My last days with a 16 year old son

Soon this young man will turn 17. 

Time has been flying so quickly.  

He is getting more handsome everyday.  

In my humble opinion.  

Well, as humble as a momma can be.  

President's Day Weekend

Bruce started talking about going to Columbus, Georgia over 

the long President's Day weekend while I was in full Uganda planning mode.  

I told him to plan away because I didn't have time to think about another trip at that point.  

Well, shortly after I got back from my trip I received an email from Bruce 

with a proposed itinerary for the trip.  

(Gotta love engineers!)

It looked fine to me.

Definitely a hoo-rah weekend.

We had plans to see several military sights including

The Infantry Museum

Andersonville Civil War prison site and the Prisoner of War museum

and

The National Civil War Naval Museum.

I have a husband and two kids that like history very much.

My guys are crazy for military history. 

It is hard for it not to become a little contagious.

As it turns out we didn't have time to make it to the National Civil War Museum because 

we spent too much time at the Infantry Museum.  

It was that good.  

The facade of the infantry museum was fitting 

a museum of such an important part of our military.

You can't help but be proud and thankful for these brave men and women 

who have served our country over the years.  

This museum was fantastic!

The displays were very creative and engaging...

like this video display of a paratrooper landing projected into an open parachute.

We also found out that there were no mannequins used in this museum.  

All of displays use wax castings of active duty service men and women.

Cool, huh?

Very moving tributes everywhere you look. 

 There was another video being displayed inside this helicopter.  

The sights and sounds really make you feel part of the action.

Very brave words.

The trip to Andersonville and the POW museum was equally moving.  

Going through the POW museum I couldn't help but empathize for the families at home waiting for their family members what were being held as prisoners of war.  

I couldn't imagine being put in the position of being held as a prisoner of war. 

I came away being very humbled and proud of our military families. 

The film at the visitor's center and the driving tour around the Andersonville grounds 

illustrated very well this low point in our nation's history.  

Before this weekend I had never given Columbus, Georgia much thought.  

I knew it as the home of Ft. Benning but not much else.

After this weekend I am thinking that we need to go back and see the things that we missed 

and maybe repeat a few of the things we did!

Good trip.

The Four-legged Child

 Christmas is a very happy time at our home, but Christmas gift exchange time

 ramps up the excitement and volume.

Peaches gets as excited as my two-legged kids when it comes to opening Christmas gifts.

Since she doesn't have opposable thumbs she relies on Allison to help her.

But once they are out of the wrapping it's game on!

Most of the pictures I have of her during the minute or two after opening her gift 

were just blurs of white and brown fur.  

Like this...

and this.  

Then she very patiently sits while everyone finishes opening their gifts, hoping that there might be something else tucked away for her.  

I wonder how long it will be before the Puppetmaster strikes again.  

Mmmmm, Bacon...and Chocolate

 It seems that Santa has a bit of a sense of humor.

Ben, aka Bacon Boy, loves bacon more than just about anyone I know with one exception. 

(I'm looking at you cousin Sam!)

He also loves chocolate.

But sometimes two good things don't necessarily go together well.

Enter: a large bar of Bacon-infused Chocolate.

It was kind of nasty.  

It had bacon bits in it so it had these gritty, greasy, almost jerky-tasting crunchy bits in it 

that gave the whole thing a weird texture.

He offered us all some of his chocolate (a rare occurrence) and kept eating bites of it in between professing it to be disgusting.

Does this look like someone enjoying their candy?  

I think not.  

I think he might have been thinking to himself, 

"It's chocolate.  It's bacon.  If I keep eating it it will have to get better, right?"

BTW, this morning the remainder of the chocolate/bacon bar was on the kitchen counter 

with a note asking folks to help themselves.

He has moved on to his more conventional Christmas candy now.  

I have to admit it was good for a laugh or two. 

Thankful for Family

Over Thanksgiving weekend my family had something extra for which to be thankful.  

Santa, General Robert E Lee, er, Dad's family has a tradition of getting together 

every other Thanksgiving for a reunion.  

This tradition was started a couple of decades ago by my grandmother, Ava Hester.

We are usually traveling elsewhere for the reunion but this year it was my turn 

to coordinate the reunion.  

That meant one thing: reunion in Huntsville!

Other than lots of time to sit, talk, and reminisce,

there was time to go through family artifacts (a suitcase of items that belonged to my grandfather).  There were some really interesting items in this suitcase.  

A big yellow school bus picked us up at the hotel so that we 

could go on a Twickenham Tour 

with my friend, and tour guide extraordinaire, Jacque Procter Reeves.

And of course there has to be a group picture.  

Unfortunately we didn't get everyone together before the light was too far gone outside 

so this was the best that we could do for a group picture.  

There were 53 of us together this weekend.  

I do believe that this is the largest group that has ever come together for our reunion.  

The only ones missing were the ones living in Osaka, Japan, Paris, France and deployed to Kuwait.  

I guess that they had a good enough excuse.  

Some years are more enjoyable than others, but I am relieved to report that I think that everyone had a very nice time.  

I know I did.  

The Beginning of Advent

This past Sunday marked the beginning of Advent.

Our family is participating by reading advent devotionals together as a family as 

we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and his triumphant return.  

The first Sunday's candle, the candle of Hope, commemorates the prophets 

who renew our faith and remind us of what God wants us to be.  

"The people who walked in the darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined... For a child has been born to us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:2,6

2011 Krispy Kreme Run

This morning marked the third annual Krispy Kreme Run to benefit our local United Cerebral Palsy.

Ben, his friend Harrison, and couple of other scouts represented the scouts well.  

They were privileged to lead the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance before the start of the race.

Then it was time to run!

In order to win the race you had to run 2 miles to our local Krispy Kreme, 

eat a dozen doughnuts (teams could share their dozen) 

and then run the 2 miles back, finishing in under one hour. 

If you finished the race in less than an hour and ate your doughnuts 

then you got the coveted green race t-shirt.  

If your time was longer or you weren't able to finish your doughnuts 

you got the still nice white race t-shirt. 

This race seems to bring out some very interesting characters.

I guess any race that involves eating doughnuts...

is going to attract folks that don't take themselves too seriously.

And you get the idea that running and eating doughnuts might not be the best idea.

This kilt-wearing runner ran directly from the finish line to the trash cans.  

Poor guy.

Ben was pretty proud of himself and the scouts.  

They finished with a couple of minutes to spare.

And no one puked.

Goofiness

Last weekend I decided that it was time to get a decent picture taken for our Christmas card.

Sounds easy enough, right?

Get everyone in clothes that sort of coordinate and snap a few exposures.

Have you met my family, the Goofies?

There is never a shortage of goofy whenever we get together, 

but tell them to touch each other and it ramps up to a whole new level.  

There's the "Aw, I got left out of the hug" pouting.

The "I'm am too as tall as you guys" pose. 

I am just not sure that this was about.

Or this, for that matter.  

But it is a given that whenever these three are together and asked to 

behave long enough for pictures there will be silliness. 

Lots of silliness. 

Hubs, the Patient Plumber

So last week I did something really dumb.  

I was cleaning up after breakfast and poured out the contents of a skillet 

in which I had cooked sausage.

Big mistake.

It took a day but the drained clogged up, but good!

After trying to plunge away the clog by myself I had to fess up to the hubs that 

I needed his help.

Dang it.

We worked on getting the clog to push on through for a while and then he decided to 

take apart the drain and see where the clog was.

And there he found it...

A wad of sausage grease sitting in the p-trap.

Ugh.

I have to hand it to my hubs.

He never got angry or fussed at me.  

He just cleared the clog and got it all back together for me.

Reason #89534 why I love my hubs.

He can unclog a sink without getting angry or feeling the need to lecture.

Thanks sweetie.

Teens... Gotta Love 'Em

In Milwaukee over fall break we all made a trip to one of the lovely city parks

 to take some family pictures. 

The foliage colors were amazing!

While my in-laws were arriving I got the grandkids together to snap a few pictures.

I asked them to group up and to touch at least two others in the group.

This is what I got.

So I told them that I needed to see their faces.

This is what I got.

I then told them that I needed everyone to face me.

This is what I got.

What I have is four cousins that enjoy goofing off together.

And some cute photos.