Quick Pix

I just have a couple of minutes, but here are some of the pictures I took outside the other day that I promised to post!

Drake & Levi in the "climbing tree"

If I wanted to get down...you know, just hypothetically...how would I do that?

Big Bro havin' fun in the tree

What a cutie pie!!

Mmmmm....looks tasty!

Levi loves pinecones.

Here he's sharing some of his treasures with Drake...

...and with Mommy, too!

Happy to be playing outside!

Drake on piano

Drake has just recently started showing interest in the piano, and yesterday it hit me that he is probably old enough to start hearing melodies and learning to "plunk" out a song. I wanted to keep his interest, so I decided on the Transformers theme song, consisting of only 7 notes. I guessed correctly, and he was very interested in learning such a cool song! We worked on it a little bit together yesterday, and then today he practiced it mostly by himself until he had it down pretty well! (Yes, there are stickers on the 7 keys that he uses for this song - he has a really hard time remembering the letter names of the keys yet, but I think that will come with more repetition.)

For this video clip, you will probably want to turn off the Playlist music for sure. Just scroll all the way down to the bottom of the blog and click on the square button in the upper right hand corner of the Playlist box that has two vertical lines on it. That should shut off the background music! Anyway, here is Drake's rendition of Transformers! Enjoy...

In case you're wondering, here are the lyrics he's singing:

"Transformers, more than meets the eye. (Transformers,) robots in disguise."

He often leaves out the second "Transformers" - I don't know why. He did that in this video, so I put it in parenthesis. That way, you get the gist of what he's saying! I think he's pretty cute!

So, Ann of SD, (just realized there are two Ann W.'s who read this blog!) .... What do you think about a just-turned-six-year-old boy starting the old Music Pathways books? I still have most of mine...I know I have the red Discoveries book, and I'm thinking of getting it out...but I want some advice about whether it might be too soon. I don't want to turn him off to piano or anything by starting too early...

What color thumb?

You've heard of green thumbs. I don't have one of those. And it seems that people who are talented in the kitchen must have a thumb of a certain color as well. Mine is most certainly not that color, either. My family could give you many illustrations of this point over the years, I'm sure...but to save them the trouble, I'll provide a picture from yesterday showing off my culinary ability - or lack thereof.



These are supposed to be pita pockets (or "pocket bread" as we affectionately called the yummy ones my mom used to make when I was young).

Hmmm... Mine turned out more like really hard and chewy blobs. With no pocket in the middle.

I did call my mom last night for a little help troubleshooting, and I'll be trying again soon!

The most interesting part of making these was how sticky the dough was. (Mom says it's not supposed to be that way.) Yesterday afternoon, I was trying to knead it after letting it rise for two hours and it was truly the stickiest stuff I've ever had my hands in. Levi took that opportunity to break a glass light globe that I thought was out of his reach. (Don't ask - housing maintenance is coming tomorrow to fix the light in the dining room, and we'd conveniently left the globe off for them, apparently too close to the edge of the table.)

So I hear a smash, followed by another one in quick succession - I think he was beating the globe against the tile - and I'm hollering from the kitchen, "Levi Hunter, what did you just break?!? Hey Drake! Levi broke something glass! Quick, can you drag him away into the living room? No, just DRAG HIM! And DON'T STEP ON THE GLASS!" So I see Drake through the doorway, happy to finally be allowed to drag his brother against his will, lugging the little stinker (who's kicking and screaming) away from all the totally fascinating little glass pieces. Sometimes the excitement never ends.

I washed my hands for probably two full minutes, but hours later, I was still picking off tiny little sticky balls of dough tangled in the little hairs on the back of my hands. That is, after I picked up lots of tiny little shards of glass from under the dining room table and vacuumed thoroughly.

So I really want to try making pita bread again soon, but I'll be sure to time it so the dough is done rising during nap time. There is no glass in Levi's crib.

Outdoor fun

The weather here has been just beautiful! Finally, I can open doors and windows in the morning and evening to let in some fresh air without turning our house into an oven! Yesterday after school, the boys and I went outside to play in the backyard and beyond. Drake's friend/neighbor/classmate Tyler was outside, too, so the boys had some fun together! Here, Levi is showing off his walking skills. The big boys were taking turns getting Levi to walk to them. He's getting better all the time...

Did you catch the part at the end where Tyler got grossed out by Levi's drool? ("Ewww"...while wiping his arm on his shorts! So cute!)

And here's another little clip of them all bouncing together! Gotta get those wiggles out!

Anyway, we had a good time playing outside. I also took quite a few still pictures, which I'll be sure to post soon.

Daniel study

It’s been awhile since my last post, and I have been feeling really busy! I wanted to share something meaningful today, and I have something I’ve been chewing on, but it hasn’t been coming together too clearly in my head! But I’ll do the best I can...

I’ve been participating in a ladies’ Bible study again this fall. This particular study is by Beth Moore, and it’s called Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy. It’s really an incredible study. (Just for the record, I don’t think I’ve done a Beth Moore study that wasn’t incredible!) (And also, just for the record, I think any study is probably a lot more incredible when you actually do your homework...which I've been doing faithfully this study for the first time in - ahem - a really long time.) Anyway, even before this study, I had really loved the book of Daniel, just because of the fulfilled prophecy aspect of it. But this study is bringing out a lot of totally new and amazing concepts for me.

For those who are not aware of what the book of Daniel is about, other than the lions’ den part (that was me about two years ago!), I want to explain something really interesting. Toward the beginning of the book of Daniel, there is a pagan king (Nebuchadnezzar) who has a dream about a statue made of different types of metal: head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. There is a rock "not cut by human hands" that crashes into the statue at its feet. The statue falls, smashes into little bitty pieces, and is blown away in the wind. Then the rock grows into a huge mountain that covers the whole earth. The king is sick with worry over his dream and wants an interpretation.

Long story short, God reveals the dream and its meaning to Daniel, and Daniel tells it to the king. The different types of metal are the different gentile (non-Jewish) kingdoms from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar until the end of history, and the rock/mountain is the eternal kingdom of God. (Daniel 2:44, "...the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people...it will itself endure forever.") Looking back, scholars agree that the first four metals, from the head down, represent kingdoms or empires that have already passed: gold is the Babylonian empire (this was Nebuchadnezzar’s domain), silver is the Medo-Persian empire (which took over the Babylonians in the book of Daniel - remember the story of the handwriting on the wall? That’s the very night the Babylonian empire ended), bronze is the Grecian empire (think Alexander the Great), and iron is the Roman empire. That the feet are of a mix of iron and clay represents strength mixed with weakness, and that the people are not united... and you also can’t help but notice that the iron seems to continue from the legs to the feet, although it’s diluted with clay in the feet. It appears that we are in the "empire of the feet" right now. The Roman empire has passed, although many remnants of it still remain around the world...many systems of government (including ours in the U.S.) have been greatly influenced by the Roman way of doing things.

There are two really cool things that I like about this, and I can’t decide which I like best. One is that four of the kingdoms have already come and gone - so we are looking at fulfilled prophecy! I love it that for centuries upon centuries, no one even knew if Daniel was right. For all the proof that existed, he could have been telling an elaborate, fictional tale - but now, several thousand years later, we can see clearly that he was right on! God holds history in his hand. History and time itself were created by the Lord, and he has absolute control. (I remind myself of that sometimes when things don’t seem to be falling into my little timetable the way that I want them to!)

And the second really cool thing is that four of the kingdoms have already come and gone - so it seems we are near the end of time as we know it - that is, time before the return of Christ! Woo-hoo! Can you imagine how exciting it would be if we were the generation who got to witness the return of Jesus in all his glory and meet Him in the air? Believers for almost two thousand years have waited. But again, God’s timing is perfection. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

So that’s what I love so much about Daniel...and I was totally going somewhere else with this post, but I like that part so much that I got stuck! I think this is long enough for today (especially with no pictures of my kids) or I will probably lose you forever - to other, more interesting and photo-laden blogs! (Just kidding...I hope.)

So, I will share some more about the "new" stuff I’ve been learning in this study in another post.

And I also promise to post pictures of the boys soon, too!

Monday Blues

Air Force wives, rejoice! Now you can see your handsome hubby in his dress blues once a week! Thanks to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Schwartz, Mondays are now mandatory "Blues Days" for most career fields, Air Force wide. I guess this doesn't sit well with some people, and there are some career fields where this is not practical, and therefore, it's not required for them. (Can you see Adam in his former life as a heavy equipment operator, driving a loader in his dress blues? Or running that jackhammer?) But as a personnelist, it's perfectly fitting.

I checked, and I don't have any recent pictures of Adam in his blues, but here's one from 2004 (one rank ago!). Yes, it's of terrible quality - again, we don't have a scanner, so I took a picture of a picture in order to get this on here...and it wasn't even in the sunlight. So pardon the dark and grainy quality. But I felt this post needed a visual aid!


There's not a lot about the military life that takes my breath away anymore. I've seen enough emotionally moving ceremonies, been to fancy parties where high-ranking servicemen seemed to be dripping with ribbons and medals from their mess coats. I've seen the convoys, the amazing airshows. I've witnessed plenty of marching formations, and the hairs rarely stand up on the back of my neck anymore when life stops at 5pm each day while the national anthem plays. It's been almost nine years, and what once seemed such an odd and beautiful and even barbaric way of life, has become normal to me, even secure.

But last Monday, I was at the MPF for some reason, and I remember that my breath was taken away, once again, by the sight of all the servicemen and women in their blues, walking in the parking lot and working in the building. It was beautiful to me. Perhaps my sense of beauty has been "warped" slightly by almost a decade of being a military spouse, but I believe many would share my feelings. I know my hubby's mom would have loved it!

So then, I put myself back in my own high school shoes, and thought again about how I would have felt about my life as a military spouse, had I had any inkling. At 17, when I first fell in love with Adam, I could not have made up a story about this life if I'd tried! How much I've learned - about myself, how capable I am when I really need to be; about my husband, how much he is willing to sacrifice for those he loves; about my Lord, how dearly he loves me, and how precious His grace. It's interesting to look back with a smile and see how far the Lord has brought us...and then look forward with excitement to what the future holds!

You never know what will happen next. But I'm counting on getting a good look at my man in uniform before he heads off to work next Monday morning. I can't think of a better way for an Air Force wife to beat the Monday blues!

Free card-making site

So how do you feel about the price of greeting cards? And what do we do with them after the big day, especially kids' birthdays? Yeah. I'd rather spend the extra money on the birthday gift, personally!

I just wanted to pass along this cool website, DLTK's Cards! At Drake's birthday party last month, he received one from a friend - that's the first time I'd heard of it. We just made our first one today for a party we're going to attend in a few minutes. It's totally free. You can choose a print-in-color option for a more professional look, or a color-it-yourself version, which we think is a lot more fun! There are a bazillion options for pictures for the front, including TV characters and a lot more...then personalize the message inside and even print out a custom envelope! It's really quick, and you're only out two pieces of computer paper and a little ink!

Here's Drake showing off the card and envelope he just made!

Anyway, I need to go and check out the rest of DLTK's Crafts for Kids website - there's a lot of other neat stuff on there, too, besides cards! But I was so pleased with the card-making section I just had to share. Highly recommended!

Happy, happy birthday to Cherie!

Today, we’ve arrived at the first "biggie" celebration/occasion since the departure of our favorite Alaskans. Cherie’s birthday is today, and mine is tomorrow. For the past several years, we've always enjoyed a shared birthday celebration with the daddies and the kids, and this year it’s just not going to be the same. (Prepare yourselves to hear me lament at Thanksgiving, too!)

Here is a picture taken last November of both our families together (pre-Makenna, of course!) with the self-timer on their camera. We thought it turned out pretty well, even though Levi and Adelyn thought the sand looked much more interesting than the camera!


So I just want to say this:

Cherie, if you’re reading today, I want to wish you the very best year ever. You are truly a once-in-a-lifetime friend. Thank you for all the memories, and thank you for your part in teaching and shaping me. You are strong, intuitive, insightful, encouraging, uplifting, and truly beautiful inside and out. Happy 27th birthday, my special friend!

(And I still haven’t mailed your gift. Levi did try to unwrap it for you yesterday, though!)

The Rare Spotted Baby

Just how rare? About one in 20, I've been told.

Poor little guy. I had my first MOPS meeting of the year today, and when I picked Levi up in the nursery afterwards, I noticed this weird rash on his neck and the side of his face. When we got home, I changed his diaper before nap, and this is what I found. His back looks the same. His arms and legs are fine, though.

I spoke by phone with a Lt. at the clinic this afternoon, and he confirmed my suspicions that this is probably related to the MMR shot that Levi had about two weeks ago. About one in 20 babies breaks out in a rash within the first week or two afterwards. Supposedly, he's not contagious. This didn't make sense to me, so I kept asking questions, and this is how I understand it now: The vaccine is a live vaccine, but it's somehow mutated a bit, or only part of the virus, or something like that...meaning that while it does produce immunity to the intended diseases, when the person accidentally "catches" a disease from the vax, it's really only symptoms of the disease that they've caught, not the actual disease. And it's supposedly not contagious. (I keep saying supposedly. I hope they're right!)

So, not only is Levi a grumpy grouch because he's cutting two new eye-teeth, but he's got these miserable (probably itchy, said the Lt.) spots all over him! Poor little guy.

Water park!

Last night I got a call from my friend Kristen at about 9pm. She explained to me that her family had season passes to a local water park, and with those passes they had purchased back in the spring, they had received three free guest passes. This is the last weekend the park will be open this season and we were so blessed today to join them for free! -yes, absolutely free for our entire family! - at this awesome water park. Tonight I'm long on pictures, so I'll try to be a bit shorter on words than is typical for me...

Here are my men, enjoying one of the two lazy rivers that wound its way through the park.

...and here is my little man, telling us his true feelings about water parks, or perhaps life in general.

Kristen and youngest daughter Clara - a sweet mama and a sweet child.

Toward the very beginning of our day at the water park, the dads and bigger kiddos went down a pretty fun tube ride that emptied into the before-mentioned lazy river. Here comes Adam!

And Drake! He thought this slide was totally awesome!

And this is Libby coming down the same slide. Libby is a precious little girl, and I wish you all could meet her. She just cracks me up. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of her from today, delinquent camerawoman that I am. (And I have none of her father, Brandon, but I'm sure he doesn't mind too much!) Libby and Drake had such a blast together today, and I intended to snap a few pictures of the two of them playing together. But you know how it goes with cameras and water - I spent most of the day dripping wet and safely away from the camera!

My handsome little guy...

...and my handsome big guy!

Levi taking it all in - as you may have gathered from the previous photo of him, he was less than impressed!

This is where he wanted to be the entire time. And he got his way for most of it.

Except for when this happened.

And I definitely took advantage of that time, too, let me assure you! Kristen and I did a couple of things solo, without the kids, and then Kristen held my glasses while Brandon and I went down the, I believe, second-scariest slides in the park. (Brandon and Adam had gone down the scariest ones earlier, but I wasn't quite up for that.) But let me tell you, my tailbone is making me pay for that one!!

Ah yes, and speaking of glasses, at one point earlier in the day, I went down a smaller water slide, flat on my back, and lost my glasses when I hit the water at the bottom. Panic ensued for all, but only for a moment, because Adam put on Drake's goggles and managed to find the glasses before they were trampled or washed down the lazy river. I have never been more thankful to be in possession of my glasses! (Now I know why people wear those slightly dorky straps on their glasses while swimming...perhaps I'll be finding one of those.)

We just had such an absolutely amazing time today, and Drake is totally bummed that the park will not be open until next May. He told Kristen and Libby, "We should do this more often!" After the great time we had today, we may consider coming back at some point, when we actually have to pay for it. Yeah, it was that good!

So thank you K, B, L, & C for such a special treat!

P.S. - Thanks to my friend Dorla, I have finally learned how to make my blog pictures "clickable"! Yeah, go ahead and click on one (this post only). It opens up the picture to full size, where it can be viewed up close, or even saved in full size to make prints or whatever. (I'm thinking this second option may only be of interest to grandparents, however!)

Classroom helper

Today I had my first volunteer experience at Drake’s elementary school! It was a little crazy, and I have to say that I now have a new appreciation and respect for Drake’s kindergarten teacher. It’s a difficult thing to be in charge of 21 little people who are often loud and distracted and excitable. Yikes!

My first "job" was making copies. I did this for almost an hour, and still didn’t finish all the copies I was supposed to be making. But eventually, two out of the three copy machines were being uncooperative, and I was almost out of paper anyway, so I decided to call it quits.

During that time, I went through almost two full reams of copy paper! Elementary schools must be a very disturbing place for those who are concerned about killing trees. (Tree slaughter was definitely in full swing.) Be thankful for paper recycling - they do a lot of that too, it looked like.

When the kids were at P.E. and Library, Mrs. Gardner told me that Drake was very intelligent and inquisitive. "You obviously read to him a lot at home, and expose him to a lot of speech," she said. Ha ha, that kid talks more than the rest of the house combined! I told her he had always been a talker, and she said that his vocabulary and pronunciation were exceptional. She did seem to agree about him talking a lot though - she said that when he answers a question, he goes way around the answer first and then finally says what she’s expecting to hear. That doesn’t surprise me.

(But I wonder if telling every volunteer parent that their child is "intelligent" is just a ploy to keep them coming back to make more copies!)

After that, I got to do a project outside with the kids - sponge painting, two at a time. That’s two kids, not two sponges each, praise the Lord! To their credit, some were very neat and careful, but there was an awful lot of paint on skin by the time we were through!

Then I got to take them outside again, individually, and "make" a little book with them. Then they "read" it to me. ("Make" and "read" are in quotes, because they didn’t really do either one, but something similar.) They folded a page from their reading workbooks in half, to make a sort of brochure-type book. Then, on each page, they read the sight words I can and identified a picture of a child doing some type of activity. ("I can eat. I can brush. I can read. I can sleep." Wow, I have the book memorized!)

I had the joy of spending a little time with a very sweet and intelligent non-English speaking girl. When I called her name to come outside for the painting project, Mrs. Gardner said, "Oh, she doesn’t speak English." Perfect! At least her language of choice was Spanish and not German or French or something else, because then we would have had a bit more difficulty. But as it was, we got along just fine. I greeted her in Spanish and asked her how she was doing. She looked surprised and asked me if I spoke Spanish. Just a little bit, I told her. She was the only child in the class who wrote her first and last name when asked to "write your name," and her penmanship was amazing for a kindergartner. I did not hear a word of English out of her mouth, and I spoke to her almost exclusively in Spanish; I have the feeling that she indeed speaks almost no English.

When it was time for her to come out again to fold the little book and read it to me, I couldn’t remember the Spanish verb "to fold," so I asked her and she told me. We "read" her book in Spanish and in English, and I felt good that she could see the similarities in the sentence structures. I am looking forward to coming back in two more weeks to talk with her again! At that age, and being in a completely English-speaking classroom for 6-1/2 hours every day, I imagine she will learn English pretty quickly.

Drake was so excited that I was there, and so very sad when I had to leave. We had talked ahead of time about how he should behave when I was in his classroom (and he did that very well!), and I also made sure he understood that I had to leave when his class went to the cafeteria for lunch. But when lunchtime came, he looked shocked as he realized that it was "already" time for me to go home. He was brokenhearted, and he cried, wanting me to hold him on my lap.

It was so hard to see him so sad, and to make him stand in line at the door. I told him I would come sit with him for a couple of minutes in the cafeteria, and then I would leave after he calmed down. So he sniffled his way down the hall in his line, and Mrs. Gardner walked next to him with her arm around him. While he was getting his food in the hot lunch line, she came over to me and expressed her surprise at how upset he was! She said he’d never acted sad before, but that it was understandable that he would miss me when I had to leave.

Once Drake and I sat down together at a separate table from all the kids, and got to talk one on one, he calmed down pretty easily. Food always makes a big difference in his mood, and I think he really just needed to eat something. We had fun being a little silly - I spread some of his mashed potatoes and gravy on his roll, since there was no butter. (He said it was very tasty that way!) After about ten minutes, I helped him get situated in his regular spot at the lunch table with his class, and I left. He was totally fine with it! (Big sigh of relief!)

Then I went and picked up Levi from our neighbor, Jennifer's, house. She will watch him every other week for me to go in and volunteer, and I will watch her son, Andrew (age 3), every other week so she can go in. It seems like a good plan, so hopefully it will work out well. Her older son, Tyler, is in the same class as Drake.

Jennifer said Levi did really well this morning; no big surprise, I guess. But he sure was happy to see me when I came in the door to pick him up! And he was so tired that he fell asleep in his highchair eating lunch when we got home!

AWANA Sparks

Drake is participating in AWANA again this year! Last year he was in Cubbies, the AWANA preschool program. This year he's in Sparks, the Kindergarten through 2nd grade program. It's quite a bit different from Cubbies - much more like school and less like play. There is a game time, though, and he enjoys that the most! (Especially since he's been assigned to the Red Team - red is his favorite color of all time.)

The purpose of AWANA is "helping churches and parents worldwide raise children and youth to know, love and serve Christ." That's a pretty great purpose! In case you're curious, the acronym "AWANA" stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed. That's taken from 2 Timothy 2:15, which says, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." AWANA is mostly about memorizing scripture, but also continally presents the gospel and builds on that foundation. We are really happy with it, and feel that it's a good "extracurricular" activity for Drake to be involved in right now.

We hope to be enjoying AWANA for years to come!


After his first week of studying, Drake had earned his Sparks vest! To do that, he had to memorize John 3:16 and be able to answer 4 questions explaining its meaning. He is pretty proud of his new vest! He also earned his Sparks handbook, but they were all out - so he has photocopies of his next few lessons for now!

Deer!

Two weekends ago, we stopped after church at the headquarters of a wildlife management area near our home. They have whitetail deer in a fenced enclosure near the building, to show people what they might find in the area. The boys were pretty excited to see them! There were a buck, a doe, and a little fawn.

Here, Levi is signing his verson of "deer" when we first got out of the van and he laid eyes on some real deer!

Now they're all doing the "deer" sign!

Here's the adorable little fawn! By Adam's estimation, it was between one and two weeks old.

We really enjoyed looking at the deer. In the end, Adam tried grunting at the buck, to see if he could get him to come a little closer, but he ran off. He was a pretty big buck for these parts, but apparently he thought Adam was intimidating, rather than possible competition! The little fawn stayed perfectly motionless the whole time, using his God-given instincts. What a treat it was to see them!