Summer is moving right along

To top off the the festivities for the opening of Allstate Hurricane, Louie's new agency, an official ribbon cutting was held. I had to grin because the mayor of Hurricane is the cousin of a friend of mine, and here he came walking up the sidewalk with a giant pair of scissors. And yes, they actually were scissors that cut! The kids and I dressed up and came, the chamber of commerce was there, the employees and two journalists. A great article was in the Charleston Gazette on July 27th.

Lou asked me to have refreshments, so I made triple chocolate cupcakes and had cold drinks- a good thing because it was hotter than the sun that day!

After the 'official picture', we signed the cut ribbon and it'll be framed for posterity. Who came up with the idea of cutting ribbons anyway?

Becca is growing up waaaay too fast for me. And for her daddy. This year at WV Baptist Camp at Cowen, she moved up to Junior High camp. (sigh) That has a whole different vibe than Junior Camp.

But... I was glad that she stayed in a cabin with a 2 girls she knew and the counselor was a dear friend. She had a fabulous time.

Just two weeks later, Garrett and Hannah and I made the trek to Senior High camp. It's a fun one to counsel because the kids are generally more mature by 11th and 12th grade. You can have a real conversation about life and they tend to respect our opinion and abide by the rules.

The camp was packed- like 280 campers- and it was crazy hot all week. Hannah was in the cabin next to me... close, but not too close!

I had a great cabin. I was placed in the newest cabin that everyone wanted to be in... so the graduated seniors who came up a day early got first dibbs and many of them were with me. I had not one minute of trouble and my co-counselor was super sweet.

For the first time, I led an afternoon interest group- where we teach the kids something they can take back and use in their churches for ministry. Another counselor and I taught girls how to make simple dresses. She used scraps of fabric and I used pillowcases to make dresses. The project is called Little Dresses for Africa.

We ended up making 24 dresses with the girls who participated and I have about a dozen more pillowcases to make. I loved this project because everyone has a pillowcase. With just about $2 in materials, it becomes something that a little girl will treasure and a tool someone will use to share the gospel with her. God really can use simple things. Check it out at www.littledressesforafrica.org.

On Friday night, the band Garrett sings with, Torn in Two, sang a closing concert. It was truly fabulous. Garrett's voice had been rough for days, even in practice that day, but he sang so well. And best of all, he had fun! They gave out glow necklaces and I don't think anyone sat down during the entire concert.

Getting home was bittersweet. We had a terrible storm that caused water to seep into our basement- again. We replaced the foundation drains around our house about 2 years ago because of repeated problems. The one small section of drain we didn't replace was under our garage floor. It was the only place we were vulnerable... and the water covered Hannah's bedroom, our utility room and stopped just before creeping into our family room. I was sooo discouraged. It's been a smelly, wet mess this week but we are dried out finally as of today and Hannah is moving back into her room. We were supposed to go out of town for a short vacation this week which we had to cancel, but at least it was just water. (sigh)

To get away from the house, Garrett and I escaped to Target and Marshalls to shop for dorm room supplies. It was actually fun. We have a 'staging area' at home where he has his purchases and a box of items from his room that he will take. I have to keep reminding myself that the dorm room is small... we may be bringing some things home!

With August just a few days away, big things are on the horizon. Garrett is moving to Chicago in less than 2 weeks. It's unreal for me to even type those words. Louie's aunt and uncle and even his cousins live there and are excited for him to come. They're going to take great care of him, I know.

But this is different than when I left him at Bream Preschool that 1st day and cried all the way home. This... is advanced parenting! I think of all the times I've said that I believe my children belong to the Lord- now I have to back up those words with my life and its hard. But I really do believe it and want to follow what I believe- even when its hard.

Twenty Years... and counting!

This week, Louie and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.

20 years. Really?

Just the other day, Louie and I were just friends. He was graduating from high school.

And so was I.

And then through a series of God-ordained events, we fell in love and pledged to be married forever.

Now, 20 years after our wedding, we actually love each other more than we did then. We couldn't get away for a long anniversary celebration. No international resorts or cruises. We simply snuck away for a short trip to Louisville. I love the drive- horse farms line the highway.

We stayed in an old hotel overlooking the river. It was downtown so we could walk everywhere we wanted to go. In a bit of irony, there was a national youth convention in our hotel. So... we left a houseful of teenagers to get away for some peace and alone time... and it was wall to wall teenagers everywhere we went.

We had the best dinner I've probably had in years. I'm not necessarily a 'foodie'. I'm just not that picky when it comes to food. But... the steak I had melted in my mouth. And Louie had 'lobster mashed potatoes'. They were awesome.

The next day, we strolled down the street to the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum. All along the way, there were markers for famous ball players and a replica of their bat. Lou seemed to know them all!

That's one big bat.

Really, It's huge. And actually to scale of a real Louisville Slugger.

Look close. That's one of Babe Ruth's bats. The notches around the logo are ones he would carve for each home run.

Lou loved the section about The Big Red Machine- the 1970s Cincinnati Reds.

I stared down a 90 mph fastball. I couldn't get a picture of it. It was too fast!

We saw bats from the line ups of both World Series teams from last year. Did you know Louisville Slugger bats are made from White Ash and Maple? And you can get 60 bats per tree? And it only takes 50 seconds to create an MLB bat on the computerized machine? I took the tour. I'm an expert now.

Me and the Babe.

So one of the reasons a 20th anniversary international trip wasn't in the cards (among others), was that Lou just opened the agency and had a Grand Opening. He invited all the customers he inherited when he purchased the agency as well as inviting a lot more.

He and his salesman Brad got to meet a lot of people today.

He had some door prizes to give away including a TV.

We had inflatables and a snow cone machine. We also had drinks and hot dogs.

Garrett and Becca even got in on the action.

Then we put them to work. Becca fixed dozens of blue snow cones-

Hannah painted faces and hands-

Louie counted the day a success. We were all tired by the end. Even Sasha.

It was a good week. One to look back and remember (and even cringe at 20 years of old hairstyles!) and look forward at what the future holds.

Parades and Puppy Love

The opening of Louie's insurance agency just happened to coincide with one of the biggest events of the year in Hurricane- the 4th of July parade and celebration. So Lou didn't waste a minute when he found out that the parade route wound around right past his office.

We all participated... so did the other employees and their families. He even got Garrett to be Uncle Sam for the occassion. Garrett was less than thrilled about it as we walked out the office door... but I swear, he was the hit of the parade. People were shouting for him all through the parade and asking to have their picture made with him. The girls carried the ALLSTATE banner and marched in front.

Louie spent a long time this morning filling balloons- he did have a pump, but I think he overfilled them. The kept spontaneously popping! And when they did, he'd jump a mile. I was never so glad to get rid of those things!

A family that parades together, stays together!

I've been in a parade or two in my time, and this one seemed to be fast paced! We had to run to catch up a lot. And it was soooooo humid today. We were melting! With Lou's office manager and her husband, Brad the salesman and his wife and 3 kids and the five of us... all in our stylish blue Allstate shirts, we got a lot of advertising for our dollar today. By the end, we were tired and dirty.. and all the kids piles in Lou's dad's convertable to head back to the office. We checked out the festivities at the park before heading home.

One reason we were in a hurry to head home was to check on our newest family member- an 11 week old Box-ador (part Boxer, part Laborador) puppy. No, we hadn't planned on becoming pet parents. But she literally crossed my path, and I couldn't ignore her.

I was out running in our neighborhood when I saw two small puppies alone in the middle of the road. They ran up to me, attacking me with kisses. I waited a few minutes, and finally a neighbor came outside, telling me who they belonged to. The family's dog had a large litter and were having trouble finding homes for the last two. When I couldn't get them out of my mind, I mentioned it to Louie... not a pet loved by nature. But he wondered if our 8 year old dog Ebony would enjoy a playmate and said maybe I should look at them the next day :)

Needless to say, I did. One of the puppies stood out because of her Boxer-like appearance, playfulness, and loving personality. Ebony didn't know what to think when this little puppy started boxing her ears and licking her nose. But now she's warmed up. One wrinkle... Becca was at camp when all this transpired. She had NO idea. So I refused to let anyone name the pup until Becca got home.

One by one, everyone has fallen in love with her. She follows me everywhere, staying under my feet. She wants to lay beside us and lay her head on us. We settled on the name Sasha. Louie's suggestion. Louie named a dog- amazing.