A few photos from Eric's welcome back party yesterday here. Eric has been in Mexico for the last two months, so Scott invited people over to his house to celebrate Eric's return. Thanks to the fact that Lisa's sister Lindsey was in town with her daughter Caitlin, and also to the fact that the Petras and Niesses came (the Petras with baby Eli, the Niesses with wee Micah), the house was comparatively full of kids. It turned out to be a perfect evening to be outside: the kids played with inflatable balls and a frisbee on the grass, while some of the rest of us sat around on the back porch and talked.

Now Playing: Notre-Dame de Paris.

 My zinnias have finally started to bloom. So far, they're just pink.

 One Sunday at church, Annie gave Lisa and me a pot of pink splash, miniature ivy, and petunias. Unfortunately, the petunia buds look a lot like the dead flowers, and since they need to be deadheaded regularly, I'm always in danger of pulling off the buds instead of the dead ones.

Our tomatoes have reached absolutely monstrous proportions, as has the lantana. Hopefully the tomatoes will now turn to producing fruit instead of trying to grow higher than the house.

Indiana is lush in June! The top photo is from woods northwest of Bloomington; the bottom one, from the Lilly House formal gardens in Indianapolis.

More photos added to this album.

Now Playing: Indelible Grace, "Rock of Ages."

It's been some month so far...! Last week was VBS in Bloomington. Angie and I were teachers for the first and second graders, which meant that we had five boys and three girls to shepherd around the church all week. More like herd, actually. Some of the boys were quite unruly, which made teaching memory verses, doing worksheets, and even lining up to go outside for games an adventure. I was hoarse by the end of the week. During the closing program on Friday evening, though, all the kids were able to say their memory verses in front of a large group of assembled parents and guests, which was quite encouraging. At least they were paying attention some of the time.

During VBS week, Rachel visited from Illinois, so it was good to have her around. She helped Scott with games for the kids and was invaluable in that role. She also cooked for us two nights in a row, which was pretty delicious. One of those meals was her family's special tacos, white corn tortillas fried in a pan of oil on the stovetop.

The first summer session ended last week as well. We had our French final on Thursday. Now it's down to working on my own in order to pass the French reading proficiency exam sometime in September. I'm just thankful not to have to dedicate so much time to class anymore. Of course, I need to test for Latin proficiency at some point in the near future, too.

Now Playing: Nick Drake, "Five Leaves Left," "The Thoughts of Mary Jane."

It's gotten so warm here this week that birds are panting as they fly. Yesterday evening, while Scott and I were making tea, Laura befriended a cat who's been hanging around our house. She's a young calico cat, mostly grey, and she was lying on our back porch, panting. We sat outside after tea, and the cat stuck around, purring so hard that her whiskers vibrated. The cat didn't even mind when Laura started strumming her guitar. Lisa and Lydia, Lisa's sister who's living with us this summer, were both totally disgusted by how much we were enjoying the cat and how much the cat was enjoying us.

Now Playing: Notre-Dame de Paris, for which I have Laura and Peter to thank.

Photos from this weekend here.

Love this photo. So happy to have a new sister in the family!

Philip and Alyson were married this past Saturday. Scott and I drove over to St. Louis for the wedding, and it was a pretty wonderful weekend. Stressful, yes, since Laura, Stephen, and I were all in the wedding party, but really good to see everyone, not only family members, but also TU friends and old family friends. The wedding itself was beautiful and the reception elegant.

After the reception the wedding party went to Forest Park for dinner. It was good to be able to relax in that smaller group (by no means intimate, though it felt intimate after all the panoply of the wedding ceremony and preparation!). We sat on a green lawn by a small lake and watched ducks and white egrets on the water. Philip and some of the other groomsmen threw grapes at the ducks. Caroline, Alyson's wee sister, walked across a tightrope that a couple of random guys had set up between a couple of nearby trees. She was so excited with the experience that she made Alyson walk across it, too, in her wedding dress, with Philip's help--the photographers made the most of the opportunity. (The random guys, thankfully, didn't mind all the attention that their tightrope-walking lesson was drawing!)

Laura, Keith, and I were the last ones at the park. We got to wave Philip and Alyson good-bye as they drove away in a wee red Ford, very similar to the wee red car our parents drove away from their wedding reception.