Splinters, Cats, and Salutations

We have had wonderful weather this week--couldn't have asked for better. It is cool enough to see your breath in the mornings, a touch warm at lunch, and just right for working outdoors in the afternoons. All that is supposed to be over by tomorrow when the rain moves in with a cold air mass.

GOOD HELP IS EASY TO FIND. Monday afternoon after work I went out to trim the almond bush that had overtaken the western side of the front porch. I'll have to brag on Ben here. He was great help picking up small twigs when I asked him to. We carried off five truckloads of brush.

PETS, PETS, AND MORE PETS. Some of you who have visited us in the last two years or so will remember all of our cats. We are in a prime location to receive animals nobody wants. Our small herd started from one pregnant stray. Every time we'd have new kittens we'd put ads in the paper for free cats. Several weeks ago our wildest dream came true. Someone answered the ad, came by and said, "I'll take them all, even the pregnant one over there. I have a barn they will be happy in." So, we were out of the cat business--until Monday. If anyone wants a little white kitten...it is very patient with little boys who treat cats like rag dolls.

Speaking of animals, Mom and Aunt Mar have a pet frog. Or maybe I should say there is a little green tree frog that has two pet women. They noticed this little frog hanging out on one of the patio chairs a couple of weeks ago. They now go out and talk to it about every day. I think Aunt Mar has even been able to scratch its head. It will be interesting to see if it returns after its winter hibernation.

TRAUMA IN THE BR. On Thursday Jenna's class visited a local pumpkin patch as a field trip. They did the normal hay ride, corn maze, etc. Somewhere along the way she picked up a splinter. In getting ready for bed Vicki mentioned using a needle to get it out. As she comes into the bedroom she says something about it to me saying that "Mommy will do it in the morning." And as she prays she includes that in her prayer.

After we are done praying I say, "Let's just go to the bathroom and get that splinter out right now." Little did I know what we were in for (and to give Jenna credit, I remember being terrified when Mom would pull a splinter out of my finger at that age).

Jenna walked part of the way to the bathroom but I had to carry her the rest of the way. Funny how kids are heavier when you are taking them somewhere they don't want to go.

When Vicki is ready to begin the operation Jenna is wailing, close to hyperventilation, but she manages to say, "I-I-I w-w-want to c-c-count." We say "Ok" and she starts up, "O-o-one, t-t-two, t-t-hree, you're not c-c-counting w-w-with me!"

In unison Vicki and I say "Four." (We couldn't have done that better with practice.)

When we get to 10 we stop. Jenna says, "I-I-I want to count to twenty-y-y!" "Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen - ...."

At twenty, she buried her head in my shoulder while Vicki performed the extraction. It was funny to hear her show off her new, well earned band-aid to Ben.

NEW SHRUBS. Taking advantage of a half price sale at Lowe's we decided to put some of Pauline's landscaping in today. We got 20 of 27 bushes in with the weed control fabric around them and one truckload of mulch down. It was a great day to be out working on the project.

HI! We had a Sunday School class party tonight complete with chili (I ate the potato soup), a hay ride and a bon fire. Because he had a cough we left Nate with Pauline. When Vicki went to get him she walked in and Nate saw her and grinned really big. Vicki said an enthusiastic "Hi!" and Nate replied with his own "Hi!"

He has been very vocal this week. It's been fun for all of us.

Joe

Wet Paint, Disgusted Kids, and a Pot of Chili

Well, my family has gone and returned home again safely, the hot weather is gone until spring and most of the mosquitoes are dead. What more could a guy ask for?

OUT OF TOWN. As you will remember from last week, Vicki, Pauline, and the kids went to Virginia to visit her brother and family. They left Sunday morning, came home Thursday night and had a great time in between. Cameron and Zachary, my nephews, sure know how to entertain.

WET PAINT! While everyone was gone I got the hallway painted, everything but the woodwork that is. We both think the tan looks a lot better than the green. Vicki is itching to paint the rest of the house now.

HAVING FUN TOGETHER. Vicki and I took the kids to the Adventure Science Center in Nashville yesterday. There is a really cool, five level tower for the kids to climb on with all kinds of interactive science exhibits. Jenna and Ben had a blast.

MORE TEETH! Nate definitely has four teeth now, the two top front and the two bottom front. And Will, Vicki's brother, thought he spied a fifth tooth in there somewhere.

We think Nate said, "Da Da," several time today while looking at me. I choose to think it was not coincidence.

"MOM, DAD, THAT'S DISGUSTING!" Last night Vicki and I were in the kitchen. I was cleaning up and she was cooking supper. In the course of talking about their trip and my saying I was glad they were home I walked over to her and gave here a big hug. That was about the time Ben rolled down the hall on one of his toys and stopped at the kitchen door. Looking at us he said, "UGH!" in a combination of surprise and disgust. Then he called to Jenna with the same tone of voice saying, "Jenna, come look!"

IT'S NICE TO BE NEEDED. Jenna spent the night with Mom and Aunt Mar last night. Ben and I went over to get her late this morning. On our arrival Ben got out of the van and went right in to find Jenna and said, "Come on, Jenna. We need you."

A POT OF CHILI GOES A LONG WAY. I am writing this as therapy right now. This is one of those things I will laugh at one day; however, that day has not arrived for me at this time. And in Jenna's defense, this is not normal for her.

Vicki has rejoined the choir at church to participate in the Christmas musical. They had a choir retreat today at 3:00 to give themselves a three hour practice. My mom picked Vicki up and they drove together. The retreat was held at a cabin on a choir member's farm.

Before leaving for the retreat Vicki had made a pot of chili as all the families of the choir members were invited to come over at 6:00 for a chili supper. At the appropriate time the kids, the chili and I left home, picked up Aunt Mar and headed for the cabin. Once we arrived Jenna insisted on coming between the front seats of the van and exit out one of the front doors. I had Nate in my arms and was trying to help Aunt Mar so all I could do was say, "No Jenna, don't do that. You'll turn over the chili." I repeated this several times, until she turned over the chili. There was about a gallon of the stuff. UGH! I think it will be a few months before I'll want chili again.

Joe

Secrets, Prayers, and Pre-Crawling

This week's edition will be a bit shorter than the last ones. For one thing it has been a pretty normal week. Not that it hasn't been busy, just routine. On the other hand, Vicki is scrambling to pack tonight and I am helping. She, the kids and Pauline are going to Virginia to visit with her brother and his family. They leave tomorrow and return on Thursday. Yes, I will be holding down the fort all by myself. Actually, I will be painting the main hallway in the fort while they are away, which will be a lot easier without kids. Goodbye light green, hello light tan.

SHARING LITTLE SECRETS. So, I'm sitting in church on Sunday. Bro. Bill is in the middle of an interesting sermon about Elijah and Jenna taps me on the arm. "Hey Daddy," she whispers.

I lean over a bit. "What?"

"Guess what!"

"What's that?"

And with pride in her hushed voice she says, "I've got purple panties on."

I sort of lost track of the sermon for a moment or two right in there.

GOD LISTENS TO COMPLAINTS, RIGHT? While we have suggested some things the kids could pray for at night we have always encouraged them to ad lib at meal time and bed time. Jenna and Ben come up with some of the sweetest prayers and it can be very touching what they think of to pray about. A lot of times Ben vents his complaints to God at bed time when he got in trouble or something didn't go his way. I was going to stop him from doing that when I first heard it, then I remembered that some of the most powerful prayers recorded in the Bible included complaints.

Ben also prays for the soldiers. We have four from our church who are deployed in Iraq at the moment. Three of these are brothers. One of these, Benton Roberts, is currently ending a two week leave here at home. He will return to Iraq in a few days. Our Ben prays for Ben the soldier. I made sure they got to meet at church on Sunday.

MOVING AROUND. Nate is trying his hardest to reach for everything. If he is sitting on the floor and a toy is out of reach he'll lean forward until he flops onto his stomach (he's tough, not caring if he eats a little carpet in the process). From there he can wriggle an inch or two to try and get the thing he wants. If that doesn't work he just wriggles backward. He can make more progress in reverse anyway.

Joe

Grass, New Foods, and a Double Date

It is a shame to go through life being so busy that you feel like life is dragging you from one thing to the next by the heels. I'd almost swear I met myself on the road the other day. It has been such a busy week that I haven't even checked our e-mail until today. This is something I normally do at least every other evening.

We are at the front end of what is my most favorite time of year. As I was driving around on Monday I thought I noticed just the slightest change in the color of the tree leaves. By the end of the week you can tell the show of fall colors is about to begin around here.

BIRTHDAY SURPRISE. Mrs. Connie Swann (Kenny's mom) celebrated her 70th birthday on Sunday. They had invited all of her family over for a luncheon after church which she knew about. What was a surprise to her was that many, many friends were invited to come over at 2:00. She seemed to really enjoy the day.

A NEW RELEASE. Ice Age was recently released on video. We rented it this week. It was pretty cute. No bad language, no lewd jokes, and only a few references to evolution as fact. We also rented Charlotte's Web for Jenna since we finished that book a few weeks ago.

NEW FOODS. We have introduced Nate to bananas and applesauce this week. This has been a very funny thing to watch as he flutters his eyelids and shivers all over. It looks sort of like those babies you see on America's Funniest Home Videos who are given a lemon for the first time.

A RETRACTION AND AN ADDITION. Last week I reported that Nate had two top teeth. On closer examination one of those actually hasn't broken through his gum but it is soooo close. He does have a new tooth on the bottom though.

KENTUCKY 31 TALL FESCUE. I sowed 600 lb. of grass on Pauline's yard on Tuesday. We had marked off about 1.25 acres for her yard. The nice thing is that my cousin, Kenny Swann, is in the lawn maintenance business. I used his John Deere Gator with a seed spreader mounted on the front bumper to do the job in less than 2 hours! Jenna and Ben loved riding around with me. We should see grass in 21 days.

SPEAKING OF BIRTHDAYS. Pauline turned 71 on Tuesday. We had a little dinner party for her over at her house. She enjoyed it very much especially since I sowed her yard. If only we could finish the landscaping, sidewalks, deck, and driveway!

A GOOD REPORT. Parent-Teacher Conferences were held Thursday night. Vicki met with Mrs. Linda and enjoyed hearing all about our little scholar. She said Jenna was conscientious and kind among many other compliments. Jenna absolutely loves school and her favorite part is "doing papers."

A DOUBLE DATE. Since having kids Vicki and I have been able to go out on a date alone on occasion. We have also attended functions like Sunday School class parties without kids. But last night we went out on a double date with Brent and Cindy Roycroft (Brent is the Minister of Music at church).We can't even remember the last time we double dated with anyone. Jenna spent the night with Mom and Aunt Mar while Pauline kept the boys (Ben stayed overnight). We splurged and went to a Japanese restaurant where they cook and perform tricks right before your eyes. Afterwards we went back to their house to play Balderdash and Ping Pong. We had a great time together. It felt really strange returning home just a few minutes before midnight.

FROZEN IN FEAR. In the middle of doing laundry today, Vicki hears Ben screaming out. When she gets to him she finds him on his back holding a book in the air. A wasp was crawling on the book and he was too scared to move beyond a tremor. Vicki takes the book and wasp from him and he timidly follows her down the hall to the back door. They go outside where Ben watches the source of his fear fly away. He then takes a relieved breath and says, "Thank you, Mommy!"

Joe