August 11, 2007

We talked with Richard and Vera today. They are in Lamar, Pennsylvania. In two days they have driven 1533 miles and they still have 200 to go tomorrow. Vera’s ankle is bothering her a lot. She will go to see a Doctor on Monday. Richard said he is fine even though he has done a lot of driving. They found out that Susan had passed so they have been pushing hard to make it home for the Wake on Sunday. The funeral will be on Monday. I want to thank everyone who has remembered our friends and Susan’s families in your prayers.

We returned to the Denver area to visit with Jill, Karl and Abby today. While Charlotte helped Jill with the household chores, Karl went to the grocery store and Abby and I went looking for parts to repair a broken string trimmer. I think Abby and I had the most fun. We went to two hardware stores and finally Home Depot to get the parts. They were having a kid’s day celebration at Home Depot and Abby got to build a model car like the Home Depot Nascar #20 that Tony Stewart drives. She had fun hammering nails to put the wooden body together and also pounding in the axles and wheels. We finished putting the decals on at home later.

After lunch at Beau Jo’s Pizza, we went shopping for some school supplies for Jill. Then we drove to her school and helped with a few projects she needed completed. Here are a few pictures of our endeavors.

I’m sharpening pencils. It wasn’t bad there were only about 50 – 60 pencils and I had an electric sharpener.

Abby is making a list of names.

Grandma is working on book bags for the kids.

Karl is the only one who could “cut it” so he is making the background for the pictures and captions of what the kids want to accomplish this year in 1st grade.

This is part of the wall where Jill hung the pictures we put together. Karl typed the captions and cut them out, Char and I glued them on the backgrounds and Jill put them on the wall.

Here are some of the things kid’s said.

I hope I make new friends.
I hope nobody touches my hat anymore.
I want to be a better writer by Halloween.
I hope I can read better.
I hope I learn how to write better than last year.
I hope I go to college.
I hope I get super better at math.
I hope I get to ride the bus.
I hope I can run faster.
I hope we get to go to Camp Jackson two times.
I hope we win the boxtop competition.
I hope we have a pet bunny.
I hope I do the splits better.
I hope we have a pet cat in our class.
I hope I get a lot better at math.
I hope I get better at reading.
I hope we have a pet hamster.

It was a lot of fun being the teacher’s helper even if the room was very warm. The outside temperature was in the upper 90’s today and the air conditioning was off at the school. After school, we went for ice cream at Cold Stone Creameries. This was our reward for helping the teacher.