Abby got her wisdom teeth pulled last Wednesday (23rd). Her appointment was early. I met her in the oral surgeon's recovery room where she was very drowsy. While she alternated holding ice over each cheek, she repeatedly told me how they put the IV in her arm and not her hand. I drove her home and set her up on the couch with remote, ice packs, water and tylenol. Alex was the first visitor (no surprise) and stayed and helped most of the day. Good thing as I had work to do from home. Abby was so impressed with her speedy recovery, she let a friend take her to the mall for gelato against my advice. Her girlfriends came over with ice cream in the evening. She had a bumpy night which turned into a sickly morning. Jeff stayed home with her Thursday and I went in to work. She was sick the entire day and Jeff ended up calling the doctor for help. One dose of the prescription in the evening, and Abby was finally able to let her body relax. I was off Friday and chauffeured Abby to the regional baseball game vs. Brookfield Central at Arrowhead. They won! And went on to win over Arrowhead at 4:00, earning their place to play at State! Abby felt OK to work her 3-hour shift that evening and show off her post-wisdom-teeth-removal chipmunk cheeks.




Bryn returned from Coahoma on Saturday (26th) afternoon. We held a welcome back luncheon for the kids and chaperones inside the church when they arrived. Unlike last year where Bryn only called us once, she out-called all the other trippers this year! I was actually filling parents in with details learned from Bryn's phone calls! Bryn had a fantastic, inspiring time again helping residents fix up their homes and playing with the children. Next year the team voted to go to Ohio so they won't experience the subtropical heat again. Everyone commented how their clothes were dripping wet from sweat within 20 seconds of walking outside. They all were also amazed at how rural the community was. "It was surrounded by cornfields!" Bryn slept 12 hours Saturday night before going back to church to celebrate the mission trippers' homecoming at mass Sunday morning.

Meg was concerned about Abby's recovery and checked in daily. We were turning Abby over to Meg for the week starting Saturday! Jeff drove Abby down to Meg's Saturday night after Abby worked again. They made record time on their way down, but Jeff said coming back Sunday was a different story. He finally pulled back in to our driveway around 3pm, only to pack up the van to drive up north at 5!

This was the only week where all of us had an open schedule, so we decided to take a few days and laze around on the lake. We cancelled Bryn's trombone lesson, her babysitting job and Paige's clarinet lesson. It's really difficult for me to adjust to not having anything to do and I wish I would've brought a few more things along. But the weather couldn't be better for being near water. Tuesday there was a chance for storms so we went in to town and had a burger at the local greasy spoon and went to Mamma Mia! (The movie did not rival the show.) Theo's coat is already so pretty from constantly swimming. We had terrific weather. Jeff helped my dad scrape the bad varnish off the cabin's exterior, we went golfing Friday morning, to the Shawano Fly Out Saturday morning and filled the rest of the time swimming and relaxing.

The Sears clan drove north for their week at the cabin Saturday where we made the Abby exchange. Meg and William left Indy at 4am while we stayed up for the day so the kids could all play together (we had the easy part of the deal).