�With the Barkers and the Colored Balloons

This week was more back to a somewhat normal routine�and although it will be short lived; it was nice while it was with us. We continued to watch Luke�s burn closely, changing the dressing at least twice each day. It was doing better until he accidentally scraped it when he was farting around with his siblings. On Monday, Bu & Duke accompanied me over to Gigi & Grandma�s house to mow. Dee-Dee has begun mowing as well, doing the fenced-in part and around the front of her house. She is definitely MaryAnn�s child�she absolutely scalped that poor lawn! 🙂 I encouraged her mother to go over and raise up that mower deck at least two notches!! We took the long way home and I drove out past the fairgrounds and then drove up in the midway so the kids could check out the rides that were still packed up. They had only gotten a couple of them unfolded and set up. After a quick bite to eat and showers, we set off the rest of our fireworks. We didn�t have too many, but we had some mortar shells, bottle rockets, fire crackers, a couple fountains and we had all the vehicles that we shot off out front. We had a few smaller tanks and a dune buggy, but the cooler ones were the bigger ones. We had a big hummer that went on forever and a fire truck that shot all kinds of stuff out and actually burned a hole in the trash can! On Tuesday, Luke and I went for a long bike ride after work. We were hoping to go swimming afterward, but the water was less than 80 degrees. 🙁 This is our first season of having a chlorine pool. The previous years, we had used Baquacil and we had difficulty keeping the chemicals properly balanced. So far this year, we have had very good luck with keeping ahead of the curve. I don�t know if chlorine pools are just easier, but I am so glad to have a crystal clear pool!!

Wednesday, Abby rode in to work with Ann and went over to a friend�s house until she got done at work. Abby attended a cheerleading camp with her friend at the Beth�s Dancenter in Columbus that evening. She will attend another session in a few weeks again. The boys and I went to Subway for dinner and then rode bikes until 8 pm. Both Luke & Matt had bike wrecks. Luke scraped his knee, but continued on like the brave trooper he is�Matt saved it both times�and although his pedal caught him good on one of them, I think his pride was hurt worse than his body. He blamed me for his uncoordinated riding skills, but I reminded him that he got that trait straight from his mother who is equally accident prone. Believe it or not, after telling MaryAnn of our troubles with Stacy�s plumbing not finishing their job (our side yard was still a mess from our water main replacement, back in February), they mysteriously showed up on Wednesday out of the blue and finally completed it six months later!!! I asked Mom about it�which she denied any knowledge of�but I know better! 😛 The next night, the kids and I worked on our new side yard when we got home. We raked out the lumps, smoothed out the dirt, planted a 40 # bag of grass seed, covered it in 2 bails of straw and watered it down good. It took us until sundown to finish it all, but it already looks much better. On Friday night, we met Natalie in Shelbyville to pick up Matt�s good friend Brayton. We went out to eat over while we were over there at Cholula�s Mexican restaurant. It was fabulously original and not at all predictable, like what the restaurants have become here in Greensburg. It rained incredibly hard, including a particularly nasty one that included hail. It rained on and off the rest of the night. When we returned, it had stopped raining. So, the boys went swimming until well after dark, despite the frigid state of the pool. Luke hates the fact that he cannot go swimming due to the burn on his leg.

On Saturday, the girls went out shopping and got their hair done while Luke & I went bike riding. Lucas decided to ride through mud puddles, despite my requests. By the time I got him to stop, it was too late�his clothes were already filthy, so I just let him go and enjoy being a kid. Ann didn�t see it quite the same way� The kids went swimming in between thundershowers�it stormed on and off all day. One of Abby�s best friends, Megan, came over later that afternoon to spend the night.

After playing around the house for a while, the weather finally let up long enough for us to go out to the Decatur County 4-H fair. It was pretty wet and a little muddy, but the kids didn�t mind at all! Matt & Brayton took their money and a sheet of tickets and disappeared for a couple hours (�til they needed more money!). Abby & Megan had to stay with us until Megan�s cousin (Christy�s daughter), Heather, took them around the midway for about an hour. Luke & I rode a couple rides until we met his buddy Alex and his mom (Christy) at the dunk tank. Matt�s friend Mallory (it is a cheerleader fundraiser) was in the tank. So, we all enjoyed taking turns dunking her! 😛 Alex and Luke rode a bunch of rides and played a few midway games until it was time for dinner. There were no new rides or games this year, which was a little bit of a let down. It was cool to see all the kids at the fair with their best friends�all previous years, we had been together as a family; so this was a going pain for Ann & I to sit back and watch them all run off with their respective buddies� We ate again at the Smyrna Church booth, which has seating for a couple hundred. Ann always likes to get a Smyrna burger (their version of the Sloppy Joe) and I love their pork burgers!! I still need to get a fish sandwich this year, as I missed out on that last year. Afterward, we went through the community building to visit all the business� booths. The little kids had fun showing off their work a the Greensburg Library booth. They had helped create the table cloths a couple weeks ago during a visit to the library (Brandy takes them a couple times each week). They also made masks at their booth. We had to get our annual yard stick (although we honestly don�t need any more!). We then took a walk through the animal exhibits. We saw sheep, cows, goats, horses, rabbits, chickens and even ducks & turkeys. The kids really liked petting everything. They even had a little petting zoo-type of area for the little kids. It had pygmy animals such as goats, pigs, a horse and a tiny cow as well as several little chicks. When we finished up over there, it began to start getting dark, so we decided to make our way home�but not before stopping for soft-serve ice cream, of course. 😛

On Sunday, we all slept in until after 9! Ann made a big breakfast for all seven of us. The kids played outside most of the rest of the day. They went swimming for a few hours before Megan�s mom came by to pick her up. The boys went over to WTRE to set up for the Decatur County 4-H parade. I had driven the truck over earlier in the morning, to secure our annual spot in the WTRE front lawn next to Park Rd. We set up our portable gazebo and chairs in the back of the truck, which gave us a nice, cool vantage spot for the parade. We played catch with a football and Frisbee for about 45 minutes until the parade started. Luke, Abby & Grace walked over to the front of WTRE and got interviewed about the fair. They won t-shirts for their time. 🙂 We brought home a bag full of candy again this year! There were well over 50 entries in the parade. Sandy had Ann & I take pictures of all the �floats??? that she will put up on the WTRE website. Sandy has them uploaded to the WTRE website HERE. I had my picture taken with Tonya Haze from Y-106 and uploaded it to their website in hopes that my name will be drawn for the free Metallica tickets!! We decided to talk to Natalie and see if Brayton could stay a few days longer, so now we�ve got him until at least Tuesday. We may need to go out for more groceries!! LOL!

I have a few more Granny pictures for this week�s Waybac feature, so let�s get to it�
First up, we have a picture of Granny, Grandpa Pug and Sue during a WWII furlough in the winter of 42-43.

Next up, we have Granny with Sue & Chuck on the 9th St. front porch in 1945.

Here are a couple photos of 1948 with Sue, Chuck & Tom at the 9th St. house.

Here is a classic form 1957 that features a growing family that is almost complete. This looks to be in the side yard of the Highland home.

Next up is a cool picture from Siesta Key Beach in 1984 and features Sally, Chris, Mary, Granny & Sue.

Here is a sweet picture of Granny and John with Barney & Steph and their very young family at the Parkside in 1994.

And wrapping up this entry is a picture at John & June�s lake cabin on the twin lakes (I think it�s on Lake Schaefer) in Monticello and has Granny with Sue and Jackie with baby Zack in 1995.

We have a couple videos this week to share. The first one is from Saturday and includes Lukey riding through mud puddles and our trip out to the county fair:

The second video is from Sunday, which includes the kids and their friends swimming in the pool and the kids on the radio from under out gazebo in the back of the truck:

Well that�s it for this week�s entry. Thanks again for keeping up with us and we�ll catch you next time. Until then have a good one�
Later, Scheu