Wed., Jul. 23 - Mon., Jul. 28

Tonight I will post only nine of the THIRTY pictures I plan to post of the last twelve days ... though by the time I get through posting, all of these, I expect it will be of the last fourteen days. :)

Our dogs spend lots of time on the kitchen rugs because that is their command of where to be when we're eating. If it were just Jabba, he could curl up under someone's chair and be neither seen nor heard for an entire meal. Chewie, on the other hand, likes to roam around the table and sniff what's on people's plates. Not so user-friendly. lol



This picture shows the tree that was on our house on the day it was coming off. A rope is still on it in this picture; sadly, scheduling didn't allow me to be outside during the more exciting moments of tree removal. (sigh) The tree of which half fell on our house is a red maple. The tree behind it and a bit to the right -- whose 'crown' was knocked out and is hanging down, is a river birch, the tree chopping people told us.



No explanation necessary. :)



One day I had a hankering for salsa. I had tomatoes, salt, and lime juice, but not the other necessary ingredients. I was sad. Then it occurred to me that there *might* ... *might* be enough cilantro, green onion, and a mature-enough jalapeno all growing in the garden. Sure enough!! True, it was just enough for one serving, but I was a happy gardener that day. :) The green onions are ssso tiny still. lol They look like grass.



This is another (maybe better?) through-the-screen picture of the male cardinal whose head is affected by mites (evidently?) so that he has lost his head feathers. In this picture the sunflower seed in his mouth can't be seen, but that's why his bill is open. Why



This is becoming a very familiar sight in our house. N & J spend a good amount of time practicing their assigned pieces, but also a remarkable amount of time just 'piddling around' on the piano, actually coming up with some music that isn't too bad on the ears!!



Another favorite pastime, of course.



I promised pictures of the children's pirate outfits. lol



Natasha's new cooking skill: browning hamburger. She said, "I would do that for you any time you want me to!" Awww...!



I was asked if I would recommend the Batman movie, and the answer is 'yes'. Please consider: I'm not a comics fan, so needless to say, it's not what I would choose to watch if I just had my own choice of all the movies in the whole world. Additionally, we decided that this particular Batman movie won't be viewed by our children until they are upwards of 12 or 13 years old because it touches on some very serious, difficult, complex human character issues; that, and on the violent side ... the joker being sssso evil.... Jeremy, who IS a comics fan, appreciated that the movie stayed true to lots of aspects of the original story, whereas some comics movies in recent years haven't, much to his, and other fans', consternation ... I hear. ;)

Here is what nuestro vida loco has been like lately. Two Wednesdays ago was the day the tree was coming off the house; our power was off from 11 a.m. through the afternoon, so Elaine, the children, and I got outta Dodge. I was able to knock lots of errands off the list that day, and we stayed cool that way. We'd *planned* to go to the craft time at the library, but couldn't because I didn't pre-sign up the children in time and it was all full! -hmph!-

Two Thursdays ago I made two kinds of specialty pizzas that were a hit. Buffalo Chicken Pizza and Chicken Alfredo Pizza. I will do them again, and adjust the recipes; that was supper for Elaine and the children. We received a call that afternoon that our landlord wants to to quarterly inspections ('news' to us.), and that she was going to inspect on Saturday morning. So, I, of course, automatically scheduled in a bunch of extra house 'primping' I'd been *wanting* to do, but had been postponing. Jeremy and I had a dinner appointment with Judy, the surviving mother, and then we went with her to pick out the new living room flooring the church is buying for her. -wonderful- After dropping Judy off, Jeremy and I joined Elaine and the children and a bunch of others for a VBS work night at the building. A young man in the church here taught himself a new computer design program in order to plan the set for this year's VBS. It was a LOT of work, but turned out well. I took pictures and will post them.

That Friday we worked on the house, catching up on things we had postponed. It felt good to tend to home things, us not having been able to do as much of that lately as we prefer!!!!! (sigh) Then, in the evening we had supper in Indianola with the Morts, who then accompanied us to the Warren County Fair. It was a million degrees + humidity and I fairly melted. When most people get hot, they get uncomfortable. When I get hot, there is this whole skin problem which turns to p-a-i-n for me. So it's very bad. Had we known it wasn't going to cool down enough (We didn't arrive there 'til 7:30!!?!) we would have had me stay home. :( I missed out on a lot of fun things (watching the children's first 'kiddie' roller coaster rides, for one!!) in my effort to find some place moderately comfortable to chill (ha) inconspicuously. Verrrrry frustrating and sad. The fair was a great fair, though! Credit where credit's due, and all!

That Saturday was a VBS work day starting at 9:00 a.m. After lunch the children and I and Tava (TAY-vuh) (age 12) came home for naps for our children, and for Tava to relax; originally I was set to return to the building and Jeremy and I would get home in time for some special visitors we expected, but their plan was bumped up ... and a bunch more folks turned out to help with VBS set-up, so I stayed at the house the rest of the afternoon! Unexpectedly, the landlord was doing her inspection when we arrived; she stayed another hour, dividing hostas to take to her new house, etc. Here is the "special visitors" story. Steve Jones Sr. (church friend from Blair) had ridden RAGBRAI [(Des Moines) Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa] that week with the group from our congregation, and was set to meet his ride back to NE (Jones Jr. - now age 21) at our house!!! :) How fun was THAT?? They stayed about an hour; I showed them all around, and we had to talk g-a-r-d-e-n-i-n-g for a while ... as the mosquitoes ate us alive. -gr- Later, Tava's family invited us to supper with them, but then it was decided that they would use some pizza coupons they had, and bring it to our house for supper. We had a wonderful, relaxed evening with the Mazaks. (This is Mike & Teresa with whom we shared the 'date-type' couples supper at their house a couple weeks back.) After they left, it finally worked out for us to call Mom & Dad to let the children play their pieces for the grandparents!! Mom & Dad have been as busy as we've been!! argh!

Last Sunday, in the evening, was VBS kick-off, so Sunday afternoon was the preparation wrap-up work party after morning services. Pizza was provided for the workers (N said, "I will be happy if I don't have to eat pizza for a month!"), and then we got home in time for naps. I had two nice, long, catch-up phone calls with loved ones, but finally hung up with my sis b/c the sky was getting so dark and the trees were whipping around in the wind. We were under a tornado warning!! eek! Travis had been trying to contact us with his dependable heads-up, but had no access to a working phone; when I got to the computer to check the weather, there was an IM blinking, "You've got a bad storm coming your way! I can't get a hold of you!" That storm ended up going north of us and caused a bunch of damage at the Mazaks' house!! :( The tornado was very small and touched down a mile north of them, but the wind damage at their house was remarkable. (sigh) VBS that evening was pleasant with lots of excitement-energy that was barely held in check. :)

Monday we received the news that we are possibly going to have use of our Subaru weeks-if-not-months earlier than expected because we found an engine to buy - with an awesome warranty! This means Robert (church friend/mechanic) doesn't have to re-build ours ... which he had originally offered to do ... he just will install this new one for us!!! GREAT!! [Of course, he is juggling some serious family matters right now, with his aged parents' health failing possibly-rapidly, so we are CERTAINLY not pressuring him on this!!] N & J spent almost every 'available minute' of Monday on the computer, mostly composing. This makes me very happy because although they don't know it, they are absolutely ABSORBING lots of ins-and-outs of basic music/theory. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY A PIANO IS SSSSSSSSO GREAT!!!!! I had volunteered to assistant-teach the VBS class of 3- and 4-year-olds. The first night had been easy. Quick responses and good cooperation. Monday night, on the other hand, was no-holds-barred! lol [I have done no teaching since we moved here ... basically because I don't **have** to, and the church/education folks really want us to be settled in well and comfortable before I start teaching. (blink, blink) Point: I didn't yet know very well the children in this class, and wasn't yet familiar with ... hmmm ... shall I say, the 'inner workings' of this congregation's education program...?? I'm mostly speaking about how behavior issues in the classroom are dealt with.] We had seven students, and only one of them wasn't acting up! lol My, my.... It was quite a ride! THANKFULLY, the parents of the students were super-helpful in reining in their kiddos and providing good information for future difficult moments!!!! This was wonderful, and -lol of course, along with an extra assistant ... especially since our class grew to eight students starting on Tuesday evening- the other two days were really fun and ENJOYABLE to assistant-teach!! :)

Mmmmmmmmore catching up tomorrow!!