July 17th Mary Wrote

Welcome Home to all of you vacationing friends, Must be nice to get away from the same old, same old. We were away the end of June to Creation Festival with about 15 youth, I took care of the food, it is not a vacation. God was very good to me with cooler weather, and I actually had a good time this year. David, Nathan and Samuel were with us along with a bunch of their friends. For those of you who do not know what Creation is, let me explain. About 20 years ago before all the new houses around us, when the farm was a farm, (and we would need to include some of Melvins fields and pasture), we bring in volunteers and turn all our fields into camping areas, (they would walk the pasture taking down fences and pick up the poop piles). Rows and rows of portapots are brought in and placed at different places, wagons with huge water tanks with spouts for people to come get water at, build 2 stages(one very large and another half that size), lots of venders, and then we bring in about 70,000 - 90,0000 people (half being youth) and you walk or take a shuttle bus and sit in an open field and listen to music concerts, speakers, college agents, etc. from sunup to way past sundown. Campsites are one right next to the other, you smell their food they cook, you listen to them snore, you put up with water from watergun fights, screaming and singing, smoke from their campfire, Oh what an experience.

Yes it is true, we are finally connected !!!! (Al, please add our email address to the list.) I said that for those of you who maybe didn't notice. Thank-you to Phil and Pat for the many times we used their computer. The timing of our connection has nothing to do with our relationship with them at this time. Paul had last week off and it is one of those things that has been on his list. The never ending list of things to do here at our home. We did Vacation Bible School last week from 9:00am - noon, Paul was in charge of music and enjoyed the week doing what he really enjoys. Samuel played bass and Nathan played drums, both of which were new instruments for them. Another youth played piano and I helped sing. It was a good week to spend together. But very few of the extra to do things got accomplished.

My summer is going way too fast and here we are the week before the mountain trip. At this point Paul and I are staying home to continue doing some more of the things on the to do list. I worked on the food list and who was coming when, so I want to give that information here.

This is a lot of information, please read it carefully. Feel free to call me with any questions.
This is the information I had at the time of printing.

Friday Night to stay over - Phils, Bills, and Als
Joining them on Sat to stay over - Daves, Sarah and Terrance, Jim's
Mom, Ruth, Brad, Kelly, will be there for Sat only

There should be plenty of sleep space for any one else who wants to join the overnight fun.

Menu:
Friday night - on your own - fire for hotdogs

Sat Brunch - 9:30 A.M. Eggs, Potatoes, Sausage, bread, butter, jelly, juice, fruit, breakfast cake
Sat Lupper - 3:30 P.M. Lasagna, Garlic Bread, Cole Slaw, Salad or raw vegs, chips, desserts

Sun Breakfast - 8:00 A.M. or whenever Cereal, milk, juice, breakfast cake, fruit
Sun lunch - 12:30 P.M. Bar-B-Que, rolls, chips, salad or raw vegs, dessert, fruit

Food lists:

Dave - Salad/raw veggie stuff, dressings Sat lupper and Sun lunch, Carol be creative whatever you wish to do here. Breakfast cake, Cereal - 2 boxes and some drink mix or cider.

Ruth - Sausage links, Breakfast juice (not O.J), dessert

Bill - Bar-B-Que, rolls, cereal - 2 boxes, 1 gal milk, Assorted Fruit, breakfast cake, dessert

Phil - Sat breakfast eggs, potatoes or casseroles what ever you would like, Ruth is bringing sausage, bread, butter, jelly, Orange Juice,

Al - 2 pans Lasagna, cole slaw, dessert, drink

Jim - Garlic bread, or something close, chips (for Sat and Sun), dessert

Mom - paper products, breakfast cake, desserts, coffee

As you look at this please be checking on my planning, let me know if I left any holes.

Preparation Responsibility
Sat brunch: Phil and Ruths,
Sat lupper: Als, Daves and Jim,
Sun breakfast: Whoever wakes up too late for Al's Oreos
Sun lunch: Bills and Daves (or Sarah)

Now for the rest of my newsletter - I hear very little from Aaron, he is in Nebraska and phone towers are few and far between. About 2 weeks ago, he called from Texas rather excited because he saw 3 tornadoes form, come down and go back up in the sky. He thought the closest was a mile away. With news like that, I don't need much news. He is experiencing lots of things and I trust that God is watching over him.

Paul received a certificate for Weight Watchers for his birthday and has been very successful watching his diet and exercising, Last week he weighed in 40 lbs. less then when he started. He has ridden his bike to work several times in June, Nathan and Samuel went along, and then went on to Blooming Glen where they are both working in our friends basement train business. They hope to ride more yet this summer.

David is working at Gehmans this summer, putting in about 40 hours a week.

Nathan wanted to share his email address with everyone also. (Al, please add it to the list) Here it is. Are you ready? OK This is Nathan's email address: TexanRedneck101@yahoo.com

Samuel and I have taken on 2 lawns to mow this summer and I have a small garden. I enjoyed picking green beans at Bob White, I did 4 basketful, they hung by the handfuls on the plants, it was so much fun to pick them. The cool weather has been very refreshing to me. This is my kind of summer.

I ask that you continue to pray for me and my family. God continues to bless, and I am thankful for the personal God that he is. We are still attending Christ Independent Bible Church and the boys enjoy many youth activities. Tonight they had a scavenger hunt - they were split into groups and sent with an adult to gather items from a list of about 50 things. Nathan's group stopped in here, these are some of the things they needed - 8 track tape, 45 record, yearbook, oil filter, bent nail, broken clock, bike wheel, red sunglasses, orange lead pencil, and lots of other things, the worst item was to be brought back in a garbage bag - an item of road kill, yuck.

Take Care,
Thanks for your love and care,

Mary