Christmas stuff

So Christmas has come and gone yet again. We didn't even try to top last year's gifts, but we'll be going on vacation soon so everyone was fine with less expensive presents this time around.

Our family put on the church Christmas play. We made a movie of it, too, so everyone who wasn't able to make it can see it, although when I was putting it together I misspelled the word "Innkeeper." I was so mad at myself for not catching it, but I did put an annotation on YouTube so people will know that I really do know how to spell.  It was a SkitGuys play, and it was the perfect length and had the exact right number of parts so each of had one. I played Mary, but it was only a bit part with two lines. Since I was directing and also playing techie, that worked fine. We actually had a bigger crowd than we expected.

On Christmas Day, we opened our presents and then spent the day at my parents' house. Here is the annual list of what everyone got. I'm sure you are all hanging on the edge of your seats for this part.

Jay: A socket set, a speaker for his iPod, and a year's supply of guitar strings.
Joy: A pair of boots she had been coveting, a speaker for her iPod, and an assortment of mustache items like bandaids with mustaches on them.
Sarah: A ripstick to replace the one Erick backed over that she got for her birthday, a purple coat with fur around the hood, and a speaker for her iPod.
Abby: JustDance4, a full length mirror, and an art set (black Friday special).
Rachel: A remote control helicopter, a cardboard house to color, and pair of headphones.
Timothy: A Lego Lord of the Rings set, a Darth Vader costume, and an art farm with green gel that the ants eat.

I got Erick a Brooklyn lantern (as seen on TV) and he got me a sweater. We did cheap gifts this year because of our hugely expensive vacation we are about to take.

The day after Christmas we got eleven inches of snow and I couldn't make it to work. So we stayed home and played with Christmas toys. I played JustDance4 and the girls laughed at me, but I'm determined to get better and beat them all. It is so tiring, though! When I was a kid, playing video games didn't make you tired. I'm going to have to build up some muscle if I want to beat them at this game.

The van is running

I figured I'd better post again to let you all know that we did get the van running again. I guess the fuel pump wasn't getting power because there was corrosion on some connector. So Erick took it off, cleaned it, and put it back on, and we haven't had any trouble with it for two days now. So that's a good sign. I'm still a little distrustful of it, I think, but maybe this will be the end of our van problems.

Just some catching up

I know I keep starting these by saying how busy I've been, but I really have been busy. I only have two semesters left of school, though, so maybe eventually I will get back to posting more regularly.

So to catch up, we had Thanskgiving, of course. We invited some friends from church over. Oh, yeah, one thing that was interesting was that before Thanksgiving I had written a blog post for the local newspaper about how I was thankful for my Walmart job. LINK I was just so tired of all the anti-Walmart sentiments I'd been hearing and thought it would be appropriate to be thankful instead of gripey through Thanksgiving. A week or so later, I got a phone call from one of our assistant managers, who said that home office wanted to talk to me. At first I thought I must be in huge trouble, but she said it was because of the blog post. When they finally got back with me, it was the media relations department who wanted me to be a Walmart ambassador. I guess she just wanted to know my thoughts about Walmart--the kinds of changes they've made, whether they pay fairly, etc. She said she might be checking back occasionally to hear what Walmart associates think. It was definitely interesting!

So now the biggest thing going on is our van. It keeps dying on us. We just put a fuel pump in it and now it won't start again. Erick is going to look at it when he gets home. He's hoping it's just a relay. We are supposed to be going on a family vacation at the first of the year, so we really need to get this figured out soon. Last night we drove out to Little Nashville to see the lights and it worked fine.

Today the kids have three friends over, and so things are a little noisy downstairs. I've submitted all of my assignment for the semester, and so now I'm catching up on other stuff. I'm cleaning my room right now. Actually, I'm taking a teensy weensy break from cleaning my room to post on my blog.

Oh, and did I ever post about my new haircut? I don't think I did. I changed my profile picture on Facebook, but I didn't put it here. I got it cut really short to get all that blonde that I put in it last year out. I really like it. I still have some blonde in the front, but it looks fine.

Sarah Shuffling

My brother took this video at the SATs of Sarah shuffling at Jackie Walorski's victory party. I've been waiting and waiting for him to upload it and he finally did. So here it is. :)

One more post about Generation Joshua

The leader of the local GenJ club wanted the kids to talk about the SATs for their club meeting, but since we started having youth group at our church on Tuesday nights we haven't been able to go. So she asked if they could put a video together recounting their experiences so she could show it to the group. They recorded it yesterday and uploaded it. I thought they did a very nice job, and I wanted to show it here. It's about ten minutes, but it's worth the watch.

Generation Joshua

It's so nice to have all of my kids home again. They were gone for a week campaigning with Generation Joshua and just came home a few days ago. Generation Joshua is like a politcal club for homeschooled teens. It's actually a part of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). They have monthly club meetings, free civics curriculum, and there are even scholarships available through them. It's something that we've been a part of for the past several years, and the highlight of being a member are the SATs--Student Action Teams. The students spend a week before the elections working the phones and going door-to-door to campaign for pro-family candidates.

This year, Generation Joshua had over 1,875 kids sign up for their SATs. My mom took three of my younger siblings plus my four older children plus a few friends to Team Indy, where they were assigned to work for Richard Mourdock and Mike Pence plus some of the other candidates. I didn't go since I had to work. We also took the younger two kids up to my in-laws' house so we didn't have to worry about having kids home alone if my husband's shift overlapped with mine.

The kids had a blast. Halfway through the week, they asked some of the kids at Team Indy to go up to South Bend to work for Jackie Walorski instead, because she only had four kids show up when she was supposed to get 25. So most of my kids went with her, and my oldest daughter and her friend stayed in Indy because she was having too much fun there and didn't want to go to South Bend. When I picked them all up last Wednesday, they argued all the way home about who had the most fun. "We had the best food!" one group said. "Well, we had the best phones!" the other threw back.

They all stayed up until 2:00 a.m. watching election results come in. They beat me. I only stayed up until 11:30. Team Indy was disappointed because Richard Mourdock didn't win, but they were excited to see Mike Pence win and took all sorts of pictures shaking his hand. They admitted that they cried when Richard Mourdock gave his concession speech.

Jackie Walorski won her race, and so that team had nothing to cry about. They showed me videos, and there was a lot of stomping, clapping, and even dancing going on up there when she gave her victory speech.

I'm so proud of my kids. They might be too young to vote, but they are not too young to make a difference. The SATs give them an opportunity to realize that. It's not an easy thing, making phone calls and having people call you names and hang up on you, or walking in the cold each night to hand out flyers, but it instills in them an understanding of how important it is to get involved. Not everyone we worked for this year won their elections, but my kids gained so much from this experience.

Generation Joshua wasn't the only thing that our family did this year to work for candidates. We also got to be a part of two commercials. This one we filmed last year. Originally the kids were in it, but they didn't make the final cut. I think I blogged about it but I can't remember. Anyway, here was what the commercial ended up looking like. Bruce lost his race by 89 votes, though. He had to compete against another incumbent due to redistricting.

The other commercial we did was a last-minute deal for Tony Bennett. He didn't win, either, though.

I don't know if I can embed that one, because it's listed as private and you have to have the link to view it. Here is the link, though.

God's blessings

I've been behind on my blog so often that I might as well stop apologizing for it.

Anyway, I thought I'd update on you what we finally did about our kitchen. I ended up getting some scholarship money that showed up late, and they sent me all of it at the same time when I expected only to get half of it for this semester. Altogether, I got $1500. We'd been needing to replace the washer and dyer for some time, as they weren't working well, and of course we had the cooktop to replace, as well as some repairs on the van. So we praised God for His provision.

For our kitchen, we looked at cragislist and found a guy who was selling a cooktop as well as a wall oven for $20. That seemed like a good idea, since we weren't sure how long our oven would last anyway. So Erick went and bought them. As he was driving away, the man pulled up behind him at the next stop and got out and handed him back his $20 bill and told him to keep it. So we ended up getting them both for free!

We put the oven in the garage for now. No point in replacing it just yet, but it's there if we need it. The cooktop was only a 30", but since we didn't need to buy one, we used some of the money we'd saved out for it to replace the countertops. That way we could just cut a smaller hole for a smaller cooktop. The new countertops are black and set off the golden wood paneling very nicely in our kitchen.

We bought a nice used washer and dryer set, and they work well. Our van is also running nicely now, and we even have money leftover for Christmas presents. God is so good to us!

Cooking dilemma

Last week the big front burner of our cooktop went out. The back big burner has never worked since we bought our house, but we didn't really need it anyway. But now we are down to only two little ones, and this is making it difficult to cook.

It's a 36 inch cook-top, and the cheapest ones run about $400 new. We have an oven that is set into in the wall, but it's not in that great of shape, either. If we spend the $400 on the cooktop and then the oven goes out, it will cost at least $1000 to replace the oven.

So it makes more sense just to buy a range, because those cost as much as the cooktop and we will take care of both at the same time. However, we'd have to pull out the cabinets where the oven is built in, and that slot is only 28 inches wide. The ovens are 30.

We've been trying to figure this out all week. Erick has a week of vacation starting Monday, so he's going to try to do something to the kitchen, but we're not sure what. We did have another idea of putting it in a different place, but that's going to take a lot of remodeling.

Oh, what to do, what to do?

Baptism service

Today Jay and Rachel were both baptized, as well as two other people from our church. One lady had come to Erick a few months ago and expressed a desire to be baptized. We were thrilled, because it was the first time someone in our church had asked to be baptized. The only problem was that our church doesn't have a baptristy. In the past, our church has held baptisms at a lake or at the river, but that just wasn't going to work out this time. First of all, most of our congregation is very elderly and on walkers or in power chairs, and navigating a river bank would be simply impossible. Since baptism is a public commitment of one's faith, we felt it was important to have it at a place where the whole church would be able to come and support them. Second, we were in the middle of a drought, and there wasn't enough water in the lakes and rivers to baptize anyone. Erick joked around about laying the lady down and rolling her back and forth to get her wet, but she didn't seem to think that was such a good idea.

Finally we contacted our sister church down the street, the one where our kids go on Wednesday nights, and arranged to have a joint baptism service with them. They ended up having three brothers who wanted to be baptized, and we had four altogether--the original lady who asked to be baptized, an older man who had been in the church for quite some time but had never been baptized, and two of our kids--Rachel, who had never been baptized, and Jay, who had been baptized but wanted to renew his commitment to the Lord. Timothy wanted to at first but then changed his mind. He's a little shy about doing things in front of people, so he wants to wait until he's a little older.

It was a beautiful service. Erick preached, and he did a great job. He's such a good speaker now. I remember when he first started preaching how I'd spend the whole time being nervous for him. Back then, when we'd have a guest speaker I'd be excited because I'd finally get to hear some good preaching. Nowadays, when we have a guest speaker he's usually not as good as Erick. :)

Here is a picture of Erick with the four from our church that were baptized:

Catch of the day

It’s amazing how mild a day with highs in the nineties feels after a summer of record-smashing heat and drought. Determined to wring every last bit of fun out of summer before school starts, we loaded up the fishing poles and tackle, a couple of bikes, and some Frisbees, picked up some root beer and oatmeal sandwich cookies from the store, and spent an afternoon at our favorite spot: Shakamak State Park.

Because of the too-hot summer, many of the trees are already turning colors and dropping leaves. I could almost imagine it was early fall when I sat in the shade.  Erick and the boys headed over a hill down to a little shady spot by the lake, and the rest of us ate snacks and tried mastering the Wave (a tricky little skateboard-like toy with only two wheels that twists in the middle.) After a bit I noticed my ten-year-old, Rachel, was missing. I went over the hill and found her watching the boys fish and gazing longingly at the remaining fishing pole leaning up against the bank. She wanted to fish, too, but didn’t know how to put on the hooks and bobbers. I knew my husband had his hands full already keeping the boys from getting their lines tangled together in that little bitty spot, so I decided to help. I’m not much into fishing myself. I hate impaling worms. The way they squirm when you put them on the hook…the muddy mixture that comes squirting out their other end when the hook finally pops through…ick. 

So instead I fixed her up with one of those lures that spin and took her around the bend to the boat dock. That way she could practice casting out her line and reeling it back in without getting her lines crossed with the boys. There weren’t many weeds, so she wouldn’t have to worry about her hook snagging and getting stuck. We could see the fish easily through the clear water. It was a perfect setup…except the fish weren’t very interested in her lure. They didn’t mind watching it as she repeatedly dragged it by their fishy snouts, but not once did they move to take it. 

Rachel was determined to catch a fish, though, so she kept trying. I soon became hot and tired and so I moved up the boat ramp and sat in the shade on the curb and watched her fish. As she continued to practice, she became quite good at casting out. She would hold the fishing pole up over her head and fling her line out way into the lake. The she’d squat down and watch the fish as she reeled it back in. Again and again she tried, the very picture of perseverance and patience. 

When I finally saw her walking towards me, I figured she was giving up. I was wrong. She still wanted to catch a fish, but she was ready to try it with live bait this time. Just then I also spotted my husband and sons coming towards me from the other direction. They were only catching tiny little fish at their shady spot and were ready to try the boat dock. I talked my brave, strong husband into impaling a worm for Rachel and then went back to check on the rest of the kids. I barely made it back to the picnic table when I heard my husband hollering for me. At first I thought one of the kids had fallen into the lake, so I ran back to the boat dock as fast as I could to see what was wrong. There stood Rachel, proudly holding her fishing pole with a nice-sized sunfish gasping on the end of it. I guess she’d caught one just as soon as she’d dropped that line into the water. I pulled out my phone and took a picture to commemorate the occasion. The fish was almost big enough to keep, but not quite. My husband had to help her get it off the line so she could release it back into the lake. (I tried, but it was too slimy and gross.) She was very proud of herself, and we were proud of her, too, for catching the biggest fish of the day and for making her perseverance pay off. 

Sarah's 13th birthday party

I just had to share some fun pictures of Sarah's birthday party. She turned 13 on August 1, and yesterday she celebrated it with her friends at a big costume party. Since we don't celebrate Halloween, we find other time in our family to dress up. It was an absolute blast, as you can see from the pictures.

Sarah getting dressed up as an avatar. She painted herself blue.  Her friend, Maryssa (who is dressed as Katniss from The Hunger Games) is doing her hair.

These are three more of Sarah's friends--Aubrey (dressed as a graduate), Jackie (dressed as a lady from the 1920's) and her sister, Mary (dressed as a hobo). In this picture they are waiting for everyone to get ready so we could leave for the church, where the party is at.

As soon as we got there I had Erick take a picture of all of us in our costumes. One girl did show up a little later, so she's not in the shot, and of course Erick isn't in it since he took the picture. But he wasn't that much dressed up anyway. He just dressed as a biker and wore his jeans, t-shirt, and a do-rag, which is what he wears most of the time anyway.

Here is Jay in his pirate costume. Earlier he'd drawn some Frankenstein-like stitches on his face with permanant marker. I guess it wasn't too permanant because it looks like he washed it off.

Friend Mishell (dressed as herself) and Abby (dressed as a cowgirl).

Aubrey and Joy (who is dressed as a ballerina, but that's pretty obvious).

Sarah and her friend Sydney, both dressed as Avatars. I love this picture because they look like they are glowing. But today Sarah is going to have to scrub the bathroom because she got blue paint everywhere.

Sarah's friend Kassidy dressed as a nerd. Although someone said she looked like a hipster and I thought they said she looked like a hampster, so I was kind of confused because she doesn't look anything like a hampster.

Timothy in his ninja costume that he got for Christmas a couple of years ago. I'm surprised he still fits it.

Rachel wearing a tae-kwon-do shirt. I don't know where it came from. It was in the costume box, I guess.

I'll put the rest of the pictures on Facebook, because it takes too long to upload them to this blog.

Jay's new car

I've mentioned in other posts that Jay spent the month of June at my parents' house learning the family business. My mom and dad run a small business called Leonard's Book Restoration Station (leonardsbooks.com). Leonard was actually my grandpa. When I was a kid, it was Leonard's Antiques and Used Furniture in Lafayette, IN. When my grandpa died, my dad took over the business and changed the name to Leonard's Antiques and Books. Eventually, he phased out the antiques altogether and focused on books. On the side, he would rebind books, mostly as a hobby.

During the mid-nineties my dad started listing his books online. He eventually closed down the store in Lafayette and brought his entire inventory home so he could sell exclusively online. This worked for a few years, until the competition became too hard to keep up with. Gradually, he began to expand his side bookbinding business, getting rid of his books to make space for more presses. At first, only my brothers and sisters worked for him, but he soon began hiring others.

When my great-grandpa passed away last year and left my parents some money, they used that to expand their business. They are in the process of adding on a shipping and receiving room as well as an employee bathroom. In an economy where many businesses are struggling, my parents are doing so well that they had to cut back on their advertising because they had more business than they could handle.

This summer has been crazy at my mom and dad's house. Besides running a business, my dad has been supervising a construction crew, most of whom are not professionals, but just people they know that needed work. They've had quite a few issues, such as when the plumbers ran the hot water line to the toilet, but last I heard my dad had made a list of only 40 projects that were left to finish.

Jay got to help with both the construction part and the book binding part. Officially, we counted it as an apprenticeship for which I am giving him high school credit, but they also paid him. He put in long days and slept in the barn loft with another guy named Joe who is working for my mom and dad (and who is also marrying my sister Susie next year!) Over a period of slightly over a month, Jay made about $1200.

I had strongly suggested that he put it in the bank and save it for a car, because I knew he'd be wanting one in the next year or two. I was right, but he ended up getting one a lot sooner than I imagined.

Our next door neighbor put his car out for sale, and Jay came in all excited because he was only asking $1250 for it. I encouraged him to go talk to him and find out about. Our neighbor told him that if he wanted it, he'd let him have it for only $1000. The next day we went to the bank and took out Jay's money, and he is now the proud owner of a silver '99 Chrysler Sebring Convertible. It needs a little work on the front, and it has a few minor cosmetic issues, but it's still pretty sharp looking, especially for a teenage boy's first car. Of course, Jay can't drive it yet. He won't turn 16 until March. But he did back it into his parking spot by himself.

I'm pretty proud of him for working so hard and buying his first car. I still can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that he's old enough to do that, though. It seems like just yesterday he was a handful of a kid who was always getting into trouble--trying to take a ride on the garage door, cutting his shirts up to make vests, lighting Sunday School papers on fire in the van, and more. I honestly thought more than once how wonderful it would be when he was all grown up and I wasn't liable for him anymore. He's so much like me. He gets an idea into his head and just does it without thinking. (I can sympathize--if you think too hard, it ruins the fun.) But now he's almost grown up and turning into such a smart, responsible young man. He's going to turn out just fine. Of course, you might want to check back with me on that in March when he actually starts driving. These feelings of pride may have given away to terror by then. But in the meantime, I'm one proud mama.

4-H results and pictures

Here are the pictures of all of the kids' projects for the year with the results of both the Clay City fair and the Clay County fair.

Jay

Project 1. Miscellaneous Crafts

He bound this Bible while he was at my mom and dad's house through the month of June in dyed calf skin leather with hair on.

Results: Clay City fair--Reserve Champion, Clay County fair--Reserve Grand Champion. (It will be a State Fair exhibit this year.)

Project 2. Creative Writing

This is a story he wrote about a Husky. This was actually his third attempt at a story. The first one didn't really have a point, and the second was a little far-fetched, so finally he took an old school assignment he wrote for English Composition and turned it into a story the night before.

Results: Clay County Fair--Blue ribbon/Honor Group (he didn't have it finished in time for the Clay City fair.

Project 3: Photography

This project Jay also finished after he got back from my parents', so although quite as last minute as his story, it was still kind of last minute.

Results: Clay County Fair--Blue ribbon (didn't show in the Clay City fair.)

Joy

Project 1: Consumer Clothing

In this project, Joy had to do a notebook and purchase an outfit to model. I didn't take a picture of her notebook, but I did get a picture of her at the Fashion Review, which was judged separately.

Results: Clay City fair--Blue Ribbon, Clay County fair--Blue Ribbon/Honor Group, Fashion Review--Blue Ribbon. (According to the score card, the reason she didn't get in the Honor Group for Fashion Review was because she was chewing gum during the judging. Oops.)

Project 2: Foods

Joy made a loaf of whole-wheat bread for this project. Of course, they only exhibit a slice, so the picture didn't do it justice.

Results: Clay County fair--Blue Ribbon. (She didn't show at the Clay City fair because we turned our projects in a week early to go on vacation. We didn't figure week-old bread would do that great.)

Sarah



Project 1: Cake Decorating

Sarah really had no plan for this cake at all--she just kind of made it up as she went along the night before we had to turn it in. When we went up to my parents' house on Memorial Day my sister Valerie taught her some hints since I don't decorate cakes. I think it turned out really pretty, though, especially for being her first cake.



Results: Clay City fair--Grand Champion, Clay County fair, Red Ribbon. (It was kind of strange going from Grand Champion to red ribbon on the same cake, but it was starting to look a little old by the time it got to the county fair. Plus, different judges see things differently.)

Project 2: Photography

Sarah took a long time working on this project and I thought she did a very nice job.

Results: Clay City fair--Red Ribbon, Clay County fair--Blue Ribbon. (Again, different judges. The only improvement she made from one to the other is putting the exhibit tag on the inside of the plastic instead of on the outside. Maybe that made the difference.)

Abby

Project 1: Fine Arts

Abby painted an acrylic painting of three puppies in a basket.

Results: Clay City fair--Blue Ribbon. Clay County fair--Champion. The only thing she did differently was put it in a different frame. The judge at the first fair said the frame was too ornate, so we put it in a simpler frame. It won't be at the State Fair, though, because only Grand/Reserve Grand Champions go to State in the Arts & Crafts projects.

Project 2--Cupcake Decorating

This was a county project only (no State Fair exhibit) but it was very popular. She did this at the last minute--the day before judging. She had a lot of ideas but finally ended up going with her first idea.

Results: Clay County fair--Blue Ribbon/Honor Group. (She didn't show at the city fair for the same reason Joy didn't show her bread there.)

Project 3: Sewing

Abby sewed this adorable sundress. This was the first time she'd sewed anything harder than a coaster, so it was a real challenge for her. This dress wasn't easy, either--it took her a long time and a lot of tearing out seams and redoing them. She also entered Fashion Review, which is judged separately.

Results: Clay City fair--Red Ribbon, Clay County fair--Blue Ribbon/Honor Group, Fashion Review--Blue Ribbon/Honor Group. (The reason she got a Red Ribbon at the city fair is because we forgot to pin her skills card to her dress.)

Rachel

Project 1: Scrapbooking

Rachel worked really hard on this and had some really interesting layouts. Since I only took a picture of the cover at the fair it doesn't do it justice. One of her layouts had a pressed lily pad from Lake Shakamak. I also loved her layout from our camping trip.

Results: Clay County fair--Red Ribbon. (She didn't show at the Clay City fair because she wanted to wait until after we went to Michigan to do her last layout. The judge at the county fair was very tough and gave out a lot of reds and even white ribbons. No other judge at the fair gave out a single white ribbon, and this judge gave out three. So I think her project was judged unfairly and that any other judge would have given her a blue. She knocked her down because she said Rachel's handwriting wasn't neat enough. She's nine, for heaven's sake! I only hope they don't ask that judge back.

Project 2: Fine Arts

Rachel painted this picture of a mountain scene. This was her first attempt at acrylic painting.

Results: Clay City fair--Blue Ribbon. Clay County fair--Blue ribbon. (Rachel was in the same division as Abby with her puppy picture. She wasn't suprised that Abby did better than she did.)

Project 3: Cake Decorating

Rachel did a cake suprisingly similar to one that her Aunt Valerie did for her beginning year in Cake Decorating.

Results: Clay City fair--Blue Ribbon/Honor Group, Clay County fair--Blue Ribbon. (Note that this judge didn't make a big deal about her handwriting like the Scrapbooking judge did!)

Timothy

Project 1: Mini Bicycle

In this Mini 4-H project, he had to take some pictures of his bike and write a story about it for his poster. He wrote about how he put stickers on his bike and how the neighbor calls him "Sticker Man."

Results: In Mini 4-H, all of the projects get a blue ribbon.

Project 2: Mini Collections

He had to take three pictures of items in his collection and put them on a poster. His was of his Lego Figurines.

Results: Another blue, of course!

I'm very proud of all of my kids and all the hard work they put into their projects. We have one more fair this year--the State Fair--and we'll go up and see how Jay did on his Bible.

I have another thing I want to blog about, but it's going to have to wait until later. It look long enough doing this post!

Our family mini-vacation

There are three reasons I'm blogging this morning: (1) I accidentally left the book I've been reading in my locker at work; (2) I don't have to be anywhere until noon and (3) It's more fun than cleaning my room.

I'm also blogging because I've been meaning to get around to telling you about our family mini-vacation over the 4th of July. Yeah, that was the week where it was horribly hot and everyone was comparing it to the Dust Bowl era because of all the days the temperature hit 100 degrees or higher. That's the week we picked to go camping. And by camping, I mean real camping in tents--not that cheating kind of camping where people sleep in air-conditioned trailers. When we camp, we do it right.

We started by picking up Jay from my mom and dad's house where he's been the last month learning how to rebind books in leather at their family business, and then headed up north to Lake Michigan where we hoped the weather would be cooler. It wasn't. We spent most of the first day at Warren Dunes State Park, swimming in Lake Michigan. The water was perfect but the sand was HOT! We climbed the dunes, although a certain teenage child of ours who shall remain unnamed was mad at me the whole time because I wouldn't let her climb it in socks and made her put her shoes on. I'm a mean mother, I know. At the top, the kids buried their little brother in the sand and we had a difficult time unearthing him.

My favorite spot at the beach was just lying right at the edge so the waves could wash over me and keep me cool while I watched the kids building sandcastles and playing in the water. It was so beautiful and bright on the beach, but we had quite a bit of drive left to get to Holland in time to set up camp, so we finally trekked back across the sand (hot! hot! hot! hot!) and drove to our campsite at Drew's Country Camping. We didn't even bother changing out of our swimsuits. I just threw on a sundress over my bathing suit.

Normally when we camp, we go to a state park, but I hadn't made reservations in time to get a spot. I thought a week early was enough, but they were all full. So I found Drew's Country camping, which is a privately owned place. It only had a couple of reviews online, and they both gave it two out of five stars, but we were just happy to have a place. I really don't know why it was reviewed so poorly--we thought it was just fine. The spots were nice and shady, even though the grass was a bit crunchy. I don't think that was Drew's fault, though. There was a nice-sized swimming pool, and the owner cleaned it every morning. The bathrooms were clean, too--or at least they were until I changed into clothes and approximately 200 lbs. of sand fell out of my bathing suit onto the floor.

While we were in Holland, we visited Windmill Island. They have a real Dutch windmill that was disassembled and brought here from the Netherlands called De Zwaan, which means "The Swan." It's on a little island in the middle of a park, and they have lots of cute Dutch shops and other attractions in the park. We took a tour of the windmill and watched some Dutch dancers, although they had girls playing the boys parts. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to see some boy Dutch dancers, too. They did a nice job, though.

The rest of our trip was pretty much spent trying to stay cool. At one point we went to Menards just to loiter in their air conditioning. We went back to the patio display and sat in the chairs for awhile, hoping no one would ask us to leave. We also went to a park that was having a big 4th of July celebration and Jay and Abby entered a pie eating contest. It was too hot to stay long, though, so we went back to the camp so the kids could get back in the pool. Later on we returned for fireworks, but it was still hot even after dark. The lowest it got even at night was about 75 degrees, so it took awhile to get comfortable enough to fall asleep.

The trip home was downright miserable. As hot as it was in Michigan, it was even hotter in Indiana, and our van doesn't have air conditioning. Our clothes were wet with sweat and we smelled so bad by the time we got home that we had to have showers before going to bed, even though we had showered at the campsite that morning.

Still, we had fun. Going camping forces us to spend time together talking as a family. The kids can't go to their rooms or get on their iPods, and so they have nothing left to do but talk to us. We might not have had the best of weather for camping, but we have such a great family that just being together made it a good time.

Kicked out of Dollar General for doing a 4-H project???

I don't get upset often, but I think I still have steam rolling out of my ears. I just came back from a little excursion to Linton with my 14-year old daughter to help her do some of her activities for her 4-H Consumer Clothing project. She's learning how to become a smart shopper and take care of her wardrobe. The project manual is chock full of activities such as comparing labels on laundry detergent, checking clothing for quality, and making a chart that shows the cost-per-wear on purchased items.

The main project she was working on today was learning to compare prices. She had to choose a product that came in at least three different sizes, and record the amount of the product and the price in a notebook. She was to do this in three different stores. We started at Walmart, moved on to CVS, and ended up at Dollar General. She decided to pick Listerine Cool Mint Mouthwash and also a variety of Colgate toothpaste so we'd have a backup in case one of the stores didn't have enough different sizes.

We didn't have any trouble at Walmart. I even took pictures of her balancing all of the different sizes of Listerine in her arms. We didn't have any trouble at CVS, either. But just as we were finishing up at Dollar General, an employee approached us to ask us what we were doing.

I explained to her that we were doing comparison shopping for a 4-H project. She told me that we couldn't do that there. Again I explained what we were doing. I figured maybe she had misunderstood and thought I was out scoping out prices on behalf of the competition. Surely a reasonable person would not kick a 4-Her out a store for completing an educational activity!  But I was wrong--the woman informed me in no uncertain terms that she couldn't allow it. I will admit I took a quick look at the prices on the toothpaste ($3.50 for a double pack, $2 for the next one down, $1 for the smallest one) and told my daughter to write them down as soon as we turned around the corner of the aisle. We didn't have time to get the ounces, but they seem to be the same size as the other ones we wrote down at Walmart and CVS.

So she'll get her project done. Even though that woman made my daughter feel like she was doing something bad by writing down prices in the store, she'll be able to do her activity. On the way home I bought her an ice cream cone to make her feel better. No child deserves to be made to feel like a criminal for doing a 4-H project.

I did call and complain when I got home, so hopefully Dollar General will educate their employees a little better. 4-H is an amazing summer program and it does so much for kids. I hope they will make an effort to support it instead of discourage it.

An unforgettable anniversary

This Tuesday my husband and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary--and it was one we'll never forget. We had taken the kids up to my parent's house up north of Lafayette and then hopped on the motorcycle and driven to Kokomo to a bed-and-breakfast called "The Bavarian Inn." It's a beautiful old house tucked away behind the trees at the edge of town. At one end are the rooms--each with massive four-poster beds, idyllic paintings of Germany, and a private bath with a jacuzzi. We chose the Castle room, named for the pictures of German castles hanging on the wall. At the other end of the house was a glass solarium, with the kitchen, dining room, and living room all in between.

The evening was uneventful, but during the night, some nasty storms rolled in. At about 4:30 in the morning, Roswitha, the 75-year old owner, got up to go close the windows in the solarium and slipped in a puddle of water on the tile floor, breaking her ankle. The broken bone tore through the skin and she left a large pool of blood on the floor where she fell. She stayed there until the bleeding had stopped, and then pulled herself to the door of the solarium. She was intending on getting to the kitchen, but began bleeding again. Finally, at about 7:00 a.m, she started calling for help.

My husband was awake, but he is hard of hearing. Even with hearing aids in both ears, he has a difficult time. He had come into the living room and thought he'd heard a cat meowing, but didn't think anything of it. He went back into the bedroom to read. The light disturbed me, because I was still sleeping, so I groggily asked him to find somewhere else to read. He went to the kitchen to get some coffee and was surprised that there wasn't any made. He also noticed that breakfast hadn't been started. Breakfast was supposed to be served at 8:00, and it was coming up soon. Again, he returned to the living room and thought he heard a cat. This time he went to check it out. When he opened the door to the solarium, there was Roswitha, sitting in a pool of blood.

Immediately he called 911. Then he called me, telling me what had happened and that he needed my help. By the time I had pulled on my shoes and socks the ambulances were already pulling in the drive. I let them in and directed them to the solarium.

Roswitha was so apologetic because she didn't get to make us breakfast. She offered to buy us gift certificates to Golden Corral to make up for it, but we told her not to worry about us. When the paramedics asked her if she was in much pain, she said it didn't hurt at all unless she moved her leg. I couldn't believe how tough she was. Her biggest worry was that we wouldn't get breakfast, even though we insisted that she not worry about it.

When the paramedics were ready to lift her onto the gurney, she asked them, in her heavy German accent, "Do you need me to move?"

"No, you sit still," they replied. "We're going to lift you."

"You're going to lift me? I weigh 500 pounds!" Of course, she didn't weigh anywhere near 500 pounds. She was also concerned that they would get their blankets bloody. The paramedics just told her that they didn't care-they didn't do laundry.

After she was gone, we waited until her part-time help came in before we left. We did find some food in the kitchen to eat for breakfast--banana bread she had made, some sliced ham she was intending to fry, and some orange juice. It seemed odd being the only ones there.

When the other workers came in about half an hour later, they were really shaken by the amount of blood on the floor. Roswitha had been wearing a necklace that had a button to push if she needed help, but for some reason it hadn't worked when she pushed it. They weren't scheduled to work until the next day, but Roswitha had asked us to call them. She didn't have any guests scheduled that night, either, so it's possible that she might not have been discovered until the next day.

While it wasn't quite the beginning to our trip that we had planned, I am so glad that God placed us in the right place at the right time. We had looked at a different place to stay first, but decided to splurge and get the one with the jacuzzi. It's neat how God uses even little things like a desire to have a room with a jacuzzi to put us where He wants us.

I know we'll be back. I hope Roswitha is able to figure out why her necklace wasn't working, and maybe she can find someone to stay with her full time to help her run things. This bed-and-breakfast was her dream, and she's been operating it for 21 years. It would be a shame for her to give it up. I just hope she's able to find a way to keep it open and take care of herself at the same time.

This is a picture of the solarium where Roswitha fell. The house was too long to take a picture of the whole thing.

This is the other side of the house, where our rooms were. Ours was at the very end--as far away from the solarium as possible.

I included this pictures so you could see the middle section of the house to get an idea of the length of this place. The middle is where the living room, dining room, and kitchen are.

Yard sale

We've been having a yard sale this weekend. It's been really hot today, so I'm inside now, keeping an eye out the window for customers. I haven't had a yard sale in years--the last time I had one I made a whopping $17. But we live in a really good spot for a yard sale now instead of in the boonies like we used to, and plus I actually had a decent amount of good stuff to sell. It's taken quite awhile to build up this amount of good stuff, because I am not a packrat. I tend to throw or give away things when I no longer need them. I hate clutter and I hate picking it up off the floor, so whenever I can get a bag full of broken toys and lost puzzle pieces together and leave it for the trash man, it gives me great joy to know that I will never have to pick up those items off the floor again, ever.

Part of the reason we had so much to sell this time is because of Erick's elbow surgery. There are tools that he has that he can no longer use without hurting his elbow. He's never going to go back to construction now--he can't. So there's no point in having all of the tools he has. I've also decided that canning produce is probably not in my future. I've gravitated towards tiny gardens that give me some fresh produce but not enough to put up. My canning jars and Squeezo, my water bath canner, even my cherry pitter are no longer anything I plan on using.

Yesterday I sold most of what we had in the first couple of hours. We did great business. We sold the old laptap that the battery went bad in, all of the canning supplies, Erick's roof jacks, some leftover retaining bricks from building our flower beds, the entire table of books, and more. We made close to $400 yesterday.

Today I've sold much less. I think I've made $4.75 so far. There just isn't that much stuff left. All of the good stuff is gone and we're down to the boring things--some little glass items, shoes, clothes, stuffed animals, etc. Most people stop, look around, and leave.

I take that back. I just sold Erick's chainsaw finally, for $130 dollars. Erick originally was asking $200 for it, and today we lowered the price to $150. I had about five people offer me $100, but he said no. I had a guy offer me $125, and so I texted Erick at work to ask him, and he said he wouldn't go any lower than $130. So it's sold, finally. Now I can probably close up shop and be done with it, because there is nothing else out there interesting. All morning it's been more like show and tell instead of a yard sale, with the stream of men coming over to play with Erick's chain saw. They'd look at it, ask if had gas in it, fire it up and make it go "Vrrrroom! Vrrrrooom!" and then they'd offer me $100 for it. Yesterday a guy thought the tag said $20 and offered me $15. <roll eyes>

We made a really good profit overall, enough to do all of the things I was wanting to do with the profit--buy socks for the kids, buy the items they needed for 4-H, and buy school supplies for the fall.

Locked out at the zoo

I would have thought it was a lot funnier if it had happened to someone else. I'm sure our family looked hilarious, gathered outside our green 12-passenger van in the parking lot at the Indianapolis Zoo, trying to find a way to break into it. I had made my oldest son take off his belt and was dangling it through the driver's side window which was opened just an inch. My girls stood opposite me, peering through the passenger window, pointing first right, then left again, as I tried to no avail to loop the buckle around the lock and pull it up. Meanwhile, my husband and son were using their pocketknives and utility tools to try to pry open a window.

Somehow everyone seemed to think it was my fault that the keys were locked inside the van. It was true that I was the one who had them last. After spending the last few hours peering at sleeping tigers, muddy rhinos, and baboons with bare bottoms, we had returned to the van to eat the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I had packed. All except for my husband, who had gone in search of a fork. He's been on the Atkins diet for over a year now, and PBJs are not exactly low-carb. He'd packed himself a scrumptious-looking salad that made our sandwiches look pitiful in comparison. Unfortunately, though, he had forgotten to pack a fork. I had brillantly suggested that he go to the zoo cafe and find one, and so he had given me his keys, since I had locked my purse in the van so I wouldn't have to carry it. (Bright, eh?)

When we had arrived in the van, I tossed the keys into the cupholder, and then never thought another thing about them. We feasted on PBJs, Kool-Aid Jammers, and granola bars, and then locked everything up tight to keep my purse safe. It wasn't until we returned from strolling through the White River Gardens that Erick asked me, "So, where are my keys?"

I've locked myself out of a car before. Once I'd locked my keys in the car while it was running. My son actually managed to find a spare set I didn't even know existed. Another time I was grocery shopping and had to call my husband to come rescue me. But this time there wasn't anyone to call to bring us a spare set. I know there are companies that we could call to come pop our lock for us, but we're on a budget, for heaven's sakes. We had to find a way to do this cheaply.

We did actually break into our van eventually. I would tell you how, but I don't want to give anyone any ideas. Okay, actually, I'm not entirely sure how he did it. My husband pried some sort of doohicky off that allowed him to open the window and stick his arm in and open the door from the inside. In the process, he managed to cut his hand with a pocketknife.

I did feel a little bad for being the one who left the keys in the van, but really--it wasn't ALL my fault. If Erick had remembered to pack a fork...or had thought about asking for his keys before we locked up the van., none of this would have ever happened.

Rachel and the Kings of the Bible

Rachel's 3rd grade reader from Rod and Staff' is based on the Bible. It started out with stories about King David and King Solomon, but we are starting to get into some of the lesser known stories of subsequent kings after Israel was split into two kingdoms. For a nine-year-old, it's some pretty heavy stuff, full of wicked kings who worshiped idols and practiced all sorts of evil. It's interesting to listen to her commentary as she reads through her lesson.

Today she was reading about one of the few good kings during that time period: Judah's good King Asa who trusted in the Lord and whose heart was perfect for almost his entire reign. Towards the end, however, he called on the Syrians to help him when Israel attacked. The Lord was displeased and sent a prophet to tell him that he had done foolishly and as a result would have wars from then on.

"I think that if a prophet gave me a message that I didn't like," commented Rachel, "that I would just tell him, 'Geez, you could have at least said it nicelier.'"

She continued reading. "'Asa did not like this message of the prophet.' She paused and gave me a 'told-you-so' look. "See? He should have said something like, 'Hey, if you listen to me and don't get mad, I'll give you a free camel or a nice wife or something.'"

"'He was so angry with him that he put him into prison.'" Rachel stopped. "Mom?" she said."What was the name of that one king with the shriveled up hand?"

"Jeroboam?" I replied.

"Yeah. At least when the prophet told him news he didn't like, he just said, 'Get out of here.' He didn't throw him into prison!"

She continued. "'The Lord caused Asa to get a very serious disease in his feet.' Have you ever gotten a serious disease in your feet, Mom?"

"No, I never have."

'"Instead of going to the Lord for help, Asa went to doctors.' Wait--they had doctors back then?"

"Yes, they had doctors."

"Oh, let me guess. They were probably the kind of doctors that didn't do any good and just used a lot of spices, right?"

"Well, they had some treatments that worked, but they didn't have all the things they do nowadays. But still, only God can truly heal. Doctors can help, too, but we should always remember to pray and ask God to heal us," I explained.

"The doctors can do things like cut bad parts out of our bodies that don't work right, but God has to heal our skin back together. So it's kind of like God and the doctors work together," Rachel added.

"Exactly!"

Rachel returned to her story. "'But the doctors could not cure his disease. Two years after Asa got the disease, he died. He had been king for nearly forty-one years.' Is that as long as David was king?"

"Well, I think David was king for forty years, actually. So they were king for just about the same amount of time."

"How come there's a whole lot of chapters about David and only one about Asa, then?"

"I don't know--I guess they thought David was more important. Keep going."

"'He was buried in the grave that he had made for himself in the city of David.' That's kind of selfish, making a grave for yourself. He should have made a grave for his father and someone else should have made his grave."

"Like who?"

"Like his wife or his kids." Rachel tried to read the next name. "'Je..Je...'"

"Jehoshaphat."

"'Jehoshaphat his son reigned as king in his place.' Who would name their kid Jehoshaphat! What a stupid name."

And it went on like this, all the way to the end of the chapter. The next chapter is about Ahab and Jezebel. That ought to be interesting. By the time she's finished 3rd grade, I think she'll have a better grasp on Bible history than most Jeopardy contestants I've seen.

Easter service humor

I'll be honest--I'm not a morning person. But yesterday was Easter, and our family always attends the Sunrise Service. In Clay City, where my husband pastors, many of the churches get together each year for a community Sunrise Service. It's always a beautiful event and well-attended.

Since we live in Jasonville, we have a twenty minute drive to Clay City. We intended on leaving at 6:30 to arrive a few minutes before 7:00. I figured my husband, the early riser of the family, would wake us all up in time to get ready. He did not. I actually woke up on my own at about ten after six. None of the kids were up. We had to leave in twenty minutes, and I barely had time to throw on some clothes and brush my teeth.

Erick and I scurried around, placing the gift bags of chocolate and other goodies on the table in the kids' places, as we do every year. Then we woke them up so they could see their gifts, and told them to hurry up and get dressed because by that time we had to leave in about five minutes.

We actually did make it to church on time. It was at the Methodist church this year, and they had just started playing the organ as we walked in. Of course, with our size of family, we needed a whole pew to ourselves, and there weren't many empty pews. I found one up near the front that was still empty. For some reason, the front seats in church seem to be reserved for those who are late. So our bedraggled kids who had just crawled out of bed trailed after us into the pew, looking like bunch of orphans. Some of them hadn't even combed their hair.

It was a beautiful service. Each pastor in the community played a part. My husband's part was the prayer. We were all standing at that point in the service, having just finished singing a hymn. The floor in the sanctuary was sloped, and I was wearing high heels. I was also starting to feel a little bit woozy. I had eaten nothing but two marshmallow peeps that morning, and my sugar high was wearing off. As my husband went forward to pray, I decided I had better sit down.

When I sat, so did the rest of my kids. When our whole pew sat, so did the people behind us. Within seconds, the entire church had followed our lead and sat down with a great swoosh. It was kind of funny, actually, because everyone was looking at each other like, "Are we supposed to sit?" In the end, those who seemed to think that it was proper to remain standing for the prayer succumbed to the pressure to do what everyone else was doing. And to think I started it all.

Despite this somewhat humourous beginning to our Easter, we had a wonderful day, probably one of the best we've had. God is so good to us and we just spent the day enjoying Him and thanking Him for His gifts to us. I hope you all had a blessed Easter as well.

Catching up

I have been so stinking busy the last few weeks. I have one professor this time around that I am finding to be pretty difficult. She's a tough grader and has a lot of complicated assignments. Thankfully, she allows resubmissions, but I have a difficult time understanding what she wants. With mid-terms, it's been especially challenging trying to accomplish everything.

Jay's 15th birthday was the first of this month, so we took him and the kids and six of his friends to McCormick's Creek to go hiking. One of the girls wore flip flops, too, which somehow escaped our notice until we were halfway down the trail that follows the creek. It was still a bit chilly out, and her poor little toes were so red by the time we finished. We cooked out for the first time this year, but went back home for cake and ice cream because we were all wet and cold. Only one boy didn't get completely soaked.

Then last week was the Minister's Wives Retreat in Indy, and I couldn't miss that. I worked really hard to get caught up on my school so I wouldn't have to do school while I was gone. I drove up with a group of ladies from another church. I was supposed to meet them at 9:00 a.m. but I was 22 minutes late because I had left my phone at work the night before and had to drive out of my way to Walmart to pick up my phone that morning.

Then this week we the Penners come down to visit again, and we took them up to Turkey Run. Thankfully this week is Spring Break, so I can finally rest a bit and work on catching up on my blogs and the housecleaning and everything else I need to do. I'm also going to work a little on my schoolwork this week since I'm supposed to write a fiction story for my creative writing class. I think I know what it's going to be about, but there are a lot of details I haven't figured out yet.

In other news, my sister Susie is engaged! She just announced that officially yesterday. It's crazy how fast everyone around us is growing up. I don't think they have a date set yet, but I'm sure they will soon. 

How I bought my first car

I bought my first car today. Erick has owned oodles of cars. I've posted the list before and it's still out of date, but this one is mine. I did have my name put on a title once just because I'd never had my name on one before, but it was a pain because I had to go to the license branch and stuff so I signed it back over to him.

After we bought that humongous 12-passenger van a few months ago, we decided to get rid of our two mini vans and get a motorcycle for him and a car for me. That way we would have a family vehicle and both of us would have something we could take to work and save money on gas. We've been shopping around lately--or rather, he has. His style of shopping is to spend months looking at Craigslist and Ebay and picking up the Indiana Auto & RV and look everything up on epinions and read reviews and the lists of how much gas mileage everything gets. Then he finally buys something. My style, on the other hand, is to say, "Oh, look--there's a car. Let's get that one."

So last night we were going to go look at a car he saw on Craigslist that was in Bloomington. We went there for a belated Valentine's Day date, actually, and went to Red Lobster. We were too hungry to stop on the way there and couldn't find it on the way back, and besides, everything was closed. So we decided to wait until another day to car shop.

Today we were going to go to Terre Haute to Cross Tabernacle for another one of their outpouring services. Three of our kids went to spend the night at friend's houses because the services are very long. The other three came with us. I stopped by the bank to get Erick and we went up there and pulled into the church parking lot--and it was empty. Erick suddenly remembered that it was going to be at the International House of Prayer that night. He thought he knew where it was, but when he got there the building was empty. So they must have moved.

Since we were in town, I suggested that maybe we could stop at a car lot and look at some cars. I hate to waste a trip to Terre Haute. So we drove to Vigo Dodge and looked at a car. It was pretty, but the salesman printed out how much gas mileage it got and it wasn't any better than the van. That kind of would defeat the purpose of getting a car. So we decided to keep looking. On our way back, as we were driving back down the same street we were just on, Erick said, "Hey, there's a car" and pulled over. It was a '94 green Ford Escort wagon. We looked at it and it seemed nice, so I pulled out my cell phone and called the number on the window.

The man who answered it seemed surprised when I asked him if he was the one selling the Ford Escort. He said he had just parked it there and was walking home. He was only about two blocks away, so he turned around and came back. I test drove it and really liked it. Erick still had the cash on him from yesterday, and the man still had the title in his pocket. We paid him $1600 for it and took it home tonight.

So now I have a car! Erick says that I have to do all of the insurance and title and registration stuff, though. I guess that it's probably good to learn how to do those things--I've never had to mess with it before. But I'm just so happy that I have my own little car!

So far this is the best picture I have. Jay took some while we were looking at it. They are dark, since it was dark outside, but I'll try to get better pictures once the sun comes up.

Edited to add: Here is my car in the light. Jay took a picture of it this morning. I guess it's more of a turquoise than a green.

A few pictures of the sock hop

Bruce Borders (aka Elvis) sings for the youth.

Senator John Waterman came, too.

Some of the kids pose for a photo.

The video is really dark, but you can kind of see it.