What We've Been Up To...

Football, of the flag variety, for the three little boys. Their last game is this Saturday (said with a giant sigh of relief!)

The Road Runner: Becca ran her first 5K! She has been training for this with her dad every morning this summer. She placed 3rd in her age category and received a plaque. We are so proud of her!

Camping: Three families from our Care group (plus a few "extras" we found along the way :-) camped together. John forced encouraged me to break my vow of NO TENT CAMPING, and I have to say, you just couldn't have asked for more beautiful camping weather. It was especially beautiful at night when John unzipped the window and we lay squashed together in the center of our deflating air mattress and watched the stars. Beautiful, I tell you! The only picture I remembered to take was this one, of John and his compadre, Ted. But I suppose if one picture could sum up the entire weekend, this would be it. You know that thing about too many cooks in the kitchen? All I can say is that it's a good thing we had two campstoves and the great outdoors. But the food, it was fabulous!The Birthday Boy: Ben is Ten! Don't let that quiet exterior fool you- he's a ham. He had a big day: breakfast at McDonald's with dad, a big shopping expedition with GranMartha, and then Daddy D grilled for everyone. Mmmmm!

And speaking of grilling, our town hosted its annual barbeque festival, which is everything a small-town festival ought to be. Unfortunately, that was also our camping weekend, but never fear... I still managed to sneak downtown and get a chocolate-covered frozen banana while the kids were at choir practice. (I have such a weakness for chocolate and bananas... sigh)

AND... John and I took a long weekend this past weekend and went to the Zoe Worship conference in Nashville. It was wonderful! We Pricelined a hotel and ended up at a Hyatt Place, which we both loved- highly recommended! We shared some great eating with some of our favorite friends, and came away refocused and energized. John even got to go to World Market (which is probably his favorite store after Gander Mountain) and do some shopping for Oktoberfest, which is coming soon (rolling eyes).

This week, co-op is on break and John is out of town, interviewing potential engineering co-op students. I was really looking forward to doing some projects with my mom over the break, but they went to stay with Daddy D's mother for a few days. But right now, I have taken all the kids to AWANA and the house is ALL MINE. Just me, the cat, and a fabulous new "Mulled Cider" candle from Walmart. No noise, no TV... heaven! And I am off to enjoy the quiet.