Nesting?

So there's this little boy that lives at our house - soft brown hair, cute little brown eyes, and a nesting instinct like you've never seen. Try as we might to encourage him to keep his “nest” clean, neat and orderly (like any parent would prefer) he nests. So in the morning to get to his bed to wake him up I have to dig a path thru the nesting material. One day he got stuck in his nest and needed help getting unstuck. But man, he has cute dimples that show best when he’s laughing. And since they were showing the whole time he was stuck and getting unstuck its hard to be really unhappy with him. Light brown hair, dimples and soft, brown eyes. What you gonna do?

A Change is as Good as a Rest

This was an interesting day at church. I didn’t have to teach a lesson for sunday school. I actually got to sit next to my wife and listen to a good lesson. That was interesting, too. I extended the call to the new sunday school teacher. It reminded me of a call I extended to someone years ago, to be primary president. She was awe-struck. Almost overwhelmed. But she did just fine. She (the sunday school teacher) mentioned today how she’d agonized over it all week. She was a young married and this was basically her second call as an adult. She’d been primary secretary for over four years and had always thought there’d be some other calls between that one and teaching Gospel Doctrine. Some kind of progression. She thought it was a big jump. But she did just fine; I thought she did really well. It was nice to be able to listen from the congregation and hold hands with my wife. That was nice.

Oh, What a Day!

August 30th was the day of the big bridal shower so what's a guy to do!? Go golfing, of course! So we did.

So with the guys out of the way the ladies were able to get down to the serious partying. It was a good time for the guys to be gone. Some 30 ladies packed into the family room. Nobody got a picture of the whole crowd, that I'm aware of. I'm not sure that kind of crowd could be photographically reproduced adequately. There were ladies there from the Adams Ward, the Stevens Point Branch and friends of the bride from high school. And, of course, the bride herself.

We had borrowed 20 chairs from the church and those and everything we owned that you could sit on were occupied. But they had a good time. Lots of games, lots of talk, good food; all the stuff that ladies like in a bridal shower. We marked our house with balloons on the mailbox out front. Note the festive bouquet.

Now look on the right side of the road and find the balloons. All these cars were people here for the shower. Filling our double wide driveway three cars deep and parked in front of the houses two doors in both directions from our place. On the west end, at the corner, they were two cars deep.

"And behold, I was about to post other pictures from that weekend but lo, I am forbidden that I post them not. Therefore I post them not, for they are hidden from the world." At least until after the wedding.

The Summer's Last Adventure

Its summer time and the living is easy. Yeah, that's how it goes. Apparently the summer didn't hold enough camping for the boys so they've been camping in the back yard. Pitching tents, sleeping out. Not every night; their mean old dad makes them move the tent every couple of nights to give the lawn a break. So the first couple of nights it was a village.

Aug 17, 2008

The next time they got kind of a late start and were putting up the tents in the dark. Fortunately we have a couple of lights that light up the back yard pretty well.

Aug 20, 2008

While the tent was right off the porch we had a couple of warm, humid days and the lawn got a little steamed by the time they moved the tents. This time the went for the back corner of the yard.

Aug 28, 2008

Kinda like a bear crawling out of hibernation, uh? But each night they've been real good about getting up when we called them for family prayers in the morning. And they're having lots of fun. Can't blame them for wanting to sleep out; school starts right after Labor Day. Will they get to sleep out after then? Who knows. Seminary starts awful early. We'll see how it goes.

Getting Ready

Now, me - I had never heard of Gerber Daisies before my daughter decided she wanted that flower for her wedding. So this is new to me. So to help everyone become familiar with this kind of flower we got some the other day and put them on the kitchen table. They're not exactly the same color that the ones at the wedding will be but they're close enough to do the job. And they actually look pretty nice. And they have staying power, too. This picture was after we'd had them a couple of days. Still looking pretty good. So there they are, making me think of my daughter. Now that's the best part.

Scout Camp: the next installment

Well, the boys are off to scout camp this morning. After all the agonizing over what they need that they don't have (this in spite of being asked numerous times during the preceding week) that they remembered as its time to get in the car and drive to the drop-off point. All the things they chose not to take because it wasn't cool or they couldn't possibly see a need for it (like the rain poncho they almost left behind - yes, rain is predicted for a couple of the days they'll be at camp). And so far we've found that Himbeere forgot to grab his fishing pole on his way out the door.

But finally we got them and their stuff in the car and off to the drop-off point. Then everyone else (they all came in the same car) was half an hour late and all the while we waited it was "we missed them" or "they're not coming" or "we got the time wrong". Yea, so anyway, the rest of the group finally did arrive so they could load up.

At the parking lot they had to load a bunch of troop gear in, too. But it went good because everyone helped load up. So we got the boys' medical forms, permission slips and all the other stuff to the scout master and finally they were about ready.

Putting in a couple of tents and stuff.

Then a picture and a prayer and they were ready to pull out. So they have a 2 1/2 hour ride ahead of them up to the camp and then nothing but fun for the next week, right? Riiiiiiiiiight. Bugs, dirt, campfire soot & ash all over, animal proofing camp sites, sunburn, feeding the raccoons, and all the things that make camping so much fun. Remember them in your prayers.

Getting the Scouts to Camp

Our scout troops is going to camp in a couple of weeks and has been having fundraisers to help pay for it. Today was a brat fry at one of the local grocery stores. Our boys went and helped out pretty good. Here's Schwarzebeere , checking out the goings on at the grill.

Himbeere was there helping out, too. They have to attend these fund raisers to be able to use a share of the money raised. This was the second our boys have attended this summer.

Schwarzebeere likes working inside the booth, which is fine. During the lunch rush it can get pretty busy there but he does a good job keeping up.

One of the things they both like is that the troop lets them each have a free brat for helping. Have to feed them lunch anyway since they're usually there from around 9:00 until 1:00 or 2:00. And they're welcome to buy themselves more if they want.

A fun time for a good cause. They're both looking forward to going to camp.

Little Things that Creep Around

The other day my daughter and I were out stolling around the back yard and came across this little fellow fixing his dinner in the little corner of the back of the house and the deck. Got to get it all seasoned with this juices so it can age properly before he eats. Looked to me like the little guy had everything under control. Is it soup yet?

The Process of Discovery

We moved into this house last October, at the end of the summer. Into the fall, actually. While the yard looked pretty nice we really only saw it from the front. In August we walked thru the house for the first time, and that included a peek at the back yard. But by that time all the landscaping was shutting down for the fall and winter. Nothing was blooming or in flower any more. So we could see that there was plenty of greenery around but we had no real idea of what it all was at that point. So this spring and summer has been interesting as all the stuff in the yard has come in bloom and we’ve been able to see what everything is. Does that mean we recognize and can name everything? Nope. But here’s some of the things that have bloomed around the yard this year.

This is out front, right at the street. Our yard has a little ditch all across the front of the yard that runs a foot or so from the street. Every few yards,down in the bottom of this shallow ditch, there was a clump of something growing but last fall we couldn't tell what any of them were. This is one of them. We will probalby move them all to somewhere else in the yard.



This is growing along the back of the house. Pretty when it blooms but the flowers don’t stay and then its just low greenery. Not bad but not something I wouldn’t have put in. We had these at the old house, too.



This is the one we’ve been watching with the most interest. We figured they were some kind of day lily all spring. The big question was what color. We had lots of orange lilies around the old house. These are a pretty bright yellow. Kind of nice. They also don’t stay in flower very long but they’re sure pretty while they are.



We weren’t sure until they actually bloomed, but we had suspected these were irises. Lots of different kinds of irises around. My Mom & Dad’s yard had lots and lots of irises, too. They bloom a little early so they were part of what we always took to the cemeteries for Memorial Day. These are a little small. They were in a planter in the back yard, up fairly close to the house but we moved them to the back corner of the yard. They can go hog wild back there, if they want to. We wanted the space for other stuff.



Interesting, huh! I like flowers. I suspect this yard was professional landscaped. Its a nice yard. Know what else I like about this yard? Automatic sprinklers.

All on a Saturday afternoon

Saturday my son asked if I would help him work on his bike. What he really meant was “Dad, would you fix my bike?” So we worked on it for a while. We had bought a new innertube that he wanted put in. His old one had a slow leak and he was irritated that he had to keep pumping up his tire every couple of days. Well, I was mean and made him go thru the effort of checking his old tube for leaks. And what was worse, I made him do the majority of the work. So he turned his bike over, took off the rear tire, pulled out the tube and got the bucket of water. We have a little tool for taking tires off the rim but we couldn’t find it so I helped him do it with a screw driver. Have to be extra careful not to damage the tube when you do that. He pumped the tube up so we could run it thru the water but he didn’t get enough air in it so I put some more in. He got pretty excited because he was afraid the tube would burst. But we didn’t put that much in it. Still, we never found a leak. But he was insistent so we changed the tube anyway. This is where it got frustrating. We put the tire back on and he rode it around but it only took half an hour or so before it was going flat again. He made a big fuss and wanted to do something so I asked him what he wanted to do. “Put the old tube back in.” So we did. But not before checking the new tube for leaks. I was amazed that we were unable to find any leaks in it but I had seen it going flat. So we put the old tube back in. By that time his brother had joined us so we now had a “peanut gallery”. So we got the old tube back in and his bike all put back together. Then I was mean again and made him gather up the tools and put them away. He was actually pretty good about the whole episode. And in the end he was happy because the old tube held the air the rest of the day. I should ask him today if its still holding the air. Then again, maybe I won’t.

His fickleness (is that a word?!) reminded me of when he was younger - old enough to want his shoes tied but not old enough to do it himself. He would ask to have his shoes tied but it had to be just so. I can remember retying his shoes three and four times until I got it done to his satisfaction. Took me a little while but I finally learned that what he was looking for what having them tied tight. If they weren't tight enough he'd want you to do it over.