VBS and Other Things

Summers are fun. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. What I miss, though, is the lack of a normal routine. That will change soon enough.

There’s not a lot of news to share from the past two weeks, but here’s what I know.

VBS AND A MUCH NEEDED VACATION. As you know from when I wrote last we were ready to get Vacation Bible School underway. This year’s theme was Kingdom Rock so we were all about castles and knights and things. We averaged over 180 (that’s kids and workers).

I’m going to brag on my wife here. Our VBS went off really well. She had everything very organized and everyone I saw looked like they were enjoying themselves. After two weeks of seeing her throw all of her energy into the preparations I was glad to see her efforts pay off in such a big way.

Once VBS was done and all the decorations were taken down Vicki was ready for some time off. She and the kids piled into the van last Sunday after church and headed out to the Jones house for some family time. I don’t think they went anywhere except the tennis courts while they were there. They got back home today.

THE HOME FRONT. I didn’t get to make the trip to Georgia due to my work schedule so I enjoyed a quiet house while everyone was gone. Mom and I did go out to eat three different evenings.

Mom is doing well. She’s even gotten back behind the wheel to go to church, get her hair fixed, and run some errands in town.

BOUNTIFUL HARVEST. Jenna’s garden is coming in. I told her to strip it of anything that was remotely ripe when they left for Georgia and they took two buckets of veggies with them. When they got back today we picked 110 ears sweet corn and froze most of it. And there’s still corn left to ripen! I think we’ll have more than our freezer can hold.

STAR DUSTER NEWS. I received some sad news from Bob Stangland a couple of days ago. Mr. Stangland served on the same crew with Dad in World War II. He wrote to tell me that their pilot, Bill Lind, passed away this week. Mr. Stangland went on to say he called Jim Zorns, the flight engineer, to tell him of Mr. Lind’s passing only to learn that Mr. Zorns passed away back in March. As far as we know only two on the eleven man crew are still living, the other being Achilles Stathas.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet Mr. Lind, Mr. Stangland, and Mr. Stathas. All three are fine men. If the rest of the crew was like them Dad served with some wonderful people.

Joe