Don't Spill the Beans!

Do you remember that game?  Well, I thought of it when I opened my freezer this morning to defrost it.  I do immensely enjoy my new fridge/freezer that is frost-free; it's so easy to clean.  This one, however, has lots of frost, and today was the day I chose to do it.  I found flour and blueberries on the bottom also so may have to create some bean-blueberry muffins.  :)

Do you think we have enough water bottles?  Soccer season is here so they have been put to use a lot lately.

These are ready to be filled and frozen, and I am working on freezing a big block of ice for our Jackpine camping trip this weekend (though it may be cold enough we won't need it.)

Anyway, I'll get back to defrosting now.  I'll have to find a pan of hot water.

Piano Tuning

We got our piano tuned and the key pads replaced.  I warned them that they'd probably find lots of guitar picks (I know I've bought at least 30 in the past) while they were in there.  They found 22 plus money and bingo chips.  The piano sounds nice, and will for two weeks if we're lucky, it's a lemon piano, but two of the notes mute when we play them so they'll have to come back and fix those for me.

Blueberries

Mike has started his blueberry picking.  He has some for each set of parents plus one more pail.  Tracy, Emily, and Aaron went out with a friend and got two more pails so we sent one home with our friend.  I get the "fun" job of sorting through them, and they were almost clean-picked.  Here is a pile Laura was sorting.

Shelly's Birthday

I celebrated my birthday at the end of July while Tracy, Emily, and Melissa were at camp and Aaron was at work and then a friend's house.  I made some cinnamon rolls and put David's old "4" candle on the cake as I have hit my 40's.  I received 7 cards in the mail plus an e-card and LOTS of Facebook greetings.

AWANA hair night

In Truth and Training (Emily and Melissa,) they had a hair night where there were prizes for the most beautiful, most things, most colorful, and most creative hair-dos.  In Sparks (Laura) they had a fancy night.  I took the girls in and had their hair done.  Here are the end results.  Emily and Melissa both won prizes for their categories.

Jason's 16th birthday

Jason had a calm day for his birthday in July with not much "special" happening.  He did have a pizza from North Country Convenience and got a few gifts.  We made him a cake with lots of candles.

Summer Activities

Starting the last week in May, our family has been on the run.

It all started with WOW swimming early in the morning for Emily and Melissa and with Jason taking driver's education for three weeks and driving for one week.  After he was done with his class, he ate a sandwich then headed down the pool to help with swimming lessons for four weeks.  By the time the month was over, he was so very sick of sandwiches.

Emily, Melissa, Laura, (and David for one day,) went to VBS from 9-2 one week and 6-8 another week plus Laura managed to hit parts of one more.  Melissa and Laura were also involved in an art class for a week, which they immensely enjoyed.

Emily and Melissa went to camp, Emily to another camp, and Emily and Melissa to yet another.  (Emily had wanted to go to six camps this year but $ was an issue.) Emily did cleaning for Tracy to earn money for canteen.

Tracy was house sitting for two weeks and at camp for three weeks, and we tried our hardest to convince Jason to go to camp for a week without luck.  The two of them have been working at the indoor and outdoor pools also plus Tracy babysat on top of her other jobs.

At home we have been enjoying our pool, doing lots of mowing, and waiting (not so patiently) for a company to bring some gravel to make our driveway passable.

As July comes to a close, we have a week's break before soccer starts.  Aaron is planning a camping trip with friends, and I'm hoping to take a quick trip with the youngest four.