Catching Up (Again)

Wow.  I have way too many posts that are titled "Catch Up" -indicating what a bad blogger I am.  But, we HAVE been very busy, and my camera DID go to Korea with Moriah, and it is SO very hot that my brain seems to have pretty much been cooked, so...I hope I may be excused just one more time. 
Especially if I promise not to do it again?

So, here is a brief synopsis of our last few weeks...
After Abby's birthday, we decided to try to have some fun but the weather was not cooperative.  Sunday afternoon we finally packed up and headed out into the unknown...tried another of our state's sometimes-not-so-very-fabulous state parks.  This is an on-going quest and we are having a lot of cheap fun with it.  This time we hit Bladon Springs State Park.  A place that was once world famous.  But, today?  Hmmm.  It was so bad it was funny.  About all that is left of this internationally known "watering place" is a few camper hook-ups, a picnic pavillion, a very tired playground and the 4 "springs" (which don't seem to "spring" any more...requiring you to pump if you want to experience this miraculous water...which just smelled like plain old ordinary sulfur water to us.)  Our only regret was that we did not have a container ready to bring some of it home with us. 
Oh well!

Abby tries the pump on one spring.
Josh tries another one...

Hannah thinks the park could use some statuary...                                                                                        

The next week was all about fun stuff like visits to the dentist (for Abby who will soon need to have her wisdom teeth removed) and my yearly check-up with mammogram (wheeee!) and the removal of braces (Hannah has her top teeth showing now...bottoms come off next week when the retainer will be ready) and of course, back to Atlanta to pick up Moriah from her trip to Korea.  Whew!  Somewhere in there the kids saw some movies and went swimming and tried a bunch of fun recipes and enjoyed time with their Nana (who came to babysit while I went to Atlanta -Daddy being unavailable since he is doing his silage chopping these days/farming dawn to dark, and beyond.)

Hannah's top teeth...which we haven't seen in 2 years:

Since Moriah came back, we have been to Pensacola for several days.  There we enjoyed some fun at the beach (not a tar-ball in sight!), saw some more summer movies, swam in the pool at Azalea Trace, did some minor shopping and then traded in our old and very tired van for a much newer and nicer one.  Thanks for helping us out with that Grandad!!!

The kids at Pensacola Beach...water/sky dark due to recent passage of Tropical Storm Bonnie

The next day, snokeling in the bay...lots of cool creatures if you swim out past the sandy bit

Now, we are in the home stretch before school.  Moriah has gone off to visit with friends she won't be seeing again this school year.  Abby is practicing violin and organizing her stuff...her laptop is getting revamped this week.  Hannah is supposed to be practicing vioin, but is mostly just doing her bug-collecting thing and playing way too many video games.  Josh lost his other front tooth.  Sarah Ying finally decided that she could actually swim and has given up all of her flotation devices.  Yeah!
Other highlights from the month of July...it was my altar guild month so I did the flowers for our church (good thing I never wanted a career as a florist.)  I pushed around the paperwork and got the bills paid and most of the dorm room stuff bought for Abby to start at ASFA in just one more week.  I also did the paperwork to get the little kids going on their violin lessons at the University and started looking into adding gymnastics and/or ballet for Sarah Ying who cannot really play the violin due to her special needs issues.  And I did a whole lot of pool maintenance and laundry and cooking and cleaning and shopping and all those other fun things that everybody else is doing, but we are doing here with the heat index at 105. 
Sweat! 
Thank heavens for air conditioning!!!! 

Still ahead:  I have to order up everything for this next homeschool year.  I still haven't gotten the house pressure-washed or painted the front porch columns...though most of the paint has been scraped off of them.  Much to be done to organize things here and get people moved into their respective dormitories and all.  August has 5 scheduled appointments, and Hannah's birthday, the selection of the show cows for this year, the start of music lessons and orchestra programs, and who knows what else...

Onwards and upwards!