Happy Birthday Caleb!!!!!

Hi guys how is everyone??? We are doing fine. We finished up VBS last week and had an average of 92 kids a day! I had about 19 in my 3rd and 4th grade class all week. I was great and wild all at the same time. The kids had a blast and did great when they performed for the church. It struck me in the middle of the program when I was watching Caleb and Emily on stage singing that this is their last year of VBS. Next year they will be workers. I remember them holding hands on stage and singing when they were little bitty 2 or 3 year olds. They were so cute! Now they are the tallest ones up there holding hands and still singing. I can't believe how time goes by so quickly.
Speaking of time flying...here are pictures of Caleb's 12th birthday. We had a Mall Madness Birthday Bash this year. The kids met at the mall and had sodas and cake at the food court. Then we broke up into girls and boys teams and did a mall scavenger hunt. They had 30 minutes to buy all the things on the list. The team who spent the least amount of money were the winners and got more tokens to spend in the mall arcade. Each team got $25. The girls won and brought back $18 the boys lost but brought back $17. One of the things they had to buy was the cheapest thing they could find at Sears. The girls talked to all the employees in the store to find the cheapest thing and finally found a manager who went to the back and brought out a Christmas door buster cup and saucer set and let them buy it for 1 penny! That is the reason they won! The kids had a blast and Caleb had a lot of fun. He had a friend who spend the night and had a great birthday.
Other than birthday parties we have had a great relaxing week. Several times this week we have had not much to do and it was great. I'm getting geared up for my job next year and really need to get up and start setting up my room. I plan to tackle that next week. I hate trying to figure out where everything is going to go and working out the details. I just want to start putting things up and finding what I have left to set up my room.
Aaron and Jared both had dentist appointments this week. Jared had sealants put on his back teeth to prevent cavities. Aaron had 4 caps put on and his cavities taken care of with his baby teeth. Don't ask me why they both have teeth problems. Caleb has never had a cavity in his life. I thought I might have to use a straight jacket for Aaron but he was soooooooooo good. He waved good bye and went with the nurse. He came out about 45 minutes later a little groggy from the laughing gas but feeling fine. He didn't like the numb feeling at all but after that wore off he was good to go. We promised him a new Webkinz stuffed animal if he was brave so that might have helped him get through the procedure.
Well, I had better start picking up the house and washing dishes. Hope your summer is going great and you are all staying healthy.

Love to all,
JJ
Caleb looking great at American Eagle before they told me to stop taking pictures. Apparently you can't use a camera in the store. What do they have top secret shades????

Here is the birthday party on the kiddie rides. Caleb is the half head in the left corner. As you can see Aaron is totally not paying attention and doing things he is not suppose to!

The birthday party by the water. This was part of the photo scavenger hunt. They had to pose as a group in places around the mall.

12 year old tweenager! Caleb is posing before the party started!

VBS 2008

Aaron is having a blast at VBS this year! He is really enjoying everything and loves his class.

Jared is having a lot of fun too! He is not wearing his glasses in this picture because they made sunglasses during crafts and he had them on.

I love it when a plan comes together!!!!!! Hee Hee! This is my room. You can see me in the middle of the picture. I thought and worked and planned on making my "tiki hut" for weeks. I used four carpet rolls and craft paper and a grass table skirt to set it up in the middle of my room. It looks great!

Caleb was selected the student of the day for helping paint the VBS scenes. As his reward, he got his hair spray painted and a goodie bag!

Caleb is ready for VBS in his 5th and 6th grade room!

Wow, wow and I'll say it again WOW! God is good and really blesses your socks off sometimes. We started VBS on Monday and we had 87 kids show up! I had 22 in my 3rd and 4th grade room. I have never had more than 10 kids before! It was more than doubled! Needless to say we praised God and scrambled to find more stuff. It was wild! We needed more crafts, more snacks, more pencils, more paper and MORE sanity! Today I had 19 in my class and we had a great time. The kids are having a blast this year and are ALL into it. They jump out of bed, jump out of the van and I don't see them until I drag them out of the church. They are having so much fun learning about God and being with their friends. We are so blessed to have a church who loves and cares for our kids. Well, I have to get to bed and store up energy for tomorrow! The boys may have no problem getting up and out the door but Mom is getting old and has had to take a nap the last two days. I'll keep you posted on all of our great fun. If your close to us come drop off your kids. What's one or two more????? We would love to have them!!!!

Our first official week of summer!

Hey guys, I just thought I would report on our first official week of summer. This last week was the first one we have had that we didn't have to work, go to camp or do anything at all much. I really loved it. We have been driving to Miles to watch the house and do chores for Wayne and Judy. They are hard at work in Iowa helping with the flood relief efforts. They are working with the Southern Baptist Men's disaster relief team. They are assigned and trained on the cooking team. They have been making 52,000 meals three times a day for the Red Cross to take out and give out off the trucks. They are sleeping on cots and staying at a Baptist Church. They went down with a team from San Angelo and drove in the First Baptist Church bus. They will be gone a total of 10 days. They are going to start back home on Monday. Judy decided to "pay" the boys to do chores at her house while they were gone. We have been going out and feeding the chickens, watering the flowers and checking on the house. I have decided that since she and Wayne do sooooooooo much for us that I'm going to clean her house while she is gone. I'm not too sure she will notice though because it was pretty clean when she left. I did get to wash down the kitchen cabinets and do some other things that might help her out. Brian mowed the lawn and we have been doing odds and ends around the place. Anyway, that was our week. Boring huh???? I LOVE boring!!!!!! Yee haw! Thank you Jesus for the boring times! I needed the rest really! I don't really have a clue what we will do this week. I have to get my stuff ready for VBS though. That will take some doing. I don't have a clue what all I need yet and how much I need to make.
We had a great 4th of July and watched a ton of fireworks this year. The pops concert on the river was great. We thought we were going to get hit with a massive storms but it broke up before it got to us. We had a blast (or at least I did, Brian is a toss up) sitting and visiting with friend from church and watching the fireworks to live music. I love the music! It really makes the fireworks special. The next day we went to Pam and Gregs and had a cookout and watched the fireworks at the lake. They were really great this year too. I find it wild that they can keep coming up with different ones every year. The boys had fun but really wanted to pop their own. We did our own at Me Maw's house last year. They really like that too.
Well, I had better run and get back to relaxing and doing nothing! After the busy weekend I need to rest! Hee Hee

Love to all!

PS This is a special shout out to our McKinney Family Members. Kim and Dave we hope to got moved in OK and that you have finally have stopped living out of cardboard boxes. I LOVED the house on the Internet! It is sooooooo cool!!!! God bless you sister!