An Exciting New Opportunity

Andrew got in from camp at 10:00 last night. (His plane was an hour late.) At 10:20 we took him to Exit 14 to meet the Calvary Quartet bus to go to south of Atlanta. And this morning he sang for the first time as their new first tenor! He is very excited and we are very excited for him as well.

(He takes the place of the man on the left.)

Something Else About Sam

Another thing about Sam (see three posts down):

We were talking about education, and I said something about Chaucer, figuring that someone who grew up in Britain and had a college degree from a university there, would be very familiar with that author. He said (in that enchanting accent) "Chaucer? I don't believe I know who that is." He wasn't kidding!! He also said that they don't really read much Shakespeare and the students who go through the school system there aren't very exposed to his works. He told me that they read OF MICE AND MEN, LORD OF THE FLIES, and THE COLOR PURPLE.

I find that very sad.

They've Got Trouble

A week ago tonight I went on a boat ride with my cousin Chip and his family, as well as my cousin Joanne and her husband Kent. It was very nice to spend time with all of them, especially since I did not know Chip's wife Kim before that evening. I only got this one picture, because of course the batteries in my camera decided to die.

They have a nice boat, and it was a nice ride. . .

EXCEPT - they've got a problem on the Illinois River. A BIG problem. Jumping Asian carp. In the picture above, there are people trying to bowfish in the two boats to the upper right. Apparently it's become great sport to try to kill the carp. I'm sure there are no limits set.

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You have to be watching all the time. One almost jumped in the boat, and one did jump up against the back - we could hear the thud. This link is to a YouTube clip taken by somebody who left from the same marina we left from, and is a lot like what we experienced. Apparently it's bad enough that you have to be especially careful when skiing or letting kids tube from behind a boat. It is really a shame, and even worse, they've taken their toll on the native fish. I hope somebody can come up with some solution to get rid of those obnoxious fish - especially since they're headed toward Lake Michigan.

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One of my phobias is being around a fish out of water. Kind of like reverse drowning. So flying Asian carp could keep me awake at night.

Only a Kid. . .

My daughter is working at the daycare and she's out on the playground with her little kiddies. She says to one, "Get your little hiney over here." He replies "Little hiney?" Another one says "Yeah - we all got little hineys, 'cept for Miss Mary Lee."

Sam

His name is Sam, he's a young man from the north of England (near James Herriot's home), and our lives intersected for exactly forty-five minutes on Monday.

He didn't even look up when I climbed over him into the window seat for the flight to Greenville, and since he was reading a book with a vulgar word in the title, I didn't figure he'd give me the time of day. After a couple of words of small talk, I discovered that that was a big misconception. He was eager to talk. His British accent was so strong that I had to listen very closely to understand what he was saying - it was much stronger than the average English person I've ever met or talked with. (Think Malcolm Merriwether the butler in the old Andy Griffith shows.) Perhaps a heavier accent is true of the people from the northern dales.

He told me he calls his mother "Big Sue," and we laughed about that because Mike always called his grandmother "Big Trudy." It was funny until Sam later told me his mother's age. She is a year younger than I am.

I don't even remember how we got talking about it, but he told me that though he grew up in the Church of England, now he was agnostic. It was very easy to suggest to him that he read the Gospel of John and the epistle of I John before he decides that there is no God. And then, after it had escaped me at first, I remembered the name of a pastor in the town where he lives, whose wife I used to teach with years ago. So I wrote it down, along with the two books of the Bible. He accepted the slip of paper, seemingly gratefully.

Then. as we deplaned, he said in his English brogue, "I really enjoyed talking with you. I like to meet people and find out about them." And he was gone.

I was glad for my forty-five minutes of interaction with Sam.

Pitiful!

I sent this email to my sister-in-law this morning:
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"Wasn't I supposed to email you something? What was it?"
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and just got this response:
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"i think so and i can't remember either. we are pitiful. :( "

We really are!

Summer Fun

We had such a good time with our dear friends, on Thursday at their lake cabin.

Here are two great friends from many years back. They met in college, in Gospel of John class, in 1986. Both were a little older than most of the students in the class, so they hit it off. I remember when their family came to our house for the first time - I was pregnant with Andrew. So our family's friendship goes way back.


It takes a lot of "stuff" to go on the boat.

You didn't know I could drive a boat, did you?!

This is the life!

The rope kept breaking! (at least that's why he says he couldn't get up) :-)

Ready to get in the water

ML and our friends' granddaughter being pulled behind the boat. The grandchildren adored ML.

Quite a fish! It was dark out, and the automatic flash kicked in, so it's not the greatest picture.

Painting Rocks

I feel a little bit like a kid completing a craft project, but today we finished painting the rocks we brought back from the Maine trip. Mary Lee did three of them and I did the rest. Now Mike will place them out in the butterfly garden. Just so you know (I know you've been waiting breathlessly for this information) - Vermont is a maple leaf, Pennsylvania is the view of the Allegheny Mountains and valley from the deck at our Hampton Inn, North Carolina is I-85 (couldn't think of much to do with that one), South Carolina is a palmetto tree and crescent moon, Massachusetts is (of course) two red socks, New York is an apple, West Virginia is a mountain and waterfall, Virginia is the Shenandoah Valley as seen from the Wattstull Inn, Maryland is a Baltimore oriole, Connecticut is the charter oak, New Hampshire is a bottle of maple syrup, and Maine! is - well, you can look for yourself and see the piece de resistance!

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Summer Kitchen Stuff

I have been wanting blueberry muffins ever since going to Maine. Their blueberry season was not yet in (strawberries were). The bushes in Maine are different - they are on the ground and the blueberries are much smaller. You rake them to pick the berries up. However, even if it wasn't blueberry season, a blueberry muffin was the bread served with any meal. So, I got some good old South Carolina blueberries last week and made some.

Well, since my folks love peach jam, and Mom's arm is in a cast. . .

Some Pictures of Andrew at Camp

Several people have tagged Andrew with their Facebook pictures of camp - I saved them off FB and am posting them here. Andrew says it's OK. I thought family and friends who know him would enjoy seeing some pictures of him in action. He is counseling and also serving as team leader.

I think he's in the dining hall here. He said every Tuesday night several of them play bluegrass during the meal.
Yes, this looks like a bluegrass group.

Hot, sweaty, and stirring up enthusiasm -

One of his cabins of boys this summer.