2 years old


Happy Birthday!

Here is a little *Haiku I wrote when John was just a wee little guy:

Sweet little body
Snoring softly on my chest
Will you sleep in bed?

It seems like it was just a minute ago. He is getting so big, he is even sleeping in a big bed now. On Sunday, when I picked him up from his nursery class he said, "Fun time, class, mom." Oh man, I love that guy!

*We were writing and reading Haiku poems that fall for school. I would lay in bed counting out 5-7-5 poems. Our favorite book was Cool Melons-Turn to Frogs! The Life and Poems of Issa.

Fun at the Fair

The best part of the fair was entering our projects. It was very exciting to walk around finding our entries and checking to see how we did (by the way, I did not enter anything - wish I had.) Everyone did really well. Today we picked up the things that we entered and got our loot. Sydney got $6, Hannah got $7 and Nathan got $8.


Sydney Won!

Sydney won 1st prize for her ceramic turtle, 2nd place for her plastic melted bead thingy, 3rd place for her hot pad, and a really cool rainbow ribbon for her horse painting.


Good Job, Hannah!

Hannah won 1st place and best-of-class for her wooden picture stand, and 2nd place for her ceramic turtle.


Rattle and Bowl on Shelf

Nathan won 1st place for his baby rattle, 2nd place for his cherry bowl (some creep with a baby rattle took 1st in the turned wood division), 2nd place for his shelf, and 3rd place for his rocking horse.


Rocking Horse

The rocking horse division was hotly contested, we think Nathan's horse was the best. Apparently they liked his woodworking so much that if he enters next year he will be considered a VIP and will have a little gold nameplate by his work.

I finished!

Wonderful Walla - John

John is modeling the completed Wonderful Wallaby. I am so proud. It fits him nicely and I think he won't mind wearing it this winter. It is pretty warm here today, though, and I had a hard time talking John into wearing his new warm sweater. But I managed to force him into it. So he ran away and didn't want me to take a picture


Hiding

Then I let Emily try it on:


Emily

Which, of course, made John want another turn.


Nice Hoody


I used the Kitchener stitch to weave the hood and armpits together. Well, I mean, the hood is not connected to the armpit, but yeah, well, you know. That was pretty tricky, and partway through the hood I did something wrong, so it is a half stitch off. There was no way I could undo my stitches and try again - too confusing, but John said he doesn't mind. I found directions for the kitchener stitch here (with pictures) and here (printable). I wish you were closer, Laurie, it would have been handy to have you show me how!

Breaking News

The BRAC commission has voted to save Ellsworth AFB. whew. Hurray for South Dakota.

Maybe we will get to stay here a little longer.

In other news, Nathan is on the list for the January Deployment. Bummer. It looks like he will be leaving the end of December.



Yee haw

We had a really fun night last night at the rodeo. Nathan had to fly last night, so I took the kids to the fair for military appreciation day. The rodeo was free for military. This is the first rodeo I have gone to since the time we went to the Cow Palace in CA when I was about 8 years old. That day a bull crashed through the barriers into the stands. People were running and yelling. We were far from the excitement and that is about all I remember of the rodeo.

A B-1 flew over the rodeo, and we thought it must be Nathan. That is a very loud airplane. Nathan said that he didn't do the fly over, but was headed out the Kansas or somewhere. Oh well. It was almost him.

So we watched the bare back riding, and the calf tying, and the barrel racing and the team roping. It was all very exciting. It rained all through the rodeo, and there was some spectacular lightening. We were not under the overhang, but I took comfort in the fact that the rain was falling sideways, so even those under the overhang were getting wet, but not too wet, it was only a light rain. Our favorite was the bull riding, even though none of the bulls charged into the grandstand.

The Rain

Rain on the garden grass,
And rain on the tree
And rain on the house-top
But not upon me!


This is one of my favorite poems from mom. It is just a little preschool poem, and though I looked in my files I could not find an author. This is all of the poem that I have, mom. Do you think there is more to it?

I googled for it and found this version:
Rain on the doghouse
Rain on the dog
Rain on the duck pond
Rain on the log
Rain on the grass
And Rain on the tree
Rain on my umbrella
But not on me!

I think I like the shorter version best.

Running

It has taken me two weeks to get my running back up to where it was before vacations and a cold. I try to run 3 days a week and then I try to do something else on the other 3 days - I have been riding Hannah's bike or going on a walk, and I am thinking about swimming. So my mile times last week were over 10 minutes, but this morning I ran my 3 miles in 29 minutes - so my mile time is 9 minutes 20 seconds. Yeah for me!

One day last week I grabbed a pair of Hannah's socks, and they really hurt my poor foot. I usually wear little ankle length, smooth cotton-blend socks, but Hannah has some cotton socks with little loops inside, like terrycloth. Those little loops rubbed my instep something terrible, and when I made it back home I had to take off my shoes and do my cool down walk bare foot. Ouch. My blister is feeling better this week.

I feel rather silly riding Hannah's bike around the neighborhood. The thing about living in military housing is that you not only know your immediate neighbors, but you know people all around the neighborhood. So someone you know is sure to see you out exercising. Yesterday the bishop was heading to work as I was wheeling Hannah's bike out. Nathan let me wear his bike shorts to cushion my bum, and seeing the bishop early in the morning while wearing bike shorts is a wee bit embarrassing. Oh well. It was a nice bike ride, though all these hills make it more of a workout than I had imagined. I am getting good at shifting gears.

ps - Mom, the poem is one I got from you. I don't know who wrote it, but I think you had it with an illustration of an umbrella with only little rain boots showing underneath.

Hedgie

Mom noticed that my pet ducky is gone. When I changed the set up here on my blog, the duck disappeared. So I wandered back over to the pet shop and saw that friendly little hedgehog. He is a nice fella. If you click on him a few times he rolls up into a ball. Sydney thinks it is very cute.

Sunday

Last Sunday was a terrible, no good, really bad day for me. We had a couple of subs not show up, and a teacher go home sick, and more Sunbeams than one teacher could handle. So I had to go into Sunday School and ask for 4 helpers. Then my Sharing Time was boooring and the kids were so wiggly. And last, as we were leaving church, one gentleman kinda hugged me around the shoulder and said,"It looks like you've had a long day." (Do you think I looked that bad?) I was feeling really frustrated about it. It just seems like each week there is a new emergency.

Then Monday, as we were reading the Book of Mormon together, I had a little light-bulb moment.

President Hinkley has challenged us to read the Book of Mormon before the year is over. He says: "If you will read a bit more than one and one-half chapters a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of this year." and (this is the good part) "Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."

So as we were reading we came to the end of 1st Nephi chapter 3 where Laman and Lemuel are complaining about having to go back to Jerusalem and get the plates of brass. They have already tried to get the plates twice and lost all their gold in the process. Laman and Lemuel beat up Nephi, and an angle came to tell them to stop and to listen to Nephi, but as soon as the angel is gone, they start murmuring again. They say there is no way we can get the plates - Laban is a powerful man that controls 50 men and he will kill us. Then Nephi (in 1Ne 4:1) says: "let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands?"

It just struck me that I need to remember that it is the Lord's work that we are helping with - not my own. And that the Lord is mightier than our little primary and can find a way to help 30 - yea, even 50 nursery aged children. I just need to be faithful and obedient.

Today was a better day for me. I felt better, my Sharing Time was more fun, and though we still had some no-shows, we were able to take care of it without a fuss. Yippee for Primary - it is exciting every week.

Back To School Sleep-over

Slumber Party


Sleeping In


Waking Up


Party Girls

Hannah had a few friends over last night for a back to school sleep-over. She was incredibly excited about this and spent all week on the phone with the other girls planning their party activities, trying to decide between bowling, a movie, or the mall.

They decided to go to the mall, even though I was not willing to let them wander alone. Sydney and I tried to keep up with them while they zoomed from one store to another, but they were very fast. They flitted from earings to lip gloss to skirts to lotion to hats to ice cream to gowns. whew. exhausting.

Though I was ready to crawl into bed after treking through the mall, the girls were not at all tired when we got home at 9:30pm. We started watching Bride and Prejudice, and they danced around singing "No life, Without Wife". They decided that the rest of the movie could wait, so they headed out to the trampoline with pillows and blankets and treats (and Sydney - wasn't that nice of them?.) The giggling and talking lasted late into the night. I believe it was about 2:30am before they actually went to sleep. Fun, fun.

Fun Wedding Cake!

Polly's Cakes in Hood River, Oregon makes the coolest cakes. I want to know how to do this. It is so great. I'm not sure how often I will need one of these cakes, though.

My sister is taking a cake decorating class. I wonder where you find cake decorating classes. At a bakery?

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The county fair is next week and we are gathering a few odds and ends to enter. Nathan is entering the rocking horse and a bowl. Hannah is entering a pillow that she lach-hooked. Sydney is entering a hot pad and a painting. Emily is entering a melted plastic bead heart thingy. We are all very excited about it. It is time to read Charlotte's Web.

John is Scared

We went to this cool reptile zoo/show place today, called Reptile Gardens. There was an alligatior show where we got to see a guy sit on an alligator, and feed the alligators chicken legs. There was a bird show where we got to see a hawk fly and hear some parrots talk. We were able to pet a huge turtle and a couple of snakes and lizards.

John was enjoying the different snakes behind glass in one area, when he called to me - "Mommy, Look." As I looked over at him he tapped the glass to show me an iguana, and the big Iguanna jerked it's tail up at the same time. John jumped and started to shake. When I picked him up he grabbed my neck really tight and said "Scared!"

He did not want to see any more snakes after that.

Wanna Ride?

About 20 miles west of Rapid City is the small town of Sturgis. It is a really small town - 1 McDonalds, and a very small grocery store is all that is there. A few weeks ago we went to play at a park there and saw all of 2 cars on the road. But for one week in August, the sleepy little town wakes up and hosts one of the biggest bike rallies around. This is the 65th Sturgis Bike Rally

From our home we can hear a constant roar of motorcycles all day and into the night. The motorcycles started arriving this weekend, and more just keep on coming.


Main Street, Sturgis, SD
I borrowed these pictures from Sturgis Street Blog He updates his blog a few times a day.

The Sturgis Bike Rally is the big topic of conversation - have you been? are you going? do you have a motorcycle? did you see that crash? etc. I heard that so many people come to Sturgis that it doubles the population of the state of SD. I don't know if that is true (I'll have to do a little research) but there really are more motorcycles here than I have ever seen before in my life. We counted 137 bikes on a quick drive to the store this morning.

We were in Yellowstone last summer during the Bike Rally, so we missed most of the fun. I guess Sturgis used to be a really dangerous wild place, but it has become more law abiding in the last few years. But I still would not recommend hanging out there late at night unless you happen to have a big biker boyfriend.

There is a definate dress code for these bikers. Beard. Tank top. Tattoo. Harley. Ponytail optional.

I wonder who ensures that there are enough bathrooms for all those people.

Donna at Quiet Life posts 5 questions on Friday. Here are the questions and my answers.

1. Do you have a pet? What is it? Names please.
Sam the dog - he is technically Hannah's dog, but she is nice enough to share with us. Sam is a 2 year old Golden Retriever. John (almost 2) is Sam's biggest fan. John calls him Sammy.

2. How near is your nearest sibling?
My sisters are all over the place. I think my closest sister Erin. Erin is the baby of the family and is going to be a Senior this year. She lives in Utah and is about 12 hours (by car) away.

3. How far away is your farthest?
Mary, near Baltimore, is the farthest. But I got to see her and Erin in Utah last week. Fun!

4. How did you meet your husband. If you have one. If not, where do you meet nice men?
Church dance in high school. He is still just as cute!

5. Does living in a Villa in Tuscany appeal to you?
Tuscany sounds lovely

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Today is the first Friday of August, so we are headed to the base for dinner with Nathan's squadron. For a special treat they will have a B-1 open for us to go inside and see.

The last time we were able to go inside the B-1 was right after John was born. As part of Nathan's training they had a special day where family members could go inside the B-1 and also try out the simulators. It was a big deal, and most of the guys and girls had family come from all over the county to be there. Poor Nathan. John was like a week old and as soon as I got to the squadron with all 4 (what? How many kids do you have? 4?) kids, John needed to eat. It was my first big outing with John. We really do have more kids than most any one, and I was uncomfortable about that.

I was also feeling overwhelmed by all the people in uniform, and could not imagine feeding John in the auditorium. Also Emily was just 2 and not interested in sitting quietly and listening. I had a wee little panic attack, and went home with Emily and John, leaving Hannah and Sydney with Nathan. At one point in the program everyone was introducing their guests - this is my mom from New York, this is my sister from California, etc. When it was Nathan's turn, he had no special guests, I had gone home, and even Hannah and Sydney had left to go to the bathroom. I still feel bad about not being there for that. Sorry Nathan.

I have a cold

It seems strange to have a cold in August. My nose is runny. My ears seem uneven. I have a cough. My head hurts. When I lay on my side, that side of my nose gets plugged, and if I roll over, the other side gets clogged up. It is no fun.

I think it may be Primary's fault. We did a silly activity for sharing/singing time this Sunday. One of our counselors is really working to find ideas for our music leader. She found a fun idea about giving the music a "check-up."

So I dressed up in a lab coat (actually just one of Nathan's white shirts) and pull a stethoscope, and ear checker thingy out of Emily's pretend doctor kit. I put the stethoscope on and put the ear thingy in my pocket. I also put on those silly glasses with the crazy eyebrows.

I told the kids "I have some very bad news - our songs are sick, and they need your help getting better." I cut out some paper germ shapes and wrote a program song on the back of each one. I put the songs on the chalkboard and we had a child come choose a germ (song) to work on. Then I had another child come be my assistant. The assistant held a clipboard and we watched while everyone sang the song.

We were watching to see if the kids knew the words, if they knew the tune, if they were standing and sitting when the chorister told them to, etc. We sang a couple of the songs a few times before we decided that they were on the road to recovery.

Before the kids left I told them "You need to take some medicine to help the songs get better." I gave them each a "Mike and Ikes" candy. I also made sure they understood that I am not really a doctor and that I was only giving out candy, and that only real doctors can give medicine, etc.

It was a fun activity and the kids seemed to really like it. But - Yikes! - Our little ones just don't seem to know the songs. And they sing very quietly. It is a good thing our program isn't until November.

So maybe I those bad germs rubbed off on me and gave me this cold.