July's Top Ten List

10. Air Conditioning
9. Air Conditioning with solar panels
8. O-Henry peaches are here this week
7. Getting the house painted
6. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
5. Homemade ice cream
4. Spending time with family
3. Selling the 1997 CR-V
2. Purchasing the 2006 Honda Pilot
1. Visiting the urgent care and subsequently the ER to rehydrate Michael after he was sick for 3 days, and spending the night prior to that imagining the worst like pancreatic cancer or e-coli, and praying that is was "only" the stomach flu but wondering why the vomiting won't stop if it was "only" the stomach flu, hence the pancreatic cancer self-diagnosis. (It was only the stomach flu... Really, that's what Dr. Bryan said.)

"Sleepy" by Daniel Neufeld

The Big Bad Wolf by Daniel Neufeld

Translation:

One day, three little pigs were walking down the road when they saw the Big Bad Wolf. "Aaah," they cried! Then they ran away.

The End.

Quirky Cabin

So I think that when Tim's grandpa was building the cabin 40 years ago, he hired a giant and a dwarf to design the bathroom.

The giant was hired to install the robe hook on the bathroom door. This giant is seven feet tall and he wanted someplace to hang his overalls so they would not drag on the floor while he took his shower. Seriously, why is there a need to have a hook placed so high off the ground? The mice can't jump that high. At least we have a step-stool in the bathroom so I can reach it.

The dwarf was hired to install the sink. Can you see the height relative to my leg? Standard counters are about a foot higher than this. If you want to wash your face or brush your teeth, not only do you have to crouch down for the water, but the spigot only comes out about an inch. So once you have your face all lathered up (while crouching down), you hope that the water will be caught with your fingertips and puddle up in your cupped hands to splash water on your face. But wait, there's more. The hot water faucet will slowly decrease in pressure until there is no water coming out. You can keep turning the faucet and the water will keep slowing down. And all this is happening while you are crouched down with soap in your eyes.

Now off to ponder why the staircase is made of steps so narrow that you have to walk sideways...

;)

Hume Vacation

We got to spend eight nights at the cabin recently. The boys did some fishing, swam in the lake, and played outside. I did lots of reading and caught up on sleep after a busy week of VBS. Tim got his fishing poles restrung (is that what you do?) and played his mandolin. We were able to relax and have fun as a family. The only problem with that much relaxing and sleeping is that you get your internal schedule all out of whack. The first morning, you sleep in. Then that evening you stay up to watch a movie. Then the next morning you sleep in even later. Then that evening, you're not tired and stay up even later. It's a vicious cycle, I know. At least the boys are sleeping in also... they used to wake up bright and early in their early years.

We had some visitors during our vacation. My mom brought up my grandparents for the day Tuesday. They had some lunch and then enjoyed the outdoors on our deck. We had some ice cream at the store and then it was time for dinner. All that relaxing works up an appetite. When Friday rolled around, Tim's parents joined us for the weekend. And we worked hard relaxing with them. We drove to Cherry Gap to watch the fireworks on July 4. They look like tiny colored Q-tips from that elevation. We could see at least a dozen different shows in the valley cities.



We had some other visitors as well. A few weeks ago, we went to the cabin for just a couple of nights and noticed mouse evidence. We knew Tim's cousin and her family were going to the cabin after us, so we warned them to bring mousetraps. The final count from their stay was 14 mice! Yuck! The week we were up there, we only caught six. But it gets better...






Here is the lovely Fire King oven. This bad boy has been known to bake cakes, cobblers, and roasts, all without breaking a sweat.

Here is the back of the oven with the panel removed. We took off the panel to investigate why the oven smelled bad when we used it. Look close, can you see it?

EWWWWW!!!

The boys helped stack firewood further away from the cabin to comply with fire safety. They stacked it so it would resemble a fort, complete with "Keep Out" signs barring the entrance.



And what made the return home even better was a cool 95 degrees to unload the truck in. Usually it is 108 and 4:00 in the afternoon.