Summer Daze

Hey look at this! Can you see black shingles to the top of the roof?! Hurrah! Ron finished with the house last night. Shingles are all picked up too. Though he still has a few rows on the garage and he has to put the cupolo back on. He is only slightly bent over and moving very slowly and akwardly because of this. "Ron. Does your back hurt?" I ask. "You're walking funny." "No." he tells me. He's just fine. Doesn't know what's wrong with my eyesight because he walks just fine. Hmph. We still have another project on the docket for the summer... painting. We have the color picked out. A plan laid.
And hey, look what's volunteered to grow up right in my flower garden! A single hollyhock! Now where did that come from, I wonder. I certainly didn't plant it there. Though, it's a flower that might be one that the former resident of this house would certainly have enjoyed I think. Anyway, I get to enjoy it for now. I dug out a walnut tree, too that some squirrel must have planted in that garden. Tried transplanting it, but it's pretty dead right now. Oh well.

Gutted

Some extra pictures available here after the fire. L & Ks did a fire sale this morning from 5 am- 10 am. Then their insurance adjusters come in. We won't know if they'll be rebuilding, retstarting, restoring or coming back in general until insurance stuff is figured out. Statistics that I heard claimed that only 50% of businesses are able to come back after major damage like this. With 3 places gone now, you would hope that at least one of them will be able to rebuild. What a hole that would leave if the block remains empty. For now things seem quiet. Next week they are bringing in a crane to take everything out of this building for examination as to what caused the fire. That should prove interesting, at least from this spectator's point of view. I'll have to remember my camera on those days.

The Little Fireworks

I was in bed by 10 on the 4th of July. It's getting as bad as New Year's. The kind of "been there, done that" sort of thing. But we did spend part of the day with Nate and Kristin...and the other half we spent roofing! (Though what this 'we' thing is I'm not sure. I wasn't up on the roof!) We are getting closer to being done. Anyway. Here are a few of our exciting Fourth of July shots:

Meet Ivan

Have I introduced you to Ivan yet? I thought not. He's been a well kept secret around here though I'm hard pressed to tell you exactly why. Anyway, Ivan is an international student studying at NWC and we are his 'host' family. He became our 'host' student almost 2 years ago. He is from Bulgaria. (very exotic don't you think?) He is the 3rd international student that we've had, the other two being from Korea. We've always enjoyed being around the international kids as they bring a whole new, unthought of dimension to our lives. When our kids were quite young we hosted students from Japan (funny stories I could tell about that experience!), then missionaries from Africa, an exchange student from Germany for a whole year, and one from Sweden (she didn't stay too long, but that's another story) Then our own kids started travel internationally. Jon travelled to New Guinea when he was 15. Amy to Australia, Malawi Africa, India and Korea. Well, as for us, we haven't done quite as much travelling but by hosting students this is one way we can give back, as it were, all that our family has enjoyed and benefitted from travels abroad. It definitely gives us a different perspecive on life and a chance to share all that we've been blessed with! Anyway, Ivan is living with us until school starts again in the fall. He has been lots of fun and has had a chance to babysit Buster, meet two of the grandkids, and he will be joining us on our Zoo weekend in Lincoln in a couple of weeks. Perhaps we'll get him camping ,too, who knows. I'll share a picture one of these days as believe it or not, I don't have one of him yet!

B+ (a blood type reminder)

Hey July has arrived and i've yet to come up with my "new month resolution" word. Action packed and achievable, of course.. B+(positive) might be a good place to start as i've been really struggling with doubt, discouragement and a tad bit of self loathing thrown in to boot. I don't know why it should be so easy to look so at the world with such dark colored glasses on all the time. I have to psych myself up to be positive sometimes. There are days I have no idea why the blackness descends. Anyway, i need to change my attitudes and actions/reactions here. Some thoughts on being a more positive person:

*Have A respect for people and their contributions, even mine.
*hold firm the belief that things happen for a reason, and that reason serves me, whatever it is.
*Stay firm with the conviction that no matter how good or how bad things may be, they're going to get better -- and I can help make them become so.
*I know that positive people are the ones who make the difference in life -- how many cynics do have ever done anything worthwhile?
*Keep on being relentlessly positive, no matter what.
*Remember. that good things happen -- repeatedly -- to those people who are looking out for them.
*I will commit to form and foster positive habits, and decrease negative ones
*Be the change I want to see in the world”.
"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope" 2Thess. 2:16

Those Grand kids

Ok, the grandkids were with us over the weekend. As ususal, we had lots of fun going to the parks, taking walks, watching "Cars" (for the 490th time) stopping by the library, and of course, doing everyone's favorite thing: EATING! I swear that Isaiah can put away more food than a grown up. He's always hungry, always wondering what's next to eat and if he can have... chocolate milk, gum, ice cream, banana chips, etc. He has a hollow leg, as my dad would have said. And that Phinehas, I was chasing him around "Phinehas don't hit Buster too hard." "Phinehas get your hand out of the birdbath now" Phinehas, it would be easier if you walked up the steps instead of the slide" "Sorry Phin, you can't ride the bike yet. your feet don't quite reach the pedals yet" Ach, don't touch. Be Careful. Hold my hand. Put that back, please. Ok, but only just a few bounces on the bed. Sorry, we're not going to water the plants, we just had 8 inches of rain...... well, you have the idea. I was exhausted, but I loved it.

Fire in Downtown Orange City Destroys Three Stores

I worked at Hannah's Hallmark in the photolab for two years before I got back to the library. I counted it as a time to be humbled, to learn something new, and be glad for the library again! It was with absolute horror then, when we watched it burn to nothing last night. That along with two other stores in downtown Orange City. It is hard on a community to lose places like this. And i was just in there on Saturday to pick up some pictures. I looked around at their sales to see if I could find anything neat for my daughter-in-law's birthday. I found bunches of stuff, but decided I'd wait til it was a bit closer to her birthday. Now I won't have that chance. We spent 4 hours up there lastnight with the whole community watching 7 fire departments fight the fire. It was almost like a carnival...kids playing in water, people taking pictures everywhere (including me) families out on their bikes, walking their dogs, sitting in lawn chairs...It was really eerie. S0here are a few of the shots I got:

Oh yes, we had the grand kids this weekend too. They just missed all this. Pictures of them to come, too.