I’m famous...a couple days ago I attended a conference on innovation in orthopaedics, and the event was covered by the Fort Wayne newspaper. And it just so happened that a photo of me, sitting at a table listening to a speaker, was published in the article. Neat. We took the kids out geocaching today since it was such a nice day. I made up a list of 12 ISQ caches, and we managed to get 4 before kids got hot and hungry and wanted to go home. There is a little town in nowhere not too far from here, not much more than a crossroads, where there is a little mom and pop shop called Gilead General Store. I must put in a plug. The kids needed some juice and Beth needed a bathroom, so we stopped there to take care of business. I took a bottle of pink lemonade to the counter and handed over my debit card, but since it would cost more the run the card than what it cost, the guy at the counter was going to just give it to me for free. I got some crackers or something to go along with it to make it worth his while.

Wednesday. Beth is back. Tonight was Kids Klub, and she made it back to town just as it was wrapping up, so she waited for me to get back with the van. This week has been good. Everyone seems really impressed that I can take care of my own kids, which strikes me as odd, but I’m told most of Beth’s friends wouldn’t ever be able to just leave the kids with the husband. Anyway, last Saturday was a birthday party for Landen, one of Alex’s friends from preschool, at the bowling alley. He was so excited about that, talking about it all week. It was a good time and the kids liked it a lot, but there were too many kids for the lanes so they all had to wait too long to get a turn. Alex got really antsy between turns, and Missy just clung to me most of the time and didn’t want to bowl any more by the 7th frame. But there was cake and ice cream and red punch, and a goody bag for all the kids, and Alex had a good time. Afterwards, I was supposed to have Katie over and get a free evening, but Alex was feverish in the afternoon so I cancelled. He had a good fever, and just crawled into a chair and lay there, but a while after some Tylenol he was fine, and the fever never came back. I had been afraid that he would be sick the whole time Beth was gone. I took the kids to church with me Sunday, which again impressed everyone (amazing), and we went out to lunch afterwards with the Bells to the pizza place. I took them to movie night as well. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Renee was helping out: she came to the house at 7:00 am each day, got the kids up and ready for preschool, dropped them off, picked them up, and took them to her house until I got off work. She even made dinner for us one night. Now THAT was amazing, that she would do all that for us. I even managed to lock myself out of the house one day at lunch and she ran over here with all the kids (hers too) to let me back in. I got everyone to Kids Klub tonight, and Beth was back by the end.

Friday. A few weeks ago I finally broke down and sent a message to an e-mail address I found for my 20-year high school reunion...and got a message back today. Apologetic he was that he hadn’t checked the inbox lately, but the reunion is...wait for it....tonight! An informal get-together at Wayside West, then a sit-down dinner tomorrow somewhere nice, I forget where. I toyed with the idea of going but...Beth called me while I was at work and asked if I could come home early so she could get on the road to Alabama. We knew this was coming. She has been wanting to go visit Judy and help her with Jim, and today Judy called her and asked if she could come, now. So, I came home a little early, and she left just minutes after I got there. She got as far as Louisville tonight. Meanwhile, tonight was the Family Fun Night at preschool, with clowns and face-painting and a hot dog dinner. The kids had been talking about going to see the clowns, but to spend some energy I took them to McDonald’s for dinner instead so they could play. Of course, when it was time to go, Missy became "stuck" at the top of the playset and wouldn’t come down. Tears, sobbing, refusing to let Alex or any other bigger kids help her, the whole bit. Yes, she knows how to get down perfectly well. And I wound up climbing up there to get her down. So we were a little late to see the clowns, but that was OK since they were a little long on setup and short on the jokes, I thought, and they weren’t really holding anyone’s attention. I did get called up on stage to participate in a card trick (since one of the clowns retired from Zimmer a little while ago and he spotted me). The kids did NOT want to get face painted so we just left when the clown show was over.

Beth and I went with Virgil and Sheri to see Ken Davis in concert tonight. We were owed some babysitting that we bought a couple months ago in the church youth group auction, so we cashed that in and the kids had someone new look after them. We all went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner before the show, which was very funny. We may be doing a lot with them this year on Saturdays, since the bowling league fell apart and we’re not doing that.

Beth and I hired Katie to babysit what was supposed to be our first day of bowling today, but for some reason only 4 teams have signed up so there won’t be a bowling league this year. Bummer. So anyway Beth and I went to dinner and a movie instead ("Hairspray," which was absolutely hilarious...I LOVED it!)

Alex got wapped in the face with a box while playing with Sammy the other day, and ever since a front tooth has been loose. Beth took him to the dentist again yesterday, who told us that there is a big tooth coming in behind it already and the hit with the box might have sped it up only by a few weeks. He bet that it would fall out by itself within a few days with it being loose, and today it did. We were at Golden Corral eating dinner and I saw it was gone, so Alex probably swallowed it. We wrote a note to the tooth fairly explaining why the tooth was missing (left it outside his door because he didn’t want the tooth fairy coming into his room while he was asleep) and in the morning he had $1 (6 coins, or "6 monies").

Today was the first day of Kids Klub for the school year. I am driving the van again after a year break when I didn’t get as much done on Wednesdays as I wanted. What can you do. I’m also a guide because some other people dropped out. Missy is in it this year and seems to be doing all right.

Worst. Labor Day weekend. Ever. The only holiday weekend I ever wished was shorter. But we do have the car back.