Self Examination, No Trespassing, and New Teeth

Autumn is here! The grass and weeds are starting to look; well, tired. Almost all of the tobacco is in and the farmers around here are in the middle of picking corn. Everywhere you look you see signs of another growing season coming to a close.

A LITTLE SELF EXAMINATION. I had to stay late at church Sunday night for a meeting which put Vicki doing bedtime by herself. Ben was being slow about everything which was an irritation to Vicki. Vicki went to get Ben's toothbrush and it was not in its usual spot. When asked where he had put the toothbrush Ben said, "I don't know." Vicki shot back, "Fine then. You can just got to bed with dirty teeth." This prompted him to scramble up onto the counter and look in the bathroom closet for it, which he found hidden on another shelf.

Vicki reprimanded Ben by tapping where the toothbrush should go and saying, "Benton, you know your toothbrush lives right here. You are not supposed to put it anywhere else. Do you hear me?" Ben thoughtfully replied, "I don't know why Bentons do that. It makes Mommies mad." He knows just what to say to melt his mom's heart.

KEEP OUT. Jenna asked me to write up a sign for her the other day which she taped to her bedroom door. It reads, "Don't come in there. You can only come in there at night. -Jenna." This was directed at me and Vicki.

PASSING ALONG SOME NEWS. I heard from Virginia Ellen Hanks, a cousin of mine on Mom's side of the family, in response to getting this newsletter. She reports that her mother, Mary Rose Meador, is not doing well. I'm sure they would appreciate your keeping her in your prayers. She is in her mid 80s.

Another bit of news Virginia Ellen reported was that her grandson is into racing and recently came in first at the Nashville Speedway. If you are interested you can check out his site at www.keetonhanksracing.com. Who knows, we may see Keeton's name on the NASCAR circuit in a few years.

GONE BACK HOME. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob left for Florida on Monday. We sure do miss them.

I am glad to have Vicki at home in the evenings though. After the kids were in bed she would go over to Aunt Mar's to play Spades until after midnight.

ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS. For the last 6 weeks I have been teaching a class at church on Sunday evenings to train people to use the sound system and A/V equipment. I'm glad we did this because it has added to our A/V team and will make things easier on the rest of us. Starting tomorrow evening I will be leading a study on Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Vicki and I have really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it for whenever you are looking for something new to study.

RAISING BOYS. Vicki and I have both read the James Dobson book Bringing Up Boys and have found it very useful. She is currently attending a class focusing on that book on Sunday nights at church. I think she is enjoying the class a whole lot.

IMMORTALITY ISN'T ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE. At least according to Angus Tuck it's not. But Vicki and I will give Tuck Everlasting four thumbs up. It was a very clean movie. I even got the point of this story!

GONE TO NASHVILLE. Nashville, Indiana, that is. Mom and Aunt Mar went there on an overnight trip with the seniors at church. They left on Thursday and came back yesterday. I haven't had a chance to talk to them about it much but they seemed to have had a great time. The important thing was that they found a Russell Stover outlet on the way home.

A VISIT FROM CAMDEN. Pauline entertained four high school friends who had driven up from Camden yesterday. She says they really liked her house and that they had a nice visit. Upon leaving they said they'd have to try out the beds next time.

A BIT OF HISTORY. The Cross Plains Heritage Commission met on Thursday evening. We had a really interesting program on the Bowen House that is located in Moss-Wright Park in Goodlettsville, TN.

LOST AT THE PLAYGROUND. We went back to the park at White House last night. They have some really nice playground equipment there. Jenna took one look at the fireman's pole and passed right on by. Ben, after watching another girl use it, jumps over to it, grabs on and slides down, much to Vicki's surprise. When he hit the ground he came up shouting, "I DID IT! I GOTTA TO GO TELL MY MOMMY!" After reporting in he goes back to slide again but this time he can't find the top of the pole. Vicki and I were sitting on the bench cracking up as we watched this perplexed child running around the little elevated walkways searching for pole he had somehow lost. Finally, he looks over at us and says "I can't find where is it."

NOT ONE BUT TWO. Nate's two front teeth are in! The left one popped through on Thursday and the other came in today. He'll grin at anyone wanting to check them out.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A REDNECK when your three year old kids make up their own party games throwing dirt clods at a grain bin. When Vicki and Lori discovered Ben and Wilson they were filthy but having tremendous fun. We were at Wilson Swann's third birthday party this evening. It was over at Kenny and Lori's barn. We had a whole lot of fun just relaxing and enjoying each other's company.

Joe

A Good Boy, a Bulldozer, and a Bad Toss

It is finally getting cool enough here to open the windows to the house and leave them open all day long. While we may go through an "Indian Summer" in a week or two we can pretty much say goodbye to the hot, humid weather. Hello fall, here we come!

BENTON -- A MAN ON THE MOVE. Ben is definitely not a home body. On days that Vicki takes Jenna to school Ben usually asks Vicki where they will be going that day after they have dropped Jenna off. Whenever the answer is, "We're going back home because we don't have anywhere to go today," he bursts into his "But I don't wanna go home" mantra. All you have to do with Ben is say, "Come on, let's go somewhere," and he's putting his sandals on.

A GOOD BOY. We were on our way to White House to pick up supper at Sonic and let the kids play in the park when I asked Ben all out of the blue, "Are you a good boy?" He answered with an enthusiastic "NNNoooOOO!" Then he reconsidered and said, "Well, maybe I little bit good."

A FINISHED GRADE. Some of you getting this newsletter may not know that Vicki's mom, Pauline, has built a house right behind ours. She moved in a couple of weeks after Nate was born. When the contractor got done with all the outside work it was too late in the spring to sow grass. We did, however, have a great stand of weeds that we have kept mowed.

We have been on a long waiting list for a guy that does dozer work to come and do some things around the yard before I attempted to disk it in preparation for sowing grass. He has been here this week and has burned and buried the big brush pile, leveled the yard, and done other work. Hopefully we'll have the grass sown and a sidewalk to the front door in before winter.

A SURPRISE FOR AUNT MAR. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob arrived for a visit on Thursday. They drove up from Florida without Aunt Mar knowing they were coming. Because of this Aunt Mar was unable to give her house the rigorous cleaning it usually gets before company arrives (not that it ever needs the extra effort). Last night someone got up around 2:30 am to make a trip to the bathroom and noticed a light on in the back bathroom with strange sounds coming out. Upon investigation Aunt Mar was discovered up cleaning. She said she thought it was as good a time as any to get the work done.

We all went out to eat at the Catfish House in Springfield last night. After supper Jenna and Ben were given a few coins to throw into the fountain out front. Ben's aim was a little short because of the planter around the fountain. Uncle Bob took a penny to demonstrate how to throw underhanded to Ben. His coin sailed neatly into the air, hit the rim of the fountain and bounced into the mulch below bringing cheers of delight to the rest of the family looking on.

SOME SPIDER. I think that is a fitting tribute to Charlotte A. Cavatica. Jenna and I just finished reading Charlotte's Web tonight. This is the second chapter book we have read together, the first being Little House in the Big Woods. I believe she has a Winnie the Pooh book next on our reading list.

Joe

Clothes, Weight Gain and Hot Air Balloons

This is the time of year in Robertson County when tourists stop and say, "Hey, your barn is on fire!" We have not had that happen in a few years because they have not used the tobacco barn that is near our house in quite a while. Just about everywhere you look though you see barns with smoke rolling out of them. The smell of this smoke is the thing I always missed when I was away at college.

HOLD YOUR EARS. Nate has discovered a new sound and he loves to try it out. It happens to be an ear piercing screech. We've never heard a sound like that come out of such a little fellow but he seems to enjoy making it.

I DIDN"T REALIZE IT STARTED SO EARLY. On Wednesday night Jenna, Nate and I rode to church together. As I was getting Nate and myself ready to go Jenna went to the back hall. She called to me and said, "Daddy, which of these shoes should I wear?"

I replied, "I can't see what you've got. You'll have to come in here with them."

A moment later she walked into the bedroom where Nate and I were. She had a white sandal on one foot and a brown sandal on the other. It was my opinion that the white sandal looked better with the clothes she had on. With that she said, "No, I think I like the brown one better." Then she turned and walked away.

My, "Why did you even bother to ask me for?" comment was met with a little giggle. With that I looked at Nate and said, "Nate, there's a woman somewhere down inside that little girl."

NEW CLOTHES. The other day Vicki found Ben an outfit on sale. It consisted of a shirt, pants with suspenders, a sweater and necktie. When she had Ben try the clothes he danced around and said, "I pwetty, I pwetty," and scampered off to the bathroom to look at himself in the full length mirror. Ben obviously did not inherit my lack of appreciation for dressy clothes.

TIPPING THE SCALES. You'll remember that I reported to you that we started Nate on rice cereal two weekends ago. Just a few days before that he had gone in for a checkup for an ear infection in both ears. He weighed 19 lb. at that visit. Vicki took Nate back to the doctor on Monday to check his ears again. This time he weighed in at 21 lb. and had healthy ears.

GOODNESS, GRACIOUS, GREAT BALL OF FIRE. We (including Mom) went to the Hot Air Affair last night. This was a fund raiser for the Bill Wilkerson Center at the Vanderbilt Medical Center. I counted over 25 hot air balloons there. Jenna and Ben chose to call them fire balloons. About 10 balloons took off for a race right after we got there, about 8 balloons were giving tethered rides, and about 12 were inflated to do balloon glows after dark. The line was too long for us to take balloon rides but there were plenty of activities for kids. It was a lot of fun. The emcee said the common thing was for one to spend $40 for their first balloon ride and $15,000 for their next (due to purchasing a balloon). Even though the tethered rides were $5 I guess its just as well that I stayed on the ground.

AN UPDATE. Since May I have found a few errors and learned a few new things to warrant writing an addendum to The Call of the Whistle book. I will be posting it as a PDF file on my web site (link now defunct) sometime in the next few days.

Joe

School, Solid Food and Maintenance Problems

I am going to own up to a deficiency of mine. I am horrible at communicating with my family. I don’t write. I don’t call. And you can all probably count on one hand the number of times I have called you on or around your birthday since I have become an adult.

Now I have never liked this about myself and have made attempts to change this over the years. This has worked about as well as my mom’s dieting schemes. I want to do better.

I mowed Aunt Mar’s yard today. I like to mow. With three kids in the house riding the mower gives me plenty of time to think. One of the things I mulled over today was this problem of mine. As I thought it over I decided that I can certainly find 15-20 minutes per week to peck out a short letter about what’s going on in our family and e-mail it to all of you. Given my past track record all I can say is, “Enjoy it while it lasts.” That said, here’s the news of the week.

JENNA IS LOVING SCHOOL. She has just completed her second full week of classes and is having a great time. Her teacher’s name is Linda Jakes. She goes to Mt. Carmel with us. Last Sunday night, as we were putting the kids to bed, Vicki reminded Jenna that there was no school the next day due to Labor Day. Her bottom lip pooched out and she cried, “But I want to go to school tomorrow!” After we explained that it was a national holiday and that no body in the country would be going to school she brightened up and was content to wait until Tuesday.

East Robertson Elementary celebrates Grandparents Day in a big way each year. G’Anne, Aunt Mar, and Maw Maw Jones all went to school to take part in the activities and have lunch with Jenna yesterday. Jenna was very proud to show them around her classroom. We heard that while the meal was good, getting in and out of the seats was another thing all together.

BEN IS NOW TOP DOG. With Jenna away at school during the day Ben is now the oldest sibling. He seems to really enjoy that. He is now going to Mom’s Day Out at Cross Plains Methodist Church on Tuesdays and Fridays. This has been a good thing because he wants to go to Jenna’s school. His teacher says he is very smart. He is the youngest in his class.

We can tell a real difference over the last few weeks in Ben’s use of words. He is commanding a greater spoken vocabulary and asking better questions.

We are still working on the potty training with Ben. He is getting the idea for doing #1. Doing #2 is more of a challenge.

NATE IS SITTING UP AND EATING FOOD. Just this week Nate has gotten his balance down good enough to allow us to sit him up in the floor and leave him alone. We can sit him up in his room and put several of his favorite toys around him and he is happy for 30 minutes or more. We’ll come check on him and he’ll just grin.

Nate also started rice cereal last weekend. We had kind of put it off due to potty training and Jenna starting school. Nate’s reaction was, “Where have you been hiding this stuff?”

OUR LUCK WITH THE LAWN MOWER IS HOLDING. Our mower has broken down some 6 or 7 times this year. Not a good thing when we are taking care of 3 yards. It seems like I have used Kenny’s mower about as much as I have used mine. I am most grateful for his generosity. I lacked 30 minutes finishing Aunt Mar’s yard today when it broke down again. Cub Cadets aren’t what they used to be.

VAN PROBLEMS. Vicki took Jenna to school on Thursday. When she and the boys got home the van was making a gurgling sound and steam was coming out in a big way. When I got home and looked at it the radiator was bone dry. I pulled out the hose to refill it, and as I was doing that water starts gushing out of the side of the engine. With 153,000 miles on the thing we were just holding our breath when the guy from Tate’s came to tow the van in. Fortunately the repair is around $100 and most of that is labor because they had to remove other parts (like the alternator) to be able to reach the problem.

A MOVIE REVIEW. Last night Jenna spent the night with Pauline, Ben spent the night with Mom and Aunt Mar, and Pauline agreed to keep Nate for the evening. Vicki and I went out on a date! We began our date by splurging (we had a coupon) on seafood at a great little seafood place in Springfield (Captain D’s). If you had looked in on us a bit later you would have seen us taking a lovely walk through a nearby garden. When we left the produce section we continued our leisurely stroll through the grocery store (more coupons in hand). Between these two things we stopped by the video store to rent some movies (still more coupons). When we got home we put Solaris in. Whenever I figure out what the film was about I’ll let you know. If any of you have seen the film and want to enlighten me, please help me out. Other than not getting the point of the story it was pretty good. But maybe that was due to the bowl of ice cream.

Joe