2023 :: week 28

July 9

Sometimes the kids act crazy in the foyer after church. In the afternoon Anthony and I met with the Stake leaders over the youth class we teach (Pres. Larsen, Sis. Atkinson and Bro. Royer). We discussed how things are going with our class as well as the direction the youth leaders would like to see the class go. When we start up again in the fall we will have a tighter focus on the recently revamped Preach My Gospel, and the name will be changed to Living & Sharing the Gospel.

July 10

I started the week off with a headache, which wasn't helped by the fact that we found out that we would need to spend approximately $1550 to fix a leak in our basement. In the morning a plumber came to the house to find the root of the problem. Our water main runs through copper pipes, and the pipes vibrate slightly when water runs through them (I am told this is normal). As the pipes age (our house is 45 years old) they are susceptible to holes. What starts as tiny as a pinprick eventually grow until they are constantly dripping. We aren't to the constant drip stage yet, but know that at that point the repairs become "emergency," so it is best to take care of this before that happens. He's coming back next week to finish the job. Monday night I took Lauren and Daphne to Five Below so they could do a little shopping. The girls were very well behaved and found many good deals.

July 11

Elliott had a great day with buddies on Tuesday. When we went to the park after lunch we ran into several friends. Jolie was kind and offered to have Elliott over for awhile after I told her I felt a migraine coming on. Cole and Ian went over too. Jolie grilled them hamburgers for dinner and the boys played baseball in the year for hours. It was a perfect day for Elliott. Summer is more fun with friends!

July 12

Will had some simple summer fun with friends this week too. On Wednesday he met Tripp and Landon at the pool. After awhile they wandered around the neighborhood and bought some snacks at Target. After that they came back to our house and played some backyard baseball. Elliott and Miles tried to get in on the fun too. 

July 13

During the warm months--typically May to early October--water aerobics classes at Genesis are held outside. I have mixed feelings about this. I love being outside, but the pool is slightly smaller so there is usually less space to move around. I really enjoy Sarissa's classes and almost always feel like I get a great workout. 

July 14

This week Lauren had girl scout camp at Camp Prairie Schooner in Lee's Summit. Because it is so hot the camp ran from 2-8pm each day. Parents dropped the girls off at SMS and they rode buses to camp, then picked them up back at SMS at the end of the day. Overall I think Lauren had a fun time. Different parents signed up to go help supervise the girls and I was originally scheduled to go Tuesday, but Angela asked if I would trade her and go Friday instead. It ended up being a great move for me because I had a bad headache early in the week, but was feeling a lot better by Friday. Unfortunately, a huge storm passed through the metro and we ended up spending most of the day (over 5 hours) in the mess hall. The power went out and we spent the day playing various games to pass the time. It was hard to see how bad the storm was, because we were inside and in a more remote area. When we got back to OP we could see how bad things were. Limbs were down all over the place, as well as many large trees. In our neighborhood we passed several fully mature trees completely uprooted!

July 15

We spent a few hours Saturday clearing up debris from the storm. In the afternoon we took a little day trip to Atchison. Earlier this year Lauren and I read the book The Amelia Six together. The book is a mystery set in the childhood home of Amelia Earhart. While we were reading it I made the realization that we lived less than an hour from said home and couldn't believe I had never been there if when it was that close. Being that the Amelia Earhart birthplace is included as a place we can get free admission to via the Sunflower Summer App I added a visit to our family Summer Bucket List. Lauren and I also read Amelia, Lost! to prepare for our visit. While we drove north we listened to a short podcast about her final flight, and I tried to supplement with information we learned from our reading so the boys would be up to speed. It was good we did all that research, because the home itself was light on narrative. The family home was located in a picturesque setting, across the street from the Kansas River. The tours were self-guided, and though each room was filled with cool artifacts from her lifetime, if you didn't already know much about her you would struggle to understand the significance of many of the items. We learned that her younger sister Muriel was not only instrumental in getting the museum up and running, but she also lived most of her adult life in the Boston area and taught school at Belmont High School from 1959-1969 (TJ's alma mater). It was a fun day trip!