The Arctic express arrived this week. Where we had above average, t-shirt and shorts weather last week we had below average temps this week. It has been pretty but it has also been cold.
BACK TO REALITY. We were a sad bunch of people on Sunday. After having two wonderful weeks of vacation time no one wanted to get back into the normal routine. Alas, life goes on.
A FUN VISIT. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob came in with the cold weather. They had been up to New Jersey and stopped in Tennessee for a quick visit on their way back home to Florida. We spent a couple of fun evenings with them (Vicki spent more time as she goes over to Aunt Mar's to play Spades with them after the kids go to bed). We made our traditional visit to the Catfish House on Tuesday.
On Monday Jenna got a very special gift. We went over to Aunt Mar's house for supper and exchanged our Christmas presents with the Cotters. Jenna was presented with a dollhouse that Uncle Bob had built for her. He spent about a month working on it in his spare time and Aunt Linda lent her skills as interior designer. It is a beautiful three story house with seven rooms. They brought it up with them when they visited back in the fall and it had been hidden away until now. Jenna also received furniture from various relatives to furnish most of the rooms. G'Anne and Aunt Mar gave her a doll family. Thank you Uncle Bob for all the work you put into this heirloom. And thank you Aunt Linda for putting up with the construction in you dining room and kitchen. Jenna is one happy home owner!
WELCOME INTO THE WORLD. My cousin Amanda has given birth to a daughter, Harper Reagan Dee. Harper was born on Monday shortly after 12:00 noon. She weighed 8 lbs., 2 ozs. Mom, Dad and big sister are all doing fine. Congratulations to the Dee family!
BASKETBALL. Jenna is playing basketball in a YMCA league this winter. Her first practice was Thursday evening. We have had a ball bouncing in our indoor court (the goal now stands in the place the Christmas tree occupied) ever since. Jenna's first game was today. Her team won 22-16. She made three or four attempts for a goal but never scored. What she lacks in accuracy she makes up for in guarding. She is aggressive in a good way and is enjoying getting to play. There are four boys and one other girl on her team.
SO CLOSE.... A weather system moved in late Thursday night. We had been watching the forecast all week. Even Jenna was keeping up with it. I took Jenna to school Thursday morning because I had some work to do there. As I walked in we were greeted by one of the teachers who was asking each kid what the word for the day was (SNOW).
I got up early Friday morning to find that Robertson County Schools were running two hours late. All the school systems north and east of us canceled school due to the snow that had fallen during the night. When Jenna got up she looked out side and saw the skiff of snow on the ground. She was disappointed that she would not get to stay home and play in the snow.
TAKING A GOOD OPPORTUNITY. Since I work for the school system's technology department I am constantly stopped and asked computer related questions. Recently a Springfield police sergeant caught up with me and asked me some questions concerning setting up a network for two computers at his home. He stopped by again on Friday morning. Since school was running two hours late I was arriving at work early at 9:00. Not knowing very much about the Windows operating system I recommended that he talk to one of our other techs, Casey, who is more knowledgeable in that area. Since Casey did not have to report to work until 10:00 the officer said he would come back.
When Casey got to work we told him there was a police officer who had been by looking for him and would be returning around 10:00. We neglected to tell him why. We had Casey going so well that when the officer did arrive Casey greeted him at the door ready to turn himself in. Poor Casey couldn't even comprehend the computer related questions he was hearing because he was too busy trying to figure out what he had done wrong. We will all be watching our backs come April 1.
THINK BEFORE YOU TALK. This morning we were getting ready to leave for Jenna's ball game. I told Ben to go use the bathroom. He began to argue that he had just been which I knew had been more than an hour before. I insisted that he go anyway. He began to really argue with me then. Thinking I would nip this in the bud quickly I said, "Benton, if you don't go use the bathroom right now I am going to spank you for resisting a pee-pee!" That did the trick. Barney Fife would be so proud of me.
THANK YOU LORD IT WASN'T BAD. Nate has only shown a little interest in pulling up on furniture and no interest in climbing until this week. Because of this we have had the stair gate on standby but not in place. The other night Vicki and I were still sitting at the table talking after supper. The Jenna and Ben were playing in the hall. Nate hadn't been released from his seat for more than a minute when we see him sitting on the second step. Vicki scrambled to get to him but was too late. At least it was a rolling fall. It scared the poor boy more than anything else. The gate is now in place.
PUBLISHED BY POPULAR DEMAND. Vicki said I must share this story after several people at church heard about it and got a good laugh. Last week Jenna had decided that she was a princess and began wearing a tiara that was part of some dress up clothes she has. Then she started calling Ben and Nate princes and Vicki and me the queen and king. She even found plastic buckets for us to wear as crowns.
One night at bedtime Ben took one of the buckets to bed with him. After we had said our prayers he threw the bucket over to Jenna's bed. Jenna didn't see it coming and it hit her just below the left eye (and she still sports a small bruise there). While Vicki was trying to correct Ben for hitting Jenna and comfort Jenna, Jenna handed the bucket to Vicki. Through her crocodile tears and quivering voice she said, "You take it Momma. You'r-r-re the que-e-e-en."
Joe
