fun month

Sorry for the lull - Its been a busy month with Thanksgiving, cub scouts, Christmas, school, etc.

On top of that in the past six weeks there have only been two weekends where someone wasn't sick. But I think we are all on the roll to recovery (Lexi is just getting over a sinus infection).

Starting last Wednesday I started vacation for the rest of the year! I never had that much vacation saved up before. So far I have been helping with the kids at school with there Xmas party. But after today they have the rest of the year off as well.

I am not a Christmas movie person but I do want to point out an awesome animated show I saw last week "Prep and Landing". Click on the link if you have high speed internet - its an cool show.

:)

Awesome pic - left vs right

This has a pretty good definition of left vs right. After the Schiavo law passed in Florida though I believe its hypocritical at best to say the right believes it should not interfere with the rights of others.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/leftvright_world.html

Ode to another chair. Nate's birthday

Well a month back I had to put the lazyboy out on the curb a couple of weeks ago I had to put the black metal rocker out on the curb. One of the main connection pieces for the back to the seat sheared off. This time though I decided to fight it and rented a MIG wielder. Now for those who don't know me I do like to tinker but I have no skill in it. So as you can imagine the first attempt looked like something out of a horror movie and pulled away when I screwed the back of the chair in (when I tapped it with a hammer most of the weld fell off - so it was not even a good weld). So I made a final attempt and that one looked even worse but snapped off as soon as I leaned back in the chair. Though this time I did not budge when I gave it a solid blow with a hammer so it was a reasonably good wield on one side of the chair. At that point I had to decide on returning the wielder or keeping it for the weekend so I sadly put the chair on the curb, bad wield and all, and returned the wielder. But I do console myself that the only true failure is not trying and I never wielded before.

So now Dad you got a couch when you come over (if that last).

Nate had his birthday party this weekend. We have always given him a choice between a large bounce house party or a ride with one friend on the tarantula train (aka puffy) and he has always chosen the train ride. Last year the friend he picked did not show up but this year the friend he picked did show up and they had a blast. We posted the pics on the website. Enjoy.

:)

Ode to an chair. Scout time

Last week I had to take my lazyboy recliner out to a curve. Last year, one month after the warranty expired, the springs broke and after applying some redneck ingenuity (bungie cords) I got another year out of it when the plywood frame cracked. So now I have the old black metal rocker that we got when Nate was born and I put an old roller desk I got at a company sale in the playroom. So sorry Dad - next time you come over you will be in the black metal rocker. Personally I like it better but I'm not sure if it will be a good sleeper.

The first day of cub scouts went well. We picked up four new wolf scouts and may pick up some more with the Fall Rally at Nate's school. So we may have to break up the wolf scouts (1st graders) into two groups as we already have a dozen scouts and only one den leader (moi). God the things I do for the kids.

Speaking of sacrifice Lexi had her first girl scout meeting last week and Chris is one of the two assistant leaders (they have one leader and two assistants). The dealing with groups of people has not gotten to her yet as that has been overpowered by the fact that all the meetings are late at night and Chris hates driving in the dark. But like I said it one of the things we do for the kids.

Popcorn and school

Well the kids have been enjoying school. Lexi got the same kindergarden teacher that Nate had (poor Mrs. Riggs ). Nate is having a great time in second grade as well. He got to go to the "big kid" section of the library last week to check out books but the problem is he is already reading some of Chris' mystery books so he ended up checking out two Hardy Boys books he already read.

The cub scouts popcorn"Show and Sell" is almost over with. We did WalMart and Kroger this weekend. Nate was a real trooper. I could tell he really did not want to be there today but he hung in there and sold popcorn. Next weekend we are doing one day at Lowes and then we are done. After that we will be doing "Take order" so expect an email from Nate in a couple of weeks :)

Six flags - sorry no pics

Nate had a free ticket to six flags as part of the reading challenge he took in first grade. I had planned to take a weekday off just before school started and we could all go up. But then we noticed that the tickets expired 8/9 so I took last Thursday off and we went up there. The kids loved it but Chris and I are definitely showing our age - I had blisters on my feet (odd considering I do multi-mile hikes with the cub scouts) and despite hitting every water ride in the park Chris almost got heat exhaustion. I did not take the camera so no pics here - sorry.

This weekend Nate's cub scout group went to a Paleontology dig that UTA is doing in Arlington. The kids had a real good time with that. I posted those pics on our photo site - enjoy!