First Week off School

This last week was my first full week off school for the summer. I partied pretty hard. :D My dear friend Naomi kidnapped me for several days to help her clean houses, hang out at the Madison County Library, eat ice cream, talk, go for walks, and pretty much have a wonderful time with some of my favorite people.

The Hemphills always make me feel like a part of the family. Even leaving me greetings when they have to leave for work before I got home...

As previously mentioned, we spent a lot of time at the Madison County Public Library. Naomi is the assistant librarian and when I come to visit I am the assistant's assistant. This is actually a really fun job, made even more fun this time by the kick-off for the summer reading program. All the kids who signed up got a free ice cream sundae handed out by yours truly. The theme is many countries, one world, hence the sombrero. No, they did not force me to wear it, in fact it was hard for them to get it back...

Traditionally on our last day of cleaning houses Naomi and I get Chinese food and eat all we possibly can. Sigh, I think I temporarily gained 5 pounds after this lunch.

After Naomi brought me home, I washed my laundry then crashed for the night. I was up again by 4:30 the next morning on my way to Des Moines for training for the Iowa kids conference, NICHE. The Gradys were very generous and offered carpooling which I am glad I took them up on. It gave me several hours in the back seat visiting with Betsy who was so kind as to ink my arm on the way home. I briefly contemplated getting it done permanently since it was so lovely. Thank you again Gradys!!

When I got home, we had one little thing left from Becca's birthday to attend to.... A grand pizza party from Grandpa!! It was indeed grand and anything but little. Thank you, Grandpa!!

Michael and Sarah gave Becca Jello and Jello molds, which she has been having enormous amounts of fun with. This picture is for you, Sarah!

And, the news you all have been waiting for, although it took me so long to get the picture probably everyone knows. Leah has her driver's license! This was a long project in which Leah might have learned more about patience than she learned about driving, but not only did she log all 50 hours, she also passed the driving exam on the first try!! In other news, she also got a job for the summer working at the local chicken processing plant. A job, a licence, pretty soon she is going to be taking me out on the town, right Leah? :D

That's all for now folks! Until next time!