rain and other such things

So July is speeding right on by. I don't think I ever did "June - part 2".   I'll just recap some other highlights of weeks gone by.

- It's currently raining. Again. It has been raining ALL SUMMER. I'm pretty sure this could be called a "wet season" or "monsoon season." We've been trying to have our deck painted by some kids to give them money for camp for several weeks. It never really gets dry enough to do it. Today they got the railing done before storms snuck up and then it rained the rest of the evening.

-  I asked Sophie toward the end of the school year if she sucked her thumb at school she said, "On no! No fingers in your mouth or your nose at school." Definitely a good life skill. So after her 5th birthday, we decided that she could only suck her thumb in bed. As a result, she puts herself down for a nap a couple of days a week and has stellar bedtimes. We are letting the kids stay up pretty late because they will actually sleep in (I LONGED for kids that would sleep in all those years we were on assignment and my kids were up at 6:30 am). She will often get tired enough to say she's off to bed completely on her own.

- We painted the dining room the Sunday after Big Kick, because that's what you should always do after an exhausting week of soccer camp. But Ben was on a mission and taped it all which made me have to choose a color. I chose a lighter color than was originally in there - a grayish/purple. I like it. Now I have the drive to paint the living room.

- We have the BEST babysitter this summer. Laura is one of our YL College leaders. She just got married after the spring semester. Her husband plays on the WVU football team which Ted thinks is the coolest thing ever. They go to the pool, the kid movies on Thursdays, bowling, the park, and she plays with them a lot! I'm so very, very thankful. The kids love her.

- Although life is busy in the summer, it's not as chaotic. With no sports and no evening YL stuff, we are home in the evenings a lot more together. Which means the pool, walks, bike rides and games. I'm pretty proud of us this summer.

- Although we are loving our summer,  the days are often ETERNALLY LONG. With the kids staying up later than ever, working and then playing hard in the evenings, it's often 9:30/10:00 before they're in bed and we're sitting down from the day for the first time. There are days when I have to rehearse to myself that "I must fold laundry" or "I have to pay the bills tonight." And forget about cleaning everything because everyone is home so much more. I will clean again when school starts.  Twice this week after I put the kids in bed, I came downstairs to do a couple things on the computer and could not keep my eyes open.

- Ben and I have found ourselves watching a lot of Pirates games and reruns of Seinfeld this summer. I forgot what a great show that is. Our other favorite is the Big Bang Theory. Good grief, how do people think of such things?

Joanna kept the kids one day last week. They went for a run/bike ride on the trail. She is so ambitious. They also fed ducks, got Black Bear for lunch and ice cream at the ice cream/gun store. Joanna, will you babysit me?

And played on the "exercise park."

She also texted me a video of "The Most Annoying Sound Ever." Bless her! 

Ben and I drove kids to Lake Champion last weekend. We ended up renting vans and you had to be at least 25 years old to drive them. Yeah, none of our leaders are. It was really fun though to drive kids to camp. I haven't done that for a very, very long time.

I visited for one hour with Adrienne. It was WONDERFUL! Love that girl. So good for my heart.

It was Week 1, Day 1 for the new assignment team. Ben couldn't help but do some work.

We drove to the river from Lake Champion. My parents had the kids there. Sophie got cellulitis in her leg from her immunization shots. We ended up in Butler Sunday afternoon at the MedExpress. Thankfully 2 antibiotics later it was a totally noticeable difference. And 1 picture from the river. I am completely all over that.

One day last week, Ben and Ted decided to go for a little run after dinner. It was sprinkling when they left and Ted was worried about thunder, lighting and pouring rain. I assured him there were no storm clouds in the sky and they would be fun. 10 minutes later is was pouring and storming. Surprise.

They hid for awhile under the awning at a neighborhood bar a few blocks over, then made a mad dash for home.

We went for a family bike ride on the 4th of July. We actually wanted to ride so Ben pulled Sophie in the trailer. She's actually almost too big for it. But we got in 8 miles. We only stopped to put Ted's pedal back on twice, twice for water breaks, once to fix the trailer and once to visit Kelly and Jacob who were going for a run.

Oh, and once at Auto Zone for some sort of wrench to put the pedal back on Ted's bike. Not a super intense 8 miles.

These were our rental vans for the Lake Champion trip. Gee whiz. This would definitely give an entirely new meaning to living in a van down by the river. I start driving my van again tomorrow. We got it largely because it didn't have all the bells and whistles so it didn't cost nearly as much. I had no idea what I was missing.

Ben fixed up our van a little when there was a loose covering under it. He's not super handy like that so I was pretty proud.

We went to see Monster's University the other week. Good, not great. I do like a good back story though. I hear Despicable Me 2 is excellent. That's next on the list. I'm going to share a huge pet peeve though: TWENTY FIVE MINUTES OF PREVIEWS FOR A KIDS MOVIE! I've decided I will now view movies in Fairmont where the concessions are cheaper and the movie starts at the listed time.

We had friends over for the 4th. We built a fire after the first rain and made smores after the 2nd rain. Sophie's was quite melty and ended up all over her.

Nothing like a fire in the rain. But hey, it's rained all summer. What's new?