Albertsons of Northern Kentucky: June in Kentucky

Janet's sister, Brenda and her husband, Charlie Owens were in the Cincy area for his nephew's wedding the first weekend in June. On June 1, they surprised the girls at Chick-fil-A by stopping by for a few minutes and hugs.

Later that evening, they came by our house to visit. It was good to see them, but next time, they are staying with us!

On June 2, Janet was at a funeral at our church and got the picture below from Rowen. He was getting ready to replace the deck door screening, when he came across this snake on our deck. He had a screw driver in his hip pocket, and impaled the snake to our deck! We didn't know what kind it was, but our general idea is to kill it and find out later.

After it was impaled, it tried to get away. The effort was fruitless.

Since then, we think maybe it was a ratsnake, which is not harmful to humans, but good for killing rodents. But to prevent heart attacks to the humans that live here, it's better to get rid of all snakes. We were advised to put out mothballs, and haven't seen any snakes since. Janet went to a neighbor gathering next door that afternoon and several of the neighbors whipped out their phones and shared their snake pictures. Apparently, they are common in the area, but we hope they won't visit us again!

The same day, Rowen spotted this large turtle below our deck. It was the day for startling encounters with critters...

On June 3, we had Anthony and Adrian Arender and their children and two nieces over for Sunday dinner. They recently moved to God's Bible School and attend our church. We loved the opportunity to get acquainted with them.

We've been enjoying eating breakfast on the deck lots of mornings this summer. Early morning is the best temperature time of the day to be outside.

Emily decided to trade off her Red Chariot. She had put so much money into it, and wanted something more reliable.

So she bought this 2005 Toyota Camry. It is very similar to Elizabeth's, except that it is light brown instead of silver, and a fancier package, including leather seats and a sunroof.

Joyce Cooper is one of the adult Sunday School teachers who we really enjoy. She is a lifelong teacher and brings so many interesting tidbits to the lesson.

Our church had VBS in June. There were up to 75 children who came. Frances Stetler did a fantastic job of keeping the kids' attention and getting across her theme of Treasures Money Can't Buy.

The program on Sunday morning

The children who could come for the Sunday morning program enjoyed playing How Great Thou Art with handbells.

Our pastor and pastress, Darrell and Regina Stetler. We love them so much!

We girls were coordinating that Sunday.

An update on the growth of our Earthbox garden. We are having to cut the tops off of the tomato plants about every week to keep them about Janet's height.

The zucchini have been disappointing. There are too few female blossoms so we have few zucchini fruit on the vines. We don't know what to do about that...

Father's Day Rowen and his girls

Emily played a beautiful offertory that morning on her violin. The medley included: "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," and "I Choose to Trust."

Steve and Korin Harms came over for dinner on Father's Day. Their kids were with grandparents and they looked so lonely that we had them over and taught them Qwerkle and Things games.

Jeffrey and Lesa showed up early Monday morning and stayed until the end of the month with us. They helped us by finishing the master bath remodel that we started at Christmas time. That's another post for next time. This picture was taken the following Sunday when Jason and Karen also were here with us for dinner.

That afternoon, Emily did a sweet photoshoot with Jeffrey and Lesa. Out of a hundred wonderful pictures (they are so photogenic) I'll share the following:

Monday evening, June 25, we went out to eat at Dewey's Pizza in Newport, KY.

Then we walked on the Purple People Bridge across the Ohio River.

These kids are so talented, they can be in different states and still kiss!

Then we took a very long walk all the way from the Newport on the Levee across the Taylor-Southgate Bridge to the Ohio side and all the way to Smale Park. Next time, we'll park on the other side closer to the park!!

We finally arrived at the first huge swings and rested a bit.

The flowers were so gorgeous!

Our kids in front of the Roebling Bridge

It was so special to spend the evening together.

Saying our goodbyes to Jason and Karen after we had a circle of prayer time. This was the evening before Elizabeth left on her summer internship--a couple weeks in Hobe Sound, Florida at Gospel Publishing Mission, and then a month in Taiwan with missionaries there doing VBS and English camps and adult English classes.

Karen and Emily

On June 28, Jeff and Lesa made us an Israeli supper. They made falafels, which look like meatballs, but have garbanzo beans as the protein in them. They were yummy!