September 5, 2009

The children have their own little clothesline now.	Up and around Sunday morning.  Darren Diem was baptized this morning.  We are so happy for him.  Bro. Carl preached the message on "The Cost of Discipleship".  We came home for a quick lunch of taco salad then went to bed for our naps.  The service in the evening was a song service with the surrounding churches invited.  Most of the Blackville church and the New Life church were there.  There were also a pretty good turnout of community folks.  The church was packed right to the very back wall.  The singing went well and everyone enjoyed the carry-in snack afterward.
"Daddy, Mommy & Alisa".	Ina Sue started the laundry Monday morning in spite of the rain.  Thankfully it cleared up and she was still able to hang the clothes out to dry.  I fasted today.  My weight has been creeping up again and I really want to get it under control.  I had a full day at work.  In the later afternoon Ina Sue took the children over to Myron Brubaker's for a combine ride.  A true highlight for them!
Getting the utility room floor in shape.	Tuesday was the 1'st of September.  As of that date Ina Sue's old job of daily checking the water meter ends.  But now the mayor would like for her to take over the billing job from Ms. Margaret.  Ms. Margaret has been reading the meters and sending out the bills every month for the last number of years.  She has decided that with current events in her life, she wants to pass the job on.  We are trying to decide if we should take on the additional work...  I stayed home for a bit this morning and watched the children while Ina Sue went with Ms. Margaret to read the meters.  Then I helped her move the furniture around in our bedroom so that she could finish her cleaning.  I spent the rest of the day at the shop.  We had a wonderful shrimp scampi over noodles for supper then after reading the children their story I went back in to work  for a while.
The finished product with the new vinyl.	I didn't get home until about 3:00 in the morning on Wednesday.  I stayed that late trying to get everything caught up in the shop so that I could take off today.  We had talked about going to the beach with the children but decided it was too cold.  Instead I decided to try my hand at laying the linoleum in our laundry room.  I had to drive to Denmark several times for supplies and took the children with me.  After moving everything out of the laundry room I chipped off the high places in the floor and removed some of the filler boards.  Then I put down two layers of luan plywood and stapled them every 3"  Lastly I filled the cracks with a filler then put down the paste and laid the vinyl.  I thought it turned out pretty good.  Ms. Margaret came by in the afternoon for a while to show us her billing records and processes.
We enjoy babysitting Caroline & Michaela Heawole.	Ina Sue made us ham gravy over potatoes with zipper peas for supper.  In the evening we went to prayer meeting.  We are just starting a new format for our prayer meetings.  There were five different classes setup on different topics.  We meet for an opening song and announcements then go into our different classes for smaller group prayer and study.  We decided to take two different classes instead of going to the same one.  I am taking a class on Bible Prophecy taught by Bro. Wendell.  Very interesting and informative so far.  Ina Sue is taking the class on Child Training with Bro. Carl as the teacher.  We are really looking forward to the next classes.  After we got back from church I made us coffee/peach milkshakes.  After the children were in bed I worked till pretty late getting the water heater, washer & dryer put back in place.
The Govan fire dept. tests the new hidrants.	Another day at work for me on Thursday.  Ina Sue started housecleaning the bathroom.  She said it is hard to get much done with all the interruptions.  She kept Patrick & Bethany's children from 3:00 to 9:00.  Six children under five make for quite a handful!  She did make us a great supper of porcupine meatballs, corn muffins and green beans.  After supper I took all the children on a walk around Govan.  Actually I pulled all six of them in the wagon.  Talk about sardines!  Ina Sue got the house straightened up while we were gone.  Naomi Heatwole brought their laptop over for a bit in the evening so that I could help them get it setup with their new music player.
Getting our portraits taken.	It was a beautiful day on Friday.  I spent most of the day on the road with service calls.  Ina Sue did the regular Friday cleaning.  She took a walk with the children in the afternoon.  She got the children all bathed and ready then brought them in and met me at the shop.  We drove over to Aiken and took care of our appointment at the Sear's portrait studio.  In particular, we wanted to get Savannah's 1-year pictures but the lady also took other pictures.  We were pretty pleased with how they turned out and with all that we got for a fairly low price.  After the pictures we went to a very nice Chinese restaurant there in Aiken.  Ina Sue is normally pretty down on Chinese food but she had to admit this was very good (but fattening)  After we got back to Barnwell I stayed at the shop and worked for several hours while Ina Sue brought the children home and put them to bed.
Carolina Sue and Ina Sue got up early on Saturday and went to the flea market in Springfield for some early morning shopping.  They also stopped in at Ralph D.'s store for some meat & cheese.  I picked up Carl's big mower and mowed our yard.  In the afternoon Carl brought us two great big bales of beautiful straw to mulch our garden.  Ina Sue made us pizza for supper which we took to Bamberg for a picnic at the park.  We all enjoyed that.  Afterward we stopped by Carl's for a while so that I could do some computer work for them.  Ina Sue and the children toured the farm and watched them feed the catfish while I worked.