Stuff and Stuff

One weekend while the cousins were visiting, the kids got the idea to tie string around a park shelter and play tag.  It was really fun!  They want to do it again, but next time with more string. 

 Here's a picture from one of GrandMary's visits.

One of the girls' favorite babysitters, my friend from New Mexico, currently lives in a town nearby.  

We love it when we get to see her.  

Another season of cross country has come and gone.  

Great job, Big Red.

We have been initiated into the exciting world of High School marching bands, and...

homecoming dances.  (Check out the shoes, four inches of instant height!)

Que bonita!

Meet Harriette

Harriette began her life on White Sands Missle Range.  Yet she was destined for life in the suburbs. 

 In 1950 the Oryx population on the African Plains was dangerously low.  So low that they relocated enough breeding pairs to mantain a population in southwest New Mexico.  Now there are enough herds that they need to be "maintained."  Dad has no problems helping out with that maintenance.

"The oryx, or gemsbok, is a large (450 pounds) African antelope that now lives in southern New Mexico. Oryx were introduced onto the White Sands Missile Range by the state of New Mexico to establish a huntable big game population. Oryx have successfully adapted to the area and have spread throughout the Tularosa Basin, including White Sands National Monument. The National Park Service considers the oryx to be a threat to the park's native plants and animals and has fenced the monument boundary to exclude the oryx."

So...I'm not exactly an interior decorator, and I have certainly never been acused of having "taste."  But I do know that taxidermy is not exactly my "thing."  However, since it seems I HAVE to have something of this sort in my living space, at least it's a bit novel and unique.  (And she tasted good too.)

One cool day in August...

There was a significant heat wave in our area this summer.  We enjoyed/endured multiple weeks of 90 - 100+ degree weather!  Some of us enjoyed it; some of us endured it.  When a random cool front blew through earlier in August, some of us panicked, and some of us embraced it. I'll let you figure out which catagory these two fell into.  It was about 55 degrees this morning, I guess the change was too abrupt for them.  

The Family Business

On an unrecorded date, in a then undisclosed location, my husband found my brother and the two were able to snap this photo.   I'm so glad they did. 

             I'm even more grateful that they both came home safe and sound.

GI Brother and Dear Hubby - Camp Liberty, Iraq

A few years and one Business Degree later, 

Dear Hubby commissioned GI Brother as he graduated from ROTC!  

...To uphold the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies foreign or domestic...

During the commissioning ceremony, I was interested to see the many fathers or other relitives administering the oath.  Seems like military service can be quite the family affair.  In my own family history I have my grandfather, my father, four uncles, and two aunts with military service.  Another Aunt married a serviceman.  My Dear Hubby's family has multiple great, great generations of decorated soldiers dating back to the Civil War.  

I didn't grow up a military kid, my dad was not a career soldier.  I didn't give military service any real thought.  My husband's immediate family is not military.  Does our families' history of service represent the per capita norm of military to civilian in the population, or is it "in our blood" or somehow subliminally in our upbringing?  Is it our exposure to pictures of men and women in uniform that makes it seem like a normal occupation to choose from?   Was it the money, benefits, travel?   How came we to this at once noble yet insufferable profession?    I better stop musing...

Back to the event at hand...

Dear Hubby, GI Brother, and Brother Computer Genius

It was great to see everyone.  We're very proud of Uncle Army Man (formerly GI Brother).

  I guess we're pretty much a patriotic bunch.

So What's Up? Let me tell you....

Chicadee and Big Red have been dancing.

Dad has been choking people out.

The girls have been smelling the ...tulips.

Yippy Skippy is still our sunshine.

Dad makes sure we stop for treats now and then.

Big Red is sharing the load.

Topper continues to learn from mothers who have taken the road before her.

We love the temple!  Nauvoo, IL

And we love each other

"I could never love anyone more than I love my sisters." Jo March, Little Women

Kansas City Temple!  So Wonderful!

A new mowing slave has been initiated.  (Slave labor, indeed. $10!)

Running, running,....

running....

 More dancing.  Say it isn't so!

?  (By request.)  

Silly, silly, ready for summer!

This is Chickadee and Big Red. We are having fun editing the blog for Topper. This is a pic of us playing  music for the family at Thanksgiving.

Tid-Bits

I don't know about you, but cleaning off a computer desk often results in finding little tid-bits that you just don't quite know what to do with.  These little notes and what-nots usually end up set aside "neatly" in a corner taking up space on the otherwise newly cleaned surface.  This provides a nice place for the piles that soon (usually only a matter of hours) begin to re-accumulate and ensures the continuation of the cycle.

I sat down this morning to work space that could not be worked in.  Upon proper excavation I found this little gem that has been discovered several times and reburied several times.  

This was a conversation that we found funny enough to jot down, presumably around our wedding anniversary back in March.    "Me" is Big Red.


Front

Back.

This little half-sheet of paper has surely lived a long, happy, useful life.  It can now rest in peace in my recycle bin.

And don't worry, I have a different scrap of love from which to start my new pile of clutter.