Where, Oh Where, Oh Where, Did My Summer Go?

“Where, oh where, has my summer gone? Where, oh, where did it go?” This is my sad (veggie tale) song of recent. This teacher is trying her best to get pumped up to start another school year, but my “to do” list is far from being completed. L I don’t know if any one is interested or not, but here’s a little insight of our summer.
I returned from the east, determined to get several projects completed, and was met with lots of dirt and sand that blew in from the dust storms. We were told one storm had winds up to 70mph, the church roof showed it, and the broken basketball pole. The first night home, we had an unexpected guest to spend the night and I was crazy enough to say yes to two very eager boys that called and asked if they could come over for a slumber party because they missed us. J Oh, and would I baby-sit? Grandpa is going back to work and Grandma has two more weeks of driving summer school bus. But… by the end of that week, Grandma is in the hospital and then ICU with collapsed lungs and is flown out to Flagstaff. Unpack, clean, laundry, meals, work on VBS, hospital visits, other outreach duties and preparations and in the mean time, keep the four little “Indians” under control. June is history, July will get better!
July 1-7 – Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart! It’s Sunday, we have a morning service, jail service in the afternoon and an evening service, so we can spend some special time together tonight-----umm---- change of plans-----extra children at our house due to circumstances out of our control. Let’s go for a walk! On the way back, we heard the dreaded noise, as Ty yelled, “Snake!!” A rattle snake slithered in front of him! No, not yet, this is only July, we don’t have to worry about them till August. Because it was dusk, Seth didn’t see it at first and that was scary. Then Seth held it down with a stick, while the boys and I ran back to the house and got the shovel and lights.
Tuesday, we went “camping” by the corral to help some friends do their branding. Another rattler almost struck Wakaine if Sharon wouldn’t have pushed him out of the way. We had a nice time roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and one guy even roasted a rattler. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well that night. I kept hearing “noises.” You probably wouldn’t have slept well either if you knew how many rattlers were killed in the area! Stirring in the camp by dawn and it was time to round up all the cattle and do branding. What a long but fun day! We even made it to Grants (80 miles) in time for the fireworks on Wed. eve. We came home Thurs. and had our mid-week service. Fri., Seth went and picked up the metal for the church roof, while I cleaned. Sat, Steve and Sarah Miller and Promise Little Moon came and we made preparations for VBS.
July 8-14 – Awakened at 2 a.m. by a distressed phone call, from the mother of the three children that I am watching. She is in Flagstaff with Grandma and her water broke!!! Baby isn’t supposed to come till September.
VBS Week - We had a VBS at Free Trinity Mission which is about 15 miles away from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and then had about an hour and a half to get lunch and go pick up for the VBS here at 2:00. It got interesting some mornings, trying to get 4 kids ready, breakfast for everyone, and all the VBS materials together. Bro. Steve did an excellent job with the Bible Lessons. I told the Character Story, and Sarah and Promise did the Memory Verse. Seth and I did the Review Game, and everyone pitched in with the craft and the many other duties. It makes a big difference when everyone works as a team! I couldn’t have survived the week if we didn’t. Steve and Sarah were great!! It was a very good VBS, Pioneering with Courage and the kids really liked it. I started teasing the three boys from my house that they didn’t need to come to the morning session and just go in the afternoon. They were almost in tears. They really wanted to attend both sessions. In fact, another little girl on her birthday came to the morning session so she could go with her Mom to do something else the rest of the day, but she made her Mom bring her to the afternoon session and for the rest of the week she came to both sessions. I guess that should speak for itself.
Friday - It’s a Boy! Due to more complications, they allowed the baby to be born, weighing in at 3lb.3oz. After VBS and cleanup, out to eat to celebrate the survival of another successful VBS, we take off for ABQ to pick up Pauline Nunes, a college friend from Jamaica, at the airport.
Sat. we go shopping, looking for bargains, especially for Pauline. J
Since this is getting long and I’m running out of time ------ to be continued!

Mel