After those days at home playing and unpacking, we lived out of suitcases the last couple of weeks before school started. The kids headed to New Martinsville for what is not their annual August trip. Ben and I spent a night away at Cafe Cimino and then went to Summersville for a regional staff overnight. Cafe Cimino really is one of our favorite places to get away.
In June, West Virginia became it's own region within Young Life - the newly minted Mountain State Region. Scott Berg, who I have worked for for about 5 years, became the new Regional Director. It changed my role to Regional Administrator. I dropped my role as Area Administrator for the Mountaineer Area (Ben's area) and am solely working for the Mountain State Region. As good as it was to work with and for Ben, it's good for us to have some boundaries and not work together every single day. I do love working for and with Scott and I love our staff in WV. It is an absolute honor to serve them.
So our regional overnight was at a lodge with this view of the Gualey River. Amazing!
The Mountain State staff
The Mountain State Band
JB, Ben, David, Brad & Kirk
The amazing thing is that there's still more musical people. Our staff are incredibly talented in unbelieveable ways.
JB & Ben making pour overs. And more pour overs. And more pour overs . . .
Meanwhile, the grandparents put the kids to work.
Roxie & Henry were also in town.
And they got to spend some time with Reed, too.
Ted & Gary Pap playing some wiffle ball.
As far as grandparents go, these four are the best. Seriously. They are all so different and give my kids incredible gifts of who they are and what they love. We are beyond blessed that they are even friends with each other and are good "shareres" of their grandchildren. We hit the jackpot right here people.
We started an Amazon wish list for Young Life. This is only a part of the stuff that was delivered to our door to help start the school year. Finances have been so tight this summer. There are months we can't figure out how we've ended in the black. This is one of the ways we've discovered is a great way for people to give. If you're interested, click HERE for the link.
I had a conference call one day and did it from the pool. It was hot and Sophie was at the beginning of a cold that we all got before school started. A cold that lasted TWO WEEKS! It was a real doozie. She just wanted to go and I couldn't get myself together until it was over.
Sophie and I spent one last weekend at the river. Sophie was snotty and gross. The weather was cool. It was an abnormally quiet weekend at the river. But it was good to go be there and just be. A weekend at the river is never a bad weekend!
Sophie does love the pencil sharpener there and even got my mom to buy her some "school supplies" a the local dollar store.
Mom, Uncle Jim, Sophie & I took a bike ride. Sophie was rather grumpy, but after I got the cold she had I totally understood why. This is an old train tunnel.
Boat rides on Mayor John's boat are the best.
This is a salt gun that kills bugs. Amazing!
Mom got some paper lanterns which was super fun.
The Sizick's moved to town in August. Ted, Cooper & Sam are good buddies and it has been an incredible blessing to all of us the way they hit it off. They came over for a camp fire and sleepover in the tent. They lasted about 10 whole minutes in the tent.
The day before schools started I took these fools school shopping at Target. Lily has an uncanny ability to sneeze a huge snot sneeze at the least expected moments. Including the middle of Target where you are no where near anything that resembles a tissue and you have to use your headband that you dig out of your purse. Gross!
We hit up the Pokey Dot in Fairmont for some summer celebrations . . .
milkshakes all around.
Ted & Wyatt watching their milkshakes be made.
Before:
After:
One last hurrah with the $20 pool from Aldi. Best $20 Joanna spent all summer (in my personal opinion).
For the first time ever, I wasn't ready for school to start. A lot of it was because I felt like I missed out on a chunk of summer. But most of it had to do with Ted starting middle school. Middle school feels big and real and different. My mom heart was truly sad and mourning the loss of a season of life known as elementary school. There's a lot of unknowns ahead of us and it was just hard for me personally.
We had a great summer! We really, really did. We had the gift and opportunity to go to the beach and the river. We spent a month at Young Life camp. We played hard. We stayed up late and slept in. We made a lot of memories. We spent a lot of time with a lot of people we love. We made new friends. We watched the Lord provide for us in amazing ways. We learned a lot about ourselves and our family. This summer was different, but oh so good!
