Where Is Summer Going

Where is the summer going? It seems like just yesterday that we had just arrived here in DeMotte, and now we've almost been here for 7 months. I've been doing a lot of planning for Leader Training for our children's and teen's programming. And in just a few more weeks we'll be starting up a new year of Sunday School.

This last weekend we had to make our way back home, again. My grandfather on my mom's side passed away, so we drove back for the services. It was nice to see family and friends there. I got to see my cousin, Brandon, who is a cadet at West Point. Him and I had graduated high school together. On our drive back our air conditioning in our brand new (yes, less than 3000 miles into the car's life) quit. It was pretty hot on that trip back. But then for the rest of the weekend and on the trip back to Indiana it worked fine. I'm not sure what the deal is with the dumb thing.

Life is getting back to normal hopefully for a while. Jessica just started a new position at the back working in New Accounts; yesterday was her first day doing that. I think she's excited to get to be doing something new. I got to go out and golf in the area church golf league yesterday, so that was nice (and hot).

This weekend we are taking our high school students to the lake for a couple of days of skiing, boating, jet skiing, and whatever else you do at a lake. We're looking forward to having a good time of fellowship and fun with them.

Vacation and a Wedding

What a last couple of weeks. On Sunday, July 9th, we took off from Midway Airport in Chicago and headed home for a relaxing vacation with our families and a wedding. We arrived at my parents, Vern and Elaine, on Sunday evening and got a chance to eat at our favorite Pizza place, Paglia's (pronounced polly-eye's).

Our next couple of days was spent doing nothing and loving it out on the farm. We did make it up to see my grandpa (mom's dad) on Monday. Then on Tuesday we went to St. Joe for dental check-ups (I had a cavity) and lunch with Vicki, Rodney and family. It was nice seeing them. We also bumped into Joel Mitchell at Hazel's coffee shop.

By Wednesday it was off to Jessica's parents, Stan and Donetta. We spent the rest of our vacation there until this Monday when we left to come back home. We spent a couple of days relaxing in the pool, and doing a whole lot of nothing. Jessica was in a wedding of one of her old college friends, Jesica Farmer, so Friday-Sunday was spent doing things for that.

It's Friday

Man do I love fridays. It's my day off, so I get to get up whenever I want to (usually) and do what I want to (usually). Today, I got up and had to go to the office. We had shorter week with the holiday, so I didn't get everything done that I needed to for the weekend. It only took me an hour and a half to get caught up, then it was me and the couch.

This afternoon I got frisky and decided to get a wall painted that has been overdue. The wall is above the cabinets in our kitchen, and there is no easy way to get to it without a plank. So I called a friend of ours who is building his house and asked if he had a couple of boards that I could use for the afternoon. This is kind of a surprise for Jessica, so when she gets home from work she will get to see it.

Sunday afternoon we fly out of Chicago to head home for a week of vacation. Jessica is in a wedding of one of her old college mates and bridesmaids, Jesica Farmer. We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend of just hanging out with family and friends.

A Relaxing 4th

Well, over the 4th of July weekend we had a pretty relaxing time. Jessica had to work on Monday, but did find out that she had gotten a new position that she had applied for at the bank. She had applied for a position working in new accounts, with her new boss being the wife of one of our elders. She's pretty excited to get to be doing something new and challenging at the bank. Now she'll have an extention and everything that I can call her on.

Monday night we made plans to hang out with some friends to go watch fireworks. There is a really pretty good show here put on by an independent group. We got our parking spot about a mile from where they were going to be setting them off, thinking that we had the ideal spot. Well, we got to see only about 1/4 of them, as the trees were blocking our view of the majority of the show. Oh well, we had some young kids with the group, so they didn't get too scared.

Tuesday, we slept in and had a relaxing moring. For lunch we went over to Ron Cates, one of our elders house. There we hung out with a good number of people. Then it was back home for some much needed cleaning. I took over on the kitchen while Jessica caught up on the bathrooms. After only 2 1/2 hours we were pretty well done. Later that afternoon I had the chance to play golf in the church golf league. I'm adjusting to a new set of clubs that I got with gift money from my ordination, but I'm still a duffer - with nice clubs though.