Grandpa's new Zip Line

Yesterday Grandpa installed a Zip Line. Joshua had decided last summer that we needed one. There were grand plans about it, such as maybe it should run from the porch to the tree house, or we should build another tree house and run the zip line to it. It took this long to think about it, plan it, and then to purchase and install it. Joshua was quite pleased. Unfortunately, I am not sure it came out like anyone (except Grandpa) had envisioned. It SOUNDED like a great idea to have it zip from the tree house. Um.... the tree house floor is 7 feet up, so the zip line ended up being quite a bit higher than I expected. The kids were a little intimidated to say the least.





During the trying-to-see-if-the-kids-could-sit-on-it phase they were hesitant to even try. Look at the concern on Callie's face. Even getting her to sit and hold on was a feat here.

Here Grandpa is showing them its not so hard. Look how unconvinced they are! Marian actually got on it, then cried and backed off. Joshua didn't even get his legs wrapped around it before he chickened out. (I don't blame them! It is pretty high up!!)

Fine, Grandpa said, I'll show you how it works.

Whoops!!!!

And now Mom shows us all how its done.

Joshua got on, but only so he could be pulled from the bottom up. He's still not sure if this is fun or not!

Callie didn't start off at the top either. She just zipped back and forth from the bottom. But she's on it now, at least.

Marian is a lot braver. And she's pretty daring. It didn't take her long to graduate from sedentary rides from the bottom, to jumping off the top and flying down the line.

And now Joshua is feeling braver. It's starting to feel like fun!

It took the afternoon, but by last night, the 2 older kids had figured it out and were flying down the zip line from the top of the tree house. They have a pretty good technique going on which requires some sharing, which is pretty cool for me to see. And after church today, Dan helped Callie climb on and go down from the top. What adventurous and brave children I have!! Although I admit to having a small concern that we may have a trip to the ER in our future!

Faces!

This is my parents. this is them looking at their Mission Call! Yep, after waaay too long a wait, they received their call to....... Kenya, Nairobi! We are really excited. They will get to be in the MTC the same time as my aunt and uncle who will be going to Zurich, Switzerland! Hooray for Senior Missions!

Here is Joshua. It is pretty hard to get a serious picture out of him. I try to rise to the challenge anyway!

You may have been so distracted by his silliness that you missed his missing tooth! Yes! Finally!
A mere 2 months from his 8th birthday and he has FINALLY lost his first tooth. Whew! He discovered it wiggled and had the thing out in about a week, much to his satisfaction and my surprise.

This is my silly Marian. The child is feral. She really is. She goes outside and isn't seen or heard from till she comes in to forage for food. That may sound like this: "Mimi want ham-ham." She did not want her picture taken here.

Here is Callie. She was sad because she missed Grandpa's birthday cake. Well, she didn't really miss it, she just missed the singing. So we sang "Happy Birthday" again and all was well. How can it not be well when you have chocolate cake?!

Delaney thought Daddy's sunglasses were sooo cool. She put them on and pranced around the house. Look how pleased she is with herself!

Wasp Sting!

Poor Delaney. She was outside and some black wasps had decided to make a nest in the area she was playing in. One landed on her face and stung her. I didn't know she'd been stung- she cried, but it wasn't the "I'm dying" cry I would have expected. She didn't really even sound hurt! She's a tough cookie!

Here she is. You can see the sting there above her lip. She held the little freezer "boo-boo bunny" (fabric bag filled with rice that you keep in the freezer for times like this) on her lip and stopped crying quickly.

Shortly after, her lip started to swell impressively. She decided she was feeling self conscious about it and did not want a picture taken. This is her, avoiding a picture. But you can still see that her one cheek is a little swollen and red.

I admit, I was in stitches over her poor little face. She looked so funny, all distorted like that. She was a tough kid though. She never cried again, and was ready to go back outside. Grandpa took the wasp spray outside and took care of the overabundance of wasps. When I asked if her lip hurt, she would say "Bugga hurt my lip! Bugga hurt my lip!"

Here is another look at that fat lip. It went down again pretty quickly too. Thank goodness for my essential oils! By bedtime she looked normal, and only had a little puffiness around her cheek and eye. She didn't complain at all. She just repeated "Bugga hurt my lip!"

Differences in Military Branches Explained

I had planned to post some great pix of the kids today, but someone has run off with the camera they are on. So, I shall make do with this amusing bit instead. For those of you who have not seen this, I hope you enjoy it!



Marine Corps Rules:

1. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.

2. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.

3. Have a plan.

4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won't work.

5. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a '4.'

7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.

8. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral & diagonal preferred.)

9. Use cover and concealment as much as possible.

10. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.

11. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

12. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.

13. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.



Navy SEALS Rules:

1. Look very cool in sunglasses.

2. Kill every living thing within view.

3. Adjust speedo.

4. Check hair in mirror.



US Army Rangers Rules:

1. Walk 50 miles wearing 75 pound rucksack while starving.

2. Locate individuals requiring killing.

3. Request permission via radio from 'Higher' to perform killing.

4. Curse bitterly when mission is aborted.

5. Walk out 50 miles wearing a 75 pound rucksack while starving.



US Army Rules:

1. Curse bitterly when receiving operational order.

2. Make sure there is extra ammo and extra coffee.

3. Curse bitterly.

4. Curse bitterly.

5. Do not listen to 2nd LTs; it can get you killed.



US Air Force Rules:

1. Have a cocktail.

2. Adjust temperature on air-conditioner..

3. See what's on HBO.

4. Ask 'What is a gunfight?'

5. Request more funding from Congress with a 'killer' Power Point presentation.

6. Wine & dine ''key' Congressmen, invite DOD & defense industry executives.

7. Receive funding, set up new command and assemble assets.

8. Declare the assets 'strategic' and never deploy them operationally.

9. Hurry to make 13:45 tee-time.

10. Make sure the base is as far as possible from the conflict but close enough to have tax exemption.



US Navy Rules:

1. Go to Sea.

2. Drink Coffee.

3. Deploy Marines

3. Deploy Marines

House Painting

This week our goal was to get the High Street Rental house painted. However, the fates seemed to conspire against us and made it a very difficult task to accomplish. As of this moment, it is almost done. Fortunately, the majority of the work, and the most time consuming part is done. All that's left is to paint the trim.

Here is the house before we started to work on it. It is metal siding, and kind of a cute house. Up close you can see how flakey the pain was though. I wanted to paint it yellow. I wanted a cheery yellow. My mom said the yellows I chose would be waaaay too bright on a house. Fortunately, my cousin Liz (actually, her wonderful husband) just painted her house a lovely shade of yellow. So I copied her and went to Sherwin Williams and got a "Banana Creme" paint chip and took it to Lowe's, where they color matched it. We went with their Duramax paint, which is a primer/paint combo. Oh, and we went with the satin finish.

Tuesday, while the little girls were in preschool, Dad and I went out to scrub and pressure wash the house. It poured rain all day. It didn't matter much to us, we were washing the house, but the thunder and lightning gave us pause. Here is Dad, pressure washing the siding on the roof. You can't tell that its raining, but it is! I learned that I am way to pregnant and out of shape to be spending a morning with a scrub brush cleaning paint off a house!

Dad went back on Wednesday to start taping edges and removing windows. Since it is my rental house, I thought I ought to be helpful. I came, but had to bring all the kids because mom was gone. Here is what Dad had accomplished. It's looking a bit icky now!

Yeah, the kids were ZERO help! Look how sweaty they are too, and they are just sitting there. It was nasty hot and humid. After being no help and lots of complaining, I took the kids home. Then it rained. It rained all day on Thursday too, so nothing got done. Friday we had the water main break issue, and Dad had to work, so I got to hang out at home, waiting for the plumber, and we didn't deal with the house at all.

Finally, Saturday was a beautiful day! It was cooler, it was less muggy, it was great! Except mom was in Branson all day. So Dad went out by himself to paint. He called to say 5 gallons wasn't enough paint. So the kids and I went to Lowe's for more. We dropped it off and I tried to be of assistance. The 4 children tried as well. Dad showed them a spot to paint and they went at it with their brushes. Callie and Marian lost interest first. They discovered the scaffolding!

Joshua had a great time with the paining. He really, really wanted to paint. He loved this mini roller brush and he did a pretty good job. Then he too discovered the scaffolding.

Yeah, believe it or not, Delaney can climb up and down this all by herself! They thought they were pretty cool kids! And doesn't the side of the house look great?!

After enough trouble, I took the kids home, settled Delaney for a nap and got ANOTHER 2 gallons of paint for Dad. Mom was home about 3pm and Joshua and I went back out to paint a little trim before Dad was done. I decided to keep the trim white, and the blue shutters, because the roof and porch are a dark blue. Anyway, Joshua "helped" me paint the garage posts and I got the big front window frame painted. Wow! It looks sharp!

And here we have the nearly-done work. I think it looks great! I may not get another picture in of the completely finished product, but this is good enough! I still have to paint the door frame, about 10 more windows, the porch posts and 2 more door frames. I hope that's all! I've tired myself out now and I think I need a nap.