Race Day . . .

One of the major events for any Cub Scout and his family is the annual pinewood derby. Sam and dad had the first pinewood derby together today. It began before the sun was up - by helping to get ready for the pancake breakfast - which the scouts host on pinewood derby day. Lee & Sam were up and out of the house before 7 am.

The basics - a small block of wood, four plastic wheels, 4 nails, some creativity and no more than 5 oz and gravity. Today we had tanks, humvees, rocket ships, pickup trucks and some that were beyond description. Some may have worked only in the last 24 hours to complete their car and others may have worked for weeks on it. (Guess which camp we fell into?).

The Car - it started out as the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine back in late October. Poppa S helped to create the original car and shape. Then - through a series of mishaps on weight - we had to shed some - so the underbelly got a little lighter. It morphed into the 'Snake'. The rest of the work was wheels, polished axles, making alignment straight and getting lots of graphite into the wheel/axle assembly.

Sam's care is by the #10 below.



We had some great races - in most of the races - the cars were only separted by less than a 10th of a second.

A few action shots -

And the final result is that Sam took 1st Place in the Tiger Cubs & 5th place overall!!

Way to Go Sam!!

The result of the day was sledding, pizza and Wii with friends!

Excuses, excuses, excuses...

 

 

I'm sure that everyone thinks we've fallen off the end of the earth or something...I realize I only posted once in December and that I am way overdue...

 

But...if you could have been a mouse in the corner of our house the first 3 weeks of December you would have seen that we were one sick bunch of kitties.

 

At first we thought the twins had whooping cough but thankfully realized it was not that but instead  - influenza.  Although, I'm not sure that was any better.  I have not felt that sick in years.  It took about 3 very long weeks to make its rounds through the 9 of us.  Thankfully, we finally recovered enough to enjoy Christmas and make a short trip.  (details will be forthcoming, I promise.) 

 

So, basically, this is just a post to let everyone know that we are indeed alive and will soon have more pictures posted to prove it!

 

In the meantime - here's a peak!

 

 

 

 

 

Catching snow...

 

 

I wonder what snow feels like on my tongue?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gotta love the spontaneity of 4 and 5 yr. olds!  Oh my, these girls are tooooo much fun!

A march and a slushy?....

A couple weeks ago I was watching Josh and the Big Wall (one of Annie's favorite movies) with the girls and Davy.... Jr. Asparagus said something that I cannot get out of my mind. So, finally, on Sunday afternoon I sat down with them and watched it again - this time with my computer and Word and copied down Jr. 's thoughts.

(Jr. Asparagus was challenging his fellow Israelites to do something that didn’t make a whole lot of sense from an earthly perspective, but was very obviously being obedient to the LORD.)


And so says Jr. Asparagus...,


“Wait, don’t you see what you're doing?

God gave you directions and you’re ignoring them.

Don’t you remember what happened when you were supposed to go into the promised land but you got scared and ran away instead?

Cuz You didn’t follow God’s directions, you had to stay in the desert for 40 years!”

Jimmy fumbles for an excuse, “Welllll, yeah but, that was….”

Jr. continues….

“I know God’s directions don’t always make sense to us but things work out a lot better when we do them Gods way instead of trying to do things our own way.

It didn’t make sense when God told you to walk right through the Red Sea, but what happened? The water dried up.

And it didn’t make sense when God told you to live in the desert even though there is no food in the desert.

But what happened? God gave you manna to eat.

Don’t you see, sometimes God asks us to do things that don’t make sense to us…

Like walking around a city to make the walls fall down or being nice to someone who hasn’t been nice to us

But, when we remember that God made us and loves us and always wants what’s best for us we can be sure that His way is the best way.

(Jr. sings the following song….)

The Lord has given this land to us. No need to fuss. He knows what He’s doing. We know that he will take care of us if we will follow Him. God’s way is the best way. Now that I know … He loves me so… His way is the best way and that’s the way for me!"

And then Jr.'s final challenge,


"Tomorrow morning Josh and I are going back out there to march around Jericho.

Who’s coming with us?”

What I am thankful for

To:  Karen

From:  Lee

This thanksgiving - I am extraordinarilly thankful for YOU!    I am taking over your blog to tell you why.

First, I am thankful that you love Jesus with all your heart and desire to be obedient and follow him.

Second, I am thankful that you love me unconditionally;  almost 18 years and you are still beside me - all the time; I appreciate that so much.

Third, I am thankful that you have a vision and compassion for orphans; not just the two that we adopted - but the many others that we saw, you care for and loved and continue to pray for.

Fourth, I am thankful for banging pots and pans.   Today the girls saw Macys and replicated in their own smiley little way - what a treasure.

Fifth - I am thankful that you bought and brought 100+ sleepers to Ukraine with us last summer.   I have smiled many times thinking of those little kids outside Kharkov @ Zelani Guy who have warm jammies - because you had the foresight to shop every Wal-Mart and Target looking for close-outs.

Sixth, I am thankful that you take care of all of our children in a compassionate and loving way - even after a week when most of us feel pretty crummy.  

Seventh, I am thankful that you have been supportive even when my job has taken me away.   For those that don't recall - 2 days after we came home from Ukraine - I started a new job at our corporate headquarters; and until this week had been gone every week for the past 12; Karen has been behind this all the way - even with all the additional work.

 

Eighth - I am thankful that you are a tomboy; girls need to learn to climb trees, hike in the woods, dig for bugs, explore and make life fun.

Ninth - I am thankful for your good common sense.   You know the right thing to do and you do it.    I appreciate that - and maybe that is why I trust you when you spend 15 hours shopping at an outlet mall.  

Tenth - I better stop - I haven't seen the kids for a while and they are under my charge - because you are busy with the turkey. 

I love you with all my heart - Happy Thanksgiving

Your partner in parenting and crime:

Lee

Annie part 2....

Thank you for praying for Annie!

She is better - at least the fever is down. She is eating and drinking and dancing once in while. :) Now comes all the coughing to get all that crud up...(which translates to Mom or Dad holding her upright at night so she can sleep) Oh well I will take that any day over a sick little girl who just lays in my arms going in and out of sleep because her fever is so high.

Now for the rest of us....we seem to be batting 0 for 2 at the last 2 major holidays. Last Christmas we all had the stomach flu and now to celebrate Thanksgiving we all have awful colds and coughs. The big difference this time is we get to share it all with 2 more little sweethearts in our home!

I wonder if Katie and Emie have ever had stuffing or pumkin pie or cranberries?

Annie....

Thank you for praying for my little Annie. She is sick. Its such a bummer to be sick, especially when you are only 4 and you want to be playing with your new sisters.

We have had cold after cold after fever after fever after cold after cold this fall. I can't remember the last time David didn't have boogies coming out of his nose. Poor little guy.

Anyway, Annie had a rough weekend - high fever, congestion and cold. Fortunately I had lots of help from Auntie Rufie and Kelsey because Annie has been one sick little girl. I took her in this morning to the Dr. and found out she has pneumonia. Fortunately, it is mild enough I can keep her home with us. I am praying it will stay that way.

Today has been a long day. I have held her all day and we have definitely (remember I can gate the family room to keep us all together!) watched our share of TV today...several Praise Baby DVD's, every episode of "Frances", Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (I have never actually watched that before), and then to cap off the day a few episodes of House Hunters International.

She is sleeping off/on all the time and still has a high temp. (up to 104 at times) I am trying to push the liquids as much as I can and medicine for the fever periodically. (anyone who knows Annie, knows Annie does not do medicine.) I have tried disguising it in every bloomin' thing I can think of without success. Usually, I just hold her down and squirt it in the side of her mouth. Sometimes, it works.

Anyway, thank you for praying for Annie and the rest of us.

Thank you Jesus for giving us bodies that heal. And thank you for giving us such wonderful friends that pray for us and help us out!