Wow. That was a long break. Lots of stuff happened. Let me let you in on the highlights.

The week of July 17th was a church week. I spent every moment not at my job at the church directing our Vacation Bible School. A week of train whistles, songs and candy. It was a great enjoyment, but a lot of work. All of the kids seemed to love their time and I pray they took home a story or two.

I remember going to every local church VBS when I was growing up. From the Lutherans to the Methodists and around to the Baptists, I experienced them all. I think it was so my mom got a break from the 24/7 of three young children home from school in the summer.

Anyway, OUR VBS was successful. We had about 125 kids and 55 volunteers participating. We were able to do the VBS for free for the first year since I have been going to the church. Yeah!

I slept almost the whole day on Saturday AFTER I cleaned up the remnants at the church. Sunday, we met my family in Dayton to retrieve our kids. We were overjoyed to see them with their slightly golden skin. They were gone so long. Charlie says that they can't go back again for that long. We will do our own family vacation next year. Where we will go and where we will get the money are their own mysteries.

Monday night, Charlie's brother and sister in law, Mike and Roxanne, stopped by for a short visit. They live in Charlotte and were in town for the weekend. All of Roxanne's family live here in the area and they usually stop to see us for a while. You can read about their lives on their website www.mikeandrox.com.

The family spent the rest of the week getting back into a routine of sorts. We had suitcases to unpack and new clothes from Grandma and Grandpa to put away. Then we had to turn around and pack suitcases for Charlie and Ethan as they set off for the wilds of Ironton, Ohio to work with a mission team.

My two men left on Saturday embarking on their adventure. They are not to return until August 5th. Hope reminded me that "we are girls" and she asserted that "we don't need any boys." I disagree, but it's nice to have girl time for a while.