Wed., Jun. 18 - Mon., Jun. 23

First a couple pictures of the dogs. Jabba is flash-sensitive lately!



This is an all-too-common sight in our house. Because of the design of the house, the main route from the bedrooms/bathroom to the kitchen/outside/downstairs/garage, etc., is through the "dining room" (a bedroom with a door toward the other bedrooms/bathroom and a door toward the 'eat-in kitchen'). Expectably, Chewie's favorite place to sleep, you know, since he's just a tiny, petite thing, turns out to be RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT ROUTE.




This picture will be of interest only to folk who know and love my dad. :) This is Justus's first chapter book, and he, I guess, doesn't like his bookmark falling out. The rubber band was on it for a number of days before something in my head clicked, and I realized that I know only one other person in the world who places a rubberbands around books!!!!! lol



Thursday's "highlight" was a grocery shopping trip, and some budget re-adjustments in the evening.

Natasha was sick on Friday! She was throwing up, poor girl! BUT, she got a letter in the mail from her friend Quinnesha, from Tucson, and since N's instructions from Jeremy and me were to be sedintary, it was the perfect set-up for her to immediately compose her reply letter.



Later in the day, she was feeling better, though not perfectly recovered. She was helping me in the kitchen a bit, but getting tired easily, so she'd go rest on the couch for some minutes. Jabba is always very happy to be with anyone who is on a couch.



Jeremy set up his computer at the dining room table on Friday morning (his day off), to play solitaire and do whatever else Jeremy does online (Craig's list, Google Reader, Lego club sites (LOL!!), etc.); Justus set up to work right beside him and the two stayed put for more than two hours!! Justus built a city: roads, buildings, et. al. How's that for a silly Jeremy face??? argh!





Jeremy took this picture of Natasha in her cool headpiece she made. That leaf is off of a lowish branch on one of the trees in this yard.



Travis, Katie, & Kristen stayed with us this weekend! They arrived on Friday evening in time for supper. This rain storm was Travis's weather welcome to the city on this occasion. :)




On Saturday Travis & the girls drove to Clinton to see Travis's mom and his brother, Alex; they had a wonderful visit. We had a relaxing day here at home just taking it easy, and caring for a few home things. During the late afternoon a family discussion spontaneously erupted about how enjoyable a day it was for everyone, to do something so out-of-the-ordinary as to just do very little 'productive' for the majority of the day. Supper was Tortilla Soup. mmm

Here are two pictures of Travis with his two best friends. The first one was taken before morning services.






That second one was taken at the Morts' last night; they invited us out for a BBQ after evening services; the weather was ssssssssso nice, and the company even better. I took this picture while we were walking up their driveway. Justus is getting tough these days! He volunteered to carry two lawn chairs! He is enjoying his new strength, and using it wherever possible.



We could have stayed even later than we did, but thank goodness we left when we did, because we were t-i-r-e-d, and the dogs had been in their kennels almost all day, so I stayed up with them a while later than I otherwise would have stayed up, just so they could eat and wrestle a while!

Today everyone slept later than usual, except Jeremy who barely survived a migraine all day. :( I gardened today. I don't think I've ever said that before. It wasn't any specific one, imperative task that *had* to be done (which is my usual m.o.), but I wanted to go out and see the plants, so I did, and I made their life better while out there. (LOL - I'm cracking myself up) I watered, inspected seedlings, was pleased to discover that everything is up (except only one of the eight zucchini seeds has germinated, surprisingly), pulled some mini weeds, transplanted three cucumber seedlings from an over-populated hill into an empty one, and then put a soaker hose Laurel gave me last fall; I'd hoped to use it in my AZ garden ... but didn't. However, I'm convinced that it's going to be a wonderful addition to our garden here!! It covers only about 1/3 of the garden, so now I'm thinking I'll get a couple more, to save tons of time, and risk to the plants (dragging hoses).

Justus helped me make supper (biscuits & gravy, at Jeremy's request!), and we called & talked to my mom this evening, in honor of Mom & Dad's anniversary. Sadly, Dad had to be out of town (at camp, working), so we missed talking to him tonight.

Okay. Now I have to tell the most amazing story. the most shocking, wonderful, freaky, completely unexpectable, never-to-be-repeated thing happened to me yesterday. It was Sunday. While Jeremy & J napped, Travis, Kristen, Katie, Elaine, N, & I went to Jordan Creek Mall, the high-level mall on the other side of town. I was there on a re-con mission. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a mall shopper - blech. I like almost nothing about it. However, there are certain advantages to being familiar with the territory and knowing where certain things are.... At any rate, mall-shopping with a group is always interesting. "We're going to go in here; meet us over there in 10-15 min." N & I were in Lane Bryant (not her choice! lol) and I tried on a pretty blazer over the top of my shirt & denim capris. lol I was speaking to N, right beside me, as I looked in the mirror and said, "Ooh! This is my COLOR! (Burgundy, my 2nd fav.) It fits, it feels good, and it's on sale! I almost wish I could buy it, but it is *not* in this month's budget!" I took it off and was walking over to hang it up when Elaine happened to walk in! I held it against myself and pretended to model it; she said, "PRETTY! Too bad we're broke as a joke, huh?" We laughed as I re-hung it. Elaine walked around a couple racks with us and then left the store; N & I had looked a little longer, when I noticed a sales lady standing nearby, holding the blazer. She wasn't working with anybody, so conversationally, I said, "Ah! That's that great blazer I tried on a minute ago!" Then I started to step past her, when I heard her say, "A lady wants to buy it for you."

I know I blinked fourteen times, through my PUZZLED frown alternating with an unbelieving half-smile, while looking all around the store trying to recognize someone -- or something (??) -- before I started asking the poor girl a bunch of questions. "Does this happen often? Has this ever happened before??" She said, "I don't know; I've only worked here a couple weeks, but ... (more softly) there are really nice people in the world." I wanted to call Jeremy for advice, but knew he wouldn't hear the phone ring. Just then Travis, Kristen, and Katie walked in and I told them the scoop. They were equally maladjusted to the concept! [It was (/is...!?) almost scary. I've been saying, "What if this person follows me and demands something from me because 'I owe 'em'?"] Slowly, as my brain started working again, I said to the lady, "I don't have anything to wear it with, but I can't buy the pants today; can you hold them as long as two weeks?" She said, "We can hold things for two days." I said, "I wonder if you even have my size now, and then I could take the chance that maybe you'll have them when I come back for them." She said, "I'll meet you over at that rack." She arrived 1.5 seconds after I took my size off the rack and said, "The lady wants to buy you the pants, too, if they fit." ... They did. And I walked out of there with a $95.98 outfit that a still-unknown stranger bought me. Thankfully she paid only $60 for it, but that doesn't decrease the significance of the shock. So, I'm left with a wonderful moment of pleasantness, the recipient of "good will to men". [Ironic, considering the scripture I chose for the heading of my blog!!] I'm convinced that it was someone "paying it forward". One of the kids (how we referred, all weekend, to Travis, Kristen, and Katie) mentioned, "I'm glad you accepted the gift because you know how great you let that lady feel. If you'd turned it down she might not do another generous thing like this." All I can say is, >>huh<< !!