Not much went on this week. Friday was Bible study at the McCoy's house. All the kids (something like 10 in all) played together outside most of the time (we had them all sprayed down for the most part) and they found the mud. It wasn't too hard to find, actually, but they all traipsed through the house at least a little but with mud all over themselves. Missy and Alex both fell in to some extent, and I wound up washing Missy off as best we could and borrowing an outfit from Joanna to get home in. Alex's shoes were caked. But they did leave us alone most of the evening. Today, the kids were bored and antsy and getting on Beth's nerves, so I took them out caching for a bit. We got one over by Chapman Lake, that was it.

Today was my second fantasy football draft day. No big prizes in the draft since this is another keeper year, but I did keep Rivers and Jones-Drew so I'm pretty set. I think the team is ok. Everyone in the house has a wee cold this weekend, so we skipped church this morning, but mostly it was because we were all tired. Yesterday was date night, but we didn't have anything we wanted to go see so we punted. Dinner and clothes shopping (I found some killer deals on the clearance racks at Elder-Beerman...even on Columbia stuff!) followed by spending a few bucks at Tokens & Tickets. Never played pinball on a date before. Earlier in the day we had taken the kids out bowling (they've been asking to go for a while) and we got the paint and ordered the wallpaper for redecorating Missy's room. She also got a new ceiling fan, not as much because she needed one but because she found one she really really really liked and she looked at me with the cutest 'please Daddy?' look I've ever seen. Well, maybe she did need a new ceiling fan after all. Anyway, Friday night there was banjo music in the park! The...I forget...Hoosier Banjo Society or something like that was performing in Central Park, so we went with the kids. The did the old standards like Bill Bailey and the like. The Myers girls also went with us, so the kids had something to do (we brought kites too, which they failed to fly very much). Mostly the kids all ran around together playing. Thursday night, I let the kids paint in the garage, on the old closet doors again. What a mess.

Woo hoo! Softball won a tounament game tonight. Everyone hit. Everyone fielded. Everyone scored. And we were on the winning end of the mercy rule for the first time in a long, long, long time. Ronnie was there, that's probably why. I was 3-for-4, including a really weird hit that made a strange thunk when I hit it high on the handle, and it barely went back as far as the pitcher. But it spun so much that it ran away from the pitcher trying to field it, and it stopped rolling just before going foul. It was that kind of a night, where things just go our way.

Today was the first day back to school for the kids! First day for Missy to ride the bus and go to big kids school. She loves kindergarten! And Alex loves first grade. It was pouring most of the day though. I stayed home from work for a couple hours to see everyone off. There is a lot of construction going on right near our house, which means that the bus can't get to our road, so the kids are to walk to a designated spot where an aide walks them across the busy roads to the pick-up point. No aide showed up today so we drove them in the van to the pick-up spot, and waited in the van for the 10-minutes-late bus.

Agatha went to the vet for the first time in a while this week. She has early stage renal failure going on, and reportedly has somewhere between 6 months and 2 years left. Which is expected for a 17-year-old cat, but still sad news. On an unrelated note, Beth made pickles for the first time this week. They were good but a bit too salty. Friday we had small group Bible study at the Myers' house (the roads by our house are all torn up, and it's easier for everyone to go somewhere else), but wound up just talking and visiting all evening. We left just after the impromptu backyard bonfire started because the kids were getting intolerably tired, and got home just before 10 pm, to a call from Laura asking if I was going to log on for the fantasy football draft (I had forgotten, but got on just in time). So I tag teamed drafting and getting the kids to bed, and ended up with a decent team, I think (Larry Fitzgerald!) Saturday, Beth and the kids and I drove up to Potato Creek to visit the campers who were there (the usual suspects). We brought the kids' bikes, and they rode around like champs - even Alex, who had warmed to the idea of riding with no training wheels since his broke off a couple weeks ago. He rode all around by himself or with the other kids all day. Brian and I took our bikes and went geocaching with them, and wound up being gone much longer than planned. All of the Myers and Knight families (except Alex, who wanted to stay behind and play) started out, but the walking was going to be too much for the girls so they went back, and Brian and I got the bikes and took off. It was a long ride, good thing the ladies all went back because it would have been much too much for Missy. We completed an entire circle tour of the park by the time we were done and found 2 caches, probably rode about 6 miles altogether. Found out later we were riding on hiking only trails, bikes aren't allowed. Sorry, our bad. The kids and women had been to the lake and returned by the time we got back. We left a little while after dinner. Today was Lily's birthday party. the McCoys were going but didn't want to go all the way home and all the way back, so we all got Subway and had lunch at Center Lake Park. But, it was so hot we all decided to come to our house and let the kids play in the sprinkler until the party. Good call, all 6 of them had a super time in the sprinkler and pool and were all refreshed and ready for the party. We had dinner at Golden Corral as a last meal...school starts tomorrow morning!

No softball game tonight. It rained earlier in the day, so they were cancelled, even though by game time it was bright and sunny and hours since it had rained. I dunno, maybe the fields were trashed. It did rain pretty hard in the afternoon.

This was a slow week followed by a busy weekend. The kids continue swimming lessons, still love them, and we had the carpets cleaned this week. The softball tournament began this week, and we played the only team we beat during the regular season, and lost to them. So, it's the loser's bracket for us. Beth left to go to Women of Faith on Friday night, leaving me with the kids, so we had a date night (went shopping at Lowe's and had dinner at Steak & Shake). Alex's ceiling fan inexplicably stopped working the other day, so I got him a new one (that is hopefully much more quiet). Saturday, I took the kids the Tokens & Tickets for fun, and got the fan installed (which really excited Alex). It was a regularly scheduled Katie day, so I decided to just keep the appointment even though Beth was gone and had a night out. Got a haircut, dinner at Taco Bell, and looked all over town for a car bike rack. Found one at KMart but didn't buy it, maybe later. Beth got home later in the day, having had a great time. Today, we went over to the Myers' for dinner (grilled). We tried to get the slip & slide working but it just wouldn't, which really disappointed out kids, but they got over it.

John and Steph came back on Friday and bought the minivan. We went out to dinner with them while Katie watched the kids (except Collin, who was home). Saturday Beth and I took the kids out to the Fun Center out in Columbia City because they have been asking to play mini golf for quite a while now. So we played 18 holes, and then went geocaching in Morsches Park, where we found a couple before the bugs drove us out of the woods and towards more in-town caches.