Medical updates & more

Yes, Mom has once again been allowed to leave the hospital. I talked to her late on Friday and she said they were sending her out again. I just haven't had time to blog since then. She also told me that she didn't have to go in now this week for the pre-op tests she was scheduled to have since they did all of them while she was in there last week. Now we have only 1 week till the surgery.
As for Mark's nephew, Nick, he is also making a rather remarkable recovery at this point. They have moved him to a rehab ward for teens with head injuries. (The scary thing is that there are so many of this injury they require their own ward?!) He does answer questions and can get up and walk around with some assistance. He seems to recognize people; however, he wakes up very disoriented as to where he is. Each time it might be somewhere different, including the army. This seems like a rather good recovery for such a short time.
This Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful for. It is amazing that we have had 2 close calls to losing people who mean a lot to us and yet we still have both of them. God is definitely answering prayers around here!
I think we are staying home for the actual Thanksgiving day. We have a gift of food from someone at church. Everything but the turkey. Then Mark called to say that a guy he works with has the turkey for us! It may even be a wild one, I'm not sure.
We are working on making arrangements to visit Mom over the long weekend though. If Mark can get Friday off, we will go up then. Since Tammy's place is rather small and Rich isn't much into company, we have asked if we can spend time visiting at Lake Ann Camp which is less than 5 miles from Tammy's. This way the kids can play in a different room or run around outside while we visit too. It is supposed to be in the mid-50's (that is up 40+ degrees from late year) so they may even play a few holes of disc golf while we are there. We don't know yet if we will go up on Thursday and stay with part of Mark's family that is up there or if we will make it a 1 day trip.
I also need to contact brother Mark and see what his plans are for next week. We are still making plans. We are thinking of my Mark and I going up Monday afternoon and then he would return to GR after the surgery. I would then be able to stay till Thursday as I am scheduled to work on Friday. Of course, if she isn't doing well, I'll stay longer but will make that call when the time comes. We have friends who are willing to help with the kids we just have to tell them when we need them.
For those who come by for Nascar talk, it was a pretty sad day around here on Sunday. Not only the disappointment of Jimmie Johnson winning the championship but also for the coverage that NBC had where you would have thought Johnson was the only in the race and in contention. My husband is not the least bit sad that NBC will no longer be covering Nascar so that cars not driven by Hendrick Motorsport drivers will get their fair share. Stephen's major disappointment was 10 weeks ago when Tony didn't make the Chase but he was a bit impressed with the Chase anyway. Now that Kevin & RCR are getting things together maybe next year for him which would make Mark happy. Of course, Rachel would prefer to see the 8 car in the winner's circle more often. Just can't please everyone in this house, no matter who wins!

Mom's back in the hospital

We received a call last night that Mom is back in the hospital. She was having trouble breathing when she got up yesterday morning. Aunt Marlene drove her to the hospital because Mom didn't want her to call an ambulance. It seems her oxygen level was low, her blood pressure was low, and her heart rate was low. They gave her oxygen and she seemed to improve quite a bit. She seemed good when we talked to her last night. We don't know what this means for her surgery, whether they will move it up or not or whether they will just keep her in the hospital until the surgery. Everything is all up in the air again.
As for Nick, he has been moved out of intensive care to a regular room. He is eating and doing "some" talking. They say that they still don't know how much damage or how permanent the damage was. Still just need time.

Comerica Park is done!

Well, Stephen (and I) has finished building Comerica Park. It isn't what I would call great but then again it was Stephen's project and his work. Once we got the basic structure of the park down and convinced him it was going to take a posterboard of pictures to actually show most of the details, I let him do it all from there. He was up way to late last night finishing it but hopefully it made it to school safely. Tonight will be Michigan Night for us to go see what all the other kids learned about and how many parents did the work on the projects. When we went to Rachel's 2 years ago, her's looked a little pathetic because so many of the parents had done the work on the other kids. It gets a bit frustrating but we have also talked to some of the teachers about it and they know. They take whose work it is into account when grading the projects. I know that it is really hard as a parent to step back and let the kid do it, but how else are they to learn.
Rachel is headed to her science partner's house after school again today. They are going to finish working out any kinks to a poem that they are presenting by way of a puppet show tomorrow. They had a third girl join their group on Monday after most of the work was already complete so they need to do some adjusting. We'll pick her up on our way to Michigan night.
I'm still doing all I can to push my Avon business. I will be working a craft show booth on Saturday. I'm also working to make sure that customer's have books to order from while I am gone around Mom's surgery. 2 more orders before Christmas and I really want to take advantage of them. I hope to have both sets of books labeled and ready for delivery on Monday so that I have them out before Thanksgiving. I do have someone else that wants to sub-sell for me so maybe that will help.
I think the most exciting news this week is that our church is planning on breaking ground next Monday on our property for phase one of a project. This phase will only be clearing the property, paving a drive and parking area, and building a pavillion to bring in all the utilities. We hope that we will be able to hold lots of different activities there in the next couple of years even though our church building is 1/2 mile away. Hopefully the ground won't be frozen by Monday. We approved the plans back in June or July but it has taken a ton of red tape to get through so that the work could actually start happening. We received a letter yesterday that they are planning a special dedication and ground breaking ceremony for Sunday afternoon after the morning service.
Well, I have lots to do. By they way, "no news is good news", right? We haven't gotten any news on Nick yesterday so all must be as good as can be expected.

Mom's Surgery

Just wanted to let everyone know that they have now scheduled Mom's surgery. It will be on Tuesday, Nov. 28th. She doesn't have to go in until that morning. They say that they won't know exactly what all they will do until they are in there. They are looking at possibly replacing the mitrial valve, at least one bypass, and then repairing the hole if they still need too. It is healing well and may not need much work by then.
She said that they only let 2 family members in the surgical waiting room so there is no since in me coming until a couple of days after the surery. Yeah, right, like that is going to happen! NOT! I plan to be right there. I had already warned Meijer that I might need some time that week and the way it is currently scheduled, I work on Monday and not again till Friday. I haven't got it all worked out yet but I only learned about it about 10 till 5 this afternoon and I had to spend most of the evening making Comerica Park with Stephen.
P.S. - Mark's nephew, Nick, has been brought out of the coma but is still rather out of it. He will attempt to respond when told to squeeze a hand or something else but not consistently. He is off the ventilator as well. If things go well, they will remove the pressure monitor from his head tomorrow as well as the chest tube. These are all encouraging signs but he is still far from healed. They really haven't even been able to determine a lot yet about any permanent damage. Mark's sister has another chemo treatment tomorrow. She went home this afternoon which is the first time since Saturday. Mark's mom stayed at the hospital. Geri plans to go back if she is up to it after her treatment tomorrow.

Family news

I've talked a lot about Mom and what is going on with her. I believe I also mentioned Mark's sister is currently undergoing chemo for her second bout with breast cancer. Now we have something else to add to list.
On Saturday, Mark's 16-year-old nephew, Nicholas, was struck by a full-size van on Van Dyke in Detroit (actually Sterling Heights). He is currently in critical condition at Children's Hospital of Michigan in downtown Detroit. He has a severe head injury, broken collarbone, cracked ribs, collapsed lung, and an ankle injury. They have drained some fluid from the brain because of the swelling and fixed the collapsed lung with a chest tube. He is currently in a medically induced coma because of difficulties when they try to bring him out of it. They also have removed his ventilator at one point but decided it best to put it back to let his body just focus on healing and not any extra work. The do think that there is some central nervous system damage but really don't know much until he comes out of the coma but for now they can't let him come out. It could be a quite a while before they know much (with Mom's heart it was the first 48 hours but with the brain, it can continue swelling for up to 72 hours before starting to heal).
Mark went over early Sunday morning and returned late last night. He was only allowed in the room briefly and not until just before he was leaving. He said that Nick has more tubes and monitors than Mom did! He spent most of the time supporting his mom and sister. His mom is taking the blame on herself which she does often even in situations where she had no real control. Mark's sister is holding in there. It is tough because she also has 2 more sons at home to think about as well as her own health. Because Nick's dad died almost 5 years ago and Mark's mom lives with Geri and the boys, they have granted Mark's mom full access to Nick as well as Geri. This will help a little because then when Geri is gone, Ruth can get in yet. They are very strict about any visitors at this time and either Ruth or Geri has to go in with the visitors.
The kids and I stayed home as we had a busy day scheduled at church as well as the fact that I was scheduled to work at Meijer's. Our kids know what is going on with Nick. We have tried not to be too graphic yet honest. Rachel seems to be taking it the hardest at this time. She went and found some picutres of Nicky from 7 years ago and has been carrying them around with her. She was going to put one up in her locker as a prayer reminder. The boys seem to understand it is serious but are doing fine. I also notified all their teachers in case there was any problems at school from the stress of the situation.
We know that God is in control. All we can do is pray and wait. We have seen a miracle recently in the fact that Mom is still with us and now we are watching for another one, if He sees fit. So that is the news from here. I'll try to find something more encouraging to write about soon. Maybe I'll get a digital picture of Stephen's Comerica Park later this week that I can post (after he gets it built that is).

No school...again

Well, the kids are all home from school again today. This week it is for Parent Teacher Conferences. Joshua was home both yesteday & today but the other 2 had to go 1/2 day yesterday. Rachel went to another student's house for the afternoon as they have a project to do together. This student lives in Rockford (which is quite a drive from here) so the mom picked Rachel up when she picked up her own and then brought Rachel back to the school around the time we were finishing up with all the conferences. This saved us all a lot of driving.
The conferences went well. Stephen's was probably the best conference we have ever had in his school career! This teacher really seems to understand him and they get along great. We are so thrilled with her work with him. Joshua is having a slight difficulty understanding that when the teacher or a parent assistant want him to do something he needs to do it whether he wants to or not. He is just being stubborn and wouldn't count past 10 for them when he was being assessed. Last night, though, he counted to 100 for us at home. Rachel is doing well too. Her biggest struggles are with Spanish and the fact that she missed 2 &1/2 days of school during a busy time. The strange weekend of us going to TC probably didn't help any either. She is doing so well in band on her saxophone that the second year students are a bit ashamed of their playing. The director told them they could either quit or practice harder if they didn't like that she was doing better then them.
Now, this morning has been spent with me helping Stephen work on a history project--Comerica Park. This is due on Thursday, Nov. 16 so this is the final weekend we have available. It is quite a project. So far we have the field itself made up. Now we just need all the seating and walls as well as it's extras, such as ferris wheel, carousel, and statues. It's going to be a long weekend.
The latest on Mom: She had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and the doctor was rather pleased. The only vital sign that they are having to keep an eye on because of a couple of poor readings is her oxygen level. This week she saw the cardiologist, next Wed. she sees the surgeon, and then she sees this doctor on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving again. She is still getting lots of company. Aunt Marlene is there with her all the time but Uncle Paul & Aunt Bette say they are staying in Alpena until her surgery is over and they come spend at least a day a week with them in TC. She also had a visit from her friend, Fran, who just moved to the UP in the last year or so. They spend time reading and doing puzzles. She sounds rather encouraged and content with the situation which is better then she was doing with her stay in the hospital.
We voted on Tuesday but are a bit disappointed with the outcome but we know that God's in control.

Mom update

It is my turn to post the update on Mom. She is being released in just a little while to go stay at cousin Tammy's house. The doctors looked over their test results today and were willing to let her go as far as Tammy's but she is to have constant supervision. Aunt Marlene is there and plans to stay with Mom as long as is needed. Mom will also be having weekly doctors visits to keep an eye on her condition. Mom assures me that she won't hesitate to speak up to Marlene if something doesn't feel right (we'll have to see on that one). As you can imagine, Mom is very happy. It isn't Alpena but at least it is out of the hospital.
Mom actually has given the nurses something to laugh about as she put on her jogging suit at least one day this week. Then she was sitting in her room visiting with Marlene & Tammy or they went to the family room and worked on a puzzle and the nurses would come in but couldn't figure out which one was the patient because they were all dressed. The nurses may have gotten tired of tracking her down and helped get the doctors to let her out! Of course, Mom may also haved headed to the kitchen to help out if they had kept her much longer too!

2 posts-1 day

How amazing is that!? I just wanted to make sure that everyone noticed the new link at the side. Now you can look over the latest Avon catalog that I am taking orders from. If you are interested in anything, just send me an email and I'll get it for you. The other way to order it is to go to www.Avon.com and order the items then when it asks for your rep's phone number put mine in.
Also, I better use this chance to say happy birthday to 2 brothers, Tim on 11/1 and Mark on 11/2. It was good to see both of you recently even for just a short time. Keep in touch, guys & have good birthdays!

Catching up again

Ok, so I haven't blogged in a while. I've barely sat down at the computer very long except to read the updates on how Mom is doing.
We are trying for some semblance of a normal life, all the while awaiting a phone call saying that Mom had another problem and that they are heading to surgery.
The kids did well while we were gone to TC. They stayed with a couple from church that have sort of adopted them as extra grandchildren. I'm told that Rachel was a big help especially on Sunday evening when Joshua just couldn't stop crying. There were good reports from school as well which is a big relief.
The kids are having some crazy weeks at school. This week there is no school on Thurs. or Friday because of teacher inservice. Next week, they go just 3 & 1/2 days, except for Joshua who only goes 3 days, for Parent Teacher Conferences. There will be one full week of school but then they have another 3 day week due to Thanksgiving.
For those of you that don't know yet, I am working at Meijer in the bakery department decorating cakes. I asked for 10-20 hours a week. Supposedly I was going to work evenings when Mark would be home with the kids but they asked if I could train in the mornings. I agreed and now I hope they keep me on mornings. It is really working out well for me to go in from 7-11 a.m. The only thing that they don't like is that I have to leave at 11 to pick up Joshua and can't stay late if we are behind. This schedule gives me evenings at home with my family yet or I do my Avon then. They also aren't exactly thrilled that I have been there just one month and have called in twice (one for the Sunday we were in TC & then Fri Stephen was home with a cold). They will just have to deal with that though.
I'm trying to figure out when I can get back to TC to see Mom again. It doesn't look like this weekend though. Mark has a prayer breakfast Sat. morning and then will be going to work till 2 p.m. I could get someone to cover at church for me on Sunday but am scheduled to work at Meijer from 1-5 p.m. I don't want to call in too much for babysitting favors from friends at church right now either because I know I'm definitely going to need it when Mom has her surgery.
On the other side of the family, Mark's sister, Geri, has recently gone through a second masectomy and has started more chemo. We haven't heard from them recently to know how it is going but we are praying that they have better meds now then when she had it 5 years or so ago.
So that is about it. School, work, and church--and phone calls and trips to TC. Stephen has a field trip on Monday to Lansing which Mark is going on then he also has a project to complete for Michigan night at school on November 16. I have to call for a physical for Rachel since she is wanting to try out for the vollyball team in January. There is just always something more to do.

Boys are doing well

Just a couple minutes to post before I have to go get Rachel & Stephen from school. Wanted to let everyone know that the boys are adjusting well to school too. Stephen says he doesn't like school but does very well in it. He has only forgotten his homework twice and turns out that he had a substitute for the last little while of school on those 2 days.
Joshua just loves kindergarten. He was thrilled to come home on the second day of school and tell me that he raised his hand and gave the right answer when the teacher called on him. He also thinks it is pretty cool that he didn't have to tell the music teacher his name but everyone else did. (We go to the same church that she does.) There are only 4 or 5 boys in Joshua's class and the rest are girls. That doesn't bother him any because he rather prefers to be around the girls. He is totally attached to a foreign exchange student that is staying with our friends, Mark & Lisa for this school year. If I can't find him when we are at church, I just look for her and he is usually close by.
Rachel didn't make student council representative but she did have a decent turn out for See You At The Pole. It didn't go exactly as planned but it went well none the less. I don't remember if I put it in the last post or not but she is also doing 7th grade math this year. They tested all the 6th graders at the beginning of the year and if they did well enough, the teacher put them in 7th grade math. She is like 1 of only 6 in her class to be doing it!
Well, time to run again.

Rachel's busy

Of course, we all are but especially her. We're getting into the swing of the schoolyear.
Some of you know and some of you don't but Rachel switched from clarinet to saxophone this year. She has been doing very well at practicing her saxophone. The band director has not been able to come to school yet because of health problems. There has been a substitute teacher so far and most of the time has been spent on theory and paper and pencil projects. This has given her a chance to work on her own to try to catch up with everyone else. The regular band director is hoping to come back this week. It will be interesting to see how he responds to her change and progress now.
Rachel also decided to run for Student Council Representative for her homeroom. Now that she has found out her competitors, she doesn't think she'll win but we'll see. She can make campaign signs and then next week she has to make a speech. The election results will be announced at an all school assembly next Wed afternoon.
Last week, we were listening to the radio and they were talking about See You at The Pole coming up on Wed. Sept. 27. She remembered that last year there was only 1 other car in the lot at 7:00 when it was supposed to start. I said that now that Rachel was in middle school, she could help with promoting it so that people would know when it was to start. She asked 2 other girls if they wanted to help but they weren't interested. She didn't let that stop her though. She asked the principal if she could put up posters to promote it and he said fine so we spent an evening printing signs for it. She has also asked the wife of our Christian Education Pastor to help sing some choruses that morning since they have children at the school too. So she is going right at it. She has even been thinking through what they should sing. We are really proud of her for not just sitting back on this event and letting it pass by. I know our youth group promotes it a lot but she isn't part of the youth group as it starts at 7th grade not 6th. If you want to know more about the event, the website is www.syatp.org.
Well, it is time for Joshua to get home and I haven't gotten much done so I have to go.

School's back in session!

Yes, the children started school on Tuesday! All 3 of them this year! Joshua is in morning kindergarten and has the same teacher the other 2 had. He is really enjoying school and has no problem separating from me for that time. Stephen started 4th grade on Tuesday. He has a new teacher to the school but she seemed very nice at our meeting a couple of weeks ago. Then there is Rachel, she started middle school! This is new territory for all of us, but so far, so good. She has a very nice home room teacher as well.
We spent Labor Day holiday up at Lake Ann Camp for another work bee. It was a very nice get away. Aunt Marlene, Tammy, & Joe met us there with Rachel Friday afternoon. We showed them around a bit before we got settled into our cabin. Rachel & I spent the weekend working in the kitchen. Rachel isn't allowed to serve the food till she is 14 but there were lots of other ways she could help. She wants to spend the summers working in the kitchen as soon as she is old enough. That will be fine with me since it will mean that she gets her week of camp for free.
We did have some minor incidents will we were there. Friday night Rachel fell off the top bunk bed while sleeping. She woke up crying and said that her head hurt. The next morning, it wasn't her head hurting...it was her bottom. Moving caused her quite a bit of pain Sat. but she survived and now the only evidence of it is a major buise on her elbow. When the men came in for lunch on Saturday, Joshua looked quite worse for the wear. Seems he took a tumble down their tubing hill which is in the middle of their disc golf course that Mark and another friend were working on. Once I got his face cleaned up though he looked much better. Mark also ended up with a scratch on his face but everyone survived just fine.
I took pictures of the kids on their first day but don't have time to get them online right now. Will have to try that soon. Boy, do the 3 hours that Joshua is gone just fly by. I'm trying to make sure to focus on my Avon during that time but it seems that 11:15 gets here quicker than ever. Now it is almost time to go get the rest of the crew. I'll try to get on more regularly but you know how that goes.

Doing better

Everyone is fine & healthy again. We have now visited all the kids teachers and seen their classrooms. I have been slowly working on gathering their school supplies and are almost there. I have refused to buy any pens or highlighters till we go through this house and check for any lost ones that we have on hand. The boys need haircuts and there are probably some more shoes to buy but for the most part school prep is pretty well under way. They start back 1 week from tomorrow!
I spent Friday night and all day Saturday at the Hudsonville Fair working at an AVON booth. Friday went well but Saturday was slower than expected. I think because it looked like rain all day it kept people away. I didn't sign up any recruits on the spot but did get some prospects.
Rachel is up at Gramma's house. They have been having fun garage sale-ing and also canning peaches.
Yesterday was promotion Sunday at church. It is my least favorite day of the year. Being in charge of the preschool dept. I have to talk in front of all the parents. I have no problem being in front of the kids but don't like doing the adults. But I survived again for another year.
Well, I have to get busy around here. I'm still playing some catch-up from being sick.

Rough couple of weeks

I told you all about Rachel being sick with a virus a couple of weeks ago. I don't think though that I mentioned having to take Joshua in for an infection in his eye which happened a week after Rachel came down sick. Then last Sunday I started getting sick. It was basically the same symptoms as Rachel (congestion, cough) except no fever. I made it to church last Sunday morning but by evening service declared myself sick and didn't go. Monday, I made myself get up and busy becasuse I'm a mom and can't be sick for very long. That just doesn't work. I kept going best I could till Thursday. My chest really felt heavy on Thursday so I finally called the dr. Probably a good thing I did because he said it was pneumonia. He gave me a pretty powerful antibiotic (Avelox) which I had never heard of before. He also gave me a breathing treatment at the office and an inhaler of Albuterol to go with it. So I have been using those as well as Mucinex & acidophilus (the same as active cultures in yogurt). I didn't get any worse after starting all this but it took till yesterday before I actually felt a little better. I was actually able to sleep in bed (albeit using a special pillow to keep me upright) last night instead of the recliner. That was a first in the last week.
To go along with this fun, I also got to deal with no hot water most of the week. Mark found out Monday morning before going to work that the hot water heater had started leaking. Fortunately, it was only a leak and not a full blown hole. The other thing we are thankful for is that everything that was between it and the drain was up on a pallet so nothing was damaged. I did some research on models and prices even while sick. Wed. evening we went out and bought one. Then we had 2 friends from church come over on Thurs. evening to install it. They had a few problems so they ended up having to finish on Friday. So we now have hot water again without having to put it on the stove first and it only cost us some favors for church family. (The price to have Home Depot install it would have doubled the cost of it.)
Our church family has helped quite a bit this last week. Besides installing the water heater, we had free meal Saturday from a restaurant that is owned by a church family. There was actually enough chicken that it took care of 2 meals. We just added rice to it the second meal. Also, a very dear famly stopped by Sunday afternoon, with a chicken & rice casserole, muffins, and cookies. I'll use that for dinner tonight because Mondays Mark has to work till at least 7 or 8 p.m. Rachel was glad to hear about it because she has been having to learn some simple meals that I have supervised her making while I wasn't feeling good.
I have the kids busy helping around here today to get things done. The Treasure Hunters live finale has been a great incentive to keep them working today. I'm looking at my schedule for the week and trying to determine which items I can handle and if there is anything I can hand over to someone else to lighten things up a little. We meet with the kids teachers this week and I am scheduled at a fair for an Avon booth later this week. I'll just do what I can and rest when possible.

Few minutes

Just I better take a few minutes to blog while I can right now. The weather finally broke and Dad didn't think that much of an excuse anyway. Of course, we were hotter here this last Sunday-Wednesday than what he was in FL. We had temps in the upper 90's and heat indexes around 105-110. Not having a/c, it makes for rather uncomfortable living.
The main thing to talk about in our week besides the weather, is that Rachel is sick. She actually gave us quite a start on Tuesday. She said that her throat hurt a little and she had a headache when she first got up but I sort of blamed in on the miserable heat. I had an appointment at 1 so I took the kids to a friend's house with a/c while I was gone. Except Rachel got worse while I was gone instead of better. I didn't want to hurry home because of the heat so we took her temp there and it was 102.7. We gave her an extra strength tylenol but it didn't go down at all. So I called the dr. and we were able to get a 5:45. I left the boys with the friend and called Mark to have him pick them up when he left work. At the dr.'s, Rachel was miserable! They tested for strep & UTI but both were negative. They said she could have 600 mg of ibuprofen for her fever. She said she felt a lot of pain when they were feeling around her neck and head. She was also dizzy and walking very stiffly. The dr. decided that we should go across the street to the ER. She called them and we headed over. The ibuprofen kicked in while we were waiting to see the ER dr. So they ended up sending us home without further testing (such as a spinal tap). They decided it was just a virus.
She hasn't had a fever since Tuesday. However, she is still rather sick. Her congestion went from stuffy to running like a faucet yesterday. She also has a cough and a lot of joint pain. Then yesterday afternoon, she started complaining of an earache. Seems that some of the congestion caused bacteria to get into her ear canal and cause an infection there. She now has an antibiotic to help that. So we aren't going very far or doing a whole lot with her like this. We are trying to get her better so she can get in her visits to Gramma and her friend Jackie in Newaygo.
They are done with the Saturday morning video time so I better get moving. The rest of our commitments and lives haven't stopped because she is down. It just takes more juggling this way.

No blogging for now

Sorry, but with the heat & humidity level as high as it has been, I'm keeping the computer off as much as possible. They are starting to say "save energy" and I do my part by keeping this heater off. This is tricky when I need it to work on AVON and the budget/checkbook but I'm do the necessities then get it off. The kids are frustrated too because they don't get their computer time every day like they were. Just know we are fine and finding ways to stay cool. Hopefully this heat wave will break by the end of the week.

House is DONE!

Don't have a lot of time to blog right now but had to let everyone know that the house is finally done! It took probably 6 weeks for the painters to get their part done. I finally signed off on their work although I still wasn't exactly happy with it. I decided I was tired of dealing with them and could do it better & faster myself. I spent 1 Sat. painting the shaker shingles that they weren't required to do. Then we had a friend from church that spent 2 days painting in areas that I couldn't get to (or wasn't comfortable getting to). Then I spent the 4th of July painting till it got too hot to work on the south side. Another friend stopped by on the 4th as it was cooling off and I was about to go back out. He went up and worked just a few minutes till he ran out of paint. Last Friday, I bought another gallon and was back up on the porch roof by 9 a.m. on Saturday. I finished up the front by the time it was too hot to be up there again and then we went around back and finished up the touch up needed back there. I am proclaiming it DONE! There is one side that could still use another coat but if you aren't looking really close and inspecting it, it looks fine.
More on the kids at camp later.

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.