A Cool Summer Friday

1. The weather has been cool and lovely for most of the week (except Wednesday, when it rained all day) which has been great in all ways except for swimming. Alex tried to swim yesterday and just couldn't stand the cold, poor thing.

2. Wednesday night I was able to get a sitter and meet Marshall at church for a leadership meeting and then we went out for a beer to celebrate his birthday. We are also going out tomorrow night for dinner and a movie (The A-Team!). Since his birthday, Father's Day and our anniversary are all within 2 weeks of each other and I'm feeling celebratory, I've organized these multiple events. I also haven't had much time to talk to him of late since he's been working on the car every available moment, so I'm enjoying the time just with him and no other distractions.

3. The car is still unfinished although Marshall does get closer to the finish line every day. Say a prayer for us all.

4. The church yard sale is tomorrow so I've been gathering toys and other stuff I want to get rid of and packed them into the back of my car. Marshall will take them to church tonight and see if he can find us a new easy chair for the living room. Our kids have pulled out about half of the stuffing of our current chair and I expect the springs to go any day now.

5. Alex, collector of animals--alive and dead--found a dead juvenile rabbit last night in the backyard. I have been doing sweeps of the yard when we go outside to play ever since the bird incidents but apparently, I missed this one. I did find a dead mole earlier in the week. Ugh.

6. My cross stitch is really coming along. While stitching in the last week, I've watched all of last season's episodes of The Closer and am now working on a marathon of all 4 series of Lewis. Here is an updated photo and here's a reminder of what it will look like when finished:



7. Our Internet service is finally fixed. Bless my husband who spent hours hassling Verizon last week to get it fixed.

Bonus 8. Our regular schedule of Youth Group meetings finished last Sunday night with a picnic in the park. In order to keep in touch with all the students I've spent the last 9 months building relationships with, I've started a summer postcard campaign. Which means every morning I sit down and write postcards to 2 of our young ladies (3 on Fridays and Saturdays to make up for no mail on Sunday). My plan is to send cards to all of them the week I'm in California, which may mean I spend most of my plane ride home writing since there are 35 students on my list, but I'm enjoying myself. Of course, my style is very much stream-of-consciousness so I might write about anything from Alex's latest adventure to how much laundry I did today. Still, it seems a worthwhile endeavor.

And here's Jen.