Dog Sitting at the Pool

Our neighbors were called out of town and asked the boys to care for their dog over the next four days. This was easy as Sam and John are their sons' good friends and know their dog, Maxie well.
They gave us permission to swim in their very nice in-ground pool for taking care of the dog!

Maxie was super sweet, only barking the first time we went over to feed her. The weather was very hot so we swam three days in a row. Maxie hung out with us the for all the hours we were at the pool and that must have been nicer than staying in the house by herself.

This pool has a hot tub connected to it...

...and a basketball hoop.

I never went into the water but soaked up lots of warm sunshine and got a tan. It was truly a pleasure to enjoy this pool and help to take care of a very nice dog.

Baby Shower Extraordinaire

Aunt Nancy was our Hostess for a very fun and imaginative Baby Shower for Kat held in a large, sunny room in a building at the park. The decorations were really awesome and we played many games that none of us had seen before.

Nancy's Homemade Lemonade was absolutely delicious, served with lots of fresh lemon. The recipe she gave us was so easy for such a superior flavored lemonade that you can make great quantities of at home for almost nothing! It is clear water colored but packed with a sweet and sour taste. It was served over the large ice cubes in the bowl made by Mom. Each cube had a tiny baby in it and when the cube melted, releasing the baby, the owner of that drink called "My water broke!"

Apparently, I was having so much fun at the Shower that I neglected to take a picture of the new Mom-To-Be who looked fabulous in a full length summer dress. I hope that she will forgive me for posting these hilarious pictures of both she and her husband COMBINED after we cut and pasted individual face shots of both of them to try to predict what the Little Guy's face will look like!

I was excited to give Kat an afghan that I crocheted for her baby using most of her nursery colors.

We each took home a decorated bag of popcorn in honor of Kat's upcoming delivery.
Speaking of which, let's offer a prayer for her safe Delivery:

O Lord God Almighty, Creator of all things and Giver of knowledge to mankind; Who fashioned the body of man from the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, granting him Your blessings, that he might increase and multiply by means of the birth of children: We fervently entreat You Who loves mankind to bless this Your servant, Kat, who is with child, granting her help and comfort at this trying time. Ease her labor and bring her to a safe delivery. Yes, O Lord, open the treasury of Your mercies and Your compassion to her, and let her give birth to a fruitful vine to be a cause of joy to her all the days of her life. For You are blessed, together with Your Only-begotten Son, and Your Most-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Author unknown.

The Handley Library

John and I had a morning to ourselves and so we went to the Library. I allowed him to do some Parkour for fun because this beautiful stonework will not break (I hope).

This Library is celebrating its 100th year. It is magnificent in every way and we all love it. We used to live up the street from it and  the older kids and I would walk there often.

In the Auditorium of the Library is set up an Art Show, featuring many wonderful paintings and drawings of the library over the last 100 years including photos of when they were building it. John and I perused the exhibit.

After checking out our books, I took a photo of him with the sculpture "Library Lil" which is permanently fixed on a bench. He is getting so much bigger than she is!
I really enjoyed spending this special time with my youngest son which can sometimes be a rarity in a big family.

Shiny Sink

This is what my Corian Sinks looked like AFTER I cleaned them. Not very nice, with all the coffee stains, etc. Fortuitously, the gentleman who sold us our kitchen counters and installed these sinks is a good friend of ours and he came to visit Larry while he was recuperating. He asked me how I cleaned them, and I proceeded to tell him that I used nothing but a soft sponge and dish soap for fear of scratching the surface.

Bob told me that I should use a product with bleach and a Scotch Brite non-scratch pad which is blue. I looked forward to picking one up.

Larry and I both worked on the sinks and a significant difference was achieved. They aren't perfect because they have been getting stained for years from pouring my left-over coffee from the pot down the sink. They are MUCH better though, and now we know what to do. I am thankful that Bob came over to visit and gave us this expert cleaning tip.

Another New Knee

Rah Rah Ree,
Kick him in the Knee.
Rah Rah Rass,
Kick him in the Other Knee!

This used to be one of the cheers hollered out when I was in high school, but nothing I have ever actually done to Larry. Nevertheless, he qualified for another Total Knee Replacement and had that surgery on his right knee, 18 months after having had his left knee done. This picture was taken on Day 3 post-op in the exercise room where he played Wi Bowling.

Four Weeks of Physical Therapy have really helped him to have good mobility and function with his new knee and by God's Grace, he has healed well.

At week 6, he was back to work each day, commuting 80 miles each way. The pain is still intense, especially at nighttime, but he is managing it with over the counter pain relievers.  I am really thrilled about the way he has written down the exact time and dosage of every pain reliever he has taken since the day he got home from the hospital. That took many pages of a notepad.  He still gets very tired and has to try to moderate his activity because too much of that makes for a very long and painful day. His last knee took a full six months to heal and be "normal" so we expect this one to take that long as well.
Just like with his last knee surgery, we absolutely LOVED having him home each day for over four weeks. We had some wonderful family time as this operation was during the summer and the kids had no school!

Wedding Luncheon

The parents of the Bride hosted a delightful luncheon on the day after the wedding. Besides enjoying a fantastic lunch, we were able to discuss the many highlights of the evening and watch the happy couple open their gifts!

It was a lot of fun to see them as a married couple and to wish them well before they left on their fabulous Honeymoon!

Rehearsal Evening

The evening of The Rehearsal Dinner for Jeff and Chelsea arrived and we were very excited! Being parents of the groom, it was our honor and privilege to host the Wedding Party, the immediate families of the Bride and Groom and the Out-of-Town guests.

The rehearsal took place at the venue chosen for the wedding and luckily the downpour happened on this evening but not on the actual wedding day!

Some of the children present found a great place to sit and watch.

We had a wonderful time watching the Wedding Party practice the procession and recessional out with everyone learning what to expect the following evening. The Rehearsal Dinner is traditionally a fabulous time to break the ice with all the folks in the wedding and for the Bride's and Groom's families to get to know each better. That we did over a delicious dinner of homemade lasagne, Caesar salad, garlic bread with tiramisu and coffee for dessert. Dinner was served in the Carriage House next to the Pub and the room was small enough for folks to mingle.

Our evening ended early enough for everyone to get a good rest for the big day!

Vacation Bible School 2013: The Vatican Express

This year's Vacation Bible School had The Vatican Express as its theme. The M.C. acted as a bus driver taking the children through a tour of what the Vatican is and what some of the key concepts of the church are. It took place during the week leading up to Jeff's wedding, so I didn't volunteer to help, saving my energy for that big day. It was a great week though and our kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

Just like every year, the youth of the parish run this program with the help of some adults. Sam and his friends were in the game room. All of the youth help sing and dance because so much of the evangelism that goes on is in the lyrics of very fun and catchy tunes that the children learn each day.
Aren't they great costumes for the Swiss Guard?!

Natalie was in charge of the Kindergarten class all week and she did a very professional job with them. Many of the adults in charge said that she ought to consider being a teacher!

John was invited to help out only on the last day of the week, since he wasn't old enough to be earning Confirmation hours for volunteering. The guys put on a "Rap" song that they created about the Lord.

Juby participated and performed a song with all of the dance motions with her group for the parents on Friday. Here are the words to one of the songs:

I'm standing on the Rock
The Universal Church of Jesus.
I'm standing on the Rock
And I'm not going to move....

When the storm clouds thunder in,
When the lightning crashes close,
When the rain comes pouring down.
I'm not going to move....

Peter is the Rock and On the Rock is built the Church
(Repeat louder and louder)

One, Holy, catholic, apostolic...

This is a really great program and about 85 kids from our parish participated. In addition, 25 young people from seventh grade through High School run the Faith, Art, Music,Games and Snack Stations that the children rotate through daily. There is a lot of positive energy focused on loving and serving the Lord transmitted between the generations present. I look forward to volunteering next year which may be my last as Juby will age out of the program! I suspect that our kids will continue to volunteer, because this was seriously a lot of fun!

Spring and Summer Book Case

 Larry recently finished The Complete History of World War II and Korea written by Francis Trevelyan Miller and published in 1951. He painstakingly read , a few pages each night, this 1000 page book which is 62 years old and looks it!  I am very proud of him for being such a reader!

 Some of the books that Juby read this summer are from the Hoofbeats series. They are about a girl and her horse, of course!

 She really enjoyed these books checked out of the library. The Stars and Stripes series are Historical Fiction. Each book is about a horse and set in a particular time period. Her favorite took place in the days of The Pony Express.

 Our last Read-Aloud of the year was Caddie Woodlawn written by Carol Ryrie Brink. This story is about a girl who considers herself to be a real Tom-boy. She has lots of adventures such as taking her younger brothers and sisters across a river on a make-shift raft. She is able to prevent the hot-heads in her town from attacking an Indian encampment by riding her pony for many miles, braving the elements, all by herself to warn them of the danger. This is set in olden days and fun to read.

 Our family's biggest reader is John who is really enjoying his life here with a bag of Cool Ranch Doritoes and a good book. He will often ask me to pick up this snack when he has a book he is reading.

He is allowed to eat Doritoes in the living room while he is reading if he puts a clean dish towel over the arm of the sofa. These pictures were taken on different days but I could probably take a version of it every week!

 I will run through some of the books he read this summer. I wasn't fast enough to take a picture of each. He has finished reading every book in the Warriors series, by Erin Hunter, about four clans of cats.

He has also finished the entire Redwall series written by Brian Jacques about a kingdom of woodland creatures and their battles.

I picked up the Newberry Award winner M.C. Higgins, The Great written by Virginia Hamilton while at the library hoping that he might read it and he did. The Newberry Award is given to the best novel for young people published each year. Our library has a special marking on the spine of the book so these novels can be easily seen. The older books especially can be counted on to be a good choice for a great book. He also read Book Three of a series that looked to me to be quite dark. I will discourage him from checking out the other books in this series

 In preparation for the movie coming out on November 1, he re-read Ender's Game, written by Orson Scott Card. This is a terrific book which I also enjoyed awhile back. I recommend it if you like Science Fiction or Suspense. I am hoping that Sam might be persuaded to read this, so that he too can attend the movie at one of its first showings when it hits the theater!

I read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen which wasn't exactly as pure as the driven snow. It was about a the lives of circus performers and was O.K. I still haven't gotten around to seeing the movie.

It took me a long time to read How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. This book was almost over my head. It showed me what I don't know when it referenced the history surrounding the Fall of Rome and the barbarians who took over, burning books and destroying libraries. Certain monks in Ireland (which was geographically unattached to the continent)  hand-copied books and tried to teach literacy. That's the gist of it. It was quite deep and not as good as I had expected it to be with such an engrossing title!

Agnes Grey written by Anne Bronte ( sister of Charlotte who wrote Jane Eyre and also sister of Emily who wrote Wuthering Heights) was a fantastic book which I checked out of the library from the Classics section. The book is about young Agnes who goes out to work as a governess to help support her poor family. The insight that the author had regarding human nature, parents and children was very astute and quite often I would stop reading to sit and think about what she had just said about the characters ( and cringe!!!)

I also read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn written by Betty Smith who had no idea that this book would become such a phenomenon, voted as one of the 100 Best Books of the Century. Aunt Catherine gave this beautiful edition to Juby to add to her little classics library that Aunt Catherine started. The front cover is inscribed with the birth and death dates of our family tree which also was planted in Brooklyn, NY. The setting is in about 1911 in a small neighborhood and is about the daily life and experiences of Francie who grows up there with her family. It was very good. As Catherine recommended, not all sections are really for children  but would be fine for teens and is certainly a wonderful and thoughtful gift which we really appreciate!

The book that I am almost finished reading is Eat Pray Love written by Elizabeth Gilbert. I picked this up at the church book sale and have enjoyed it much more than I expected to. Natalie saw the movie and said it was terrible and I can imagine that because the author is quite funny in an understated way- it is her thought patterns that are funny and I don't see how a movie could show that unless it is narrated. I really have nothing in common with this author except that she is a seeker of spirituality and she does like good food! It is very enjoyable to read and gives me occasional food for thought.