Family Pride.

My Brother took these over Memorial Day weekend...

There are no words...

Okay, well...who am I kidding...there are always words.

A few weeks ago, one of our friends from my last church sent us this Fireman Costume for Ben. He absolutely loves it - even in the summer heat. We were at my parents' for Memorial Day Weekend, so he was able to demonstrate proper fire extinguishing protocol.

My father has an affinity for odd purchases from flea markets and garage sales, and I have to admit that he sometimes has a very keen eye. For instance, the hose nozzle. PERFECT for turning a common hose into a fireman's hose.

It's been a busy, busy few weeks.

This past Sunday was Celebration Sunday at our church. It was our pastor's 10th anniversary, and we had a huge event on the site of our future building. We had lunch on the grounds, the pool was open and cleaned-up, and everyone was able to be together rather than our usual morning of two services.

I'm in the middle of preparations for VBS next week - and of course the weather is already insanely hot. We're just praying that no kids have heat stroke/exhaustion during the events.

And this week is my mother's official first week of retirement. Last Friday was the final day of her 43-year tenure as a classroom teacher (probably 95% of which time has been spent as a Kindergarten teacher). It's kind of surreal for both of my parents to be retiring - it just hasn't hit me yet that Dad is finishing up as well. He's a counselor, so it's not as involved for him to pack it up. Mom, on the other hand, had tons of stuff to pack up, throw away and give away.

Dad still has a couple of weeks left on the job - finishing test reports and posting grades, and all of the other minutia that goes along with the administrative end of a school year.

My brother commented that if you want to buy my mother a retirement gift, a bucket of range balls for Dad is the perfect fit - each one'll keep Dad out of the house for about 90 minutes.

I'm insanely proud of my parents, and I can't help but think back on all of the times they went above and beyond the call - attending sporting events and after hours engagements to support their kids, Dad playing "Donkey Basketball" as a fundraiser, the calls he would make on behalf of families of children with special needs. Dad's an information HOUND...and he doesn't take no for an answer. Hours upon hours of telephone calls resulted in families knowing exactly where to go for assistance...when they had no previous knowledge that assistance even existed.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots more of them in the coming years. I told my mother that this 43 year run in the classroom was nothing but a prolonged conditioning exercise to keep up with her grandkids.

It's a race I know they are both ready to embark on.