Happy Anniversary!

I have to apologize for the abundance of movies on this blog recently. But they're just so much fun!

Here's one last one for a while.

It's rather special, I think. It's mostly for M. to watch, but maybe others will enjoy it too.

M. was out of town last week, and on the day he was to come home area weathermen were forecasting severe weather for the entire day: severe thunderstorms, high winds, hail, and tornados were expected.

Just after lunch, the first storm front hit our area and I called M. to let him know that he probably should reschedule his return trip. The first storm would push through our area by mid-afternoon, but more were coming. It’d be safer to stay where he was and just fly back the next morning.

Several hours later M. called to say that he was flying home. He’d gone to the airport with the thought that if the plane was late he’d reschedule, but if it was on time he’d just come home. The plane was scheduled to depart on schedule, so he’d be home soon.

M. called again a couple of hours later, sounding a little breathless:

Me: Hey! Great! How was your flight?

M. : Ummm…. It was fine until we tried to land.

Me: “Tried” to land?

M. : Yeah, the winds were blowing the plane all over the place. It was pretty bad. As we tried to land the plane was really throwing the plane around, so the pilot had to accelerate and take off again so we could circle around and make another attempt. It was pretty scary.

Me: (Thinking several things here, but not wanting to say them because the boys were in the room.) ……………….

M. : There was a moment or two when I thought that we weren’t going to make it. And, you know, it was okay. If God decided to take me home right then, I was okay. But I was praying, “Lord, please, don’t let me die now. I can’t die doing something my wife said I shouldn’t do. She can’t be right.”

Okay, one of you has been all over my blog today. You've registered 135 hits on my blog today, and have worked your way through my archives over several hours.

Will you please leave me a comment and let me know who you are so I can stop freaking out?

Thank you.

Three years ago we moved to our fair city, and we quickly began visiting churches in the area. Almost immediately we were confronted with the surprising lack of churches in our area with solid, expository Biblical preaching.

At some point in our "church search," we found the church that our dear friend Mr. G. pastored. We were thrilled to find a church that valued expository preaching, and the teaching of the entire Word of God. During the year we attended that church, we were continually challenged and humbled by his sermons. His preaching was deep and challenging for adults, but clear enough that our then nine year old son, Braden, was able to take notes and understand that main ideas of the sermons.

Three years, two Amazing Races, and 3 Fear Factors later, the G. family no longer were simply "the pastor's family," but have become dear, sweet friends to us.

This week the G. family moved back to Pittsburgh. God has called them back to plant a church in a relatively unchurched part of the city. It is a tremendous step of faith for them, for many reasons, and is a good example for our family to observe: the stepping out in faith and obedience.

We will miss you, but are thankful for the time we were able to spend getting to know you. Hopefully we'll be able to visit "you'uns" soon. You can take us "dahntahn" , or maybe show us the "Mon" or the "Yock." Or maybe "ketch" a "Stillers" game.

I Just..... I Mean...... What was......?

I am filled with questions after watching this:

What was her score?

Did she win?

Did she have no friends to offer constructive criticism beforehand?

Who choreographed the little interpretive dances between solos?

Where is Stacy Hedger now?

Know Your Bible!

This year we’re studying creation through the fall of Rome in history. So far we’ve made it to Ancient Egypt and have spent the past few weeks reading about mummies and hieroglyphs and pyramids. I’ve really enjoyed reading some of the same books with Brogan that Braden and I read 5 years ago.

Last week we began our first history project: the infamous chicken mummy.

I say infamous because the first time I made a chicken mummy I got a lot of odd looks from people. Some of the looks were shocked, some disgusted, some baffled, but all of them odd. I’m kind of used to odd looks (sadly), but I was surprised to get them from fellow homeschoolers. Homeschoolers tend to be a lot more open-minded about hands-on learning projects. But the chicken mummy really pushed the envelope.

This time around I was prepared for more odd looks, but people were surprisingly interested. In fact, another homeschooling family came over last week to mummify a chicken with us!

So, for the uninitiated, here is how you make a chicken mummy:

1. Put on rubber gloves. Raw poultry is gross.

2. Remove the neck and innards of the chicken. Rinse the chicken thoroughly in hot running water inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels. Rinse with alcohol (any kind) and pat dry again.

(Brogan is patting the chicken.)

3. In a large bowl mix a half a can of baking powder, half a box of baking soda, and 2 boxes of salt. We also added cumin to make it smell a bit…….nicer.

(Preparing the salt mixture.)

4. Fill the chicken cavity with the salt mixture.

5. Put the chicken in a freezer bag and fill the bag with salt. The chicken should be completely covered. Seal the first bag. Put the sealed bag into a second freezer bag and seal it.

(Filling the bag.)

6. Now our mummy looks like this:

7. Every day for the first week take the chicken out, brush off all the moist salt, and put it bag into a bag with fresh salt. After the first week, we only have to do this once a week.

8. After about 6 weeks we’ll remove the chicken from the bag for the last time, dust off the salt, rub the chicken with oil and spices, stuff the chicken with fabric, and wrap it with linen strips.

Right now, the only picture I can show you is a picture of the bag on the counter. Check back in seven weeks, or so, for a snapshot of a finished chicken mummy!

Coming soon!

Be afraid......

Be very afraid.......

Freestylin'

Last night our swim club had a practice swim meet or, as Brogan called it, a "fake swim meet." It's mostly for the younger swimmers, to get them used to a swim meet format and practice swimming for times.

Brogan has only been in a lap swim class for a month. In August, he surprised us all by showing us he could swim the backstroke. We had no idea. Who taught him this? We're still not sure. Anyway, for the month of September, his teachers decided to move him up a level so that he'd be swimming more.

With the move up came the opportunity to swim in the fake swim meet. Brogan wasn't sure he'd be able to do it: he's not very fast and they swim in the 13 foot pool. It's a little scary. But when the coach told him there'd be treats at the end, he was IN! And excited!

While he was happy and excited, I asked him if I could video him swimming and blog about it so that our friends and family could see him. And, with his permission, here are his races!

Here he is swimming the 25 yd. freestyle. (Dad, his time was 53 seconds in case you want to try to beat that.)



And here is his 25 yd. backstroke. You can see at the beginning he forgot to use his arms. His coach needed to remind him.

Total Momsense

Today I'm linking to a song by comedian Anita Renfroe. In this song, she lists everything a mom says in a 24 hour period into two minutes and fifty-five seconds. PLUS she sings it all to the William Tell Overture. It's fantastic!

I've seen this clip several times over the past couple of months as it has made its way around the internet. However all the clips I've ever seen of it only contained the second half of the song. I'd assumed it was some sort of odd copyright protection. Grrrrrr!

But my BFF Dana found a copy of the "Total Momsense" song in its entirety! The lyrics are even listed in the sidebar! Watch and enjoy!