My Five Favorite Things About Summer

Erica, a fun bloggy friend, over at Scottsville, played a little game of "tag" where she had to tell her five favorite things about SUMMER! Since she tagged me personally I just had to play along! Here we go!

I love blue sky! We don't have a lot of blue sky around here in the fall and winter. Blue skies make me feel happy.

I love small town parades in the summer. Winter ones are just too cold or wet.

I love BBQ's! Especially BBQ'd chicken. I love all the stuff that goes with it too.

I love Independence Day because I love America all year long and enjoy celebrating my love for my country.

I love doing things with friends and family because days are longer and we seem to have more free time.




















There are so many more things I love about summer. I couldn't get a picture of tonight's, but the sunsets of summer are awesome.

Now, I'm going to tag some of my blogger friends in this little game of tag! Nan, Mary Leigh, Mich, Beth, Christine, Heather, Lauren, and Laura... You're up! What do YOU love about Summer?

Mom Is Doing Fine

Thank you all for your prayers. My mom came through her surgery fine, but she had to stay in the hospital today too. She has some hoops to jump through first. She is concerned that they will send her to a care facility for her therapies.

I told her to work hard and prove herself today and she'll do fine. If she goes to a care center, I told her to remember it would only be for a short time.

She's not as young as she was with the first back surgery. She thought she'd go home the same day again. Things take their toll a little differently now and she needs more time to recover.

I appreciate and covet your continued prayers.

Thanks

Please Pray For My Mom

My mom had back surgery today. She was still recovering and very out of it today so I'll be going to see her tomorrow.

I have two posts ready and I hope I have set them up right so they'll come up on their own.

I'll be back as soon as I'm home and not too tired.
Thanks

Crazy Things That Happened As A Kid

Some weird things happen to us as kids. I'm sure you'll all have some to share. Feel free to share them as comments. I'll post them which will make this post more interesting.

I remember having Whooping Cough as we drove all the way to Ohio to visit relatives. I hacked and gasped and, you know the rest, for several days (or it seemed). My parents thought I was either car sick or being a brat and trying to get attention. Don't know why they would think that of me. Sweet little ole me! I was known to be a "cry baby" as a little kid

I do remember Yellowstone Park and losing my lunch in one of those beautiful, hot, blue pools. Ah, the memories. I'd like to go back to Yellowstone some day and actually enjoy it.

Somewhere on the way we went to a doctor and I got a shot in the gluteous maximus which helped me feel better right away.

BTW a note on Whooping Cough (I think it's called Pertussis): our pharmacy has a brochure advising adults to get a booster now because it is on the up-rise and it is so bad for babies to get pertussis. Check with your doctor to see if you should get a booster.

I also remember having Mumps on one side only. That looked hilarious. It was uncomfortable, but funny looking. I remember looking in the mirror a lot to see what it looked like.

The next thing was scraping my knee up pretty badly. I think I was like seven and my friend and I thought it would be fun to have her sit up on my shoulders.

She was smaller than I, but it still wasn't a good idea we discovered after I tripped, she tumbled down the driveway and I drove my right knee into the pavement.

I still don't know how she only got a little scrape on her cheek and no other injuries. I would have thought she would have had a broken wrist or arm or something.

I got five stitches. I don't think the Dr was very good at stitching knees because I have a thick white scar there. It's not so bad now, but at first it was really thick.

Next thing I did was cut my lower lip open. I was playing tag in slippery shoes in the school basement and I slid into a "safe" place which was the bench attached to the wall. I slipped before I got there and hit my head and bit my lip. Sheesh!

This time I got ten stitches. I had a fat lip for quite a while, but only I notice now. I am about nine in this picture. I can see that my lower lip is fat on one side. Don't know if anyone else can see it.

This one happened in junior high. Remember when there were paper boys/girls? There used to be paper boxes and the papers were delivered there bundled with a wire loop. The paper kids would come and pick up their papers, removing the wire loop so they could fold their papers before they went out on their route.

Well, one morning I was walking to school with a friend and I stepped in one of those loops and my other foot caught the loop too and down I went. I ripped my jeans, scraped my knee and bruised my hip area.
I was late to school and falling down was not an excusable event so I had a tardy on my record. That was devastating to me. TARDY! I was not happy.

The summer after ninth grade I was chasing my brother who had just aggravated me in front of my boyfriend. He ran across two yards (no fences then) and got away when I tripped on the neighbors dog chain.

I got some nice cuts across the top of my foot from that chain. How humiliating! I had to walk back to my yard to my boyfriend and act like I was fine. I wanted to cry it hurt so bad and the humiliation...my brother had won AGAIN!!

In high school one summer I was riding bikes with my boyfriend on a new trail by the bay. We were cruising along talking and laughing. I looked over at him and as I turned my head back I hit a pole.

Somehow I got my right arm up in front of my face in time and next thing I knew I was sitting on the ground facing the pole I had just hit. I guess I didn't flip because I don't think I would have landed facing the pole. I must have just left my bike in mid air turning to the side and landing on my bum.

I just had a sore arm. I was amazed and wondering why there was a pole in the middle of the bike path. Still wondering.

Same day within ten minutes as I crossed the railroad tracks I fell. I couldn't believe it. This time I cut my knee pretty bad, but didn't go for stitches.

I won't mention getting hit in the eye and later the throat with a softball. Maybe I wasn't meant to do any activities that required skill.

I think I'll leave it at that before I bore you to tears. I'll just say, God knew what I could handle, which wasn't much (I'm rather a wimp) and He kept me alive through other events in my life because He had a job or two for me to do.

Here I am to say I'm doing my best to serve Him because He went through unimaginable pain and agony so I could be forgiven just for the asking and be able to sit here today and write these funny stories.

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is my first attempt at Not Me Monday. It was fun. I just remembered this event in my life a couple days ago and remembered Not Me and thought I'd try to write it that way. Hope you understand and enjoy my first attempt. I did.

When I was 23 years old, I did not drive across the United States in a Ford pick-up truck with no AC. I did not bring an un-neutered cat and a 9 month old female dog that had Parvo with me. The dog did not refuse to eat and did not throw up for most of the trip.

The cat did not spray inside the cab of the truck right before I went into the real estate office to sign papers for the sale of our townhouse.

I did not bring my SIL who couldn't drive a stick shift and my BIL to help me drive. We did not camp in the canopy together with the cat and the dog every night until we got home.

I did not go almost blind from driving for ten hours a day with cheap
sun glasses on. My eyes did not burn so bad that I couldn't do much of
anything, but apply ice and wait for my eyes to get better.

I did not climb in the back and let my SIL, instructed by my BIL drive the truck until we found a place to camp.

The cat did not get loose in one of the campgrounds and climb 25 feet up a fur tree and have us chasing him all over and calling him to "Please, please, come down" for an hour.

We did not go inner tubing on a river in Montana on the way home and see a snake swim across the river just ahead of us.

I did not try to pass a WA State Patrol officer at a pretty fast pace in his unmarked pretty blue car when I was only three hours from home. I did not just drive all the way from Virginia Beach, VA at this same average speed without getting stopped by the State Patrol in any state.

I did not posses an OR registration, a VA License plate and a WA driver's license and avoid getting a ticket. I did not say "I'm a military dependent and my husband is out to sea and we just sold our townhouse in VA and I'm trying to get home and I've been driving for five days and I didn't notice that you were a State Patrol."

He did not say, "Well when you're driving a long distance like that, be sure and slow down when you get near the cities."

None of this happened in the scorching temps of July 1981. No, I would never do things like that.

Water Park Day

Last Friday we went to a local water/ amusement park for the day. Again, it was HOT! My friend and her kids have season passes and discounts so they invited us to go with them. What a privilege! We are thankful that our friends invited us.

Our husbands were at work so they didn't get to go. My husband wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway. He sunburns so easy and he doesn't like the heat or crowds at these places.

We arrived early so we could go in as soon as the gates opened. We headed straight for the lounge chairs and saved eleven. My friend invited a friend from her work and he brought four teenage girls with him. Then we got a locker and headed to the places we wanted to go before the lines got too long.

This is my son, JB and my friend's daughter, D. She's 16 and JB is 14. They've been in Awana and at church together for years. They are both kinda shy though so they don't talk much.

This is me and my good friend, DH. I've been involved in Awana with her for several years. We go to church and Bible study together and we walk before we go to Bible study. She's been a great listening ear and motivator for me. She also asks questions that get me thinking and sometimes help me to make decisions. She's smart and funny.

She also is involved in a lot of things. She takes her kids here and there, she has lost about 50 pounds with Weight Watchers, walking, Curves, jogging and HOT YOGA! She runs and walks half marathons, she is an air traffic controller with the worst work schedule you can imagine (can you say sleep deprived?), she helps with Awana, goes to Bible study, keeps an eye on her mom, co-owns a gymnastics center, she keeps up with friends and family and on & on & on. I'm having a heart attack thinking about all she does.

So you see, she invites me to go somewhere and next thing you know I'm doing things I wouldn't normally do, like jump off of platforms into water and slide down huge slides screaming all the way. Ahem, yes I have fun when I'm with DH and family.

This is the wave pool in the morning when we got there about 10:00. We spent most of our day here when we weren't on slides and in other pools.

Here is the wave pool in the afternoon. I've never been to this park when there has been so many people. I've only been there a handful of times, but I'm guessing that this year, with the record high temperatures for weeks on end, they are breaking some attendance records.

JB doesn't like the sun and heat too much either, but he was a good sport about it. He enjoyed the water rides and the amusement park rides.

He had a bad sunburn last summer and he really doesn't want to experience that again so he was being extra cautious. He spent a lot of time doing this as did D. She had a big hat on too.

This is my daughter H and her friend, C. We dropped them off at camp yesterday. Poor H was feeling yucky this day, but she and C went on lot's of rides together.

C is a good friend and is very accommodating. She probably would have rather spent her day in the water, but for H she sacrificed. That's a good friend.

These three are ready to go over to the amusement park and go on some rides. The lines get pretty long as the day progresses.

Four of us went to the Lazy River after lunch. We stood in line for about a half an hour, but we were talking and laughing so it went pretty fast. We stayed in the LR for along time. It was refreshing!

I couldn't take my camera everywhere so I don't have pictures of us carrying the 4 man inner tube up 50 or 60 stairs over our heads and then sliding down the most awesome water slide I've ever been on.

Oh, I think it's the only one I've ever been on. It was so much fun!

Carrying the inner tube was a challenge for me though. I still have pain in muscles I forgot I had. DH seemed to be having no problem with it, but she did say today she was hurting there too.

I don't know if you can tell, but everyone is coming out of the wave pool. The pool is cleared about once an hour. I think they look for things in the water that shouldn't be there. It just looked weird seeing hundreds of people exiting the pool slowly all at once.

This day at the water park was an experience I wouldn't have had if DH hadn't invited us and lead me around doing things I would normally just watch other people do. I am not adventurous and I would never have jumped off a platform if I had seen it first.

DH lead my son and I into a pool and right up some stairs. I thought we were going down another slide. I get up there and see I'm waiting in line to jump into the water.

From where I stood it looked like I was ten feet above the water. I almost chickened out, but I jumped. When I swam away and looked back I could see the platform was only about five feet up. LOL!! It wouldn't have mattered, I wouldn't have done it if I had seen it first.

Some great fun in the sun, I tell ya and I have the sunburn to show for it. I did my best to keep the sunscreen on, but I still got too much sun. I loved it though.

My Baby Girl Goes to Camp

Each year our kids participate in a youth group called Awana. They have an opportunity to have most of their way paid to camp in the summer if they finish a handbook.

So far my kids have finished a handbook a year or one and a half in a year if they didn't finish a handbook the previous year. In other words they are caught up with their studies and have been eligable to go to camp.

My son went once and decided it wasn't for him. My daughter went once and said she didn't want to go again, but changed her mind and went this year.

This year the camp was held further away than in past years. They are at the Cedar Springs facility just over an hour from our home.

There are horses, trails, a pool, a giant swing, putt putt golf, a huge chapel and multipurpose room and much more.

Here is my hubby getting ready to check my daughter and her friend, JM from our ocean trip, in for the camp. It was very HOT again! I felt bad for my daughter. She's feeling under the weather (nothing serious) and she had decided a few days before camp that she didn't want to go. What's a mom to do?

We cannot afford to send her, she earned the scholarship to go and I just couldn't let her chicken out and the church lose that money. It was hard to leave her there, but I know she'll be okay. She had two friends there, two other girls in her cabin that were in her cabin last year and three adult leaders from our church were there.

Here's my son chatting with a boy from our church who was attending the camp. He and his mom took us Letterboxing for the first time this year.

The counselor is checking JM and H (my daughter) in to their cabin. Their counselor has grown up in Awana and is now a high school graduate. She's brilliant at Bible Quizzing. This is how I know her. I've watched her Quiz for several years. A great influence for my H.

After this, H came out and pleaded with me to go home. I felt awful, but I talked to her a bit and she put on her "I'll do this, but I'm hating it" face. We walked around a little and her other friend, C, arrived. This is her friend since the first year of Awana when they were three years old. C laughs at all of H's jokes and helps her cheer up. C is very patient and caring. I'm glad she is in H's cabin. With JM and C, H will be fine. Friends are great.

Here's JM, C and H with C's dad behind them doing what dad's do. H is giving the thumbs up here so hopefully that means she's okay.

Here they are on their bunks. H looks okay, but she was almost tearing up here. She has her drawings with her and plans to spend some of her free time drawing.

Pray for all of the campers and the leadership. They will be at camp for eight days and seven nights. Please pray that these kids and counselors will be blessed and be a blessing to those around them. I pray that the Lord will be speaking to each one there and these kids will clearly hear His word for them.