Fun with the grandchildren

We were still a bit sluggish from yesterday and had cold serial for breakfast.  Evelyn had to do some baking and other food prep for tomorrow, so Elizabeth helped her most of the morning.  Stephen and I got out tarp out and trimmed our shrubs with our electric trimmer.  He is an eager helper but a bit too aggressive.  He took the manual hedge trimmer and worked over the azaleas while I finished a “cypress” bush.  By the time I finished and looked at him, he had nearly destroyed the 4 in the front of the house.  As we were collecting the last of our trimmings, Doris came out and asked him to trim 2 holly bushes for her.  Evelyn came out to visit and nearly wet herself when she saw the azaleas.  We know they will grow back but don’t know how long it will take.  Doris’ bushes were over 8 feet high, so we had to take our aluminum step ladder to her house.  Stephen went up and used our limb lopper to cut the thick branches growing from the top.  I didn’t want him to use the electric trimmers at all, so I had to do some of the thinner top branches while the kids steadied the ladder.  By this time it was after noon.  We had lunch and then rested while the kids watched some children’s show.  They went with us to choir practice.  We were surprised that we were to sing Sunday because this past week Rosalind had told us we would not sing this week.  I scheduled a rafting trip for tomorrow, and we played hand and foot in the evening.  For some reason, Stephen gets many good cards in whatever game we play.  Since he is my partner, we almost always win—by a large margin.

Evelyn and Elizabeth finished the preparation for the Bible study/brunch they worked on yesterday.  Stephen and I took them to church and then went to hit some balls at the local driving range.  Stephen did fairly well when he followed my instructions but had quite a bit of trouble sustaining the procedure.  We got tired as we always do at the range and came home to get the items for our rafting adventure.  We got the lunch Elizabeth had packed and went back to get her at church.  We were there at noon and took off for Hartford, TN.  I had been able to change our raft time from 3 to 2 and I couldn’t remember how long it had taken Olivia and I to get there 3 years ago.  We had plenty of time, and I learned I had scheduled a different rafting company.  They stalled around, and I think it was closer to 3 when we finally left.  The trip was shorter than the previous one.  We were put into a raft with 3 young people from Germany.  One was working at the University of TN, and the other 2 were visiting him.  They were very friendly as were we.  It was fun for the kids, even though Elizabeth was concerned at first.  Afterward the young man working in TN offered to pay for a flash drive containing more than a dozen pictures that had been taken on the trip.  I paid for part of them, and he sent them via email to us.  They were very good.  We rushed home, showered and went to Gary and Linda’s for hot fudge sundaes and brownies.  We had a nice visit.  Elizabeth talked with her mother about fixing a schedule for study next year before going to bed.

Friday was a rainy day.  I got up and mixed some pancake batter and fried about 16 pancakes for us.  We ate them all.  They had some small pieces of candy in the mix and I added chopped almonds.  They were very good.  We went to town so Elizabeth could shop at several thrift stores.  Stephen and I went to the Open Door thinking we would help clean up.  It just so happened that there were many helpers including some children.  We walked to the library instead.  It was about 10 blocks—farther than I had remembered.  Stephen was quite bored and just flipped through some books.  I tried to read some descriptions of the dance troupes that would be performing at Folkmoot, but he was not very interested.  The girls returned from shopping and took us home.  Elizabeth had found a couple of garments and some shoes.  Stephen had found a hooded jacket earlier.  Before we went home, we had lunch at Hardee’s.  By now it was after 3.  While we were there, a man we know from the Open Door came in.  He had walked to a Dollar General for some items.  He is somewhat crippled and it was still raining, so I drove him home.  Elizabeth wanted to make some egg rolls for us, so we stopped at Ingles and found some supplies she needed.  We invited Gary and Linda for popcorn instead of fixing supper.  They brought a young girl with them and we played some Phase 10 and ate popcorn until just before they left.  Evelyn made smores in the toaster oven before they left.  We had a good time with them.  Pieder called to talk with the children, and we went to bed around 11.