December 2009 Update

Why has it been almost a month since I've posted an update? I don't know... all KINDS of stuff has been happening! Here's a rundown...

October 24 we went to Tulsa's Oktoberfest, which is one of the best-known Oktoberfests in the United States. We go every year and get a real imported German Christmas ornament. This year it was a little trickier... the people who we've always bought our ornament from (they have a store in Wichita, but they exhibit at the Tulsa event) were not exhibitors this year. We had to find a new booth with actual German ornaments! Several booths have ornaments, but we have a tradition of buying our family ornament actually from Germany... not Poland or another European country, and certainly not from the U.S. You can see all of our Oktoberfest pictures here!

Halloween weekend Mikey and I went with a few other Webelos from his den to Webelos Outdoor Weekend. We were hosted by Boy Scout Troop 8. The boys got to earn several of their Webelos advancement pins, and we had a great time! Since it was Halloween weekend, the boys from Troop 8 decked out the permanent castle building at Cub World as a haunted house. All of the Cub Scouts loved it! See all of our pictures from the weekend here.

November 5 we got to go with some friends to a Newsboys concert! Hannah didn't come, but Cathy and Mikey and I went with a friend of Mikey's and his mom and brother. I blogged about that concert here, and there are a few pictures that Cathy took at the concert here.

All four of us went out to LaFortune Park that weekend... it was a beautiful day, and Hannah and Mikey got to swing and play almost until she couldn't swing and play any more. :) The pictures we took are here.

November 17 I got a new Bible in the mail. It's a really nice, expensive Bible, and I was blessed with it by winning a contest! If you know me very well at all, you'll know what a big deal that was to me. You can read all about it (with pictures of the new Bible!) here.

Thanksgiving came, and with it came the Joneses from Fort Worth! My brother Kevin and his family came up to visit, and Mikey loves his cousins (five girls) to pieces. They stayed at my dad & mom's house the whole time, and as always, we couldn't pry Mikey away, so he stayed over there the whole time too. Cathy and Hannah and I went over to Cathy's brother Kevin's house (yes, we both have a brother named Kevin) and spent some time with them Thanksgiving evening, too. There are some pictures of Thanksgiving here. Check out the one of Hannah making friends with Theresa's purse-hound Tia!

That same weekend we took the kids (except the two babies) to see G-Force (Cathy didn't get to go to the movie either) and then afterward we picked up Cathy and the babies and went out to Rhema to see the Christmas lights, which were fabulous as always. They had a programmed light show set to music this year that was incredible! Pictures of those two expeditions are here.

Last night Mikey was at a friend's birthday party sleepover, and Cathy and I took Hannah to see Curious George Live. It was a very cute story about George helping his friend Chef Pasketti enter a meatball-cooking contest! The show was fun... all of those "Kid-TV-franchise Live" shows are great spectacles... and the actor playing George did some very convincing monkey moves! Hannah wasn't as mesmerized with it as we had hoped, but she had a lot of fun and came home with a Curious George Live flag banner. :) (Mikey had lots of fun playing Wii at Kai's birthday party, too!)

Today Mikey's soccer team played (and won) their last game of the season. It was REALLY cold... mid-30s and breezy... and several of the kids (including Mikey) were just wearing their regular uniforms with no extra clothes under to keep them warm! They were really COLD!

Finally, this afternoon when Hannah was taking her nap, we put up our Christmas tree and some other decorations. Here's the result:

Hannah REALLY likes a little ceramic Nativity scene that we always set out. She kept wanting me to let her hold Baby Jesus!

Soccer Double-Header

This morning Mikey's soccer team had a double-header... they played the one team in their league that beat them the first time around about a month ago. The first time Mikey's team went down I think 4-0... this time it was tied at the end of the game, and we barely lost in the shootout (what is a shootout, you ask?) final score 3-2. Mikeys team played MUCH better this time... the other team was frankly lucky to beat them!

In the second game, Mikey's team beat the tar out of the other team, I think 9-0 (I kind of lost track when it became clear that it was basically a rout). They did a great job!

I keep being impressed with Mikey's progress as a soccer player. He's gotten so much more confident and aggressive! He's not a superstar on his team quite yet... there are quite a few really good players on Mikey's team. On one of the weaker teams, he would definitely be a key player. But even on his team, Mikey gets plenty of chances to shine! We are SO proud of him!

Progress

Making some progress on the oral sleep appliance. The first night I was only able to keep it in for one hour... the second night I managed to keep it in for two hours... the third night (last night) I kept it in for three hours before I woke up uncomfortable. Later that night I was able to put it back in and sleep some more... then I had a dream. In my dream we were late for church and I had run back into the house for something... I had a mouth full of sticky gum and I was trying to get it loose by opening my mouth. I tried and tried, and finally got my mouth loose... and then woke up and realized I had pulled the top half of the oral appliance loose from my top teeth instead. :)

Mikey's soccer team won their second game of the season yesterday! So they're two and oh for the season so far. Mikey's getting to be a pretty good soccer player, getting to where the ball is and getting it moving in the right direction. I was really proud of him!

A Wedding, A Firehouse, A Victory, and A Crown

Ever have a weekend where you don't realize how much has happened until you sit down and think about it? MAN, was this one of those weekends... and it's not even dinnertime on Saturday yet!

Last night, October 2nd, was the Dave Matthews Band concert. We were thrilled to NOT be there. Instead, we were at the wedding Cathy's second cousin Melinda to a great guy named Justin! When Cathy and Melinda were teenagers, Cathy had promised to sing at Melinda's wedding, so for over a month Cathy and I have been practicing "Bless the Broken Road" to get ready to sing it last night. I think Cathy's been killing two birds with one stone... I'm pretty sure she was looking for an excuse to sing it with me anyway. :) We got it all worked up, and we were ready to give it our best. Hannah didn't go to the wedding with us; she stayed with Meme (we didn't think Hannah was up to a wedding quite yet). Mikey came along... he's known Melinda since he was a baby (she tried to teach him karate or something on her once... I was afraid she was going to teach him that it was OK to hit girls!) and he wanted to come. He brought his video camera to record our performance (we have the video, such that it is... sound quality is far from pristine, but we have it and we'll get it posted if we can make it presentable).

The wedding was quite beautiful. Melinda was stunning. Her parents looked slightly uncomfortable but excited... just as parents should look at the wedding of their only daughter! The minister looked and sounded just a tiny bit like Ben Stein to me, and if Melinda sees this I feel pretty sure she'll laugh her rear off. I mean absolutely no disrespect to him; his message and ceremony were meaningful and beautiful. I kept explaining things about the ceremony to Mikey (everybody stands up when the bride comes in, they'll use the two candles on the side to light the one in the middle because the two of them are becoming one, etc.) so he would understand what was going on. And speaking of the candles... they took on a little bit of a life of their own. When the two cousins came in to light them with their long lighting sticks (which probably have a name, but I don't know it), apparently the lighters went out too early and neither of them could light all of their candles. Finally the girl took one of the candles that they did get lit and lit the others with that. Later in the ceremony, Melinda and Justin tried to light the Unity Candle with the candles on the sides of it... but they were all the thick kind (they must have been three inches thick!) and there was no way they were going to get the middle one lit with the others! Finally they got some of the narrow ones from the other candlesticks at the edges of the stage, did their lighting, and then Justin blew his out as people usually do when the unity candle is lit. Melinda forgot and gave hers back to her matron of honor! She tried to get Melinda's attention so Melinda could blow it out, but then she gave up and blew it out herself. :)

Originally Melinda wanted us to sing during the ceremony itself, but Cathy had mentioned that sometimes people have a live song at their reception, so that's how it was arranged. We almost decided to leave before we got to sing because it was getting late, but we were able to stay long enough and we got to sing. Justin and Melinda danced as we sang about the long, tough road that people sometimes travel until they find their soulmate... by the time we were finished, Melinda was crying so hard. She let go of Justin and started hugging Cathy... and hugged her and hugged her and hugged her. Then Melinda came over and gave me a hug too. I think the song meant a lot to her, and it also meant a lot to her that Cathy, who also traveled a long road before she finally found me, was singing it for her. It was worth every minute of the extra wait to be able to provide that moment for our friends.

Mikey just now told me that he was sad the night didn't last longer.:)

This morning at 9, Mikey, Papaw and I went out to Home Depot to this month's Kids Workshop. The project today was a bank in the shape of a fire station (it's safety month) and Mikey did a great job on it. We've been doing these things for several years, and it's great to see how independent he is now with the work. Seems like the Home Depot projects make him grumpier than the Lowe's projects... the Home Depot ones are a little harder. :) He was done inside of an hour, and we were off to get Papaw home and pick up Mama and Hannah for the first soccer game of the fall season for Mikey's soccer team, the Outlaws!

The Outlaws are awesome. Mikey is so privileged to have gotten involved with Coach White and his team... many of the kids had been on the team for a year or two before Mikey, and he has grown so much being around more experienced players and learning from them and from the coach's excellent training skills. Justin (Melinda's new husband) is actually a soccer player himself, and hopefully he'll be able to be in town sometime for a practice or even a game! The Outlaws beat their opponent handily, and Mikey definitely did his part. He kept his head in the game, snagged the ball and got it going where it needed to go, and one time I saw him make a terrific pass to a teammate that got the ball out of traffic and headed toward the goal. It was AWESOME! If these kids keep working hard and learning, I don't see how they could avoid winning their division. I know, I say that after one game and without ever seeing their other opponents play, but I sincerely believe it. Those kids are GOOD!

After the game we went out with some friends of ours that we met through our boys both being on the Outlaws team... they are missionaries, and also music lovers like we are, so we had a lot to talk about over lunch at Monterey's (oddly enough, my whole plate of food, including a taco, was cool, like it had come out of a refrigerator... it tasted good, but it would have tasted better hot!) By the time we finished with the 11:00 game and then lunch, it was almost 1:30, so we headed right off to our neighborhood library, Martin Regional, for the annual Renaissance Faire (which had already started at 1!)

The Martin Regional Ren Faire isn't a hard-core Ren Faire like, say, the one that happens every year in Muskogee. It's definitely a "for the kids" thing, but they do have mock battles, costumed characters, dancers, people talking about life in the Middle Ages, and they even always have a guy with a real live hawk (Hannah LOVED that... she's a big animal fan!) On top of the regular Ren Faire stuff, they have crafts for the kids, puppet shows, and people who do things like tapestry weaving, wood carving, and doll making. Hannah is a year or two from being able to participate fully, but she and Mikey had a great time anyway! If you are in Tulsa and have kids or grandkids, I highly recommend looking it up next year around this time. It has a distinct "home-grown" feel, so don't expect glitz and flash, but it's a great time anyway. Many thanks to Martin Regional Library for hosting such a great event every year!

So now we're home. Hannah went straight to bed... then so did Cathy. So Mikey and I are batchin' it for a while until the ladies return to consciousness. Tomorrow we have church in Bixby in the morning, a Dallas Cowboys game that we may or may not watch in the afternoon, and then a fellowship back at the church in the evening. Alternately, we could go hear Jesse Duplantis at Grace Sunday night, but I think we may just stick with The Bridge this time. We love Jesse, but we want to get our feet wetter at The Bridge before we start going elsewhere for a service. :)

Monday night: Mercy Me at the Tulsa State Fair! And then Tuesday is Cathy's dad's birthday. This weekend is going to last all the way to WEDNESDAY!


Update: We did not go to the Mercy Me concert; it was chilly and drizzly and Mikey went to his Webelos meeting instead. I just realized that I never explained what the "crown" in the title of this post was! Mikey made a paper crown at the Ren Faire... Cathy made a little tiara for Hannah, too.

Singin' and Soccerin' (plus pizza!)

The karaoke night at Grace was a lot of fun... turned out it was sort of a "karaoke and dancing" night! Every three or four songs they played a track from a dance CD and everyone who wanted to could do the Grapevine or the Electric Slide or whatever. (I don't do group dancing, so I just had fun watching.) Cathy and I did get to sing the duet we've been working on, but it was a rough performance... the person before us had turned Cathy's microphone off (!) and she didn't realize it until a couple of lines into her first verse (which is solo D'OH!!!), and then the track was so loud that we actually literally couldn't hear ourselves singing. But I think we did a good job on it considering the adverse circumstances. Cathy also jumped in and sang background vocals on a couple of songs... "Sweet Home Alabama" was one. Mikey sang sort of an impromptu duet of lead vox on that one. He also sang the Tree63 version of "Blessed Be Your Name" with me singing along... what he didn't know was that I held the mic as far away from my mouth as I could and sang really loud so mostly only he could hear me helping him keep his place, and everyone could hear HIM sing! Mwa ha ha! So everybody got to hear Mikey singing it! For my part, I sang some BTO "Takin' Care Of Business" which is on the high side for me but I was able to spit it out OK. People seemed to respond well, so the end result must have been acceptable!

We went over to Mom and Dad's house to pick up Hannah, and we sang our same song, "Pure", for them, and then we followed up with "Revelation Song". They really liked it and want us to call their music minister and come sing at their church sometime! By that time Cathy was worn out from practicing all day and then singing all night... she totally wore herself out!

The next day we went out to one of Mikey's soccer team's games. Turns out we picked a good one... afterward everybody went out to Incredible Pizza for an end-of-season party! We had a terrific time! Mikey hasn't been able to play for most of the season because of his broken arm (which will be splinted until the week after the final soccer tournament) but he's still "part of the team" and he'll be back on the same team next season. In fact, next week when we get back from Cub Scout camp we'll probably head out and see if his team is still playing tournament games. They've only lost one single game all season (!), so they should go far!

We realized at Incredible Pizza that one of the couples whose kid is on Mikey's soccer team not only have a mutual friend with us (the boy was in a drama class with the daughter of a good friend of ours from church), but they actually both went to ORU at the same time as I did... in fact, they met in a class at ORU! I always thought the dad looked a little familiar. It's a small town after all!

Re-cast

Mikey got his real cast on Friday... it's Navy blue and he really likes the color! We got him a silver paint pen and took him to the Saturday soccer game... he can't play, but all of his soccer buddies signed it! And they did win the game although there was a brief rain shower at the very beginning of the game. I had to leave our camp chairs sitting out all night to dry!

That evening we went to the dollar (-fifty) movie and watched Bolt, which Mikey and I had gotten to see it when it was out in the regular theaters (we went with my brother and his daughters) but Cathy and Hannah missed it (Hannah was sick at the time). Hannah LOVED it! Especially the part at the very beginning where Bolt is a puppy! Cathy didn't seem to like it as much as I thought she would, but she did enjoy it. And I laugh almost every time Rhino says anything.

(We probably wouldn't have gone to the theater and seen it if I had realized that a copy of it was waiting for me at the library! But it was worth it to see it on the big screen. Plus, it's the first time we've been to Super Saver in ages!)

Oh... they told us that since it's a pretty minor fracture, Mikey's arm might heal up in three weeks. No running or jumping until then.

FRACTURED!

Tuesday Mikey was at soccer practice when he fell down and hurt his wrist. We thought it was a painful sprain or just a bad bump, but when Mikey was still crying about it the next morning, Cathy took him to the urgent care clinic. They X-rayed it, and we found out that he had actually broken his arm! It's a very minor hairline fracture, but Friday morning he's going to get a cast!

Big Easter Weekend 2009

What a weekend!

It actually started on Thursday, when unexpectedly (to me, anyway) my boss was no longer my boss. I'm still in the same position, but my immediate supervisor moved into a part-time/consultant status, and I was going to have a new manager. So THAT was a crazy day! Friday was Good Friday and the office was closed, so we mostly vegged out at home, but SATURDAY was Cathy's birthday! Mikey had a soccer game at 8am (41 degrees... in April?!?... BRR! ...but they won it 1 to 0) and then he went to Lowe's and built a birdhouse, and then he and I stopped at the store to pick up Mama's birthday present from him.

Mikey got her a beautiful pair of earrings (she wore them that evening to dinner and then again on Easter morning!). My gift to her was a shopping trip! I gave her a little bit of cash, enough for an outfit or maybe two if you got something on a good sale, and we went to a couple of fluffy lady clothing stores with her. Having the family along was supposed to be part of the gift, but Mikey was a little bit disruptive at first (he calmed down later). And we had a really happy surprise when we ran into Cathy's brother's wife Theresa at one of the stores! She's been really sick and we haven't gotten to see her much, so that was quite a treat. She was with two of her daughters, too, and we love them and were glad to see them. Theresa kissed Hannah on the cheeks so much I wasn't sure if she was going to raise a bruise! That evening we went out to eat at Charleston's, and got full until we were ready to pop.

Easter was great! Cathy got up early so she wouldn't have to rush so much getting ready, and we were at sound check on time (!), and the service was AWESOME from start to finish. I think that was the most fun I've had in praise & worship since Brian and Nancy came on board at Grace (which is not to minimize other services, but this one was TOTALLY maximized! I was SWEATING when we were done!) Pastor Bob preached one of the most awesome Easter messages I ever remember hearing him preach, and we had a great lesson in Sunday School as well.

(I touched on how cold it was Saturday morning... chilly but not windy, and very sunny which counteracted the cold a bit. And by noon it had gone up like 25 degrees and was in the 60s! Sunday morning was almost the opposite, though... rainy to the point of big puddles of standing water on the sidewalks at Grace, chilly again, but breezy as well. Have I mentioned, Welcome to Oklahoma? And Monday it was chilly to mild again, and dry. WHATEVER.)

After church we met Mom and Dad at the little church they're attending; they were having lunch together as a church and we got invited. Unfortunately for us we got there at the tail end of the meal; there was lots of food left but the people were trickling out and heading home. We did get to monopolize the pastor for a while, though, which was cool for us. Everybody is really nice there. They even gave Mikey and Hannah each an Easter basket! (Monday night I put the Easter basket they gave Hannah, which is plush like a stuffed animal and has a head like a purple hippo, to good use... Hannah and I played "put the plastic eggs in the basket" while Mikey worked on homework.)

That reminds me... I forgot one of the big parts of Saturday afternoon! It was the annual Grace "Egg-stravaganza", which I guess you could call an "Easter egg hunt" but in practice it's more of an "Easter candy foot race." You may remember it from last year. Anyway, Cathy chose to go with Mikey and I stayed with Hannah in the "walkers to twos" area. He did the run-and-collect thing, and Hannah, who is walking just barely, did the "get carried and sit and put the candy I can reach in the basket even though I've got no idea what's going on" thing. Next year she'll be totally into it; this year it was a bit much for her to take in, but she had fun anyway, as did Mikey. The whole thing was a hiccup in Cathy's birthday, but after having that birthday her whole life, having it intruded on by Easter is no surprise. The surprise is when Easter happens in March like last year or something, and it doesn't step on her birthday!

So how were things with the new boss Monday? He seems like a really great guy, and I think I'm going to enjoy working with him. His name is Travis and he knows about this blog, so I'll tell you the REAL story when he turns his head. Hi Travis! Wow it was great working with you Monday! Don't forget to give me a good performance review at the end of the year!!

Big Weekend!

What a weekend we had!

Thursday afternoon I got a phone call. I had won some tickets to Sesame Street Live from an online radio contest! We weren't going to get to go, and Hannah saw Elmo dancing around on TV and was so excited, so we were thrilled that she would get to go see the show. We picked up the vouchers Thursday afternoon, and Friday I went down to the BOk Center box office and picked up some tickets for that night. Hannah had a great time! Even Mikey had a great time, although at 8 years and 363 days old we thought he was going to be a little too old to be into it. He enjoyed it so much that he took his own money and bought the soundtrack CD to enjoy with his sister!

Saturday was Meme and Papaw's day out with Mikey. They took him to the Home Depot Kids Workshop and then they went out to LaFortune Park and let him play. They went to Cici's for lunch and then went to Mardel to get some birthday presents. Meanwhile, Cathy and I were out buying him birthday presents! You can see a picture of his new friend who really likes the water later in the set of birthday party pictures. We also picked up another gift for after the party... I'll get to that in a minute.



Saturday afternoon was Mikey's soccer team's first game of the spring season. He's with Coach White and the Outlaws again, and we're all pretty excited about that. The team is much bigger this season than last, and they won their first game. As a matter of fact, The Outlaws ended a 28-game winning streak for the team they played! And that with only two practices! That's pretty awesome!

Click here to see some more soccer pictures.



Sunday morning after church and lunch we went to a place on Brookside called Purple Glaze Studio for his party. A birthday party at Purple Glaze consists of each child getting to paint a ceramic figure, which they leave there to be glazed and fired, and then they get to pick up their figures a few days later when they are done. The kids had a great time! Mikey painted the walrus you see above. He got some terrific presents, one of which is a Rubik's Cube which has fascinated him and his mom all day today. :)

More birthday party pictures:

     

Birthday party picture set

At the party Cathy and I gave him a surprise... tickets to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D at the IMAX! The 3D was stunning, the movie was loads of fun, and we all left excited and happy. Quite a weekend!

(Monday night at Cub Scouts Mikey made a model rocket. Stay tuned tomorrow for pictures of that!)

Soccer Tournament Fall 2008

What a day we had last weekend!

Saturday the 15th was Mikey's soccer tournament. We were lucky enough to get the first game at 8am. And it was COLD! It was in the 40s all morning, and VERY windy. Good thing Mikey got in a hearty breakfast first! (Notice the filled water bottle in the foreground... got to stay hydrated! ...and the vitamins in the background... got to have plenty of energy to win a soccer game!

As I mentioned, it was REALLY cold out there. Everybody was totally bundled up... even the kids (and Cathy!) You could barely tell which team was which, since most of the kids had jackets on over their uniforms! But the parents were all in good spirits and ready to cheer. The kids played a great game, and won the first game pretty easily!

Coach White had brought a ton of hot dogs, and all of the parents had brought stuff... chili or chips or drinks or plates and cups. Our second game was at 11, so we had a couple of hours to wait, so we froze for a while and drank hot chocolate, and then Coach White and one of the dads grilled the hot dogs. The kids weren't probably getting that cold... they were kicking soccer balls around the entire time! One of the families had brought a big blue tent with a "wind tarp" but it was so windy that the tent was in danger of blowing away, so we wound up taking the wind tarp down!

After we had lunch it was time for the next game... the kids played great soccer, and again won easily. Everybody was charged up and ready for the next game! Unfortunately, the next game wasn't scheduled to start until much later, so Coach told us we could go home and rest if we wanted to and they would call us with the final time later.

Cathy was a trooper through the whole thing... she had been having some back trouble the week before, but she wanted so badly to be there that she came out and sat in the camp chair anyway. We picked up Hannah from Meme's (where she had gone to stay warm and out of the wind) and went home to rest, and Cathy didn't come out for the late game.

Mrs. Coach White called us and told us that the game was scheduled for 5:00! We knew that sundown was around 5:30, and so we knew that we were probably going to finish the game in the dark. As you can tell from the picture at left, which I took at the beginning of the game, it was after 5 and it was twilight when we started playing! Here's an action shot from the middle of the game. The soccer ball was dead center in this shot:



Can't see what's going on? Neither could we.

The kids played hard, but they were out-played and lost this third game. The tournament was double-elimination, though, which means that they weren't out of the running yet! In that kind of tournament, you have to lose twice to be eliminated. So we had another game to play the next day!

Fortunately for us, we did not wind up playing the first game the next day, or even the second or third. Our game was scheduled for 1pm, which meant that we would be able to go to church for one service and still have plenty of time to get out there for the game. So that's what Mikey and I did. The kids played well in their game, but ultimately they were eliminated. They finished in fifth place out of a league of 14 teams. Not too shabby!

Here's a picture of the Foot Action Soccer Fall 2008 league Outlaws:



And here's Mikey with his medal:



See pictures from the whole weekend here!

Soccer on the Tundra

Saturday. It's 6:46am. It's 37 degrees outside. I've been up since a little after 6. In one hour, we will be out at the soccer fields, and at 8am Mikey's team will be playing in the first game of the championship tournament for the fall league of Foot Action Soccer.

Why we were so blessed as to get into the 8am game, I have no idea. Needless to say we're going to dress warm and bring blankets. Hannah is going over to Meme's house, so she won't be out in it. The tournament is double-elimination, so we may be out there for much of the day... we play until we lose twice (if we lose at all!) The coach wants us to just hang out at the soccer fields pretty much for the day, because after the first game we don't really know when we'll be called to play our next game! It's not supposed to top 50 degrees all day long.

Pray for us. Pray hard. :)

Another Soccer Win For Mikey!

Mikey's soccer team, the Outlaws, won again Saturday! Next week is the season tournament, and our first game (of at least two, and more than that if they win!) is at 8am. It's going to be CHILLY!!! The regular season games don't really affect the tournament; everyone starts out with equal chances, and the best teams should float to the top. If the Outlaws play their best, they have an excellent chance of winning!

Weekend Notes

Friday night was Halloween... we went to the dollar movie to see WALL·E. Mikey really loved it! I thought the first act went kind of slow for small children and I could see how it might lose their interest. Mikey loved the part where WALL·E ran over his cockroach friend, and then the cockroach popped back up with a squeaky sound. That and the part where the babies were learning their ABC's with corporate brainwashing made the movie for him. Go figure! After we went to Baskin-Robbins and ate ice cream so we could be sure everybody would go to bed with a sugar rush and nobody would get any sleep. So that was awesome. (It's Halloween... if your blood isn't like 85% glucose, you're not doing it right!)

Saturday Mikey's team did not win their soccer game; they lost 0-2. The game was in the morning; that afternoon Mikey and I went out to the place we call "The Big Circle." Take a look at this map to see why we call it that:


View Larger Map

Anyway, he and I went out to The Big Circle, which is only a couple of blocks from our house, to shoot a little air-driven rocket that Meme and Papaw gave him on his birthday (yes, we're REALLY behind on trying out birthday presents!) and (no pun intended) we had a BLAST! The rocket shoots with nothing but air power, provided by a motion that is pretty similar to clapping your hands once, and it shoots way up there into the air. The rocket is made of foam rubber, like Nerf stuff, so it's perfectly safe to try to catch it when it comes down or on the first bounce. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we had a lot of fun.

Sunday was "Super Sunday" at Grace, the one Sunday a month when we have a guest speaker. This month it was Dennis Burke, a guy that hasn't spoken to the congregation at Grace before although I think he's spoken at a minister's conference. Cathy didn't go; Hannah had a little bit of snotty-nose going on and they couldn't keep her in the nursery (which is exactly how I would want it to be, because if it were someone else's baby that looked sick, I would want Hannah to not have to be around the other baby and get sick. Church shouldn't be where your baby gets an infectious disease! ) I told Cathy I would stay home so she could go, but she wanted to stay. Anyway, it was a great message, and I hope she'll listen to it online when it goes up within a few days! (She tried to stream it live, but there was an issue with the streams yesterday and it was unwatchable.)

BFW (Big Fun Weekend)

Wow... what an unexpectedly full weekend!

Saturday after building a Mr. Potatohead-style pumpkinhead with Papaw Jones at Lowe's and going to Mikey's soccer game (which his team won 3-0... no shootout this week!), he and I went home and had a little downtime with Hannah while Mama made a grocery run, and then we all went out to a pumpkin patch. Out there Cathy picked out a couple of little pumpkins for the kids to have for I don't know, Pumpkin Season or something (hey, aren't those supposed to rise out of the pumpkin patch on their own?). Mikey got to slide down the giant blowup slide they had out there, while Hannah and I discovered a ride of her own... leaning the stroller aaaaaaaalllllll the way back until Hannah's head is almost on the ground WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! and then tilting back forward WOOOOOOOOOO! hehehehehe. (That last hehe was Hannah giggling when the stroller is back level.) After that we had dinner at the revived-again Casa Bonita on 21st & Sheridan and then went over to Papaw Angel's house for a bit and Mikey got to hang out with his little black dog Skipper. Mikey is sometimes nervous around dogs that are excitable, and Skipper is one of those super-friendly dogs that just wants to be all up in your business. Papaw has been in the habit of locking Skip up in his carrier whenever Mikey comes over, but this time Mikey and Skipper got to have some quality time together and I don't think Mikey's scared at all now.

Sunday we actually skipped out on the second service (BOOOO ON US!!!) to blow out of town to OKC to visit the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Mikey has been studying cowboys in his schoolwork, and the museum was actually mentioned in the curriculum. I had mentioned it to Cathy as a good location for a "field trip" quite some time ago, but it didn't sink in until it actually came up in the curriculum. Anyway, we went on out and had a great time! Mikey especially liked the "Children's Corral" area and the huge beautiful garden out back (the weather could hardly have been more perfect, although it was kind of windy... it was sunny and warm enough to be comfortable but not sweaty), and he particularly got a charge out of throwing twigs into the little strem they have running through the garden area and watching it go over the mini waterfalls. Not that cowboy-ish, but definitely kid-ish! His other favorite part is the little Western town, "Prosperity Junction", that is actually inside the museum. You can go inside most of the buildings and see antiques from the Old West, and kind of get a flavor of how it might have been back then. I've been to something similar at the East Texas Oil Museum, which we hope to get to visit as well once he gets to the unit on energy. Hannah enjoyed Prosperity Junction because she discovered that there was a pretty pronounced echo in the room. She kept going "AH!" and then listening for the echo. By the time we got done in Prosperity Junction she had gotten to where she would make an echo and then applaud herself... clapping her hands is a new thing she's picked up recently. We also went through the areas about old-time and modern cowboy life, Western heroes in entertainment, rodeo, the army, and more. Oh... did I mention the several HUMONGOUS statues that they have in the place? I kept seeing pictures of the statue of a cowboy on a horse in the entrance atrium (it's called "End of the Trail") but didn't realize how HUGE the thing is until I saw a picture of it with people next to it! It's amazing, as are the other beautiful statues in the place.


Anyway, we had the perfect amount of time to take in the museum, and then we stopped by Cracker Barrel on the way home (to kind of maintain the cowboy theme a little!) and then came on home and went to bed. It was a great family time! We're going to research some of the other museums, in Tulsa as well as in OKC, and try and do a Saturday like this every month.

3 & 2

No win today - Mikey's soccer team held them to a tie at zero again, but this team beat them in the shootout at the end. The kids played a good game, all of them including Mikey, but since it was Fall Break this week they didn't have practice Thursday, and I think maybe they were a tiny bit rusty. Good thing is that there's always another chance to play even better the next week!

Mid-October Update

Mikey's soccer team won their third game in a row Saturday! It was a tough game that ended in a tie, 0-0, and Mikey's team won in the shootout (the second time this year they've gone to a shootout). Mama and Hannah were even there this week!

Speaking of Hannah... I just realized I haven't really given the "how's the baby doing?" update in a while. Hannah is doing GREAT. She doesn't crawl, although she can and has... someone suggested to me today that she doesn't like the way the floor feels on her knees. That may be the case. If she's on the floor and has somewhere to go, she rolls! She can stand, but she needs support. She babbles a lot lately, and every once in a while she'll come out with a real word, or what sounds like one... but we can never get her to say them again! But if you say something like "Where's the elephant?" when the toy Beanie elephant is by her, she'll look at it... she understands any number of words. My guess is that within a month or two, she'll stand up without support, walk across the room to where Mama is, and tell her exactly what happens in Mikey's favorite Spongebob episode, word for word.

Soccer: Week 3

Saturday Mikey's team won their third soccer game of the season, bringing their win-loss record to 2-1! Mikey had some awesome plays on defense. I get so proud when I see him chasing down the ball and turning it around and sending it back down the field where it came from!

After that we went to Home Depot and he made a fire truck with a whistle on top of it.

Also, it was Renaissance Fair day at the library. All four of us went and had a great time. I made a bead bracelet with Mikey; Mikey's came out great, but I dropped all my beads off trying to tie a knot at the end. Sigh. hehe Cathy got to have a long discussion with a lady who loves to do research on family coats of arms; Cathy loves genealogy research. I think she got a few news flashes about where in the world her ancestors may have come from!

Playing Catch-Up (again)

Wow... talk about not having time to get caught up on what's going on. Here goes, starting last Friday and ending right now (midnight Thursday night!):

All last week Cathy was on antibiotics for a possible case of walking pneumonia. By Friday she had aaaaaalmost shaken it, but she didn't want to go to WIT (Grace music department monthly songwriters' meeting) because she didn't know if she was done being contagious or not, so I left her at home with Hannah and Mikey and went by myself. I hadn't been there too terribly long when I got a call on a friend's cell phone: Cathy had been trying to pick up Hannah, and apparently because her body was so tired from being sick for several weeks, she felt something weird happen in her back and suddenly was in terrible pain. She had managed somehow to get into the glide rocker and get Hannah into her lap, but she wanted me to come home. In the WIT meeting we were talking about music we had written that could be used in the upcoming Grace production of an original play called The Christmas Prodigal which we will be staging this December, and I've written almost a dozen songs for consideration, but family is more important so I left my lyrics with Cheray and came on home to take care of Hannah. So the immediate plan was to let Cathy's back rest as much as possible.

This wasn't going to be easy: Saturday was Lowe's Build and Grow day, and Mikey wanted to go make the fire truck. My dad took him so I could stay home with Cathy and Hannah, but later in the day Mikey had a soccer game to play in and I didn't want to miss it. I wound up taking Mikey to the game while Hannah hung out with Meme and Papaw for a little bit.

It was a late game (3pm scheduled start time); when the game was over we were the last two teams to leave the fields. It was pretty warm, approaching hot... my car thermometer said it was 88 degrees. We started late, but the kids on Mikey's team played really well... the ball only came to Mikey in his defensive position once, but I was so proud to see it pop back up out of the pack and head back the way it had come from! But the other team had a tall, crack goalie, and at the end of the game the score was tied, 1-1. Time for a shootout!

What is a shootout, you ask? The only reason I knew what was going to happen in the shootout was because one of the kids on our team was explaining it to Mikey and I overheard. yes, I am pathetic. In this shootout, each team chose five players to kick one goal apiece against the opposing team's goalie from about ten feet or so away from the goal. Each scored goal would count as 2 points instead of the usual 1 point during the game. When each team had taken five shots, the scores would be final.

The other team kicked one goal. Mikey's team kicked two! For the first time, Mikey was on the team who won a soccer game!!!

We picked up Hannah and came on home, after I dropped off a DVD at the library. The game had lasted almost until 5pm (it was supposed to be 3-4 but they're chronically late in that league). The DVD was due that day, which meant that if I didn't get it in by 5 it was overdue, and they charge pretty stiff fines on DVDs. Fortunately, I put it in the night slot and the next day they checked it in without fine and without comment. Yay for the Tulsa Libraries!!

I contemplated whether to stay with Cathy at home Sunday, or go to church. I had volunteered to play a bit part in a little skit Sunday morning, but I could have gotten someone to fill in; it was a pretty easy part! But I decided that it made better sense to bring Mikey and Hannah to church, sing in the choir and be in my skit, let someone else take care of Hannah for a few hours and let Cathy really get some rest. So that's what we did. It was the first time I'd been involved in drama at Grace (the skit was pretty funny, BTW, and went over well with the congregation!) and it was a lot of fun. I'm glad I liked it... I'm scheduled to play the Agitated Innkeeper in The Christmas Prodigal!

Sunday night I stayed up really late (kind of like tonight!) recording a CD of me singing all of those songs I wrote for the play to give to Cheray and Elizabeth. The CD turned out kind of stream-of-consciousness and a little wacky... I mean, this is me we're talking about, singing songs at 10pm. I don't know if Cheray has listened to it yet; I feel certain it will crack her totally up. Elizabeth too. Those two seem to find me endlessly entertaining. What could be causing that? As you know, I'm a very serious person.

Cathy was feeling better and better as her back got rest, but she certainly wasn't ready for me to go in to the office and leave her alone with Hannah; Mikey can only lift her so far (she's 25+ pounds) and Cathy was still in a bad state. So I called my boss Matt to get permission to work from home, and set up our old computer so I could work while Mikey did school on the family computer. As it turns out, working from home went pretty well; I simply remote-controlled my work computer from my kitchen table and saw on my screen exactly what I would be seeing if I were sitting there at work. It was a little tricky to block out the family sounds, though, and a few times I felt like all I was doing was getting up to help Hannah, sitting back down, and repeating steps 1 and 2. But it worked out. I did that Monday and Tuesday.

Monday night a big question was looming. For months and months we had known that Newsboys were going to play at the Tulsa State Fair, and none of us, including Cathy, wanted to miss it! Those guys always put on an awesome show. At first Cathy was going to go hang out at Robert & Sandra's house with Hannah while Mikey and I went, but Cathy wanted to go so badly that eventually we decided to rent her a wheelchair to ride around in at the fair so she wouldn't overexert herself. Which ultimately didn't make much of a difference, because the stage was right next to where we came in, and she stood up for most of the concert anyway! Her back was fatigued afterward, but she actually did fairly well. (Ha! Ha! That was like a pun, wasn't it?? )

Newsboys have done this double drum solo thing for years and years, and at the end they have a drum platform that actually rises into the air, turns vertical, and then rotates while the drummer continues to play. I had told Mikey that the drums were going to go up into the air, but I hadn't told him they were going to turn on their side. You should have seen his mouth hanging open! hehe!



We actually had to miss Mikey's first pack meeting with his new Cub Scout pack, but he and I discussed it beforehand and he decided it would be worth it. Newsboys don't come to town very often!

Tuesday I stayed home again, but Wednesday I went back into the office. Cathy was still in a little bit of pain, but she could handle lifting the baby, and working from home is very difficult when you don't have a separate work space. Wednesday night Cathy went back to church for the first time in two weeks, what with the pneumonia and the back ache. She was hurting all during the service and all through choir practice. We were just about to go out into the auditorium for our run-throughs with the band, and we had a prayer time. Several people laid hands on Cathy and prayed for her, and instantly all pain left her back! She could bend at the waist pain-free for the first time since Friday! Thursday she could feel a little bit of stiffness back there, but nothing like the pain she had been feeling before we prayed. Praise God!

I guess I could go ahead and mention some stuff today... Mikey had a great soccer practice. I had a very fulfilling day at work, accomplishing some big things that I've been anticipating for some time. Tonight we went over to Cathy's dad's house and watched the V.P. debates. We came home and everybody went to bed but me. I stupidly stayed up blogging! And unfortunately, my poor wife just got up to see what I was doing... I may be keeping her awake. I'd better go to bed!

"My Best Day"

On my best day, it's my birthday,
Made a new friend at school and I'm getting all A's.
I come home to a birthday surprise:
My sister has been evicted and now her room is mine.
My lucky day! Got money in my pocket,
It's snowing whipped cream and raining chocolate...

Okay, maybe today wasn't quite that epic, but I got to have a great time with Mikey today!

It all started at 1:30am when Hannah woke up crying her head off. Cathy and I hadn't quite fallen asleep yet, so I got up to go see what was wrong. She had actually rolled over from her back onto her hands and knees and she was in hysterics. She was so upset that I picked her up and took her back into the bedroom with me for her to see Mama and hopefully calm down.

Cathy was able to get her back to sleep... at 3:30am! Hannah had the snotties and a fever and she was crabby as can be. Cathy would rock her in the chair until Hannah fell asleep, but then as soon as Hannah hit the bed, she woke up crying. One time I tried to rock her in the rocking chair, and you know what Hannah said to that? "Ma ma ma ma MA!!!" I got the message!

So we finally got to sleep, all three of us (thankfully Mikey never woke up, even though Hannah's room is right next to his). Cathy had given Hannah some baby Tylenol and that apparently took the fever down to the point where Hannah was comfortable enough to sleep. Four hours later, right on time, Hannah woke up again... this time I was the only one who woke up with her, though, so Cathy got a little more rest. I gave the baby another dose of medicine and she calmed right down and we both went back to sleep.

I figured Cathy and I would be total basket cases today... turns out she was and I wasn't! Cathy's been congested herself for I guess a week or two now, and losing out on that amount of sleep sure didn't help. We actually had planned to go to the first birthday party of our friends Chris and Courtney's little boy Timothy, but we decided that neither Hannah nor Cathy really needed to get outside today (they needed to stay home and rest), and besides, we didn't want to risk sharing their cold with the other babies at the party. Mikey and I went for a little bit... we couldn't stay very long, though, because Mikey's new soccer team had their first game starting just one hour after the party! Here's Mikey hanging out with a couple of the babies at the party:



So we arrived at the party about 15 minutes early, knowing we would have to leave a half hour later to go to the game, but we really wanted to be there for at least a little bit of the party! We hung out as long as we could (Chris was like, "Well, thanks for coming out and only getting to watch us finish setting up!" I told him we didn't mind... we just wanted to get to be there as long as we could!) and then we went off to the soccer game.

The game was really terrific. The team has only practiced together two times, so playing a full game being relatively out of shape and out of practice was visibly hard on them, but they played really well. Unfortunately, they happened to be playing quite possibly the best team in the league, the one hand-picked by the league owner! Even so, they kept them down to I think five points, and even scored one on them. So we lost, 1-5. Here's a picture of some of the action (you can see Mikey off on the right, next to the goalie):



After the game we rushed home and Mikey grabbed a bath and changed clothes... we had tickets to go see the "Family Matinee" concert of Trout Fishing in America! These are two guys who have been playing together since the 70s, playing folk rock type of music, and since the early 90s they've also been making "Family" (fun kid-friendly) music. My friend Ann from work knows Ezra from TFIA, so she told me about the concert a month or two ago and got me interested in the band. I checked out their It's A Puzzle and inFINity CDs from the library, and Mikey immediately fell in love with the highly silly and fun songs. So we've been listening to those two CDs in the car for weeks and weeks, and we were incredibly excited about the concert!

We were definitely NOT disappointed. I don't think I've ever had that much fun at a show for kids... not even the big spectacular ones like Sesame Street Live. It was fun and funny and Mikey had a blast. When they played the first riffs of "Alien In My Nose," which is among the most disgusting kids' songs I've ever heard (but it TOTALLY ROCKS DUDE!!!), Mikey was like, YEEEEAAAAHH!!!!! He was dancing and grooving and having a great time, and Ann was sitting behind him and I think she was watching him as much as the show! Here's the picture I took at the very beginning of the show. I took this one and an usher came and told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures (they did not announce that during the pre-show "Welcome to the show, please observe the exits, blah blah blah" blurb, or else I wouldn't have taken even this one):



Afterward we hung around for a few minutes to meet the guys. We got all three of them (the two "official" members tour with a friend of theirs who helps to fill out some of the arrangements) to autograph a CD and got a picture with Ezra and Keith. Ann even clued us in on who Ezra's wife was, and we told her how much we enjoyed the concert, too. All of them were SUPER nice to us! In fact, we watched them interact with a bunch of other children, and they were so pleasant and friendly to all of them. They look like the nicest guys in the world, and it isn't just a look:



OK, so maybe it wasn't my birthday or Mikey's, and maybe it wasn't raining chocolate on us. But we did get to go to a birthday party anyway, and we got to spend all kinds of time together. Poor Cathy and Hannah didn't get to have very much fun, but I'm so thankful that I got to spend some time with my boy!

Shots - 2 kinds

A quick entry... yesterday I went with Cathy and Hannah and Mikey to Dr. Ross's office for Hannah to get some immunizations. She was a good baby and although she cried a lot when she got the pokes (three of them... OWIES!) she calmed down pretty quickly. I came along this time because last time Cathy was a ball of nerves after the shots... this time she was calmer because I was holding Hannah still and helped her to not be quite as hysterical. Mikey had to leave the room after the second shot; he was starting to cry too! But he went in the hallway and the nurses let him have a set of wind-up chattering teeth from their treasure box, so he was cool after that!

After the immunizations, we went to Skelly Elementary School for Mikey's first practice with his new soccer team, the Outlaws (on the schedule they are signified as "(WHITE)" as I write this). I'm really liking Coach White; not only do I like what he told the parents about his coaching methods and philosophy, but last season his team had an undefeated record... so clearly he knows how to get results! Mikey got to make a few pretty good "shots" of his own in practice. We're excited about soccer this year!