July 15, 2022

(click for today's pictures)

• Since we did get in late last night, it was a fairly early morning this morning. We were up in plenty of time-I folded clothes, did the dishes and Robby walked Bentley. We had originally thought about just putting her in the boys' room this morning, but since it was just 8:30, we thought we would let them sleep.
• So instead we put her in her kennel when we left. Robby and I grabbed breakfast on the way out of town and headed to Arkadelphia for the Praiseworks and Joyworks finales. At 10, I text the kids to ask if anyone was awake. I received no responses and since Bentley was still fine, I didn't text again until 11. Then I called Graham. Since I was sitting in the middle of a full auditorium, I just hung up after having it ring. This woke him up, and he called back to which I didn't answer.
• I text him about getting Bentley to which he replied, "where are ya'll?" Seriously, we had the conversation last night before bed about what today held-where we were going was definitely mentioned. Bless him. I just read an article to Robby about the frontal lobe, which determines decision making skills, isn't developed fully until the mid 20s. I guess I will just blame his cluelessness on his frontal lobe development.
• Now, to Arkadelphia. We found seats easily-the auditorium was full, but it was not packed as it has been in years passed. The orchestra played first-probably 50 kids, and they did great. Then the Joyworks kids performed. That is Keaton and Whitman's group (3rd-6th graders). I'm not a good estimate on how many kids there were, but well over a hundred. It was excellent. They all did so good-the songs were fun, and everyone seemed like they had a great time.
• Next up were the big kids, Praiseworks (6th-12th graders). Campbell was in this group, and they had church during their songs. It was excellent and some of the soloist were outstanding. It makes me pretty sad that our church doesn't really have a kids' choir. 
• Now, at camp there is a lot of choir-think 3-4 hours a day which is honestly probably a bit too much. However, they get to do so many neat things at that camp. Campbell had the opportunity to do graphic design and photography. Whitman and Keaton were able to play the guitar (he didn't like because he couldn't do the g chord.) Whitman did enjoy the boomwhackers and drama. It was a great camp.
• When the performance was over, we quickly found Campbell, and then went to the trailers to collect luggage and Keaton and Whitman. I knew that my Campbell and Keaton would do just find at this camp. They could go away for a month without any hesitancy at all. However, I have been a bit stressed about Whitman. It seemed like he did great though-it helped that all of his room mates were at least 3 years older than him (He was the youngest Geyer camper-the only one from third grade.)
• On the way home, we stopped for Sonic drinks and then were hungry so we stopped for McDonalds lunch. Counting the gas stop as well, it did take us a while to get home. It did not take us a while to unload the car and unpack the suitcases. I quickly had everything in the wash and all was well.
• I had napped while the clothes were in the wash, but set my timer to get up to put them in the dryer. I did that and sat back down-then I heard an odd sound just as Robby did-the dryer. 
• What we don't need right now is for anything else to break around here-I just moved the clothes upstairs to the other dryer and was content to just forget about it. Robby, not so much. 
• I was just about to start making cookies when he came needing my assistance. He had taken the dryer apart-all the way. Seemed like a lot of pieces- a lot of big pieces to me. Nothing seemed to be broken-not the belt. He spent a good deal of time cleaning it all well, so now he was just going to try to put it back together hoping that the sound would just go away.
• I guess taking a dryer apart is easier than putting it back together. It took us awhile to get the belt back on, but once we figured it out he was able to do it fairly easily. Well, then we both had our hands kind of wedged in the dryer area and had to take turns pulling our arms out. 
• Once it started again, it kind of made the noise but then stopped. It has dried a load of clothes with minimal odd noises, so fingers crossed it was a fluke!
• We were able to walk Bentley just a little bit before we headed to the Wilson's house for supper. Tony had made some of their camp food that my kids loved so we gobbled that down. After a bit, the grown ups headed to Costco to walk around and then Lowes.
• We didn't buy anything at Costco, but did get glue at Lowes. The kids had played outside when we made it back to their house. We stayed for a bit, but then left to head home-there were lots of showers needed tonight and still some laundry to fold!