Friday and Saturday

I enjoyed the last of the pleasant weather before we get blasted this week. Friday was a very fun day for everyone. I had lovely company during the afternoon while Corinne's boys and then later Corinne and Sheely were at my home. Xavey and I blew bubbles and ran Evan's RC monster truck through the yard. Preston was quite undone by the truck that moved by itself-he was really frightened, but he recovered and had a great day.

Later on, the kids pretty much all had plans--Eric took Sara and Evan to an Orioles game with Grandma and the visiting cousins and Johnathan and Sam hung out at home. Johnathan was supposed to go out with some of the young adults, but he wasn't feeling great after his dental appointment. Whilst my darlings were all happily occupied, I had another great time with Holly. I had the honor of showing her around her first yarn shop. She is a natural with the knitting--she is doing amazingly well, and I'm not just saying that because I know she reads my blog ;o). I've pretty much seen it all as a knitting teacher and she has the knack. She and I then had a lovely night out looking at books, eating and getting started on a sweater for her soon-to-arrive little one. Pretty much the perfect evening!

I miss having my sisters and sisters-in-laws around so much and spending time today with Corinne and Holly eased that pang an awful lot.

Saturday started out with my 8 mile run with Sue. We had a good run-our time was in our normal range and we felt strong. The weather was spectacular-about 60 degrees when we started out and low humidity. I saw three people I know on the trail and that's always fun. After that was my marathon shopping trip for camp. My kids are now being tortured by stacks of Little Debbie treats and cereal in my living room. My colleague in the kitchen is a dear friend whom I've known for years and if the fun we had shopping is any indication, camp will be a blast. More important than the fun was the fact that we worked together and made decisions in perfect harmony. We got about half the shopping done. Some things were way more expensive at BJ's so Patty is going to look at Costco. Some things we'll buy up there near camp in Altoona or Bedford. We'll buy the produce at the wholesale market on the Monday that camp begins. The great thing about doing the food is that I'll be able to observe Sara and see her occasionally, but I can still be pretty invisible to her so she can have her own camp experience.

I spent a horrific afternoon defrosting my very old freezer that we got for 100 bucks about 100 years ago. I'm thinking that I would sacrifice a lot to get a new, frost-free model. There are about a million things I'd rather do than defrost the freezer, thus it doesn't get done often enough and I have to use words like horrific to describe the process when I do get around to it. Uff.

Then we went over the Lurman Woodland Theater. I hadn't been in years and it was just lovely. We had to leave at the intermission because Evan got a headache, but I highly recommend the experience if you get a chance this summer. It is free, and the atmosphere is totally casual-there's a sandbox and a field for kids to play in while the concert is going on, folks are seated all around the stage on blankets and having picnics. There are bathrooms and a concession stand right there, and it's easy to get to. The schedule for the rest of the summer is here. There is all kinds of music and it is a great chance for families to do something together.
I swear I don't work for them, I just really think it's neat.

When we got home we lit a fire in the outdoor firebowl, had our nightly devotional out there, and then watched a movie together. Johnathan went over to a friend's house and all was well in the Nuss household.