June 2022

The many selfies of Micah...

CC Practicum this year was only one day, June 6.  (Directors had another day after that.)  Micah and Helen were volunteer buddies!

Sweaty bro selfies...

Can't deny the genetics! :)

 

Dad's view when he's trying to get to bed at night...

Micah reading the Bible and Caleb playing a game on his phone...

Micah watching Caleb playing the game instead of reading the Bible...

Micah trying to get back to reading...

But the game is so tempting to watch...

Realizing Dad is watching him "try" to read the Bible... 😆 

Lilly graduated!  We had her graduation in the morning, House of Agape that evening, and then went out to eat at Olive Garden after that.  (To celebrate Lilly's graduation, but also Wes's birthday, which was the same day.)

We had just watched Napoleon Dynamite with Micah, so now he likes to pose like "Uncle Rico" and try to make his biceps look bigger.  😆 

Abby and I went for a walk one evening and came across the Doan family (Melanie, Annabelle, and Luca) playing on the trampoline in the yeard.  Abby joined in for a bit.

Ben and I went on a date one evening.  We went to the new Hobo's restaurant here in Rock Hill, and then we walked around Winthrop's campus and talked since it was a pretty nice night.  We ran across this plaque at the little chapel on campus.  Evidently, Woodrow Wilson came to Christ there in 1873.

One day while I was working on the computer, I suddenly saw a snake looking through the window at me.  😳   It had climbed up the rocking chair and was trying to climb up the window.

Before we could get him, he slithered away and hid somewhere.  But at dinner, we saw him trying to climb the window again.  My guess is he was trying to get to the bird's nest in the ferns on my front porch.  Caleb and Ben killed him before he got away that time.

Ironically, the day before, Abby and I went to our friend's house to feed their cat while they were gone, and on the way out of the garage, she almost stepped on a black snake whose tail was on the step in the garage.  It must be the time of year!

Date night with the Ziebers!  We went to see the new Top Gun movie "Maverick".  (It was so good!)  Before the movie, we went to Wild Wing cafe.  The food was great, but the service was CRAZY slow, even though we were one of the few people in the restaurant.  We were almost late to the movie, but it was still fun to hang with the Ziebers!

We went for a quick run/walk at Riverwalk one night,  It was getting pretty hot and humid, so we waited until right before 9:00 to cut back on the heat.  We underestimated the gnats though!

We got a patio in the back!  We actually had the driveway out front extended so we could park two vehicles there easier, and then had the patio in the back poured at the same time.  It was stamped too, although this was the day before we left for Maryland and they had to come back the following day after we were gone to finish up.  When we got back from Maryland a week later, we realized they had used the wrong stamp!  It was supposed to make it look like bricks, but they had just used a textured design.  I still liked how it looked though, so I'm not complaining.  Besides, these guys were working in 100 degree heat and humidity! 

Packing for Maryland.  Only the necessities. :)

Caleb popped some allergy pills and played with the cats right away. :)

Caleb really wanted a picture with the cat... the cat didn't cooperate very well. :)

Accident, MD, has a coffee shop!  Well, it sells wine and cheese, but also has a coffee shop in it.  We went to visit Brooke and Lydia while they were working there.

Branch Bender Cider... this is made by my cousin Trish and her husband on my uncle's old farm.  One day, Machelle, Machelle's mom (who was visiting), and I went to see the cidery and the flower fields there... it was so pretty, but I forgot to take pictures! 

This was the weather in Rock Hill the week we were gone.  (We left Tuesday the 14th and returned Monday the 20th.)  It was a good week to miss the hot weather!  EXCEPT that there were two hot days in Maryland (hot for Maryland that is... mid 80s), but with no A/C, the bedrooms upstairs got crazy hot by evening.  Abby, Caleb, and I ended up sleeping in the basement two nights.

Compare that to exactly one year ago... Caleb is making up some distance!

We went to Swallow Falls with Natalie, Jenna, and Emily.  It was a perfect break from the hot weather. 

A very big rock being held up by some very small stones...

Only problem was Abby cut her foot pretty good on some drift wood right after she got in the water.  :(  Should have brought swim shoes!

And then we lost Caleb...

We visited Kaitlyn at work too.  She works at the Rolling Pin, which used to be Annie's Kitchen... the first place I worked after high school!

We went to see the tree-houses Dennis was making with Bender Builders.

This is the 4th treehouse (maybe 5th?) they've done, and it's the first that is totally supported by the two trees.  All the rest have stilts and other things to hold them up.

Peeking inside the windows of one of the completed tree-houses...

This one is handicap accessible:

This was probably the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen...

I learned if you hold the phone really close to the mud puddle, it will look like a lake. :)

Micah sprained his ankle trying to tackle Davis in the dark. 🙄   That didn't bode well for his running plans! 

Machelle had gotten a 4-hour boat rental coupon for donating to Habitat for Humanity a while back, so we went out on the boat with them on Deep Creek Lake!  We rented a tube to pull behind for some fun. :)

Going on the boat was actually good for Micah that day since he couldn't very well run around like normal with his sprained ankle...

We lost Jenna!

We stopped for lunch at a dock (to get Subway sandwiches) and to take a potty break.  The conditions on the lake were perfect almost the whole time we were out there, until the last hour, the water started getting pretty choppy and the air was cooling down.  Then we saw two jet skis crash, and we went to help.  One brother had run up into the back of the other brother on the jet ski, and that kid fell off and hit his head pretty hard.  So we took the kid (who was confused and probably had a concusssion) in our boat back to where his parents were waiting at a dock.  The brother who had rear-ended him was a mess emotionally, and his parents were too until they realized the hurt kid was in the boat with us. Abby really did not like the whole scenario... it was scary!  A bummer to end the boat ride with that!

Yes, Micah played Frisbee the day after he sprained his ankle.  With his father.  🙄

Kenton's kids invited some friends over to shoot clay pigeons one evening, and they invited Micah and Caleb to come along.  First, Ben gave Caleb some shooting lessons, and then they got to join in.  It sounds like it was a super fun night for them!  It's pretty cool having ALL of Kenton and Dennis's kids around the week we were home...Lydia, Brooke, and Megan were all "in town" between college semesters or traveling.

Shooting lessons first.  They could not figure out why they were never hitting the target, and then they realized the shells they were using had little BBs in it that spread out... it was hitting the target, but it wasn't even hard enough to knock over a can from the distance they were shooting. 😆

I had to send Mike Jette a picture of the two strawberry rhubarb pies Rich made to bring to lunch on Sunday. :)

Donuts from the Rolling Pin. :)

Micah and some of the cousins (plus friends) went four-wheeling down Limestone...(the road which was closed a few years back.)

Natalie's graduation party...

Le'Ella!

Micah said he would play spikeball very carefully since his ankle was hurt.  🙄 We see how that worked out.... at least he had an ankle brace he had borrowed from Natalie!  (Photos courtesy of Lydia.)

Back home from Maryland!  Micah of course needed to have friends over the next day. :)  It was actually nice since Lilly was leaving in just a couple days for Texas (to start her adventure with YWAM), we got to hang out with her for a bit.

Ben took Caleb and Abby to the office to work on cutting out cards for cookie boxes.  He promised them Starbucks. When they went through the drive through, they ordered small drinks, but at the window they said Ben's drink actually used the last small cup... so Abby and Caleb got upgraded to BIG drinks for free.  Just what they needed... MORE sugar!

House church at the Jettes.  I did a trivia quiz to review what we had covered about Joseph's story.

Ben says when he sits in the screened-in porch, it makes him feel like summer isn't winning. :)  It's a good place for naps.  I think he's glad now I got a couch for the porch, instead of just chairs like he originally wanted.

We got great news this month!  We heard on June 22 that after a whole year, our paperwork had FINALLY exited the court system in Haiti.  That means the boys are legally Gansons! Our lawyer said it would be just a couple of weeks to get everything done for the boys to come home.  That didn't end up being accurate, but it still lead to a flurry of activity and excitement!

A little fun at Ebenezer Park one evening... we practically had the place to ourselves.  Well, along with the people using the queen-size air mattress to float on the water.

A zoom call in which we are doing anything to get them to look at us (like playing peek-a-boo.)  I think all the other kids ended up more amused than M&M...

WEG (aka Carroll Financial) hosted a family evening at Top Golf.  The weather was surprisingly pleasant, and a good time was had by all. :)

Micah got caught in a storm when he went for a run.  Whoopsie!

And MICAH GOT A JOB!  He went to open interviews at Publix before we went to Maryland.  He said there was like 20 people there, and when he didn't hear back, he figured they didn't need another 15 year old (the most limited in what they can do.)  But they called him back for a second interview and gave him a job!  He doesn't get many hours, but they pay pretty good for teenagers ($10/hour I think).  Micah did an online asynchronous computer science class at USCL during June (and got an A!), so between that and starting work at Publix (and of course the trip to Maryland), he kept himself busy!

Whoops.  More Top Golf...

Micah was happy with this shot that went 206 yards...

I was trying to get a picture of the squirrel eating out of the bird feeder.  Instead, I got a picture of a blur of the squirrel jumping from the feeder.

With the news of the adoption paperwork exiting court, Carrie and Danielle began to plan a baby shower for us.  And I started looking for good deals at Once Upon a Child. :)  We found this double jogging stroller and a pull-behind for the bike all on the same day. :)

A couple memes that made us laugh this month...

We gave Marvel and Marvens both middle names connected to the idea that the "Lord is with them"  (Marvens Emmanuel and Marvel Gideon).  This month when I was looking through their paperwork again, I realized that I didn't know what their biological Mom's name meant.  I looked it up... and it means "God with Us!" So cool!

In other big news, the Supreme Court ruled this month to overturn Roe vs. Wade which forced states to keep abortion legal.  Now it is back to individual states to set their own abortion laws.  Pretty historical event!

From another Zoom call with the twins.  We are trying to have them more frequently... even if the boys only look at the screen and hear our voice for a few minutes before they start playing... so hopefully we won't seem like total strangers when they meet us in person. In the pictures where Monize (the nanny) looks like she's dragging them away, she's really not.  They were playing a "game" where they would run for the door and she would have to catch them to keep them from going down the steps outside.  They were laughing the whole time.  I think our hands are going to be very full! 

You can see how herniated Marvel's belly button is in this picture...