Dead Cow Walking

When I bought tickets for the "major raffle" at our parish festival, I did it thinking it would be a nice donation to the church. I certainly never win anything big and didn't expect to this time-especially not the $7000 or whatever the major prize was. What a surprise when Mom called to tell me that I did win something in the major raffle-a side of beef! I called my sister to ask what the heck I was supposed to do with a half of a steer. Her answer, "Duh, eat it/put it in a freezer." Okay, I know some people own deep freezers, but we have the one on our refrigerator and I'm pretty sure that will not hold 400 pounds of beef. I thought maybe I could ask the farmer to set the animal free, but no such luck-someone else won the other side of beef, so you can see how that might be awkward. Where's the beef now? My side of beef is on the hoof until at least Sept. 1 when Mr. Boehm (farmer/beef provider) is trying to make an appointment to have him "processed". We expect we'll meet our beef sometime in October.

Joey is now seven years old! He had a great party and received lots of nice gifts. He tried to be a good host, but his presents kept calling to him, "Play with me, put me together..." We were very lucky with the beautiful weather that the kids were able to play outside keeping the inside mess to a minimum:)
Alyson and Rachel spent the night with us after the party. They are actually still asleep right now (9:05) while Joey is building legos. He can't wait for them to wake up, but we agreed last night not to wake each other up this morning.
Greg made it home Saturday and luckily, was able to be here for Joey's party. Hopefully we have another day or two before he has to fly off to his next post. He is officially finished with his training and ready to take his place as an airline pilot.

Michele is moving to Vegas-how exciting and what a brilliant opportunity for her! Making such huge changes in life is so difficult, but she is hoping for an even better future!

This is our last free week until school starts:( Our schedule is full so we'll be pretty busy, but we plan to enjoy this last week of summer. Hopefully Greg will be around for some of it:)