PASSING OF TIME

Boy, I post on May 1 and before I know it, it is the middle of July. Lots of happenings and I won't bore you with details. Suffice to say that I have been to Missouri twice, driving the long distance and now have a new office at my house.

Tollie and I went to Missouri in May to take Mindy's belongings to her. She still had boxes of books, some odd and ends things and I took the high chair for her; not that she is ready for it, yet! But one day will want it so we took it to her. We had a great time there, although it was a short visit for the distance traveled.

On our way back, we came through Carthage and picked up boxes for our new Family Minister and his wife to help them move to Beaumont. They finally arrived a couple of weeks ago and we are looking forward to working with them in the ministry here.

We also made a quick decision on the way back to go to my parents house in Corsicana and go ahead and move their furniture into their house. We had planned to come home and then go back on the weekend, but it made more sense to take a few more days off and not come all the way home to turn around again. It worked out great. Tollie, my sister Cheryl and I were able to move all their furniture into their house. The only things we left in the store room were the "garage" items such as lawn equipment, tools, tool box and a huge stereo cabinet that we could not move. Everything else got moved and then mom and dad would be able to go over every day and work on getting their house in order.

I made it through June and planned to leave the end of June with Jamie and the girls in tow for another trip to Missouri. Of course this was planned when we thought Paul would be gone to boot camp. As it turned out, he did not leave for basic when we thought and will be leaving in July. But we decided this was the best time to go anyway and left on June 29th for a full day of travel. I am so thankful the girls are good travellers. They did not ask "are we there yet" one time. Believe me, by the time we arrived at 11 pm we were all tired. We had a great week with Trent and Mindy and enjoyed seeing them and playing with them. Mindy was able to take most of the week off and we had a lot of fun.

We again left Bethany at 6:30 am and travelled all the way home in one day, arriving about 10 pm that night. We were all tired again but it is always good to come home to your own bed!

Here it is the middle of July. My dad called in June, (before I left for Missouri) and wanted to know if I could come to help them get the rest of the stuff out of the storage. I told him I was planning to come the end of July but I could not come before then. I have a CASA carnival this weekend and the Russia garage sale next weekend. He was pretty disappointed and I felt awful.

Tollie to the rescue! Tollie and Paul went on Saturday morning and helped them get the rest of their things out of the storage building and into the storage unit in the back of their house. They were able to move things, set up things and bring back a Kirby vacuum to be repaired! So thankfully they saved the day.

When I arrived back from Missouri, I knew Paul and dad had a good time while Jamie and I were gone. They spent a lot of time together, going to Corsicana and then finding out they remodelled the office! They painted the walls, took down the corner desk and built a large desk, putting shelves in the closet and organizing all the office stuff. In fact it is so well organized, I can't find anything!

Needless to say, I am bummed, trying to clean up the organizing and getting acquainted with where everything is. Of course, when you do one room, it causes the dominoes to fall and you have to clean out another closet to make room for the things from that closet and then another closet and I am now working on my sewing room to get it organized. Whew! Not enough time in the day.

I am also trying to get the backdrop painted for the carnival. Our booth for the carnival is taking pictures of the kids behind a background. I am painting a clown and a bear. Hard work for me!

Hope you had a great July 4th celebration. We watched fireworks at two different times and enjoyed that. The most fun was watching the girls collect fireflies. I will post some pictures of that later. Take care and hopefully, it will not be as long for me to post next time.