July 2018
Since I’m writing July’s memoir on August 19th,
things must have been pretty busy around our house getting the girls back to
school along with leaving town a few times in early August. But, since this is about July, I’m going to
need to jog my memory about what happened last month. I think someone had a milestone birthday…
Debbie turned 40 in July and her actual birthday was
pretty low-key. She wanted to simply
grill out and enjoy some time outside, so that is what we did. Her co-workers decided to have some fun with
her birthday by everyone wearing black, including a few patients who were in on
the joke. They had a huge pitch-in for
lunch and Debbie very much appreciated her friends at work for doing so much on
her birthday. On Saturday of that week,
we invited friends from all over to come celebrate her birthday at the District
Tap. We had a private room and everyone
seemed to enjoy themselves as a group of us decided to go to the main bar at the
restaurant after we had to leave our room.
The evening went by quickly as we had so many good friends take time out
of their weekend to come celebrate with us.
We went to Bluefield, WV for the McGonagle family
reunion. As I had a work conference in
Nashville, I drove over and met up with Debbie and the girls on Friday. She drove with the girls to Bluefield on
Thursday of that week. We went to a
baseball game on Friday night. Uncle
Chuck surprised everyone with helicopter rides before the game and Allison and
Sarah really enjoyed it. Everyone came
to Chuck’s house on Saturday for a day of fun outside and spending time
together. Uncle Chuck also organized a
tour for the kids at the fire station so the kids enjoyed seeing a fire truck
up close and also meeting the firefighters.
My cousin and her husband hosted a summer gathering for
my dad’s side of the family. They have a
great location for this event and it was well attended by many. It is difficult to get this group together,
so all of us were very much appreciative of her efforts to get everyone
together. As always, a big hit for our
kids were the “Aunt Linda bars” (which are Dilly bars from DQ).
Both girls participated in 2 week-long events at Christ
the King in July. Vacation bible school
is always a good time and they come home singing songs which eventually get
stuck in Debbie and I’s head after a few road trips. They also participated in a basketball camp
for kindergarten through 3rd grade girls. I volunteered and helped out for the
basketball camp and the girls did very well.
Allison liked the challenge of keeping up with the 3rd
graders and Sarah is improving all the time.
Allison did injure her ankle while at camp and hobbled around on it for
the week. I’m sure my lack of
coordination and ankle issues played a big part that injury!
Sarah’s Things of the Month
Sarah
continued her summer talking about kindergarten. She learned she will have Miss Daeger (same kindergarten teacher Allison had) which made her very excited! The girls have gotten into American Ninja Warrior this summer and Sarah said to me, “Dad, you would be great at on that show because you are tall…but you aren’t muscle-ly enough!”
Allison’s Thing of the Month
Allison decided she wanted to run cross country this year. I’m not sure she is enjoying it as much as she likes other sports, but she seems to like it and is working hard at practice.
A few more items from this month:
The girls had an overnight at my mom’s place this month. As always, the enjoyed playing Legos and puzzles at grandma’s house.
Deb volunteered at the used uniform sale this year for school. It happened to be the day after her birthday party, so she was able to work off her hangover with some manual labor!
