Skeeter Bites

     They warned us, and we listened - sort of.  Both Craig and I have been mosquito bit this week.  It's annoying.  For the most part, they are little bitty things, not much bigger than flies.  Not like the huge mosquitos we have in California that you can see across the room.  They itch just as bad, though.

We've had several deer sightings.  I caught a picture of this one right on the side of the road.  Unfortunately, when it saw the car stop, and me get out, it bounded away.

 I know it looks like two deer, but the large black blob on the right is a deer lawn ornament.  The smaller blob to the left is the actual deer disappearing behind the hill.  LOL

This week was the Fourth of July.  We had a wonderful lunch at John and Peggy Luzer's.  Good food and good friends.  Fireworks are legal here, and there are whole stores devoted to selling them.  We stopped in out of curiosity once, and the fireworks are NOT cheap.  As the evening approached, we took our chairs and sat outside our little apartment.  Our neighbors two blocks to the north had a great fireworks show.  They must have shot off 60-70 high, exploding, fireworks.  The neighbors about a block south also had fireworks.  So cool.

The following Saturday was "Cruise Night" in Rensselaer.  To say that Craig had been looking forward to this for some time is an understatement.  We just "happened" to drive by the car show earlier in the day.

But the real excitement was the evening cruise.

This sign was up for a couple of weeks before the show.  All Craig could talk about was stealing the sign.  When our neighbor showed him - close up - how they reused the sign each year, he relented.

We lined up early.  This is our neighbor, Stacey, and another friend, Brian.  The ONLY reason they have matching shirts is that Craig and I also have matching shirts.  They are total copy cats.

We sat across the street from a live DJ.  And a host of townies.

The cruise started with a police escort, some Jasper County Fair princesses (I think) then a long line of cars.

We watched for about an hour.  The cars were driving through town, then doubling back, turning around in a parking lot just past where we were sitting, and driving back through town.  Craig and I were having a contest as to who could guess the singer or group of each of the songs being played - oldies of course.  He won - but not by much.

Dinner followed at Stacey's house.  Yummy BBQ.  Thanks to Stacey and Brian for cooking.

You can see that the corn is now taller than Craig.  We are wondering just how tall it will get.  When you consider that they didn't plant until the middle of May, that's some fast growing.  Craig speculates that if you sit very quietly at the edge of the field, you should be able to hear it crackle as it grows.

I saw this sign on a back street and it made me smile.  I also believe that yielding to trains may be a good idea.  For health reasons.

For all our never-lived-outside-of-California peeps, THIS is what a lightening bug looks like.  Eww

AND, I saw this clever mailbox at one of our member's houses.  Brother and Sister Bowman, you rock.

All you big city people, let me share something about Indiana roads.  They are quaint.  The "freeway" which is only free until you get to I-80, is two lanes in each direction.  When someone started talking about the four-lane freeway, I had to clarify that she was talking about this very road, in other words, two lanes North and two lanes South makes four lanes.  Yes, yes she was.  Most roads, including State Roads, are one lane in each direction.  AND, living in a farming part of town, you may often see this:

Luckily, the roads are not too crowded and tractors can usually be passed without too much of a back up.

We put a lot of miles on our car weekly.  It's nothing to drive 20 - 30 miles out of town to visit ward members or go to a teaching appointment.  And those back country roads?  Well you just aim the car right down the middle of the road and put the pedal to the metal.  heh heh

We are very excited about tomorrow.  The sister missionaries have been teaching a wonderful young man named Jay.  He is getting baptized tomorrow.  He has asked Craig to baptize him.  Other than his children, this will be Craig's first baptism of a new member.  He is more excited than Jay, I think.  We are also leaving Monday for New York, to attend the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  (Google that to find out all about it.)  We will post pictures when we get home.

We miss everyone and love reading about all you are doing (or at least what you are posting on Facebook).  We feel needed and loved here in Indiana.  President Portwood keeps telling us he is going to call Salt Lake and request a five-year extension for us.  Couldn't ask for more than that.