Fun Sunday School Group, Great Birthday, and one EVIL Caterpiller

Well, it's sad to say it, but summer is coming to an end. And with the end of summer we transition back into the daily grind.

For Wes, that means going back to school. He's SO grown up now that he's a third grader :) He loves his teacher so far.... Then again, she IS tall and blonde so I shouldn't be surprised ;)

In addition to school starting, Wes has started something else - AWANA

This is his first year in the program, but he's already really excited about it! They go Wednesday nights and have a blast... Here's a photo from the kick-off party:


Little crowded, huh?? Don't worry - We're saving up for a new building already!! Wes is all the way in the back, to the right, directly below the balloons with a blue shirt on :)

AWANA is on Wednesday nights... On Sunday nights, we've been having

 Yes, I'm proud of my logo... But I'm also really pleased with our church. We've all had such a positive experience with this new program. It ran from mid-July through August and has just come to an end. I'm sad to see it go, but I look forward to seeing us all come back together with renewed energy and with the newfound friendships. I hope we can hold on to the close-knit feeling we've established and maybe we can continue to spend time together in God's word, too.

Wes will miss church in the home for a different reason. He enjoyed spending time with his friends and PLAYING! John and Kristi's lake may have influenced him a little, too...







Oh, and this past Thursday was my 28th birthday :) -not sure how many more years I'll be sharing my age ;) Brad sweetly brought home dinner on Thursday and he went all out:



Then Friday, there was another surprise at dinnertime... Herb and Cheryl came over and took us out for Mexican!! It was a wonderful surprise and I was thoroughly spoiled :D
 

In fact, the entire weekend was splendid :) On Saturday we had a cookout and several friends were able to come over from the Jackson area :) We had some awesome burgers and then played Catchphrase. A great time was had by all!



Today I was watering my flowers and had a bit of a run in with an Evil Caterpillar! He was on my rose bush and when my knuckle brushed against him, I assumed I had scraped a thorn... Then the burning started! It was so painful that I ran in to make Brad investigate what I had found. Then, of course, we photographed it and killed it... And, then I googled it... And the culprit was a saddleback caterpillar



The little hairs are hollow and connected to a venom pouch inside its body. The symptoms include pain, sweeling, redness/rash, and nausea. I can personally vouch for all those symptoms and they're quite uncomfortable :( Hopefully it'll heal before tomorrow because right now I'm not feeling too great and my hand is a little numb-ish :(

Photo Time

Hello All! I don't have much new to report from our neck of the woods. But, now that I'm acclimated to my commute I thought I'd share a few fun images from the downtown area :) Enjoy!


Here is a lovely church and I snapped this photo because the blue sky and clouds made it so picturesque

This was a beautiful image from my morning commute last week :)

Brad and I have noticed an interesting trend around our new hometown... We've seen McDonalds, The Flintstones and now... Skittles in this unique format:

These two businesses REALLY shouldn't advertise next to each other :)

I love love love this old sign downtown - The paint is perfectly peeled!

This building is one of the more ... um... interesting ones I've spotted so far:

 

This is a neat view of the bridge they're repairing. Can you see the large chunk that's missing?

 

This car repair shop has a fun sign - It says, "Home of the Ugly Bunch" :)

 

I love this sign too - I think it's awesome! I want to have Brad take Black and White photos for us to hang in our home! Then again, full color would be fun too!

 

Ok.

I'm saving the very best image for last.

You're gonna think I photshopped this one, but I assure you that it's 100% real and not at all touched up or manipulated.

This photo was taken August 11th and I was so taken aback by the beauty that I promptly texted my two neighbor friends and told them they HAD to come out and see this: