Nearing the End of School

The fireflies have hatched … as have their mosquito cousins. Boy, are they vicious! If I could just get the rain to come on my schedule I could keep the grass cut.

BOOTING THE BOOT. Mom has dealt with some pain over the last week, but she is better. She even went to church this morning! One bit of good news is that the orthopedic surgeon has given her clearance to take off the boot. That makes getting around for her so much easier.

She also got good reports back from all the tests of tissue that was removed in surgery. The doctor feels like he got everything so no additional treatments are necessary. Now we need to just wait and see what healing brings.

ONE MORE WEEK OF CLASSES! All three kids are excited that the end of school is near. Just one more week of classes and they'll be able to put their books away for a couple of months.

The last few weeks of school brings many field trips. Nate has gotten to go off campus for lunch several times as a reward for his performance in several areas (e.g. how many books he's read). Jenna's English class went to see The Great Gatsby the other day. Friday Ben went on the annual Jr. Beta trip to Holiday World. Ben had a good time but I felt a little sorry for him. At the theme park the kids were grouped and assigned to a chaperone. Ben really wanted to ride a lot of rides but the majority of kids in his group preferred to spend their extra money on games in hopes of winning a stuffed animal or some other prize. He did get on several rides but not as many some of his buddies who were in other groups.

FARMER JEN. Jenna is serious about her garden. She planted it last week (I helped only a little). She's put out sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes, green beans, cucumber, squash, cantaloupe, and watermelon. Ben wants carrots so that may go in this week. Now it's a matter of keeping the weeds and bugs under control and in a few months we should be seeing some of the fruits of her labor.

What's so funny is that Jenna is now noticing crops as we're driving places. She commented on how good one corn field looked just today. She's becoming a regular farmer.

GEOCACHING. If you have never heard of this it is a treasure hunting game played by thousands around the world. There are over two million caches scattered on every continent. With that many there may be one near you. We have one right next door.

To play the game all you need it a GPS (or a smart phone capable of locating itself) and access to a geocaching website to find where caches are located. Then you go hunting. The caches themselves range in size from a weatherproof box (e.g. an ammunition can or a food storage box) to the really small container (e.g. a pill bottle or a 35 mm film can). All caches have a log that you sign. Some have trinkets you can take as long as you put one of equal or greater value back.

I recently got an upgrade to an iPhone so the boys and I decided to try our hand at the game last weekend. We've found five within a few miles of the house. We took Mom out last Sunday for one of our forays. We were at the grocery store in Cross Plains looking for one cache. The boys were looking all over the parking lot with my phone when I looked around and spotted what appeared to be the most logical place to hide a cache. I got out, put my hands right on the little film can, and headed back to the van. The boys couldn't believe I found it without electronic aid. Nate has had so much fun he said he wants to spend one whole day this summer geocaching. I told him I'd be willing if he'd chip in on the gas.

Joe