delayed gratification

Wow, I have REALLY been a blog slug lately! All this fresh spring air has kept me doing lots of other things. On the crafting front, I finally finished the quilt from hell! I am ready to send it back to California as soon as I know where to send it. And then I'm getting another one to work on, but in the meantime, I've had time to spin and knit and work on some other stuff. I actually finished a sweater (not a vest!)that I made of yarn that I spun all myself--and it fits! Its actually chilly enough today that I got to wear it to work before it has to be shoved into the sweater pile in the closet.

Let's see, what else? Well, the boys are busily with finals this week (finally!). Sometimes it's a close race to see if we will be in summer school or not! We will all be relieved to be done with school and take a break from carpooling and so forth for the next couple of months. Karen and Sam will be going to Camp Goodridge again this summer, a Boone County park program. Sam will actually be a "Counselor in Training" which means that he's a halfprice camper and full time counselor's assistant. This should be educational for all of us!

Karen has had a busy spring. Her class went to Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky a few weeks ago and then they had a 'state convention' which was a kind of a science fair thing where the kids did a research project on a specific state and then made a display and a 'food item' from their state for people to sample at the convention.

Can you guess which state Karen was assigned? No? Hint: there are a lot of weddings there (just in case you are wondering, that is a wedding cake there. We made it and decorated it ourselves).

Okay, here's a hint: the Bride and groom on the top of the cake could have been Elvis and a Stripper.

TaDA! It's NEVADA!

And then next, her class performed the play "Blame it on the Wolf" for parents and the younger students. Karen plays the part of TurkeyLurkey along with her friends Chloe and Audrey, who are Chicken Little and Henny Penny. I think they were a kind of a Greek chorus, because they would run out periodically and sing a little song and then run back offstage. Very excellent choreography. Camp has opened and we only had to move the trailer once because of flooding---what a pain--for Tom. I held down the fort here.

next installment, hopefully before the end of the summer, will be about camp and the new Goodyear Store!

Soggy grounded Grunts

Me, enjoying life!

This past weekend was the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, and the Pig has come to encompass a whole bunch of races over two days. Covington Latin School provides the volunteers to pass out water and gatorade at two fluid stops during the 10K race and the 5K Hope and Possibilites run on the Saturday before the 'big pig' race. I didn't look away quickly enough when the Latin School Boosters were looking for someone to be the volunteer coordinator for our fluid stations, so I got the job of getting all of the supplies and organizing as many kids (and parents, gratefully) as I could find to show up and help with this.

The thing I really love about this race is the humor that goes with it. First of all...it's called the Flying Pig...you have to smile at that. And the volunteers are all called "Grunts"--and we get t-shirts that proudly declare our status! The spectators are called "Squealers". People both in the races and along the way are known to dress up in all kinds of pig suits...some people Saturday were running with pig noses on , some had ears...very cool.

That is Sam in the camoflage rain poncho. He says next year he might run if it will get him out of having to stand around in the rain.

This is the crew at Newport on the Levee. What a mess! See that cluster of kids standing down there on the left? Interestingly, the people passing out water are PARENTS!

It really is alot of fun, and the weather cleared up for the majority of both of the races we worked at...but the before and after times were pretty miserable there in the rain!

Here is Daniel, in the middle, and Ellen and Christopher, having a blast raking up cups. Don't you love Dan's hat? That is mine from when I worked at Hardee's in high school. I can't believe I have carried that hat along with me as I've moved around--what was I thinking? Now I can't get it away from him to throw it out!