Poor Tammy!!

This morning my sis in Oklahoma called and said her SIL Tammy, who happens to live one mile from me, has contracted a very servere case of poison sumac!! EEEKKK! Well I have never had this affliction, but I am extremely allergic to poison oak so I can certainly feel her pain. Beth said she had been to Wal-Mart (tammy) to find some Tecnu to wash with and attempt to get the poison oil off her skin and try to stop the spread, but she was unable to find it. I called Wal-greens and found some there so I made an emergency run to town and got it for her. She was pretty happy to see me. The poor girl looks just terrible. She is litterly covered in poison sumac. Hopefully it doesn't hang on too long.

Happy Sunday

Today the church at Delta ordained Bro. Ray Bellew to be an Elder. It is such a blessing for us because we have doubled our Elder population. It has been 30 years since they last ordained here. Everything went very smoothly. We had a very good meeting. It was also church dinner day and many people stayed for dinner. Our new building is coming along nicely. It is trussed and sheeted, now for the windows and doors. The little kids have really been enjoying playing baseball in there with the tennis rackets. That will definately have to stop once the windows go in. Looks like by this time next year we will be in the new building, Lord willing.

The brethern have had so much unity lately. That feels so good. To know that the brethern truly love and care for one another. It was our intent to ordain two more elders, but neither of them felt that this was their time. But hopefully next time it will be easier. We are so blessed that things went so well this time. I will post pictures of the new building soon.

In other news....I curled Amy's red hair for church this morning. She looked a lot like Shirley Temple until she got her face dirty playing in the dirt pile. Oh well. Tom boys make the best girls I've always heard. Randy & Sheri N. & kids came by after church and we had a very good visit. We sure do enjoy them. That little Melanie is a doll.

Happenings in Colorado

Last night was church. Randy & Cheri sat in front of us. Their baby kept crawling over Drewsie to get to Shelby. First the baby kicks her in the head. Drew turns to us looking like she is about to cry. I couldn't help it I got the giggles. The a few minutes later the baby hits her in the face with a book! Poor girl was seriously getting beat up last night. She was no worse for the wear though. We sure have enjoyed them coming here for church. I hope the Lord allows for their house to sell soon.

Sunday morning we are going to ordain an elder. It is nice for the church to have named leadership. Pray for us that this can be accomplished. The brothern have had much unity lately and it really is home to me now. Bout time we've only lived here 6 years!

We are in the middle of building our new church building. It is huge! It will have a kitchen and eating area, and a very good size meeting area too. It has been really great to watch all the guys work together happily enjoying one anothers company. They will be sheeting the trusses on Saturday. It will probably take quite a while to finish, due to funding issues, but eventually it will get done.

Last Saturday I had tickets to see the Issacs in concert in Ridgeway. I bought for myself and my boys but Alex declined to go at the last minute so I took Rueban N. Tyler & Mason. It was in a small church so we were all up close & personal with them. Kind of like sitting in someones living room. We throughly enjoyed the concert. I met Lily Issacs, (the mom). She remembered Beth & Sandy from Branson last year when they couldn't get seats and Lily had them all come in anyway (7 friends in all) and they got to set up front on the instrument cases. I thought it was pretty cool that she would remember them. I bought 3 CD's for me and 1 DVD for Angela Mc who is a huge Issacs fan and couldn't go because no ticket, and it would have been hard to leave Kyle for that long. Plus she just had her 30th birthday so we called it a late birthday present. She told me last night that the DVD is great! My favorite CD is the one called "Songs we've worn out". It has 20 songs on it all greatest hits. Love, love, love it!

We don't get many Southern Gospel groups this side of Colorado. But I guess Ridgeway Christian Center is going to make Southern Gospel night a yearly event. So maybe I will get to see some of my favorites in the future.

Tyler & Mason went to outdoor school with our homeschooling group. Tyler said he was a little too old for it but he did have a good time. They got to do repelling, canoeing, horseback riding, rock climbing. Sounds like fun maybe I'll go next year with Emily.

I think I will homeschool Emily & Alex next year, but of course that is all subject to change.

Oh I almost forgot to mention on the 12th Angela & I took Tracey & Emily out to dinner & then to see Beauty & the Beast at the Magic Circle Theater. We let them wear their fancy dresses and fixed their hair up all pretty. The got many adoring comments from strangers, and we, the proud mama's, just stood by and grinned!

LEWIS FAMILY REUNION - NOTICE

This was the quickest way I could think of to get this info out.

The reunion will be held in Oregon at the campground in Turner. This is the same one that the church uses. The dates are June 19, 20, 21 with cleanup on June 22nd.

If you have any question contact me or Tina Mc.

PreSchool Dropout

Well we gave it a go anyway! Amy was soooo excited about going to school so we enrolled her in preschool in Olathe. She was thrilled with her new backpack, new school clothes, and her flashy new school shoes, so off she went. Now, as most of you know I am not a huge fan of public schools but I could see that as a very social person she would probably enjoy time to play with children her own age. What could possibly go wrong??

Tuesday of this week after I had her dressed, fed, and ready to leave for school she annouced quite calmly that she was finished with school and would not be going anymore! WHAT?? So we tried to figure out exactly what to do about this situation. Alan said to give her a day off and try again tomorrow. We did, she didn't change her mind, in fact she is even more resolute in her determination that she too will homeschool.

Now I have to go to headstart and unenroll her in preschool.

This morning she brought the map of the world placemat to me and felt she must know all the names of the countries and oceans, (just in case she gets the itch to travel), so her & I talked about the Earth and how it is round like a ball, and yes Norway is much farther away than it looks on the map, and wouldn't it be fun to live in Bolivia, and is that purple stuff surrounding Antartica ice?, (how did she know that Antartica is ice?), and is it called Greenland because it is green?, and where is Hawaii?. So my little preschooler is really a little thinker, and mom should just learn to go with the flow!!

The boys have been busy doing there math & reading, and various writing assignments I give them. They are also studying The Constitution, elections, electoral college, polls and 9/11,
Alex and Emily are still in PS. Although they are making presistant noises (kinda like an annoying little mosquito), that they want to homeschool too. We shall see.

Trip to Oregon/This & That

It seems that it has been quite a while since I last posted. To start with I am homeschooling Tyler & Mason this year and we are loving it. It is much less stressful when I am not the one teaching them how to read. So far we are doing math daily, Grammer, twice a week, history & science unit studies (self-designed), and daily journal writing. That has been working quite well thus far. I made the boys sign a contract with me that they would do their work & chores without arguing, fighting, or sassing! Their dad also threatened to send them back to public school if they gave me any guff. So far, so good.

They week that the little kids (Emily, Alex & Amy) started school, Bro. Josh W. passed away in Oregon. Alan & I took Tyler, Mason & our nephew Tim with us and went to Oregon for Josh's funeral. While it was very sad for all of us there was great joy & rejoicing in knowing where we will see him next. I know that life will be very challenging for Cynthia, but she is a strong person and is surrounded by a wonderful family.

While in Oregon we stayed with Rob n Dixie and their girls, (all very beautiful BTW). That was fun it just feels like we never have enough time. Got to spend one night with Steve n Shae & their boys (also quite beautiful). It was fun to watch the teenagers play their little games, funny that one of those kids is now mine!

On Sat, when we were in Oregon, we took Amber & the boys to the Pacific Ocean. It was a blast. We spent a lot of time getting soaked at Cape Perpetua. I do have pictures but they are on the other camera. That is the problem with having two cameras.

In other news. My dad came to see us last weekend. We went to Ouray and hiked at box canyon falls then dad took us all swimming at the Hot Springs pool. It is my kids favorite place to swim. Alex has pretty much taught himself how to swim this summer, Amy is well on her way. All in all it was a very nice day. Tyler turned 14 that day also. Can't hardly beleive that. He was just a baby a few days ago! Mason is 12 now and is getting pretty wound up about being a teenager next year. I know that soon my young men will be gone from our home and have homes of their own. I only hope I can give them all tools they need to take care of themselves when they go. They above are some pictures of our trip to Ouray.