Yu,Yu, Yu, Yu Yes to Vu, Vu, Vu VBS!

Here are a few more pictures from our week at VBS.  I took the taxi pics on my cell phone so they are kinda blurry. 

 Fletcher's friends Tucker and Noah came with us every night.  They had such a great time. 

The boys really loved the music.  I downloaded the songs from iTunes and made a CD for us to listen to.  I'll have to see if I can get them to sing a few and put them on video. 

Of course, they loved the food too.  Our church does it a little differently in that they do VBS at night and everyone gets snacks at the end as opposed to getting snacks during class.  But Luke's class gets a snack IN class and afterwards too.  AND they got a piece of candy if they said their verse for each night.  Luke was loving life especially since Kevin would go get him and let him go through the line and pick out what he wanted to eat before I got down there.  Two cookies?  Sure.  Brownie too?  No problem.  Oh look, there's a sprinkle cookie.  Yum.  Needless to say, they were on a sugar high all week.  I hope they remember the spiritual truths they learned this week.  I'm sure they will remember that they got to eat whatever they wanted for 5 nights in a row. 

Yesterday after regular Sunday School and church, Luke wanted to go in the "big room" (Fellowship Hall) for more desserts.  He didn't quite understand that this free-for-all dessert thing only happens once a year.

A Fish Is Born

I realize this video is long, but I decided to put it on here anyway.  Luke has done so well with his swim lessons the past two weeks.  He really clicked with "Mr. Matt" and was pretty cooperative.  (What a difference a year makes.  Last year he would not cooperate at all).  Of course, he was a little bossy here and there.  You can see in the video where he is pointing and telling Mr. Matt exactly where to stand in the pool so Luke can jump to him.  It also cracks me up when Mr. Matt says "Face in" and Luke just about gives himself whiplash putting his face in the water.  Now he just needs to practice this summer and he'll keep getting more comfortable in the water.

Oh Where Oh Where Has My Snickelfritz Gone...

I'm still here.
There's been end of school stuff, a beach trip, swim lessons, RA Recognition, decorating for VBS, Father's Day, starting VBS, dentist appointments, and just life in general these past few weeks.  I usually write my blog posts in the evenings after the boys go to bed and before I go to bed.  But lately, I've been so tired that I've just wanted to read a book or zone out on the couch or go to bed instead of blog. 

I'm not sure what the summer will look like on the blog.  I do have some fun pictures to put up from the last few weeks of our various activities. 

This week is our Vacation Bible School.  It is a New York City theme which kinda cracks me up since I'm pretty sure most of these kids don't know a whole lot about The Big Apple. My friend Teresa, Kevin and I made this yellow taxi cab as a decoration.  Our VBS is at night so I'm not sure how much blogging will get done this week either.  We shall see. 

Looney Tunes

What a busy few weeks!  Blogging falls to the bottom of the "To Do" list when there's so many other things going on. 

Last week, I took Fletcher on a "date night" along with Mrs. Teresa and Tucker to see Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.  The live orchestra played the scores for several of the old Looney Tunes cartoons (and even threw in Scooby Doo and Flintstones cartoons too).  It was fun seeing all of those old 7 minute cartoons on the big screen as the orchestra played.  I'm not sure Fletcher completely understood the significance of the live orchestra.  But he has seen Looney Tunes cartoons before so he thought it was neat. 

The conductor has been doing this "Bugs Bunny On Broadway" with different orchestras all over the world.  He goes to a new city, the orchestra learns the music and then they perform it and he moves on to the next place.  In between cartoons, the conductor did a great job of explaining a little of the history behind the Warner Brothers studio orchestra.  Back in the day, each studio had its own orchestra that played all the scores for all the shows including cartoons and other TV shows.  So there were some very talented musicians in Hollywood.   One of the instruments (can't remember the name) in the orchestra the night we went was one of the actual instruments used in the 1940s orchestra.

I don't know if Fletcher will grow up and enjoy going to the symphony.  But this was a fun way to introduce the concept to him.

Here's a small clip similar to what we saw. 

George Thorogood

Just to clarify...he insists on going to the bathroom all by himself these days with no help whatsoever from mom or dad.  So sometimes things get a little twisted when he comes out.  I think he was trying to adjust his underwear at the beginning.  I don't think he was grabbing his crotch like Michael Jackson. 

Betcha Can't Watch Just Once

If you've ever had a pet and "talked" for your pet, you will love this video.  We make Sadie "talk" all the time.  We just aren't clever enough to put it on youtube. 


Seriously, I bet you watch more than once.  The kids love this one.  Took them awhile to realize the dog really wasn't talking.  This guy has talking cat videos too.  I'm not a cat lover so they aren't quite as funny to me, but you may enjoy them. 

Damages

Sidenote:  Blogger (the platform I use to write this blog) has been having some technical issues the last few days.  That's why the post below kept disappearing and reappearing.  I think it is fixed now. 

First things first:  Happy 13th Anniversary to my awesome husband. I love you so much and every single day I'm so glad you picked me. 

I think the traditional anniversary gift for year 13 is supposed to be lace.  But for us, it is going to be wood, shingles, and maybe patio furniture. 

 Took out part of the gutters and some shingles and roof decking, but didn't get the trusses. 

 Deck railing is messed up, but the floor of the deck is fine. 

 No brick damage.  No broken windows.  No interior damage. 

 Broke several of the patio chairs.  Didn't break the tempered glass patio table (or so we thought).  When Kevin and his buddy picked it up to move it, the legs collapsed.  So good-bye patio table too. 

 We forgot to take a picture of the tree lying in the yard.  In the above picture,  our master bedroom is the window in the far back top part of the picture.  Completely opposite of where the deck is.  Also where Luke was sleeping since the noise of the storm had scared him and he came and got in bed with us.  The tree fell at almost an exact 45 degree angle across our backyard. 

 This is looking directly out of our master bedroom window.  The tree that fell is straight out of this window.  In the photo, it is behind the smaller tree near the rock well.  Had the wind been blowing in a different direction, the tree would have fallen directly into our master bedroom.  I am so thankful that "even the wind and the waves obey Him" (Mark 4:41).  The tree was a pine tree about 2 feet in diameter. 

 Firewood anyone?

FEMA tarp covering the corner of the roof.

I'm still not 100% sure what happened.  We think the tree was hit by lightning, but there are no burn marks on the tree like we've seen on other trees that have been hit.  Could have been the strong wind and the tree was just weak at that point.  Whatever it was, I am thankful God protected us from something that could have been much worse.  I'm thankful we have insurance.  I'm thankful we have money to pay our deductible.  I'm thankful we have good recommendations on reputable contractors who can fix everything that is broken.  I'm so thankful none of us were hurt.