Where Have I Been?

Man, life seems to run away with me sometimes. Here is what's been going on:

4th of July - Cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, kids, parents, brothers, sisters, in-laws, out-laws. You name it, we were together. The lake was perfect, good food, lots of lazy hours spent watching kids on the beach or skiing or tubing, reading books in the sun. Overall, a great vacation!

Megan's birthday, July 9th - "the bestest birthday EVER!" according to the newest 10 year old in the house. Why, you ask? (quoting Megan directly) "First of all, I got a Nintendo DS. Second of all, we got to go to the Medora Musical. Third of all, I got to bring a friend. Fourth of all, we got to go swimming." We headed to Dickinson and went swimming at the West River Community Center. They have a great lazy river, two big water slides, and a water shooting play area. A great place for every age. Went out for supper and then headed to Medora for the musical. One of the best shows I've seen (and I think this was the 30th time I've been to the show!!!! Not bad for being only 36) We drove home after the show and arrived in Bismarck about 2:00 am.

I took two vacation days then and we just hung out at home, went bowling one afternoon, took the girls to birthday parties, went swimming at the Wave pool, read a book. Another nice vacation!

The wedding singer - I ended up meeting three times between the bride and groom and the piano player. I bit much in my opinion, but the ceremony went fine. Except they didn't pay me. Not that I only sing for pay. Just that we agreed on the price up front and then I ended up with all the extra meetings so I feel I deserve the check we discussed in our first contact. Just too bad that it has to become a business exchange. I'll get over it. Someday.

The girls have started rehearsals for their play, "School House Rock Live Jr." It is through Shade Tree Players. The music is all so familiar to us who watched them on tv way back when. They are doing fun choreography and singing all the favorites - Conjunction Junction, Only a Bill, etc. They are off book for the first half already tomorrow. The performances are the 14th through 17th if anyone is interested.

Nate is in his second week of Safety Village. They learn all kinds of safety issues. Policemen visit, Trauma Roo the safety kangaroo, bike safety, crossing streets, what to do if lost in a store, testing the smoke house with the firemen. All good stuff every kid should know when they are going into kindergarten. Graduation is Friday. They sing songs and have little poems they've worked on the whole time.

Last evening the whole family worked on building the set for the School House Rocks show.

Thursday evening Jon and I are going to a picnic for MSU alums. Should be fun!

In a couple weeks, we get to go to a Seahawks game in Minneapolis. Jon found cheap tickets at a rummage sale so we're taking Nate and my dad to the game and then on Saturday morning I guess we're going to tour the Leinenkugel's brewery.

OK - I better get to work so I'm not late. Hope your summer isn't going as fast as ours!