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.