Great summer weekend!

Well, since I turned in my two stories last Wednesday, Claire and I can go back to summertime relaxing! Tbey were both for Oklahoma Today: I had one on an Ardmore restaurant, and one that was a collective of TWENTY-FIVE restaurants across Oklahoma. So I got a great meal for the first one, and a ton of phone calls and no free food for the second one! But as I posted on FB, maybe it's better that way--I had to describe so many dishes in detail, it was kind of like tasting them all without actually eating them! I can definitely say that I want to try a few in person though, including the Fancy Mac & Cheese at Iron Starr BBQ in OKC, the fried chicken at Eischen's in Okarche, and the pasta at Pete's Place in Krebs (I've been there before, but it's been a long time, and writing about it made me want to go back!).

Last week, we enjoyed a visit from Holly, Jenny, and Mattie while their parents went on their yearly anniversary trip. We went swimming, but the water in Mom's pool is like a bathtub, and the sun was beating down so hard it wasn't even enjoyable until like 6 p.m. But we still had some good old Keep Away on the Diving Board fun (a Shipman/Pannell family original!). Claire has gotten to where she really enjoys going underwater! She likes to jump to me, and I let her kind of fall underwater for a second before I pull her up. Might look like torture, but she wants to do it again and again! She also loves sliding down the slide at Mom's house--with Mommy of course.

Holly spent the night with us Thursday night, and we stayed up way too late watching movies. Claire really enjoyed watching movies with Holly when she woke up the next morning, too! That always makes her so happy to see that someone who was at our house the night before is still there the next morning. Tyler stayed at our house for two nights the week before last while Mom and Grant were in Alaska, and she thought that was so neat--Ty and Jay together read Claire her books both nights.

Friday night, we went out to Madill to the Edmonds/Green family reunion we've been crashing for a few years now. The man who Jay always fishes with on that private lake has a ton of his wife's family down for a week every summer, and we usually go out one night. We went fishing off their dock this time, and kept catching these little perch that Claire loved to throw back in the water. Jay would try to get her to hold them by the mouth like a "real" fisherman, but she just liked to grab them around the body and throw them in. Then we went on a nighttime boat ride with some of the fam on this little pontoon that they call "The Love Boat."

Friday, Claire and I went to the library and farmer's market, and then in the afternoon when Jay got home, we went to Sherman to eat and do the last of my VBS shopping. I'm in charge of the outdoor games this year, as I was last year, and it starts tomorrow! Our church just revived our VBS last year, so it's fairly small, just three nights and for three-year-olds to third-graders, but one- and two-year-olds whose moms are teaching in the VBS stay in the nursery the whole time. So Claire and I will be busy this week, at least until Thursday.

We had a great service tonight as part of our Summer Singing Series, where Layne Heitz did a combination song service and lesson, talking about the purposes of different kinds of songs--encouragement to ourselves and one another, evangelism, and of course, praising God in different ways. He talked about two of the Greek words for worship: Proskuneo, to blow a kiss to in reverence, so a very personal, emotional kind of worship, or Latreuo, to serve or offer gifts, so the "bringing a sacrifice of praise" kind of worship.

After church, we went fishing at my Uncle Gary's pond. They weren't biting tonight though. I think I actually caught one, and then Jay had three jump off as he was reeling them in, and that happened to me twice. We actually bought Claire a junior fishing rod Saturday, and she was happy to reel it in a few times, but then since we weren't catching any like we had Friday, she just started wandering between Jay and I, finding stuff to pick up and throw in the water.

Here's to a great week of VBS, and this weekend, America's birthday and a big day of family and fun!