Mmmmm...strawberries

This past weekend was full of a flurry of activity for both Jeff and I. Jeff left Friday for his annual Offensive Line clinic in Cincinnati, OH. It was only a two-day event but quite the long drive. It was also commencement weekend at GC and I had to work events on Thurs, Fri, and Sat. So, that passed the time quite nicely while Jeff was out of town.
On Sunday we met my parents and niece and nephew at the annual St. Patrick's Strawberry Festival in Ruma, IL. The fresh strawberries with ice cream was amazing! Jeff and I played a little with Guinevere at the playground and the kid's games. Boy, was it tough picking out a prize though. (Who knew snaps weren't for little kids?) With a little supervision from Uncle Jeff though, she got to enjoy her prize.

Gwen and Uncle Jeff's swinging contest.

Brrrrrrr!

This past weekend Jeff and I attended one of Greenville's crown jewel events, Agapefest. This festival of Christian music draws around 5K men, women, and youth (I think that 4K of them were jr. highers) from various parts of the Midwest. For those of you who are not familiar with this GC event, it is a weekend filled with camping, funnel cakes, and great Christian artists sponsored by Greenville College. Jeff and I had never been before, so we declared this year to be "the one". Our first Agapefest experience. We went through the schedule and picked out all of the bands that we wanted to see and we were set to go.
Well, we didn't really make it out on Friday night. Got a little sidetracked (or I guess you could call us too lazy). So we finally decided to go walk around on Saturday. Wow, it was crazy with all of the youth groups running around. First off, you have to understand one thing about Jeff and I, we aren't really concert people. We really aren't even crowd people. So after about one lap around the festivities we were ready to hit it. Since we live less than a mile from the fairgrounds we had the luxury of coming and going. After dinner we went back out with our camping chairs and blanket (it was COLD) to listen to the final two shows of the evening. It was great to see so many young people and adults in communion together. That is what I think we both enjoyed most about the weekend. Just being one voice (a loud one!) with other Christians in praising God. We look forward to going to more events like Agapefest and hopefully even taking our kids' youth group to events like it in the future.

How many words do you know?

So, you may know this already but last month we celebrated our "daughter", Mickey's second birthday. We have been Mickey's adoptive parents for the past two years while she has gone through all of her wonderful puppy stages. A little background of Mickey: her mother was a Cajun and was rescued after Katrina. A co-worker of mine heard we were looking for a puppy and got me in touch with her vet, who made the rescue. We think that she is part border collie and beagle. In short, we were united with our little pal right before we moved to Greenville.
Well, the other day, Jeff came home talking about this border collie named Rico. He was explaining to me that this dog was super smart and knew over 200 words in multiple languages. Wow! If you think about it, that is super smart for any animal. So one night last week at dinner, we started writing down all of the words that Mickey knows and responds to correctly (80% of the time). She knew 20 words! Since we have not done any formal training with her, I think that is pretty good. Who knows where her vocab will be 5 years from now. She may be able to finally recite those prepositions.

Sew Nice!

For the past three Tuesday nights I have been slaving away, over a sewing machine that is. This winter my parents got me a brand spanking new Singer sewing machine. Nothing too fancy or complicated, just the basics. I was determined to figure that thing out and make something with it. Well, opportunity finally crossed my path and I seized it! A local sew/quilt shop was starting a beginner's sewing class and it fit the bill with what I was looking for. I made sure that those ladies knew that I knew absolutely nothing about that machine, just in case there was another class that was for the level below beginner. I'm not quite sure what that would be called though. Anyways, two of the other coaches' wives and I signed up and that was our entire class. We picked out a pattern and fabric, got familiar with our machines (I named mine Susie)and got to work practicing. I was amazed at all of the science and engineering behind sewing. And I thought it was just a needle going up and down. Well, to sum it up, I don't know how many homemade outfits that I will be making in the future but Susie and I will definitely be working together again. You may even find yourself as one of the lucky recipients of one of our "projects"...

Going to give it a good effort...

Well, I'm going to give this blogging thing a go. Who knows, it may be a big hit out there in blogger world and I may even develop a fan following. Wouldn't that just be something? Well fans, stay tuned as I build up the site, then just sit back and enjoy the ride while you are entertained beyond your imagination. (Ha!)