Summer!

Where has the month gone since I blogged last? Wow!

Some of my time has been spent with family - going, doing, eating, learning.

One day Mom, Sandy and I went to Brickhouse Bistro and then to Olivu. It was my belated birthday and Mother's day gift to mom. The Bistro is in a cream city brick farmhouse that Dale and I had one day hoped to purchase, so it was interesting to be inside and check the place out. The food is great! Very casual - go to the counter and order type of place. Mom and I split a turkey club sandwich that I had a hard time getting my mouth open far enough to eat! We walked around the grounds of the house because it is also a landscape business. They have a wonderful assortment of unusual plants and landscape ideas.

We then went to Olivu. It is a little boutique where you can make your own bath and beauty products. Or if you're in a hurry you can purchase items already made. Each of us made a sugar scrub. We customized our scrub with ingredients of our choosing.

I later went again to the same 2 places. This time I went with Mom, Ruth, Dale's mom, and Lori, Dale's sister. The food was wonderful -this time I had a ham & cheese with dill pannini. It had just rained so we didn't spend as much time walking around outside. But, then to Olivu. I've spent so much time & money there that I had earned a few free products of my choosing. So this time I picked things that will given as a gift to someone I love.

Here are some of the pictures from those 2 outings.

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One evening we had friends over for a campfire.
But, we were joined by an uninvited guest. She really didn't want to be moved from the campfire area. She was snapping at Dale as he tried to move her away from our chairs. Lyn was a little concerned about turning her back to this snapping mama.




But we decided to share our dessert - carefully.

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We had the youth group over for a "hang-out, grill-out, schools out" evening. There was ultimate frisbee, campfire, swimming and grilling whatever they brought along.

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There was Father's Day which we spent at my parent's house. We are both so blessed with Dad's who have set a wonderful example for us in faith, family and love. Dale's dad was with Dale's sister for Father's Day in Indiana.

Then there was the morning spent at a farm for the "Farm Breakfast". Dale got tickets for the 6 of us to enjoy a delicious breakfast on a farm. In Wisconsin many of the counties hold this event each summer. One farm is chosen per county and they feed and educate thousands of people about what a modern farm is like.
Now, I didn't take these pictures because I am a "city girl" but, because Dale's employer, Braun Electric, supplies farmers with many of the things that we saw that day: watering systems, barn cleaning systems, fans, misting systems for the cows when it's hot in the barns (a happy cow is a productive cow), manure treatment systems and more. They gave us farm tours on buses. That worked pretty nicely!




We were so glad that we went early. This is a look at the line as we were heading home. Wow! I heard that Terry and Sandy came, looked at the line and left. I don't blame them.

Then there was a quick Door County trip for our yearly church youth staff get away, 7 or 8 graduation parties, a wedding, a bridal shower, brisk morning walks with Mom and yard work.
As I've been writing all of this, I am a little surprised at all that has happened in the 4 weeks since I've written here.

This summer for the first time a while, I'm not at our church's national youth conference being held in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am excited for what God is going to be doing in the hearts and lives of the 40 from our church that are there now and the thousands from across the country. It is a week of encouragement and challenge to live differently because of who we are in Christ and what He has done in us. I've put a link in case you're interested in listening to some of the speakers from the week. I've also put a link to Pastor Jon's blog (our youth pastor) where he has pictures of our group. Catch Terry in a hair net!
They are in my prayers throughout the day. I love these kids and I can't wait to hear how God has continued His work in their lives.

http://blogs.efca.org/challenge/
http://www.mantransformed.blogspot.com/
www.olivu426.com