Happy 50th, Dave!

Sunday we'd been invited to a picnic honoring Jonathan's older brother Dave

for his 50th birthday.

His wife Ruth and their family had done a lovely job of planning a simple but delicious meal

of pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, chips, veggies, and of course

the centerpiece cake and icecream.

It was very chilly and breezy so Dave couldn't get the candles to stay lit!

Grandpa, Cheryl (Dave's oldest daughter) and Bryan (his son) are in the background.

I got this picture of the pavilion from the hillside. It's a nice little park, 

not far from Grandma and pa Lucas's new home.

Every last person in the clan was there except Barbara and Chad who live in Idaho.

They had hung a few simple decorations that were dangling and swinging in the breeze. 

All the black table cloths which seemed to represent Dave's going 

"over the hill"

reminded me of all the black, yellow and white tablecloths we helped spread on Friday

at a Springs Rescue Mission event we volunteered for.

It was a "Cute-as-a-Bee" Baby Shower for mothers in need, hosted by the social center building of

a Presbyterian church right down town. 

We helped set up tables, organize the categories of baby items, and then sort boxes and bins and bags of baby clothing and other items.

I chose to sort newborn clothing. How fun!

The coordinator had emailed me that she needed my boys as well as the girls,

so Sammy and Timmy came along, too, and helped unload the trucks. 

I so appreciated Sammy pitching in here to help set up all the baby furniture and everything that had been donated by many area churches, including about 10,000 diapers.

Timmy helped a lot, too. Here he is organizing blankets and other baby items.

We had an extremely busy weekend, between the funeral and this event and then work at our own church, but our house had been upended with the wet basement and our cistern water was temporarily contaminated, so till things were back under control, it was nice to get away a few times.

We look forward to being involved perhaps again next year.

After working at the baby shower, I dropped the boys with their dad to work at flood control at our church as well

(repairing some landscape issues that contribute to water running into the basement)

and went to a couple goodwills, only to have some strange noises start flopping on our van.

Back at church later, Jonathan thought a U-joint had gone out,

but instead it was just two bolts that had come out of the brakes.

It took him a couple trips to the auto parts store to find the right size bolts, and finally the van

could be on its way home. 

All on the same day he had issues with his truck shaking because of mud getting into his brakes

after getting stuck on our property in all the mud.

But that is being saved for another post.

I uploaded a bunch of pictures this afternoon in between researching school curriculum for next year

and doing office work.