Dad's home

Suppose that means I better get blogging again so I don't get any emails about it. Of course, he got a little taste of how busy my days area while he was here.
Last week was our church's VBS. It went very well. We had around 75 kids the first day but the rest of the week it was closer to 100. I had a very different time this year. I chose not to be the leader of the pre-k & kindergarteners or any other group of kids. Since MI has a $.10 deposit on all cans and bottles, we use that as our missionary offering for the week. The kids bring them in and then I took 2 teens to the closest Meijer's store & returned them. Except for the first day, we had $50-$75 in bottles and cans. It usually took 3 carts to get through the store with all of them. It was really different for me & I really enjoyed it. Most days, I was back to church early and would go around seeing where help was needed or getting to visit with some of the other workers.
This year was a little different for Rachel as she was both a participant and a worker. It was the last year that she could participate because she is going into 6th grade this fall. She is also part of our puppet team which performed every day at the closing of VBS. She thought it pretty neat that she had 2 nametags and was able to leave class early to go do the puppets. Actually, on Friday, she came with me to do the pop can returns because 1 of the teens that had helped me all week was telling the Bible story that day so he couldn't come and she wanted to.
Wednesday, Joshua and I left VBS early. He had been having bowel problems since our trip to Lake Ann over Memorial Day. It was hard to tell if it was a real physical problems or, sometimes we suspected, it might have been laziness. I finally took him into the doctor and she felt that it was a legitimate problem although, not major. He just was out of whack and was going to need some help to get regulated again. He is now on a Rx laxative and doing better.
Our CE pastor and his wife had a picnic for all the VBS workers and their families on Saturday. That meant that I came down off the ladder about 4:30 to get ready. The painters were almost done with the bottom half of the house and so I spent Sat. doing the top part. I didn't get as far as I hoped. I only did the small porch triangle and prepped the top front triangle. Then did about 1/3 of the big back triangle. I didn't like the feel of the ladder going to the top point on the back. I could have climbed it ok. It was the thought of standing there trying to paint that I didn't care for.
Actually, a friend of ours from church that is currently unemployed came by today and has completed the back and is now working on the sides. Hey Mom, when's your next trip down? I think we may be doing some wallpapering when you come. This friend's wife says that she has a room that she wants papered but she doesn't know how to paper. Well, if he can paint, I figure I can paper but I need my coach and helper.
Well, I have to leave it there. The baby I'm watching for 2 days woke up from his nap a few minutes ago. I'll have to try to get on again soon.

Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Musuem

On June 2, 2006 Mom and me went to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. It was fun! We left with the whole 5th grade at 7:00 a.m. We were on bus #2. We got stuck on the second to last row, next to the bathroom. But we still had lots of fun! I liked the museum better because it talked more round want Henry Ford, Wilbur and Orville Wright did to change America. In the Village, they talk about how they lived back then. They even were glass blowing. I'm trying to convince Mom to take me back to see more.
On the way home we were supuse to get home at 7:45, but noooooo. We got home at 8:30!!! We got stuck in traffic. Got to go now. More later.:)

Catch up

Guess it's time to catch everyone up on another busy week or so. We had a very nice Memorial Day weekend at Lake Ann. The heat was unbelievable. It seemed much more like the 4th of July holiday than Memorial Day. It didn't even really cool off in the evenings. Which was really a bummer because I usually put some pops outside our door to be cold for drinking the next morning and that didn't work this year. (Camp serves coke products and we want our Pepsi products.)
The workmen have been here all but 1 day last week and that day it was raining. They are doing a much better job then when they started. I think they found out I wasn't going to accept a half-done job and decided they had better do it right. I think they are finishing the garage today and they already have 2 sides of the house mostly scrapped. A couple of days, rain threatened most of the day so they scrapped instead of painting what was prepped on those days. At least they were here and making progress.
I spent 13+ hours with 5th graders on Friday. It was the big field trip of the year. They sell bags of popcorn to the school every Friday all year to help pay for the trip. We went on charter busses to Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. We had to be at school at 7 a.m. and didn't get back till 8:30 p.m. Rachel wants to blog more about our visit there so I won't say much except that it was nice only having to supervise my own child while we were there. I could enjoy it more because I wasn't having to keep track of a half dozen kids going in different directions.
We had a very full weekend. Mark had to work on Saturday and then he and Rachel went to our ballfield to watch the West Michigan Whitecaps play baseball. Rachel had earned 2 free tickets to go to the game. There were storms in the area when they went so the game was over an hour late starting. The Whitecaps lost but they had a good time and even got to see fireworks at the end.
I'm just trying to stay on top of all the activities. This week will be busy like all the others. The kids are done with school on Thursday at 11:15. They have field day today. Stephen has a field trip on Wed. and I get to have lunch at the Amway Grand since I was able to achieve President's Club status at AVON this year. Mom's coming down on Wednesday and should be here till Sunday. I still have to figure out plans for Stephen's birthday next week. Then there is all the normal busy-ness to deal with meals, laundry, cleaning, and AVON. I better get at it.