Life in Mississippi

It took a week but we have recovered from our Mission Trip. I certainly enjoy going but it is exhausting. We all had a great time and Greg and I loved watching Katie, Will, and Amy interact with the other team members and the children at the churches. I think next year, we are headed to Ohio.

4th of July weekend we had an "explosive" good time. On the 3rd, James and Will went fireworks shopping and bought enough to "light the night sky" many times. They displayed the arsenal on the pool table for all to see. Will was quite proud of the fact he had a hand in the pyrotechnic show this year.

Sat. morning, we got up and started working on the floor. Laying tile takes a long time and it ain't done yet. The tile Greg & I agreed on looks great in the kitchen and so does the darker grout. The tile looks like mud to me and the grout, red GA clay. Perfect for a house that lays claim to 7 kids plus friends. We are working on it again on Sunday. Hopefully in a week or so it will be done. We have to do it in stages because hey, we live in this house. My family likes to eat 3 meals a day and I have to be able to get to the fridge and stove. So, tile is getting layed down in states.

After working on the floor, Greg put ribs on to smoke for dinner and we went swimming. After our scrumptious dinner of ribs, corn on the cob and baked beans, we swam again, waiting for it to get dark. The the snap, crackle and pop of the festivities began. The firework shoppers did a great job and the result was beautiful. And....we did not become a 4th of July statistic. a safe 4th is always important. The day would have been perfect if Rob had been able to come. He had to work.

We had a big cookout for Greg's work on Tuesday night. The food was yummy. Greg cooked out pork chops and I set up a baked potato bar. Then everyone else brought side dishes and desserts. We had kids in the pool and kids on the trampoline. It was alot of fun and everyone got to see my partially done kitchen floor and the wood flooring in the living room and dining room.

Katie, Will and Amy are working at our church's VBS this week which is at night. Katie is an asst. crew leader for a group and Will is working with the preschoolers, which he loves. Amy is working at the snack station and is getting some good lessons in crowd control. When we pick them up everynight, we hear lots of kid stories all the way home.

We are getting organized for school to start on Aug. 3 at the Jackson Academy for Gifts Students (JAGS). All of the books have been ordered and the math curriculum was delivered yesterday. Now, we are going to work on a school day schedule, so that we get it all done in a timely manner. Didn't that sound officicial...what it means is no dawdling during class time, lets get er done. We have a week that we will be in Atl. in Sept. and the books are going with us. Then we have a week at Disney in October and the books are staying home! So Disney is our incentive to get started early and work hard through Aug. and Sept. and then go to the "happiest place on earth" Katie raised her ACT score from a 21 last year to a 24 this year, you go girl! Since this will be her senior year, she is going to take it a couple of more times, then we will have some college decisions to make!

Hope everyone is having a great summer! We are!