April 2008 Archives

We just got back from Stroud and boy are we tired!  Granny and Papa gave the whole family a weekend at Tatanka Ranch for a Christmas gift.  We all met up and headed out there on Saturday morning.  We spent the day enjoying the ranch's many activities.  There was a pool, horseback riding, boating, fishing, a gameroom, cute little cabins and some great food! 

We started off with a great lunch of burgers and hot dogs.  Next we took on some horseback riding.  Myra and Noah had a blast!  Granny had cute little cowboy hats for them to wear and they really looked the part.  I hadn't planned on riding, but they had an extra horse when Chris and Kenzie went so I "cowboyed up" and jumped on.  I haven't ridden a horse since I was about 8 years old so it was quite an experience.  I liked all of it except when Wallace, my trusty steed, decided he needed to gallop to catch up after spending too much time munching on weeds.

Afterwards we went fishing and paddleboating at the lake.  I didn't take a camera so hopefully Angie and Ricky got some pics of us.  I caught the most fish (of course) and didn't even fall into the water once!  Down by the lake they had a 130 ft tall observation tower that looked like a powerline tower with a shack at the top.  Angie took Kennedy and Myra up and they could barely contain themselves.  M and K shot up the tower like it was nothing.  Next, Chris goaded me into climbing it.  I'm not real scared of heights, but I don't like them much either.  The first 3 or 4 sets of stairs were pretty scary.  The next 6 or 7 were a white-knuckle affair. It was windy and cold.  Angie shot a pic to prove that I made it but I think I spent about 1 minute at the top before I headed back down.

We had a great dinner and birthday celebration then hung out at the pool for a while.  The water was freezing so we spent most of the time in the hot tub.  I gotta get me one of those things.  We went to bed and Myra and Noah were VERY excited to be sleeping in bunk beds.  The next morning, I went fishing with Papa until we decided it was too cold.  I had just enough time to catch one more little one, cementing my victory in the Davis Cup--an imaginary trophy that I just made up that is given to the best fisherman of the family. 

There were so many cool pictures that I just made an album of them all.  You can check it out here.

Noah playing with his trains ...

"Oh no!  Edward doesn't have a blue freight car!  Uncle Nate will get it for me."

I was expecting to have to run to Walmart.  Thanks, Uncle Nate!


UPDATED: Noah informs me that he has a "train station track" for you to fix also.  Do they offer train engineering courses in Iraq?  I think it might be something to look into.

Today Myra got all excited thinking about the swimming pool being open soon and she said to me, "Dad, I can't wait until it starts summering!"  I didn't know you could use that word as a verb, but my little girl is a real visionary when it comes to word usage.

... that has been the question lately.

The kids and I have been suffering from allergies.  The kids are suffering a bit more than I am.  Mostly because ... well, I'll take a little extra here and there to feel better.  I will NOT, however, overdoes my kids. 

Last Thursday, Myra started complaining about her ear.  She wasn't crying about it and once I gave her some pain reliever, she seemed fine for the next 24 hours or so.  I decided not to call the doctor.  Her nose is still runny (it's clear) and she does have a cough.  Nothing at all to be concerned about.

Noah Noah Noah.  I'm not calling the doctor only because I know they're not going to be able to do anything for him.  He's got the runny yellow nose.  He's got the nasty congested cough.  We've got the Claritin and the humidifier going as well as his mattress propped up with pillows (to try to help control the drainage at night).  What would the doctor tell me other than it being ANOTHER sinus infection?  Noah did have me worried on Friday though.

As I've already posted, it was Josh's birthday so we had plans to go out for dinner.  We left the house about 4:45 or so.  It never fails.  Noah fell asleep in the car on the way.  Usually, I can carry him in and he'll wake when the food gets to the table (typical Noah).  This time, he slept through dinner ... the ride home ... cake ... gifts ... several rounds of Speed Stacks ... AND THE NIGHT!  That was a huge deal considering he hasn't slept through the night in the last several weeks.

I stayed calm on the outside even though I was incredibly concerned on the inside.  Was our baby boy okay?  Was he going to wake up?  If so, when?  I checked him several times that night for a fever.  I don't think I slept hardly if at all.  The next morning, it was like having a new son.  He was all giggles and smiles.  He even gave us a nice little concert in bed on his toy xylophone.  On top of that, he slept through the night again last night!

So the answer?  NOT to worry.  (Thank Goodness!)

Earlier this week, there was quite a storm.  It dropped a lot of rain on the area and brought some high winds.  It began with a massive clap of thunder, which brought Myra running into our bedroom.  Then the hail began.  It was only pea sized at our house, but it was REALLY coming down for about 15 minutes.  We opened the door for like 3 seconds to snap this pic click for larger:

It didn't really turn out that great but we soaked the floor in the process so I decided I'm posting it no matter what!  The next round of thunder brought Noah running into our room and we woke up with a bed full of people the next morning.

One of my students brought a digital camera to school the next day to show me the damage at his house.  He lives about 2 miles south of us and they had their trampoline thrown into the neighbors tree as well a BIG U-Haul truck turned on it's side.  He had a pipe from the trampoline thrown through his bedroom wall.  All of this happened WITHOUT WAKING HIM UP!  Kids can sleep through anything!

Last post about Camp Goddard, I promise.  I found this pic that I took one day on the trail and it struck me as funny.  That's right, there's a manhole in the middle of a footpath in the middle of the forest.  I imagine this is what it's like in Super Mario World.  There's just manholes and open pipes all over the place.  We couldn't get the cover off this thing, but I could have sworn that I heard someone babbling about mushrooms and fireballs in a heavy Italian accent.

Myra had a very hard time getting out of bed this morning ... as she does EVERY morning.  Today, to get her moving, I reminded her that today is Daddy's birthday!  (Thirty-one years!)  She asked if Josh was still home.  I told her "no" but if she got out of bed and got dressed to the shoes, I'd let her call him to wish him a happy birthday.  It still took her 15 minutes to do all that but ... she called.

During the time it took Myra to get dressed, I was telling Noah that it was Daddy's birthday and that we would call him so Noah could tell him "Happy Birthday!"  Noah got this look of confusion on his face.  "But where's MY birthday?"  I told him we had to wait a little longer.  He then asked "Is it over there?  Way far away?"  I told him "Um .. sure."  Whatever it took to get out of this conversation ... for a while anyway. 

Noah decided not to talk to Daddy but instead play with his trains and tell them all about his "Thomases birthday."  A few minutes later, Noah comes RUNNING towards me yelling excitedly "OH!  I KNOW!   My Thomases birthday is at Walmart!"

Okay, I know Walmart has everything but ... Any suggestions on how to explain to a three (not too long before he's four) year old that a birthday isn't a thing you can buy?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!  Dinner's on me tonight.  ;)

What a break!  I spent all last week at Camp Goddard with 50 sixth graders.  I had a cabin full of smart young boys who were excited to be there.  All of the adults that went with us were great.  I'm so glad I could be a part of it.  There was more than once this week where I sat back and thought, "I can't believe they PAY me to do this."  I even called Ricky from the boat dock to brag to him that I was having the time of my life.  This was easily the best teaching experience I've ever had.  I can't wait until next year. 

We hiked three different trails and taught different lessons on each one.  The first day we hiked the longest, hardest trail:  Cedar Canyon.  It was only 1.5 or so miles long and had a lot of ups and downs over loose rocks.  We learned about ecosystems and raced corks in the fast-flowing stream at the bottom of the canyon.  We then climbed (on all fours) up a steep rock face.  Later we canoed and rowed in the lake while some of the kids fished.

The next day we hiked the Geologic Time trail which was over easier terrain but took us to a beautiful bluff overlooking the lake.  Later we dug for fossils in the fossil pits and made cabin flags.  My cabin named themselves the Davis Demolition Squad.  We lost out in the flag competition to Ms Dean's Jelly Beans.  On Thursday we hiked the Man and Water trail which had us traipsing all over camp taking water samples that we analyzed that afternoon during our lab.  We even had a girl get a sample out of the sewer lagoon.  We cheered her on with the chant:  "P-O-O-P!  Get THAT POOP!!!!"  Yes, that WAS the most interesting sample under the microscope.

Wednesday night was the big campfire and being an Eagle Scout, I got the honor of starting it.  It was pretty soggy so I cheated and used a little lighter fluid, but that thing really turned into a GREAT fire.  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and sang campfire songs (a lot of which I'd never heard).  Each cabin put on skits and most of them were original works (not ours) AND were really good (but not ours).  Our last night there, we were treated to an amazing lightning show through the numerous windows in our cabins.  My boys slept through the whole thing but I heard that some other teachers had to deal with some fraidy-cats.  Glad it wasn't me! 

Friday was a long trip home and I was absolutely beat.  All I wanted to do was hit the sack and sleep late, Unfortunately, that didn't happen.  Before I knew about Camp Goddard, I'd volunteered to work at the Saturday TAKS Academy, so I had to drag myself out of bed early the next morning and sleepwalk through a few hours of TAKS tutoring.  I made it...barely.  All in all, it was a GREAT experience.  All of the rewards of teaching with very few of the headaches and all of it with a beautiful backdrop.  I recommend it to anyone.

Just in case you aren't keeping up with our Project 366 over on flickr, here's a link to a few more pics I took last week.

While Josh has been away at camp, I've been trying my best to keep the kids (and myself) occupied.  So far, the day time has been pretty much the same.  Josh is usually gone by the time the kids get up anyway.  Dinner time isn't too bad either.  We've even thrown in something new!  A trip to Kids Club (aka 24 Hour Fitness) but I'll save that for another entry. It's bedtime that we're having MAJOR problems with.  The funny thing is, the only thing they're really missing from their routine is saying good night to Daddy.  I guess that's enough to throw everything out of whack.

Last night was TERRIBLE!  I had the kids in their pajamas and ready for bed by 8:15.  That's early for us.  That's great!  I decided to let them watch a short show telling them that when it's over, it's straight to bed.  Somebody failed to mention to me that "bedtime" apparently means "whine-time".

I'll spare you ALL the details and leave it at this ...  "I miss Daddy.  When is he going to call?"  When Daddy did call, it was "I don't want to talk to Daddy."  After hanging up with Daddy, it was "I didn't get to talk to Daddy!"  It was a whole hour filled with kids getting out of bed, Mommy literally dragging them back to bed and constant whining, crying, feet kicking and arms flailing. 

Tonight, we're starting the bedtime routine an hour early.  I don't know how these single mothers and military mothers do it.  I'm tired.

UPDATE:  Wednesday night wasn't AS bad.  The kids still got up a couple times but overall, it really wasn't anything like Tuesday night.  Last night (Thursday night), was the best.  No fussing.  No fighting.  No getting out of bed after being tucked in.  The only thing (not a complaint) was Myra singing until 10:30PM.  It wasn't easy getting her out of bed this morning.  Daddy gets home tonight.  I can't wait!  The kids can't either.