June is half over!

Sarah has two interviews this week! Tuesday afternoon she has a general music and 5th grade band job interview with the Tripoli school district. Tripoli is SE of Charles City and NE of Waverly. Wednesday morning she has a 2nd-5th general music and 5th-12th grade instrumental music job interview in Bedford. Bedford is SW of Des Moines down by the Missouri border. Say a prayer for her.

Mary is at Camp Tanglefoot. The campers came today, before it was just the training part with all the other counselors. Mary is the Craft Director this year. She feels really old because one of the new junior counselors is someone Mary used to babysit. Mary was home yesterday for a day off and to do some laundry, but she forgot to take back her deodorant. Randy had to drop it off at camp for her.

Matthew made the front page of the Mason City Sunday Globe-Gazette yesterday. You can view the story at http://www.globegazette.com/frontpage_history/pdfs/2009_06_14.pdf . There is also a video online of Matthew and Daniel at http://www.globegazette.com/shared-content/search/index.php?search=go&l=20&s=recent&r=&d1=06/01/09&d2=06/15/09&q=how%20to%20fold%20a%20flag folding a flag. The multimedia box is on the near right side part way down the page, scroll down the video list until you come to "How to fold a United States Flag". It is right after "lawn mower maintenance".

Daniel and Matthew are both going canoeing on the St. Croix River this Thur.-Sat. with the Boy Scout troop. Randy doesn't get to go because he has a class. Daniel is still working at Fareway, loading groceries, often in the rain. Matthew still works there too and has been sleeping in since the new Assistant Manager isn't scheduling him for the 5:00 am shift unloading the truck.

Matthew received a couple of local scholarships he applied for: the Knights of Columbus gave him $250 and the Clear Lake Friends of the Library gave him $300. The library was a brand new scholarship and Matthew had to write an essay for it. Matthew will also receive a Conservation Officer Association scholarship for $500. All that money adds up and helps him pay for college! Mom is happy!

Philomena went to an aviation camp on Sat. at the Mason City Airport. There was a ground school for a couple of hours and then they got to go up in an airplane for a quick flight around Clear Lake. It so happened that Philomena got to ride in Msgr. Hemann's plane! She really enjoyed it and wasn't too scared about it. Philomena is also doing activities at the library this summer. Tomorrow they learn how to make balloon animals and Thur. is crafts and theatre class.

Stephen just got back from cub scout camp with Randy, but didn't get to go swimming because the camp pool was not working. It was too cold to swim anyway. Stephen is also doing activities at the library. He especially liked the program Dan Wardell from Iowa Public Television gave last week. I took a picture on my phone, but when I went to put it on the computer, it disappeared. I'll have to try to find it in cyberspace somewhere.

Randy is out-of-town quite a bit this month. I counted at least 11 nights in a motel. He is currently at his pursuit driving recertification class for a couple of days down in Ottumwa. He also has his other two classes, a certified public management class and masters of public administration class, several times this month. One meets at the Drake campus in Des Moines and the other class meets at Mary Greeley Hospital campus in Ames. (I probably got the class titles wrong.)

I am still doing my Hallmark and Perkins jobs. I just wish the weather would warm up a little so I could take the kids swimming.

Posted by Caroline