Putting February to Rest

The days are getting longer and the weather is getting milder. Winter may not be done with us but as the days get longer thoughts of spring come more frequently. It is hard to believe two months of 2007 are already in the books!

HAPPY SICK BOY. Poor Nate is afflicted with an ear infection and pink eye. Saturday he looked so bad you could mistake him for a raccoon. With the exception of the eye drops he has really been taking the whole thing well. But putting in the eye drops is a whole other matter. I think demons enter the boy when he sees us with the bottle of drops. It takes both of us to hold him down. This happens three times a day. We have tried to help him through this by letting him watch as Vicki put contact solution in my eyes and pretended to give eye drops to his bear. But when he sees that bottle come toward his eyes all reason goes out the window. After one wrestling match yesterday Vicki said something about wishing there was alcohol in the house.

Vicki kept Nate home from church Sunday morning. At one point he came into the kitchen where Vicki was and announced that he felt better. Taking in his appearance Vicki said, “Well, you don’t look any better.” Confused Nate asked, “I’m not better?” At this Vicki sent him to the bathroom to check himself out in the mirror. He was horrified at what he saw.

LEARNING THE ROPES. I must brag on Ben. His basketball game really is improving. It’s not that he is any better dribbling or that his shot is more accurate (he lacks confidence here although he did score), he is playing smarter. I think he is starting to figure out a little of how the game works. I noticed him paying more attention to what was going on around him Saturday. For example, he is intentionally moving into position to rebound more than he used to. Ben’s team consists of boys from kindergarten to the third grade and I am glad to see him actually contribute to the game with his older counterparts.

Jenna is doing well in her game too. She too plays in the K-3 division, but most of the girls on her team are her age. The neat thing is to see them work together as a team.

A BEAR IS A BOY’S BEST FRIEND. I have mentioned Ben’s bear before, but what happened this weekend must be recorded. He took Bear with him Friday night when he spent the night with Mom and Aunt Mar. In the rush to get to an 8:00 am ball game the next morning he left Bear at their house. This wasn’t discovered until he went to bed Saturday night. Vicki was tucking him in that night and got him to use George as a substitute. He didn’t complain about this, but he had big crocodile tears running down his cheeks when Vicki turned out the light.

Ben and Bear were reunited the next morning at church (he had called Mom to make sure she wouldn’t forget to bring it). Mom had Bear in a plastic bag in the pew beside her when Ben and I sat down for the morning worship. Right after we sat down I saw Ben move around out of the corner of my eye. When I looked he was hunched over Bear, he had pulled Bear’s head out of the bag and was giving it a quick, secret hug. When I asked him about this he just gave me a bashful grin.

FUND RAISER UPDATE. A few weeks ago I reported on Morgan Swann’s attempt to help children in Africa orphaned by AIDS by raising 12 million pennies. According to our church’s worship folder last Sunday she has collected about 600,000 coins--quite impressive! She was featured in a nice article in the Robertson County Times last week, and reaching a larger audience, her project is also mentioned on Alan Jackson’s web site (look in the AJ News section). Morgan still has quite a ways to go to reach her goal, but she has made a lot of progress in the last six weeks. Way to go Morgan!

Joe

Weekend Recharge

The pace of life has picked up some this week--a lot of fun and some sadness.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE. Nate celebrated his 4th birthday Wednesday. He was so cute that night at church when everyone sang to him, his face just beamed. Bro. Bill asked him how old he was and he held up four fingers. We had a small party at Pauline’s Thursday night with barbecue and cake. The guest of honor did, at least, like the cake.

WEEKEND GET AWAY. Since Presidents’ Day fell on this weekend and we had yesterday off we decided to go to the mountains. It was nice to get away.

We left when the kids got off the bus Friday and made it to Pigeon Forge in good time. We stopped to eat in Cookeville and Nate, who is not used to traveling long distances, asked if we were there yet. When he found out we weren’t he said, “I want to go home and I don’t want to go anywhere ever again!” Don’t feel bad for him, he didn’t want to come home Monday.

Saturday morning we got up and drove in to Gatlinburg to eat at Log Cabin Pancakes, a traditional stop for us. After breakfast we walked around town a bit. It started to snow when we were wandering about town and it was beautiful. Part of this adventure included a stop at Wacky Bear where you can pick out and customize your own stuffed animal. Jenna has a bear of her own (Sally) while Ben has a monkey (George), but until now Nate has not had one. As of this weekend a bear named Jake has joined our menagerie.

That evening we took in a show at the Comedy Barn in Pigeon Forge. It was truly hilarious and made for a fun evening. We ate supper at the Happy Days Diner next door. Part of the motif of the restaurant is that the restrooms are labeled “Dude” and “Chick.” As Vicki and Jenna were going to the facilities Vicki asked Jenna if she was a chick. Jenna said, “Not yet.” Vicki told her she was a young chick. After thinking about that a moment Jenna said, “Hmm. I guess that makes you a chicken.”

Sunday morning we woke up to a snow covered landscape. It was the first time I had ever seen mountains covered in snow. (I think we actually got more snow back home than we did in the mountians.) Unfortunately, I had contracted a stomach bug and didn’t feel like stirring from the condo most of the day (I think is was greasy food). Vicki and the kids went sledding at Patriot Park (we had seen the forecast and packed plastic toboggans). Benton won the award for the most times down the hill. Nate won for most original crash (he shook himself off and Jenna was able to convince him that it was okay to sled again).

That evening we all went over to visit Keith and Angi Arnold, friends from Camden who now live in Sevierville (I was feeling better by then). We ate pizza and enjoyed catching up with them. The kids enjoyed playing with their son, Jackson. Their cute nearly one year old daughter, Emery, was too little to join in, but all the kids checked in with her frequently.

AUNT MILDRED is really my cousin. She gets that title from me as she was 50 years older than I am. She suffered a massive stroke Thursday and passed away Sunday. She was 89. The last time we saw her was Thanksgiving Day.

Aunt Mildred was an incredible person, devoted to God and to serving Him. An artistic person, she made the ceramic nativity set Aunt Mar uses to decorate for Christmas. (When we were studying Romeo and Juliet in high school she made a bust of Shakespeare for me.) She served at her church as organist and teacher, but I think possibly her greatest ministry was to her own family. As many grandparents are called to do, she had a large role in raising her grandchildren. This was a role she fulfilled with strength and grace.

Back from her funeral this evening I have been thinking about her as I’ve listened to Chris Rice’s Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus). Maybe the tune has just caught me at the moment, but I think the lyrics somehow speak to who Aunt Mildred was in this life. Come to Jesus/Come to Jesus/Come to Jesus and live. She is now gone and laughing on Glory’s Side having flown to Jesus and eternal life.

Joe

If Teasing Is a Show of Affection…

...then our kids are well loved.

UNDERWEAR ALL THE TIME! Nate has been wearing underwear at night! And while Vicki has been getting him up for a trip to the bathroom around midnight he’s been dry every morning. It looks like after almost nine years we are completely out of the diaper/pull-up business!

THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WAS WORTH THE TRIP. Friday night the boys spent the night at Pauline’s and Jenna spent the night with Mom and Aunt Mar after attending a birthday party. I usually let Ben pack his own bag for spending the night at Grandma’s. He knows that after he gets the basics in he can stuff whatever he wants into his bag. I still run down the list of things he should have packed (i.e. clothes, pajamas, underwear) before he leaves, so I was surprised when he called home at 9:00 to ask me to bring him some pajamas. Being a good father I go to his drawer, pull out some pajamas and deliver them. And was he happy that I did this? No! If looks could have killed!

The kids all have several pair of pajamas that Pauline has made them. She is an excellent seamstress and when the boys aren’t going to bed as a super hero they are sporting her handiwork. (This all started when she made matching pajamas for Jenna and herself.) The latest pajamas Pauline made for Ben have small blue squares in a checked design. These squares have a dark blue dot in the middle. Upon closer inspection (which Pauline didn’t do before making the pajamas) you will discover that the little dots are actually hearts. Needless to say, these aren’t Ben’s favorite. And of course, that’s exactly why I picked them out for him Friday night. I’ll bet he remembers to pack pajamas next time!

SHEER PANIC. The kids wear sweat pants over their shorts to and from their basketball practices and games. Saturday morning, near the end of Ben’s game, Jenna stood up to get ready for her own game. As she was pulling her sweat pants off Vicki cried out, “Jenna, your shorts!” Her shorts were well in place but you should have seen her scramble. That couldn’t have played out better on April Fool’s Day.

Joe

Hints of Winter

Those of you who live where snow is a normal occurrence will laugh, but we are excited to have any amount of snow, even if it’s only a half inch that melts before lunchtime. We’ve gotten lucky twice this weekend!

SNOW DAY. We had already closed schools Friday for the flu when a small system moved through and dumped about a half inch of snow. I went to work, but Vicki and the kids went outside and played for about an hour and a half. It was not good packing snow but they did have fun pulling the sleds around the yard. It was a clear day and the sun melted most of the snow in spite of the below freezing temperatures.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE A REDNECK WHEN you use a three wheeler to pull your sleds around the yard. We had another small weather system move through Sunday morning. It also left a half inch of snow in its wake. Since these conditions are such a rare thing for us church was cancelled to be on the safe side. We wound up meeting Jeff and Michelle Garst and their kids to go sledding. Jeff got out their three wheeler and we had a blast. Who says you need a hill to go sledding!

PLAYING GUARD. In the middle of all the “bad weather” the kids played basketball Saturday. In Upward Basketball you play man on man defense. At the beginning of each period the kids are lined up and shown who they will be guarding. One period Ben was paired up with a tall kid (Ben came up to his chin). After the game I asked Ben about guarding this kid and he said, “Oh, he wasn’t all that good. It was the short kid. He was really smart!”

PLAYING WELL TOGETHER. I need to compliment Jenna and Ben as they have been playing together very well lately. I found a freeware version of Pac Man for our computer (Pac the Man X -- if you don’t have a Mac don’t bother). What’s so nice about this game is that it allows team play with one player as Pac Man and the other as Mrs. Pac Man. Both players work together to eat all the dots in the maze. So far the kids have gotten to level 14 (of 25). The same thing goes for a freeware version of Asteroids I found (Allenriods -- an older version is available for Windows). And the two player version of this game is meant for competition rather than cooperation as the players are allowed to shoot each other. Occasionally one will get frustrated with the other but for the most part I hear sounds of encouragement and teamwork coming from the study as they play. They also like to play Sorry, the board game, when I kick them off the computer (I lose some popularity points when this happens).

FIELD TRIP. The third grade took a field trip to the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville today. Jenna and Vicki (who chaperoned) have both been looking forward to this trip and they said it was all they hoped it would be. The Nashville Symphony performed several concerts today for school groups. I think the thing that stuck out for both Jenna and Vicki was the conductor leading the orchestra in If You’re Happy and You Know It.

Joe