June, part 2

The last week of June we were in Michigan, supposedly to help Adam and Rachel pack up for their move to Clinton.  But they were so on top of things, that there really wasn't a lot for us to do in the packing department.  But we got in some fun activities and some family visits during that week. 

We stayed at Diekemas for this visit---Abby also came to MI and she stayed with Adam and Rachel.  On Monday the Wissinks came over to Diekemas for one last visit before the move, and also for some beach time for Jeremiah.  It's been a while since I have ventured down the 100+ steps to get to the beach at Diekemas. It's the thought of coming back up those 100+ steps that makes me decide to just enjoy the beach from up above. As a result, you really can hardly see them, but Adam, Jeremiah and Bethany are down there.

Rachel decided that, considering the amount of time they had, it really wasn't worth it to take Hope down to the beach this time. But she had fun swinging and playing with Aunt Jeanie's toys.

Our fun event for Tuesday was riding on the Sinke train.  We had dinner there, thanks to Betsy (and Cora Mae) doing a great job of grilling! Chuck came over after dinner to run the train.  Bill and Pat, Laura K. and Miriam, Tess and  Megan were also there. Roger and Laura were at Brad's baseball game, so we missed seeing the them.

 It was a beautiful evening--perfect for train rides!

And Hope is the perfect size for the caboose!

I also got a pretty good video of the train, but I have not figured out how to get it from my phone to the computer so that I can try to put it on here.  If I ever figure out how to do that, I will try to add it. Such limited tech skills!!!!

Wednesday evening Jeremiah had his last t-ball game, and he was pretty excited to have both sets of grandparents and Auntie Abby at his game! I'm not sure just how much of the game Abby got to see, because she spent a lot of time keeping track of Hope. Hope was definitely more interested in running around and playing on the playground than she was in the game! 

 Jeremiah at bat

All decked out in his catcher gear!

The catcher in action!

Thursday was the big moving day.  It was a busy morning, but many hands make light work, right?  Besides us old folks and Abby, Adam's parents and his friend/new boss Mike were there to help.  Jeremiah was a great helper, but I didn't get any pictures of him working. Hope was not as much help, but I did get a couple pictures of her. :)

Doing a little clean-up after the truck was loaded.

I took this picture to show JoAnne, so that she could see that the rocking chair made it onto the truck. That chair belonged to my Grandma Waanders, and it had been in JoAnne's kindergarten classroom for many years.  When she retired from teaching, she passed it on to Rachel, who was just starting her teaching career. 

By lunch time the truck was loaded, the house had been vacuumed, a few marks removed from walls, garage swept out, etc. etc.  We all made a stop at Arby's for lunch before all the Wissinks and Mike headed for Clinton, Abby left for Chicago, and we (and Molly) left for Wisconsin. 

Next up: the homeless Wissinks come to Wisconsin!

June, part 1

The first part of June was pretty quiet and uneventful. Bob finished up his volunteering at Cross Trainers Academy and enjoyed an appreciation luncheon for all the volunteers. He also had his usual elders and church council meetings. And we had our regular Friday Panera visits--morning coffee with the senior group from church, and supper with the Brassers.

 I did quite a bit of volunteer work in the BCS library.  The library was moved into the new library/media center that is part of the latest addition at BCS.  This space is probably 3-4 times larger than the old library.  They also decided to revamp the entire organizational system of the library--out with the Dewey Decimal system and in with a system organized according to topics and genres.  That involved lots of computer work to update the catalog and lots of hands-on work with the books---new labels on every single book. This was a huge job--much more work than Melissa (the BCS library person, who also teachers Spanish) could handle on her own.  So she relied a lot on volunteer help. I really enjoyed it--I may have missed my calling.  Maybe should have become a librarian.

On June 11 we had a fun outing.  We went to Ravinia for the live broadcast of "Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor.  Since he is retiring, this was his last appearance at Ravinia.  That made tickets rather hard to get, so we had to settle for lawn seating instead of seats in the pavilion.  Bill and Pat joined us for this, and they got there early and staked out good spots for us, and also rented chairs for us.  Lew and JoAnne went with us, and we were able to get a great parking spot, thanks to Lew's handicap sticker.  It was quite a warm day, but we were in the shade, so we were comfortable.

The live broadcast always begins at 5 pm, but the music begins at 4:45, and Garrison comes out of the Pavilion and mingles a bit with the people on the lawn and sings a few songs.  I walked over to where he was, and actually got a picture.

One hot day we decided to go down to the lake front, thinking that it would be cooler there.  Well, we were wrong, it really wasn't that much cooler. But we did enjoy a walk along the beautiful lake front.

And here's my attempt at a selfie. I think I need to work on that skill--I haven't figured out how to take a picture and look happy at the same time. (And that's the Northwestern Mutual building under construction that appears to be growing out of my head.)  Oh, well.

On Father's Day we were invited to the Brassers, who had some of their family with them for the week-end.  Justin, Hilary and Silas came from Seattle for a long week-end, so it was nice to see them and to meet Silas.  They also stopped over at our house the next evening after their visit to Kopps.

It sure was fun to meet this cute little guy!

My life was so quiet and uneventful that I even did a couple of jigsaw puzzles.  I decided that it was time to get rid of some of my puzzles, so I wanted to make sure all the pieces were there before I gave them away. (If there are pieces missing, the puzzle gets thrown away.)

This one, a picture of a glass of milk surrounded by chocolate chip cookies, was a bit of a challenge.  The glass of milk was easy, but those cookies all look pretty much the same, so it took me a while.

The last week of June got a little more interesting, with a trip to Michigan to help the Wissinks pack up for their move to Clinton.  I'm going to save that for the next post so that this one doesn't get too long.  So stay tuned!!