Fall Fun

Over the last month the trees have been changing from that tired, dark green they have at the end of summer to begin revealing their true fall colors. Everywhere I look I see yellows, oranges, and reds become the more dominant color of the landscape. This will all reach a peak during the coming week. Hopefully I won’t run off the road trying to take it all in.

OUR LADY INDIAN. Last week Jenna decided to try out for the middle school girls basketball team. She made it! We’re so proud. We don’t know the game schedule yet, but she’ll be practicing five days a week (except for game days). The boys will play Upward Basketball again, so it looks like our lives are going to revolve around the round ball from now through the end of February.

FALL DECOR. Of course, this is also the time of year when the color white can bee seen decorating a few select trees. This comes in the form of long streamers of toilet paper. Several of the trees in our year are part of this club as we were rolled last night. Whoever did it was really quiet. We were watching National Treasure 2 while it was going on. They even slipped up on the front porch and decorated the swing and we didn’t even know.

Now I’ve rolled enough houses back in my day that I have no room to get all bent out of shape over this (it was an eight roll job), but the boys weren’t quite sure how to take all the toilet paper in our trees the next morning. They kept asking me if it was illegal, and I suppose it is, but they kept insisting that we do something about it. I finally asked what they would do if we could ever figure out who did it. Nate decided they should pay each of us a dollar.

ROLLING GONE SOUR. As I mentioned above, I’ve rolled my share of yards. I’ve been caught by an angry homeowner once, but never the police. On one adventure the kids were home alone when we came to roll their yard. They got so caught up in the fun they contributed toilet paper to our cause (go figure). Another time I was home and watched some guys rolling my yard from the window. When they left I gathered up all their toilet paper and returned the favor.

Another time some cousins and I decided we would roll Kenny and Lori. Somehow they figured out we were coming so they hid out in the pasture beside their house and waited. I think they were about to give up when we came, but when we got there we were greeted with water from two hoses.

The time I remember most was when we decided to roll David and Lynn Henry (Kenny was in on this one). We loaded his trees, and just as we were finishing up David came outside and caught us. Rather than get mad he invited us in. What we didn’t know was that he had arranged for someone to come and clean up all the toilet paper from his yard and put it all on Kenny’s yard while we were inside. This plan worked and we were shocked when we finally came out, however, it came at a cost. While we were in David’s house we went everywhere rearranging knickknacks, swapping pictures, hiding kitchen utensils. It seems like there were things they didn’t find until they moved about a year later.

PICKING CORN. When the Cotters were here we went over to Mom and Aunt Mar’s house for supper one evening. The cornfield behind their house had been harvested by this time and all the kids had a lot of fun walking over the field picking up ears of corn the combine had missed. Alex even took a bag of corn with him to feed the squirrels the next time he went camping with the Boy Scouts.

Our kids have continued the fun all last week. Usually when I come to pick them up after work they are watching TV, but all last week they were sitting on the patio shelling the kernels of corn from the cobs they had picked up. By Wednesday they had filled two, one gallon ice cream buckets which Mom and Aunt Mar gave to a neighbor to feed his chickens. I assume the fun will continue until the Pinsons plow the field.

GIGGLE BOX. When I hug Ben he usually likes to wrap his feet around my legs. This results in him sliding down to my feet -- sort of like going down a fire pole. This is not ideal when you are wearing sweatpants as I was the other night. The words, “Stop! My pants are coming down,” were barely out of my mouth when I discovered my pants were at my ankles. Ben started laughing so hard I thought he was going to hyperventilate. This went on for quite a while. Every time the laughter would die down he would reenact the scene and get tickled all over again. I guess we’re all the butt of someone’s joke at one time or another. (I got him back with a cup of cold water in the shower later.)

Joe

Making Do with Rain

We’ve had one chilly, wet, messy Fall Break. The Cotters got here Monday evening and left Saturday morning. I don’t think we saw the sun the whole time they were here.

COUSIN-MANIA. Our kids and the Cotter boys didn’t let the weather dampen their spirits or their play. I believe everyone had a great time together. When it wasn’t raining they played outside. Our old chicken house in the backyard is a big hit for that. When indoors they had Nerf guns, video games, board games, and movies to keep them busy.

Alex introduced Ben to Risk this week. This isn’t to say that Ben is any good -- he needs a lot more experience. Every time I walked by Alex had Ben cornered in Australia with only a handful of armies to fight with. I guess I need to start playing Risk with the boy so he’ll be ready next time.

As I said, we all enjoyed watching movies together. At home we watched flicks like The Absent-Minded Professor, Flight of the Navigator, and Treasure Island. We also went to Springfield to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Speaking of going to Springfield, we found several things to do there throughout the week. We ate at the Catfish House and Baldwin’s Barbecue. We also enjoyed bowling where the owner of the bowling alley was kind enough to take us on another tour of the pin setter area in the back (the Cotters had never seen this). Jim and Dianna browsed around the Antique Barn for a while (they skipped the movie), and Jim, Alex, Jenna, Ben, and I went to the Robertson County Museum.

Another day we went up to Cross Plains for our traditional meal, complete with milkshakes, at Thomas Drugs. We also went to the Cross Plains Museum where we looked at old school pictures of Mom and Aunt Linda.

This is skipping over a lot of details, but last week was a very nice visit with the Cotters.

ETHAN’S BIRTHDAY is not until the end of the month, but they celebrated Tuesday, a couple of weeks early, because of an upcoming chemo treatment. Ben was one of several boys invited over and from what I hear they had a blast.

Ethan has been doing well lately. His dad stopped by earlier and said each treatment is actually getting easier than the last.

KUDOS TO DONNA HALL. Speaking of feeling well, we had our annual Health Fair at church Saturday (a joint effort with NorthCrest Medical Center). This year we gave out about 400 free (seasonal) flu shots!

Ben has never handled shots well. I remember two years ago practically needing a straightjacket in order to give the boy his shot. This year Donna Hall came up to Ben and said, “You know Benton, you need to get your flu shot so you can stay well and be able to play with Ethan.” She led him off to a room and when I got back there to check on him she was done and putting a band-aid on his arm. I could have hugged her neck because Ben sure was scared about getting the shot as we were driving to church.

CAUGHT ON VIDEO. Ben has complained about Nate snoring for years. Nate has always refused to believe this. When Alex and Chris were here they told Nate he snores. Nate refused to believe them too. That’s where the video camera came in handy. Nate fell asleep during a movie Saturday night so I filmed him. I was careful to film Jenna and Vicki in the room as eyewitnesses which came in handy later because when I showed him the video the next morning he accused me of making the snoring sounds as I filmed him sleeping. When I reminded him that Mom and Jenna were there watching him snore in person he knew he had lost and he clinched his fists and growled at me.

INNOCENCE LOST. I knew my mom was in the dark on a lot of things in this world, but I could hardly believe my ears when she asked what a wet willy was. I will only say the look on her face when she got a personal demonstration was priceless. It was one of the few times she’s been rendered speechless.

Joe

Ready for a Much Needed Break

This holiday weekend is the start of Fall Break and our vacation. Last year we were heading to Disney World. This year is more of a staycation since we had such a busy summer. This weekend we’ve been cleaning the house in preparation for the Cotters coming to visit us. They will arrive this afternoon.

Vicki told me cleaning the study was my responsibility. It was a job I knew needed to be done so I dove in Friday evening. I finally got done yesterday evening. The hardest part is tackling that big pile of miscellaneous stuff I don’t want to toss but have no idea where I should put. I file too much of my life under miscellaneous.

MORE THINGS TO DO. Ben’s to do list worked so well the other week when he was waiting for Wil’s birthday party he and Nate decided to make another one to keep them busy today while they are waiting for their cousins to get here from Florida. Here’s the list (again, I am expanding these from one word items):

Make our beds

Watch TV [written twice]

Clean [written twice -- wow!]

Get dressed

Shower [hopefully not in this order]

Eat [written twice]

Find Nate’s flashlight

Play on the computer

Play the Wii

Read a book with Dad

Say hello to Alex and Chris when they get here

BOWLING WALNUTS. I’ve said before that I take the kids to catch the school bus in front of Kenny and Lori’s house. Recently Wil has begun to ride the bus in the mornings when Lori is out of town with her job so we sometimes see him and Mrs. Connie. There is a big walnut tree right beside their driveway, and this is the time of year for the walnuts to fall. What’s so funny is watching the kids and Mrs. Connie roll the walnuts back and forth down the asphalt. It’s usually the four kids against Mrs. Connie and they keep her busy -- so much so that she had to come out of her jacket one particularly cool morning.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES. Our kids have been young for so long and with Vicki being our Children’s Minister it’s hard for me to realize that Jenna is now part of the youth group at church. But she goes to the Youth House every Sunday and Wednesday and has a good time.

A few weeks ago I took Jenna to the See You at the Pole prayer service at the school flag pole. There was a good turn out that morning. We stood in a circle around the flagpole and those who wanted to prayed aloud. I was impressed with the number of kids who prayed that morning. (There was a SYATP at the elementary school as well. Vicki took the boys to that one.)

Last Wednesday the FCA at school had a Fields of Faith night. (Well, we’d had so much rain it moved to the gym and turned into Courts of Faith.) They served food and had music to kick off the evening. Jenna participated in a skit. A children’s choir performed, and a sign language team did a couple of songs as well. The featured speaker for the evening was former Tennessee Titan Chris Sanders. Both Vicki and Jenna said he was a great speaker and the evening was really fun (I stayed home with the boys).

While not a youth group activity Jenna took in her first concert this weekend. Friday night Vicki and Jenna went with a large group from our church to see Casting Crowns in concert. Vicki said it was a really good concert. I think Jenna had fun too, but all I can get out of her is, “I liked it.”

This morning Vicki took Jenna to the doctor to have the required checkup so she could try out for the basketball team at school. Tryouts are next week.

Joe