Horseback Riding

This past weekend Mary invited the girls to her house.  Mary loves horses and she wanted to give the girls a chance to ride.  We got there and Mary had Brenda saddled and ready to go.  Mary is a great teacher...patient and full of knowledge.  

"Cowgirl" JoAnna

Mary giving Lydia instruction on holding the reins.

Mary has Cherokee bow for the camera.

Cowgirl Maia

This morning Caleb put JoAnna's American Girl doll cowboy hat on Maia.  She looks like she is smirking at the camera.  Life is fun.

Catching up

Since my last log in I have struggled with some health issues and as a result I have struggled with exhaustion.  Today is the first day I have felt better, so I thought I would update Abernethy Airmail before it wears off!!  Not to mention that mom and dad miss the updates. : )

AWANA 

The children completed their AWANA year.  JoAnna finished her third book and workbook.  She got the Sparky Award.

Lydia completed her fourth T&T book and earned the Timothy Award.

Caleb finished his sixth book (4 in T&T and 2 in Trek) and earned the Meritorious Award.  

Lake Park

One of the things we enjoy in Coshocton is beautiful Lake Park.  The girls 

walk the dogs by the water.  

What beautiful girls.  

I caught this bird with it's dinner.

Stuff

Since the last post I have listed my house for sale and I have a potential buyer.  One thing I am doing is going through and getting rid of things.  Our church is having a huge yard sale this summer and I donated the pile of things.  Here are Ron and John loading up Ron's dump truck.  Believe it or not we have already taken two van loads of things out--not to mention 1 1/2 van loads of Chris' things.  How did I get so much "stuff" in my house????

Chore Truck

When Caleb was a little boy we received a wagon from Loverne, a lady in our church.  Loverne's parents bought the wagon for her when she was a little girl.  She wanted the wagon to be used.  We pulled Caleb and Lydia all over our Chicago neighborhood.  Tonight Lydia brought it up from the basement, put the pups in it and pulled them up and down the road.  Maia and Tessa were truly thrilled.  (NOT!!)

Tessa "enjoying" the ride. 

The Dentist

When I was a little girl my mom took us to an old army dentist.  He didn't numb for any reason.  Needless to say my brother and I were petrified of the dentist.  For many years my mom gave up taking us to the dentist...because we cried so hard.  Many years later mom had a job that provided dental insurance.  She found a different, wonderful, dentist, but by that time we had so many cavities that we each required several trips to the dentist to take care of them all.  I now have a whole mouth of silver fillings that remind me of those neglected years.  My children have all gone to the dentist since they were only 18 months old.  The first few years they would sit in mine or Chris' lap and the dental hygenist would poke around in their mouths with a toothbrush.  Over the years they have had wonderful experiences with the dentist.  I really appreciate the Children's Dental Clinic of Coshocton.  The staff are students from the OSU dental program.  They are training and get to put into practice what they are learning and I get a price break for dental care for my children.  Today Caleb went in for a small cavity on the one side...it was so small they only had to scrape it off and they polished and sealed the tooth.  Lydia and JoAnna both had their adult molars sealed to prevent cavities.  Caleb has to go back next week for two small cavities on the other side...by his age I already had all of my fillings.  I'd say he's doing well.

Here is JoAnna with the dentist getting ready to seal those molars to, hopefully, preserve them well into adulthood.  

Dogs, Cars and Dinner

It seems that I have several things to post today.  First I wanted to share two recent pictures of Tessa.  The first is Tessa before her grooming appointment.  The second is her after her appointment--quite a difference.  She is our "barky dog" but we love her.  She really is a sweet dog.  

       

      Before                                                                           After

The second event I wanted to share was the AWANA Grand Prix.  Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of Caleb, b/c he wouldn't cooperate with the camera.  None of the children placed, but they had fun making their cars and doing the work.

Here is Lydia with her ice cream sandwich car.  Josh, from MMS, cut out her car for her.  She got daddy's drill out and put the holes in the bottom of her car to put her own weights on.  She then drilled out JoAnna's car.  She's handy with a drill.

Here is JoAnna with her skateboard car.  She was so proud of her car...she painted the whole thing all by herself.  

The last thing I have to share is about what the children did while I was at work today.  Caleb called me at work this morning and informed me not to plan anything for dinner, b/c he and Lydia wanted to make dinner by themselves. 

Here we are enjoying homemade burritos.  They made the tortillas from scratch and put in our home cooked refried pinto beans, onions, black olives and salsa.  I am so proud of them.  They are learning so much on these Mondays at home.  Dinner was delicious!!  For dessert Lydia made sugar-free jello...two different kinds, raspberry and lime.  I felt spoiled tonight.  I love my children and I am privileged to be their mother.   

GroundCrew Envelopes

One of my responsibilities at MMS is to help with the mailing of the GroundCrew newsletter. Karen keeps track of the mailing list.  Weeks before the mailing she will send out each MMS family's personal mailing list.  When she gets the lists back she edits the master list as needed. With the labels hot off the printer my responsibility begins.  Last week I sorted 6,111 labels and grouped together certain zip codes.  I grouped the labels together and put each group of labels with a box of envelopes.  The boxes then went home to the MMS wives...my "sticky ladies." They will stick the labels to the envelopes and bring the boxes back.  I will then put approximately 250 envelopes in each mailing tray.  Before the GroundCrew can be "stuffed" into the envelopes each newsletter needs a return envelope stuck inside of it.  The return envelopes get folded by the young people of MMS.  Those envelopes are then stuck into the GroundCrew by a group of ladies from a local church.  When the newsletter is ready the MMS ladies will meet for an evening and tackle the job of putting the newsletters into the labeled envelopes.  The next morning I'll take a check and the proper paper work along with approximately 24 trays of mail to the post office.  If all goes well a few days later people all over the world will be reading the latest news about MMS Aviation. 

Here I am surrounded by boxes of envelopes ready to go home to my "sticky ladies" and young return envelope folders.

There's a virus among us

This past Monday when I arrived home from work Caleb informed me that he wasn't feeling well.  He slept most of Tuesday and Wednesday he seemed to be feeling better.  He ate very little all week and even lost 7-8 pounds.  Thursday he informed that his throat hurt.  I didn't want to play pass the strep around all weekend so I called the doctor and she fit us in Friday morning.  Friday morning I woke up with Caleb feeling somewhat better and the girls feeling lousy.  We all trooped off to the doctor's office.  She tested Caleb and it isn't strep, but some virus that has been going around Coshocton County.  She told us that it has been taking the patients she has dealt with over a week to kick this bug.  I pray that they feel better soon.

Here is Lydia curled up in the chair giving her body a chance to fight this bug.  Her temp is 102.6 as of the last reading...she feels pretty miserable.  Notice that she has found comfort in her faithful companion.  Today we entered Maia's picture in a local store's (Buehlers) Cutest Pet contest. Each picture is given a bucket in which customers can vote by putting money.  The picture with the most money wins.  All of the money raised goes to Relay for Life.   

Josie is feeling pretty crummy, too.  Her fever is 103.6.  She has been asleep most of the day...she even fell asleep on the way home from the doctor.  Notice that she has sought comfort under her daddy quilt.  Somehow I knew she would go straight for that quilt.  : )