BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL

On Friday, Philip and I did something we haven't done in forever--for a long time anyway. We went back to high school, a football game anyway. Nikole's team, the Goddard Rockets played Alamagordo and she wanted to go and so Philip and I thought, "What the heck--cheap entertainment!" It was actually alot of fun. Being cool parents, we sent the kids off to mingle with thier friends and socialize and arranged a meeting place for after the game. Well, they ended up sitting with a family from our ward for the whole game. Oh well, they still had fun. Unfortunately we lost by 2 points. We still enjoyed ourselves. Going there just reinforced the fact that we would NOT want to go back to that time in our lives. High school kids today are really strange!! Good thing we were never that way! :)

GOOD NEWS--

Just an update on the "Hopeful" saga. We finally got the color on the walls in the bathroom in which they were intended to go on. And, yes, it was by a brush and not a splash from the can hitting the floor. Nikole loves the color. It is very pink, but it is what she wanted and that is what mattered.
So, third time is a charm and perserverence yeilds success. A little luck didn't hurt either.
And, can I just say that the man at our Home Depot paint department was very sweet in offering to send an armed guard home with us after learning of our mishaps. Thanks Home Depot paint guy!!

THE SAGA OF "HOPEFUL"

So, you know how on television they have the home improvement shows. In the 30 minutes they go to the store, buy the paint, go home, paint the room, stand back and admire what they've done...well, I have to say that I now know the true meaning of D.I.Y--Doesn't Include You!!!
So, Nikole's room is pretty much done except for her atached bathroom. While Adrienne was here, they went to Home Depot and chose a color for her bathroom that will look good with her tile and with her room color. This color is (appropriately) named "hopeful". It is a light pink color. So, we measured the bathroom, figured out that we needed a quart of paint to do the bathroom, went to Home Depot and got it mixed. Got it home and put it on the desk in Nikole's room to wait for the painting day. Quick side note, the last thing a mom wants to hear at 6:00 in the morning is "Mom, come quick and look, it's an emergency"!! During the night, Molli, our almost exiled cat, got up on the desk, decided she needed to stretch out and knocked the paint onto the carpet-upside down--lid popped off and all of it spilled. So, Lorin, F.Y.I. painting the carped DOES NOT work so much. Philip and I spent about 3 hours in there cleaning the paint out of the carpet.
Paint the bathroom: Take 2
Thursday we went to Home Depot to buy another quart of "hopeful" pink. Paid for it, put it in the back of the truck, went and got the kids from golf and came home. It got left in the back of the truck as the minds were on dinner, homework, and relaxing when we got home. About 8:30 that night, Nikole decided that she wanted to paint a little, went out to the truck to get it and got all the way up to the front door..yup, it slipped out of her hand, dropped, lid popped off and our front porch and front door ended up pink!! Clean up time, about 1 hour.
We decided that we will try one more time. We are renaming the color "hopefully" because "hopefully it will actually make it onto the bathroom walls this time". If something happens this time, we told Nikole she will be chosing a different color because obviously our house has something against the color "hopeful" pink.
Wish us luck!

The "WEIRD" Happenings

Let me preface this by saying mom can verify all this...
One of the days that we were in our new house, but hadn't gotten everything out of our other house, our next door neighbor from the old house stopped by. He told us that they were out on their porch and saw someone come to look at the house. She walked around the back yard and then came out the front door. He said that she must have locked herself out because (our bad) we had left the living room window open a crack and she pushed it up and crawled back into the house. He said that she then came back out through the window carrying--I kid you not--my family sized box of Tide laundry soap!! Not the vaccum or anything else, just the Tide. When we went over to investigate and take the rest of our stuff before she could, we found the top of the box on the floor. It had been cut off with a razor blade and left there. Why??? Maybe you have some thoughts on it cuz we sure didn't.
THEN: We decided that we needed a break from the house (that and we didn't want to get up at the crack of dawn) so the day prior to mom's plane flying out, we went and spent the day in Santa Fe and had dinner there at this yummy restaurant called the "Blue Corn". We got in and seated and then from a few tables down this little girl about 5 or so came over and just stood at the table. We asked her name and she told us and then proceeded to tell us why she was there and who she was with. Then, instead of returning to her seat, she climbed up on the bench next to Meganne and sat and chatted with us. After the waiter brought our drinks, she was nice enough to unwrap Meganne's straw for her and tell us that she also liked the rootbeer. All total she was there for probably 10 minutes with us with no parent coming to get her. When our waiter came to take our order, I mentioned to him that this little girl kind of invited herself to be with us and we didn't know where she belonged. He went over to her dad and mentioned that she had joined us and he finally called for her to come back to the table. I really believe that he probably would have let her sit with us until he or us were finished with our meal.
Oh well, keeps life interesting I guess :)

New Homeowners and Wallpaper is EVIL!!!

Sorry for the delay - we have been quite busy. We closed on Thursday July 30 and started going into the house that day. We had to assess what needed done. We promised the kids that we would paint there rooms first. Nikole's room took about 5 hours total this includes cleaning the wall, painting (2 coats), and taping. Meganne's room took - ready for this - about 1 full day to remove top of the wall paper; 2.5 days to remove the wallpaper backing and adhesive - more on this in a bit; and 1 day to prime (1 coat) and paint (2 coats).

Okay so why 2.5 days to remove the wallpaper backing and adhesive. We theorize that the wallpaper was professionally done and they owned stock in an adhesive company. That blasted adhesive was thick and for some reason was thicker on the lower part of the wall - I think gravity was working. So what did we use to remove the adhesive?? Very hot water, some kind of adhesive remover (which really didn't work well), a bunch of elbow grease, and (ready for this) Downy. Yes, that is what I said Downy fabric softner. Crazy huh - we thought so but we were so disperate to get this stuff of we thought "Why not?" And you know what with all of the items it worked. I was skeptical and so was everyone else. But it did work; however, it works best with very hot water and Downy at full strength. You still need the elbow grease - keeps things lubricated - I think.

Both rooms look great - I would give details but I think the girls will cover that in their blog.

What's next - Master Bathroom. Yes we will be dealing with a very slow draining shower and wallpaper. WALLPAPER is EVIL!!! But we already removed the wallpaper now we just need to remove the backing that still remains in spots.

I definately feel that wallpaper is not of this earth - blasted Aliens!!

KIDS SAID I HAD TO

So, my blogger kids informed me the other day that my blog needed updated. I am not sure what they think there is to update because most of what we have been doing is packing and cleaning. What fun huh!!!
We are looking forward to having mom here to help us with all the madness. You know how you usually have to stress about getting the house cleaned up for company--bonus--we don't have that stress. In fact, we are in the middle of a pretty good mess. Sorry mom.
I am sorry, we just have nothing going on. We will close on our house on the 30th of July and paint and move that weekend. After we get settled, I will post some pictures of the inside. Until then, we are all good and we still miss everyone.

The Next Big Adventure

So, Philip and I decided its time to grow up and catch a piece of the "American Dream"...We put in an offer on this house and the seller accepted our offer. We are now in the process of doing all the stuff that needs done to go way into debt. (ha ha). We are awaiting the inspection, the appraisal, and all of that good stuff. We should be able to close on the house on the 30 of July and move in the first weekend in August.
It is a pretty good house. It is 4 bedroom, 3 bath two car garage with a good sized back yard. It was built in 1966 and reflects it in some of the decor, but nothing that can't be fixed with some renovation. Everything works now, so we will just deal with it until we can update. It is about 2300 sqft. We are pretty excited about having our own place, and if you refer to the kids websight later on, you will read all about thier rooms.

Just Hangin' Out

I realized that it has been a while since I have written so, as uneventful as life has been, I will write something.
First I will send a note to Letisha--we are not going to make it to your place in July. We had some things come up and will not be able to travel until our trip to Idaho in October. I figured it would be okay since you have mom there until July, Misti coming in August, and then you having a wedding to plan and all. We will probably see you and your family in April when Grandma Jensen has her 90th birthday party.
I am doing well in my recovery. I am able to do more and more each passing week. Grandma Webb has done really good to check up on me. She calls at least once a week to make sure I am okay. What a sweet lady!!
Anyway, I will not bore anymore.
Hope everyone is enjoying life.

NOT MUCH TO SAY

I guess tis the season for not much going on. We don't have much happening here. Adrienne and the kids have enjoyed their time together and Philip and I have thoroughly enjoyed having her here as well. They have been shopping, camping, shopping, resting, going to the movie, swimming, shopping, playing the WII, and, oh yea, shopping. It has been fun for them all but not so much for mom and dad's pocket book (hehe). I have been getting better--good days and bad days, but that is expected.
So, that is about it. Boring I know, sorry...maybe life will get more exciting when I can actually drive again.

Did You Blog About Our Awesomeness???

This is the question I get from my kids. They are just teasing for the most part, but they are very proud of the accomplishments they achieved this school year. So, I am going to take this opportunity and brag them up...
The school holds an awards assembly and these are the ones that the kids got...

Nikole:
"8th grade MESA Outstanding Student" (for this, she also received a calculator)
A Participation Award for competing in the Battle of the Books. She also got a letterman patch for this.
An "Outstanding Attitude Award" for her Gifted Literature class
For her participation on the soccer team, she also got a letter like one to put on a letterman jacket.
Plus, for being in the Junior Honor Society this year, she got to present Meganne for the Junior Honor Society for next year.
The school had a reading incentive program where the kids had to read 9 books of different catagories (fiction, non-fiction, etc.) and they had to fill in thier tic-tac-toe board. If they did this, they got a spaghetti dinner hosted by some of the teachers at the school. Nikole qualified for this dinner. It was YUMMY!!!

Meganne:
She also got a "7th grade MESA Outstanding Student" award (no calculator for her)
A "Most Improved in Pre-Algebra" award
An "A List Award" for maintaining an A in science
And an "Outstanding New Mexico History Student Award" for maintaining an A in her history class.
For her participation on the soccer team, she also got a letter for a lettermans jacket.
She also qualified for the Junior Honor Society for next year.
Meganne didn't qualify for the spaghetti dinner by reading, but the ones in charge of it invited the advanced orchestra to seranade us. So, by default, Meganne got to attend also.
We are very proud of both of them.

Philip and I also got awards for "Outstanding Parent Volunteers". Go us!

The pictures are of the Junior Honor Society Induction Ceremony. It is a formal event so we had to get dressed up. It is kind of fun.

A TRIBUTE

I can't let this day pass without paying tribute to the greatest mom ever..
Thank you for the love you always have for us. Thank you for the words of encouragment you always give. Thank you for the way you can lift our spirits when we talk to you. Thank you for the example you are.
I love you and am grateful that you are my mom.

A NIGHT OF CULTURE

True to school tradition, we had the end of the year concert last Tuesday. Orchestra is a class that Meganne has thoroughly enjoyed and hopes to continue on with it. Her teacher keeps telling us that she is a natural and he is amazed at how fast she was able to pick up not only playing the instrument, but also the musical concepts. As you can tell by the middle picture, there were a few "sour" notes. But overall, it was pretty good. We are very glad that she enjoys this so much. The violin would have been a bit easier on the transport thing, but I guess that is where the truck comes in handy. For those that don't know, Meganne plays the bass cello.

And now we stop...

Hi to everyone trying to keep up with us. I think that it will be easier now (I am hoping). M.E.S.A is done, Battle of the Books is done, soccer is done, all within the week. All great experiences for the kids and for us. So here's the results:
M.E.S.A: The kids ended up getting 5th overall in the wind energy challenge. To see all the scores and the number of teams, refer to the following web page:

http://www.nmmesa.org/images/pdf/Event%20and%20Overall%20Score%20Sheets%20MS%20and%20HS.pdf

This will give you a pretty good idea of how well we think they did considering they were the only team from thier school that didn't have an advisor and they were also the only ones to place in the top 5 in thier school. We are very proud of them. On this trip, they got to ride a tram to the top of one of the mountains and there is a picture of Albuquerque from this tram.

Battle of the Books:
Nikole is actually the only one that competed in this one, but we got to go in the room that she was in and observe. A little background...there was a reading list of 21 books put out at the first of the school year. The kids read the books from this list and memorized the authors name. When they got to the compitition this morning, they were assigned a team. Not all thier team members were from thier school so they didn't know the other people. They put 5-6 kids on a team. The teams went to different rooms with an opposing team. There was two adults mediating the compitition for them, one would read questions and the other would time. Alternating teams, the reader would read a question about one of the books. The team had 30 seconds to come up with the correct book and the last name of the author. If they answered correctly they would get 7 points (5 for the book title and 2 for the author). If they missed one or the other, or the whole question, the other team could steal the points by giving the correct answer. A sample question would be like "In what book are there words and thier meanings?" and the kids would have to say, "The dictionary by Webster" There were 4 rounds in which they competed against different teams. At the end, they tallied up the total points that each team earned and awarded madals for 1st, 2nd, and 3 place teams. So, two girls out of the 8 team members from Nikole's school got 2nd place finishes, but Nikole and the other 5 kids didn't get anything..except a really fun time and memories.

Soccer:
This one had kind of a dramatic end to the season. First I will say that the team ended up not winning any of thier games, but did improve as the season progressed. The last game they played was Thursday. It was 95 degrees with no breeze. HOT!! And for anyone that knows about heat also knows of heat stroke. Well 3 of the kids on the Sierra team got a mild case of it, but one additional girl had to be taken off in an ambulance.
Again, something that the kids had alot of fun with. It gave them a chance to get to know people outside of thier comfort bubble.

And now we are just back to the everyday stuff for a while. The kids will get out of school on the 22nd, and we will see what the summer has in store. I am kind of hoping for the sleeping in a bit thing, but time will tell I imagine.

The Snowy River Adventure

Ok so it took twice as long to get into Snowy River than it was supposed to - don't go on a caving expedition with a Reporter and a long-winded gov't employee (most are like this anyway). We got to the Snowy River at 3:00pm - this was the time we were supposed to be out! Can you tell I was thrilled - Joyce wasn't either. We finally left and got out of the cave at about 7:00pm. Total miles into Snowy River I think was 4 with about 1/3 of that crawling or "squat walking". My muscles are rebelling today.

Here are a few pictures:





Of course I have more but I am in ABQ for a MESA competition that the girls are in - stay tuned we will have that in a bit.

Until then - toodles.

What He Dug Up

So after Philip read the blog about him going to Snowy River, he dug up some web sights for you to look at if you are interested. Here are the links:

http://eideard.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/snowy-river-underground/

http://www.nmt.edu/mainpage/news/2007/23july01.html

Sorry I couldn't get the links to come up, but you can copy and paste.

Enjoy the reading.

Rest At Retirement???

Hi to everyone. I just got a minute so I thought I would update those who want to know about our goings on.
I didn't say much about our Easter. We took the kids to "Explora" in Albuquerque. It is like a hands on science museum. We had alot of fun there. I had never been, but Philip and the kids went there last year. It is a pretty cool place. Then, right across the street from that is the "Natural History" museum, so we also went there. Also a cool place. All in all it was a fun day.
Our lives are quite busy with everything happening on the same day it seems. Today, the kids had a M.E.S.A meeting until 4:20, then soccer from 4:30 until 6:00, and then Meganne had to be at a rehersal for an orchestra festival from 6:00 to 7:00. Tomorrow, they will have another M.E.S.A meeting, then a soccer game at 6:00. Wednesday, they have soccer from 4:30 til 6:00 and young womens from 6:45 til 8:00. Thursday, another soccer game at 3:30 and Friday Meganne has another orchestra rehearsal and Saturday another soccer game. Sunday we will get ready to go out of town to Albuquerque for the M.E.S.A compitition..be gone Monday and Tuesday. Get home Tuesday night, recover from that and head to Las Cruces Friday and Saturday for Nikole's Battle of the Books compitition.
On Monday, Meganne is supposed to participate in her orchestra festival, plus the kids will also be missing a soccer game that day too. One of the teachers said that it is stuff like this that should make the argument in favor of cloning...how do we get them everywhere at once? We don't, we have them chose what they want to do and tell the others sorry..what else can we do.
Also on Monday (yes, the same one, the 27th) Philip has a chance to go caving. There is a cave called "Fort Stanton Cave" that he has been down in. There are tours that people can go on probably 4-5 times a year to this one. At the bottom (end) of the cave where not many people are permitted to go is a place called "Snowy River". It is basically a bed of white gypsum that looks like a river of snow. It is a very protected place that you can only go to by special invitation, and he got the invitation. It is so protected that when you get down there, before you go to the river, you have to change into a clean outfit and put on cover-alls and non-skid shoes with protectors over them. It is an amazing opportunity for him.
So, there is our life right now. If I go a while without catching this up, please understand. Also, if it is a while between phone calls, please also forgive me. I try to keep up.
Oh yea, school is going good...so far an A in class and a B in lab but only because I need to do a few more of the exercises and then it will be an A. Test on Thursday that might change all that, but we won't go there yet.
So, that is all for now. Thanks for reading and I will try and update after the compititions and let you know how we did. Until then, love to everyone.

Happy Easter

FROM US HERE IN ROSWELL, TO ALL OF YOU THAT READ OUR BLOG

HAPPY EASTER! ! !

WE HOPE THAT YOU ALL HAD A GREAT DAY.

Did We Learn From The Past??

Two days out of the year..yes, year, the White Sands Missle Range opens its gates for the public to view a piece of history. The first Saturday in April and October.
This area is known as the "Trinity Site". Brief lesson(copying out of the flyer we got)...
The story of the Trinity Site begins with the formation of the Manhattan Project in June 1942. The project was given overall responsibility for designing and building an atomic bomb. Three large facilities were constructed. At Oak Ridge, Tenn., the scientists isolated the uranium 235. Hanford, Wash. became the new home for nuclear reactors producing plutonium. And Los Alamos (White Sands)was established to build the bomb.
Long story short (too late) it was here that the first atomic bomb was built and tested officially at 5:29:45 a.m mountain war time.
The pictures that I attached have to be put into context of what precautions are taken today with any kind of radioactive stuff. Lets just say that I don't think the men in that area had an inkling of what power this stuff truly had.
Pictue 5: This is the monument that was built to commemorate the testing of the atomic bomb.
Picture 4: There was a 100 foot steel tower that was built to suspend the bomb from. This is what is left of the tower and the only reason this is left is because it was underground and encased in concrete. The rest of the tower vaporized.
Picture 3: This is trinitite. This is what became of the sand around the blast area. There are theories as to how this formed, but obviously nobody knows for sure. Imagine the whole area covered in this. They have since cleared the area and buried the majority of it, but little pieces can be found.
Picture 2: When looking at this picture, imagine all the precautions taken today..this is the house where the actual bomb was assembled. The door on the right hand side led into a "clean room" that was sealed off to the outside elements and that is where everything was put together. That is either ignorance, stupidity, or trust in everyone around you not to mess up thier part!!
So, the determination that I try to make is this, "Was this a success or a failure" and I come up with--both. Yes, we did harness the power of the atom, but at what cost over the course of time?
The first picture is some barbary sheep that were by the roadside. We thought it was cool to see them.

Finish the thought

Okay, so Philip and I went out to lunch a while ago and there was a group of family/friends in the same room we were in. They were very entertaining in the topics they discussed and the comments they made. They got into a discussion about age and life at certain stages. The comment was made that.."life begins when the kids move out and the dog dies. That way the kids don't catch you and the dog doesn't bite who you bring home!!" Quite the insight we thought. Indescretely we laughed. They were talking loudly enough that we weren't really eavesdropping, but we couldn't really laugh out loud.
Anyway, since then we have been coming up with our own endings and we invite our "followers" to participate.

"Life begins when..."

Let us hear yours----

Spring Break-Take 2

Quick update..Meganne is doing fine and healing well. Philip is also doing fine and healing. They are both still a bit tender, but getting better.
So, true to the Watts ways, we had a break from school and work, so we had to go do something. We decided to go to San Antonio for the last part of the week. We left Thursday morning and came home Sunday evening. We arrived at our hotel about 8:00 local time (Central) and we were downtown so we got a recommendation for dinner and set out to find the restaurant. The hotel we were at was only about 5 minutes away from the Alamo, so we went to see it. It wasn't open for tours that late at night, but we did see the outside. Then we went to the downtown riverwalk which is just a bunch of shops and eateries on a man-make version of the San Atonio river. It was the natural route of the river, but they had filled in the bottom and sides with cement so they could create the riverwalk.
The next morning we went back to the Alamo to do the tour. It was quite cool. After that, we went back to the riverwalk and did a 45 minute boat tour along the river. Very interesting to learn about the history and architecture. We finished there about 3:00 and realized that we were only about 2 1/2-3 hours away from the Gulf of Mexico so we decided to go see what that was all about. We went to Corpus Christi. Beautiful place. The kids had alot of fun in the water. Meganne, true to her nature, brought home every shell on the beach. Okay, little exageration, but she got alot of them. Saturday we spent the day in Sea World. Fun fun day. We did something different there and took one of the guided tours. It was called the "Save the Species" tour. We had opportunity to go behind the scenes and see where they keep the endangered species that they are trying to help replenish. It was very interesting. Then, on Sunday we headed home. But not before a stop at the Bass Pro Shop in San Antonio. Big place, cool place. It was a very fun, relaxing time. Because there are so many pictues, I am breaking up the posts into activities. Enjoy the pictures

Remember the Alamo

I think that we all will. The first time we saw it was at night which was an amazing sight. It is all lit up and beautiful. Hard to believe that such a terrible tragedy happened there.
For those that are a little fuzzy on Texas history, here is a brief refresher...the event happened at a time where Texas was actually its own country and Mexico wanted it. There was a small establishment there but it was determined that there was no way that the settlement would survive without some strong walls and weapons to help out. So, the fort was built. Just as expected, the Mexican army, about 2,000 strong came to overtake the fort, about 200 strong. With re-enforcements arriving for the mexican army steadily and none for the settlers, the settlers were able to hold off the army for about 2 weeks before the Mexican army finally breeched the walls and took the fort. While it was a tragedy that the people died, it was a victory in that they held out for so long.
The interesting part of this was to put ourselves back in that time and try to impress on our kids the feelings and the lives that the people there would have been experiencing.
The main part of the building was known as the shrine and we were requested to speak in hushed tones and men remove thier hats out of respect for the fallen. Ironically we were there on the day of another part of this whole tragedy called the battle of Goliad. Basically there was a group of about 300 that had fled from danger and were later captured and assured that they would not be harmed. On the 27th of March the Mexican government ordered all 300 of the be executed. They were taken out and shot. At the time that we were there the Daughters of the Republic of Texas were holding a special memorial for the 300. There was a bagpipe player in the traditional kilt playing Amazing Grace and there were decendants of some of the 300 that all went into the shrine area. They gave an invocation and then recited the pledge of allegiance there in the shrine. I think that nothing would have had a greater affecto on me that day than to stand on a place that so many perished and pledge my allegiance to a country that has lost so many in the name of freedom.
Another thing that I found quite ironic was that this piece of history was right in the middle of a bunch of high-rise buildings...the past meets the present I guess.

Gulf Of Mexico

Being only 3 hours away, we decided that we would drive to Corpus Christi and see what the Gulf of Mexico looked like. We have talked about going there on vacation and never quite made it for a whole vacation, but thought we would take this opportunity to travel there.
True to rumor, it was a beautiful place. Of course being near the water, we had to get in. The kids of course got in farther than Philip and I did, but we all still experienced the ocean water. I will never understand why it is so calming to walk down the beach. But it is. Meganne decided that she had to clean the beach of any and all shells there. Okay, maybe not, but she brought back quite a few. Why..we don't know, just because that is what Meganne does.
Now, before you all see this picture of the kids in the spray of the wave and start calling child protection services, please know that our kids were not in any danger. Yes, it looks like they were getting buried under the water, but they were actually not getting that wet from the water. They got some spray off the wave and that is it. They are soaked because they were playing in the calmer water before these pictures. Anyway, we had a fun time there too.

Sea World San Antonio

We had many, many wonderful experiences here. There is a place called dolphin cove where you can purchase fish and try to entice the dolphins to come over to you so that you can reach out and touch them. We all had opportunity to feel them. There are several animal/trainer shows that you can see. There is one called "Viva" which puts people, white sided pacific dolphins, and baluga whales all performing together. It is really cool. If you look in the picture of the baluga whale and trainer, you will see a baby baluga that was performing along with mom. It was really fun to see that.
After the show, we did our "Save the Species" tour. We went backstage to the area that they take the injured or "non-performing" animals. We got to see some ring-tailed lemurs, some mckawes, and a small alligator named Katrina. She was a little rescue alligator from hurricane Katrina(hence the name). We all got our pictures taken with her and we had the chance to feel her too. It was not what we expected to feel, but still amazing. We also had the chance to learn about Hawaiian monk seals. HIGHLY endangered species. We also had opportunity to learn feed a sting ray and feel a shark. After a few more attractions, we went to the killer whale show "Believe". It is always an amazing thing to see. The interaction between such a big mammal and human is amazing. They say that it takes about 4 years of training before a killer whale performs in the shows and about 2 years of training before the trainers are in the shows and 6 years for the traininers to get in the water with the mammals.
Anyway, enjoy the pictures...

The Update

To let you know...
Philip is doing good. He has not had much pain which is good because he says that the vicaden doesn't work for him. The stitches look like they are healing well too. Still a little sensitive when it gets bumped, but that is expected. He goes back in to the doctor in 10 days to have his stitches removed.
Meganne faired pretty well. She came out of the surgery room in tears, but we decided that was more the stress release than anything. She said that it was scary in that room without mom, but we got her calmed down. When she got home I put her in bed thinking that she would just sleep off the anesthetic, but she didn't really calm down so I had to bring her to the couch and sit with her for about 30 minutes. Then she was good to go. About noon she started looking alive again. She has had to take her tylenol 3's every 6 hours, but while they work, she is great. It is a little challenging to eat and try to keep the food on the other side of her mouth, but she can pretty much eat what she wants--approval by mom of course. They put like a temproary plaster-type covering thing on her tooth that they exposed and then there are stitches on either side. She will go back in on the 31st to be checked. If the doctor thinks that she has healed enough they will take out the stitches and take the covering off her tooth. If not, he will leave them on for another week.
Nikole and I are boring..thank goodness.
I will update when there is something new.
Thanks to all for the prayers.

Spring Break

So earlier today I was searching for a picture illustrating rest and relaxation to signify the beginning of our spring break. I couldn't find one, so this one is going to be unillustrated too. Sorry...
Anyway, as I was searching for the picture, Philip and Meganne were outside building a dog house for our poor puppies. They both came in and Philip went to the kitchen sink. Meganne came walking by me at the computer and whispered in my ear, "Daddy cut himself with the razor." Not really the words I wanted to hear but, I went to make sure all appendages were attached. He did cut himself but on the fleshy part of the top side of the left thumb. We went to the emergency room and he got 4 stitches. Ironically, I was going to inform you all of Meganne's surgery tomorrow morning, but I guess Philip wanted some of the sympathy today too...
So, Meganne is having her mouth surgery tomorrow morning. We have to be at the doctor at 8:30. Her upper canine tooth on the right side of her mouth grew like this -, not this |..Silly tooth. So, she is going to go in and have the surgeon expose the tooth so that the orthodontist can attach a bracket to it, hook the braces on and gently coax it to be like this |, not this -. So, all of your prayers and good thoughts be with her tomorrow. I will let you know how they are both doing sometime tomorrow.
I hope that this isn't an indication of our "rest and relaxation" week.

SHOULD WE WORRY?????

The advisors for the kids M.E.S.A club are Mrs. Lemontine, Mr. Matta, and Mr. Cannon. In having the kids in this club and trying to be involved in what they do, we have had several occasion to visit with Mrs. Lemontine and Mr. Matta. Because of this, they both know that Philip is a cartographer with the BLM. He has, more than once, offered his services to come in as a guest lecturer to talk about what he does and maps and such. He has also extended the offer to other teachers at the school if they would like him to help with thier classes. Mrs. Lemontine related this experience to us...
(unfortunately it is true)
She told us that she was in a staff meeting on day with all the teachers in the school. They were discussing various opportunities they could give the kids of the school. Through this, Mrs. Lemontine remembered Philip's offer and related it to the other teachers. She stated that he was a cartographer and he would be happy to come in and teach the kids about that. The discussion continued with one teacher being very puzzled as to why they would want him to come in and talk about that. To that Mrs. Lemontine asked this TEACHER if she knew what a cartographer did. The teacher (sadly) replied that she wasn't sure, but by the description, she presumed he photographed cars (car-tographer).
True, yet sad story!!!
But, to this day, it lends a good laugh around our house and with Mrs. Lemontine.

Tryin' the Truck

So, getting a new vehicle means road trips, right? YUP!
This is a place that we have heard about since we have been here in this part of the state, but never got there until now and we ask ourselves, "What took us so long?" It is called Sitting Bull Falls. And try as I might, I couldn't come up with the reason it is named that because the Indian Sitting Bull was never there. Go figure--anyway, it is a very short(5 minute)walk on a paved trail from the parking lot to this. Yes, here in the desert this does classify as a waterfall. The kids of course had to take off the shoes and socks, pull up the pant legs and wade. They said the water was cold only until the legs went numb. And of course there was the threatening with "tying to the hood of the truck for the ride home if they got thier pants wet" speech. I guess they believed us because they were very careful not to get wet. Anyway, this was a very fun, peaceful, beautiful oasis for us. I guess there is some beauty in the desert.

Quick "What are they up to now" note. The kids have decided that they wanted to be managers for thier school soccer team. Being the supportive parents that we are (okay, stop laughing now) we said "Sure..couple nights a week, we can handle that" Nope--every night from 4:30-6:00 except Wednesday when they get done at 5:30 for those that want to go to church. And twice a week instead of practice they will have games. So, for the time being, they will not be drowning golf balls in the water hazards :)
Also, fire season started early here and Philip is already getting called to help at the tanker base here at the local airport. When it gets into full swing, he will be providing GIS support for the fire crews. Something he enjoys because he knows he is helping, but not so great on the family time. Oh well, it is not like we are home that much anyway.
Keeping up???

We Digress

"Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy"
These are the words on one of the entrance gates into Disneyland. Since the blog wasn't going at the time of our trip I thought I would share some of the pictures with you.
We had a good time as I think I let you know in an e mail. I am just going to share a couple pictures with you. There is also a picture of a Joshua Tree for those that don't know what they look like.
Enjoy seeing our Christmas..

Keeping Up?

For those of you trying to keep up with our happenings, good luck...I live it and I have a hard time.
So, here's the deal..a while ago some of you got an email on the M.E.S.A compitition that the kids participated in. After having the wind energy advisor basically drop them for his basketball team, the girls and Philip put one together. They went to the reigonal compitition here in Roswell and came in 4th. Only teams 1-3 were eligible to go to the state compitition in Albuquerque in April. So we resigned ourselves to the fact that despite everything, at least we got one put together to enter.
So, yesterday Philip got a call from one of the other advisors. Long story short (basically because she got no explination as to why) some of the other schools were permitted to add some teams to the state compitition so to make it fair, they had to let every school add teams--YUP--that means that we are going to Albuquerque in April. We were all pretty excited for that news. Anyway, I have added some pictures of the windmill before modifications for Albuquerque. Pretty much we will just add a few more blades.
Confused yet--I am.

So here is the deal...

Philip decided that he needed a new hat. Got this one...

Then I thought, "Hey I need a new shirt." This is what I got...

The salesman said, "Hey today when you buy these two items you get this for FREE!!!"

So of course we had to take the deal. Who could resist?

There was something about signing papers and mention of some type of monthly payment. You know the usual blah blah blah. But hey they got taken I mean come on a hat and a shirt and they throw in a truck for free. Can we just say SWEET!!!

The truck is a Toyota Tundra Crew Max 4x4 with the usual toys. We think its pretty cool.

Back On The Web

Hey,
We are going to try this again. Don't know how much we will have to say, but I will try and make it a little interesting. As interesting as our lives are anyway.
More to follow