Where on Earth WERE You?

If only the mail could talk...back in March Hope made sure that I filled out her camp application. She mailed it that day ...March 16

We were green-horns about this camp stuff, I sort of figured with our early application we didn't have to worry about getting a spot and I didn't know we should receive an acknowledgement letter of some sort.

Well a few weeks ago I realized our check still wasn't cashed (wasn't sure if they wait until closer to the Aug camp dates) and found out we should have received a letter a LONG time ago.

Long story short...they never received the check. Well I got to thinking and second-guessing my memory, but I know Hope and if she wanted something in the mailbox IT GOT THERE!
The other thing I wondered about....did I send it to the correct address? There were two addresses on the camp info paper...one for sending letters to the campers and one for the application. I really didn't worry too much after all the camper address was the same for the boys' camp and that was held in June, surely the letter would have been found?!

Guess what came in the mail today?
Return to Sender....

Like I said, I really wish the mail could talk...obviously, God has other plans for Hope this summer....or something?

Sisters?

The other week we went to Knobels then the following week we went to Lake Tobias. 

When we go away as a family it is interesting to see the reaction of by-standers, sometimes

 like at Knobels we have the nice people like the man  that walked past us and said, 

"You have a nice family"

I guess we are a bit noticeable, but often it is more of the friendly smile and the knowing look.

Then we were at Lake Tobias, it was an interesting experience 

there were a few times when people actually stopped and stared, 

turned around in their seat and stared kind of thing.

Almost as if they didn't think we would notice

I don't think anyone had their pants on backwards!

and they weren't even being loud and Shekinah was actually behaving herself.

Now Saturday! there was every excuse for staring!

Daddy decided to take the boys biking and of course the girls couldn't just stay home! 

So we did the perennial girl thing...we went shopping! Well we tried...

But Shekinah! for whatever reason decided she was going to be difficult.

She started out by DEMANDING that I comb her hair, I was combing Hope at the time. 

I told her she needs to wait and also needs to "talk nice"

We wanted to do the dishes first, so I told her she should say "Mama please comb my hair."

Well she disintegrated into a screaming mess. We almost stayed home, but I decided she can't ruin everyone's day, but warned the girls we might need to come home early.

Finally just combed her, then she changed to tune to "I WANT GUM!"  I told her I didn't hear a single "please" or "mama"  so it's not an option. Just as we were about to step out the door I heard a tiny voice say, "Please, mama?"

She got her gum

Then on to Wa*mart and I needed to tell her "no" and scoop her back into the cart because she got very bold and wandered off. That started the screaming again, so we needed to pay for our stuff and leave.

I did the "smile and wave" and Hope whispered, "she's not related to us."

After some sympathetic looks from other people we got out of there.

We were silly enough to go to the mall after that and stopped at the Chinese restaurant in the food court. The lady behind the counter said "they look like sisters."  I smiled and said, "they are and I'm their mama."

Confused the poor lady.  "How you get 3 Chinese children?

Guess she didn't think I'm Chinese.

I did tell her that we adopted them, and Hope got a job offer from the manager.

Think they look like sisters?

WWJD?

So yesterday, we had errands and as we were leaving the parking lot of smallish strip mall a lady approached.
"Hi, could you lend me $3? I need the money for the bus. I was here applying for a job, I've been out of a job for about a year and my mother just died a couple of weeks ago. When I was over at McD's I threw up in the bathroom , don't know if it was nerves or the heat"
Me: Oh? where were you applying for a job?
She: over at the Mc Donalds, but there's is all on line, the KFC, but now I need to get home.
Me: Thinking, yeah right! I do have cash in my wallet (sort of unusual) She's just gonna use it on dope, but no needle marks on her arms....what's $3  and what is the right thing?

So I gave her $3....she replied with "God bless you" and quick stepped off the parkinglot...she walked around the edge of the beer store across the street and we lost sight of her.

The previously quiet audience in the back seat erupted into questions.
"Why did you give her money?" (Joe)
"that was part of my allowance money!"(Hope)
"I don't think she was telling the truth" (all of them)
" Did her mother really die?" (Faith)
"She had such a big pocketbook, I bet she had money in there, you shoulda asked her" (Hope)
"Why did she throw up, can you really throw up from the heat?" (Joe)
"I think she got into a car" (Faith)
"What can she do with $3?" (Joe)

I told them next time I will turn to them since they have all the wisdom and ask them if we should give the person money and ask THEM if they think the person is lying.

I told them the only think I know for sure, she had a good story put together and she hadn't used a toothbrush in awhile.

At bedtime I mentioned her in my prayers, Hope jerked away and looked at me...afterwards she said,"why did you pray for her?"
"Because she needs it."

I have no idea if it was the right thing to do...I doubt the veracity of her story....I should have told her that I have some of God's money to give her (a la Pineapple story) I should've told her I need to pray with her first, I should've taken her with me into the UPS store and asked them if they believe her....
I should've had a tract to give her.

hey lady, I hope you try that again!  I'll be ready next time.

                       this moth has nothing to do with my tale...he just was sitting on our screen door last night.

That Candy Bag

The other Saturday we attended a picnic, and like all picnics worth their salt, this one had a candy scramble. This was the first time Shekinah had a bag of candy all to herself. This past week has been a bit interesting. This beautiful baby girl of mine has become a little monster!
The other morning before her eyes were even well focused she was asking, then demanding candy. At one point she was so loud I put her on the porch. Now before you get any ideas, the porch door has a screen and she was right outside, but it dimmed the noise a bit. Suddenly she stopped in mid-yell. I looked out and there was a nice sized puddle around her feet. Her sphincter muscles could not handle the force of her screaming. I washed her up and then took her out and we sat on the swing together. After a bit she decided she is hungry for breakfast.
I told her that she can't have candy until after she sleeps....that didn't keep her from checking  in frequently. Finally, after her sisters went to visit grandma for an overnight party, she took her nap. When she woke, she of course remembered, I gave her bag and she sat on the sofa beside big brother. She reached in the bag and carefully extracted a pack of smarties for Zeke and then one for herself...

The next evening after supper, she came to me  with her arm wrapped around Zeke's leg...."mama, can Zeke have candy?"  Turns out she needed candy too, but she did the same thing, she gave Zeke a piece of candy first then got hers.

We do need to work on the demanding tone of voice she has picked up...no idea where, but it sounds terrible coming from this little tyke. She doesn't know better than to direct it at mama, I know she learned it from her sisters, they use that tone of voice on each other...I  just don't always catch them.    Instead of ordering politeness, I've found out that I need to model it first and give her the words "mama, can you please give my dish back?"  instead of  "GIMME MY DISH!"

   Oh and some other odds and ends from the week...made bread and butter pickles from our foot-long Asian cucumbers.  Joe kept smelling sweet vinegar.

        He wanted dad to take this picture for the blog...no idea why???

Two Down, One to Go

Yesterday DH called me from work and said he needs to get the pickup truck hauled off to the garage. Something happened to the clutch and he can't drive it. Thankfully he got to work safely and the clutch only gave out when he pulled forward in his parking space.
He told me not to worry, he will catch a ride to the garage and pick up Ben's car, it was there for yearly inspection.
Good deal! Ben is at work week and won't need his car till Saturday night.
Today DH drove the car to work, about 3pm he called me....The plant is closing early because of the heat and he's coming home....that is if he can get the car started.
His supervisor brought him home...something is wrong with the ignition...he could turn the key enough to unlock the steering,but not enough to start the car...

Tomorrow he's taking the van to work....that is the last vehicle....I hope he's careful....and I'm not kidding!

Change of Plans

              Well my day turned out to be more ambitious than I'd planned. This morning I was in no rush. Ben is off on work week, so no lunch to pack and I didn't need to get up at 5AM!  I printed out some work sheets for the kiddos (much to Hope's delight) and was slowly editing the newsletter I  need to get printed this month. The phone rang and my very energetic sister-in-law asked me what I was doing today...it is not like her to be so blunt. Turns out she told her son to go check the corn and he came back to tell her that every.last.ear. was ready....not something you want to hear at 10:00AM on one of the hottest days of the year!  For that type of job you start at the crack o' day!

We put 'er in high gear and went to husk, silk and cut corn. How many dozen? Y'know what? I wasn't about to count, but you know those big "Yoder-toter" vans? They have one of them...with out the last seat....and that whole area was FULL of corn!  Got home around 3-ish and decided to cook on the back porch...ruined the effect by baking a corn pie in the oven....but we didn't melt completely. I have to applaud my children, I didn't hear a single "discouraging word"  Some of them disappeared about 2PM and went off to play, but since they were younger than 10 I didn't say much.

Lake Tobias

This week we chose one of the hottest days of the year and headed to Lake Tobias

                   For $12 each you get to ride in a cut off school bus (that is the roof is cut off) and see
                  animals roaming...and feed them approved crackers and popcorn.  We saw bison,

                                    and many types of deer, unusual cattle and flightless birds

                               Shekinah enjoyed it and wanted to go on the bus again.

                                          Instead we watched the baboons, lazy lions, pacing cats and sleepy zebras

                                       The only hungry animals in the petting zoo were the camels

                                       The snakes had her fascinated and repelled at the same time

She did decide to touch one after all.

                                      We splurged and bought .50 ice pops

                We did stop at McD's for ice cream cones BUT they were out of cones, so we settled for sundaes...eaten with a spoon...then we wanted sodas BUT they were out of fizzy water so we got flat funny tasting cokes.

Today I found out that my 'quilt lady's" husband passed away, Monday. They are Amish so the viewing was today and the funeral tomorrow. Listening to grandma talk to all the Amish people in Dutch has inspired Joseph to try to learn Dutch...we got as far as "Vass iss die na"   "mom how do you say it?"

Vacations are Hard Work

Monday we went to Knobels, Tuesday, was spent with certain people in our house moping about. One was moping because her ride to VBS got cancelled...the driver's husband had a kidney stone attack. Totally one of those "facts of life".
Another of my children had a "belly hurts" and a headache, and a neck ache from the roller coaster yesterday. And felt dizzy everytime  an upright position was accomplished. OK, did we pick up a bug on Monday or is it post-vacation let down, OR are we concerned about the new braces the were to be partially applied on Wednesday?
Wednesday morning we were headed to the orthodontists office. I brought Shekinah and left Zeke to babysit.  Joe decided that the application of the back braces was such a breeze that they might as well apply all the braces since they had an empty chair for the next hour. So 2-1/2 hours later we headed home one of us with a mouthful of green wire. Incidentally, his stomach was fine and he was hungry, but now with the newly acquired wire...he can't eat!

In the afternoon we tended our neighbor lady's roughly 100 chickens. I should have taken a picture of Shekinah running around in bare feet through wet grass, throwing cheap white bread into the pen for the hens' treats. She took to that chore like a pro!

Thursday was spent moving slowly, finally staying home for the whole day and trying to figure out what kind of soft food to make. Blended a cucumber, sour cream, hot pepper, onion and ice cubes in the Vita-mix. I found it quite tasty...it made other people's stomach's hurt...too much foam. Fine I'll eat the ...drink the veggies.
Friday rolls around and hubby took a vacation day...well his vacations mean that he starts work at 4:30AM, works till 8:30AM, then comes home to work on barn repair etc.  I had to teach a CPR class, and was glad that the babysitting was taken care of.  Since we are going to a picnic tomorrow, I advised the troops that maybe the Saturday cleaning should be started today. Hope made a list and I told daddy to double check the assignments...just to make sure they are "fair".
I came home to find Joseph still hard at work (this was after lunch) and the others all assured me they were finished with their jobs. I did a little probing and found out that Joseph had offered to do a large part of the work. He said  "I'm doing what you said, keeping busy so I feel better."
Now that took all week.
 Monday we want to go on a short excursion again....you think I'd better plan a whole week of recovery again?

Let's Get Started!

Last week we did some calculating and decided if we are going to do anything this summer

we'd better get started.

Daddy needs to schedule his vacation days and he managed to snag some Mondays.

With our crew it is better not to try anything too involved on a weekend when things are crowded.

We decided to try this amusement park and we LOVED it!

You can buy ride tickets and only really pay for the rides you take.

The tickets are good "forever"

You can take your own food INTO the park!

Parking is free!

We spent $90 for our crew of seven and had $12 in tickets left over for another time.

                    All but the youngest could ride the Sky Ride

                            She took a nap while mom and the other children rode the "turnpike"

                          I left Faith do the honors, it was a mother's dream, I could reach over and control the gas cause she wasn't quite skilled enough to do both the steering and acceleration.

                                       Joe was allowed to maneuver on his own

                   and Hope drove her big brother around, she must have told him to sit in the back because she didn't need any help.

                Daddy was the only one brave enough to brave the Stratos-fear.
   They sat you in this contraption and slowly too the top....148' above ground and then they drop you..
        you land softly, but he did admit that the ride seems much shorter when you are watching it than when you are sitting on it.

               We all rode the water ride at least once...but Hope, dad, Joe and Shekinah wanted a second round so I was able to get pictures. I didn't know how Shekinah would react to getting soaked, but...

                                                          I think she enjoyed it.

     Hmm, this one should have been at the top....Zeke and I took this ride later and he was wondering why it was so relaxing the 2nd time. We decided he felt the pressure of being responsible for both Faith and Joe the first time. When I was a teen, I didn't mind heights or crazy stunts, but the minute I ended up being responsible for children I began to have a bit of fear of heights.
On the way home Shekinah had her obligatory screaming fit... and Faith had a 'snit' so we should be well started on our recovery from a very fun day.

ADD

On Monday we took the children to the zoo (see previous post). I had Zeke along for my 3rd and 4th hands. Not that I really needed extra hands, Shekinah does pretty good at staying with me.  He did come in handy when Shenkinah got bored waiting on the dog and pony show to start, so I sent her with Zeke to get tickets  to ride a pony later. She adores her big brothers.

We left around 11:45, high time for food for this bunch, so like a very smart mom I stopped for icees, nothing like a bunch of sugar and caffeine to tide us over until we got real food.

On the way home, we invented a game....it was born of too much heat, too much sugar, and probably a touch of caffeine...maybe it was the mango flavor of the icees.

Zeke said one sentence to me, " did you see they have blueberries for sale"
I returned, " That is a beautiful brown horse over there."
His reply, " There was a car at the school."
I said, "looks like they are going to paint that house."

On and on...till we were snorting with laughter.  The people in the back seats had whip lash trying to figure out our conversation.  We gave the game a name afterward.

Sometimes you need to relieve the tension of having your every word examined and every fact double checked...it has given someone the name of Auditor General.

Our Summer

 This whole week there is a children's zoo at a local store so on Monday I took the children. Faith wasn't very sure about the pony ride "It's so bumpy"

   Shekinah took a ride too, but I was walking beside her and hand the camera in my pocket. My friend used her camera...hopefully she'll e-mail it one day

    Faith wasn't so sure about those nosey alpacas (?) they were taller than her and kept checking if you had any food on you.

 I got food for them and you can see Faith's reaction ...Joe was not very impressed either.

 

 The tied horses had the funniest reaction to a camel parading around in front of them....time and time again. If they hadn't been so well bred, I think one of them would have been rearing in his harness.

Today the girls decided to play handicapped....they found the old crutches and since the crutches were just too tall for Faith she got Joe's old walker out...they were hobbling around on the drive when the Fed Ex truck brought a package....wonder what she thought.

  Hope did comment later that her axillary area was a bit sore...I told her I didn't want to hear her complaints.  She is doing well though considering we found out today that our application for camp never got there and camp of course is full with 30+ on the waiting list   blegh!