Chiggers, Shiners, and Bee Stings

The day after we got back from Virginia beach, a bunch of little dots that had been on Myles' torso broke out into full-fledged chigger bites. Itchy, red, angry bites covered his torso, in addition to other areas...one night he woke up 6 times before 2am. We slathered him in lotions and potions, my favorite being one that I made from coconut oil, olive oil, and strained garlic. A little stinky, but effective. On Wednesday, I flew to Tampa with my co-pastor Sara for the United Church of Christ's General Synod (our national gathering, which happens every other year). See if you can find me in this flash mob video.
(hint: I'm wearing a green shirt and dancing behind the palm tree on the left)
The whole thing was dreamed up by another pastor in her 30's, and the piece was choreographed by a 14 year old named Ebony, who is dancing front and center with the blue shirt (clearly, she's the best dancer out of all of us!). The most awesome thing about a flash mob is that everyone loves it. They pull out their phones and video tape it, they smile, laugh, and clap, and here we are...a strange mix of people of different ages, races, and dancing abilities from all over the country, shaking it for Jesus. I do love the UCC. We also had the chance to hear Nuttin' but Stringz perform...two brothers, ages 23 and 25 who grew up to a single mom in Queens, who began playing violin at the age of 8 and were accepted into Julliard at age 10. They are phenomenal musicians, and their style of violin is unlike anything I've ever heard. I need to get an album. Anyhow, here's a link from Synod, it's worth watching.

When I left, Myles' chiggers were pretty bad. But when I arrived home, he also had a bee sting, a cat bite, a skin rash (not chiggers, something else) and a black eye. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't go away for so long again. To Seth's credit, he was his usual, amazing self while I was away, taking Myles swimming, to play dates, to a 4th of July party/cook out, biking, playing, and much more. They never rest while I'm away. Unfortunately, Myles was jumping on the trampoline with a friend and the zip up netting-door did not get closed, and he bounced right out, hence the black eye. He got the cat bite for not following instructions to leave a cat alone who didn't want to be bothered by Myles...that's one we need to work on. We have no idea where the rash came from. I felt a little funny dropping him off at preschool today looking like he did.

Anyhow, after all that, Seth also managed to run a race on the 4th of July, a 5k in which he trounced the field, smoked the competition and ran splits of 5:09, 5:20, and 5:20 respectively. He also managed to look calm and alluringly handsome in the above photo which I copied from the Asheville citizen-times website. Who is this superstar to whom I'm married?

Getting into the car, he was buckling Myles in when he placed his first place award on top of the car and promptly forgot about it. He drove away and only when he got home did he realize it was missing. So he went back and found it along I-26, looking like it had taken a hard tumble. Too funny!

We measured Myles yesterday to discover that he's grown 3/4 of an inch in the last month. He's going through a very sweet stage in which one of his favorite things to do is compliment the dinner I made. He says things like, "Mama? Will you make this again and again and again and again and again?" He knows it melts my heart. The night before I left for my big trip he said, "Mama, this is the BEST dinner I've ever had." "Wow," I said, "Thank you. It feels so good to hear you say that." He responded, "Do you know why I said that? Because, Mama, I want you to remember this dinner when you go away on your trip." While I was away and we talked on the phone he said, "Are you with a lot of pastors?" I told him I was. He ended the phone call by saying, "Have fun with all those pastors!" And I did.