OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR

I'M SPEECHLESS

I actually have ... yes, I have right here next to my computer ... a letter from the IRS apologizing for sending me a statement that Ken owed taxes in 2006. (Remember that little gem of a notice - where they actually had his middle name "deceased," but couldn't figure out that that meant he wasn't here to make any money?

Yes, they apologized - actually using that very word. "That notice was computer generated. We apologize ..."

Wow!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JIM

So, Grandpa Wick had a birthday, so last night we went to the Cougars Game because that's what you do on Jim's birthday. Three years ago when we went, it was toilet paper night and we all got  a roll of toilet paper to take home. Last year I couldn't go, but everyone received a loaf of bread, so the anticipation was hard to handle - what would we get this year?

I just took my little camera, not my good camera, but still had fun taking pictures. The weather was beautiful, the stands were crowded and everything was birthday perfect.

But then I found myself in quite a philosophical dilemma - as did Kelli. Normally, I half-heartedly cheer for the Cougars - I don't have any real connection to them and since I'm usually at their games with many swarming children, I have a lot to concentrate on other than what actually happens on the field and I don't keep up with the Cougar standings or anything.

Yet, last night posed a problem - the Cougers were playing the Peoria Chiefs - which in case, you aren't familiar with the Cubs - they are not ONLY a Cub team, but the team Ryne Sandberg manages. How could a Cub fan like myself EVER cheer against the Cubs - even for the sake of the Cougars? (Ryne Sandberg, by the way, stood in front of us for most of the evening and I don't think HE looked like HE was ALL THAT much into the game. I mean I saw him clap once for a player.    but it was sort of like a polite, opera clap - though I've never been to the opera, so what do I know? Maybe that's the way you're supposed to clap when you're a minor league manager.)

So, not exactly knowing who to cheer for, I decided to wander around and get myself a Pepsi. Surprising who you see at those games, I mean my MOM was there was "her people" and Nate and Karen, which meant they weren't home challenging me to Word Twist, which is something we often do in the evenings. Later Kelli saw Craig and Krista, so it was a BIG baseball night.

I went back to my seat and watched the game, being that I had decided to cheer for Ryne and  crew and smiled at the children sitting around me and listened to their giggles when the plastic, bouncy figures came out between innings. The favorite was the fish who actually ate a Cougar and then spit out his clothes piece by piece - until finally he "threw up" the player himself, now only in his underwear. The kids thought that was the funniest thing since ... forever.

Well, the game meandered onward and the score was tied - but then in the last of the eighth - the Cougars got some players on base.

Oh, I admit this is horrible and a trait I promise not to apply to the other areas of my life (including to my loyalty of the REAL Cubs) - but my allegiance instantaneously changed. I decided I'd cheer for the Cougars - because even though the games are a lot of fun - the kids were getting restless, having created every possible creation out of hand-wipes that they could and having consumed lemonade, cracker jacks and cotton candy. 

An extra-inning game didn't really appeal to me, so suddenly I was, "Go, Cougars!"  Which they did.

After that we saw a fantastic fireworks displayed (you could either watch it in the sky or on the screen - although on the forefront of the screen were the words "Mercy Provena Hospital." Strange.) 

Then everyone eight and under decided they HAD to run the bases. We were sitting way over on the third base side, so by the time we got to the line to actually run - there were a couple thousand people in front of us - seriously.

So, Steve and I stood in line watching hundreds of kids doing karate kicks against the wall as they waited.

Here are a couple of our anxiously-waiting baserunners, on the field. When we got up to the place where you actually start running, I saw that kids were tearing around the bases, so I grabbed the four-year-old's hand (she was a little tentative anyhow) and we ran together. That way I had an excuse for not going fast.

On the way out of the ballpark - we again got a memento of the evening - a coupon for ice cream at Colonial Cafe (which seems a lot more baseball gamish - than toilet paper and bread.)

So as the summer comes to a close, I can look back over my baseball highlights: a Cub Game, an Iowa Cub Game, a White Sox Game and the Cougars.

And thus blows in the winds of autumn.

NOT REAL SURE ABOUT THIS ...

OK, if Ken can actually see me from heaven, I am sure he is shaking his head right now and wondering what has happened to his wife.

Because I really can't explain it.

I am now owner of a Fantasy Football Team which wouldn't be so unusual if I actually KNEW something about football besides that a bunch of men chase each other up and down the field.

I mean seriously - I am very sports minded and can tell you stuff about everything from baseball to the Tour de France (thanks to my biking son). But I've just never been able to get into the football thing. Which is strange. Because my entire family likes football - including my mom. When I was a kid, she would be ironing or cooking or something on a Saturday afternoon - with college football on in the background.

And I went to all my high school games (but I'm not sure how much football I was truly watching), but then I went to Moody which was NOT a school known for their sports teams.

But - hey, Chad asked me if I wanted to join his league and I said sure. Because after all, isn't being a good manager all about the people who surround you?  I figure I could find a couple good agents that could help me out.

So, after a frantic call to my Wisconsin agent, I received a a list of who I should get. (He put a lot of Steelers on there - figuring I could really cheer for my players in REAL time football - being that I have a connection to those Pennsylvania teams.)

Then I needed to send my other agent, Jenny, to the draft/pizza party today, since I was home writing. I only ended up with one Steeler, but I did end up with Tom Brady as my quarterback and my Wisconsin agent says that good.

So, I guess it is. 

We'll see.

EVER MEET A FLOWER?

I can remember when I met my daughter-in-law, my dentist and my boss.

But I can't tell you when I met most flowers.

Except for the dahlia.

We were newlyweds back in Pennsylvania, visiting Ken's parents.  On Sunday we went to church and a lady living near the church brought a single flower and put it in a vase for the up-front table. I remember the flower was white and every petal seemed placed exactly right. And I thought - that is the perfect flower.

The flower was a dahlia and since then I've been a dahlia fan. 

God's created an entire world of beautiful sights - but I think dahlias are up there in my top ten favorites - or at least in my top 100 favorites.

MESSAGE TO THOSE WHO ARE CONFUSED ...

I think what's happening this morning is people who are looking for another blog - are getting on this one. (You can read this one, too, that's great!)

But what you're looking for is:   www.thepracticalpw.wordpress.com

If this post doesn't make sense to you, don't worry about it.  :)

BACK FROM WICHITA (WELL, ACTUALLY NEWTON)

Well, I'm back from Newton, Kansas where I spoke at my first conference of the season. Tami and I headed out Friday morning. All systems were go until we reached the intersection of the runway - at which point the air control powers that be decided we needed to wait until the storm blew over. So we sat as rain bounced against out windows and the plane rocked back and forth.

We passed the time by reading and texting each other since we were sitting in different parts of the plane. (I will say the pilot kept us well informed.)

After that, the ride was smooth and at the other end, was my friend Shirley and her husband Jim. (I've known Shirley since fourth grade.) They took us out for an indigenous Kansas meal - Panera and we headed down to the church.

The conference was at Grace Community Church in Newton.The place was packed out (about 500 people)  and the people were super friendly. I did five workshops.

But enough of that -

How much do you know about Wichita (because obviously knowing about Wichita is on everyone's priority list).

1. Wichita is the air capital of the world.

2. Wichita's three largest manufactures are Cessna Aircraft, Spirit AeroSystems and Hawker Beechcraft.

3. Wichita has 344,284 people.

4. Wichita is the largest city in Kansas.

How much do you know about Newton?

1. Was known as the wickedest city in the west

2. Paradoxically it is also its own "Bible belt" because the Mennonites settled there.

2. Has the railhead for the Chisholm Trail

Oh, and Newton has a great Italian restaurant where we ate - called Napoli's.

All in all, a good weekend.

??????

Sorry I didn't have time to write anything today because I've been thinking so hard about the allergen purifier or the shop vac or the blender. 

TODAY

Well, the most momentous moment of the day was when I got my 15 year service award at staff meeting. What this meant is I got to go up front and shake hands with Jake Eggar who said to me, "Has it really been THAT long?"  A statement, which upon further pondering, seemed much better than, "Oh, it seems like you've been here fffffooooorrrrreeeeevvvveeeeerrrr."

Actually, I was one of 20 who received a service award today - I think the longest was 25 years.

Anyhow, I got the official 15-years-and-counting-service-award-gift-catalog. Which, along with the usual rings and watches, had some unique gifts such as a blender (hmmm ... a blender with an Awana logo), a shop vac (hmmm ... that's what Ken would vote for - he got each of the kids a shop vac for their wedding gifts. He was into shop vacs) and something I had no idea what it was until I read the caption - a allergen purifier. (hmmm ...)

I have not made my choice and seeing how busy I'll be actually WORKING for Awana the next five days, it will be awhile before I do.

So, what would you choose? An Awana blender, shop vac or allergen purifier?

MORE PICTURES

CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDENS

Regular blog readers might remember that I stayed in California last fall - at Tom and Marti Chances. Well, they're at HQ this week, so I took a vacation day and Marti and I had some fun (while Tom sat in meetings).

After a great breakfast at Benedict's we headed toward the Chicago Botanic Gardens - a place I've wanted to visit for quite some time. This is truly an over-the-top beautiful place and I took many, many, many .... pictures. 

Gardens abound: fruit and vegetable garden; heritage garden, Japanese Garden; rose garden; landscape garden, etc. Probably the most unique was the model railroad garden - a visit across the U.S.

Although many of the flowers  were labeled, many weren't. So, afterwards we asked the guy at the information desk how we could identify the flowers. Was there a book? Was there a pamphlet?

"Well," he told us. "We look them up on the Internet."  Um ... we could do that!

Anyhow, here are just a few of my many, many, many pictures. (The day was dreary, but actually that meant comfortable walking.)

AND THE CUBS WIN!

Getting together with old friends is always fun - especially when you've known at least one of the "old friends" since she was a little kid. So, we had a good time with Eddie and Sue and their two girls today. And since they're Brewers fans, it was especially fun to watch the Cubs.But enough of that Brewer/Cub stuff (Did I say that the Cubs won?)  Anyhow, since adults aren't all that crazy about getting their pictures taken - I took a lot of kid pictures.

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MY FATHER-IN-LAW AND THE BEES

Sometimes people respond to my blog, not by posting a comment, but by sending me an e-mail.

So, I'm letting my father-in-law be my guest blogger here - with his story of the bees.

Considering my daughter-in-law's recent episode with the order of hymenoptera, I feel compelled to talk of my encounters over the past treee years. This particular type did not seem to be too numerous or upsetting in their behavior before the spring and summer of 2006, but then they became a menace in more ways than one.  If we were outside it was not unusual for just one to come buzzing around and sooner or later asuming a challenging attitude about three or four feet in front of you and just sort of float there.  This didn't last too long until they would just take off, quite often just going up and over the house.  In a few minutes he would be back again doing the same thing. Sometimes another one would show up and they would fly away chasing one antoher.

It wasn't long before I began seeing sawdust flying thru the air in different places around the house.  It didn't take much searching to find that these rascals were drilling holes in the wood overhang of the house in at least 8 different places.  These things were about three times bigger than a honey bee. They were about an inch long and a bit on the chubby side and were black and gold striped. I was told they were carpenter bees or a type of yellow jacket.

Anyway it was time for action, especially when woodpeckers found there was something to be desired in those holes and they began hammering from the outside of the 2x6 or trim board and opening up 4-5-6 in. long holes.

A fly swatter didn't do a thing as I attacked them in their challenging mode.  I switched to a badmiton raquet and had pretty good success in knocking them out of the air or getting them stuck in the holes of the raquet.  I expect I got about 20 of em over 2 years time, but this was just a drop in the bucket. There had to be a more conserted means of attack.  There were several different cans of wasp and hornet spray that shoot as far as 20 to 25 ft.  some were kind of messy with a scattering spray, even kind of soapy.  I found the best concentrated spray of 25 ft to be "Real Kil" wasp & hornet spray.

I got pretty good at aiming and shooting this jet spray.  I found it was best to let Mr Bee start up under the overhang and even if I didn't hit him the back splash would get him.  Quite often they would take off blindly often going straight up in the air.

Of course, this one on one thing was not going to be the answer to getting rid of them, but it was  kinda fun, much like being an anti-air craft gunner or shooting clay pigeons.

So, as instructed on the cans, the best way to get them was after dark when they were in their nest or in this case their holes in the wood. This required climbing a ladder and spraying directly into the hole.  Of course, quite often I got some of the back splash in my face and hands.  The next day I could usually find four or five of them on the ground at each location.

So, that first year of their invasion, three years ago, I figured I got at least a hundred of them.  Last year, starting as the weather began to warm in early May, sure enough there they came again.  By the end of August I had gotten about 60.

This year it started again, but after just downing eight or ten, no more came aruond and there has been no hole drilling in our house.  They have been around doing their thing in the clover and the flowers but they have stayed away from the house and I have not bothered them.

So, dear Linda, how do I end this.  If I could tell these guys to buzz off and not bug me, to stay away and bee-hive themselves or as one day after I had gathered up a hand full of dead ones, I said to myself that "beauty is in the eyes of the "bee holder!"

THE WEEK

I spent most of this week walking around half asleep (think White Sox game and Olympics) and the rest of it, mulling over some stuff in my brain.

So one evening I decided I needed to get some fresh air and a more, wide-awake perspective - my camera and I went for a ride.

I decided I wouldn't go more than five miles away from my house - and my challenge was to find come cool pictures.

This is my favorite. I like the water reflection of the flying heron.

I like this one, too, but not as much as the first one.

A FUN PLACE TO EAT

Today our department headed over to Pilot's Pete for a birthday lunch. (No, not our department's birthday, but Mary Alice's birthday who is IN our department.) A couple weeks ago, we were there for Michael's birthday lunch.

You know how going out for people's birthdays can kind of be goofy sometimes - like where do you take them, how do you split the cost, etc.

Well, we came up with this idea. (OK, I think Jenny and I will take credit for it.) The ladies (and sometimes the men) regularly go out to eat on Thursdays - often just to a fast food place (Quiznos is a favorite). But if it's your birthday any time during the week, you get to pick where the group goes on Thursday (and usually the men come, too, on birthday lunches). Everyone gives you a dollar - no more, no less.  If you want something more than the money you collect - so be it - you pay the rest. Works out well. 

Anyhow (Warren and Kris) Pilot Pete's is fun. It's at the Schaumburg Airport on Irving Park Road. Windows directly out onto the runway, so you can see the planes come in and take off while you're eating.

The food is good too. Last time, I had a lobster roll. Today I had a tubular wrap (yeah, that's what it was called). The fare is sort of different than your average place.

The restaurant is decorated in a Hemingway-type sailing motif.

Usually I've been there at lunchtime when a lot of business people are eating and I haven't seen any kids, but they do have a kids' menu.

And I can see kids enjoying watching the planes.

Oh, and the waiter will do the Happy Birthday thing and give you a piece of Baked Alaska piled high with eight inches of meringue. (Not exaggerating.)

So, it's a fun place for a fun meal.

MORE PICTURES

So, typepad updated their picture thing and now it's really goofy - I can't move pictures around or control where they land on the page and tonight I don't have time to mess with it. So, I'll just post more pictures and we'll see where they land.

Thanks to Allison's comment (a KC fan), she told that last night's pitcher, Brian Bannister, trusted Christ as a kid in Awana. After she told me, I discovered that other people at Awana already knew that - but I didn't - so I thank her for sharing.

So here goes ... with the pictures. Okay, now that I'm looking at the final post - it's very weird with pictures all over the place.

First - my brother's family.

Ken Griffey Jr. trying out his golf swing and waiting for a ball. However, since I can't control where the pictures land, we have a KC player picture in the middle. :)

Fireworks in honor of a homerun. (This is not captioning the right picture, obviously. Duh! Not sure what they did with this.) Anyhow, notice the moon over the field - in the last picture behind the lollipop-looking things.

CONFESSION

OK, I'll admit it. I was at the White Sox/Royals game last night. Amazing how low someone is willing to go - when the tickets are free. Here's a look at the action.  More pictures later.

WHAT CAN I SAY?

Once upon a time, our young married couples group had a harvest party where everyone was told to dress up.  My husband was not all that excited - dressing up for a costume party was not his idea of a good time.

But I happened to have access to a real native American deerskin shirt (well, on me, it's always been a dress, but it was actually my dad's shirt) and so I decided to be a Native American mom. I even had a little papoose - in the form of adorable, four-month old Jeff. 

And of course, that meant Ken could be the wigwam!

ABOUT THOSE WASPS AND SIDEWALK CRACKS

About my wasps - I waited about 36 hours after my brave, warrior attack and checked out if any survivors were still surviving. Turns out a few rather lethargic wasps were still buzzing around.

So, doing what any brave (or stupid) person would do - I hosed them down - partly to see what would happen, partly to get it off my house and mostly because I wanted to know what wasps' nests looked like inside.

I found out. They look like this and this part DOES not come off the house with a bunch of water. Still a few wasps were buzzing around, so I sprayed the other can of kill-them-dead spray.

During the break at the Willow Conference last week I was telling Zac and Michael about my wasps' nest. 

"The thing is," I told them, "as horrible as it is, I admire the beauty of it. When you look at the circular pattern of the protective 'paper' shell and realize that a bunch of wasps made that to protect their eggs - well, how could anyone think that happened by chance? And then you see the perfect circular shape of the nest itself and well, you know there has to be a Designer behind the design.

Zac said he had been thinking about creation a lot lately, too - every time he sees a plant poke  between the cracks of a sidewalk.

 He said, "Lately I have been amazed at the little things I see that make me stop and really think about God’s creation. No matter how smart we all think we are and all the wondrous things we can do, we can’t create so much as a speck of life. But when we look around our planet, life is everywhere. From miles deep in the ocean where life exists around a thermal vent, to a crack in the sidewalk just big enough to hold a little earth and a seed. We see life spring up in every corner and in every environment possible."

Take a moment.

Look around you ...

Psalm 18:23: The LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

HAMLET ON FACEBOOK

Jeff found this and posted it on our book club site. We've had a lot of discussions about Facebook at work lately - people are signing or are debating the advantages of signing on.

So, I found this clever - the saga of Hamlet in Facebook lingo. (Read the rest of Hamlet's saga here  - http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/7/30schmelling.html)'

           

     HAMLET

(FACEBOOK NEWS
FEED EDITION).

BY SARAH SCHMELLING

- - - -

Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.

Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.

The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.

Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.

Hamlet's father is now a zombie.

- - - -

The king poked the queen.

The queen poked the king back.

Hamlet and the queen are no longer friends.

Marcellus is pretty sure something's rotten around here.

Hamlet became a fan of daggers.

LEADERSHIP SUMMIT AT WILLOWCREEK

For the past two days I've been at The Leadership Summit at WillowCreek. Sixty thousand people listened to the speakers talk about leadership. (The auditorium in South Barrington seats 7,200. Others watched around the world by satellite.)

I couldn't begin to summarize all we heard - everything from a girl who was a Compassion child who is now getting her masters at Moody and sponsoring her own Compassion child to Brad Anderson CEO of Best Buy.  So, I think I'll simply share eight random thoughts from the different Speakers.

1. Bill Hybels quoting Abraham Lincoln: The best way to destroy my enemy is turn him into my friend.

2. Gary Haugen, presdent and CEO of International Justice Mission: God did not come to make us safe, but to make us brave.

3. (Gary again): How do we explain to people lost in slavery, poverty and child prostitution that God is good? It's up to us. We are the light of the world. God doesn't have a plan B.

4. Bill George, professor at Harvard Business School: The problem with a fresh start is that wherever you go, you take yourself with you.

5. Craig Groeshel, pastor of Lifechurch TV: Failure is not an option, but a necessity.

6. (Craig again): If you're not failing, you've stopped dreaming. You'll eventually stop learning and you will stop growing.

7. Chuck Colson, chairman and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries: We've transferred Christianity from truth to therapy.

8. Brad Anderson: CEO of Best Buy: Treasure the people. Take your faith to new places.

THE MIGHTY WARRIOR ATTACKS

This is why I'm glad I don't have a picture for tonight's post.

After sitting in the Willow Creek Leadership Summit all day and hearing that a sign of a good leader is to be decisive and do the thing that's not always the easiest thing to do. (Not sure those speakers were talking about wasps' nest, but who knows? At least I was listening.)

And after being assured by my lovingly concerned brother that these wasps were not the aggressive type of wasps, I decided to do battle.

I checked out the internet for ways to get rid of wasps' nests and watched several YouTube offerings. (I especially like the one where the kid put dynamite in the nest and then well ...

anyhow. I decided NOT to be a follower and use THAT method.)

So, I went to Target and got the Value Pack of Wasp killer which meant two cans.( I did notice it was the only package left, so I'm thinking those wasps are taking over the town.)

The label promised to do the trick.

First, it promised to KILL THEM DEAD, which is so much more preferable than killing them alive. and then, it also made the astounding promise that it will kill them for up to four weeks. So, I guess five weeks from now they'll all come alive again. So, I'll mark that on my calendar.

After talking to my fellow conference attenders today, they told me NOT to do this by myself in case the wasps took off after me and I got stung.

However, I was feeling brave. So I put on tennis shoes, long pants, my hooded jacket, one of Ken's face masks he used when carving poisonous wood, and gardening gloves. (WHICH IS WHY I AM GLAD NO ONE WAS HERE WITH A CAMERA.)  And I went out there and sprayed an entire can of Kills-them-Dead-for-four-weeks-value-pack wasp spray. (Made by Johnson Wax, RACINE, WI)

So, now we'll wait and see.

MY NEW NEIGHBORS

Well, here it is in all it's glory.

The good news: the reason I didn't see it before this is because the location is kind of tucked away in a corner of my house. I haven't seen any wasps in the patio area.

The bad news: I probably should get rid of it.

If I can get rid of it in one piece - I can see it being a great homeschool visual.

HELP!

I just discovered a HUGE wasps nest attached to my house. Anyone have any ideas how to get rid of it without ... well, painlessly?

A COUPLE PICTURES

Tonight I was looking for a picture I needed. I didn't find it, but I found some others to share.

Remember I told you about going to Nebraska - and Ken, Kelli and Jeff rode an elephant while I talked writing? Here they are.

Then I found this other adorable picture. Awana used to have banquets every fall. One fall they did a scenario where they had a child/teen from each age group play a part. Here the precious Cubbie (otherwise known as Beth) sings "Jesus Loves Me" in front of hundreds of people. So cute.

MY DAY

Well, after last night's storms it took me an hour and fifteen minutes to get to work this morning. The worse damage was about halfway there - although six stoplights were out all along my route. I would wait for ten minutes to get through a non-working light - go at regular speed for a little while and then hit another non-working light. Go again and hit another one.

The worse intersection had downed powerlines and trees on the ground. I saw several huge trees that had been blown over.

Work itself was fine - with an added, extra special bonus - it was Awana Day at Chipotle - that meant we all got free meals. Yep, just walked in, handed them our ticket and we were able to get anything on the menu. That was extremely kind of them.

Traffic on the way home wasn't much better - so I got off the main route and did the back roads home - which wasn't too bad.

So - all in all - a day!

OH, MY, DELICIOUS!

Besides the lake, Racine had kiringle.                                                                                                             Not the plastic, tasting yucky stuff you get in the grocery store. Even though the display case says "Racine Kingle," that's NOT Racine Kringle.

O&H has the best Kringle in the world - or at least in the U.S.  Founded in 1949 by Christian Olesen, a Danish immagrant, this is super good stuff. The fourth generation of the family now owns the bakery. 

O&H was close to where we lived - and where I always went when we had out-of-town company. Just walking into the place made you forget calories existed. 

Across town, Larsen's Bakery also claims to be the original Racine Kringle headquarters  - and their's is good, too.  In fact, Barbara Bush visited Larsen's when her husband was running for president. I was working across the street at the time and was able to witness the visit.

Anyhow, if you want something sweet and delicious - order a Kringle from O&H. Go on their Website and check it out. 

My favorites? Chocolate, cherry and my very, VERY favorite - almond macaroon.

HOW WE GOT OUR KIDS TO MEMORIZE

Northside didn't have Awana when we moved to Racine. They had their own clubs called Calvary Girls and Calvary Boys.The girls learned cooking (and maybe sewing, I can't remember). I'm not sure what the boys did.

So, Ken invited the Awana missionary to come and give a presentation - which he did. The people were interested, but there weren't all that many kids, so it didn't get anywhere. Ken let it go. Not a problem.

But we wanted our personal kids in Awana - and this DID cause a problem. There were two churches in town that had Awana - but they met on Wednesday night and one thing we felt strongly about was supporting our own church.

We kept searching and  found a little church west of town that had Awana on Thursday nights. The church had built a new building down the road from their old building. The church was in the middle of acres and acres of fields and when you went there at night, you could see it from miles away. The church (the Awana building) didn't have a name on it - it just said Awana over the door.

So, we figured we could ride out as a family, drop the kids off, then Ken and I would head up to the mall in South Milwaukee - we'd have about 45-60 minutes to walk around and then go back and pick up the kids.

We talked to the people at the church and explained the situation and they welcomed Kelli and Jeff..

There was one problem. Our kids didn't mind learning their verses - but we had just taken them away from their home in Michigan and put them in a second church - and now we were saying they had to go to Awana at still another church. They were both fairly shy, so this wasn't all that easy for them.

We thought up a plan to make it be a little more fun. The deal was this. Each night they each said two sections, they could take turns choosing a fast food place where we would stop for supper on the way home.

If they didn't say two sections, we'd go home and have soup or peanut butter or grilled cheese or something.

Good deal - they liked it.

Until the night that the boys in Jeff's group all decided to say sections and the leader didn't think he would have time to listen to Jeff.

At which point, Jeff announced, "If I don't say my verses, my parents won't feed me!"

Fortunately, the leader had gotten to know us well enough that he was fairly sure that wasn't the true story - so he asked Ken about it. Fortunately, Ken had been asked to do Council Time the next week - so he could explain to everyone that we really DID feed our kids whether they said their sections or not.

By the way, they made sure they said two sections EVERY week they attended that little church.

 

STUFF (IN THE CAR)

This is what's true about my life. I'm busy. 

I work, I write, I get together with friends, I go to church, I mow the lawn, I pay the bills, I ignore the weeds, I do laundry, I ... well, I get crazy sometimes. 

I have so much to do, but when I get a day like today with a few free hours, I don't know where to start, so I walk around wondering where I should begin and then I don't do anything. You ever feel like that?

I needed a goal this morning. I needed something that really NEEDED to be done and would only take me a couple hours to do.

Duh! The CAR.

OK, the car and I have been many places the last few months and a lot of those trips have included six 4-8 year olds (whom I won't mention by name).  

(Well, a lot of those rides have included my mom, too, but I don't think I can blame the mess on her.)

My car has gotten so messy that I can't even offer to drive when we go out to lunch at work - even though I have one of the bigger cars. 

I was thinking about trading it in this fall - but then decided to  put out the money to get it overhauled (just routine stuff, but expensive when all done at once.)  I changed my mind about a new car for two reasons:

1. I like my car.

2. I didn't want to give the munckins an opportunity to mess up another car - I wanted the kids to feel comfortable without me worrying about every scratch, dropped french fry or upset stomach (no, truly, you don't want to hear THAT story.)

So - I got the paper towels and Windex and vacuum and got to work.

Here are the found treasures ... if any of them belong to YOU, let me know!

By the way, we did not actually ATTEND the Hodag Festival, just collected brochures about it.

My cutest in-Grandma's-car story from the summer came from the up-north 5yo.

 

The 8yo and I stayed overnight at Jeff and Cindy's on the way to camp. Being the only boy with three giggly girls was getting to the 5yo. So, that evening when we went to the restaurant (White Stag, of course), the girls all rode with Cindy. (We couldn't get everyone in one car.)

Jeff and the 5yo rode with me. The 5yo got into the car and then Jeff went to help Cindy get the three girls buckled in.

In the silence, the 5yo let out a BIG sigh. 

"Finally," he said, "I'm away from the noisy girls."

He paused, then added. "Of course, you're a girl, too, Grandma - but you're ok."

Wow, talk about melting your heart.  Let's hear the ahhhhhhs ....

STATE FAIR

Last night we went to see State Fair - another presentation by Overshadowed Productions - which I've told you about before.

Overshadowed Productions performances take place in an old white church located across from the midtown park in Itasca.  Again, this facility is so small - and to put on major musicals and dramas is truly a feat - plus a great way to make your audience feel part of the scene! (For those of you at Central - think maybe half as big as the auditorium - if that.)

About 30 actors turned the front of the church into a true, state fair scene - complete with pig and midway games. Again, they did a great job with great music. The audience particularly liked the songs: "More than Just a Friend" (about hog) and and "All I Owe Ioway" - a full-production number.

State Fair ends this weekend - but they're doing The Hiding Place in the fall.

For a unique "dramatic" experience, I would suggest you go to one of the Overshadowed Productions.