bye bye june

i have a ridiculous number of things to blog about.

blake and luke had to have some additional immunizations because of their age and because i said so. luke does NOT do well with any medical procedure of any sort at any time. and he was pretty out of whack this day, even though his aunt kate was going to be the one giving him his shots. whatever his anxieties were for this day manifested themselves in his not being able to control himself at all. he was like luke times infinity. 3000% himself. an interesting event to behold. i did manage to get this picture of him running in circles around the little kid table, which he did while i was otherwise occupied with signing them in. geez. whatever, we made it through without him getting sick, and as soon as we left the place he was his "normal" self again.

proof that blake and luke actually CAN work together.

can't remember if i mentioned this before but greg went with blake and luke and their scout troop to carter caves for a few days of caving, hiking, camping, horseback riding, being filthy...that kind of thing. they had a really good time. i know they'll never blog it for me even though i asked them to. i know the basics of what they did but no fun details. and i actually don't even have pictures (other than the packing/unpacking) because they've not given them to me yet. if they ever share i'll post them another time. i do remember hearing them talk about being up to their knees in water in a cave and falling in creeks and mud and crawling on their bellies in caves. tales of fat horses, crazy horses, mean horses that bite. and now i know that my sons know how to fry bacon. i'll be using that to my advantage someday soon i'm sure.

our friends jeremy and janessa are getting married this summer. they are so cute together and such a great couple. we met jeremy when we still lived in parkersburg. we knew we were coming back to huntington to be at pea ridge baptist but hadn't moved yet. some kids from the church came up for junior high convention and stayed at (took over?) our house. jeremy was one of them. such a great kid! we loved him from the get-go. he's still very jeremy but now he's old enough to get married...and we still love him. anyway, some of the ladies from church had a shower for them. i got to bake the cakes, which i had a good time doing. and my family and friends ate lots of practice chocolate cakes from a new recipe i was trying out. and baking the cakes gave me an excuse to buy a little 3-tiered cake dealie i've been looking at for awhile but couldn't justify buying. baking is fun for me. and even therapeutic at times. plus putting the whole thing together - all the layers and keeping it from collapsing into itself - is interesting. at least i think so. i can be a little weird though. =)

i just like these pictures of max and aly. they try to act like they think the other one is weird but they really do like to be around each other. i've noticed they do better when there aren't any of their other friends around.

luke went to cowen for junior high 2 camp. it's his last year of being able to go to that particular camp and he and his buddies matt and bill wanted to go to that one together. he had a good week. even took showers. had a hail storm that covered the ground and made it look like it had snowed. we sent him lots of mail but for some reason he ended up not having to sing OR dance for it. this disappoints me. while he was at camp, max got to go to a backyard Bible club that our church sponsored here in our neighborhood. he enjoyed having something to get up and go to every day. (you know, because summer is boring.) a couple of days he and alex rode their bikes down to the pool where it was being held, which is a big deal because i don't let him ride all over the place. by the way, he was chanting "no pictures no pictures" while i was taking their picture. he got to take luke's place in the summer mowing jobs luke and blake have which thrilled him to no end because he finally had an opportunity to make some cash. blake has just been sleeping in, reading, mowing, helping me. and driving any chance he gets.

we had an evening of fire with the smiths.

we've had pool time.

our friends jared and brittany got married this past weekend and we were so happy to be able to be there to see it happen and to celebrate with their families. their wedding was beautiful and very meaningful. and the reception was fun - there was dancing, which my boys (and their mom) just watched happily from our table. sarah beth tried to get blake to dance with her but he wouldn't. seems he was worried that a picture of it might appear on a certain blog. it didn't stop sarah beth though. she and terry ellis got a few moments of it in before i could grab my camera (sorry, ellis women). she did get in with the big group for the cha-cha slide. i couldn't take my eyes off of her - she was smiling and happy and having such a great time. it wore her out and her head was pounding by the time she was done, but that didn't wipe the smile off her face. God is good. and the little things are the big things.

now luke is home from camp and blake is there. just did a little switch-off of sorts. we'll need to be working on our mail for him so maybe he'll have to sing "gray squirrel" and "shake his bushy tail" to get it. he knows it's coming.