Bible camp last week was great. This was the second time they used the theme "Fishing for Faith." The first time was in 2002. I volunteered to help this year, but had no idea that I would wind up building a whale. They had the backround panels, the framework for the bottom, and a good portion of the PVC from the first time they made it. The old PVC was too brittle and old to use, so my job was to figure out the pieces that were missing, calculate all the materials needed, and assemble it. Thankfully I had great help getting it built and we knocked it out in about four hours. The purpose of the whale was so the kids could go inside to hear the story of Jonah. Here is a picture of the kids sitting in it:

Each age group was a different color, and since it was a fishing theme, they had fishing hats that they got to put pins on every day. They all had a great time!

Mia has added the words "yeah" and "no" to her vocabulary. Well, it actually comes out "nooooooo" and kind of sounds like a cross between an owl screeching and a cat getting stepped on. I'll have to see if I can get her doing it on video...

Lori got married this weekend, which meant a drive to Kentucky. We did the trip down in two days...thursday night to Loda, then friday to Kentucky. The return trip on Sundy required we do it all in one shot. We left the hotel parking lot at 10:08 a.m. and pulled into our driveway at 10:04 p.m. Yes, that means 12 hours of traveling with four kids. We set the timer in the van and discovered we were only driving for about 8 1/2 hours, so the other 3 1/2 were pit stops to let the kids decompress and a stop off at the in-laws to get the dog. I will never, ever, EVER go more than six hours in a car in a single day with the kids again. I don't care if it takes us three days to get somewhere.

On the way back we had an interesting experience on I-94. We got curious about the a driver when I was driving behind a car for a few miles. It crossed the center line multiple times, changed lanes without signaling, and cut off several other vehicles. I was uncomfortable driving near the car (figuring the driver had to be drunk), so I passed. When I did, Joe looked into her car to see a young woman texting on her phone with both hands and driving with her knees...I'd like to point out we were going 65 miles an hour. We decided to slow down to see if we could get a video of her stupidity via Joe's phone. We did get video of it, but the quality is not good, and with the glare from the window you can't see what we saw. We think she might have seen us because she floored it so she was several car lengths ahead of us. A little further down the road, the road split in a construction zone, and we went left. She went right. As it happens, we got next to her again, to realize she had added smoking a cigarette to her utterly moronic multitasking. I just cannot believe some people.

I can't sleep

So I've been up since about 3:30...woke up and just couldn't get back to sleep. Talk about annoying!! Anyway, I've been putzing around and it occured to me I could update the blog.

Zack has decided that he is going to catch the rabbit that lives under a tree in the front yard...we're not sure what he intends to do with it if he catches it, however. Every time he sees it he grabs his "net" (a pop-up toy basket we use for stuffed animals), dashes outside and chases it around the front yard until it eventually makes it back under the tree. He never gets close, but the squeals of joy he makes the whole time are worth letting him try!

Dom has decided it would be better to shoot the rabbit, cook it, and eat it...then we're supposed to shoot a deer and eat that. Joe is so proud!

Mia is still the princess of the house. She's developing quite the attitude sometimes, but we've found that "thinking time" with the Parenting with Love and Logic method works quite well for stopping the tantrums.

We'll have Tasha for three weeks straight starting this weekend, so that will be nice. The weekends just aren't long enough to get really good visit time with her.

Bible camp is next week, and I'm really envolved with the planning this year. I'm reconstructing a giant whale (about 8 ft long and 4 ft high so the kids can sit in it and hear the Jonah story), and working with the activity planning and preparation for the preschool program. I'm also going to be a group leader for one of the preschooler groups. I'm really enjoying getting more active in the church, and feel lucky that we have such a great parish here.

The weather was a little better last week, so we took the kids to the beach, and went to a water-skiing show that the Pewaukee Lake water ski club puts on Thrusday nights. I give them props for the sole reason that the water was FREEZING!! There were kids as young as six skiing, so it's a very family orientated group...maybe something we'll get involved in when the kids are a teensy bit older. They're having a "learn to ski" day a couple times this summer, and I may try to get Joe to learn. My brothers tried a few years ago to teach him, but he couldn't never get up. I haven't skiied in...at least 10 years...probably closer to 15, so it might be nice to see if I still can. The village also has concerts on the beach every Weds. night, so we might take the kids down for one of those soon, too.

We got the stained glass shop set up in the garage last weekend, so now we have a place to work. Unfortunately somewhere in the last two moves we lost all of our stained glass patterns...can't find them anywhere. Fortunately, we found a fantastic glass shop about 20 minutes away...it's about three times the size of the one we went to in Champaign...I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time there.

Joe noticed something last week and that is the "follow blog" button on the top bar of this page. Since I update this blog so infrequently, that might be something you want to consider (if you haven't already done it). I have no idea how many people actually read my blog, but my understanding is that it will alert you when I post something new.

Well, it's about 5:30 now, so I'm going to go try to lay down for a bit before the kids get up in a half hour. As always, thanks for checking up on us!