July 2010

Yes, it's been a while. No, I don't have a good excuse. And I'm typing on my mom's keyboard, so excuse any typos.....

For a summer in which the girls didn't go to camp ALL summer, it's been incredibly busy. They did participate for one week in camp at Dominican High School (where Maggie starts in the fall). Maggie's age group selected activities in which to participate, Abby's age group had assigned activities. We carpooled with two other families -- one of Maggie's friends from school and an acquaintance of mine who live near-by. Worked out nicely in that no one had to drive all the time. I went to the finaly program (Abby did a dance and a cheer) and got to see all the artwork they'd made during the week -- some pretty nice stuff!

Abby really improved on her swimming with the team. She learned how to dive and flip-turn and her strokes are stronger. She really seemed to enjoy it and wants to both be on her school's team this fall and probably do it again next summer.

I completed a Bible Study on my own -- some of the women from my church meet during the week in the evenings, but it doesn't fit with my commitments right now. This summer they were doing a study on "Becoming a Woman of Worth" that interested me -- studying 8 women in the Bible and how they are examples of traits to be emulated today. Even though I didn't participate in the group, I did the study on my own. I missed the discussion like I get with my school-year day-time group, but did find a lot of value in the study in terms of how I want to develop myself.

The girls and I are currently at my parents' house in North Carolina. We flew up with Tom 2 weeks ago and then spent a week in Pigeon Forge with my sister and her family (unfortunately, my brother-in-law threw his back out and was unable to come -- in fact, Kris drove home for 2 nights to be with him and get him to an MRI before returning). We had cabins across a small lane from each other and all had a great time. Tom and I took a driving trip to the National Park and went to Cades Cove. We also enjoyed massage on our deck one morning during a rain storm -- pretty neat! We hit the Dollywood splash park and had fun on the water slides. And we enjoyed the Dixie Stampede together. Did some touring of Gatlinburg and some went to the Aquarium, some went to a Science/Discovery museum, etc. Dinners at the cabins which each had hot-tub (my dad actually got in one!), jacuzzies, pool table, air hockey, etc. LOTS of fun for all!

We got back to mom and dad's Friday and Tom headed for home Saturday morning. Sigh. The girls and I have managed to keep a bit busy. We've done some shopping (girls with gramma, a few trips to Target to replace broken flip flops and other fun things, shoe store with sales). Abby thought she wanted to try water skiing again so we headed out yesterday. I hadn't been for 12 years and managed to get up on my second try (not quite enough "oomph" to the acceleration on the first try and my rear-end was stuck in the water!). Stayed up a short while and demonstrated to Abby how easy it is to simply drop the rope and "fall". Mom then took a go and also got up on the second try and stayed up much longer than I (this after celebrating a birthday Sunday!). The boat was acting up (probably the starter) and Abby decided she was a bit apprehensive, so we decided to take a ride instead of her skiing. Which was fun until we were almost back to the house and it started to rain. For some reason, they all thought it funny to see my hidden completely under my towel to stay dry until it rained more and then mom and Abby did about the same (Maggie took shelter under the dash board). The thunder waited until we we'd docked the boat -- thankful for small blessings!

Today was our regular shopping trip. I'm really not much of a shopper -- I go to buy what I need, and don't like to "go shopping" to look around. I like to go with my sister -- we have a system -- we go into the store together, split up to find what we like, meet at the dressing room, and continue on. This year we included Maggie for the first time -- she's wearing "people" clothes and so she got invited (much to the dismay of Abby and Mackenzie -- her sister and cousin). Kris and I managed to buy a couple of the same things and all three of us bought the same shirt -- a dark purple knit tope with flowers on it. We managed to change before we got back to the house so that we could all walk in in the same shirt......

The girls and I head back home Saturday -- mom is flying with us as she's going to my aunt's house to help out after her surgery. The girls will go to a week of scrapbooking camp next week and then we've only 2 more before school starts. Yikes!

Hope your summer is going well and that you're enjoying it!