Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday! April certainly is a busy month for our family, birthday-wise, although none of the boys have birthdays then. (Thank goodness! I'd never get cards out AND be able to plan a party!) Dad shared his birthday with a rather important personage--Emperor Hirohito of Japan. He's dead now, but when we lived in Okinawa, his birthday was a national holiday in Japan (is it still? I'll have to look it up). I guess it's like having your birthday on the Fourth of July!

When we were in Okinawa, Dad was off flying a good deal of the time, but I don't really remember it that way at all. He made a real effort to keep connected to Dan and me by making tapes of him reading that we would listen to before bedtime, writing letters and postcards, etc, and we tried to go where he was whenever that was possible. Growing up, he was a wonderful example to me of how my Heavenly Father was, and I'm so thankful for that. Now he's got the coveted title of "Grandapa", and he's filling that role very well too! The boys really miss seeing him so often. They are especially wishing that we could be there today to take Grandpa out to Youngs Dairy to celebrate! Happy Birthday, Dad! (We did send a card, but as usual, I didn't send it out until Wednesday, so it will probably be late!) We love you!

Miscellaneous Updates

1. Bookcases: Four of them are built and they all look beautiful. Two of them have shelves in them. The other two--well, hmmm. Unfortunately, there's been a slight problem. I started putting the shelves in a few nights ago, and they use these L-shaped metal brackets with pegs sticking out the back. The L-shape part is pretty thick, though. On 2 of the bookshelves, the center divider (they're "double bookshelves" so there is a center piece) is just slightly not straight, so the back corner of the shelves all the way down will not fit. Well, actually the shelf fits in just fine, but there isn't an extra 1/4 inch or so to make it fit over the fat part of the shelf holder. VERY frustrating, especially since there are all these screws holding this thing together. Bob is going to have to unscrew at least the ones for the backing, then see if he can shift the center piece over just a bit--and he has to do this with 2 bookshelves. : ( But I have put my homeschooling books on one of the bookcases in the study, and they look so wonderful. I love organizing books, especially when there is enough room to put them all on some kind of order!

2. Canker Sores: I did some more research on the web, and I found out a lot of new information. I guess someone HAS been doing canker sore reasearch! Thise one website had so much information--it has several pages. It confirmed lots of things that I already knew or experienced, mainly about how long they last, patterns of forming, etc., but it also gave some triggers that I had never heard of. One was sodium lauryl sulfate, a foaming agent found in most toothpastes and mouth products. Evidently, people who stopped using products with this in them experienced a significant reduction in canker sore occurance. Now I am very particular about my toothpast, but I think I will be trying this one, so that can tell you how desperate I am! Another trigger was food allergies. I have never really noticed any correlation between my canker sores and what I eat, but the article mentions common triggers include grains, dairy, chocolate (no!), and strawberries. I have certainly never cut out all of those things, and frankly, changing my toothpaste seem to be a much easier starting place! It also mentioned the additive "cinnamonaldehyde", which I have never specifically heard of, but my brother used to say he got canker sores when he chewed Cinnamon Carefree gum. I must confess, I used to scoff this, but now it seem he was most likely right. It made me wonder if that was the additive in there, but I don't think they even make Cinnamon Carefree gum anymore, so it's not worth checking into (it was terrible). The article aslo gave some OTC remedies to relieve the discomfort, ones other than the standard Oragel-type things, which, for me, cause even more canker sores. One was mixing a teaspoon each of Milk of Magnesia and Benadryl Allery liquid, then swishing that around in your mouth 4-6 times a day. I can try that too! They also suggested eating more yogurt with the live acidophilus culture. Very educational website, at least for those of us directly affected by these horrible things!

3. Cell Phones: It looks like Sprint is the big winner, in that it is the only one that gets reception here at our house. Unfortunately, I don't think we know of anyone else, besides our next-door neighbor, who has Sprint. We are still looking into the deals and all that--we got totally distracted by the bookcases (see #1).

4. Travel Plans: We are still on the fence as far as driving out to Colorado. Every time I think Bob has definitely decided against it all, he'll backtrack and say something like, "Well, it might be fun and relaxing" or something.

5. Family: Today is "Bring Your Daughter to Work" Day, but the NRO changed it to "Bring Your Child to Work" Day. It's a good thing--now we don't have bring the discrimination lawsuit forward. Just kidding! Only Nathan went though--Luke has a tummy ache today and was sleeping on the couch the whole morning. He's down watching a video right now, so I don't think it's anything too dire. Their friend Amanda was sick Tuesday, so that's probably what this is. I'm not sure if he'll go to track practice tonight though.

So now you are all completely caught up on all of our burning issues! Now you can sleep more peacefully!

Possible Travel Plans

Bob has a possible TDY to Colorado for 2 weeks in the middle of June for some training. We can't decide if we should pursue it or not. On the one hand, I'm always up for a trip and a break in our routine, and it would be great to see old friends there, do some sightseeing, replenish our ragged supply of USAFA t-shirts, etc. On the other hand, it is a 2 1/2 day drive from here. So this afternoon on the way to track practice, I broached it with the boys, to see what they thought.

Me: "Boys, what would you think about driving for 2 1/2 days to get somewhere?"

Luke: "Nah. I wouldn't do it."

Nathan: "My answer would depend on where we were going."

Me: " What if it was Colorado?"

Nathan: "YES! (arm pumping) I would definitely say yes!"

Luke: "I'd still say no . . . especially since I'd die."

Me and Nathan: "What?!"

Luke: "I'm not old enough to drive."

Well, we cleared all that up, but we still haven't decided. Our great friends, Ed and Elizabeth will actually be out there for part of that time too, while their oldest son does the summer scientific seminar at the Academy, so that would be so much fun! But there's still that drive . . . and of course, Bob would have to go to the actual training! : ) If we don't end up going, then I'm hoping to go to the Virginia homeschool convention, which is during that same time. I've never actually been to a homeschool convention, and there are going to be some great speakers at this one. Hard decision!

Occupation Game

My Aunt Claire tagged me to play a game. Here's the scoop on how to play: I have to pick 5 occupations out of the list below and post my answers here. I'm supposed to then tag someone else, but you all know me--I never pass things on. I'm too embarrassed that I would be rejected! : ) I never even forward emails! Okay, here we go...The "questions": If I could be a scientist...If I could be a farmer...If I could be a musician...If I could be a doctor...If I could be a painter...If I could be a gardener...If I could be a missionary...If I could be a chef...If I could be an architect...If I could be a linguist...If I could be a psychologist...If I could be a librarian...If I could be an athlete...If I could be a lawyer...If I could be an inn-keeper...If I could be a professor...If I could be a writer...If I could be a llama-rider...If I could be a bonnie pirate...If I could be an astronaut...If I could be a world famous blogger...If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...If I could be married to any current famous political figure...

1. If I could be a musician . . . I would be really thrilled. I would love to be able to just sing out a song exactly as I can hear it in my head, so when people say, "Does anyone know that song . . .?" I could confidently answer, "Yes, it goes like this . . . tra la la blah blah" and it would sound just like it! Also, I wish I could sing harmony (my voice is low) just by ear, instead of having to see the notes in a hymnal to know what sound should go there (again, not that what I would sing would curently sound like what should go there to harmonize!). I miss using hymnals to sing with, but our last 2 churches haven't used them.

2. If I could be a scientist . . . well, I am. Or was. In a previous life or something. I mean, I have a degree in biology and in math. But I have only worked as a scientist the summer between my junior and senior years of college, when I won a fellowship from the American Heart Association to work in a lab in Ohio doing research on these minor cholesterol components. It was fascinating, and I really enjoyed it. I love research, doing procedures the same way all the time, all the orderliness and routine. So different from my life now. Sometimes I daydream about working in a lab, discovering some tiny piece of a very complex puzzle. Practically, however, I know if I ever needed to go back to work I'd probably have to go back to school to get a degree in something practical--probably accounting.

3. If I could be a gardener . . . I wish I could be one! My Grandpa was a wonderful one, so I know the genes must be there somewhere! And Amy knows so much about flowers--I wish I had that too. Somehow, though, I just can't end up caring enough to do anything about it, so I let Bob do whatever gardening that gets done (he and the boys planted some tomatoes, beans, etc. in planter boxes on the deck this year), and the boys and I plant bulbs. That's about it. I like to admire other's time and handiwork, I guess. Sometimes I think, when I retire and don't have little pumpkins underfoot all day long . . . I think there's a limit to how many living things I can care for at once, and plants just don't cut it right now. Even houseplants. I'm so pathetic! : )

4. If I could be an inn-keeper . . . I would be a bundle of stress. I could never deal with strangers every day and remain sane. I simply couldn't. I am too introverted, and I need lots of down-time, away from crowds, strangers, even the boys. Sometimes Bob talks about retiring to White Sulphur Springs, the beautiful Officers' Christian Fellowship retreat center in the Allegheny Mountains in PA and working on staff there. I have the same kind of reaction. It's one of my favorite places to visit, but I'd never want to be in charge of all those people, forced to make small talk with them all the time!

5. If I could be a doctor . . . I'd work on discovering a cure for cankersores. That may seem minor to you, but for some reason, they are my particular cross to bear. I've dealt with them ever since I was little, and my dad gets them too, so I guess they are hereditary. For sure they are worse if I am under stress or stay up too late too many nights in a row, but over the last few years they have really gotten bad. They are no longer just on the soft parts of my mouth. I also get them on my actual gums, and the last week or so I've had 3 under my tongue. They become these huge, raging sores, and sometimes 2 will join together to make one "supersore". I have not been able to figure out anything that really helps them or makes them go away quicker. Changing my diet hasn't made a difference either. But I'm sure if I was a doctor, I could do some high-powered research and solve it up!

Bookcases, Bookcases, and More Bookcases!

We are a family who loves books, and since we also homeschool, we have a ton of them. When we moved here, we were right at capacity, as far as bookshelves go, but as often happens, I needed more for homeschooling, and then my parents started downsizing. I took home a bunch of books after our visits in Otober and November! So it became obvious to me that we needed new some new bookcases, since all we had were one from my Nana and Papa, an old one from KMart that Bob brought into the marriage, and 2 little ones that Amy and I used as hutches on the back of our desks at college. I found a really nice one at Sams for $158.64--a double bookcase in a Mission style, with a nice stain, one actually that matched perfectly my Nana's bookcase. We talked about for a few weeks, and I started mentally rearranging the books. Last Tuesday when i went to Sams, the model was there, but no boxes underneath! I couldn't find any one to help, so later that evening, we all went back, and I went to the service desk and tried to explain the situation ("I only have the model number for the oak bookcase next to the one I want--there is a model of this mission style one, but no boxes. Can you search and tell me if you have any more?"). Un fortunately, at our Sams, there are some employees who don't speak very good English, so no one ever really understood what we were asking ("If there are no more here, can you at least give us a model number or check at other Sams?"). Nothing happened, and I was so disappointed! The boys and I even went to another furniture store to look at bookcases. That's when I realized what a great deal the Sams' one was! For one the same size, they wanted $419!! I went home determined to track down any of these if they existed anywhere within 50 miles of us! I spent a frustrating afternoon on hold with several different Sams in the VA/MD area, but finally I was rewarded--one in Gaithersburg had 7, and one in Woodbridge had 8! I was so excited!!! Saturday morning, Bob and our friend Ed left early to get to Gaithersburg (about 45 min. away) when the store opened. They piled 6 of the bookcase boxes on their cart (5 for us, 1 for Ed), leaving one. A guy was watching them, and as soon as they walked away, he ran up to examine what this incredible thing was! We laughed when we imagined him talking to his wife--"It must be a great deal! They were flying off the shelves! There's only one left!" So now Bob is busy assembling these, and they really are beautiful. I'd post a link, but Sams.com doesn't have them either. Our plan is to line 3 of them up along the back wall of our study. There will only be about 3 inches on either side of them then, so it will look kind of like built-in bookcases. Then we'll put another one in our family room, and move Nana and Papa's into our living room, where we'll probably put the last new one. I think we should easily have enough bookshelf capacity to get us through the next several years! : )

Cell Phones

Big news! We have decided to join the 21st century and get a cell phone! For the record, we have each thought many times over the past few yeaers, "Oh, this would be a situation where it would be really nice to have a cell phone." So it's not like we're complete Luddites. We have held off for a few reasons though. One is that we know that as soon as we get one, we'll never go back to being without one, so we figure we'll just keep saving that money for as long as we can. I mean, it's only been within the last 2 years that we switched to unlimited internet access, and we still just have dial-up! And right now we still have satellite TV, but I don't think that is going to last much longer. I watch it for 40 minutes in the afternoon while I do the Gazelle. Sometimes Bob watches a game or something after the boys go down. I'm just not seeing that as $30 of TV viewing a month! I definitely an in favor of as few "every-month" charges as possible. A second reason we have dallied so long is that the plans and options are just so confusing and overwhelming, so we'd rather just ignore them. That is where you come in. Please give us feedback and things we should be thinking about and looking for in a plan. We already know there are only a very few providers who have service at our house, which is sort of in a little valley, right next to a town that doesn't allow cell phone towers. I think one that works here is Nex-Tel. At least that cuts down on some options! We travel quite a bit, so we would have to have a plan that allows roaming without it being totally expensive. We're not sure if we should just get one phone or go with 2. With Bob's new realtor enterprise starting up, he'll definitely need one. He isn't allowed to have one inside his building, however, so he couldn't use it during the day anyhow, but I think it would be better to have a dedicated number for that. I guess I'm leaning towards 2, but the cheap person in me screams "NO!" Decisions, decisions . . . You all had better keep checking on us too, or otherwise we may lose momentum again and put this off one more time!

Happy Birthday, Dan!

My only brother's birthday is today! We sent you a card, Dan, but it will be late. I hope you're not shocked by that! : ) His birthday, his wife's birthday, and their anniversary are all conveniently located in one month so as to minimize the risk that a disorganized sister would forget to get cards, etc. (Thanks! That was thoughtful of you all to work that out like that!) So I bought them all, but unfortunately I smugly sat back and rested, so I never got the boys to sign the card, hence it didn't get mailed until yesterday. Next year . . .

We're three years apart, and several states apart as well right now, but I couldn't have asked for a better brother. Even with such a big age spread, we got along pretty well, and I have great memories of us playing together growing up. We liked to have long, drawn-out stories that we palyed out with Little People, where we would each control certain ones. They could pretty much say whatever the person controlling them wanted, so it was very unscripted, and when it was time to stop, we just left them and picked up the story later. We did similar things with Legos, but there we always started out with some kind of theme, and we each built a house or whatever and then acted out our stories. One common theme was "cliff-dwelling Indians", which came about after a trip to Colorado to visit our grandparents. Another theme was "gypsies", and we would make self-contained houses on one of those little Lego pad things, as if it was a wagon or something. I think we did a space station sort of thing as well. It was fun. Dan and I have similar strengths and interests, and in college we even got to take a class together--advanced calculus. That was fun too. I wish we were closer so we could see him more often and get to know his wonderful new wife better, but we still keep in touch, and we try to get together whenever possible. And we're certainly thinking of him today, and wishing him a very happy birthday! We love you! The boys wish they could have cake and ice cream with you to celebrate! : )

Being Where God Wants You

I've had many, many good conversations since I wrote my "Might-Have-Beens" post. Thanks for all your comments and calls! I think just verbalizing some of the thoughts that had been floating around in my head for awhile helped. I do feel that God must want us here. One of my problems was that I just haven't been able to see why--we aren't having any great impact on our neighbors, or Bob's family, or whatever, so it seemed to me taht we weren't really "needed" here. Last night I was reading Today's Christian magazine (used to be the Christian Reader). Normally I think of this magazine as a lot of fluff, a very quick read, but this latest issue has some good articles in it. One by Phillip Yancey was called, "It's Hard to Be Like Jesus", and it was about why anyone would choose to follow a God who promises more hardship, not less. Before a trip to Burma, he read several biographies of Adoniram Judson(1788-1850), the American missionary to Burma. What a hard life he had--he was unjustly imprisoned and tortured for 2 years. Right after he was released, his wife and baby daughter both died, and he almost suffered a mental breakdown. There wasn't much interest at all in the Burma people to his message, so he just labored alone for 34 years. That's amazing. Because of his faithfulness, there are now more than 1 million Burmese Christians who can trace their roots to him. But I'm sure that he wondered if he was doing the right thing, and I bet he didn't feel a whole lot of peace all the time. Obviously God used him, and he was faithful even when it didn't make sense. As my brother said, I think we as American Christians just think that if we are doing what God wants, then things should work out smoothly, we should see God working positive things, etc., but that is not always the case. And really it comes down to we have to trust that God is sovereign, and we won't end up where He doesn't want us, and also that He is working even when we don't see it. So now I am feeling a lot better about being here, that God has a plan for us here, and we're not missing some huge part of his plan because we didn't try to go somewhere else for this assignment. Thanks for all the encouragement! : )

French Toast

Nathan made French toast for us for breakfast this morning. It was very good! Since he can also make pancakes and scrambled eggs, I think we have breakfast covered! Now he'll always be able to make his wife breakfast in bed. He's been looking through a cookbook of mine and picking out recipes to try. It's The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook , by Jackie Eddy and Eleanor Clark. I can't remember when Mom got this book for me--either when I started college, or when I got married, but it's a real basic cookbook that tells all the things that people just assume you know, like how to make mashed potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. It also has a lot of good, plain,and easy recipes, so it's perfect for someone learning how to cook. (James?! : ) ) There are lots of kids' cookbooks out there, but they tend to have a bunch of real "cutesy" recipes. Nathan is already interested in cooking, so it's not like I need to draw him in, and I'd just as soon he learned practical recipes that he'll be able to use throughout his life! I was glad to see this book still in print. Hopefully it, or one like it, will still be out there when the boys all go off to college and out on their own!

"Might Have Beens"

A few weeks ago I read a devotional in My Utmost For His Highest that has really been on my mind lately. First, a little background. It's been almost one year since we came out here to D.C. to househunt. That was a very stressful time, but we ended up writing a contract for the house we are now in. Before that, back in late September, 2003, we were trying to figure out where we should go for our next assignment, and we had 2 options. One was to go to Huntsville, AL, and the other was to come here to the NRO. Since our good friends are here, we decided to push for the NRO assignment, but it was certainly never what you might call "smooth sailing". It took forever to get the clearances, so our report date kept getting pushed farther and farther back. This kept pushing our househunting back too, so by the time we came out here, we were in the thick of the season, with all that stress and competition. After we ratified our contract and went back to Ohio, we had a lot of stress with our house back there. We tried to sell it FSBO. We had a couple who wanted to buy it, but it turned out they really were more interesting in just renting. They weren't very easy to work with, and after lots of stalling on their side just to sign the lease, we kind of panicked and told them we were putting it back on the market. They were furious, so there was lots of horrible stress there. We did sell the house quickly after that, but since things were so bad with the first couple, I never felt any peace about it, and in fact, it still make my stomach clench up to think about. "A lack of peace" is pretty much a good way to describe this whole last year.

So anyway, back to the devotional. Here is what has been bothering me so much:

The unfathonable sadness of the "might have been"! God never opens doors
that have been closed. He opens other doors, but He reminds us that there
are doors which we have shut, doors which need never have been shut,
imaginations which need never have been sullied. "

I just keep thinking, what if we really closed a lot of doors because we weren't hearing God's leading? What if we are now in the totally wrong place? What if we should actually have gone to Alabama? What if we kept on making wrong decisions, and now we have so totally diverged from where we should have been? It's bothered me a lot before I read that devotional, which I guess just put it all into words. I am married to someone who likes to rehash things over and over and over, so we have certainly talked about the whole scenario multiple times, and I don't know if that's been really healthy. It tends to make me less and less sure about our decisions. And I still don't know what we would have done differently--I can rationalize all our decisions very cogently. I just still don't feel peaceful about it all. Now that Bob is looking to the future (after he retires), he always wants to talk about it, but I am so leary of making more mistakes or having such a bad experience, that I really am not interested in planning or even really talking about it at all. It's so easy to blithly say, "We'll go where the Lord leads us!"--but what if there is no clear leading, just like for this last move. Decisions have to be made, but what do you pick? And then you pick something and close another door . . .

Eagle Eyes, Part II

I haven't written much lately because we have not been doing anything remotely exciting or worthy of writing about. Yesterday, we had to run some errands (how's that for exciting?!), and we ended up at WalMart. While we were checking out at one of the self-check aisles, Luke found a $20 bill! It was all folded up, but it was sort of in the check out lane next to ours. The lady who was there in that lane when we first started checking out had already left by the time I realized what had happened. I can't imagine that it had been there for very long, since Luke said it wasn't really hidden. I was at a loss as to what to do. (Nathan's suggestion: give Luke and him each $10!) I don't think anyone was really looking around for it or noticed it had fallen, and getting through check-out is always kind of chaotic for us, as I try to keep Jonathan sitting down, and scan the items with all my "helpers". There are a lot of poorer people who shop at this WalMart, a lot of immigrants, especially, and I hope this didn't fall out of one of their pockets. I probably should have just turned it in, but I really don't think that it would have been "held" for someone to identify it. Call me a cynic, but I don't think so! I ended up telling Luke (and Nathan too, since Luke is always very generous with the money he finds)maybe I'd give them a few dollars from it, and we'd give the rest to charity or something. The only thing they spend money on is buying birthday and Christmas presents for each other from the Dollar Store, so it's not like they need tons of money for that! And I don't want to really focus them so much on money anyhow. Luke is already so "on the alert" for any spare coin or anything. Really, searching for money is the only thing (the boys would say) good about running errands! LOL!

Socialization Woes

One thing that homeschooling parents are always asked about is socialization. People are very concerned that because our kids aren't in school, they must therefore be locked up in their closets all day, seeing and interacting with no one else! Of course, that is ridiculous, and for our family, the boys are involved in AWANA, the track club, our homeschool co-op, our Bible study group, and church. We also have several neighbor kids that they enjoy playing with. One is a little boy named Kevin, who is the same age as Nathan, and who has one younger sister who is about 4. Whenever Nathan, Luke, and Kevin play together, Luke inevitably ends up coming home crying that they won't let him play with them. Usually they are playing some sort of sports-related game, and they won't throw him the ball or give him a turn or whatever. I have told Luke many times that crying is NOT the way to get people to play more with you, but the fact remains that Kevin thinks of Luke as a "baby" because he is younger, and so he likes to kind of pick on him. Nathan feels honored or something to be chosen as fun to play with, so he doesn't stick up for Luke (a big problem in and of itself), but he does always appear at home a few minutes after Luke comes crying, since he knows I'll be wanting to talk to him and it's not good. Now Nathan and Luke have a really good relationship, and they enjoy playing together and are certainly at a similar level in their play. But really all the boys play well together, regardless of age, because well, they have to. There's often not anyone else around. They know that sometimes you just have to adjust how you are playing to accomodate the younger sibling. It is so sweet to watch Nathan play with Jonathan by helping him build something out of Duplos or set up the Little People. Luke and Caleb have started playing together a lot since Nathan chooses to read more often than Luke would like! And Caleb and Jonathan play together while Nathan and Luke are doing their schoolwork. I really have a problem with the mindset that you can only play and have fun with someone if they are the exact same age as you are, but it seems to me that is exactly what is coming out of the traditional school setting, where everyone is caged up with people their same age all day long, all year long. No one learns to adjust their level of play to make it fun for everyone, and people end up learning that it's okay to pick on younger kids. Most of the families we socialize with on a regular basis are big, homschooling families like ours, so this hasn't been a problem there. But I'm just not sure how to deal with it here on our street. For sure I'll keep on working with Nathan to not just follow, but to do what he knows is right. Maybe I'll mention it to Kevin's mother too--I'll tell her I'm worried about his socialization.

How Do You like YOUR Chili?

Caleb (3) has some allergies--milk, peanuts, and tree nuts. But he's so laid back and easy-going, they really don't seem to bother him at all. We do have to think of creative substitutions sometimes, though. Today for lunch, we had chili. Everyone else had cheese and sour cream on theirs. Caleb's condiment of choice is Thousand Island dressing. Apparently it adds just the right amount of "zip", because he always gobbles up chili with that on it! He puts it on tacos too. He uses plain mayonnaise for dip, to substitute for french onion dip. For casseroles, I always leave out some chicken, rice, etc. and blend it all together for him with . . . yes! Thousand Island dressing AND mayonnaise! LOL! His future wife is going to wonder about his crazy tastes! Maybe by then he will have completely outgrown these allergies.

High School Memories

We spent this evening at a high school track meet. Some of the coaches in the boys' track club coach at Broad Run High School, and they invited everyone in the club to the meet tonight, which was just a small one with only 2 schools. Since that meant it would be fairly short, and also since it was free, we decided to go. I was actually really excited about going. I love track meets! You can't help but be excited with all the races going on! It was really a lot of fun. The boys did great, and we stayed until the bitter end (the mens 4x400 relay, for those of you who don't have the event order memorized). Now Nathan is really inspired. There was one girl who ran the mile and 2 mile, and she was definitely in a class of her own. She absolutely blew everyone else away, even guys, since they ran the 2 mile together. We were sitting by her mom, who said that she was third in the state in cross-country this year. This led to a big conversation with Nathan about how God gives people talents, but you know she had to run a whole lot to be as good as she was. Also, during a relay, one guy fell during the handoff, but he popped right back up and kept running. A lesson in not giving up. There were 2 very slow girls that ran both the mile and the 2 mile races, and they came in dead last, having been lapped by almost everyone (lapped twice in the 2 mile!). But they finished--an excellent picture of endurance. What a great sport!

The track meet also brought back so many memories of high school for me. I actually got a little nervous as they prepared to run the 400m and the 300m hurdles. Whenever I'm around high school students, though, I'm always so relieved that I am out of high school and not dealing with all those pressures anymore! I could see the awkward kids trying to fit in, the awkward boy/girl flirting, everyone trying to look cool around their parents. So glad to be done with all that! After the meet was over, we ate dinner (very late!) at Subway, and there they were playing some kind of "all 80's all the time" type station, because there were all these songs I haven't heard since high school. Weird. "Red, red wine . . . " or how about "Ooh baby, do you know what that's worth? You make heaven a place on earth . . . They say in heaven, love comes first; you make heaven a place on earth." Cheesy! The whole time we were there, I kept racking my brain for the artists' names as song after song that I recognised was played, but I generally drew blanks. I think that's a good sign--my brain isn't wasting precious space on one-hit wonders from the 80's. Still, it's irking me. UB40? Debbie Gibson? I could google, but I'm not going to. . .

Track and Field

I signed the boys up to be a part of the Loudoun Track and Field Club, and their first practice was tonight. Now I ran track in high school, and Bob ran cross-country, so you might not think it was odd that we would want the boys to get a good running start in running (ha ha). But that's not why I signed them up. Nathan would have liked soccer just as well, but that whole atmosphere really intimidates me! And I know there are kids out there who have been playing since they were 4, so I am a little worried that the boys would not look so good in comparison. A big advantage with track is that Nathan and Luke are in the same age bracket (very important since Luke hates new things, but at least here he is with Nathan all the time). Also, the whole club practices together, so no shuttling kids around to 2 different practices and games all the time. What a stressor--one I don't want. The coach seems very nice, and his philosophy is very low-key. No yelling, no intimidation, no put-downs. Everyone is very encouraging, and they focus on the improvements that each child makes, compared with himself. That's my kind of sport for the elementary years! The 3 main coaches all coach track at various local high schools too, and obviously they are focused on competing there, but they have a great attitude towards little kids. I think it will be a good experience for Nathan and Luke, and they are getting some good exercise.

Today they ran some laps, did some sprint drills along with skipping and whatnot, and they also got to throw the javelin (well, the kid version--it looks like a big Nerf dart with a rubber tip). Nathan was very excited about this! Both boys were able to keep up, although they are both definitely on the small side. I always forget how small my kids actually are because I just don't see them in big crowds of kids their own ages all that much, and, for some reason, most of our friends' kids are small too. But here they were certainly smaller than average! It didn't seem to affect them, and with no real emphasis on "winning" and coming in first, they didn't care that they sometimes lagged behind. I think their strength will be distance running! They had more stamina than other kids.

Off topic, but today was a red-letter day for the boys, money-wise. At the post office, they found $2.00 in the parking lot. I'm sure you can imagine the excitement! Then Luke "Eagle Eye" found a penny under the counter there. At the track practice, I found $1.00 just lying in the dirt. Wow--bring it on! We're paying down the house! : ) I'm sure the boys will never forget this day, though. Luke was sad that we were coming straight home from track practice (at 7:30 pm!) because he wanted to go to Walmart or some place to look for more money!

Happy Birthday, Melinda!

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday! This is her first birthday as an "official" member of our family, since they were engaged but not yet married on this date last year. She and my brother have just moved to Dallas, so I am hoping that Dan has some wonderfully fantastic celebration up his sleeve there. Dan? We did send a card, but, as with so many things we do, I'm afraid it might be late. But I want her to know that we are thinking of her today on her special day, and hoping it is a great one for her!

The boys really love their Aunt Melinda, and Caleb frequently asks when she and Uncle Dan are coming back to visit. Once in the commissary, Caleb saw another woman who looked vaguely like Melinda (young, blond hair, same height, etc.). He was thrilled, and called out, "Aunt Melinda, Aunt Melinda!" Her name obviously wasn't Melinda, since she didn't even turn around or notice, and I had to explain (again) that Aunt Melinda was not going to be showing up as a part of our daily routine, since she lived far away! We're hoping we can get down to Texas to visit them and see their new house sometime. Nathan has always wanted to visit Texas, and he was so happy when they moved there!

Happy birthday, Melinda! We love you!

Eggs and Things that Grow

Last night, Luke begged that we get some more of the plastic Easter eggs so they could hide them, then find them with each other. We got them a new dozen and you would think Heaven opened! Since the ones we found had candy (and others had baubles) in them, the boys only opened 4 of the new 12--the excitement should build for the rest of the week. Setting the tone, the boys couldn't find the lst 2 eggs. Asking me to help, I told them they couldn't have any new eggs in the coming days until all of these were found. After groans, they "appreciated" my help and got back to successfully completing the task at hand quickly.
Claire mentioned the mini-garden. So far, the plants have taken off. In a 6 x 6 grid, there is a row of watermelon, peppers, tomatoes, 2 rows of beans, and a miss-matched row consisting of 1 sq of apple seeds (from one Nathan ate), 2 of cantalopes, and 3 of cucumbers. I think we will not be able to wait the recommended 4-5 weeks before transplanting most of them in planters on the deck. Thinking of the beans, I'm reminded of our last garden--in Ohio. After taxes are done, I will be adding some 1 x 2's to a planter to convert it for the string beans. Hopefully, all will go okay--in fact, however, I am kind of already planning on getting a couple cherry/grape tomato plants in a few weeks since all of the ones we started are for full size tomatoes (Hmm...I can almost smell the hamburgers that will need a thick slice of our "best tomato of the day"), and the smaller ones are for different purposes--I like these in salads. Slighting No One Else's Beliefs, I'm "In Christ, Bob"

Family Update

I thought you might like a little update on how the boys are doing, what we're studying lately, etc. First, a little story. Yesterday someone at co-op had taught Nathan how to fold a paper boat. So last night he put it on his head and said, "Luke, look! I'm a conquistador!"

Luke: "No, actually that looks more like a Saxon hat."

Nathan: "Hmm, maybe you're right. I still think it looks a little like a conquistador one though."

Obviously our history studies are going well. We're finally moving on from the Crusades, which, I must say, has been very interesting. Nathan and I really enjoyed the Henty book on them, Winning His Spurs. In my last Rainbow Resource order, I got some new phonics books for the boys called "Explode the Code". They are really enjoying them, Luke especially. He is flying through his. I think I'm going to have to order him another one! He actually cheered one day when I said it was time for school because he was looking forward to ETC. Nathan is faithfully preparing for his Stanford Achievement test in May. He's working though a test prep book and oding just fine. Spelling is the only area I'm really concerned about at all. He is just not a natural speller, and since Luke is, this makes him a little lazy in that department anyhow ("Hey Luke! How do you spell 'one hundred'?"). We're working on it, but he just doesn't seem to "see" the word in his mind as he says it, and it seems to be hard for him to break it down into the sounds that he's hearing. It's always interesting to me, in a pruely clinical way, to see the differences in the boys and how they learn. As another example, Nathan is much better at Latin than Luke, especially in remembering the vocab. I think a lot of that is because we do Latin orally, and Nathan is more of an oral learner, so when he hears the words, he remembers them. Luke is much more of a visual one. I'm not too worried about that though--Nathan needs something to be better in besides reading! Speaking of reading, Luke has become interested in "Encyclopedia Brown" books, so I can finally say he is reading chapter books about things other than football heroes of the 1970's!

Bob decided he wants to grow some things on our deck this year, in our planter boxes. He got a cute little "Peat Pellet Greenhouse" at Home Depot, where you put 36 seeds in these little dehydrated soil things. Then, as you mist them, they expand up around the seed, and you put the cover on it and it's like a little greenhouse. Bob planted some tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cantaloupe, beans, and I think even a watermelon or two. All the boys are having a great time watching them sprout. So far I must say everything is doing quite well, and since it's all self-contained, there's no mess or extra soil, which I like! Maybe this will be the summer the boys start liking tomatoes!

Our new read-aloud is Cheaper By the Dozen. I wanted something that Luke would be more interested in, since he's not as big a fan of the Henty books as Nathan is. There's been a lot of laughter, although I've had to explain a lot of words and phrases. We've found quite a few derivatives of our Latin vocab words, which is always fun. The boys like the movie (the old one, of course!), so they're already a little familiar with what happens, who is involved, etc. That helps, I think. What a great book, though!

You may have noticed that today I was able to make paragraphs! I have no idea why my "enter' key worked today, but I'm just going to accept it as a gift from God and move on.

A Good Weekend

We made it back from our weekend with Bob's family. We left later than we planned to go on Saturday, and there was a big accident on the Turnpike (which we never take, but I pushed for this time, since we were so late, and it is a shorter route--hah!). So we got there a little after 3:00. The dinner was at this St. Joseph's Center, which is a big Catholic retreat center, it appeared. The grounds were really pretty, and we had a nice room with round tables for our party. Bob's sister-in-law Sherry did an excellent job setting it all up. There was a buffet line, and the food was pretty good. Bob's sister Ann did a nice job making little party favors and decorating, and she also started putting together a scrapbook for Bob's dad. It had pictures of him from different decades of his life that she got from one of his brothers (actually brother-in-law, I think). We're supposed to send him pictures that we have to complete the album. There were several pictures I had never seen before. 

After dinner, Rose decided we needed some toasts. So she gave one, then Bob said something, then Ann, then Jane, then Paul (Dennis was the only sibling not there). After Paul, Sherry got up to say something on behalf of the in-laws, but then Wally got up as well, and then even Terry said some words. Well, that left only . . . me . . . as the person who had not said anything. ACCCK! People were chanting my name! I was embarrassed, but more so by the fact that I could not think of anything at all to say. Bob's dad has never tilled a garden for me, as he did for Wally at their first house. We certainly don't golf and pal around together, like he and Terry. And Sherry took the whole "Thanks for welcoming me into the family" speech (which was very gracious of her, considering they did NOT welcome her into the family back in the beginning!). So I got up and moved over to him, sort of babbling as I went ("I don't usually talk in front of people, I'm so embarrassed, I should have worn my red sweater to match my face, blah, blah . . .). I said something about being the last in-law to enter the family, and I thanked him as well for welcoming me, but then inspiration struck (thank you, Lord!), and I said that we were doing our best to carry on his proud family name with all our boys! Everyone laughed, so that was okay. WHEW! 

Everyone had a good time visiting though, and it was nice to be in a big room not in a restaurant, so the kids could kind of be freer, and you knew they weren't bothering all the other diners! I think Bob's dad really had a good time. We went back to the hotel and got the boys down, and then Bob went back over to his parents' house. In a surprise twist, instead of playing cards, they all looked at family albums! Bob came back saying, "Whose family is this?!" 

We went back over there after church Easter morning, and I got to look at the albums too. I had seem most of them before--there are basically 2 groups of pictures. There are quite a few black and white ones of Frank and Marsha (the oldest 2 kids, who died in a mysterious car accident when they were 3 and 2). They were so cute. Again I was overwhelmed with the enormity of that tragedy. I simply can not imagine losing my two oldest kids while pregnant with my third. The whole time I was pregnant with Caleb I thought about that. Anyway, then there a whole lot of pictures starting when Bob was maybe 10 years old. They are in color, but there are still hardly any of Bob. I only saw 2, I think. Mainly they are of the older kids at the sports events and such. When Bob was in high school, there start to be more of him, and there were a ton of him at the Academy--they went out 2 times to visit him, and they took lots of pictures then. I love to look at pictures, though, so that was a good time for me!

 For church, we went to a different one this time, Church of the Open Door. When were stationed in Ohio, there was a man in Bob's office who was in the Reserves, so he would just come every so often to do his duty. Well, it turned out that amazingly enough, he lived in Bob's hometown, AND he was a Christian! So Bob asked where he went to church, and he said this church. Bob went a few times when just he or he and the boys were back, but this was the first time for our whole family. It was really nice. We all really enjoyed the service, and it was wonderful to feel like we really did celebrate Easter with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will definitely go there again when we're back in town, and it works out.  

We had quite a trip back home though. We left later than we wanted, around 4:00, and it started raining. It rained steadily the whole way home, and there was tremendous fog in the mountains, which always makes for a hair-raising trip. As we merged onto I-70 from I-68 in Maryland and saw the long continuous line of tail lights, we realized that we were going to be a part of all the D.C traffic coming back from Spring Break. Such constant traffic also makes for more stressful driving. We also made the crucial error of deciding that, due to weather, we would take I-270 down into D.C. instead of going down Rt. 15, which is just a little 2 lane road. We crept along at 30 miles an hour for awhile, until it went to 2 lanes. By this time it was almost 8:00, and we had never stopped for dinner or anything. The boys needed to go potty, so we pulled off where we saw a sign for McDonalds. Well, it certainly wasn't right off the highway, so we wandered around, trying to find any signs of anything like a McDonalds, since it appeared we were more in a residential area. Finally we came upon a shopping area with a Taco Bell, where we all rushed in to use their facilities! And then we scarfed down some food and leapt back into the car, since I knew we probably had another hour of driving left. We didn't get home until after 9:30, and we were so glad to be back. Such stressful driving makes what is normally a 4 hour drive seem like a 20 hour one!

Our Easter Plans

We're going to go to Greensburg tomorrow to visit Bob's family. Bob's dad turns 80 tomorrow, so we're having a special party for him. I think all the brothers and sisters will be able to be there. If so, then it will be the first time the whole family has been together since his sister Rose's wedding 10 years ago. Since Bob's dad's birthday is the end of March, and his parents' anniversary is the middle of April, we are frequently in Greensburg for the Easter weekend. This is difficult since no one in his family really goes to church much. They tend to celebrate more with the whole "let's hunt Easter eggs" crowd. I don't like visiting new churches ever, really (it's such a hassle finding nurseries and so on for the boys), but I really don't like visiting new churches at Easter! I feel like everyone thinks we're the people who only show up for Christmas and Easter, and never darken the doors of the church the rest of the year! People are usually exceptionally friendly, and I just feel awkward, as I make a big deal of the fact that we're "from out of town, just here visiting family". There's no big Easter dinner in Greensburg either, with ham, scalloped potatoes, etc. That was a part of my growing up, and I miss that. I guess we'll have to do one maybe next weekend back here at home. I found the recipe for "Resurrection Biscuits" yesterday from someone on the Well-Trained Mind board, and I think we'll make them too. I have the cookie recipe too, but it uses pecans, which Caleb can't have. So maybe that's a good idea--we'll just celebrate Easter next weekend here at our house! Really, we should be celebrating Christ's resurrection every day, but I know I don't spend time every day reflecting on that. Maybe prolonging our celebration of Easter will help me do that. Wow, I encouraged myself! Now I'm not dreading going away!