Volunteering

Last Sabbath Calleigh had a first - - her first volunteering experience.  We had found out about an opportunity to help a charity called Feeding Children Everywhere where you help package meals to feed hungry children.   The premise of it was that you work together in groups in an assembly line fashion to package a meal consisting of special salt, dehydrated vegetables, rice, and lentils.  Jennifer and Blake rode with us and our little group worked for an hour straight with some others to package thousands of these.  We were so impressed with the kids who didn't complain one bit.  An hour can be a long time for a five and six year old but they were great.  They took turns holding the bags or scooping the rice or veggies.  We had a minor stumbling block at the beginning when Calleigh discovered she had to wear a hair net but she got over it.

The other thing that warmed my heart was the Calleigh had gotten some money from Aunt Shirley, who had come by with Aunt Wanda and Aunt Mary just before we had to leave, and as we drove to the warehouse, she asked me if she could give her money to help the kids.  Of course, it was only fifty cents but just the fact that she was willing to give it to someone made me happy!

After we left there, we drove over to the Isidro's for a "roll your own" sushi night.  Of course, I only partake of the veggie variety and I must say that it's really growing on me.  Tangie surprised Allen with a birthday cake.  The only downside to the evening was seeing all the bug bites covering Aubree's poor little body.  She had been outside for just a little too long and the bugs just love her.  Unfortunately Brady is afflicted with the same problem.  They both really swell up from bites.  Meanwhile, Calleigh had none.  Very strange.

One of the highlights of our week was having the Rondinellis over on Wednesday.  They are on vacation at their house in Deltona and popped over to see our new house and spend some time with us.  Bruno, despite being eight, still has fun hanging out with the girls and as is the typical fashion when the girls have friends over, they were running around in the upstairs while the adults talked downstairs.  At one point, Kathy murmured aloud that she wondered what they were doing up there.  I said I was sure they were fine and almost added "as long as they aren't playing doctor" just to be funny.  Kathy hollered upstairs to Bruno and asked "What are you doing?" and Bruno shouted back "We're playing doctor."  I couldn't help but laugh and laugh at that.  They started coming down the stairs and then Bruno signaled to his chest and then just below his "privates" and said "But we aren't doing doctor between here and here."  Too funny!   Bruno is an innocent eight years old so I wasn't worried that something really untoward was happening.  Anyway, they stayed for supper and we had a lovely stroll all around our neighborhood.  They love the Florida weather and we were trying to convince them to move here but I'm sure my parents would not be happy campers (they live basically in the next town over from them).

Freddy pushed Aubree around using a bat.

Watching a special on bears.

Thursday we had more company when Tiffany and Anthony came over for pizza night.  They have not been to our house since we moved in so they were definitely due a visit.  As a reminder, they are building a house here in the same community although with a different builder.  Their new house is probably a quarter of a mile from ours.  They live in a rental now down the street.  They stopped at their new house on the way here and Anthony unfortunately discovered a bunch of mold on the inside of their kitchen cabinets.  They are supposed to be closing on the 22nd so who knows that will happen with that now.  On the bright side, their house got appraised where they needed it to thanks in good part to our house.  They used ours as a comparable so I told them, "You're welcome!"

Another thing we did was go to the story time at our new library.  Although I'm not a fan of the kids' section as I mentioned in my last post, story time was very well done.  The teacher started off by introducing herself as "Miss Deanna" and Calleigh was just in awe that she had the same name as her teacher from Sabbath School.  She just couldn't believe it.

Brady's favorite thing is to pull their pig tails.  If they happen to be sitting next to each other and he can get two for one, all the better!

Another day this week we headed to a consignment store to look for some church dresses for Calleigh.  You know you have some true girls when you mention going shopping for clothes and instead of them saying "B-o-r-i-n-g!" like they do when you're going to Lowe's they get all excited. They love to look through the racks of clothes and they're actually really good about it when I tell them "No."  In fact, Calleigh pulls things out and then she'll say "Is this too much money?"  One thing she did find was a Hello Kitty skirt and I'm really not a big fan of these kind of clothes (like Dora, Disney, etc) but she was so excited about it that I relented.

This weekend was the Adventurer's camp out at Pine Lake Retreat.  Last year we went up and stayed in a "house" with four other families for Friday and Saturday night.  This year we were going to do the same with the Isidros and Bergherms in a smaller house but then we all decided to just go up for the day, which was today.  I was majorly relieved because I am SO not in the mood to pack up to go anywhere.  Moving made me good on that for a good long while.  They told us to be there at nine and since it's a good 35 minute drive that meant getting up early this morning.  Two weeks ago I would already be up at 6:45 but now that Brady has turned over his new leaf, I was sound asleep when my alarm went off at that time this morning.

We had a good time but it was doggone hot.  I know it's October and all and I see people posting pictures on Facebook of themselves in long sleeves and jackets but we just aren't experiencing that yet here.  It's still hitting 90 during the day and we sure felt it.  I looked down and saw sweat on the front of my shirt.  Yikes.  The theme for this morning's "church" activity was your five senses so the kids rotated through different stations and did activities based on a particular sense.  Afterwards the kids rode bikes for a little bit but then it was so hot that they all took shelter in the Isidro's van while we waited for lunch.  We hightailed it out of there after that.

Calleigh pretending she's Shadrach before getting thrown into the fiery furnce.

Kids seeking shelter in the car.

Getting smothered in kisses.

Blake is Brady's little shadow....which I love!

To carry over the camping theme, we roasted hot dogs at the Isidro's tonight and had yummy banana pudding made by Bruce and Jennifer.  How awesome is it to leave their house at 8:30 and get home at 8:32?  Yup, it's super nice!    

Today we got out first electric bill in the new place.  We've been wondering what the damage would be seeing as we have nearly tripled in size from our old place.  Part of the reason we were interested in getting a new house as opposed to an older one in this same community is because the builder guarantees that your heating and cooling bill will average $114 per month for the year.  This is assuming that you keep it at 78 in the summer and I believe 72 in the winter.  We always kept it cooler than 78 at our old house so I was afraid it would be a struggle here to keep it that warm but it's gone surprisingly well especially after the ceiling fans were installed.  Needless to say, we were very curious to see what the bill would be.  Well, it was only for three weeks instead of four but the amount was $185 (and we had it on 76 for a lot of the time before ceiling fans).  Our last month in the old place it was $224 so we are pleased with the $185.  Next up...the water bill!

In closing...one Aubree quote.  As we were strolling through the neighborhood for our evening walk, the talk turned to swimming pools (our next door neighbors just finished putting one in).

Calleigh: "I wish we could get our own swimming pool."
Me: "You know, pools cost a lot of money.  Daddy and I need to save some money up first."
Aubree (thinking), "Well, you could buy some."

Have a great week.

Brady helping Daddy to frame out the windows.

There are huge grasshoppers that live around here and the kids are always in awe.

Calleigh took this picture.  Love my little man!

Afternoon tea at the Isidros one day this week.

Calleigh was in time out but it was like Brady wanted to comfort her or something.  He wouldn't stop trying to hug her!

Duncan built these seven shelving units from Lowe's this week.  I'm on cloud nine!  Now I'm in the midst of organizing all the bins of clothes.  Plenty of room!