tree that changes the most spectacular colors in the fall. The other side of the house has a pretty pink flowering crab apple tree that we take a picture of the kids in every year. Several times this summer I have been gazing out a window and someone will say, "What're ya looking at?" I say, "Nothing in particular, just the view." I love that my kids can go out and run, play, ride, explore without ever having to leave home. With the overdevelopment and urban sprawl of cities and towns out across the farmland of our beautiful country, I am so grateful for my little corner of the world that I hope will always stay the way it is. Just a little, old, underdeveloped, beautiful farm.

The view from my back door:

The view from my front door:



My beautiful garden:

My abundant little pear tree:

Our "crabby" kids (haha):

My maple tree in the fall:

Tribute to Brooke

So, we reached another milestone in our lives at the beginning of June when our second child graduated from high school. Time is FLYING by and I just don't know how to slow it down! I vividly remember two years ago at the same time of year trying to wrap my head around the fact that Seth was graduating, and now we've done it again. It seems to be a little bit harder this time because Seth was so ready to fly the coop, see the world, start a new adventure, and we were excited for him. Brooke is not nearly as excited to leave home and she's not one who likes change very much. So, naturally, that makes it harder as a parent to let her go. But, I know this is something she needs and will love even though she is going so far away from home.

So, if you are at all put off by parents bragging about their kids then I suggest you stop reading right now. Brooke is one of the greatest kids we could ask for and one of the hardest working people I know so I'm going to toot her horn, just for a minute. She deserves it.

Brooke had a great senior year. First of all, all of her hard work, on and off the field and court, really paid off and she was a soccer and basketball standout. She was the heart of her soccer team and she scored almost 1,300 points on the basketball court. She loved her coaches and her teammates and appreciated the "family" bonds she developed with them. She's just so fun to watch because she is so intense and competetive and tough. Sometimes we worried that she was so intense that she didn't have enough fun at what she was doing. That's a balance she tried to work on. She got mangled and beaten up so many times out there but she never let it get her down. We heard a comment from someone that Brooke is the toughest athlete, male or female, in our high school for the past couple years. She's always had that competetiveness about her. We couldn't even play Candyland with Brooke because she would get so mad if she didn't win. We tried to work on it then, too. But, I admire her drive and her work ethic.

Brooke held several leadership positions, received many awards, excelled in school and graduated as Valedictorian. She loves chorus and loved playing "Frenchy" in the school musical "Grease" this past spring. She graduated from early morning Seminary (a scripture study class before school every day) and earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award.

There's a lot more I could say about Brooke and those are wonderful things that Brooke has accomplished, but we would be just as proud of her without any of those accolades because Brooke is just a good person. She has always had a very strong sense of right and wrong and she just shies away from things that aren't good for her. So much so that she cannot sleep if she has done something wrong. We've never had to worry about where Brooke was or when she'd be home. She's never really even had a curfew. Don't get me wrong, she's not perfect. She hardly ever makes her bed, she leaves the bathroom kinda messy, and she's wrecked two of our vehicles (okay, one of them she says a deer ran into her). But, Brooke is a beautiful young woman who brings a wonderful spirit into our home and we will surely miss her this fall when she goes away to college.

#10 - Midfield:

Battle scars:


Brooke received the game ball after making her 1,000th point. Here she is with her coach:

It was so awesome to watch our Freshman and Senior play on the same team for a year:

The big day:

Brooke and Caitlyn have been best friends since 7th grade. They are like two peas in a pod and have literally never had a fight. We are so grateful for Caitlyn and that she has been a true friend to Brooke. Good luck, Cait!!




What a wonderful life you have ahead of you, our little Brookie! Congratulations! And always remember, we love you!!