Goin' Goth

Hopefully Asa learned his lesson about leaving his markers out.

Lesson learned: Never trust an unusually quiet baby!!

KY State Fair

It's that time of year again . . . when the Preston family gets strangely and manically excited about the fair. This year we were joined by my sister and her daughter, and we had a great time. Here are some highlights and pictures!

Okay, I know it's not a picture of our family, but this was the most beautiful rooster I've ever seen. His tail was so perfectly rounded and his colors were amazing. I hope he won a prize. BTW, Maddie can do an amazingly accurate immitation of a rooster. I also got to hold baby chicks which was fun, but pretty much guaranteed I wouldn't be eating any chicken that day!

This is Caroline (obviously) in front of the rabbits. There were some amazing rabbits there, especially ones called Otter Black rabbits - Beautiful!
(Above and Below) Asa and Maddie both made beeswax candles at the 4H exhibit area. We always enjoy seeing the beehive and seeing if we can find the queen. Asa also enjoys looking at the bug collections in the judging area. He's well on his way to having a pretty cool collection.

What fair is complete without having a cutout picture taken. Here Abe and Mary Todd enjoying the day.

You may not be able to see this very well, but this is "Bruiser - The World's Largest Dog". We were all siked about seeing this enormous dog and we had even spent considerable time discussing the breed beforehand - "Was it a great Dane or a Saint Bernard?" -- NEITHER! It was a dumb dressed up dog that we darted over to see! Uh! One parent, upon seeing Bruiser, even uttered a phrase that my kids have never heard before! YIKES! As Jessi, my niece, said, "We need some earmuffs!"

Above are pictures of one of the highlights - the National Guard Obstacle Course. We had told Maddie she was too small, but she insisted she could do it! That girl always amazes us with her tenacity and fire. She did that entire course by herself with only one nudge from Logan along the way. She is so full of spirit!
Becky, Jessi and the kids on the tram taking us to the rides.

This is the part that Maddie is still talking about - the bungee jumping thing. She had so much fun - until the guy tried getting her to do a flip. At 10:00 at night, she is not interested in doing flips. Anyway, here are a couple more of her doing that!

The Father-Son Campout (from Logan)

July 19Th several fathers from our church packed their wide-eyed, adventurous sons for a time of camping, cooking, and spiritual renewal. Asa and I were among those caught up in this eastward trek. We had hoped for a relaxing camping trip and what we got was so much more.

We began Friday night with some games in the grass and a dinner of hamburgers and chips. After dinner we played a modified version of capture the flag, where two teams were pitted against each other with socks filled with flour as weapons. It was great and as you can imagine the rules were constantly changing to protect the little ones younger than nine.

That night we gathered around the fire to cook smores and talk. Lee Sexton (one of the church elders) led us in a short devotional and then set us (fathers) up for a time to share our love for Jesus Christ with our sons. We pulled away each to our families and I found talking to Asa about Jesus (a thing I do regularly) a very difficult task. The weight of my love for my savior and my son was overwhelming. I struggled greatly to fight back the tears but I managed to share Christ's love for us and my desire for Asa to love and to serve Him.

We slept OK that night and woke to a great feast. Myself and others prepared five dozen eggs with cheese, an army of sausages, several large bags of hash browns with seasoning, and a couple dozen bagels. It was a feast to be sure and we enjoyed it immensely. After breakfast we took a hike and the dads talked about history and botany while the boys ran ahead to explore the unknown. When we came back to camp we packed up and headed out.

I said before that more happened than I had thought might. The truth is that the fullness of a weekend like that one may be seen in the strong stares of our sons' eyes into ours. It may be seen in their greater desire to be near us. It may be seen in the hugs and smiles that they offer that seem to be of more substance than we had noticed before. It may be, but most likely the true fullness of that weekend will be seen in the eyes of our Lord as He shares with us the fruit of our repeated attempts with our sons: "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Here's me with our tent.

Asa loved exploring with the flashlight.

The boys couldn't stay away from the fire.

Look at our man-feast!

The hike proved to be a great time.

Reflections

We have been studying the book of Deuteronomy in Sunday School lately, and I have had some reflections over the past week on how I fit in with this book. Here they are:

**I have always thought that the Israelites wandering in the desert in Exodus were really dense to not see the Lord's provision in their lives. He provided manna, quail, water from rocks, etc., yet they continued to test God and question his goodness and provision in their lives. While studying Deut 8 today in SS, I realized that the Israelites were no different from me. The only difference between us is that they were going on the blind trust in Moses' word, and I have the complete written word of God at my disposal with promises of the Lord's goodness and provision in my life. I question God and doubt him during difficult times even though he promises to provide for us and to work out everything for my good.

**I have always thought that the Israelites were very ungrateful and wicked to not appreciate the provisions of God in their lives (they were, don't get me wrong!) I mean really, he sends manna and quail, he rescues them from Egypt, they see the signs and miracles, and he is promising them the Promised Land. Yet the griped and complained about everything. In Deut 8, it talks about how much the Lord gave them - even down to preserving their feet from swelling, but they were still so ungrateful. Those wicked Israelites. Then it hits me again -- how many times a day do I complain (even in my heart) about the size of my apartment, the size of my car, how many times we've eaten spaghetti this month, etc, etc. . . . . But how many times have I stopped to appreciate that the Lord has completely met all my needs? He has given me every good thing in Christ in addition to meeting my daily physical needs, yet I still grumble and complain. The scripture is so right when it says "There is none righteous, no not one" either 3000 years ago or today!

**In Deut 7, the Moses talks about the Lord requiring the Israelites to completely destroy the people groups living in the Promised Land. But then he says something to the effect of "I could have destroyed all those people at once, but I didn't lest the wild beasts overtake you." WOW!! This really hit me! The Lord was able to clear a path quickly and easily, but he chose not to in his wisdom and steadfast love for his people. He knew that if there weren't enough people inhabiting that land, that the wild animals would not be hunted enough and they would grow to numerous for the Israelites to handle. How many times have I questioned the goodness of God in the past 2 years because we've had to wait for his timing. But He knows whats out there waiting for us. He knows when we are ready and when they are ready to receive us. He knows what is best and in what way we can best serve Him. Maybe the wild beasts are still too numerous for us to go. God is good.

Anyway, this may be a lot of rambling, but I just wanted to encourage everyone to hold tight to the Lord. His ways and his love are true and right. He will not leave us or forsake us. Going through trials is a difficult time to see the truths of God, but they are true none the less.

Happy Father's Day

I wanted to wish all the Father's a very happy Father's Day - especially my father, husband and father-in-law. We have had a wonderful and very full weekend!

The weekend started with a visit from my parents since we weren't able to make it to Cincinnati for Father's Day. We didn't do much as far as touring Louisville, but it was so nice to visit with them and take it easy. And of course Maddie loved her new dresses that MamaMia brought.

Saturday was Asa's first baseball game. He played well although he's going to need some batting practice. Also very exciting was this being Logan's first time coaching baseball. He's doing a great job with the kids and having a good time, too.

Coach, Asa, and Caroline

Running for Home!

Saturday night was Asa's good friend Brandon's birthday party. He had fun playing with boys his age, and he especially liked watching the (old) Transformers movie. I don't see the appeal myself, but to each his own!! We got home really late that night, but we had had a great day.

Sunday was, of course, Father's Day, and we had a quiet and relaxing day. I finished a book I'd been working on, everyone played in the pool, and we had a good dinner. Logan got a theology book he's been wanting, so he was very happy!
Sunday was also the day of my most stupid moment! Logan was singing the song "Old Man River" from a movie called Show Boat. Anyway, in a moment of arrogance, I said "Asa, I will buy you any Playmobil you want if you can tell me what river they are singing about in this song." Of course, I wouldn't have said that if I thought he had any idea what river it was. He knows nothing about geography at this point. So he says, "HMMM, I think it's the Mississippi River!!" AAAAAHHHH. . . . . Logan looks at me like "Way to go, slick" and I stared at Asa in utter confusion and amazement! Where did he learn about the Mississippi River?? Whoever taught him that owes me $30. Anyway, we went out this morning and he is thrilled with his new Playmobil knight set. Anyway, the postcard project is trucking along. We've gotten a lot more. Thanks especially to Heather for getting so many of her friends to send them (because it's all about you!) and to Michele for the great pictures of Montana! We are loving seeing them all.

Here are some random pictures:





These above are all pictures from April. Some good friends came into town so our husbands could go to a big conference. We all had fun "playing" with old friends!

Postcards

Not much is happening here. We just got back from the pool where I'm gradually getting the kids used to being in the sun again. I know I look like a reject out there with my timer, but I don't want them burning. We went up to 40 minutes today. We'll see how they do. Logan is teaching the youth tonight, so that's fun.

Okay - It's true! I'm having more fun with the postcards than Asa. But, it's very exciting to get mail from all over the country - even if it's not for me!! The last few days we've gotten MD, VA, LA, NV, and TN. Check out the list to the right of all the missing states!

Postcards

We are well on our way...well, almost. We now have 3 postcards with lots of promises of more to come. We have Georgia, Oregon and Washington State. It's fun for Asa to get these because he hasn't heard of many of the states yet. He likes to look at the map and see where these far off places are. I hope we're able to collect them all.

I wanted to share a funny thing that Asa said. Caroline has started biting people when she's frustrated with them, which is such a charming, lady-like thing for her to do. Anyway, Maddie was also a biter, and we were all discussing this in the car the other day. Asa says, "Well, back here (meaning in the back seat) there is one faithful and two biters." I said "What?" and he explained that since he is a believer in Christ that he is faithful and his sisters are biters! Apparently you can't be both!!