Chad

• Book Club: I think next time I will pick one question for discussion? Laura has opted out of hosting the book club, I don't mind if anyone else wants to opt out or opt in? The revised schedule is:
  
  July-Lorelei
  August-Angel
  September-Marsha
  . . .
• I also read Janet Evanovich's Lean Mean Thirteen over the weekend. I love those books, I was laughing my ass off throughout the book and couldn't put it down. I am so sad to have it finished. I wish she would write faster. If you are unfamiliar with these books I recommend you go to the library and check out the first in the series, One For the Money and work your way through to number thirteen, you will be so glad you did.
  
• Jeff's best friend Chad came to visit us over the weekend. Chad is very active with his church and came down to this area for a week to help build houses destroyed by Katrina. There is still a lot of work to be done, even though we are coming up on the second anniversary. A lot of work. Chad is a carpenter/contractor, I don't know what he is. Chad owner's his own business, he fixes houses, builds houses etc. He drove his work truck all the way down here from Virginia with all his tools. He is single too, if you know anyone? Really nice, and single.
  
  Chad found that many people come down to help rebuild houses. Sometimes an entire church bus full of people will come down for a week. They will come with no experience building houses, no tools, and not make a lot of progress. Chad has decided to wrap up all the projects back home, things he is committed to, and come back down on a full time basis. Chad feels that if he is here all the time he can get things organized in such a way that everyone who comes to help will be used efficiently.
  
  Chad was saying that on one of the houses he was working on, that the week before a church group had come down, and Chad's group spent their week fixing all the things the previous group had done wrong. Like they had put the insulation in the house before it had been inspected, therefore the inspector couldn't see what he needed to see and the insulation had to be removed, the house inspected, and then the insulation re-done.
  
  I asked Chad how he was planning to feed himself, pay rent, etc.
  
  Chad has been working toward his degree at Liberty University in Virginia to become a missionary. He spends all his hard earned money to learn to be a missionary and now he is going to be living off the good graces of others in order to fulfill his calling.
  
  Jeff was happy to spend the weekend with his high school best friend and that was good. I still haven't been able to convince Jeff to going a church here. I have never been a church goer, but I was thinking that would be a good way to meet people. Jeff thinks going to church to meet people is evil and I will be struck down by a bolt of lightning. Chad thinks we should go to church.
  
• Lily's number obsession is still a lot of fun. We have been printing out all the numbers she types in the computer, cutting them up and putting them in a hat, then we pull the numbers out and identify them and put them back in order. So much fun. We also count stuff like the number of books on a shelf. We also go to the Walmart and run up and down all the isles looking for numbers one at a time from one to 100. I still haven't told her about 101 ...
  
• I have also introduced her to a love of letters. We get out the scrabble tiles and make words or put them in order alphabetically. We play home made matching games with all the words she knows how to spell. She is having a blast with the numbers and letters. I am just trying to keep her interested and going forward until this spurt passes by. This type of child development seems to be working best for Lily, the let her take the lead of what she wants to learn, me just providing ideas for things she can do, her deciding what sounds fun. She is so spoiled, but learning her numbers and letters.
  
• Mandy and I aren't speaking. She hasn't found a job. Fun times.
  
• Don't forget to vote for the August book club selection we currently have a tie.