Micah's Camp Program

Saturday night we headed to the campground to eat with Micah and watch his program. His track was choir, and he got to sing 2 songs. They all did a really great job.

He had a ball! He was disappointed that it was over and he is ready to go back next year. He was very tired on Sunday though. He is not used to staying up so late at night, but he made it.

I'm glad that he got to go. This was the first time he has ever been away from us and not been with family, but I was confident that he was well taken care of. Well, I guess that was a relative term. He was taken care of. He was happy and in 1 piece when I went to pick him up, but he didn't brush his teeth for 2 days or wear the sunscreen that I bought! I only reminded him about a hundred times. I even made him recite back to me what he was to do when he got up in the mornings, and he was very well versed...'brush my teeth, comb my hair, put on extra deoderant, and wear sunscreen.' He was showering at night and did put on his extra deoderant, but somewhere down the line he forgot about the rest.

So, I got a hold of his toothbrush and forced him to a good scrubbing with baking soda added when he got home (we have to do this occasionally anyways, because he is not the best brusher in the world). His face, neck and ears were pink, but thankfully he was not a lobster from head to toe. So, lesson learned...next year....remind chaperone (who has all girls by the way) that little boys don't always like to be clean!

Camping Day 1 and First Fish!

Thanks to facebook, we are able to see glimpes of Micah at camp. This is the first time he's ever been away from us and not been with family, so it is kind of weird. But, he looks like he is having lots of fun.

Also looks like he was a bit tired this morning. He is not used to staying up so late. Poor little guy!
He loves to go swimming! He was excited about that. Here is his walking along and at the pool.
And.....the highlight of his day, I'm sure! His first fish!
Maybe we'll get to hear from him today. I hope he is having a ball! He was kind of nervous about several things, but was also very excited.

Micah's First Camp

I sent Micah off for his first camp at 1:00 this afternoon. He was excited, but also nervous. It feels weird for him to not be here with us. Jamie is going to be pretty busy the next couple of nights, so I guess it'll just be us girls around the house for the most part.

I think he'll have a blast and do great. I do worry that he might come home with a sunburn or that he'll forget to brush his teeth. But, I know that Mr. Jason will take good care of him too. Mr. Jason just has girls in his house, so it should be interesting for him to live with a bunch of boys. Boys aren't about drama, but they have their own quirks, that's for sure.

Proof That I'm a Library Nerd!

A couple of months ago, I entered an essay contest through the library. I honestly can't even remember the exact theme. It was something about how the library has helped you during these low economic times. They announced it at Storytime and I came home and took about 10 minutes and wrote out an essay.

I had totally forgotten about it, but got an email sometime while we were gone that said that I was one of the winners (they chose 4) and I needed to come in today to claim my prize. So, I got a $50 Kroger Gift card. You know you lead a very boring life when you are excited about a $50 Kroger Gift card. It will also be submitted to Woman's Day magazine. I'm really not even sure what they are doing with them. Another contest or just publishing them??? Who knows, but maybe I'll find out soon.

The library said that it would probably be on their website later too. It's not yet, but I'll be sure to post a link if it ends up there. Hey, I'm kind of interested in what the heck I wrote too! I cannot really remember, to be honest. It's been a while and it was never on our computer, because I didn't think much of it.

So, I went to Kroger this afternoon and had practically an overflowing cart of deals. I only had to spend $66, but we are good for the entire week, I think. I'll admit that I get the "bargain high" whenever I do well with our money and it becomes sort of a game of "see how cheap I can come out of the store" to me, so I came out of there with an extra spring in my step.

Isn't it great to see God providing in very unconventional ways? I think that is what I loved most about it. It stretched our money out for the week and Baby step 1 is almost complete!

Crossings 2009

We just got back from youth camp yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure I could've taken another full day of camp. I was quickly losing steam. When we were praying yesterday morning, I had to keep my eyes open for the fear that they might not open back up if I closed them (for real!). I'm not sure of the last time I was so tired, but we made it and after a full night's rest in my own bed, we are all feeling much more refreshed!

It was a great time in the Lord though. We all get to know each other a little better. There is nothing like living with people to get to know them. We all got smacked in the face with the word of God (in a good way, of course). We all laughed a lot and had a lot of fun too. The youth are all geared up wanting to go back next year already, which is a great thing! A few of the kids even expressed interest in getting a counselor job there when they are in college.

Jamie finally did get on the "blob" on the last day and ended up really liking it. Jamie is not a fan of lake/pond water. We all know that the KY lake is just a big mud puddle anyways. Pretty from afar, but mucky and brown up close. But, he sucked it up and went.

Here he is on the jumping end of the thing. He bounced off Justin, who is one of ours.
Here are a couple of pictures of him being bumped off. He flew a few good times, but I happened to get photos of the highest one. The last one, he got a bit injured on, but he thought it was worth it.
They have a boat race. One of the stipulations was that the boat had to be homemade. It was neat to see all the variety of boats. Some really looked like a boat all the way down to a rubbermaid container with funoodles tied to it (guess who sank first). Ours was somewhere in the middle. It was PVC piping, rope, duct tape, and a float. We put our youngest youth on it, who also happens to be our pastor's son. He did a great job. Our boat stayed afloat and didn't lose. Woohoo! He was somwhere in the middle.

Here is Ryan at the finish line. The one with the orange tape on the oars.


Another "first" for me was seeing a rubicks cube genious! I loved me a good rubicks cube in the 80's (Micah also has one that I pick up and play with sometimes now), but I could never get more than 2 sides. This kid is 13 years go, but is going to be a sophomore in high school (smart kid!). He picked up a rubicks cube less than a year ago and can now solve it in an average of 45 seconds. It was amazing! No matter how much people messed the thing up, he could spin it around and solve it in less than minute. All the while he was solving the puzzle, he could carry on a conversation and look around. He doesn't even think it is a big deal either even when everybody's eyes are bugging out watching this. I told him that I expect him to cure cancer one day!
The kids had a great time at Nana and Pawpaw's too. I missed them so much and had to mooch them up good when I finally got my hands on them. They told me about all the fun they had and I'm glad that they got a little "vacation" in Murray.

So, today we are back in the "real"world again. It is nice that Jamie is off on Monday's, so that we can recoop from our lack of sleep. I have bags of laundry and he has a yard to mow. Micah takes off for his camp on Thursday.

Staycation #2

The past few days have been busy and we have officially wrapped up Jamie's time off. Friday we went to Louisville to the Science Museum (got in free since we are a member of the museum here) and Saturday we headed to Murray to visit with some family and friends.

For the first time in a year, we were able to visit the church we left behind too, which was nice. It felt "different" in a lot of ways, but everybody welcomed us with open arms. One thing that stuck out to me more than anything else was how huge all the kids looked! I know that people thought the same thing about my kids, but boy do these kids grow in a year. That part was just crazy!

Yesterday after church we finally walked over to where our home was. The kids were anxious to see what everything would looked like. Why is it that the rectangle that is left, seems so much smaller than our home did? This was the first time we've been back since the house has been moved.
Otherwise, we spent the weekend helping out some family that needed us, eating some good food, and trying to soak up all the vacation that we had left. Today, the real world began again. Jamie mowed the yard and I'm cleaning the house from top to bottom and washing laundry like crazy in preparation for youth camp on Wednesday.

Staycation

Tuesday, we decided to go to the orchard and get some yummy fresh veggies and go to the park down the road. The kids had fun in the water, playground, and watching some ducks (and chickens at the orchard).




Yesterday, we went to Holiday World. I didn't take my camera, because I didn't want to have to keep up with it and have to stay out of the action in order to keep it dry. I can already tell that Abbi is going to be Jamie's roller coaster buddy! She has a blast on anything, and is not the least bit timid about it. She wants to be able to ride the roller coasters and "meaner" rides, but she is limited by shortness. As soon as she hits 48 inches, I'm afraid that she may have Jamie standing in every line at the park.

Micah, on the other hand, is tall enough to ride anything and wanted to try his first real roller coaster yesterday. So, they went and braved the hour long wait. We picked the more "tame" roller coaster and he was fine and Jamie said that as soon as he they started the decent, he was saying he wanted off. Well, sorry...too late buddy! So, he came off nauseated and never wanted to get on a coaster again. At least he tried!

Hannah is a bit more reserved with her ride choices and Chloe would ride anything, probably, but she doesn't even reach the first cut-off of 36 inches (maybe next time).

It was hot, of course, then about 3:30, out of nowhere, a big black cloud started looming over. We were enjoying the water park at the time and all of a sudden it started a downpour. Not just a little bit, but the kind of rain that you get soaked in a few seconds. Thunder/lightening and the whole range of fun began and we got under a little awning to wait it out. We waited and waited and the awning only covered part of us, so we were just getting more and more soaked! After 45 minutes or so, we headed back to the van to just sit and try to get warm (yes, we turned the heater on!). Who would have thought that you would be shivering with goosebumps in the middle of July! We could actually ring the water out of our clothes they were so wet. Miserable!!!!

It finally subsided about 5:00 and we headed back in to enjoy a few more hours of fun. I was still wet when we got him at 9:30 last night though, so I could not wait to get a hot shower and get out of the nasty clothes!!

All in all, it was fun, minus the hour and half of cold rain! Tomorrow we are headed to Louisville for some more staycation fun and then off to Murray for Saturday and Sunday.

Fireworks or Owensboro Under Attack?

Independence Day Weekend surely did come and go with a bang....literally! Friday night, we sat out on our back lawn and watched all the neighbors blow their hard earned money up in the air. It was craziness! From every angle, there were fireworks going up. Most of them weren't the cheap cheezy kind either. They were the big nice kind that are similar to what they have in town.

Saturday night we were going to head to the park on the riverfront and watch the public display, but it was rainy and dreary all day, so they postponed them until last night. It didn't even end up raining at 9:00, so when we started hearing the familiar popping sounds, we headed out back to watch again. This time, our neighbors on the cul-de-sac had some, so they were pretty much right on top of us. That, in turn, freaked the girls completely out. Chloe screamed out, "Why is this happening!?!?" and Hannah ran inside the house and said that she thought we were all going to die.

I'm not that fond of the fireworks that people shoot off in their yards either, but they were pretty. Hannah and Chloe both ended up putting toboggans on their head and coming back out to enjoy the show. Abbi had her head wrapped up in her blanket. I guess all this protected them????

It was funny though. We were watching several displays in the neighborhood, but the sounds were much more intense than the night before. I can understand why the girls were freaked. It sounded like we were under attack. You could hear them from far off and up close, but it sounded like the background noise in a War movie. It was really kind of freaky! Nothing like I had ever experienced before.

So, we did finally get to enjoy the fireworks on the riverfront last night. They were very nice and we were right in front of them this year, so they were even more beautiful. Ironically, the girls were fine with it this year. Go figure!

Today, Jamie officially starts his vacation, which is much more of a staycation. We have a few things planned for the week including Holiday World (thanks to free tickets from PawPaw), Murray next weekend, local things to do, and a tentative plan to go to a children's museum in Louisville. Should be fun though and at least we can all do some things together. He was ready for a break though. Last year when he took his vacation, he had only worked a week, all the boxes weren't unpacked, and life was a whirlwind of frenzy. This year, he can actually just enjoy!