Spring Break: Melissa Rocks, Lil's Sick, and Camping?!?

We'd hoped for a spring break that was to die for... great plans of grandeur. We did have great plans. Work was really busy, so I couldn't take the whole week off, but I busted it like crazy to get my work done early so I could at least take one day off and we could go camping as a family. I talked to the local Scoutmasters to hit them up for their favorite nearby camping spots. The weather seemed like it was going to cooperate. Everything was lining up. Then work got really busy. To use Dan's expression, Grrrrrr!

I know what you're thinking... another dumb dad that ditched his wife and kids' desires for the office deadlines. But before I'm convicted, I have to say I'm really proud of our family. Here's why... on Wednesday afternoon when it didn't look like I was poised to finish in time to be able to go camping, I called Melissa and we discussed the evening's plans. I committed to myself to get my junk done early so we could go camping, so I told her that I'd work as long on Wednesday as it took to get my stuff done. Yes, I know... that's nothing to really be proud of. Anyone can pick up the phone and say, "I'm gonna be late." What I'm proud of is what took place on the other end of the telephone line. Melissa said, "Well I made a great dinner, and I'm not gonna let you miss this one, so we'll bring you dinner."
"Are you sure?" says I.
"Yes," came Melissa's reply. "I made barbecue pork sandwiches with home-made buns, coleslaw, and rice crispie treats for dessert. And I made it just for you, so after we eat, I'll pack up dinner and the kids; you can take a short break, see the kids and say goodnight to them and we'll deliver you some dinner. You're gonna need some energy if you have to work real late."
"Wow, that'd be great!", I responded.

So my fantastic wife brought me dinner AND I got to see the kids before they went to bed. It was great. True, I didn't get home until after midnight, but I got the work done I needed to get done and we were on schedule to go camping again!

Before I continue with the story, I have to praise Melissa again. The pulled-pork sandwiches with sweet BBQ sauce on home-made buns were great. I devoured both rapidly. Then, the coleslaw was awesome... thanks again to sweet Lady Lou. Then I could only cram one rice crispy treat down my already-packed stomach. So I saved the rest for breakfast. Breakfast of champions!

On Thursday Lillian came down with a fever. Dang-it! Unfortunately, she still has the fever... she's always had a hard time kickin' sicknesses off. Needless to say, we didn't go camping. So we decided to camp in the back yard. After all, it's basically the woods... So on Friday, I cleared an area, started a campfire, set up the small tent for Kate and Morgan in the treehouse, and we sat around the campfire. We sang some of my Papa's (my maternal-grandfather) old cowboy songs, and sent the girls off to their tent. I slept on the back deck on a cot under the starry sky (there are definitely more stars visible here on a clear night than in Tucson). As I lay looking up at the stars that night I couldn't help thinking of how wonderful the Creator's works are. The heavens are remarkable.

I don't know what the deal was during the night, but I was cold. It was terrible. I was cold all night, but I didn't want to go inside 'cause the girls were up in the treehouse in their tent and if one of them got up in the middle of the night for some reason (we all know what that reason is!), I was worried they'd fall off the treehouse edge. So I stayed outside on the cot in my sleeping bag. My muscles were all tense in the morning, so at 0500 (or thereabouts) I figured I might as well get working. So I got up, raked leaves, trimmed the hedges around the driveway, and re-started the campfire (to burn the leaves I raked up).

On Saturday, Lillian's fever persisted, but we had high hopes that her fever would break. But no luck there. So Morgan, Kate, Dan, and I went to the children's talent show at Church (Lil' was still sick). The kids all prepared their talents to share with the other children. Morgan and Kate prepared a special number. Morgan was to play "Old MacDonald" on the piano while Kate tap-danced. Many other children performed ahead of Kate and Morgan, so they knew what to expect. They got on stage & Morgan set up her music at the piano. Then she began to play. Kate stood there. Yep. She froze. She just stood there. See the video below. What you don't see in the video is Kate deciding that for the next number she would sing instead of dance, as planned. Then after singing the first two words of the song, she collapsed on the stage floor and began to cry. Poor girl! Morgan was un-phased and kept on playing. After she saw that Kate was off the stage (I went up and picked her off the floor and tried to console her), Morgan kept playing... and why not, she had a captive audience! In all it was quite comical, though I could see this kind of thing scarring a teenage girl.



Well, I could probably go on for a while... but I'll spare you. I will say that the chicks are growing rapidly. If you didn't know, we got baby chicks last week. They were two days old when we got them. We got 5 White Leghorns and 5 Rhode Island Reds. Here's a picture taken last Saturday (14 Mar):













And here's a picture taken this weekend:






Today they learned how to jump out of their box. So we had to move them to a bigger home. Now it's a race against the clock to see whether I get the coop done in time for them to move out there. Otherwise they're gonna be poopin' all over the garage! Yikes!

The Chicks Have Arrived!

We all know what it's like to wait for Christmas as it approaches... the yearning, the anticipation, the suspense of what may lie in those sparkly colored packages that sit beneath the evergreen. That feeling has made it's way into our home a second time in one year. We've been waiting for our chickens for some time now. At first it was the wait for the hatchery to announce the hatching of the spring chicks, then after discovering the huge cost of shipping live animals overnight, we realized we had to go local. Thus the waiting again for "C.T. Garvins" to place the spring chick order. "Garvins" is our favorite of the local feed & seed stores... and is almost on the list of historic places in Huntsville. At any rate, yesterday, Garvins called to tell me that the chicks were in.
We were in the midst of breakfast and I guess the girls overheard the conversation, so by the time I got back into the kitchen, Dan was sitting alone. What's going on? I thought. Then the girls popped out fully dressed, hair done, etc and said, we're ready to go Dad! I couldn't help but laugh. So we went off to Garvins to get our chicks. We ordered 5 White Leghorns (yes, like Foghorn Leghorn on Loony Tunes), and 5 Rhode Island Reds. Turned out, they had already been vaccinated and everything, so I paid $3/each, and we were off.

So without further delay, here's a pict:

Happy 60th Birthday Ron Howe!

Ten Years Down... and what kidnappers look like!

Well this past week was a good one. Melissa's mom was here for the week. My sister Jolene, and Melissa's sister Amy were here visiting last weekend as well. Then, on Friday, Melissa and I took off for two days. We left the kids and just drove away... we really did! Granted, Melissa's mom was staying over and watched the kids. So Melissa and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary on Friday and Saturday. We traveled to Atlanta, Georgia and went to the Temple there. It was great. We got to perform some sealings via proxy for a bunch of people. It was nice to get to "renew our vows" so to speak by doing sealings in the Temple. You know, if I could do it over, I'd still marry Melissa and I think she'd still have me. She's a great gal and a wonderful mother. I'd make a lousy mother.

Well, we also went to Six Flags over Georgia. We'd talked about going to Magic Mountain soo many times when we were back in AZ, but never did, so we had to do something cool this time. The coasters were cool. Some of them (e.g. the Goliath) were a little much. The Goliath was psychotic. It involves two drops of over 17 stories at an angle that resembles staight down! I almost lost my lunch twice due to the weightlessness at the top of the peaks on the coater course. The Goliath was nuts. I liked the Batman one and the "Georgia Scorcher", both were a bit more tame than Goliath. So the coasters were cool, but Melissa and I both hate getting gouged by "in-park" food prices. I should say "in-park" 'garbage' prices, because the food there tasted like garbage. Plus several of the coasters were closed, so that was a drag, but in all, it was a fun trip.

Okay so the part in the title about kidnappers...

Earlier in the week, I saw this little kid riding a bike and decided to kidnap him and steal his bike too. I tried to figure out how to do the job discretely, but here was my best effort:

Actually, we went on a bike ride/walk in the neighborhood with Melissa's mom, and while on the walk, Kate decided she was done riding her bike and wanted to ride in the stroller. So to be a peace-maker (My first inclination was to make her finish the ride she started), I decided to make the best of it... I'd give Dan a ride on Kate's bike. It wasn't the first time I'd ridden her bike, and probably won't be the last time either... but I thought I'd give it a try with Dan; after all, he loves it when I give him rides on the skateboard... why not Kate's bike. As you can see from the pictures, he had a blast! Hell's Angels, here we come!

Melissa, Queen of the Trampoline!

The pictures speak for themselves!

A Hint of Spring

Last Saturday was was one of those fabulous days... the high was almost 70, with a low in the 40s. Though it got a bit cold yesterday, and the outlook for this week looks more like winter, it was lovely. The kids played outside all day long; climbing trees, running around, playing baseball with the boys next door and from in the neighborhood. Melissa and I played in the garden.

Oh, playing in the garden is nice. But, to paraphrase the author of one of the Alabama gardening books we've been using (thanks Mom & Dad!), you gotta protect your turf! You see, plant diseases can creep up upon you and slowly destroy your crop, but you can usually see it coming. On the other hand, Peter Rabbit's family can wipe you out over night! So your best defense is to be proactive. (I'm not going to comment on National Defense policy nor how that may change over the next several years...) So like Captain Moroni, we built up a defense againt the marauders. Don't be fooled by the cuteness of these bunnies... they're only here to rob you of your hard work and leave you with nothing. So we built a rabbit proof fence. See below:

So the bottom 6 inches (inlcuding the outward turning portion) are buried about 6 inches deep to prevent the bunnies from digging under the fence.

So that was last weekend. Then, this past weekend was much the same, except on Saturday, Melissa got to do some family history research. Thankfully, she still has her Tucson library card as the Tucson-Pima library has an account on Heritage Quest or Ancestry.com that library patrons have free access to. So she worked all Saturday morning and found a couple more families on the Howe-Parkin side. She was totally stoked. So she uploaded everything to New Family Search (the new online, shareable family history tool) and now there are a couple more families that we can help do the temple work for. She talked to her mom about what she was able to find. Go Melissa!

This past weekend was nice. We played outside a bunch and are noticing the blossoms starting to pop out of all the trees and the bulbs are starting to bloom. Many people have daffodils blooming! I can't wait for the bulbs in our front little flower garden to bloom. Whe should have a hundred or so.

Sunday morning, Dan was up early so he and I took a walk, but because it had gotten cold again, I had to bundle him up. I took a couple photos, and had to share a few. Here's Dan ready for the walk:

Here's the sun rising over the neighborhood:

When we got back from the walk, the girls were awake and doing some art project...

Later as we all got ready for Church, Dan looked so handsome, I had to snap a shot:

Dan Falling Asleep at the Table

Here's a video we thought was great...