Another catch-up Post

Since the last time I posted, we've had a lot going on in our lives. Mike and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed dinner out and then attended the local outdoor drama, The Aracoma Story: Spirits and Legends. It was a very good show; it told a lot about the history of the settling of the area by the Shawnee. Even though we don't know a whole lot of people here yet, we saw one of the ladies from church at dinner and then one of the guys Mike works with, his wife and another lady from work (who was actually from Georgia), as well as our pastor and his wife. It was kinda funny!

Last weekend was the Francis family reunion. We packed up and traveled to Dad's on Friday night and then onto the picnic in Clarksburg Saturday. As always, it was a really good time! Seeing family that we only seem to see once a year is always a treat. This year I took the kids to the kiddie pool. They both LOVED it! (Last year, Jennifer took Nicholas with her girls, but he didn't like it so I had to go over and get him.) What a difference!!! I couldn't get him off of the water slide. Grandma and Papaw Bramer were there too; they, along with Mike, took the kids to the playground area. As they love swing and slide too, I am sure that the kids had a really good day! ...and they even got skinned up knees to prove it! I know for a fact that they were two tired kiddos! On Sunday, we went to church with Connie and Arnold for the first time with both kids; after church we spent the afternoon with them. Everyone had even more fun. And would you believe that one of the girls that I marched with in WVU's band (she played alto sax too) lives behind them now???? What a small world!!

I've been working around the house some - cleaning and the normal stuff, but I also starting the final phase of the wallpaper removal. (There will still be some paper up when we get completely done with this phase, but it is stuff that we are okay leaving for now.) The hallway that leads from the entry to the kitchen/garage door is now de-wallpapered and painted. We still need to strip the wallpaper in the entry and paint that. But that's the two-story entry and we haven't decided what we are going to do about getting it painted.

We spent this afternoon and evening (well, Mike did) weeding the flower gardens and such. I tried to help but the kids wouldn't allow for that. Elizabeth decided it was a good idea to eat dirt, while Nicholas wanted to play on the "playground," so Mommy had to stop helping and play Mommy for the most part. I felt bad for Mike, but the kids weren't very good helpers today. But, boy, does it look better now! I am so thankful that Mike did that!!

School starts this week here, but that won't really affect us. Nicholas isn't going to Pre-K this year. (He misses the Sept 1 birthday cut-off.) We should hear this week if he got into Head Start or not. It would really do him good, but we'll see...it's up to the school system/government.

At church, we are gearing up to start the handbell choir back up. There are several people who have said they will ring, so things are rolling along. I just hope that Mike and I are up to "directing" the choir. Kinda scary.....

So, we've been quite busy the last few weeks. I know there are other things that we have had to deal with, but these are the highlights. Hope that everyone reading this has a great rest of August and a good school year ahead! Until then.....