27 September 2009 - Catching up

So you've probably noticed I haven't been keeping up with my updates recently. I've been busy with the funeral last week, and I performed another wedding this week. In the interim though, I found a little time on Wednesday evening to go miniature golfing with the youth group.
Madeline came downstairs today and was being very tender with her baby, so I decided she was cute and needed her picture taken. If you click on this picture to blow it up, you'll see she's missing a tooth on top. Coupled with her bottom tooth she lost a week or so ago, she fits right in with our hillbilly neighbors.The girls are all doing really well, and enjoying school. We had open house this week, and met all of the girls' teachers. We're pretty happy with them so far and with the girls' performance in school.

20 September 2009 - Shriver Funeral

Since getting my motorcycle in July, I've been feeling the need to get some saddle bags for it. It's frustrating to get to the grocery store or to try to take a kid somewhere on it without a place to store a few items while in transit. I found these saddle bags online and ordered them, and they arrived this week. Despite being very busy, I found a little time to throw them on.
This week our friend, Bill Shriver died. He had a very bad heart attack back in January, but was too tough for it to take him all at once. The damage however was severe and permanent. He's been in and out of the hospital since January. In July, he and his wife, Opal, attended the Palmyra Pageant. About a week later, he was hospitalized with congestive heart failure and a degenerative bone marrow disease. With his bone marrow unable to produce white blood cells or platelets any longer, his health failed him and he passed away on Tuesday, September 15th. I was honored to conduct his funeral three days later at the church.After the funeral, there were several potted flowers left. Opal took the ones she wanted, but gave this purple flower to Joanne. She has it planted in our yard now. We will miss Bill.

13 September 2009 - Labor Day

W&J started its fall semester on Labor Day. In order to offset the fact that we have to work on the holiday, the college president throws a big campus picnic. Emily got a ladybug balloon bracelet.About a year or so ago, we found that there was a leak in the underground water main in front of our house. We called the water company, which came and promptly and dug up our front yard to fix the problem. Fortunately, the leak was on the water company's side of the connection, so it didn't cost us anything. They fixed it up, but apparently very poorly because the leak returned again this summer, and our front yard got torn up again. Big surprise, they screwed up their part again, so we didn't have to pay this time either. I suppose every time they raise the water rates to cover their costs, we're paying.
Other than this and the beginning of classes, not much of monumental importance occurred this week.

6 September 2009 - Kennywood

We figured that we'd pretty much lay low for Labor Day weekend, because we had a busy and very full summer, but a lady in our ward hooked us up with some tickets to Kennywood amusement park, so we decided we'd have one last hurrah before surrendering our summer.

Here are the girls at the entrance to Kennywood with a friend from the ward, Hannah Prine.I got in trouble for taking pictures while the ride was in motion, but I couldn't resist this shot of Hannah and Jessica on the Pirate.
Madeline of course loved the carousel, and insisted on "a pink horsie that goes up and down, not just stands there."
I didn't get caught taking this shot of Jessica and Madeline on the Logjammer.
Nor did anyone notice me taking a shot of Joanne, Hannah, and Jessica on the Jack Rabbit.
We had fun, especially the kids, and were glad to spend one last Saturday in the sun before fall.