The Boys

We had a packed full weekend.

We began the weekend with a game night at some friends' house. It was a lot of fun.

On Saturday, I spoke at a school (John School) for first time offenders of soliciting prostitutes. I spoke about how their actions cause the demand for human trafficking. I educated them in general on human trafficking. It was a really interesting experience that I am glad I did. I had not spoken in public in quite a while and I was visibly nervous. I am hoping my nerves will be a little calmer next time.

Once I got home, it was off to TPAC for Say You! Say You! is a NPR show that I would describe as an improv word game show. The Farewell Drifters were the house band for the show. It was a lot of fun to be there for the taping. I had no idea anything about the show, but I was laughing a lot. If you want to listen out for it, it should be airing in early October. Exact dates depend on your area.

Sunday was church and then off to Bowling Green for the Newgrass Music Festival. The boys did a great job! And the weather was beautiful.

We ended the weekend with a neighborhood board meeting for which we are both now board members of. Zach is treasurer and I am secretary.

Updates Around the Home

The other day when I closed my cell phone, I heard an interesting noise. I opened and closed it several times to try to figure out what was going on. While doing this, a piece of plastic popped off and now I have to use a rubberband to keep my phone closed:D

Now, take a look at what our garden looks like....

After several trips out of town, I came home to find the garden overtaken by weeds. That was a few weeks ago now. Needless to say, I think I am done with the garden for this year.

One last update is on our dining room. Here are our newly covered chair cushions and new curtains. We are getting there, but not quite done yet.

Forgotten Tale

I forgot one story from Boyd's that I would like to share...

Zach and I slept in the corner of the main living room on a futon. At some point during the first night, I heard a familiar sound that I wanted to ignore. I tried to ignore it, hoping I was wrong. After some amount of time, Zach confirmed my fear when he grumbled "I think Smokey (the Bevill's cat) is chasing something". He turned on the light and sure enough, Smokey was chasing a mouse. Zach asked me what to do. I told him to get a towel to catch the mouse with (I had seen this done many times in my own house growing up with chipmunks our cats brought in). As he got up to get the towel, I got out of bed to check out the situation. As Zach was coming back with the towel, I mentioned, "Aww, he is kinda cute (referring to the mouse)". At this, Zach threw me the towel. Later he said it was because he thought I should be in charge of catching it if I thought it was cute. I think he just didn't want to do it. Smokey had the mouse under her paws and I made my first attempt and failed. I don't think I captured the little guy until my third attempt. I wanted Zach to take a picture of me with the mouse, but he was not amused by that idea. I took the mouse outside and released him. It took me awhile to get to sleep because I was laughing so hard at Zach throwing the towel at me without any explanation. Good memories:D

Out of Town

I keep thinking we are back for good when we decide to go out of town again. This past weekend, Zach and I ended up visiting some friends in KY. Zach played in Frankfurt, KY at an amazing little cafe. They did great job and I had some delicious dessert there.

Since we were up that way, we stayed with our friends. It was a very nice, relaxing weekend. I did a horrible job documenting the weekend. I only took 2 photos of Zach on our friend's motorcycle. Other than sitting on their motorcycle, we went out the country to some of their family's land. They have this beautiful log cabin that family members built. I loved just sitting out on the front porch. There was also some time spent playing (for me, listening to) bluegrass. We also ate good food, listened to some live music, went to the local farmer's market, etc.

What another great weekend to add to the summer:D

End of Summer

Summer is officially over for me. I began work back in the schools at the beginning of this week. It is fun to have an end and beginning of the school year. The end is always getting closer, but the beginning causes a lot of confusion and requires a lot of organization. The last hooray before starting back with school was traveling with my in-laws to WI.

Every year (I think for the past 18 years), my in-laws go up to the Northwoods of WI to spend a week in a cabin. There are many cabins in the resort area that are filled with families who have been coming as long as my in-laws, some longer. There is no TV or wireless in the cabins leaving time to spend time together. This magical place is called Boyd's.

The days revolve around family style meals served in the main lodge. In between meals, time is passed by napping, fishing, reading, puzzling, bike riding, washers, etc.

This year was as amazing as any with a few special memories...

Giving my father-in-law stitches after a muskie tried to bite off his thumb. He is a doctor and I attempted to follow his directions in how to use the sterile materials he always has on hand just in case someone needs stitches. It is not surprising that with 4 boys, this was not the first case of stitches at Boyd's and probably won't be the last. You might be asking, how were you chosen for such a task? Honestly, I was the only who was excited by the thought and so I was kinda self-elected:D

I got to know my grandparents-in-law much better. There is a lot more to them than what I had gotten to know at family gatherings. Much of this time together was spent on attempting to put together puzzles. I helped work on 3 different puzzles over the week (they kept seeming to get harder). One thing I learned about my grandfather-in-law is that he really likes to sing. He was always singing a new tune, most of which I had never heard before. One that I helped him remember the words to was "If You're Happy and You Know It".

I also had a great time participating in boot camp and the kid's relay races. I legitimately lost the sack race to a group of young boys:( Thankfully Zach was on my team in the blind row boat race, so that we could beat Mark, his brother, and Mark's girlfriend. No worries, we didn't race any children in that relay.

As with every year, I got to spend some great time with my in-laws. They are amazing and I feel so blessed to have in-laws that I look forward to spending a week with.

Guatemala

I am going to attempt to sum up the week for you.

First let me start with saying that this mission trip was like none that I have been on before. For one, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I was just along for the ride. Another difference is that I felt we were there to support a church that is doing great work there. We went to be servants however that happened to be. The days were very loose with many different things going on and it was up to you to find a place to be. We didn't have an agenda of things that had to be completed. We really had the opportunity to take in their culture and just love each other throughout the week.

We were involved with a construction project for which we laid rebar and then tied it together, transferred cement blocks to the second floor by heaving them up to someone on the second level, mixed concrete on the street and then shoveled it into small pales to be passed to the roof assembly line style. Construction was very different from anything I have done in the past.

We also had the opportunity to help in the kitchen preparing our meals. This included peeling vegetables (including gigantic carrots) with butcher knives, attempting to hand make tortillas, washing dishes, sweeping and mopping (mops were brooms with towels over them).

There was also playing with the children in the street. And taking care packages to the children that are sponsored by individuals in our church. This is probably what impacted me the most. The sponsored children live for notes from their sponsored families. We went into many homes where photos of their sponsored families were hanging on their cement block walls with the most recent letter. I had the privilege of being a face to represent their sponsor and to let them know how much their sponsor loves them. Some sponsors were there with us and got to meet their families for the first time. There were a lot of tears.

One of the biggest thanks about the trip was the team. The team worked great together. There was pretty much no complaining. People were sick, people got hurt or had a hard time, but just kept going without complaint and a lot of time with good spirits. Everyone found where they felt they wanted to be (kitchen, construction, playing with kids, taking a break, etc) and no one complained that someone wasn't where they were supposed to be or that too many people were in one place. Overall, a great atmosphere to work in.

The last two days, we got to participate in some adventures. One day we went to Lake Atitlan to go ziplining and on a boat ride. The boat ride was my favorite. Lake Atitlan is a lake surrounded by volcanoes and is actually a volcano that blew it's top. The water was so clear and the surroundings were amazing. I could have stayed in the middle of that lake forever. The other adventure we took was climbing a volcano to see hot lava flowing. I had no idea how hard it would be to climb a volcano. Think of trying to climb a mile high gravel pile. And, I happened to be very sick that day, so overall a rough climb, but well worth the trip to stand about 2 feet from flowing lava! For those who were not sick, they toasted sandwiches over cracks in the rocks and roasted marshmallows. An unforgettable experience.

PS Some of my favorite ways I got to experience the culture was by carrying a sack of potatoes on my head from the market and jumping onto the back of a chicken bus. Feel free to ask me more about these next time you see me:D

So Much, So Little Time

I am sorry that I have not written in a very long time. I was in Guatemala for over a week and then when I returned, I worked full days and my computer broke. There are several keys on my keyboard that are not functioning which makes it very hard to type. I want to write a post about Guatemala, but first I want to catch up on a few other things.

First, the night before I left for Guatemala, Zach and I dressed up like cows in order to get a free meal at Chick-fil-a.

That same night, we attempted to begin to recover our dining room chairs. We only got one completed...and they haven't been touched since. Pictures to come when we finish. I better start working on it.

In addition, we hung my painting up in our bedroom.

This last week, "Birmingham" reached #1 on the XM/Sirius Bluegrass Song Charts. Way to go Farewell Drifters!

Last night, Zach put the finishing touches to the pot that was burnt many weeks ago. He did a great job!

And we have harvested all of this since returning:D