A Couple of Family Funnies

It became apparent that a summer of shorts with growing kids leads to a fall shopping trip. Arielle and I valiantly headed to out to our own “war” – “The Shopping War”. We were thrilled to find all the right sizes 30 x 32; 32 x 32; 32 X 34; 8 slims….on sales at Ross’s and the other famed battleground – Wal-mart. It appears, however, that one must now watch for the CUT and not just the size. I noticed that the relaxed jeans we bought the older three young men seemed rather baggy. I commented that I seemed to have gotten the wrong size and was assured that I got the right size. I then noted that they didn’t seem very relaxed. Jared (11) solved the mystery of the baggy pants for me, “Mom, I wouldn’t call it relaxed having to jump behind a tree every 5 minutes to pull your pants up!” :::snort::::

Zander continues to give me wonderful advice on parenting and life in general. I’m not sure WHERE he picked it up but he loves to tell me, “MOM!!! RE – LAAAAAX!” He also has begun cocking his head to the left and saying "You talking at me?" and "don't sass me"....sigh. To show him in a brigther l ight I continue to struggle with wrist pain (and feet pain too???). Zander has taken to asking me quite often "Mom, Your wrist hurt?" and giving me a hug. One day last week I asked Zander to help me carry laundry and he said, "Ohhh....my wrist hurts!" He also has a new habit of shaking the computer mouse. I asked what he was doing and he said, “waking UP the mouse”.

CONCHO RIVER

 ~ 15 October 2005

We are discovering that TX and AK are reverse images of each other. In AK it is winter 9 months of the year; in TX it is summer 9 months of the year. What a relief that “cold weather” is finally starting to slowly descend on Western TX. It’s now in the 80*s. I believe our highs are supposed to begin dipping into the high 70*’s next week….and the lows in the 40*s. All that to say this: in AK we didn’t see our neighbors during the winter and they’d all reappear in the summer. HERE we are noting that we see more and more people every week while we are out and about in the parks, on our walks, at the lake and river…



The younger five and I had so much fun on the Concho River last Friday that we INSISTED on taking the older two boys and Mike back for a peek. We left the house loaded with two bags of mostly stale buns for the ducks…and the C*A*M*E*R*A. We were barely at the bank when the ducks began to drift our way. There is *something* about tossing bread to ducks that is very appealing to all ages.

The younger set and I were hoping that the stray muskrat, which had drifted into our duck feeding escapade on our prior adventure, would make reappearance. We hoped our friendly muskrat wasn’t camera shy. In less than 2 minutes of feeding ducks our muskrat showed up ~ with family and friends in tow. We think we found a nest/den/whatever you call muskrat homes….they were swimming under the bank where we were standing. There was even a very tiny baby muskrat brave enough to dart in and out for bread. They certainly could care less about the camera…as long as bread was somewhere in the vicinity of the camera.

Eventually, we had our fill of feeding ducks and muskrats and began a leisurely walk along the river….as leisurely as any walk can be with an energetic Zander in tow. Unlike the San Antonio River Walk, this River Walk is not commercialized. There are no restaurants and shops along the river….just wildlife, nature, fishermen, and skaters across the street. They’ve also built a wonderful park for children, Kids Kingdom, along the river. We’ll have to get pictures of it one of these weeks.

It was fun to see various fishermen and the bait they were using. We have decided that we will not eat anything that we know is caught in this river. It is the slowest moving river any of us have ever seen…more like a lake. We can’t help but wonder what is under the surface besides muskrat and water moccasins (which we also spotted).

We ended the night by snapping the obligatory family picture (seen above) and skipping over a few blocks to Scholtskys for a “serious sandwich with a funny name”.

PAINT BALL WAR

15 October 2005

Two of Mike’s squadrons determined that a day of “team building fun” was in order. The commanders lighted on the idea of a Paint Ball War on the base. As the chaplain, Mike was invited to attend and told he could bring his children along for the fun. Josiah, Jamin and Jared decided to join him. Arielle and I thought the whole idea sounded a bit nutty and possibly painful; the younger boys were sleeping when it was time to leave. While I worked on updating the blog the men ventured forth with Mike to “war”.

Near as I can tell they had a blast! We’ve been reliving the four rounds in our dreams and conversations. It would appear that there was at least ONE from the family standing at the end of each round and one round where the only ones left standing were ours. What amused me the most were the comments the boys overheard. “Chaplain G is aggressive”…..”Chaplain G really lights them up”. It would seem it is not just the females in our house that think Chaplain G and his 3rd son are a might bit competitive.

I was ready to attribute this whole event to T-poisoning until Mike informed me that there was quite a bit of estrogen running around on the field as well. Now that we’ve discovered that the base has a paint ball field and equipment you can rent…we are sure to try this as a family. I noted that a box of paint balls made it home with the guys.

Family Weekly Digest

 ~ Week of 9 October
“Just the facts” – http://not2many@blogspot.com

Note:*means there is an entry with more details on the blog about this line item
**means there is an entry with photos on the blog about this line item

~When counting heads to make sure all the children are safe and accounted for I catch myself counting, “1, 2, 3, 4,5,6,7, and 2 in Spokane”. For you older moms…is this something I’ll do the rest of my life or will I adjust to counting 7 and knowing all is well?

~** Air show – perfect day for a great air show – 8 October

~**Sunday Finery – picture and blurb about our visit to the Gospel Service

~**Nolan learns to “ride” a bike

~**Zander learns to ride a Tricycle – he rides like the wind

~Watched Wallace & Gromit – We were disappointed with the adult humor

~**Stacia tries to roll over, has a 2 month baby check up and a VCUG this week. We are still waiting for VCUG results but the doctor says she is now at the 50% for weight and is very advanced socially. He didn’t believe she interacted and did the things I said she did; so he tested her. He said most babies aren’t beginning these things until 4 months. I explained that she was the youngest of 9 children. He said she was “socially and developmentally advanced”. Not sure that is a trend we want to continue. Pictures uploaded of Stacia learning to roll over.

~*Alex’s potty training adventures (see Zanderisms)

~**School continues on. We enjoyed math manipulatives this week. We also found some favorite websites for exploring space.

~Jamin’s team wins last year’s champs 14 – 7; if they win one more game they will be in the state play offs. This is pretty heady stuff for a team that didn’t win a single game in the previous two years.

~Friday Fun Day – The younger ones and I went to Kids Kingdom while Josiah ran to the library and Jamin went to football practice. It was a great day to visit the park. It was much cooler than it was on 4 July when it was 105*. We fed the ducks and geese. We were all taken aback when an ugly muskrat swam into the midst of the ducks and geese. It had big red teeth and red eyes. It was cute the way it scooped up the food we were throwing. I forgot the camera.

~**When faced with the age old “eat what I fix or don't eat at all" mother lecture” Alex finds a solution (see Zanderisms)

~**Zander discovers that Oompa Lumpas live in the computer? Nah – those are MEN! (See Zanderisms)

Stacia’s learns a new trick

I happened on Stacia trying to roll over. I quickly ran for the camera. When she noticed the camera, she stopped to smile and then rolled over on her back to coo and smile. I’ll have to be a bit more stealthy in the future. She’s about 8 weeks in these photos.

SCHOOL DAZE

Week of 9 October 2005

I’m not sure why, but folks seem interested in what we are doing in school. Here you go:

This week Josiah and Jamin are tackling Faust. They are also reading *Men in Black* by Mark Levine. We are all studying the founding of the Supreme Court. What a timely issue this is to study. They have been visiting many internet sites as well.

Jared discovered this week that he is much better at spelling than he expected. He made a 90% on the test from his new 6th grade spelling book.
Arielle and Nolan enjoyed pattern blocks and other math manipulatives this week. Here Arielle tries to make sure that her missing tooth is in the picture. We continue to begin our school day with either a walk or a bike ride.

Arielle, Nolan and Jared are all studying Astronomy. Here are some links we found this week that we enjoyed. We plan to try to find Mars on Wed morning in our sky. We also hope to catch an awesome meteorite shower in the upcoming weeks.

http://www.dustbunny.com/afk/skymaps/ This site has maps for meteor showers
http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/ssv.html A cool animation of the solar system
http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/index.html deep space 1 - Zander’s site!!

Air Show

We were blessed with a PERFECT day for an Air Show last Saturday. The temp has taken a down swing and fall weather may be here to stay. There was a refreshing, cool breeze. There were no clouds in the sky. We had worried about sun stroke; but the sun was behaving. The temps were in the low 80’s. In addition to the weather we were blessed with GREAT seats this year. The base off-campus housing is near the lake and the airport. We were invited to watch the Air Show from the home of the NCOIC at the chapel. What a great solution. The little ones were able to play. We had comfy seats to sit in and plenty of shade.

We brought burgers and John grilled them. Melody and I enjoyed the chance to get to know one another. Nolan and Zander had a great time playing with their oldest, Noah (9 or 10). Arielle loved playing with Shiloh (4?), while visions of sisterly fun must have danced in her imagination. Stacia enjoyed lounging in her stroller. I was worried about the sun and had her decked out in a cute, skin-tight cap. The boys teased me mercilessly saying she looked like a gang baby.

John had just returned from an AETC Wing Chaplain/NCOIC conference in San Antonio and so he and Mike spent some time talking leadership philosophy and such. John recommended a book called True faced that I am going to need to look up. Melody and I discussed getting something started for the spouses of those who work in the chapel – what we may want to do and what we hope for it to look like.

The planes cooperated fully to create a perfect day. Zander seems to have forgotten how load F-15’s could be and was terror stricken when one flew directly over his head…it did seem to be lining up with the street he was running down and it was quite low…would have made a great picture but Mike had claimed the camera for the day.

At one point the older boys left to play tennis at the lake, but they eventually returned and we completed the day with ice cream and toppings. How can you beat that????

Jared (11)

Josiah (16)