Summer News

Well, it's been a while again.  Not that I haven't had anything to write about, I've just had a serious case of writer's block.  I was thinking today that summer went by awfully fast, and I didn't do nearly as many things as I'd wanted, but then I thought back over the past few months and it's been much more eventful than I thought.

Vacation to Texas
We drove down to Dallas for almost a week  in June to visit our friends Mike and Jodi (and their two daughters.)  The kids were wonderful on the long drive and we had so much fun with the Parkers.  We took the kids to a waterpark, got some shopping in, and even had a girl's night complete with mani/pedis and Starbuck's.  (If you know me, that last one was a big treat.  I very rarely get a night of pampering and talking away from the kids.)  We spent Saturday driving three hours to a "Creation Museum".  I put that in quotes, because all I did upon arrival was laugh, but Jodi was so ticked she did NOT see the humor.  It basically consisted of folding tables around a single room with pictures of fossils, replicas of the dead sea scrolls, and a guy making an hour long presentation/ slideshow.  (We left 10 minutes into it.)  Oh and the big event of the day: the grand opening of the elevator.  They made a BIG deal of this, which I found even more hilarious.  After we tried to slip out the door inconspicuously, we found out that Mike had been playing atheist to the poor guy manning the fossil folding table (we wondered why they were so deep in discussion.)  Add that to me laughing at everything and Jodi's hacked off expression, and I'm sure they're still holding prayer meetings for us!  Poor Jodi kept trying to tell us what a great website they had, but we still let her know she owes us three hours of our lives back.  From there, we went to visit the historical Dallas stockyards and ate some barbecue, so the day wasn't a total loss.

Fourth of July
We spent the night before the fourth at our friends Paul and Rachel's house in the country eating too much and setting off fireworks.  Weather-wise, it was the coolest Fourth of July I can remember- we all had to put jackets on!  The kids had a great time, even when one rocket went haywire and went off inches over where they were sitting on a blanket with their grandmas and "Aunt" Jessie.  They were all fine, but Glenna talked about that for weeks.  It rained on the actual fourth and the Ottawa fireworks show was postponed a night.  The only real downside to the weekend was that my brother Seth was unable to make it.  He started out driving from Colorado Springs early on the 3rd, only to have to turn back when his car kept overheating.  Since we went to Texas instead of Colorado this year for vacation, we haven't seen as much of him as we'd like. 

Levi's First Birthday
Levi turned one on July 27th.  I really can't believe how this year has flown by and how much he has grown and changed.  I'm not ready for him to stop being my baby!  He is a very good-natured little guy and he adores his big sister.  He started walking around the first of July.  I love watching him wrestle and play with Glenna.  Those are the great parts of having siblings so close in age.  His birthday was quiet, with just us, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles living close by, and cousin Lizzy.  I made his birthday cake- a train with an engine, three cars, and a caboose.  I was really worried about wrecking his cake, as I am NOT a cake decorator, but it turned out fine, and he thoroughly enjoyed demolishing the caboose.

Anniversary Celebrations
Both my parents and Justin's celebrated their 40th wedding anniversaries this month.  They were married exactly one week apart.  My parents were given their gift last year, so the actual anniversary was pretty low key.  My brothers and I went in together and gave them money for an Alaskan cruise they have always wanted to go on, but for one reason or another kept putting off.  Ironically, they are putting it off again, but with good reason.  Demolition starts this week as they prepare to put the addition onto their house that they've always wanted and remodel the entire interior.  For Justin's parents' anniversary, we all went to his aunt's house at Lake of the Ozarks for the weekend.  We set the whole thing up as a surprise to them.  His aunt has a nice house with a guestroom (when his parents stayed.)  She built an addition onto it a few years back when his grandparents sold their house and moved in (they have since passed away.)  It's a separate house attached by a deck and garage (where we stayed.)  In the basement, only accessible through an outside entrance, was his grandpa's shop complete with bedroom and bathroom (where his brother and family stayed.)  It was wonderful, as we all had our space, but we were together too.  We had the luxury of putting the kids to bed, going across the deck with the monitor, and staying up as late as we pleased playing games and talking without disturbing them.  We went to an indoor waterpark, Miner Mike's (kinda like Powerplay for younger kids), and ate a nice dinner out together.  It was a wonderful weekend, and I think his parents were really surprised and pleased with the whole thing.

So that's my summer in a nutshell.  I've gone to the pool almost every week with the kids, but haven't been to the park or playground nearly as much as I'd like due to the awful heat.  I'm more than ready for fall and spending more time outside.  It'll be here before we know it.

Humiliation... Revisited

I had an interesting experience this week.  I teach the Cubbie's class at our church's AWANAS program (4-5 year-olds).  It's your typical small town church group: 5-10 kids, almost all from families I've known for years.  This year we had a new family.  Their daughter is in my class and since they live way out in the country, her parents stay through the club meetings instead of just dropping the kids off like most parents do.  Usually her mom stays in our class, but a couple of times this year her dad has attended.  The times he was there, I had the nagging feeling that he looked familiar, but this is a relatively small town, so it's certainly possible that we'd met before.  Then he told me his name.  It sounded familiar... really familiar, but I just couldn't place it.  Finally, he mentioned in passing that he is an EMT... and it all clicked into place.  I mulled it over for a while, and finally got up the nerve to ask him (and face the inevitable humiliation that would follow.)  If I was right, we certainly had met before, and I was pretty sure he would remember ME.  Well about the time I got up the courage to ask him, they stopped coming.  For a month.  Dignity aside, I was really hoping they would come back because I just had to know if I was right.

Well last night they returned.  I swallowed my pride, took the plunge, and asked him, "Did you ever work at L-Bar-C Camp?"

He looked startled.  "Yes... a looong time ago."

And then I reminded him of our last meeting.

"That was YOU?!  HAHAHAHA!"

Ah, yes.  He remembered me alright.

Flash back 15 years.  I was a teenager working at camp- my favorite place to be in the world.  I was working in the kitchen that summer and my older brother was the horse wrangler who (much to my bewilderment) made all the girls' hearts go pitter pat.  Sometime in the middle of the summer, our regular camp EMT was called away on duty with the military and we had a temporary replacement brought in.  I thought he was kinda cute and much to my delight, he approached me while I was cleaning up after lunch one day.  He said that he had to complete a safety checklist of the equipment since he was new, and since much of the equipment is meant to be put on another person, he needed an assistant.  Would I be free for about an hour that afternoon and willing to help him out?  I was surprised (and quite flattered) that he had picked me of all people to help with this task, and eagerly agreed to help.  We arranged a time to meet at the EMT's office.

I chatted up a storm with Mr. Cute EMT that afternoon while he fitted me with blood pressure cuffs, neck braces, and other miscellaneous nonsense.  Finally, he said that he had just one more piece of equipment to try out, if I didn't mind.  It was the backboard.  Happy to assist, I hopped right on.  He was tightening the last straps around my ankles (and I was marveling at how totally stationary the backboard renders the patient) when I made the *witty* comment that if my brother came in right now, I'd think this whole thing was a setup.  That statement must have been my brother's cue, because at that moment, the door burst open and in trotted my brother and three buddies.  (My brain has permanently blocked the identity of his cohorts.)  They picked me up, my mind desperately trying to process this alarming development, and trucked me out to the chapel lobby.  The sight of a screaming girl on a backboard attracted a crowd in no time at all, and they obligingly put on a little show.  Their favorite trick was to stand me up, give me a nudge, and catch me about two inches before I would have hit the ground.  They threw in a little variety of doing this frontwards and backwards, along with some spinning around.  I don't remember all their tricks because I was desperately trying to maintain bladder control on those drops.  Thankfully, when the permanent markers appeared, and Reuben made like he was going to give me a nice mustache and beard, Ray (the camp director) stepped in and made them unstrap me.

I have no more memories of that (formerly) cute EMT.  I certainly never thought I'd run into him 15 years later and get to relive the whole lovely experience.  My most vivid memory of him that day was repeated glimpses of him out of the corner of my eye while I was being tortured by my brother.  He was laughing... and mouthing "I'm sorry" over and over again.  Jerk.