Interesting day at camp

Well, this has been a wonderful day! The kids all went to vacation bible school, and then we headed to my mom and Ray's camp for the afternoon. Adam, Nick, Taylor, Sarah, and Laura swam all afternoon, while Tim, Mom, and I visited.... actually, mom and I sat and watched my brother bust his butt working on the new fireplace! LOL! Anyway, Ray showed up with Bobbi Jo, Sonja, and Monique around 5pm, and we had a wonderful time visiting and having a barbeque. Here's a pic of my sweet Bobbi and her beautiful girls!

We had a kind of freaky incident this afternoon at the camp that upset the kids pretty good. There is always a family of ducks swimming around on the lake and visiting the camp in the afternoon/evening. Mamma Duck and her seven babies made their appearance as usual, and they came up on the lawn like they usually do. Here is a picture of them swimming in front of the camp (picture is weird because my kids were playing with the phone and messed up the settings.... grrrr).

Well... they came waddling up onto the lawn, and they were so cute! Ray walked over to them (wasn't chasing them, just walked over toward them) and they began to scatter. One duck headed over the bank onto the rocks to hop back in the lake, but to make a long story short, something happened on the rocks and he slipped and broke his neck. He was dead within 5 minutes. The kids were so upset. They held the duck tenderly patting it until it died. Then they held it some more for about 20 minutes AFTER it died. Monique and Taylor were praying for the duck, that God would bring it back to life, because nothing is too hard for God!! But when Taylor suggested CPR, Ray knew it was time to be done. He took the duck and gave it a proper "burial". Here's a picture of the kids holding him after he died.

Anyway, the kiddos are sleeping WELL tonight! They swam for hours! They sure got their exercise today!!

Tomorrow is our last day of vacation bible school, then the next day we head off to church camp! YAY!!! I'm so excited! The kids can't wait to get there! I will definitely fill you in on all the happenings when we get back! Love to you all!!!!

Joyful, Joyful!!

If this song does not get you on your feet worshipping our great God, then you don't know the joy of the Lord like I do!!!!!!!

Oh Happy Day!

When Jesus washed my sins away!!!! Praise God!!!

Visit to Maine

Well, here we are in Maine. It is sooooo good to see my grandparents! My grandfather is back in the hospital, so we went to see him there after spending the morning helping my grandmother at the house with laundry and such. Here is my sweet grandfather whom I love dearly!


His sense of humor is still very much intact, although he is in a considerable amount of pain. We enjoyed a very nice visit this afternoon, and I shall stop to see him again tomorrow before we leave to go back to VT.

My nephew Mark is ten years old, and had the unexpected adventure of landing this 41 inch, 24 pound striper this morning.... it's basically as big as he is!!!! How cool is that?


Sorry about the poor picture quality, but I am using my cell phone camera for these pictures.

My boys have been having so much fun with their cousins playing on the Wii (a new adventure for my boys). They have been laughing and enjoying each other a lot. I wish we lived closer together, but oh well. 200 miles isn't ALL bad! :-)

Tomorrow is Jen's baby shower. I am looking forward to that.

OH!!!! I almost forgot!!!! One very cool thing that happened today is that we went to the grand opening for the Mrs. and Me. This is an ice cream place I used to work at 20 years ago in high school and college. Frank and John Zazzera were my bosses. They ran the business for 30 years then sold the place and the new owner managed the place so poorly that it closed in 2000. Now new owners have bought and totally renovated the place, and they are using Frank and John's ice cream recipies.... it tastes as good as it did 20 years ago!!!!

Anyway, when we got there, Frank was there helping with the ice cream making for the grand opening, and I got a chance to sit and chat with him for about 20 minutes, reminiscing about old times, old friends, etc. etc. How fun! Here is the picture that was in the paper yesterday of owners old and new.


John is on the far left and Frank is next to him, 2nd person in. What a treat!

Okay. That is it for now. Those of you back home, have a fabulous time in the presence of the Lord tomorrow! HI BRO. AND SIS. NEVIUS!!!! And Pastor and Sue.... bring that baby into the world on time tomorrow! LOL! See you all when I get home.

She's baaaaaaack!

Ladies and gentlemen.... 30 days is a looooooooong time not to blog! Can you say "withdrawal"? I officially ended my computer fast today, and had 112 emails in my inbox to deal with, thus defeating the entire purpose of fasting to avoid wasting large amounts of time on this thing. *sigh*

Now... to be completely honest, my fast was DIFFICULT. There were days I struggled, and days I failed. Free Cell is a very addicting game. I use it as an escape. On days when escape was essential, I admit I would sit and play a couple of games. But the temptation to sit and surf or do email or blog was not as bad. Here are the things I missed blogging about:

1. hatching chicks in the first grade classrooms



2. the first grade bikeride field trip



3. the last day of school



4. my grandfather's rapidly declining health



5. the cub scout float in the Memorial Day parade



6. the cub scout picnic where Nick became a Bear cub and Adam earned his Readyman badge.



7. the barnyard frenzy play



8. the father's day hammock

Now, to blog about all those things now would defeat the whole purpose of the fast, because it would take me FOREVER! But two of them I just have to mention.

First, hatching chicks. What a very cool experience! All four of the first grade classes had incubators with a dozen eggs each. The students turned the eggs three times a day for 18 days, and we candled them to see how they were growing inside. Cool! Then, on day 20, the hatching frenzy began!

Out of a possible total of 48 chicks, we managed to successfully hatch 36! Here is a picture of them all stuffed in a cardboard box for their field trip back to the local university farm.


The second thing I would love to mention is the play entitled "The Barnyard Frenzy". It was written by a teacher at the elementary school to honor two teachers who passed away this year, Jane Mitchell, who died of cancer in June, and Alicia Shanks who was shot and killed at the school last August. The play was fabulous, and really brought a lot of healing to the staff and the community. Everyone was involved, even the janitors! It was so fun. If you want to watch it for yourself, click here to see it in its entirety. The ticket sales raised $7,500 toward a memorial to be built in memory of the teachers.

Okay. While I have been gone, I have been able to spend more time with the Lord, and more importantly, to point out to my boys that so much more gets accomplished when you are NOT glued to a screen. I believe they saw a difference in life here at home with mom wasting less time and praying more.

OH! One other thing I forgot to mention is the fact that Adam (my 10 year old) is having funky heart rhythms, and cardiology wired him up with a holter monitor to record his heartbeat for 24 hours. No word yet on what they found... I am trusting God that they find nothing! We prayed for him in Jesus' name, and I believe he is already healed. I'll keep you posted.

So... that is it. It's nice to be back! Lots coming up, including camp meeting! Will be fun! Talk to you lata!