Wrapping Up

Mariah is super organized and could pretty much leave for France now. Today's agenda was to finish getting all the little odds & ends for travel. Most important was the passport security pouch. It has 2 zippers and can hold a small camera, cards, money, etc. while not being visible or accessible for theft.

  Mariah is bringing gifts for Felicie's family. This is the quilt Grammy just finished for Felicie's parents. The backing is the same material as the beige piping at the very edge. We REALLY love how this quilt turned out, and hope they do too! 

Thank you to Grammy for donation of the 30's throwback quilt squares and all the time putting it together. 

While we were running our errands today, Mariah found her high school tote bag. We love the material and hear they are quite durable. We got $20 off too!  She decided it would be perfect for her carry-on too! Since she can check two bags it is a simple matter of making the duffle bag she was going to carry on become checked luggage and moving a few things over that need to stay with her. On the return flight home she can only check one bag, so the duffle can go in the overhead bin and this will be her personal item.

It's really too hot to even be running errands (over 105), but it was the 2nd day in a row I ran into preschool families which made me happy! Yesterday I got to check one little guys brawny biceps and admire his new harmonica, and today I got to preview Disney clothes heading to Florida for the 4th! What fun. It's a long time before preschool begins so I love those happy surprises!

Time

Time is on my mind. It has a funny way of totally crawling and then you find yourself wondering where all it went!

Gib is working on his Eagle project write up this week. The goal is to have it finished by the time he leaves for Hawaii this weekend. Go Gibbie Go! He chuckled when he realized he officially started the project exactly one year ago this week. Between Skeeter Time, winter, and city codes there was a lag until February. At least Gib wasn't trying to beat the clock of his 18th birthday. Since he'll be 17 pretty soon, it's F-I-I-I-N-E (said in his post wisdom teeth surgery pain med induced drawl). He had fun at the lake and came back a few shades darker than when he left. I can only imagine what a couple weeks in Hawaii will do for his skin tone. I've got the rest of his summer mapped out for ACT prep and made the appointment for his senior pics. When he returns from Hawaii we will go shopping and knock out back-to-school, birthday and senior portrait outfitting all at once. Which reminds me... I'm saving all my Bed Bath & Beyond coupons to use for college shopping in the next 12 months. Since they let you use expired coupons and you can use handfuls at the same time, I would LOVE any contributions to our pile you might want to send our way! I'll be checking the clearance section especially after school starts to see if there are any gems leftover from back-to-school 2012.  I can just see Gib now with a perplexed look on his face, "what do I need that we don't already have?"  I'm almost certain I won't be decorating his space in beachy-chic, shabby chic, modern glam, or anything remotely resembling a design theme! What I do anticipate is the hilarity of comparing the truckloads his sisters take to college each year with the backseat load he will take. He'll be 50 lbs lighter in shoes alone. It IS a year away, but I've learned that time has a way of sneaking up on you. I find that I can let go a little bit at a time with each step of preparation that I check off. So by the time the twin XL comforter, sheets, and towels have been purchased I'm slightly more ready to send my sweet son off to college. Baby steps! We've got alot of preparing to do for another big change in our family.

Today begins the 10 day countdown until Paris! Although technically Mariah leaves here in 8 days. She will spend the night at her travelling companion's house and their family will drive the girls to Chicago early the next day.  We had the brilliant idea to get her close to normal teenage hours but only in Paris time zone! She's whittling away at her sleep pattern so by the time she gets there, maybe it will only feel like she is a couple hours off instead of 7.  She has returned to the human race (vs Vampire) of a 9-10 PM to 6-7 AM sleep schedule. While that appears normal to us, considering a couple weeks ago she was staying up all night and sleeping to noon, it's a big accomplishment! The goal is to have her sleeping on a 8 PM - 4 AM a few days prior to leaving. I think it's time to load her kindle with a few books to give her something to do so early. In the event I am up with her, I don't want actually have a conversation until well past sunrise. I just sent her a jaunty 6 AM Bon Jour message since the sun and I have been up a couple hours now, making it possible to exercise some early morning wit. 


Mariah has been drawing fashion designs lately, so perhaps she will discover creative genius at the crack of dawn. That's a nice quiet activity. Even though we can't implement any awesome ideas to spring on Gib in his future dorm room, we still enjoy watching Design Star together every Tuesday night. Mariah stayed up past her bedtime so we could observe our weekly ritual. I will miss watching it with her and critiquing  the designs and the designers with her when she leaves for France. Just thinking about her being gone so far away and for so long cost me several hours of sleep and I don't think that is the only time it will happen. Ce La Vi!


Taryn turned 20 this weekend. She was serenaded by her parents in what I thought was an especially nice rendition of Happy Birthday to You! She hasn't thanked me for waking her up with that yet, but I'm sure it's just a small oversight on her part. Heh Heh.  I got up early to abuse her facebook wall on her birthday and enjoyed every moment of it. It's a special occasion when another one of your kids and you both come out of the teenage years successfully and with your sanity (somewhat) intact.  I would have loved to been with Taryn on her birthday but I know she had a great time on campus, and plus, she had her exciting facebook and postal surprises to enjoy too! It appears I was trumped by a Tron computer mouse from Tim and friends. And I do believe Taryn has put the ball squarely in our court regarding a Tron Keypad. The bad thing about summer birthdays is Christmas is so very far away.

Indie, Aussie and Jeff visited us last weekend. Jeff took care of Aussie while Indie was in Africa and I have to say Aussie is a lean mean fighting machine from his time training for the Iron Kitty under Jeff's special brand of TLC. Aussie is ripped with muscle and I can't see an ounce of fluff or flab on him. He actually has withers which is the equivalent of an amazing 6 pack in the feline kingdom. I can't wait to see him again and slip him some extra treats. Indie is very tired still from her African adventures and the time zone changes. She is recovering from an unfortunate encounter with the dreaded Nairobi Fly.  If one lands on you, it is imperative that you don't touch it. However, that is easier said than done when it happens while you are sleeping. The Nairobi fly is kind of like a scorpion and it releases a toxin that literally burns your skin off. It made Indie very sick. She got nailed on  her chest and I think she might have rubbed the toxin onto her face before realizing what happened. By the time I saw her, Indie's face had healed, which was a big relief - I'll be vain on her behalf! The new skin on her chest is looking good but still hurts so she is putting stuff on it every day.  We had a fun poker night before Indie and Jeff left. We played with monopoly money and we all enjoyed throwing hundred thousand dollar bills out to sweeten the pot. Grammy lasted the longest of us womenfolk, and then it was a duel to the finish for Jeff and Mike. I thought for sure Mike had it, but in the end the statistical genius, card counting, poker faced Jeff won it all. I don't know what he'll do with several million dollars of funny money, but I'm sure it'll go to a good cause.

We will be seeing Indie again in a few weeks. She and Jeff will be joining us for Waterworld, and following that, poor Indie has to have dental surgery to graft tissue from the roof of her mouth to the gum line. It's always something with that girl.  The silver lining, at least for me, is that for a brief moment in time, I will have a full nest then.  That's something to look forward to!

It's A Good Day

Tomorrow is Taryn's birthday #20!  Happy Birthday to my sushi-lovin' girl!! She went out tonight and sent me pics of her dinner. All I can say is YUCK. But she is adventurous with her food.  Bless her heart. I hope she has a GREAT birthday and enjoys all the little packages we sent along with bday cards and candy! It was an odd assortment of postal surprises!  I also hope she enjoys using all the yummy gift cards to local places to help mitigate the sparse cafeteria offerings!  It's hard to be away from home on your birthday so we tried to give her some of her favorite things!

Gib has been gone with a friend to the lake this weekend. I keep thinking I should go wake him up to eat dinner and stuff. He is missed.... eventually.  I am used to the older girls not living here, but it is weird when Gib or Mariah aren't here. July will be interesting, that's for sure! Gib is also signed up for an ACT prep class that will end shortly before the September test. When he returns from Hawaii he will hit the books and start working on acing that exam! I will be working on identifying colleges that will be a good fit for applications and provide him with good choices this Winter/Spring. It's so hard to believe Gib is a senior and will be heading to a college orientation this time next year! Hopefully he will have the chance to hike Philmont next summer. His troop will have a repeat opportunity and he would love to be in on it! The other thing I have to do is book his Senior Pics! WOW!!! I think I will take an August appointment to give myself time to adjust.

Mariah has agreed to try to readjust to the European time zone, so she is heading to bed a little earlier each day. The goal is to have her sleeping 8PM to 4 AM by July 1st or so.  She leaves for France on July 6.  They are 7 hours ahead of us so that would put her close to "normal".  We are in final discussions of what she hopes to gain from this adventure, how to act, how to be safe, how to give the impression that we have some class! Haha... we love repeating that quote. Before we know it she will be on her way!

Indy and Jeff came by this weekend.  Indy got home a few days ago from the Kenya 2.0 trip.  She had a good time. Worked alot harder and they improved on the water filtration systems. It was fortunate they had a chance to test the water in the units they provided because it turned out that while the water was 98% free of contaminants, the people in the community didn't realize that if they put clean water in unclean buckets they no longer had safe drinking water. For the Kenyan people, a bucket is used for many things and it is unnatural for them to have a bucket used only for clean, filtered water. When the group arrived and tested water, they discovered that after the people put clean water in the bucket (that had animal feces in it at some point) and it sat in a hot hut all day, the water was worse than untreated water from the river. It was a heartbreaking discovery but the group endeavored to instruct the village as to the importance of a clean bucket for their clean water. They did so by performing a skit. A guy dressed as a village woman which was absolutely hilarious to the people, and thus very memorable, and the rest had parts as animals who did their thing and dropped "poop rocks" into the buckets. Indy played the part of a bleeting goat and she had an oscar worthy performance of pooping and bleating at the same time. Nobody here was surprised to hear that!!! The village "woman" renacted what happened next - drink the water, get a stomach ache, and run to the toilet.  I think the college students got their point across, and I KNOW the community is still chuckling when they think about it, and another couple dozen families have home filtration systems.

Update Much?

We are in somewhat of a holding pattern - The calm before the bigger calm, and then the storm. I'm not sure about how calm I'll be with my two youngest off on their adventures, and an empty nest, but we'll see. It will be quiet that's for sure.

When we last posted, Taryn had just returned to MS&T for a summer semester.  She called earlier this week with a computer problem that prevented her from turning in assignments on her laptop. We decided it was a job for DAD!  So Mike happily accepted the challenge to find out why her web assign program wouldn't run. Using the library and borrowing desktops from friends was not working out so Taryn was understandably worried!  Luckily, her dad is amazing at figuring that kind of stuff out.  Mike had a few ideas and if it came down to it he was going to call the web assign people.  In a race between tech support at the university and Mike, guess who the winner was hands down?!  I'm pretty sure the tech support didn't even get a contact before Mike solved it. Mike experimented on Mariah's laptop which also wouldn't run it, and his PC which would.... apparently that was a big clue. Turns out there was a standard security block from comcast installed on the laptops. Mike figured out how to disable it. Then he called Taryn and instructed her how to do the same on her laptop. Problem solved. What would we do without his expertise?!  We're kind of need it NOW people so we are especially thankful Mike is a figure it out NOW kind of guy.  Praying for summer success to keep on rolling for Taryn!

Just got a Mercer on Mission update #7. I'm excited to beat Mike to the punch! They have left the village of Sisit and at 2:45 am their time they were halfway to the Kakamega Rainforest (go ahead and snicker; I do!) and hoped to arrive at 1pm. For someone who likes to keep vehicular travel under 8 hrs in a day that doesn't sound nice. And vehicular travel here includes paved roads, rest stops, fast food, and air conditioning! But I guess Indie endures it well because she keeps going back!  The people of Africa hold a special place in her heart. She will be sad to say goodbye again I'm sure. Someday I would not be the least bit surprised to hear she wants to pursue an African adoption. She has one of the most generous hearts! We are so lucky that all our kids have been gifted with this trait. I am proud of them all for their caring and kindness, and willingness to serve others.  Indie's group heads home in less than a week.

Gib is just about done with the Eagle project horseshoe pit! He and Mike set the stakes last night and Gib has one more meeting with Skeeter to organize the finishing touches. The guys both got a nice set of blisters from last weekend's workday. 6 hours of digging and pick-axing will do that to ya.  Then Gib pulled a muscle at Ultimate Frisbee so he wasn't very happy that night. I wanted to pour hydrogen peroxide on his hands but he politely declined and settled for antibiotic ointment and bandages. The next morning he was proud to show me how much better it already looked. Ah, youth. Despite his amazing healing ability I suggested he might want to take it easy until Hawaii! He leaves at the end of the month for that Scout trip.

Besides hanging out at the house, staying up 'til the wee hours, the kids are staying active in the youth group at church this summer. They have a weekly bible study - Book of Daniel - and a weekly movie night which they enjoy. Last night it was Star Trek. I asked Gib if he had a good time and he gave me that crazy look and said, "Yeah it was STAR TREK".  When Mariah isn't tanning, she is planning her trip to France. She leaves in about 3 weeks. And she's pretty much packed her suitcase. I suggested she start early and clean out her closet and get an idea of what to take. She's been working hard at it and since her suitcase came in at 35 lbs I guess she's done very well indeed. That gives her 15 lbs leeway to bring back cheese and chocolate for her family and maybe a few trinkets for herself.   Mariah and I brainstormed for days about what gifts she could bring for Felicie and her family. We decided on a quilt made by Grammy which is coming along beautifully! And some accessories, photo collage and flip flops for Felicie. Crackle nail polish for her sister and graphic t-shirts for her brothers. Their family is almost a mirror image of ours - with 2 boys the eldest, followed by 2 girls. It gives Mariah and Felicie a commonality to be the youngest of 4 with sisters and brothers the same ages. They became like sisters last summer and Mariah is excited to become part of their family this summer. She will meet some but not all of Felicie's siblings as they do the Revolving Door thing just as my kids do here. I think the oldest son is the only one she won't meet, just like Taryn was the only sibling here that Felicie didn't get to meet. I received an email the other day from Felicie's mom describing their plans for July. Mariah is excited and will probably start a countdown any day now.

Patched Up

Taryn: Returns to Rolla tomorrow. Her eye is looking much better. There's still a stitch or two left, the others have either dissolved or she rubbed them out. The blood around her pupil is beginning to recede. Makes me happy; not sure how much more of that I could take!!  The dr was pleased with the results. The surgery should also help her in classes now that her eyes are working properly again. Taryn also finished the battery of tests and appts at the Neuro's.  The results there indicate that ADHD is definitely the correct diagnosis - she continues to be not just a little impaired but significantly impaired. The good news is that her high IQ has offset the effects of her ADHD and enabled her to compensate and do well. College life has unevened the scales a bit though and so her medication will be changed. She is starting an ADHD patch today. We are praying the patch works for her, with changes in both the dosage and the distribution into her system. The patch has the advantage of being something she can physically check that she hasn't forgot it, and she can carry one in her backpack if she did, which is something she can't safely do on campus with pills. Her new dr's also sent to student services new requirements for her disability: longer testing time, private or quiet testing location, breaks during tests, and no tests given after 5 pm. That should make a world of difference. She has some new technology to assist her as well - a  Smartpen.  The dr feels her sleep patterns have not been doing her any favors and that her sleep has been too interrupted so her brain is not functioning at its best. He suggested she have a set bedtime every night and get at least 8 hrs of sleep. No napping! She hated hearing that! Now that Taryn has been armored once more, she is off to college to hit the ground running for summer classes. It will be a good test run to see if the new adjustments work well.

Gib: Goes backpacking this weekend. Getting in shape for Hawaii.  We outfitted him for his continued backpacking and scouting needs during the Memorial Day sale at REI.  He is equipped with lightweight and dry weave clothing, hiking socks, a new tent, polarized sunglasses with straps so they don't fall off when he's looking over the edge of a volcano.... I did my best to think of everything. Hmmm, I wonder if his boots have good enough traction? Haha just kidding. I'm sure he will be fine. I'm not that worried about Gib - that boy has excellent survival instincts.  Gib and a friend of his have nicknamed Mariah "Gib Jr" and he said he will make sure it sticks for her freshman year at high school.  What a good brother.

Mariah: Cleaned out her closet and is starting to think ahead for her trip to France. She has been going down to the pool alot but got a skin reaction to probably the sunscreen, but it could have been a touch of heat rash. She is taking a couple days off so she can go boating Friday with the youth group. She, along with Taryn and Grammy, helped me out a ton yesterday - we had 40 t-shirts to rubberband and get ready for tie-dying for Vacation Bible School. I volunteered to do the bible story to the group each day and help with preparations. Mariah was my mix-master with the dye powders. We set everything up outside on the grass and wouldn't you know it, the weather changed on a dime. Right in the middle of everyone arriving and eating, we had to grab everything and high tail it down to the garage. We worked in the humidity of a sudden summer thunderstorm. It all went well, and she was crucial to the success of our tie-dye party. Later today we will hose off, rinse and untie all the shirts. I can't wait to see them!!!

Indie: We have received a couple of emails from the group via a professor's wife who has accompanied the group. She reports that their flights were great, customs no problem and everyone accounted for and well. This morning there was another email saying they visited an early childhood intervention school in the kibera slum click on little rock school for more information. Taken from their website:  Kibera is the largest informal settlement (slum) in sub- Saharan Africa. 70%of Nairobi‘s population lives in the slums.  Kibera is the biggest slum in Kenya with a population of a proximately one million, surviving on less than one dollar a day.  
Afterwards they had lunch in an elaborate mall - they noted what a huge contrast that was. She said everyone is learning, experiencing, and having a good time. Next up was a giraffe park. They are making their way to the village but it is quite a distance away.

Deja Vu....

Africa Take III....Kenya Take II....

Mercer on Mission. Crossing Cultures. Changing Lives.

It is rare in that a student participating in Mercer On Mission has the opportunity to return to the exact same community that was the focus of a previous mission trip.  Indy will have that opportunity this summer.  Her first Mercer on Mission trip, in 2010, featured interaction with the Sisit community in West Pokot, Kenya, centered around water and sanitation.

Installation of a water turbine unit for pumping water over 1.2 km (and 400 feet up!) from a river source and construction of bio sand filters with the community were the focus of this mission.

A common challenge in Kenya is access to clean water. The Sisit community, located in the mountains above the Wei Wei river is no exception. Previous to the installation of the water turbine, the people of Sisit had to climb down to the river daily and carry water back up the steep slopes to their houses. Women spent a good portion of each day hauling heavy containers of water from the river.

While access to water is a challenge for the Sisit community, access to clean water is an even greater challenge. Thus, during the installation of the water turbine pump system, students were busy building bio-sand filters for each family benefiting from the water project. AquaClara, a Michigan based charity organization, designed a bio-sand water filtration system that can be built and maintained using materials available to most rural people. While these filters are extremely labor intensive they are cost effective and maintainable in rural areas. Built out of layers of gravel, coarse sand, and fine sand they develop their own biological layer and are very effective at filtering out any biological contaminants. Mercer students spent days collecting, sieving, washing sand and gravel. Together with members of the community they hauled the sand and filter containers up the mountain to each of the houses where they assembled the filters. Each filter produces 20 liters of clean drinking water daily, enough to meet the WHO standards for each family.

The 2012 Mercer on Mission to Kenya will again feature interaction with the Sisit community in West Pokot, Kenya, centered around water and sanitation.

Mercer on Mission - Kenya

Academic Courses

ENP 390:  Environmental Studies and Policy - Special Topics: Water, Sanitation, Energy, and Appropriate Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

AFR 490:  Supervised Practical Research - Kutana: Traditional Societies and Contemporary Issues in the Kenyan Context

Faculty

Dr. Loren Sumner, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Laura Lackey, Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering

Program Highlights

    The service project will focus on providing improved drinking water to a community in the West Pokot District near Sigor, Kenya. We will work with Sam Harrell, a CBF missionary that founded and operates Africa Exchange.  Visit his website to learn more about Sam and Africa Exchange. The focus of our efforts will be to build and install (up to 50) small water-filtration units appropriate for households using locally available, and relatively cheap materials. The mission will involve some hard physical labor, but the main requirement is a willingness to contribute. This experience will transform your life.

    Living conditions will be rudimentary during the majority of our journey.  Accommodations while performing service tentatively include Robert’s Camp on Lake Baringo and Marich Pass Field Studies Centre. Several days of relaxation will be enjoyed after concluding our work. Tentative relaxation locations include The Rondo Retreat in the Kakamega Rain Forest and at the Sekenani Camp in the Maasai Mara.

 Travel Dates: May 27 – June 19, 2012

Classroom Studies:

May 14 - May 25, 2012
Mercer University, Macon Campus

 Map:

A: Nairobi
B: Roberts Camp, Lake Baringo
C: Marich Pass
D: Rondo Retreat, Kakamega Rain Forrest
E: Sekenani Camp, Masai Mara

Time Flies

Wow it's been a long time since the blog was updated.  Mike and I took our anniversary cruise and it was wonderful.  He decided to put the photos up on facebook instead of here because it was easier. I hope you saw them. So not alot of cruise blogging to be found.  We had a great trip though, despite a couple of rainy days. It was a much needed vacation for just the two of us.

Mariah, Gib and Grammy did a great job holding down the fort, going to school, getting to their activities, feeding the cats, and taking out the trash. What more can you ask for?!


Upon arriving home from our cruise, Mike left almost immediately to retrieve Taryn from Rolla.  Taryn came home to appointment after appointment! We squeezed in more dr appts than should be possible for one person to stay sane with prior to her eye surgery. After a little recovery time, she has a few more appointments and then returns to Rolla on June 1.  The surgery went well. Recovery is going well too.  I think the pain is moving more toward itching now which you always hear is a sign of healing.  We have made dozens of snack size ice bags since the surgery! I'm pretty sure she is done with icing the eye. I'm sure she's sick of having a frozen face. Yesterday she asked to try heat.  It always feels so good to switch from ice to heat after wisdom teeth surgery, but I don't think it felt all that great on the eye.  I expect she will be weaning off the pain pills soon and move to extra strength Tylenol.

Taryn found out she is A+ blood type, all her blood work came back normal, and we will shortly be informed of her IQ and everything brain related.  How cool is that?!?!  She took a battery of tests ordered by my neuro to reassess her ADHD.  We're told the evaluation is practically a book. I wanted to ensure that Taryn is correctly diagnosed, and her current treatment is the most effective for her.

Indie was here briefly too. She arrived the day after Taryn. We got to hang out as a family for a few days before she had to return to campus in preparation for another Kenya trip. Indie, Taryn and I enjoyed having a lunch with just us girls and running a couple of errands.  Sadly, Mariah was in school during all this. I didn't get one pic of her on my iphone while she was here! Indie is taking our camera with her to Africa this time since every trip she has the worst luck with being able to take photos. She is appointing herself Mission Photographer. Her dad couldn't be happier. She barely endured her Junior year of college. Being Chief Justice is running her ragged. I think Kenya will be a breeze in comparison. Despite it all, she is in line to graduate 2013, a double major with magna cum laude (possibly summa cum laude) distinction. She hopes to get an on campus job this fall to help with finances since she will have a lighter class load - finally!


Volleyball has ended. Mariah's team did well, and she loved playing with good friends on her team this time. They got knocked out in the first game of the tournament on Monday. Which was really OK with us because we had plans for the rest of the week! Can you tell we are not the most hardcore or what?! This will be the last rec volleyball team for Mariah because they don't have any teams for over 14 yrs of age. But Mariah leaves proud, knowing she has a mean underhanded serve which can get a good 4 points off the other team! And I'm sure she can hold her own in a pick up game of volleyball. Since she has possibly stopped growing at 5'4" dreams of going further are about half a foot shy of reality.

Mariah has been super busy with Chorus stuff. They put on another performance and all the 8th graders, while they liked the music and being the first ensemble ever to perform it, felt having to do so vs. having a spring break trip to Disney was a gyp. Can't blame them for that. Mariah has helped her teacher the past 2 days with performance auditions for the next 8th grade chorus. She was sought after as a mentor to some 7th graders, talked some into trying out, and helped a number of students prepare and sing for their audition. She said she stood next to some of the more nervous ones while they sang. It isn't easy singing solo in an audition the first time. What a friend! Isn't she awesome?!

Gib is in final exam mode. He has had two AP exams too which exempt him from a couple of finals. Luckily for him he gets 3 mornings off from testing! Both AP classes have morning tests and his study hall period was scheduled for a morning exam too.  Technically he might have to be at school, but seriously what is he going to do for 3 hours until the next exam? Nobody goes if they don't have to.

Last Saturday, Gib gave blood for the first time!  I was so proud of him for being willing to do it. I suspect part of that willingness is a desire to know HIS bloodtype. It's such a great family tradition and for some reason there's a competition amongst the kids to see what type of blood they are. Indie is O+, the rest of us A+. Indie hopes to stay the original and says stats are on her side. We need Taryn to join the ranks now. If she hadn't just given a bunch of blood for tests I might have tried to get her in, even with her slightly less desirable A+ blood.

While the rest of us were giving blood, Taryn and Mariah amused themselves at the Spring Fling slide and face painting the kids. Good thing Mariah still was going strong after a great day of volleyball. The guys left to work at the ballpark concession stand for the Scout trip fundraising.  Free food, fun and service. It was a good Saturday even though it was so jammed packed it left us dizzy.




Here's a pic from early Saturday morning. The tree got cut down by a local arborist, and the guys had another Eagle project workday taking care of the debris. They stacked logs for the firepit and took the rest to a nearby landfill that is kind of tired of seeing our truck.  They are a 1 truckload a day kind of place and having seen our truck twice on a couple of weekends, it will be good to lay low for awhile.