All Scrunched Up

I'm used to it. Anyone who has had children in three different schools, or some in college or some in church or community activities knows that in May and December a calendar is a girl's best friend. Now I am attempting to use this blog to chronicle my life for my out-of-town family (and for me), August is a month with scrunched-up dates I have to keep track of and I just realized that although I did send a card with a nice crisp bill to my granddaughter, we forgot to phone her yesterday as we always do. Sorry, Jo-Jo.

My last entry mentioned our television tragedy just as the Olympics started and my first set of guests arrived. The good part was that the cable got fixed, but I failed to take any photos of our activities. It was hot, so mostly the children swam. Naturally we ate and I also took them over to Canada, nervously recalling the time we did that when they only had one child. Jack was six months and the Border Patrol seemed to think we were engaged in baby smuggling. They pulled us over, took us into their building, but eventually let us go.  This photo was taken during my son Andrew's visit. The activities were pretty much the same and I did take a couple of photos. Here we are watching a movie in the yard.  The kids love it and Ernie makes popcorn and doles out candy. It got dark pretty soon after this photo was taken.

On the 4th we celebrated the tenth birthday of Alex in Virginia. He will be among our next set of visitors. Yes. I got the sheets washed! He will have to get back home to start practice for his travel soccer team (See what I mean, there's stuff going on even during vacations.) 

Andrew and Marcie left on the 6th, Ernie's birthday. We had celebrated with a picnic the day before. Here he is holding his youngest grandchild. If you have been following her incredible life in Veronica's Journey, you will be impressed to learn that she is taking her first steps and we were able to watch her.

What was next? That was our wedding anniversary on the 10th. I have written before about the conflict the photographer had between us and the Hereford cows—well, this was Iowa and the county fair. Sad that the celebrant, Ernie's brother, died a couple of years ago and the best man, the philosopher Dr. Charles Visgak, on the right, died a long, long time ago.

That brings us to the third birthday of Josephine Mary, seen here happily eating her cereal. She looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but I think she has learned more from her three older brothers than from the sedate oldest sister in the family. She is beautiful and a delight to have around.

So now a brief hiatus. Next group arrives on Thursday. The temperature is much cooler and let's hope it stays that way.