Really, July?

It has gotten hot here. And it's been hot all summer, but now it's just oppressive. I love love love living in the South, but every now and again we have a summer that's just KILLER! Don't get me wrong, I'll take this over the heat in Arizona any day, but GUH it would be nice to walk out the door and not want to walk right back inside!

This summer has been exhausting; there's so much more to deal with than there was last summer and I'm so tired of people expecting a thousand things from me that they know I can't do. If you want hours, don't take days off. If you're bothered by something, mention it instead of letting it fester. The usual obvious stuff! But, after school is about to start and hopefully it will be a little less stressful.

We found out last weekend that Ana and Valerie were back down in Memphis; we'd assumed they were staying in Indiana. I'm hoping we get to go up soon since we couldn't afford to last weekend. It'd be amazing to see them again, and we promised Ana we'd see her before China and Mitike got here. We're not sure about when Matt and Valerie will be able to go get them, but it's looking like it might be a little bit longer so that could give us some time. We keep trying to get everyone to come visit us in Atlanta now that we have extra bedrooms and some great new Ethiopian restaurants under our belt, but so far no go!

September we're going to take a week off which will hurt financially, but we need a break. I'm planning on going up to see my Aunt and Uncle in NC since we haven't seen them since the wedding and the last time we were up there was right after my wisdom teeth surgery so I wasn't very with it! We can go up the week of Jeremy's birthday and maybe have a little bit of a honeymoon (finally...) and meet my cousin's new baby girl, Blakely! November might be excellent because all the school districts have Thanksgiving WEEK off and we may not have to open for Thanksgiving! That means we could go to Indiana early since it's our year to be there for Thanksgiving and here for Christmas and spend plenty of time with Josh and Sarah, and maybe Ana, Matt, and Valerie if the paperwork comes in at the last minute!

I'm excited for the rest of the year. Now that we're (generally) moved in to our new place, I think it'll be easier for us to cook at home a little more and spend less money going out! We're also going to try to get on top of the job search for Jeremy! Hopefully we can find him something he really enjoys and that will get us a little more income... that would be helpful for our travel expenses for sure!

Well, that's enough for now, hopefully I'll have a little more time to keep y'all updated!!

Ciao for now!

Spirit Week (last week of summer!)

Ever since I was a kid, Spirit Week has been my favorite week of summer! There's cheerleading, games, trivia, and sportsmanship and I was really proud of everyone involved this summer! 

Yellow team gets their bandanas

Green Lanterns!

Yellow Thundercats!

Vica gets mummy wrapped for the relay race

Drawing contest in the relay race

Sing the whole Star Spangled Banner! Hilarity ensued...

Izzy, Charlie, Scott, and Katherine made their own version of the Potter Puppet Pals!

Ice Cream Sandwich Eating Relay!

Chris and Sydney

SLIP N SLIDE!

Biggest water balloon ever!

Octavia and Chris

Me reading trivia

Yellow Trivia

Green Trivia

Freeze Dance contestants

The whole camp-- the teams tied and won a pizza party and ice cream!!

Aquarium Week

Older kids hamming it up

More older kid-- ALSO hamming it up!

Dolphin tank

DOLPHIN!!!!

Dolphin Tales "stage"-- the show was AWESOME!

Seahorse! 

Jellyfish! 

Candler: Miss Meg?
Me: Yes, sweetie?

Candler: Are those jellyfish freakin' you out? 'Cause they're kinda freakin' me out!

Hank flips through the digital fish book with Josh

Seal!

Claire, Sydney, and Sarah Jane

I adore the Georgia Aquarium-- one day we'll go down there to just take pictures! LOVE!

Bad Boys Bad Boys

So the kids have had some understanding issues this summer-- we've heard everything from, "Well, nobody said it was theirs so I took it-- that's not stealing!" to "Go ahead, call the police, they can't do anything to me; I'm just a kid!" SO. I called one of our after school parents who's a captain with the City of Decatur Police Department and she sent over a very nice officer to talk to them about safety and educate them on the law. The kids really enjoyed it and we had some fantastic quotes from the little ones!The big ones... they were mostly obsessed with pepper spray... not sure whether to be worried about that or not!

Lake Lanier Week

Lake Lanier is clearly not a place to take a camera-- but it was a great day with a great result...

SLEEPING CHILDREN!!

Miss Meg and the OP's

This post is dedicated to Sophia, who does this sort of thing every day-- now I know why! Bob, our Elder Congregational Care Pastor, is one of my dear friends at the church. While other people on staff barely recognize me after nearly three years there, Bob makes an effort to be truly Christian in his daily life and is genuinely friendly to everyone he meets! The OP's (Old People) in the Young At Heart bible study group are huh-larious and definitely live up to their name! Bob's wife and I were on the blue van for their annual trip to Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers and we had a blast! It was like taking the kids on a field trip, but I didn't have to worry about losing any of them and I could talk back! Next job? OP's. 

The monastery was beautiful, though I somehow missed the trail down to the sanctuary building, but what I did get to see was enough to justify the trip! All the new buildings were built with the generosity of the Goizetta family who funded the business school at Emory-- probably in the top five families of Atlanta! They have an introductory film, a hallway with the history of monasticism, and the old barn they built by hand when the monastery was first founded has been turned in to a museum... Fr. Tom, below, remembers building the barn all by hand and under a strict vow of silence. Not a single person spoke during the construction of the building and it came out beautifully! 

Entryway

Fr. Tom, who is 83 and one of the first recruits to the monastery

Holy Water!

Fr. Tom talks about the changes in rules regarding when/if monks can leave the monastery

Bob looks at the directory of monasteries world wide

They have a beautiful Japanese garden and an amazing Bonsai collection!

Being in Conyers, they found a lot of anthropological gems during their initial build!

The hats, robes, and boots in the original barn

Hand made stained glass in the original barn

A nice courtyard outside the refactory

High Museum of Art

In an ill-fated attempt to culture the kids, we took them to the High Museum of Art here in Atlanta-- they weren't too bad, but MAN they can't see two feet in front of them to save their lives! Here are a few shots; I had to take them with my phone since my camera was dead and I'd forgotten to replace the SD card in the camp camera... but they're not too shabby!

The atrium-- one of my favorite views of the museum!

Group one waiting for their docent

Group two learning about the High

Learning about math and art

The Monroe Warhols!

One of my favorite statues-- I love marble!

A horse made of scrap metal-- the kids were FASCINATED!

This docent was fantastic-- he was explaining that this delicate statue was carved out of a huge hunk of marble

Another beautiful statue-- they have an amazing collection!

The girls loved the quilts hanging on the wall, which made me very happy-- my great grandmother was an amazing quilter and it's wonderful that they're learning that it's functional art!