Bye Bye Summer

Where has the summer gone!?! We had registration at Harrison's school today. He was unhappy to learn that his best friend, Sage, is in the other 5th grade class this year. His other best friend, Malcolm, was listed in both classes - so he doesn't yet know how to feel about that. He also was hoping to have the same teacher he had last year, who moved up to teaching 5th grade this year - but instead he was assigned to the other teacher. I wasn't worried, because she was actually my music teacher when she first started teaching, and I know she's just as great now as she was back then. Unfortunately, we found out today that she took a different position, so Harrison and his fellow classmates will have a new teacher from England. The good news is that Dylan will be in his class, along with many other kids he is fond of, so I think he'll be just fine (but don't try to tell him that right now!)

It's up to Grammy and G-boy to cheer him up, though, as he is currently on vacation at their house. He was suffering with some cabin fever this summer, since the floods wiped out most of our field trip opportunities for this summer. So we came up with the solution of sending him away for the rest of the week (all the way up the hill to mom and dad's house). He even packed a suitcase and everything. Hopefully he'll have a fun time but also be glad to get back home on Sunday. I got to see him briefly at registration, and we're all having dinner with Liz this evening, so I don't know how much he'll feel like he's "away". We'll wait and see.

I talked to Darrin

I just got off the phone with Darrin, who is the head honcho at the nearby Historic Village since Vicky retired (Vicky was the lifeblood of the village, so I've been pretty worried that we've lost the village since she isn't there to champion the cause.)

My dad and brothers all worked for the village years ago, and I've done some minor volunteer work recently when I've been able to. It is a wonderful resource for our community, and has always been one of the favorite field trip destinations for my daycare. Vicky opened the entire village to us for Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary party a few years back, for a very reasonable fee. In short, the village has always felt like a second home for us.

I confessed to Darrin that we had visited recently, hoping to learn how things are going out there. He told me what we already realized - even employees aren't allowed in their own buildings right now. Mom and Dad and I took some pictures as we looked around. Obviously we didn't go inside any of the buildings, as they are off limits even to employees, but I did stick my camera through a couple doorways (while covering my mouth and nose with cloth - even outside the door, I didn't want to take any chances with mold spores) and took some "arm's eye view" shots of the damage.

I'll post a few here. For the record, in speaking with Darrin, the structures themselves (the ones still standing, that is) should be fine, regardless of the mold. The drywall will be replaced regardless, and they are hopeful if not optimistic that they may be allowed in to do some mitigation before winter strikes. I told him to be sure and contact our family as we want to help however we are able.

So here are the photos:

rewind to the SPLASH

I need to rewind to August 3 & 4 to document our brief experience with VBS (Vacation Bible School). The theme was "Surf's Up", and as I believe I already mentioned earlier, I was in charge of the music, which simply meant choosing the songs, preparing the song sheets and flip chart, doing choreography for two of the four songs, then handing the whole production over to our intern. We didn't attend the softball game on the 5th, or the final VBS day on the 6th, but I don't think they missed us.

Intern Steve (blue shirt) and
my other music assistants

I took some pictures the first day, and wanted to post some of them for posterity.

"Surf's Up" for Harrison

Julio "Hits the Waves"

Pastor Jim "Hangs Five"

Each evening started with dinner

Julio is a flamingo while
Stephanie teaches the 1st song

church volunteers act out
a bible story for our group

coconut bowling

relay race - each item
represented a beattitude

Harrison's nametag
used binary code

2008 Kids' Carnival is History

It was a busy weekend, beginning with the Kids' Carnival on Friday. Deedee loaned us her kids for the day, so we had a crew of 9 to help prepare. We spent the morning filling every manner of balloon - twisty animal balloons, water balloons, and regular party balloons.

We ate the world's quickest lunch and were right back at it. The kids each were assigned a station, and they set to work preparing their events:

Dylan ran the whac-a-mole tower
and the claw machine

Abbie ran the ball toss

Justice ran the pendulum swing

Savannah ran the cake walk

Emilee ran the craft table/ rain gutter regatta

Harrison ran the diving board dunk tank/
balloon animal "booth"

Connor ran the coin dive, Alex ran the Duck Pond, and Haley was the floater, who went from booth to booth so the other kids could each have a break and play the events.

Our other adult volunteer
handled admission and
distributed raffle tickets

Julio manned the grill and provided
hotdogs, chili dogs, chips, lemonade
and chocolate chip cookies

Once everything was up and running, I was in charge of special events. We had a couple of relay races, with teams of kids racing to fill their team's glass of water using a sponge. We also played "six corners" (like the four corners games they play at the rollerskating rink, only in the swimming pool with six areas for them to stop at).

For prizes at each booth, the kids gave out small toys, candy and raffle tickets. We had a table full of door prizes, and the kids could choose which prize they wanted to win by putting their raffle tickets into the box corresponding to their desired prize.

At the end of the carnival, we had the drawings for the door prizes, then any kid who didn't win a door prize was given a consolation prize consisting of swim goggles, microwave popcorn and a rice crispy treat. Then they all went to play with water balloons on the lawn outside the pool gates while we started to clean up.

An expensive party, but a good time was had by all, so it was well worth it.

Celebrating John

My brother John was born on this day awhile back. At the time, I wasn't too keen on the idea. I'd been pretty happy with the way things were before he came along. I was especially not keen on the fact that he and my other brother both had the gall to be born the same week as my birthday, thus ensuring that August would never again be "all about me". As we entered our teen years, we had our moments when I thought perhaps it was ok that he was sharing the world of my youth, but they were somewhat fleeting.

Now I couldn't be more thankful that he and I shared our birth week and our childhoods (and survived each other). He has become one of the people I most admire, and a person I hold up to my son as an example of how to live your life. Never one to let conventional wisdom or popular opinion sway his decisions, he has had more amazing experiences than anyone else I know, and he's always looking for the next grand adventure.

He has traveled the world and worked in more fascinating venues than most people could imagine. The year our dad retired, the two of them spent two months canoeing the length of the Mississippi river with John's dog (in preparation for which, he redesigned and customized their canoes). He has sung opera in Rome, visited the Arctic region, Europe, and Belize with the Marine Corps, toured the United States singing his original songs on a music ministry with Jason, healed countless rescued animals, and now spends his workdays saving lives as an EMT. He taught himself to create stained glass masterpieces and handcrafted furniture, and somehow found time to come up with an unbeatable recipe for pepper jelly using various peppers he grows in the greenhouse-like area he created next to his workshop.

John had the great fortune and good taste to marry a woman who encourages his bold dreams, while keeping him grounded just enough to maintain a happy home for the two of them and their adorable children.

If you asked me who I know that is living the American Dream, he and Jason would be the first two people I would mention. I'm very proud to be their sister, and realize now how very very blessed I was that they came on the scene when they did.

I love you John! Happy birthday - hope you've had a wonderful Shaffer Week!