Grandparents come to town

This weekend Richard's parents and one set of grandparents came to NE PA. We had a great time and it was so nice to see them. His parents stayed with us and grandparents stayed with Melissa and Jon and Chase. They got here thurs night and RIchard and I took Friday off of work. I love taking days off of work. So we planned a picnic at a state park but first Richard and his father went for a round of golf. We took subway there and then we went paddle boating and enjoyed the nice warm weather. I had everyone over to my house and cooked them all stromboli and salad with the produce from the Farmer's market. It all turned out great. I am so happy to be able to host people. I think everyone liked it too. Then after that we went mini golfing, which turned out to be very fun. Then back to my house for brownies and ice cream thanks to melissa.

Sat we took our time waking up and then I made waffles for the Gardners. Then the ladies went out shopping and the boys accompanied us for a little bit, mostly until they had eaten lunch with us. Sat night we had a cook out at Melissa's. Then we just enjoyed eachother company and played a funny game of Apples to Apples.

Sunday we went to Jon and Melissa's church because they had their baby's dedication that day. Jon's parents were also there. It was so nice that all of us could be there for that event. WE went out for lunch after that. Then we all crashed at Melissa's house for the afternoon. In the evening we went to a very nice park in Scranton called Nay Aug (I have no idea what that means). I was a beautiful little place. i was glad we went there. WE had fun, and saw a little bit more of scranton and its potential to be cool. :-)

They left on Monday morning so I worked at getting my house back in order. I love having the company though.

Tonight I have a more formal interview for the secretary position. So I will have to update you later on how that goes. I'm kinda nervous but mostly because I don't know what is going to happen or how to plan. I need to trust that God is in control. But I am still going along the process of getting hired. :-)

Random

Hi, It's been a few weeks. It seems like a lot has been going on, but nothing overly exciting to write about. So here is just a little about what has been happening.

One thing that has happened and been a big part of our lives lately is Richard's work. Its been frustrating at times and i have to learn to be very flexible with it. He works for a company that is a 24 hour response to water and fire damages. So he has to be very flexible. Without going into too much detail, they are very unorganized and I feel like they take advantage of Richard a lot. Things could be run a lot better. But in the midst of this complaining about them, I will make sure you know that we are thankful for the job for these reasons. The last semester they had been very flexible with his school hours, and he was still able to get close 40 hours almost every week without having to work every evening like a lot of seminary husbands do. So even though he would be gone late some nights and sometimes it was unexpected, there was still some nights where he was home with me. So even though its frustrating, for now it is working out. They did tell him that he would get a raise after 3 months. It was coming up on 7 and he hadn't gotten one yet. Also he has had to drive like 3 hours one way sometimes to jobs, and he has been driving his old truck a lot for that. He does get paid for drive time, and they cover his gas though. This summer too he has been getting a ton of overtime hours. (which is nice for the paycheck, but not so nice with him being gone so long) But two things have happened recently that have made me thankful for it. He did get a $2 raise which we were so thankful for and it was long overdue. But it is so nice. And he has a pretty old truck that we bought in Grand Junction, CO. He has been driving it a ton. Recently he had to compelety fix the rotters (sp?) and break pads. Then the other day he was driving it and the wheel on the other side almost completely fell off. WE thought it was going to be very time consuming and expensive to fix. But his boss took care of fixing it and paying the bill and it was ready by the time he was done work that day!!! Praise the Lord. So even though there is a lot of negative things about the job, I can still be thankful for it.

Fourth of July have come and gone. Jerelyn was going to come visit for the weekend but ended up not coming becuase of car trouble. I was sad, but we were with Melissa and Jon (My sister in law and husband) and had a nice cook out. WE found a great place for fireworks too. Sat we went to some outlets I had wanted to go to since we got here. So that was fun cause Richard and I spent the whole day away and together. It was nice and relaxing. I just have a couple pictures from that weekend. Chase (Melissa's boy) is the baby I"m holding. ( I babysit him quite often so Melissa can work. I love the time I can spend with my nephews and niece) The pic of the two of us is at the fireworks. You can't tell by the picture but it was by a beatiful lake.

My brother is still living with us, and it has been working out very well.

Please pray for me on Tues, I have a meeting with the school administrator for the highschool our church has, he has asked if I would be interested in being the school secretary and I think he thinks he could use me for the Spanish aspect too. I know I would love it, but there are a few things to consider and talk about with him. I will know more after I talk with him. But we do have some decisions to make soon about that area. I am ready to be done the job am doing now, especially if something like that arose. So please pray we follow God's leading in it.

Also, we are trying to buy plane tickets right now for Ecuador over Christmas time. We plan on all the kids going back for this Christmas. We are praying that God leads us to the right tickets for good prices and good dates and everything.

Overall our summer has been busy with a lot of little things but very fun. Richard is ready to start classes since that is what we are here for, and I am enjoying the time he has off. :-)

Gardner's and a set of Grandparents are coming this weekend, so i hope to have a few more interesting things to write about. Enjoy the update. :-)

We also have gone down about an hour and half South to Richard's brother's house (Doug) a few times lately. Stephanie just had their 3rd and I had a great time holding him and meeting him.