ANother mad running day here. We made it to one library to get my card barcoded (state thing). I did happen to ask the lady if she knew of a thrift store other than Goodwill (Sorry, just not a fan). Sure enuf, basically right across the street is one! AND I found Mat camo pants (he needed something to get trashed paintballing at church camp) and Wed happens to be spin the wheel and get % off so I walked out w/2 pair of pants (JOey wanted some camos and they had his size) for $2.40!!!! Then we go to the other branch cuz that's where the playaways are. WRONG! So BACK across town the 1st library (thanked the lady who told me) and check out and set off hte alarm. HUH? Go back and you aren't supposed to take the plastic cases. Really? Cuz the other library let me. So while they were bad-mouthing the other branch (I bit my tongue HARD since it was THEIR branch who told me that most of the playaways were at hte other branch to begin with!), I asked if I needed to bring in the one we already got.  Yes. SHeesh! All of that for some free stuff!LOL I supposedly can now d/l books on my MP3 tho so as long as that works, I'm going to get over this entire fiasco.

Then to Rally's for their .69 hotdogs/cheeseburgers/shakes. Then to the free math program. I managed to get a Wii charger for $16 (and I fixed the Wii this am!!!!!!!!!) so those are charging and I get my rechargable batteries back! I also wondered thru Target since I had time to kill. Found a cute top that will match those orange wedges I had to buy for the Father's Day speech (Hopefully DH doesn't catch on to this!LOL). Next week, I'm goign to TJ Maxx.

I picked the boys up adn off to the cultural center w/the free passes from the library. They had a cool animal exhibit and still had the canning one that I love. I totally forgot to get our probiotics, but oh well. We get home, unload, reload f0r baseball and soccer and headout. I drop Joey off and get about 1/2 way to tennis when the instructor called to cancel. I was a bit torqued cuz the weather is SO NICE and we'll reschedule is wretched heat. Plus I had to go to town anyway to return the cultural passes and get a book on reserve. So back to get JOey and DH had made the taco meat so we did get to eat.

Now I get to pick up stuff and get ready to mop and vacuum and do all the laundry, get my goat share, and pack to leave tomorrow night.

I'm tired just thinking of all of this........

I was asked to talk about my dad at church today and this is basically what I said:

As most of you know, I am Dana and my dad is Danny. Growing up we thought he was the smartest, bravest, nicest dad there could be! He showed us by living this out.

His kindness and compassion were shown by the many things we saw him do for others. He's gone on many mission trips--local and abroad. He even went on many of these trips with his family--including his wife, all of his children, a son-in-law and daughter-in-law and even some of his grandchildren. He's always been ready to lend a helping hand and give ppl the clothes off his back. And on the days that he dresses himself, we really wish he would. There truly is a market for garanimals for adults.

Excluding his dog Caleb (a dog truly like his owner), he doesn't really extend this kindess to animals tho. I'm sure the mice that he and his buddies attached to rockets and shot off were not happy. What he did to his barn cats growing up makes me cringe. He could chase a snake w/a lawnmower w/the best of them. However the snakes exacted revenge one time when dad decided to couple his love of canoeing w/wanting to help the boy scouts clean up the river. A snake fell out of a tree into my dad's canoe. My dad is not a fan of snakes and did not take kindly to this invasion. We couldn't believe that he didn't jump out of the boat!

He is a great story teller. One of our favorites was about the woofenwafus. My mental image of it is slightly different than others, but it was sort of a greenish looking small animal w/huge ears. It lived in the woods behind us and when we would hear the trunk squeak while going over railroad tracks, dad always told us that meant the woofenwafus had gone for a ride w/us! The woofenwafus could do amazing things according to my dad.

And for the longest time, we thought my dad's idea of a good time was to pick rocks from fields or to walk them and hack down giant weeds. There was the one time that we went to a local festival and were allowed to ride a ride. I was the one elected to fish the car keys out from under the ride when all of dad's pockets were emptied going upside down.

Dad was also very intelligent. We sometimes question that, but......... While attending high school, he came up w/a math formula that his teachers could not find a flaw with. So they sumbitted it to Purdue, where they did disprove it. I'm certain tho that if he'd gone to (our hometown school), it would've never had to be sent to Purdue.

And of course, our dad was brave. Being a telephone repair man might not sound like a dangerous job, but it was. He had to deal w/dogs, stinging insects, domestic disputes (that sometimes included gunfire), and even having to once retrieve his screwdriver from an alligator. He's also an air force veteran. One of our yearly visits was to the Air Force museum in Dayton. He really knew how to do up Spring Break. However his air force experience did not prepare him for the aerial assault that he endured one day. The aeronautical tactics were like nothing he'd ever seen before. The trees left little in the way of cover and the terrain was horribly rocky. He said that he would get a few feet, fall, flail to fend off his attacker, manage to regain his footing, only to make it a few feet and repeat the process. He managed to knock his attacker down and thought he was in the clear, when it regained consciousness. The battle raged for 10-15 minutes. He was very bloody and beat up looking by the time it was over. When we saw him, we couldn't believe it. (pause) Now normally a trip from the barn to the house isn't nearly that harrowing, but dad isn't normally being chased by a bumble bee! However, like any good story, it's the twist at the end that you don't see coming--neither did my dad or the bee!

We've learned many lessons from our dad. Most of them good. But we knew that God gave us the perfect dad for us.

(The twist at the end is that while he was flailing around on the ground trying to fend off the bee, his boot flew off and killed it!!!!! I mean what are the odds?????LOL)

Nice day here. We slept in!!!!!!!!!!! What a concept!LOL Got up and moving nad worked out. Dh took Joey to the office (Dh was printing those pop can labels for our parade) and I took Mat to hte bank to cash his paycheck. We met up in town and had lunch and then went bowling. I think that's a record--the boys and I bowling 5 times this week!LOL Then eventually wound up back home. The boys swam and I labelled 4 cases of pop. I've got the jeep packed for tomorrow except for the 16lbs of hamburger that I browned for my sister. I also cut Dh and JOey's hair. DH is now at a truck pull. I'd love to know HOW on Mother's Day weekend, I suffered thru a pull and yet on Father's Day weekend he GETS to go?!??!

Speaking of, we actually finally got out of bed cuz the phone rang. The boy scout leader called wanting us to chaperone a canoe trip (to clean the river) next weekend! We had planned on going camping anyway (as I pointed out to a less than enthusiastic DH!LOL) and now it's free!LOL They must be pretty desperate cuz he even (w/o prompting) told DH that they will work around our schedule! Mat's done this before w/my dad and I know Joey would love it and they invited all of us. So I need to convince DH to call him back and tell him yes. The upside is that we'll be camping close to home so we can probably do some geocaching and see my family.;)