Random April moments

Just thought I write down a few things to remember these days by and to share with you.

1. Wingman insisted on wearing his football shirt this morning. That boy is very consistent in his love of all ball sports: baketball, soccer, football. He still throws and shoots left handed.

2. Crash ate some salmon the other night. Let me repeat- Crash ate SALMON the other night!!! I just served it up and didn't say anything about it. He ate it all and asked for more "ham." We never did tell him it was not ham. There is hope for this child and his extra picky eating habits.

3. The test pilot is growing more analytical by the moment. (Not really surprising given who his parents are.) Howevere, somedays it just drives me nuts. Do we have to analyze everything? Apparently so.

4. They now consume 4 gallons of milk a week, 2 loaves of bread, 3 bunches of bananas among everything else. They ate an entire loaf of banana bread in one day. They are still relatively little. This is not encouraging for my grocery bill.

5. Test pilot is in a "silly" phase. This has not been typical behavior for him. We have to set up parameters for when it's appropriate to be silly. This silliness is contagious and has spread to the other boys.

6. Only 2 more soccer games to go. Yeah!

7. It's fun having daddy home on Furlough Fridays. We like playing with him and working with him. The planter is done. We hope to complete the planting this weekend in between soccer and other kid stuff. Pictures to come later.

Construction

The boys just love working with daddy during his projects. Last weekend I noticed there was a lot of going in and out of the house. I realized that they were piece by piece bringing out every play tool they own to work with daddy. If daddy puts on goggles they run and get their goggles. If daddy uses a saw they run and get their saw.

Mommy decided it was easier to just move the whole tool bench out front. They thought that was the best idea they had ever heard of.

They hammered, they sawed, they clamped. They said, "Mommy, I working on the house" about a million times.

I am looking forward to reclaiming my front porch which is now a construction zone. Hopefully not too much longer...

Movie night: Toy Story 2

This movie night we are watching Toy Story 2. We had seen the first one already so this was fun watching a new one together and getting ready to see Toy Story 3 in June. The Test pilot is excited about that.

I just love these bean bag chairs we got from JCP. It helped our immediate furniture problem. We need more living room furniture, but mommy seems to have expensive taste so this will do for now. The kids enjoy them too.

I just love that picture. They get positively giddy about being able to sit in those chairs with popcorn. Once again, just proves that it is the little things in life that are the most fun.

Soccer and aliens

It was a very rainy weekend but we were still able to have the soccer games. Here's Crash in his uniform. He just loves running around with the pack of kids known as his teammates. If he occasionally kicks the ball well that's great too. He just loves playing with the kids.

When it was his turn to sit out of the game I was encouraging him to cheer for his teammates. "Go Indians!" I modeled for him. Before too long, I hear Crash and Wingman yelling, "Go Aliens!" It was too funny to correct. Apparently, we now play for Team Alien. Once again Star Wars has taken over our lives.

Wingman just loves going to soccer. He just has to have his own ball. There is no sharing soccer balls according to him. He likes to yell to his brothers. It's fun to watch.

Here's the Test pilot on Team Apache. It was so muddy that he was filthy before the game even began. Mommy was so excited when it was time to do laundry.

The last two games our team has won 9-0 and 12-0 so you could say they were a little over confident. This day's team was definitely more challenging.

This season he plays 6 on 6 including a goalie. They have assigned positions to play. Test pilot is enjoying the new challenge. The coach usually rotates them around during the game so they have an opportunity to play different positions.

Last weekend, Test pilot got his first chance at playing goalie. He really liked it and was actually pretty good at it. His coach even commented on how if she had known this she would have been putting him at goalie more often. So we have been practicing being the goalie at home. He does pretty good on blocking the balls. We still need to work on the goal kicks. Those are a bit tricky.

I was there

It's the 15th Anniversary of the OKC Alfred P. Murrah bombing. I sat today and watched a live stream of a Memorial service at the site. I am remembering because I was as there.

I went to college at Oklahoma Christian University which is located in north OKC. I still remember that day vividly. I was sitting in my 9am physiology class in Prince Engineering Center with Dr. Fowler. A few minutes into class the entire building started to shake like a small earthquake. (We were later told it registered 3.0 on the Richter scale.) It caused concern almost immediately. Our professor who was also a doctor at one of the local hospitals told us to sit tight while he checked things out. Many of our professors worked at local hospitals. Within minutes, all their pagers started going off. Class was cancelled and we were sent home.

We could hardly believe our eyes as we watched the pictures on the news. We learned there had been a bombing in downtown OKC. Law enforcement urged everyone to get home and to stay away from downtown. Immediately, everyone began wondering who was hurt and if they knew anyone.

My suite mate was dating a guy who was in ROTC and he was serving at the Murrah Building that day. She was terrified. I was a part-time nanny for a single mom who had family working in that building.

I couldn't believe the carnage on the TV screen. Half of the building was ripped away. You could see exposed offices, desks flying everywhere, and other grotesque findings. Slowly some survivors were found. When 9/11 happened, it was eerily familiar to me.

There were lots of collections of food, money, and medical supplies for the victims and emergency workers. We all gave blood. It was impressive the turn out of human goodness. AT&T allowed free long distance calls for days following the bombing to allow families to reconnect. As students we were called on frequently to help at the donation sites. We assisted the Red Cross in assembling "snack packs" for the rescue workers.

You began to hear sad stories. There was a lady who worked in the Murrah building. She didn't go to work that day because she was ill. On the other hand, her parents who were caring for her daughter had an appointment at the social security office in that same building and all perished that day. Such sad stories. There was a daycare for federal workers' children in that building. Many children died that day. I don't think they allow day cares in federal buildings anymore.

I remember May 23 when the rest of the building was demolished. It was an emotional day.

I graduated college before the memorial site was finished. That is something I would like to see one day.

It was good to sit and type all this out for posterity. It is good to remember these events especially after Sunday's sermon on God's Sovereignty. God was there that day and completely control. I may not like it or understand it, but it doesn't change the fact that I serve a Sovereign God.

In progress

Here's some new shots of the "new" planter area. The Captain has completed the first 2 rows of stone and is preparing for the capstone.

The old planter ended at the corner of the house. The Captain added a rounded edge and is going down the side of the house a little ways. The plan is to add some plants like a dwarf pampas grass (I am so impressed I even know what that is) to cover the drainage pipe, and unsightly white tall sprinkler pipe among other things.

We have had to take a few days pause due to some rain and now we need to rent a saw to cut through some stone for the corner pieces. We hope to finish the planter stone this weekend.

This is daddy's side kick. All the boys like being outside with daddy while he works, but the test pilot and Wingman give out after a while. However, Crash is out there from sun up until sun down. He "helps", he rides his bicycle in circles by daddy, he takes his animals on wagon rides, and sometimes he tries to take himself on a wagon ride.

I had to wash about 15 of his stuffed animals because they spent last weekend outside in the yard and up trees. That boy and his animals!

So ready for summer

I like summer as much as the next person. I generally don't long for it to arrive, because our summers are very hot and very long. Ninety degree weather in October and November is just not right.

Anyhow, I find myself longing for summer today. My 3 darling children have managed to put holes in 6 different pairs of pants in the last 4 days. Three holes all came in one day. I think they each have one pair of pants left without holes in it. I am not exaggerating.

I spent a day not too long ago patching pants. So today I will spend at least an hour repairing pants again. One child was creative enough to put a new hole one inch above the last hole I repaired. Nice.

So I am longing for them to be able to wear shorts everyday. I won't have to repair pants or keep buying pants that they will only put more holes in.

Don't get me started on the holes in the socks...

Hard working hubby

The Captain has been using his furlough time on Fridays to tackling some outdoor projects. We had a large planter in the front of the house that was damaged. We also discovered on our homeowners inspection when we purchased the house that it was installed improperly and was causing some problems.

The planter is now gone. The Captain knocked out all the brick and hauled that away.

There has been a lot of earth moving. Some of it was dumped in the back, some of was moved to another part of the planter, and some just went to the dump.

Now he is working on preparing the ground for the new stone that is coming to form a up-to-code planter box. Then I have to find some flowers and shrubs that the deer won't eat. I am not looking forward to that task. Those pesky deer will eat anything.

This picture is one reason I love the Captain. The Captain and the boys are installing a new cover for some pipes in the yard. The story behind the new cover is why I love him.

The Captain had been working so hard on the planter the lawn had not been mowed. Mommy decided to be helpful and mow the lawn.

There has always been these random pipe coverings in the yard to cover the sprinkler system valves and the water shut off valve for the house. I have mowed that lawn many times without incident but today my mower decided to wrestle with the metal plate that was covering the valve. Surprisingly, my mower won. The cover was sliced in half and all curled up.

I confessed my "whoops" moment. The Captain never gets upset or complains how he now has to go to the hardware store again. Which results in an extra hour of digging to install the new cover. Although, he is probably wishing that I were less helpful.

I have the best husband ever. P.S.- I did cook him a really good dinner to say "sorry."

Welcome to Kitty land!

This is Crash's latest lego creation which he entitled Kitty land! First, we were very impressed that he built this all by himself.

The little white animal is his kitty. Thanks to Cousin Josh's legos. The kitty looks like a mouse to me but no one asked me.

He runs his kitty all over his space. The kitty particularly loves to play with the red flowers.

It's fun watching Crash during his "kitty" phase. When I go get him up in the morning, he meows at me. He frequently crawls around making all sorts of cat noises. (There are lots of holes in his pants because of all the crawling.) My least favorite part is when he purrs and then tries to lick me. I have to draw the line at licking.

Update: After I typed this I found him lapping up the dog's water. Gross! He seemed to be enjoying himself. When will this end?

Glad he likes his lego cat because we will NEVER have a cat in our home. I really despise cats. It predominantly has to do with the fact that I am insanely allergic to cats. I don't even have to touch them to start reacting. It takes 5 different allergy medications to keep me some degree of normal to be in a house with cats.

Sorry to all you cat lovers out there.

Happy Easter 2010

We had beautiful spring weather for Easter this year. We were all able to wear our springy outfits for Easter. About half of the time, a freeze will appear on Easter weekend so we end up in sweaters for the day with our cute Easter clothes still hanging in the closet.

Can I brag on my husband for a second? I love my yellow dress. The Captain had noticed that I had admired that in a catalog months ago. He surprised me with it for my birthday. He picked out the perfect size and remembered to it order it in a tall. I am always amazed that he orders the right size. I do not always do that great ordering for myself. Way to go hubby!

Here's all my boys. Notice Wingman's basketball. That was in his Easter basket. He has not put it down since.

These would have to be 3 of the cutest and silliest boys that I have ever seen, but I am not biased.

Here are the big boys having fun with the confetti eggs. We tried cracking one on Wingman's head but it just bounced off. He was not impressed.

Here's Wingman with his prized soccer ball egg.

We had a fun and relaxing weekend just spending time together as a family. What a blessing!