Where has the summer gone?

Let’s see…So much has happened this summer, I’ll just do a recap:

June: Duncan and Mackenzie went to Camp Lebanon and had a blast, as always. We found some Monarch butterfly caterpillars up there and brought them back and watched them change.

July: We celebrated the Fourth with the Weniger/Pelach clan. They came and hung out in "our" backyard. We roasted hot dogs and played with Jared’s model airplane and then went over to Lakeville High School to watch the fireworks.

Jud and I took the BBC teens on their first mission trip to Chicago with World Changers. Definitely a life-changing event. Jud put together a video of it, that tells the whole story. 23 people got saved as a result of the ministry. The teens stepped outside their comfort zones and really worked hard. Tara fell in love with the music guy, Michael, a.k.a. Skinny Jeans. He
sang the coolest wake-up song: "Oh, there’s no more time to sleep…"
and he also serenaded Tara for her birthday. I think I have never
laughed so hard! They are such an awesome group. We celebrated at the end of the trip with a stop in Chicago. We did all the touristy things and ate Chicago pizza. Also, as a bonus, they were filming Terminator 3 there and we saw lots of crazy props (like burned out cars and crashed buses).

August: The beginning of August was nuts. I was in the middle of working my tail off preparing for VBS, when my family in MO called to say that my Grandpa had died. He’d had a stroke and never recovered. I had to turn over several unfinished projects and just leave and drive the kids and myself 9 hours down to Neosho for the funeral. I was glad I went, of course. My mom had everything all handled already and since the family is small, there wasn’t a lot of company to prepare for. The funeral was held at the funeral home and the message was preached by the chaplain of the nursing home. The man, Gary, who had led my Grandpa to Christ, sang a song. The burial, though, was really cool. Since he’d served in two wars, he got a full military funeral. Uniformed Navy personnel saluted the flag-covered coffin. There was a gun salute. Then, a ceremonial folding of the flag which was presented with much emotion to my mom. Very cool. They called him an American hero and thanked my mom for her "daddy’s" service. There was not a dry eye in the place. Good-bye Grandpa. See you in heaven!

VBS went fine without me. Several kids accepted Christ. I got in on the last day and got to see them turn Jud into a Pastor’s Pizza. I was very happy to see how folks picked up the slack and made it awesome.

Duncan had his 12th birthday on the last day of VBS. Easy party. He just wanted his friends to stay overnight and play video games and ping pong. In fact, the less involved Mom and Dad were, the better. Then, the next week, he went to Paidea Academy, a year-round charter school in Apple Valley that goes through eighth grade. It’s been a good transition for him. He seems to be adapting well. Having a hard time with all that structure, though. :) and homework. But he’s managing it.



Jud left for a week of Fishing for Men. While he was gone, we had a tornado touch down just a block or two away from us. I was awaken by thunder and by frightened kids in my bed. The internet said it was just a bad thunderstorm, so I thought nothing of it. Until the power went out. We went downstairs and I checked the Internet (using my phone) again. Still, nothing to worry about. Once the storm blew over, then the storm alarm went off. Still, I figured it was nothing. The next morning, as I drove Duncan to school, I realized it had indeed been something. Something bad. It was an EF1 tornado that took out trees, blew out garages and ripped off roofs. No houses were flattened or anything, and amazingly, no one was hurt. Still, it was crazy to see how close it had come to us.

Now that Jud’s back, we’re turning our attention to Lauren’s seventh birthday party and our Florida vacation!

Loving our Garden!

The weather has been perfect for gardening this year. Hot days and rainy nights. Everything has gone wild in the garden! We’ve put up green beans and zucchini. We also got some cheap corn and froze that. We canned dill pickles and sweet pickles and LOTS of tomatoes. We also canned pears from a friend’s pear tree. The girls have been an awesome help this year. We make a great team. One of those days, it was 95 degrees outside. We had to can tomatoes and the house is not air conditioned. No problem. I set up all the fans and got ready. But since we have a gas stove, the fans kept blowing on the flame and the water wouldn’t boil. So, we had to turn off all the fans and just work fast and sweaty. How did those pioneers do it? We rewarded ourselves with a trip to the pool afterwards!

Duncan turns 12