Catching Up

I didn’t realize when I sat down to update our news that I had so much catching up to do. I think the change in routine, or maybe the lack of routine, has thrown me off. Whatever it was, June is spent. Here’s my attempt to catch up for the last three weeks.

If you’re driving in Robertson County right now chances are good you’ll catch up to some farm equipment that is moving from field to field. The farmers have been cutting wheat and hay. Pretty soon they’ll be planting beans. I got a laugh when I came home one day last week. The neighbor who cuts the hay next to our house must have a tractor down because he was pulling the hay rake with his truck. It looked like half the family was riding in the truck with him because when I waved about five hands shot up to return the wave.

After the Cotters left, Ben’s basketball practice schedule picked up a bit. One day we all went out to Springfield High School where several teams in the area had gotten together to play games all day long. Ben got to play in two games. They won one and lost one. A few days later he did the same thing in Gallatin. We didn’t go to that, but I think he played in three games there. Right now we are in a dead period in the practice schedule so players can do other things like family vacations or church camps. Practice will resume next week.

I’ve mentioned before how much Ben is growing. He is enjoying the fact that he is two inches taller than me now. That’s okay. For now I can still take him down. The other day he got a little too big for his britches so I had to pin him until he cried “uncle.” It’s getting harder to do that. I think my only advantage is about 50 lbs. Anyway, we got another reminder of how much Ben is growing when we bought size 15 shoes last week. I should clarify and say the Nikes run a bit small. He only needed size 14 in another brand. Ben also learned the hard way that 6’ 2” kids should not go happily bouncing through a 6’ 3” doorway (our pantry door). And then there was the shopping trip to Wal-Mart when I was returning to Vicki and Ben from picking up an item across the store and thought, “Gee, Ben sure makes Vicki look small now.”

One thing that is so neat about Ben is that he is good with young children, and they, in turn, really enjoy him. A couple of weeks ago Jenna was working in the nursery at church. She was playing “Hide from the Monster” with a few of the kids when Ben walked by to say hi. Jenna asked the kids if Ben was the monster and one little girl said, “No, he’s the prince!”

“Are you sure?” asked Jenna. “He’s my brother and I think he’s the monster and not a prince.”

The girl stuck to her guns and matter-of-factly replied, “No, he’s the prince.” This embarrassed him to no end.

Nate is doing well. One evening I heard him singing upstairs so I grabbed my phone and set the camera app to record video and snuck up the steps. I wound up standing behind the boy as he was playing a video game getting over a minute of the silliest video before he turned around and noticed me there. It’s funny how he used to always want us to submit a clip to America’s Funniest Home Videos and now he doesn’t.

I mentioned before that the kids had pooled their money to buy a Wii U. This has brought all three kids together to some degree as they now have a game that Jenna is interested in playing so she invades their space far more than she used to. It’s sort of odd to call for her and hear her answer from upstairs. Ben has complained that she stays up there too late when he wants to go to bed.

Jenna is doing an internship at NorthCrest Medical Center. She goes in a couple of days a week and has gotten to observe a lot about how a hospital functions. She seems to be enjoying it. She’s also been trying to get some babysitting jobs in as well.

Vicki, Jenna, and Nate all went to Centri-Kid camp last week. They returned to the camp held at Campbellsville University. They left last Sunday and got home Thursday and from the pictures I’ve seen it was another big year. Nate had tracks in Outdoor Games, Splish-Splash, and Build It which he enjoyed. Jenna tagged along because she was finally old enough to return as a junior chaperone. This was Nate’s last year to be able to go to Centri-Kid as a kid. Of course, this is the last time Vicki heads it up as our Children’s Minister. Now that they are back home Vicki is focusing on getting ready for VBS which starts in two weeks.

Ben and I were on our own last week. We didn’t have it too bad as we took mom out to eat at Cracker Barrel and the Catfish House two different nights. We also had a M*A*S*H marathon a couple of evenings where we watched about half of the fourth season on Netflix.

Speaking of camp, Ben left with our church youth group this morning for Student Life camp. They will be at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, until Saturday.

Congratulations to Kenny and Lori who celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary today. I remember the day well. Kenny asked me to be his best man which was an honor I did not expect. Nine years later he was my best man when Vicki and I got married.

Vicki and I got a chance to celebrate our anniversary on “the” day for the first time in quite a while. She has been away at camp with kids from church for the last several years but this year it worked differently. We enjoyed a meal at Jimmy Kelly’s Steakhouse in Nashville.

My shop is a bit more organized. A couple of friends gave me their old counters when they remodeled their kitchens and I finally put it all to good use. I built shelves around the freezer and air compressor that sit in one corner. Now I can get a lot of stuff off the floor that had nowhere to go. The real battle though, as with anything, is to keep the building from collecting more junk.

On the subject of “junk,” Trash and Treasures was last weekend. We worked a shift at the concession stand for the Heritage Commission on Friday morning. By the time our shift was over we didn’t care to walk around too much. The only treasure I came home with was a game of horseshoes for $14. I’ve already got the stakes set up in the backyard if anyone wants to play.

Joe