Forward March! Part 2

Here's the video from the recent field trip. I have got to figure out an easier way to get videos from my camera to the blog.

Move Over Iron Chef

Kevin and the boys decided to make salsa this weekend. We are trying to find a good (easy) recipe that tastes like the salsa you get in a Mexican restaurant. The one he tried was good, but not great so the search continues. The good thing is that both boys love chips and salsa so I'm trying to figure out a way to sneak in some other good stuff too.

Milestones

He just decided it was time. No more training wheels. And no knee pads even though his mother requested that he wear them.

Try Not To Be Like Mike

I am not a huge sports fan. Probably doesn't come as a huge shock to most of you. I like them ok, but I'm not a die hard fan for any one particular team.

However, I've always liked David Robinson from the San Antonio Spurs. But not because of his basketball abilities. He is a very godly and very smart man. He spoke at a Math Convention that I attended (pocket protector alert). He was a math major at the Naval Academy. I was a math major too. We could be best friends. Ha! His witness for Christ both on and off the court have been inspirational to alot of people. I could get on a little soap box about how I feel about some professional athletes and their ridiculous salaries and poor lifestyle choices. But I won't. I also won't go into how annoyed I get when these same athletes do drugs and cheat on their wives, but then "Thank God" for winning a game.

Both David Robinson and Michael Jordan were recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. I'm sure it has a more technical name than that, but I don't know what it is. Both gave acceptance speeches. Voddie Bauchaum a Christian author and speaker wrote a great article contrasting the two speeches here. David's speech is below. It is only seven minutes long. Michael's on the other hand is almost twenty minutes long.

I don't know if my boys will become heavily involved in sports or not. If they do, I sure hope they choose to emulate someone like David Robinson. Even if you don't have time to listen to the whole thing, catch what he says about his family starting at the 1:50 to 3:30 mark then fast forward it to the 6:45 mark and watch. What a classy, humble guy.

A Sad Throwback Thursday

This Throwback Thursday picture unfortunately has a sad story to go along with it.

The date was 36 years ago in August 1973. It was a birthday party for one of the kids from the church that I grew up in. The birthday boy is Dean Roy pictured on the left. Dean's cousin Dana is on the far left and a boy named Roger is on the right. Roger was one of those kids who always liked to have fun. You can probably see that little mischevous twinkle in his eyes. His grandmother was our church secretary for years. They lived close to our church so the church van stayed parked at their house. Rumor had it that he sneaked out of the house one night and took the church van out to cruise up and down Ruth Street in Sulphur which was "the thing" to do on Friday and Saturday nights in our little town. I don't know if that was true or not. But I still smile when I think about an old beat up blue church van cruising the strip with Roger at the wheel.

I recently ran across the above picture and just a few days ago I got a friend request from Roger on Facebook. We weren't really close growing up, but we did go to church together and saw each other here and there at school. I commented on his wall that his little girl looked so cute and asked how he was doing. You could tell from the pictures that she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger. She is probably about the same age now that he was in this picture (maybe 6 or 7). He responded that I "looked great" and he was contemplating moving back to Sulphur. Just small talk.

Tuesday of this week I found out he passed away. Just like that. He was 41 years old. I don't know any details of what happened. I am just very sad for his family (I knew many of his aunts and uncles, his dad and his brother and sister). I'm also sad for a little girl who won't grow up with her Daddy.

From Words to Full Sentences

New sentences from Luke:

"Let me have it."
"Che-chee what happened?" (if Fletcher is crying)
"What dat noise?"
"Dat hurt my ______" (fill in body part - the funny thing is he says it about everything even when he isn't hurt like when Kevin is rinsing his hair)
"Daddy, you big. Mommy, you big. Wuke is wittle." (he calls himself Wuke)
"Daddy, you haf good day?" (he asks this when Kevin gets home from work)
"Wuke cry a wittle bit" (he tells me this when I pick him up from preschool)
"Mommy always come back" (also tells me this when I pick him up)
"Happy Nappy. I wub you." (when I put him down for his nap)

And my favorite...
His room is a mess with toys everywhere -
Mom: Oh my goodness, who made this mess?
Luke: Um. Che-chee (Fletcher)
Mom: No, Fletcher didn't make it. Luke did. Who is going to clean it up?
Luke: Mommy do it

Still Life With Apples

Fletcher's kindergarten class is studying some of the great paintings from different time periods. For the last few weeks, they have been studying Still Life With Apples by Paul Cezanne. Here is the original:
Here is Fletcher's rendition:
I'm not sure why his letters are backwards in the title. It's like he copied a mirror image of the letters. After a quick Google search, there's actually a name for it -- mirror writing. It can be common in kids just learning to write. His name is done correctly. I'lll ask his teacher about it.