Mother's Day, Etc.

We're ready to dry out. It has taken about a week for the deepest puddles to disappear in our yard. I'm also ready to have some pleasant spring weather. Last week it was cool enough to run the heat at night. This week it has warmed up so much we’ve skipped having the windows open to just running the A/C.

MOTHER’S DAY. I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day this year. We did for the most part. Sunday afternoon I started feeling a little sick at my stomach. By the time we went over to Aunt Mar’s and grilled out for supper I was starting to feel really bad, and by midnight I was one sick boy. Fortunately, the bug I got only lasted 24 hours, but it was plenty rough. I’d like to redo that now that I’m feeling better.

FIELD TRIPS. Now that we're in the final stretch of school we've got field trips going everywhere. Last Wednesday Jenna went to the zoo, and on Friday Nate's class went to Honeysuckle Hill Farm. Ben has a field trip next week.

I bring this up because I went on Nate's field trip as a chaperone. This was the first time I've been able to accompany any of my kids on a field trip. We had a lot of fun looking at the farm animals and doing all there is to do. The boys I had were all well behaved and we enjoyed jumping on the “Popcorn Popper,” riding the hayride, and playing on all the playground equipment.

MAMMOTH CAVE. Speaking of trips, Saturday Ben was invited to go with his friend, Jake, and Jake's parents to the Snowball tour at Mammoth Cave to celebrate Jake's birthday.

This tour is fairly strenuous, and lunch is served at a cafe in the cave. They all came back talking about how much fun the trip was. Ben also spent the night with Jake.

While they were in Kentucky we kept Jake's younger brother, Luke. He and Nate had a great time playing together all day.

We had to run a few errands in Springfield so we piled Jenna and the boys in the van and took off. We had to laugh at all the Pokémon speak going on the back seat. I'm sure Ben and Jake were doing the same thing all the way to Mammoth Cave and back.

ART FAIR. One of the places we went in Springfield was the Robertson County Art Fair. This is open to all students in the school system. Each school has its own art contest and the winners are sent on to the county contest. We saw some impressive art projects by our students.

Both Ben and Nate submitted projects, but only Ben's work placed and was on display in Springfield. He decided to take a picture of 36 (our goldfish) which won third place at school. He had quite a challenge getting a good picture of his fish when the camera we have doesn't have a fast shutter speed and kept wanting to focus on the fish bowl glass rather than the fish. The funniest part of all this was that Ben was so happy to get a ribbon that he has hung it on the side of the fish bowl for 36 to see. All in all it was nice to see him represented among the students across the county.

TONGUE TWISTERS. Nate has been introduced to tongue twisters. He loves them. It's been fun listening to him try to tackle something like "rubber baby buggy bumper."

The other day we were in the van when he came up with a twister of his own: "Sammy slapped Silly Sally." He asked me to try saying it five times fast.

Now, tongue twisters aren't my strong suit, but I managed to come back with, "Are you sure Sammy slapped Silly Sally? Maybe Sammy slapped Sally silly. Or could it be that Silly Sally slapped Sammy? Or just maybe Sally slapped Sammy silly." in near rapid fire speaking with no trip ups.

By the time I got done I could tell Nate was impressed from the tone of awe in his voice when he said, "Dad's really good at tongue twisters."

BACKYARD BASEBALL. With baseball season comes playing ball in the backyard. Ben has decided he needs more batting practice so he and Nate usually go outside and have at it (I'm usually trying to get us ready to go out the door to whatever's next on the schedule). Sometimes the boys next door come over and play too.

What's so funny is that Nate, who says he isn't interested in playing baseball, loves to play and comes in bragging at how good of a pitcher he is. Nate is normally pretty humble about his accomplishments, but when he comes in and describes a particular play he'll drop a line like, "I threw the ball to Ben, which was a really good pitch by the way, and Ben hit the ball out in the field!”

MOVIE REVIEW. I haven’t written a movie review in a while. They sort of stopped when we subscribed to Netflix. Before Netflix we’d have two rules to guide us in choosing movies at the video store: we could not choose a movie either of us had seen before and the movie had to be something we both agreed on. Netflix made those rules a moot point so we just alternate movies in the queue we want to see and if we both want to see a movie so much the better. (I watched all of James Bond a couple of years ago this way!)

I watched a really good film this weekend. I don’t even remember what made me put it in the queue and by the time it got to the top of the list I had almost lost interest and thought about sending it back unwatched. I’m so glad I didn’t. After seeing it I told Vicki she should watch it. When she finished she said it should be required viewing for all high school students in America.

Taking Chance is based on the true story of a Marine, Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, who volunteers to escort the body of PFC Chance Phelps back to his hometown for burial after being killed in the Iraq War. The film focuses on the experiences Lt. Col. Storbl has as he travels with the body. The story is moving and beautifully told. It really made me appreciate the sacrifices those serving our country and their families are making.

Joe