Busy Busy Busy!

So much has been going on and I have so many topics I want to blog about that it seems a little overwhelming. Guess I'll just jump in and see how far I can get! :)

Our Vacation Bible School (VBS) ran this year June 25-29, which meant that June was chock full of rehearsals, and the last week was crazy busy. But it went well! We had 98 kids our first day (which I think dropped lower throughout the week, but oh, well) and they were a great audience for us. I have to admit, I was iffy right up until the first day of our drama - I kept finding little things I wanted to work on - but after the first day I realized we were going to be good, if not great, and as the week went on I was pleasantly surprised at how well we did.

As you can see from the pictures above, it was pretty zany. :) I was psyched to get to hang out all week with Maggie, and our friends Sam and Ben Henry (Sam was in the drama with us, and Ben ran our soundboard.

Abby also got to go to VBS that week with Lilly, which worked out well - I dropped her off in the morning, and Anna would pick her up at noon, bring her home for lunch, and put her down for a nap, and I'd get home shortly after.

At the same time that VBS was going on, my family finally, after twelve years, got flooring put down on the upper level. Eight people evicted from their bedrooms, crammed into two rooms downstairs, my mom watching TV in one of them til late at night, and my dad left for a week on a business trip, so no one was home to mediate the house. Ack! I fled. :) Chris and Natalie graciously and generously let me move into their spare bedroom, so I was able to sleep and keep my sanity. Maggie even joined me one night when she couldn't take the conditions at the house anymore!

Luckily for me, on Saturday night Rebekah and Rachel drove up from where their camping trip had gotten rained out, and on Sunday morning we hit the road, bound for Alabama!

My week in Alabama was too short - as usual, lol - but it was just what I needed after a stressful week. I love being in Alabama, and if my life had taken a different path it's not too hard to imagine myself living there and getting to be a bigger part of Rebekah and Khy's life. Since that isn't possible right now, I treasure these times when I get to make memories with them!

I loved getting to hang out with Joe and get to know him better. Everything I see confirms to me that he's "the one" for her and Khy, and that makes my heart amazingly happy. :)

I was not ready to come back home at all, but come home I did. I came home to the news that the floors wouldn't be able to hold furniture for another week (bleh), but I was desperate for my bed, so Lizzie helped me push aside some stuff around in the basement to make enough room to flip my mattress down on the floor. I scrounged around for an extension cord, and I was set. On Friday or Saturday, we get to move our stuff back, and I will never, EVER take having a bedroom for granted EVER.

In the meantime, my garden is going great!

I've collected more than a dozen cukes so far - the first dozen went into my first ever batch of refrigerator pickles! They turned out great and I've enjoyed snacking on them. I can't wait for more cukes to pile up so I can make another batch of pickles, this time to can. I've also got a bunch of tomatoes ripening on my vines, so I'm looking forward to learning to make my own pasta sauce. I even have one teensy little green pepper growing. :)