Life after school starts

I'm getting adjusted to having the kids in school and working 30-32 hours a week. I have Mondays off and work 7 1/2 to 8 hours a day the rest of the week. It's quite an adjustment from working only 12 or 14 hours a week!

I love hummingbirds and wanted to show you a few pictures of them with my nifty digital camera. The one with the bird in her nest is at Sherrie Byler's parents' home on the lake. It was so tickled to be able to get a good picture of her. The others are at Grandma Brenneman's feeder.

Pray for us as we may face some "heat" from Dustin's mom because of her child neglect. Her mom is moving to the area in a few weeks to take Kim to court to get the kids. She has dropped them off at people's houses (including mine a couple times) and hasn't come back when she says. During this time we are sure she is using crack. Last Saturday she dropped her kids off at a friend's house for a haircut and said she'd be back in 5 minutes. She never came back until 6:30 p.m. Sunday! They kept taking the kids back to her house and finally gave up at 11 p.m. on Saturday night. It happened to me twice but not as long. I kept them overnight twice but she did call each time a couple hours later than she was going to pick them up to say she wasn't going to come. It's a sad story! One of the kids said, "Mom doesn't know how to come back."

This weekend Kim's mom is coming for Dustin's baptism and there could be a big blow out over all of this. Kim's mom is staying at our house!

Lots of Travelling!

Yesterday, we travelled to Indianapolis to Breanna's MRI. Bob went with us. We stopped and picked up Amber on the way. We had to leave before 6 a.m. We were all pretty tired.

Breanna wasn't able to get to sleep and said she only had 1 hour of sleep! She was pretty emotional when I took her in to the MRI. Fear was really gripping her. Earlier this year, she had talked with us about how she is finally realizing what a tumor could mean for her. We had prayed with her and let her cry and God had spoken to her heart about how she was in His hands and it would work out for good. As she got ready for the MRI, those fears (mostly of death) came back. She cried through the MRI. I prayed for God's peace to rest on her before she went in. Then we received the good news that the tumor has shrunk a little bit and that was all Breanna needed. She was so excited. It's like God brought her through the valley of death and then gave her a feast!

Breanna stayed in Muncie with Amber and will come home next Wednesday, the day before school starts.

These pictures are from our trip. We met Glory Ali for lunch after our doctor appointment.

A busy week!

This week at church we will have a funeral today and a wedding tomorrow! It was a bit hectic in the office. The viewing was held at the church (a first for Tri Lakes Community Church, I think) so while I was working yesterday, the funeral crew brought the body in the casket around 9:30 a.m. and the family came around 12:30 or 1. The viewing began at 2. (It was Bob Miller and he had had a series of strokes over the last year. He died just after his wife put him to bed for the night with another stroke. He was 71 years old and an old friend of my husband's. They were neighbors to them before the tornado destroyed their house.)

I had to do the program for the funeral today and for the wedding tomorrow evening. Today I help with the funeral dinner. After the funeral, we go to a friend's house for an evening at the lake. Should be fun!

I'm glad you all enjoyed the photos of the Brenneman reunion. I'd love to begin (maybe next summer) a Merle Graybill family reunion. What do you think?

Great Time in Iowa

As you can see, we had a great time visiting relatives in Iowa last weekend. If you would like to see more, let me know by sending me your email and I'll invite you to see the whole album.