I have been having some weird issues with my computer lately.  I finally bit the bullet and called a guy who had been recommended on Facebook.  He came over and took a look at it and determined that he was not able to quickly diagnose the problem so he took the laptop home.  He told me he would get in touch with me when he got it figured out.  Friday passed, Saturday passed and Sunday morning rolled around.  I still had not heard from him and I was getting a little nervous that my computer was really messed up.  He called after church on Sunday and asked if he could come over.  As he walked in the house I told him I was nervous that it had taken so long and he kind of laughed and said it was the most frustrating computer he had ever worked on!  I told him I was glad I could give him the challenge.  Being a computer engineer, he knew what the problem was but could never figure out what caused it or how to fix it.  None of his tinkering and changing settings, etc did the trick.  He had to basically reset the whole computer to the factory settings.  When I asked him how much I owed him, all he would say is 'let's just say I worked on your computer 2 hours'.  He told me later that with the exception of work and sleep, he did nothing else but mess my computer!  So glad he did not charge me his actual rate!  Now I just have to go back and reinstall some programs that got deleted.

The really cool thing, and yet another way God showed up, is this guy is a college student and he fixes computers and tutors.  He had some great insight into how kids learn, techniques, etc.  He was excited to hear I homeschool (him and his wife have no kids but want to homeschool one day).  He connected with Benjamin and said that he was Benjamin 12 years ago.  He seemed to totally understand Benjamin and some of the issues we were having with homeschooling.  I am not real sure yet, but hoping to somehow plug this guy into our homeschool week.  If not tutoring math, then introducing Benjamin to computer coding, etc.  I asked this guy (Dustin) how he felt about tutoring in writing and he said 'I do it, not because I enjoy it but because I need to' (in ear shot of Benjamin) and then told me that his wife is a lit major so she could totally help in that area if needed.  I think Benjamin is really excited about the possibility too.

There is a annual festival in a nearby small town.  The missions committee at the church has a booth selling ribbon fries.  Wanting to make sure I introduce my kids to volunteering and serving others, Benjamin and I went last year.  He had a ball.  The two of us helped out this year.  Benjamin got to run the 'cash till' and help with drilling/cutting the potatoes.  He really wanted to fry them up in the oil, but I decided probably not the smartest.  Here is him with the drill cutting the potatoes ~ a really nifty way to do it.

We recently had a hard rain storm blow through.  Did not last long but brought lots and lots of rain, wind and hail.  It happened close to sunset and of course I did not have my camera but it was beautiful.  Fortunately, someone posted a gorgeous sunset photo.  It looked like the sky was on fire, but just gorgeous lighting.

We currently have a forest fire about 20 miles from here that is burning and visibility is less than a mile right now.  It is between 6 and 8K acres and they have not had much headway in getting it under control.

BACK TO SCHOOL TODAY!!

I have been over the months watching the height of my boys.  They are close to evenly spaced and the difference between them has been about the same.  However, Joseph is up to Jacob's eyes!  I still think he will be the tallest!  Joseph was excited and nervous!  Asking lots of questions but once we hit the playground, he was gone!

Jacob can now turn a corner without his hands....

Lots of energy burned while waiting for the bell to ring.  Jacob is in the left background in black.  I just happened to get both of them in the same shot.  (Not a bad view, huh)

Then Benjamin and I had a planning meeting at the coffee shop about what his year looks like.  We will continue getting things lined up and he will officially start Monday.  JR is hoping to take Benjamin to work once a week to break things up for all of us.  So, we are mapping out 4 days of work a week for him.

(Disclaimer...because I am sometimes good about posting and then other times the days get away from me, I decided earlier this summer that I would write up a post and then post date it to publish on a later date.  I have also been way more intentional about taking my camera everywhere and posting the mundane to the exciting.  It is getting to where my posts are starting to back up and when the post actually goes up, it happened 5-7 days ago.  I will probably continue post dating because school is starting soon and I am sure my content will drop off some - unless the kids want me to follow them around school with my camera -  So don't be confused in the coming days when I post about a recent fun outing and school has started)

Another bridge jumping outing.  This time we took about 6 other friends with us.
This is Jacob and his best buddy Cameron.

There was a dad there with his daughter and the dad was jumping off the top.  I liked both of these shots.

Jacob actually crawled under the bridge and went across the cables to drop into the water.

Everybody was rooting for Joseph to jump, even giving him a pep talk.

Yet another pep talk!

And another

He thought jumping while holding on to the rope might be easier...however, we quickly shot that down.

He was so bummed and upset that he never got up the nerve to jump.  Thankful that big brother helped to console him!

I never got one of my boys jumping off the bridge, but can't wait to.  I love how this one of Cam turned out.  (Benjamin was at camp both times we jumped off the bridge, so he has yet to go with us)

My "I love mud" boy.

Jacob recently went to the orthodontist.  A consultation with a new ortho in town.  More palate expanders in our future.  Because there is not much room, that could be part of why the teeth are not dropping in as they should be.  So, we will begin Jacob sometime in the next couple of months.  Looks like they have about 12 months worth of stuff to do and then we will just sit and wait to see how the teeth drop in.  Hopefully a phase 2 will not be needed.

Joseph has been so tired lately, although he is sleeping in. The other night I made sure he was down early.  He had gotten in trouble and refused to go get in bed.  I let him just stay upstairs, talking away.  Well, he ended up falling asleep on the stairs.  I made the mistake of not immediately checking on him.  After a few minutes of silence, we heard him tumble down the stairs.  He did not hit the bottom but he was so tired he did not fully wake up.  I carried him to bed and he did not remember it the next morning.

Thankfully, whenever the boys get money, I always put some back in savings.  It is a good thing this time around, because Joseph's birthday money is just burning a whole in his pocket ~ which drives me nuts.  Every time we pass the dollar store, he wants to stop and go buy something.  I am ready for this kid to learn the value of a dollar!  He loves to spend money because people give him money back.  He does not quite grasp that the change that is returned is less than the money he gives.

Benjamin had a great time at Scholarship camp.  He told me he does not want to miss a year going forward, which makes me so happy.  Here are a few pictures I took of the camp when I picked him up.

One of the cabins.

This was the chapel.  I like the mosquito netting as the walls.

The camp took over 1,000 pictures during the week.  Then they downloaded them to a USB and put the USB in a special plastic slap bracelet for the campers to wear home....really cool idea.  Anyway, all of these pictures came from the USB slap bracelet.  (Benjamin is not in some of these pictures, but it shows more of the camp and activities.)

Most of these people are from our local AWANA club.

This was a game called Sponge Bob, where each team had to pass a huge wet sponge down the line and then squeeze the water out.  The goal was to fill your bucket the fastest.  Benjamin is in the middle, with sky blue shirt on.  He loved this game.

One of the lenses on his glasses popped out and he could not find it.  He forgot I packed his spare pare.  He somehow functioned okay without them.

He was most excited about paintball.  They wore the masks and vests.  Turns out the paint is more of a powder and came out of clothes.  This is a weird shot...not sure if Benjamin is taking his gear off or on.  The guy standing next to him is a friend of his who is the same age, despite the huge height difference.  (It helps when your mom is 6 ft and dad is 6' 2" and his mother's brother is 6' 7.)

Not sure what he was looking at.

Another water game (sure is nice to see him in different clothes throughout the week)

He has the tongue thing going on in all his concentration pictures!

This was Israeli dodgeball ~ you had to hit them below the knees.

They had a human swing that Benjamin enjoyed.

They had about 100 campers and about 25 staff (all volunteers).

Benjamin was on the red team, front row, 3rd from the left ~ if you were looking.

Everyday they spent time in small groups doing bible study.  I guess Benjamin was more focused on the camera than studying.

Two pictures from mail call!

A great camp experience and he is already talking up next year.  I like that he is already telling Jacob how much he would enjoy it!!!  AWANA is such an amazing program and I am very thankful for the opportunity he had to go to one of their camps.

Our neighbors introduced us to a nearby bridge.

If you jump from the lowest point, it is probably 15 feet.  If you go up to the highest point, it is probably 35 feet.

Jacob did not deliberate long before he finally jumped.

I like that someone hung a flag up on the bridge...good ol', one lane, rural bridge.

There were 2 guys, probably high school or early college age that were out there jumping.  They climbed to the top.  Two of them, at different levels, jumped at the same time.

The two guys actually landed just about at the same time...it was cool.

Joseph never wanted to jump

So he spent a lot of time playing in the sand

Not sure how well you can see it, but I happened to look up and saw some geese.  What was really cool is that they were all gliding...not one of them was flapping their wings...they flew this way for 10 or 15 seconds.  Just beautiful.  They are so neat to watch how they fly their formations, always moving and changing.

The bridge outing was such a hit, we are going again this evening with more friends!