Harvey went to sleep last night on the floor with his new red ball next to him, like a kid with a new toy.  He really likes it.  This morning he was a bit obnoxious though.  Wanted to lie down right on me and Amanda so I pushed him to the foot on the bed, but he laid down between my legs with his big head uncomfortably on my crotch.  He later moved so his body was over my right leg, then later turned over on his back trying to get his belly rubbed.

We all went to church this morning, Amanda, Karen and I.  Mike and Kaitlyn Boscaljon sat next to us.  Kaitlyn was cooked!  It turned out that in the four hours they were out at the beach yesterday they hadn’t used any sunscreen.  I admonished them severely.  After the service I went to talk to Matt and Melissa.  Matt said he reads this site because he does want to hang out with us more, but we tend to have a hard time getting up with them so this is is way of keeping up with us.  He asked about Settlers of Catan, which was a little funny to me.  I guess we do play it a lot and I do mention it a lot.

Karen treated me and Amanda to a Cracker Barrel breakfast.  We’ve offered to pay for a few things throughout the week, but she hasn’t really let us.  I mean, that’s fine of course, but I hope she realizes that we don’t expect her to do such things.  We do appreciate it.

We got back home and got ready for the beach.  We kept referring to our bathing suits as babing supings, which is what my baby sister Andra called bathing suits when she was, well, a baby.  I’m not sure what brought that on for us.  Amanda’s new bathing suit, the one she got yesterday, is a cute one.  Anyway, Karen left, and we headed off to the beach.

As a side note, Karen mention several times contacting people who sent stuff while Amanda was out of commission from her surgery.  Rest assured, we fully plan to send out some thank you cards.

We picked up my brother-in-law, Michael Mercer, on the way to the beach and stopped by Walgreens for suntan lotion (I ended up liking the spray lotion, but it ran out too fast), chips and water.  Michael got me some Skittles and we went on to Wrightsville Beach.  Mike Boscaljon was already out there, parked at Anna and Barry’s, and he and Barry were about to walk out with surfboards when we got there.  Michael and I grabbed some too and we all hit the sand.  I caught a few and stood up several times.  Michael only stayed out for one session but Mike kept trying and trying.  I think part of the problem for him is that he’s just so tall.

Amanda called Nick and Amy Warkentein on our way out and invited them out to the beach and they came by after a while.  Mike and I went out into the water- the waves were a bit flat at that point, and we eventually got just about everyone else to get in the water too.  The waves were starting to pick back up though so we decided to surf again.  Nick and Amy had never done it so we got an extra board and they went out with me.  It was a day of surfing firsts: it was the first time out for the Warkenteins, Nick caught a wave (although he think to stand up!) and after we’d all come in and Mike was still out there, he caught one and stood up too!  I felt bad that we didn’t see it.  I guess Kaitlyn (who didn’t come out because of her sunburn) can’t tease him about it so much anymore.

While we were out there, Missy, one of the singers from church, and her husband, Eric, who I think plays guitar and brother, Rich, who plays the keyboard, all came out.  Anna had bumped into them a few weeks ago while they were looking for a place to park, they started talking and she let them park at their house.  They’d never met before, but that’s just the kind of people the Frazelles are.  We were all talking a little- I’d seen them around before and talked a little, but Nick and Amy knew them a little better.  Missy said something about liking scars and I told her she’d really like Amanda’s.  Kaitlyn actually works with them and it turns out that Missy had prayed for Amanda without knowing her when Kaitlyn said something about her surgery back then, which was really cool.  Amanda came over herself after a few minutes and they chatted some.  She liked Amanda’s scar.

We all packed it in a little after that.  We had to take Michael back to his place because he was going out with a girl from work, although he wasn’t completely sure if it was a date or not.  So we dropped him off then we met Nick and Amy back at Zaxby’s for some dinner.  Amy went on to work on an editing project she needed to get done while Nick went to go help some friends move.

Amanda and I came home, showered and watched the season finale of Reaper, in which it’s postulated that our slacker hero, Sam, is actually the son of his moonlighting job boss, the devil.  Then his human dad is seemingly killed, but is later dug up by his mom.  And a bunch of rebel demons are now out for him.

Amanda went to bed after that and I played Catan on Xbox Live.  I was playing a ranked match against people I didn’t know, but that got cut off when the power went out.  Later I started a game with Burf and one, much to his chagrin.

My back has been itching the last few days as it’s started to peel from the sunburn I had last week.  I pulled off lots of nice dead skin today, particularly after I got out of the shower.  It feels to good to peel that stuff.

Zach Dotsey