Monday, July 19, 2010

Sunday School Confusion

When I taught Sunday School, I always wondered why we were supposed to print out those little summary sheets to tell parents about the lesson. I felt they were redundant, since Nikki could recite the story verbatim and tell me the underlying lesson with little or no prompting. When Caleb began attending Sunday School, I developed a great appreciation for these sheets, as they provided much-needed clarification when Caleb would give me his rendition of the Bible story of the day. But, alas, Summer Sunday school provides no such service. So it's always interesting to try to figure out what it was they learned. This was our attempt yesterday:

Me: What did you learn about in Sunday School today?
Caleb: There are a lot of people.
Me: There were a lot of kids at Sunday School??
Caleb: Yeah. And Jesus help them.
Me: Yes, Jesus is always there to help us. (???)
Caleb: He give them food.
Scott and Me: OH!! FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND!!!

Of course, this was a successful interpretation. We still have no idea what he learned about last week.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Girl-less

Nikki is still in Oklahoma, and will be for the next five days. Today, Emma went to visit her family. So now we are three. Yep, three. It's kind of quiet around here. Caleb said, "I miss my sisters." We do, too.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Whirlwind

Life has been EXCITING and CRAZY since I last posted! Nikki and I spent an amazing week at Miracle Ranch in Tecate, Mexico. The youth group painted the boys' dorm and had a great time playing soccer and "traes" (tag) with the kids at the orphanage. Our guide, Bill of Transformational World Opportunities, did a great job of not only teaching the kids about the current economic situation in Mexico, but was great company as well. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves even though we had a go-around with Montezuma's revenge on Wednesday (not so fun with Mexican plumbing). The kids at the orphanage most appreciated the time our kids spent with them, since we are the only youth group visiting this summer. Our kids most appreciated the fact that the kids were so happy, even though they had very few possessions and no parents. It truly was a transformational experience for them, and they area already planning day-trips for the fall.

We arrived home on Friday and got to hear all about Caleb's week at soccer camp. We had a busy Saturday with a council meeting for Scott, a birthday celebration with Caleb's birthmom, and a memorial dinner at church. Yesterday we had dinner with my parents and Devon. It was a good weekend.

Today, however, meant back to work with four fun-filled days of AP training. :P I arrived at home to find five additional teens headed to the pool. Two more showed up after that. As one of our alumni said, "they just fall from the sky." It's always a party. We had a BBQ and red velvet cupcakes to celebrate Kelly's 18th birthday.

And tomorrow Nikki leaves at 5:00 am for Oklahoma, where she will be undertaking another mission and learning about Cherokee culture and history. If she ever finishes packing, that is. I'm so excited to hear about their adventures, and so grateful that she has the opportunity to go.

And that's about it for us. I keep waiting for things to slow down. Maybe next week??

Happy summer!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Summer

Caleb has entertained us all day today. He's not quite sure what to do with himself now that we're actually on vacation.

Caleb: Is it a school day?
Me: No, remember it's summer. No more school for two months.
Caleb: Is it a church day?
Me: No.
Caleb: Then what day is it??
Me: It's just a summer day. It's a clean the house and get things done day.
Caleb: ??

We sat down and had a late lunch in our pajamas. Gloria was sitting under the table and sneezed.

Caleb: Bless you! Mom, did you see that?
Me: What?
Caleb: She sneezed on my toes!

Or there was this conversation overheard while I was cleaning the bathroom:

Caleb: Nikki, I see Toy Story 3.
Nikki: Yeah, that was fun, huh?
Caleb: Yes! And now I see Toy Story 1 and 2 and 3 and 25!
Nikki: Um, I'm pretty sure that doesn't exist.
Caleb: [running off] To infinity and beyond!

But he's making big plans for the future.

Caleb: Mom, I'm going to get the Bakugan video game.
Me: No, you're not.
Caleb: But I'm going to be a big man. And then I can get it.
Me: Yes, when you move out and have your own house then you can get whatever you want.
Caleb: Like Devon.
Me: Yes, Devon has his own house now.
Caleb: Does he have bad video games? How about Tim? Does Tim have bad video games?
Me: I have no idea. Hey, let's clean the sink!
Caleb: ???

And that was our day. How was yours?