One Year Older and Wiser Too

I can never remember to buy candles for birthday cakes, so here is my one back-up candle-which won't melt down to quickly.

Nate turned 14 on the 3rd. He starts High School in a couple weeks. It's no wonder that I'm starting to see a few strands of gray hair and more wrinkles. If he wasn't such a good kid, I might have even more. (That reminds me of the story of a father talking to his son saying, "everytime you do something wrong I get another gray hair." The son thinks about this for a minute and then with eyes full of surprise he says, "So it was you that gave grandpa all his gray hair!")

I wanted to record a few of his favorite things, so he can look back and compare them in later years.

Nate In a Nutshell

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Meal: Navajo Tacos

Favorite Dessert: Cookies or Double Fudge Brownie ice cream by Dreyers

Favorite Pasttimes: Can't decide between soccer, hunting, or fishing.

(I would say his favorite pasttime is teasing his younger siblings.)

Favorite School Subject: History

Best Friend: Blake

Favorite Movie: Oceans Eleven

Favorite TV Show: History Channel's Dog Fights (it's about WW II airplane fights, not re-enactments of Michael Vick's past criminal history)

Most memorable experience this past year: ?

Most embarassing experience: My Mom trying to coach my soccer team.

Biggest challenge this past year: Trying to gain weight, or getting my Mom to stop blogging about me.

Conehead

Sunday night Steve went out to feed the dogs. After a short time, Ashlyn ran into the house yelling that there was something wrong with Marge, one of our pointers. I came out to see what was the problem and saw that Marge had somehow managed to cut open a 3 inch gash on her hind leg, just above the knee. The cut was wide and deep, but luckily it wasn't bleeding. After a quick call to the Veternarian, we decided it could wait until the next morning. On Monday Marge went in for minor surgery to clean out and sew up the cut.

We opted to put Marge in a cone collar, in order to keep her from chewing on her stitches. But she managed to get that off her head and pull out all her stitches a couple days later. Back to the Vet and an upgrade to staples. A few days later Marge somehow worked out how to position the cone so she could reach her leg, and she pulled out all but one staple (of course it was late Saturday night and the Vet office was closed). We haven't returned to the Vet yet, because amazingly the wound has remained closed. I would post pictures of her cut, if it wasn't so gross. Once this heals completely, Marge will have a nice scar to remind us of our ordeal.

Playing Catch-up

Time is speeding up and our summer is quickly coming to a close. The knowledge that school will be starting soon is a bit of a shock. One day you are enjoying your carefree summer activities and the next you are looking through all the newspaper ads for the best back-to-school deals. Ihave neglected this blog for a few weeks to attend to the kids activities. Here is a quick update of what we have been doing, in no particular order.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons are over and I'm pleased to announce that we made it through without any near drownings or other small injuries (we have had a couple close calls in the past). Ashlyn made great progress this summer, and has discovered that she enjoys diving and swimming under water. Lauren worked on her breathing technique. Her first lesson I laughed the entire time she practiced her breaststroke, because she would come up for air and sound like a crow cawing. She is doing much better at the front crawl, and can almost get away from her brothers when they want to dunk her.

Parading

The fourth of July parade was a lot of fun. Our location was perfect, with lots of shade. (I'm hoping that we can convince Tricia to save a spot again next year...if she's willing to wake up at 4:30 a.m.) Everyone liked the big balloons and floats, but the free water bottles and shirts elicited the most reaction. They weren't quite as excited with the free garbage sacks that were handed out at the end of the parade. We liked the canons when they were a block away, but directly in front of us-they weren't nearly as enjoyable. The girls all wore their new patriotic flip flops, thanks to the creativity of Candice. It was an ideal morning to spend with family and friends, to honor Veterans of past wars and to be reminded of how great a country we have. God Bless America!

Sew Happy

Lauren with her gecko pillow

Lauren working on her pajama bottoms
In three days of sewing class, Lauren completed a sewing bag, a pillow, and a pair of capri pajama bottoms. She was most pleased with her choice of fabric; that all three projects had the same colors-just different patterns. She loved the class, and was excited about sewing...until I made her unpick and resew her pillow. But, I think she saw the benefit of the extra work, when all the puckers were taken out and the edges of her pillow lined up correctly. She can't wait to start on another project, and luckily for her (and me) I have plenty of unfinished projects here that she can work on.

Campfire in the Canyon

An evening in the mountains was the perfect way to end a busy week's activities. We enjoyed a quick hike up to a grove, where the kids found a tree that had grown sideways. They discovered that it was the perfect teeter totter. I discovered a small clearing filled with these beautiful, white Columbine.



After a delicious dinner, which Grandpa prepared (stuffed pizza pockets for the kids and sweet and sour dutch oven chicken for the adults); we sat around the campfire singing songs and roasting marshmallows for smores. Adam impressed us with his skills on the guitar and Grandma surprised everyone with her dancing moves.


Isn't he cute! I couldn't resist posting this picture of Steve. I was glad that I actually had a picture of him in the canyon, because I wasn't sure if he was going to make it. He was the last to arrive, because he worked late that night. But, we were happy to see him and the kids were quick to pull him up the hill to their favorite tree.