Landscape Makeover

The landscapers blew in and blew out in one day, and gave the front of our house an extreme home makeover. Maybe it wasn't extreme, but getting rid of those oversized, half-dieing plants was a big step. The new landscaping will look better and better as time goes by and the trees mature.Last evening was the second annual small group movie under the stars. We watched Cool Runnings and had somewhat of a Jamaica-themed evening. At least the Red Stripe was on sale.And a fruit fly landed in my water the other day.

Saturday Gates-Family Hike

More Saturday hiking!This time Jenn got to join us for our early morning, Gretel-off-the-leash hike. The excitement came when Gretel stuck her head in a ground hive. She got stung a couple of times but other than some itchy swelling, she did okay for the rest of the walk. She's sleepy on Benadryl now.

Lincoln and I play a game with Gretel called, "Sit, Stay, Okay." We have Gretel sit on the trail, we tell her to stay, and then we hike out between 25 and 50 yards. Then we turn around and yell, "Okay!" and watch her sprint to us. Lincoln is full of giggles as he watches her ears bounce. In the photo above, she's waiting on the edge of the woods for her command.

This evening Lincoln is going over to Grandpa Doug & Grandma Paulette's house as Jenn and I go to the new Inn at Turner's Mill for our seventh anniversary. We're thinking Calamari and Walleye right now, but we'll see what the rest of the menu looks like. It'll be seven years on Monday. Wow!

On a tangent note to our anniversary, I'm as excited about our small group at church as I've been in the last 3 years. We've got a great group of folks who are really interested in growing closer together (see Murder in Margaritaland as an example of the fun we have together) and learning what it means to be Godly, Christian husbands, wives and parents. It's really cool. For the first time with this particular group, we'll be on the topic of "marriage." I've compiled a bunch of different sources and it's looking like the next couple of months for our small group are going to be really, really cool.

For our last event before we get into the swing of our Bible study gatherings, we're going to Blossom tomorrow to see The Greatest Generation - Music Of The '40's (Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Roegers & Hammerstein, etc.). We were planning to see the Disney show at Blossom last week, where they play scenes from Disney movies and have the Blossom Festival Band play the score along with the show, but it rained big-time last Friday evening... and we had lawn seats. So we shifted our plans. So I'll have a review of the '40's show in the next couple of days.

This was a monster weekend as far as getting some things done around the house is concerned.  Mom & Dad helped turn the guest room into the nicest room in the house.  The wallpaper is off of the bathroom walls (Haaaaaaal-lehhhhhhhhhhhh-luuuu-jaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!), and the walls will be ready to paint very shortly.  I pretty much feel the same about wallpaper as I do about minivans.  I hope that doesn't offend any of our readers.

Lincoln's room is almost complete... just wall decorations to go.  Jenn's feeling "okay."  (She's sitting beside me and when I asked her how she's feeling, she said, "Okay.")

Jenn and I are preparing for our upcoming lesson with our small group.  We're going through David Goetz's book, Death By Suburb, and we're actually really excited about it.  The book pretty much indicts any Christian reader who lives a normal, American, suburban life, and I anticipate that it will be challenging for our group.  But it's a good challenge.  I'll be leading each meeting, and sometimes we'll split the husbands from the wives and Jenn will lead the ladies.    I'll keep you posted on how it goes.  Any readers who have led small groups, please let me know what type of material has worked well for your group... I'm always looking for good stuff.

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