Vacation Bible School

My meeting on Friday went well, I thought, but only time will tell. I felt like I looked nice in my outfit, which was the first step to success! The following day, we dropped off my minivan to get the oil changed in the morning and Dad & Robin volunteered to watch our kids in the afternoon for Shawn looking at a computer issue she was having. We went to the outlets again to the Gap & Banana Republic since both were having major sales. We also had some gift cards to use, which covered all our purchases. We bought Joshua a sweat shirt, me a new work out outfit, Shawn some pants & shirts for work, and I got a couple inexpensive tops from Banana Republic that I can wear to work. Yeah for sales and shopping fun!!! We rarely go shopping, but we both needed things and the sales are the times to get them!

On Sunday, we tried a new church in the morning called "Burning Hearts." It is a tiny church that meets in the school behind our house, and we've been back a few times since then. We're praying that God would call us to a home church where we and our boys can grow and make friends, etc. Please pray with us that we will discern where that is for our family! It's important to me that we get plugged in!

That night was the first night of Vacation Bible School, which went through Thursday. Caleb & Joshua were in a group together this year (since they are 4 & 5 right now) and still with Mrs. Sharp, the owner of Sharp Shopper. We love her! She remembered Joshua from the previous year. When I went in to pick up the boys, Caleb's craft was missing. I'm assuming someone else grabbed it accidentally. Thankfully, he's pretty easygoing and didn't seem to mind too badly.

The next night, they each made this fish. They would tell me their Bible lessons from the day, and we would look up the stories in the "challenge" question. Joshua was very upset he didn't win the prize the first night, but he was lucky enough to win it the last night! He got skittles for knowing the right answer. My sister Jen was in charge of VBS this year for her church, Forrest Hills Mennonite. We knew LOTS of families who went there, including Shawn's cousins (second, third, who knows?) and folks from preschool, etc.

The third night, their craft was these blackboard things. The theme was "underwater sea adventure" or SCUBA or something (yikes! I forget already!). But, they had a BLAST! On Tuesday morning during my ATTACK class, I tore my calf muscle right where it adjoins the achilles tendon. I had been having tendon pain, so this area was tight and then when we were doing "high knees" I felt a pop and almost fell to the ground in tears. I feared I wouldn't be able to walk out with my kids, but a mom does what she has to do. I picked up the boys and made it to the car before losing it completely. I called Shawn to tell him that I was in EXTREME pain, but he didn't need to come home or anything. I would deal with it and some advil. When I had a chance, I also put it up and iced it. And I took the next several days off from the gym. Shawn called the Orthopedic Associates, who told me that it wasn't the tendon but in fact the muscle right at the junction that was torn. He said it didn't require surgery at this point, but if the tear was worse, they would need to cast it. I MUST stay off of it for four weeks. YIKES! He also suggested I wear high heels to keep the calf muscle together rather than stretched. It's feeling a little sore still but much better than it was. I eventually have gone back to working out, but I haven't done jumping lunges or high knees since. Hopefully it will heal completely soon! The night I hurt myself, Shawn took the boys to VBS. Then he went and got a new battery put in my watch to make me feel better. And we ate drive-through from Chick Fil A just the two of us after we fed the boys and dropped off the older two. He is SO sweet to me.

The final night, the boys were given these fish as their take home craft. They each decorated the fish bowl and then got a goldfish. UGH! I'm not big on animals. Within a day or two, Joshua's was swimming "belly up" and Shawn told him that he needed to go back to the ocean to see his family like Nemo. Since then, every day they've asked if Caleb's fish is belly-up yet. Nope! That thing won't die!!! Ryan even pulled the table cloth when Caleb was looking at his fish, and the entire thing spilled out. The fish was out of the water for several minutes until we got it all cleaned up and put back together. But, once Shawn added water, it was swimming again! It must have nine lives or more.

We watched the boys sing their songs and saw all the pictures that some folks took of all the kids during the week. They had a great time!