A car wash and bake sale...

Yesterday was Memorial Day as everyone knows. Around here we do it up in style. We have the different programs at the local cemeteries and then we go and eat grilled chicken cooked by the Warrens Lions Club at the community building. This year was a little different....

Our youth group had a car wash and bake sale from noon until 4:00 pm. I woke up at 5:15 am and started baking. I baked rhubarb muffins, peach cobbler, pumpkin bars and 8+ dozen cinnamon rolls. At 11:30 we took it all in, along with all of the buckets, soaps, hoses etc that I had collected. Other people from the church came and volunteered to man the bake sale (as well as bring other goodies that they had baked to sell). The kids and I started washing cars, vans AND TRUCKS! I lost count after 26. The kids did such a crazy job on one of the first vans by completely missing the entire back end that I started washing after they had washed. They worked very hard washing and then I would wash every part again. We removed the tar, we washed dash boards off, we scrubbed tires, we did it all. My arm hurt so much last night I could not sleep. BUT, the good news is that we raised $247.00 towards their trip to Lifefest. A local huge Christian music festival in Oshkosh in July. The kids were excited yesterday and they have not even heard the total yet.

It was worth it, but I am worn out. I don't think the car wash part will be a monthly thing, but I think the other ladies in the church that participated would like to have another bake sale. They had a blast waving at all of the cars that drove by, selling the goodies and in general cutting up and having a good time. It was fun to see them acting like little kids.

Jake went out into the woods the other day without bug spray and wandered around a swamp for a couple of hours. He did not say a word about it when he came home. He just went to bed and then in the morning told us that he had not slept well. I wondered, but he said no more, so we went on. That night he asked me to look at a bug bite that was itching (he had been wearing long sleeves). When I looked at the boy he was covered with bites. He must have about 200 mosquito bites on him and never said a word. I would have been whining and crying like a baby. He has such a high pain thresh hold it's unreal. Now he is sick and says that his throat hurts and he is coughing. If he says that he is sick, I know he is sick. Besides his girlfriend is sick too, so I figure they shared it. (He's 16 and I try not to ask any questions). He's such a good guy, I hate to see him miserable.

Jessalyn leaves tomorrow for a 3 day field trip to Eagle Bluff. She gets to try repelling down cliffs, walking high ropes, kayaking, canoeing and all other kinds of neat stuff. Jacob loved it when he went in the 6th grade. They are both just itching to get out of school (bad pun in Jake's condition).

We have a very busy summer planned.

Time to head to bed.
dea