I’m all caught up in the Olympics! I love the gymnastics, the track and field, the swimming and the tennis, but I’m not totally into fencing and cycling. My heart hurts for the ones that don’t win. Obviously someone has to win and the rest lose, but I can’t imagine the pain of training and the self deprivation of major parts of your life so that you can compete in an event, only to lose. It hurts my heart for them. One of my classmates asked me who I root for and the answer is easy. First I shout for the US team, if they don’t make it, I scream for Canada, and if all that fails; I root for Great Britain. It works for me.I did my civic duty and voted in the run off election. I’m sure all of you have had the same mass of literature and phone calls that have flooded my home. It is so hard to determine the truth about any one candidate. One person will send out a don’t vote for Mr. X because he’s a bum, and the next minute you get a rebuttal saying Mr. Y lied; so vote for X. I do quite a bit of research, but still don’t know if I’ve reached a good decision.Vacation Bible School started Sunday evening. We had a few kids missing due to the play day at the rodeo arena. I expect to see at least another 20 on Monday. The twenty-nine kids and 15 helpers had a rousing good time. The Go Fish VBS group is high octane. I know we were all singing and dancing to some rocking good songs! This is a great ministry and I’m so thankful to see our teens stepping forward to come and help with the younger students. I like to see my “kids” and ask how they are doing. Bralei Lewis, Brittany Bush, Courtney Grady and Traven Day, did a really great job of helping the teachers. Mrs. Brockman was there Sunday night. She’s having a super busy time herself. She put her son Robert on a plane to Bangor, Maine and will be helping her daughter Laura to move to Red River, New Mexico. We grannies hate to see our babies move away!My course at Howard Payne is complete. We have some follow up material to present, but we are done for now. I have to say our special professors did all they could to get us up to scratch. Dr. Rosotto, Dr. Bryant, Dr. Clarkson and the two math professors kept us busy and never lost their patience with us when we failed to grasp a concept. As for the teachers, it shows me once again how dedicated our teaching professionals can be. The Teacher Quality Grant gave each teacher an iPad2 for use in their classroom, but it took three weeks out of our all too short summer. I’m not complaining; we had a great learning time. I’m applauding the 17 area teachers and 6 professors who chose to advance their teaching methods during their summer break period. Way to go teachers, HPU professors and the TQR grant folks especially Mrs. Powers.We have many sick who need our prayers as always, Kenneth Powell, Curtis Smith, Weldon Faught, June McPherson, and Paul Gibson to list just a few. H.B. Adams is home recuperating, as is Melissa Evans, Harold Hardeman says he is doing much better. Bev Cohn is also doing better. Please continue to pray for our precious troops and their families. My own soldier is home with his family. I know there is really no safe place in the world, but it helps to have your loved ones close and in a country that has some semblance of security. We live in a wonderful country. May God please continue to bless America.