McWane Science Center

JT, Luci and I spent Friday at McWane Science Center. It's always a lot of fun, and this trip was even better with a homeschool friend. Jae and her daughter met us there and we had a ball.

We also got to meet Curious George!




Jae's daughter, Mamie. She and Luci are becoming good friends.


Notice the NOSE.
You can't see me!
When we got home, there were two more Princesses to play with! Fun day from start to finish.

Blast from the Past

This is especially for my family. When we moved back to the States from Japan, we landed in California. Of course Disneyland was on the list of things to do. So, here's a link to a 1960 Disneyland souvenir booklet. It is probably identical to the one my parents got while there in spring 1961.

Disneyland Souvenir Booklet

Check out the links at the bottom of that page to see the entire booklet.

Icy!

See? It truly was cold here. We did have snow. Just not much snow. We also had ice. This is a shot of Shoals Creek at Happy Hollow Bridge, on Sunday. The entire surface is covered with ice. Unreal!

John has some competition

...for Luci's heart, that is.
Today we saw our favorite six-year-old boy at church.

Mr. C.

Mr. C and Luci have been planning to get married for about 2 years now. Seriously. His parents and I don't encourage this, we just listen to the talk and try to calm it down when it comes up. Part of me thinks this is so handy, getting it all planned now. Both sets of parents live here, so chances are very good that they would live in our town when they are grown up. Sounds good to me. Besides, Luci says that "after the honeymoon--you are taking us on a picnic, Mommy--you can take Mr. C home to his house and then bring me home."

Today Mr. C came up to Luci and gave her a big hug. She just stood there, with her arms at her sides. I told Mr. C, "that is enough hugging."

His response?

"I just want to give her a little sugar."

Whoa, boy! Your Daddy told you you couldn't kiss until you were 25!

"It's just on the top of her head."

Smooch!

You know your daughter is being raised in a house with boys when...

...when she yells, INCOMING! whenever she throws something.

...and that the boys like space movies...

...when she says, TRANSPORT! when moving her baby dolls from one place to another.

Here is one of those boy-types who teach her that stuff.

Some Books

Since weathermen around here start saying "SNOW" as early as possible (i.e., about 6 days before it might, perhaps happen) I had plenty of time to get to the library and check out some picture books about the cold stuff. One of the favorites is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers. A really beautiful book.

We didn't get much snow, but what we did get made a nice transformation. The back yard:

and our road. This kind of iciness made for 2 days of missed school for the area kids.

Snow Day!

This really should be called "Almost Snow Day." Schools in all of north Alabama were shut down for today, and some for tomorrow. All because one inch of snow was predicted. Yes, ONE INCH. We have maybe, just maybe, one-third of an inch at our house.

Just enough to make a snow angel that shows up. So JT and Luci bundled up and went outside.

After a little while, I heard this soft tapping on the back door. Now, don't look at the dirty door. We have kids, after all, and they touch things. But can you see the pink thing at the bottom right of the door? That is Luci, and she wanted in. All I could see was the top of her head. Her gloved hands could not turn the knob.


Here's how a clever young man gets enough snow together to make a snowball:



And then he tosses it for joy!

It's Really Over!

Luci and I made this long chain, draping it around the dining room (which is also our school room, as you can see from the posters on the wall). One link for every day John was gone.

There were 179 links by the time John came home on December 23rd.

I wondered just how long we'd need to keep this chain up. It ran around the dining room and was a pretty, but in-the-way decoration. I followed Luci's lead on this, on just when to take it down. We've dealt with her fear of abandonment all through John's deployment. This was definitely Luci's chain of remembrance, of counting, of longing. So it was up to her to take it down.

I was surprised Saturday morning when Luci said it was time to take the chain down. She wanted to burn it, the way John and the boys burn boxes, as a way to say, "Good Riddance," to a difficult time in her life.

So that's what John and Luci did Saturday morning.

My Daddy is home forever!

Happy New Year!

Our rural fire departments have fireworks sales for fundraisers. Which seems kind of silly to me--they use funds raised to put out fires caused by fireworks. Or, I guess you could see it as making sure their jobs are needed? Still silly, because they are volunteers.

Anyhow, the boys, since they are boys, like getting fireworks. When John is on his trips, I don't buy anything fun (according to the boys) because I am "Safety Susie." This year they made up for last New Year's Eve and last 4th of July. It rained yesterday, and wind was very low, so fire danger was low, and up went the rockets.

There were quite a few rockets that exploded overhead and some bottle rockets that whistled enough to scare most dogs in our area (and one 5 year old who lives at this address). Since I am still figuring out my camera, I did not get good shots of the fireworks or bottle rockets.

Here is what I did manage to shoot:

and my favorite:

What are they up to now?!

I walked outside yesterday to see this:


Our neighbor's son holding up a sign to passing cars...
and JT playing with his Diabolo on the driveway next to him.
Here is the sign:

HEY
WATCH THIS
YO-YO THINGY
1:00-3:15

Fireworks, Geek Style

Santa left this in one of the kids' stockings:

Install Mentos candy
Pull the "trigger," letting the Mentos fall into the Diet Coke
Watch it go!
Luci got into the spray of the last one, running into it "sprinkler style" and Mama wasn't happy. Bath time afterwards.

Luci-Speak

Bryan: Luci, you're just tiny.

Luci: I'm not tiny! I'm the same size as me!

The Best Christmas Present!

Besides John being here, I mean...and of course I love the Black-n-Decker Electric Broom that JT got for me.

Bryan and Luci made this for me.

Grandpa and Gran-Je

We had a big time on weekend, going to Jemison to see John's folks. Jeanne's son, Frank, and his wife, Cindy, were there. It was a good visit. Everybody looked good and the kids all behaved. John and JT spent the night, while I brought Bryan and Luci home with me. Asthma, and Divide and Conquer. That's all I have to say about that.

Merry Christmas!

Did Santa come?
Tossing paper out of the way.

Some favorite presents
.
John got a rototiller. Making the garden plot last year was so difficult with our rocky soil. This should help.

Luci makes a pretty bride!

JT likes his gloves and Chuck Norris shirt.
Bryan got some movie-making equipment.


My favorite: SNOW. The flurries only lasted about 45 minutes, but it was enough to give everyone a big smile.

And, since we never know when it will snow again, Luci begged to make a snow angel. Notice that she's barefoot! She was only out there for about one minute, so don't fret too much about it.



We really need a good snow! :)

He's Home!

It was hard to be still last night, waiting for Daddy. Luci ran right out of her shoes!
Looking down the hallway...
All ready!
Tim and his son, Britt, came out, too. That was so nice. Tim and his family go to church with us at CrossPoint. We live an hour and a half away from the airport, so this was a big deal.
First to get to Daddy!
JT keeps singing, "Reunited and it feels so good..."
John got home just in time to help Luci put the very last ornament on our Christmas countdown calendar first thing this morning.

Memories

Presents are wrapped, Daddy's home, Christmas is almost here.

Today I am traveling down Memory Lane. I had this come to mind this morning, as I sat in a fog at breakfast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mother was about my age (not telling what that is!) when this happened. I can so relate to this! I was in college, and the youngest in our family was about 16. I remember very well late that Christmas Eve, my mother telling all of us:

Anyone gets up before 8 am, it all goes back!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John is home! Homecoming photos later today. Merry Christmas, Everyone!