Ethan and Jacob's last baseball games

It was a good year of baseball, but it was nice to see it come to an end since we were ready to have our Sunday evenings back. However, their last games were extra special because Doug's parents were there.

My First 5K

This wasn't exactly the best 5K to do for my first race. It had a 4% grade uphill and downhill which made it quite challenging, but I'm looking forward to doing another 5K soon.

Doug made these signs for the kids to hold during the race. "Joy's Hot" is not exactly what I would have choosen, but Doug said it got a lot of attention and Ethan liked holding it.

I finished the race in 34 minutes 47 seconds!

The Arch

Going up in The Arch was very interesting. We rode in an egg shaped capsule that had 5 seats crammed together. If you have any issues with claustrophobia it would be a bit difficult to handle. Once we got to the top it was very cramped and there were very small windows to look out of.

Celebrating Our Anniversary

Our friend, Dawn, offered to watch our kids so we could go out to dinner. Doug's parents decided they wanted to treat us to an anniversary dinner at Andria's Restaurant.We had a great time and the food was excellent.

A Week of British Soccer Camp

Doug's mom, Vivian, suffered right along with me while we watched the kids at soccer camp this week. It was the hottest, most humid week we've had so far. The kids didn't complain too much and everyone handled the heat surprisingly well.

The kids with their coaches Matt and Rob.

Doug turns 39!!

I made one of Doug's favorite meals, chicken tacos and corn tomatillio, and invited some of our friends over for ice cream cake from Cold Stone. Yummy!

Blast Summer Camp

Jacob, Ethan and Alex Jones went to summer camp at our church this week. On Sunday they sang at church and it was a lot of fun seeing them on stage for the first time.

Father's Day, Baseball and Our Anniversary!

It was very nice spending Father's Day with Doug and his dad.

After spending the day together we went to see Ethan and Jacob's baseball games.

I didn't get any pictures of Jacob or Doug and I since it was our 11 year anniversary. It was just impossible to cover all the details that day.

Have You Ever Wondered What A Lightening Bug Looks Like?

Audrey usually hates bugs, but she was pretty excited about this lightening bug landing on her.

The Last Few Weeks Of My Life

These last few weeks have been very unusual, so I thought I would take a few minutes to share what has been going on.

• I signed up for an online Time Management class through Universal Class and it has made a huge impact on dealing with my time management problems.
• Friends of our's from our days at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA were visiting family over Memorial Day Weekend in Baton Rouge, LA and their 7 year old son was struck by lightening. He died two days later. It was their only child.
• I joined a bible study with 6 ladies. We are doing Esther by Beth Moore and I'm really enjoying it.
• I filled in for my friend who is leading the bible study one week. It was my first time leading a study. Halfway through our time together one of the ladies got news that her sister was missing and her parents had to file a missing persons report. God lead me to tell her that HE was in control and HE knew where she was. We prayed for his protection over her sister and for someone to step into her life to impress upon her the need to contact her family. Two days later she contacted them and they were reassured that she was OK.
• My kids went to VBS at our church and had a blast. We invited a friend of their's who we also knew in Washington to come and his mom was happy to sign him up. They are not Christian's but the VBS kids are singing in church this Sunday, so they are coming to church with us.
• I made a wonderful friend here and our friendship grew strong very quickly. Our faith and love for homeschooling were constant topics of discussion. She has three daughters close in age to my kids and they left for their new assignment in Washington DC today.
• I signed up to get my certificate in Interior Design at Sheffield School. This is one area that will enable me to help other homeschooling moms with organization and creating homes they enjoy living in.
• I finished my Time Management course at Universal Class.
• Doug worked very closely with someone while we were at McChord AFB and he found out that his wife died two days ago. Reasons are unknown, but she was younger than Doug and I. I had met her and her husband once and it's very sad.
• We went to see Toby Mac and Chris Tomlin in concert last night. We had a great time with Dawn and Cory Simmons. It was so amazing to go to a Christian concert.
• Doug is picking his parents up from the airport right now to stay with us for 10 days.
• I'm considering running my first 5K race next Saturday.

My First Organizational Meeting

I've been working really hard for the last few weeks on preparing for a meeting I was having at my house for homeschooling moms. I titled it Organizing and Managing Your Homes. The meeting went really well and I got a great response from the people who attended. I'm praying about where God would like me to take this. There are definitely some things I need to tweek and change, but overall I'm really happy with what I've created and what God has taught me about organizing my home. I feel that he might be leading me to present my ideas at Homeschool Conventions, but I need to pray about it some more. In August I am having another meeting on Managing Your Schedule. I'm not sure what direction I want to take with that yet, but I've got some time to think about. Below are the topics I discussed at the meeting last night:

Organizing Your Kitchen
Organizing Other Rooms in Your House (focusing on their school area)
Ways to Save Money
Staying Organized
Your Cleaning Schedule

Our Last Outing with the Walter's

In the last few months we've actually done quite a few things with Dorothy and her three grils Carlie, Molly and Ellie. However, this was our last "field trip" to The Botanical Gardens in St. Louis because they are moving to Virginia next week. We will miss them a ton, but as with everyone we meet in the Air Force, it's never goodbye because we know we'll see each other again someday.