FF: July

Yesterday was the last day for the summer class I've been teaching.  It's been many, many years since I have worked with such a delightful, responsive, bright class.  I feel a little cheated that the term lasted only six weeks. Now, while I grade their final projects, here's a glimpse of July with the rest of the family.

The month began as we said, "See you later,"  to one of our favorite families.  What a gift friendship is! But instead of getting all teary again over their relocation, I will focus on how wonderful technology really is now in allowing us to keep track of our far-flung friends.

To brighten our sad selves, we began to play more board games.  Our friends have convinced us that  Yahtzee rules,  but we're pretty fond of Headbanz.  Of course, if a certain middle boy memorizes all the cards in the deck, he will always win.

In the middle of the month my two older boys and their dad left for a week of Boy Scout camp.

They endured record-setting temperatures and biting insects, but they survived.

With half the family gone, the other half moved into my room and my bed.  No, sweet husband, the dog is NOT on our bed!

The day after the boys returned from camp, my oldest boy (on the right) left for Southeast Kentucky on a service trip with his youth group from church.  He spent the week drywalling, and his tender heart was very touched by the poverty he saw.

And finally, on the last day of Boy Scout camp, Checkered watched a teen boy do several pull-ups and he decided to show off his own pull-up skills.  This is how his detached bicep tendon now looks from the outside.  Next week the surgeon will see what it looks like from the inside.

Only a few weeks until the next trip :(

Finally!  Something good about camping:

Spread the word: I'm sexy!

Someone to whom I am apparently married is a non-reader.  I mean, he knows how to read, but would never choose to spend his free time doing so.  Accordingly, he thinks this is the funniest bumper sticker ever.

Ha! Ha!!  Do you hear him laughing? Oh, that is a FANTASTICALLY humorous little joke !!!  Pass me a tissue so I can wipe my eyes because I am laughing so hard!

And if, per chance, I don't laugh until I cry from the "humor" of this bumper sticker, I may use this tissue to freshen up a bit.  You see,  reading IS sexy, and that idea just might make me the sexiest person in this marriage.

Wait!! I apologize, sweet husband.  What we need is a bumper sticker that reflects the truth.  How about:

"Husbands who get their wives a mocha frappe before church and happen to see a little bumper sticker on the way to McDonalds are incredibly sexy, too. "

Mysterious Activities

Any guesses what my guy did last night?

What the world fears!

I recently was asked by no one to conduct a survey of the entire world, but I did it anyway.  The goal was to determine what people fear. Unfortunately, I was the only respondent.

Please now, be patient as I walk you through the data. The mathematical computations for such a large survey were challenging and the only break I took was when a cashier corrected my math as I tried to add the tip to the final bill at a local restaurant last week.  He even rolled his eyes a little.

I fully expected my respondents to give the typical answers:  disease, financial ruin, finding only whole milk in the fridge at breakfast time.  However, that's not where the results went.  Interestingly enough, they correlated quite closely to a camping trip I took last week.  How strange is that ?!

Now, without further digression, here are the top three things people REALLY fear most.

Number 3: mice.  Tiny.  Furry.  Fast.  Buck-toothed rodents who try to steal anything they can unless they live in Pinconning, Michigan.  One may live for several decades without sampling Pinconning cheese or even hearing about it, but one would be missing a grand experience.  Fortunately for me, my children are not afraid of cheese.  (They are, however, suspectible to gagging that may ensue when one smells a cheese store or when one thinks one is sampling Tiger cheese only to discover that it is not. )

Number 2:  canoes.    If before the trip one must first empty her bladder, but finds only an outhouse, the canoe will not seem a friendly place.  If, during and after the trip, one finds that ALL her companions have peed in the river, the canoe oddly enough becomes a bit friendlier.

Number 1: pop-up campers.  Say what you will about jacks and stabilizer bars.  Laugh if you will but that will not alleviate the fear of the world's entire population.  The math stands to reason.   Two children constantly bickering, two teens constantly sleeping, one male parent flopping back and forth from stomach to back all night, one mother wishing she had a bathroom of her own = a pop-up that may well roll away or tip over.  It will only be the sheer will power of the mother who refuses to move a single muscle all night that will stabilize the little vacation home and keep it steady.

Number 0: Yahtzee.  Of course it's just a little, friendly game, but when this dice/numbers contest is played against friends who have played it since they were in the womb (and who may have tried their best to drown me with water guns during a canoe trip), it is only slightly less enjoyable than having one's math corrected by a teenaged cashier.

Thus ends my first world-wide survey.