Thu., Aug. 14 - Fri. Aug. 22

This picture will mean nada to most readers. :) BUT. I am sssssso happy to have found a consistent, ideal use for this cup, one of my most prized possessions. :)



A few tomatoes have ripened on the vine. Strange: I don't remember planting cherry tomatoes; they are supposed to be huge, monstrous ones. ??! lol



We now have ONE nasturtium bloom. WHAT IN THE WORLD. It's almost September. All that for that.



Justus went to bed with an upset stomach so he chose a bowl. Of course, he chose one of our biggest bowls. "How much are you planning to throw up?" I asked! Thankfully he didn't have to! The next morning he used it to play Marine Corps.



Thursday was a very 'normal' day, actually. The children spent more of their time that day playing with Legos than doing any other one activity. We knocked out some errands.

For FFFFFunDay, we met the Morts at the Iowa State Fair. What a HUGE deal. Good fun was had by all, and we were surprised by the scope of the thing. We saw probably maybe 1/5 or 1/6 of what there was to see. Sadly, it was definitely somewhat warmer than I would have preferred. There was ssssso much food there. We ate pork-chop-on-a-stick, the main claim of the Iowa State Fair. lol We decided on a stick is the ideal way to eat a pork chop!! lol The heat, the noise, the P-E-O-P-L-E, and the smells had Jeremy and me both headaching by 7:30, when we'd decided to elave. N & J were still feeling great, though, so when Mitch & Jo offered to keep them with their children and hit a few more things before they had planned to go home, we happily agreed. I forgot to take the camera (duh), but Katie got some GREAT pictures, which I will post once she gets them all to me. :)

Saturday was an early morning; Jeremy was part of a moving party that started at 8am. Then was the church's annual blood drive! Our congregation gave 26 units of blood that morning! Awesome! Here are some folks signing in.



This is the recovery table (aka: chairs, drinks & snacks), just outside the door to the kitchen.



Jeremy got some good shots of recoverers. Here are Sherrie & Rachel.



Alan & Joe



Todd (Rachel's dad), Marnie, Tyler, Tammy's arm, and my arm. lol



That group of nurses was outstanding. Their process was so smooth! Not surprisingly I wasn't there for set-up (must have been at 7:30 a.m.), but here is a picture of them packing up.



That afternoon we came home from helping Marnie clean up the blood drive, and went straight to bed, all four of us, for three hours. STRANGE. Then in the evening we prepped the house for two large sets of company we expected the next few days. :) Thankfully we found the source of the bad smell in the basement. It's related to the previous plumbing problems we had a few months ago, but we *think* it's not going to be a major repair. We will keep a close eye on it and time will tell. OH, and we watched some Olympics!! I would have liked to see WAY more; I rrrreally like watching the Olympics!!

Once last week we played Bananagrams, finally!! It is a fun game!!! I highly recommend it!! Although, probably mostly for children over eight or so; Justus isn't enjoying it yet ... at least, not the way the game's inventors intended!! lol I'm excited to play the game someday when Jeremy can play; he'll ... beat us all into the ground, as usual.



Can you see the deer in the center of this picture? Too bad the camera can't see as well as we can. A few days ago I was going to let Chewie out. IMMEDIATELY upon entering the three-season room where I'd planned to put on his radio collar, he started freaking out, barking his head off. I looked through the yard for who he was barking at, and when I saw no one it took my brain a number of seconds to recognize, behind the tomato forest (I took pics of that which I will post soon.), these same three deer standing right there in our garden, frozen like statues!!!!! Needless to say, I let Chewie out THAT SECOND, to scare them out of the garden!!



Last Sunday afternoon (not yesterday) was the day we were scheduled to host Teen Time, which is held monthly in church families' homes. N helped me all afternoon wrapping up final preparations! What a trooper she was!! J napped while Jeremy and Wes went to see the Clone Wars animated movie in the theater -- which they said was absolutely terrible and a waste of time & money. :(

Here are some pictures from Teen Time. :)





Wes beat Tim at a watermelon eating speed contest.



On Monday I felt sick, no surprise, after that kind of Friday, that kind of Saturday, and the Sunday we had (I can not share details - sorry.). However, I did get a nice main dish made up to share, which I sent with Jeremy to his appointment which was a follow-up in regards to the difficult Sunday. [A weekly 45-minute appointment every Monday will continue to bless, as well.]

Tuesday was our supervising teacher appointment with Donna, and we scheduled it during the children's piano lessons from Amy! :) We had an awesome time together, what with homeschool graduate Tim heading off to college that next day! His and Amy's input, both, was fascinating and appreciated! :) It was a car-juggling day during which I was also preparing to host this month's Ladies' Fellowship that evening. Jeremy, rather conveniently, had his elder's meeting for this month on that night, another wonderful meeting.

On Wednesday we were in town again to turn in our homeschool paperwork, and then for crafts at the library.

Thursday Jeremy flew to TN, early. (sniff, sniff) The children and I visited Glenn & Marge at their house in the morning, at the appointment time that Jeremy usually visits them. :) Then in the afternoon we got to visit Karen C. who has bone cancer and has been in the hospital for the past THREE WEEKS. It was a good day for her, but now, this week, I am hearing that her health has taken a major turn for the worse. (argh!) We were there at the same time as two of her children, who live really close to us; they gave us good details on the bike trails nearby. Yay! Once Jeremy got settled in the motel, he and I had a number of phone calls ironing out details, especially financially. It was tricky because I still had errands to run that went into the evening. We used Burger King coupons for supper, and then after bed I had to make a run, late, across town to pick up a check to cover unexpected traveling expenses. (sigh) In the car we found one of Jeremy's shirts that hadn't made it to the hamper yet. We have been smelling it (below) while Jeremy's been gone, because we mmmmmmiss him. :*(



So then Friday it was off to the bank for that deposit, and to the Post Office. I was able to get some house work done that day, happily! :) Justus said two funnies. First, he is saying about anything that's very large, that it's 'hubungous'. Natasha was wanting to show me some huge, pretty, white flowers in the back yard. Justus followed us down there just in time to half-hear me explain to Natasha that those are hosta flowers! Justus said, "Pasta flowers?!" We spent the evening at the building helping set up for the Annual Clothing Giveaway.