There's an anniversary hidden somewhere in this weekend

Save the earth while blowing up a small part of it: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080527/sc_livescience/environmentallyfriendlybombsplanned

And now, the weekend.

Friday: Carla and I went to Bravo for our anniversary dinner. We had a nice time pretending like we didn't have any kids for a while. They all, yes, all 3, spent the night at my parents'. Everyone survived. Why, you ask, did we go to dinner on May 23 when our anniversary is on May 25? Well, we couldn't go Saturday because . . .

Saturday: I went to Brad's house and "helped" him concrete his driveway. Helped is in quotations because it involved a little wheelbarrow pushing, a little concrete raking, and a lot of trying to stay out of the way. I was done there shortly after noon, then went home and mowed and burnt some brush and trees that I had cut down a few weeks before. Right after that, we went to Mom and Dad's for a Memorial day weekend cookout. Note that I was outside all day on Saturday, and that it was sunny. And we couldn't go Sunday because . . .

Sunday (the actual anniversary): We got up in the morning and made the mad dash to church, actually getting there on time for once. We skipped Sunday School because we had to go home and change really quick before going to the Radalia reunion (the one with the chicken and lamb and pork cooked on the spit). They were going to be eating right at noon so we had to hurry to get there while the meat was still warm. Also, we had to get there early because we had to leave no later than 1:00 to get to Missy's surprise birthday party - how dare she have the audacity to be born on our anniversary! Well, we ate at 12:55. Actually, Walker, Ellie, and I ate at 12:55. Anderson was eating, too, which involved Carla and did not involve her sitting at a picnic bench with 50 of her relatives (not all at the same picnic bench, of course). So Carla ate at 12:59 and we left at 12:59 1/2. Oh, by the way, the reunion was outside and it was sunny. We made it to the birthday party in time to be there for the surprise so that was good. The party, though, was outside. And it was sunny. There were lots of kids there, too, so I pitched batting practice to them for like an hour. In the sun. After the party, we decided we'd better go back to the reunion since we had only gotten to spend an hour there. The kids were still awake, including Anderson, who to this point had only slept for about 20 minutes all day, so back we went. Walker actually fell asleep on the way back but woke up and played once we got there. To our surprise there was still some meat left so we ate again, this time actually chewing our food. And I played basketball with Walker, in the sun. Thanks, Carla's immediate family, for keeping the kids occupied while we caught up with some of the other adults.

Monday: Finally, a day with rain in the forecast! I can sit in the basement all day and let my sunburn fade. Well, it didn't rain so I worked on my sunburn some more. We spent the morning pulling weeds, trimming hedges, and ripping out bushes from around the house. We also played outside with the kids and, after they went in, I secretly changed my oil and rotated the tires. I had to do it secretly because Walker would have been crushed had he known I did it without him. Carla and I teamed up and made some awesome shish-kabobs for supper, then it was off to Aunt Ann and Uncle Tony's house to catch up with Frank, on leave from the Army. It was good to see him again - looks like he's doing pretty well. Walker even jumped on his back while he did pushups but Ellie was scared to. Anyway, busiest long weekend ever.

Walker: What state does Santa live in?
Kurt: He doesn't live in a state. He lives at the north pole.
Walker: Oh, that means he lives in French.

Ellie, asking where her little play rolling pin is: Mommy, where's my rolly thing with the stick?

Well, maybe not long forgotten

An update on Walker's bad dream - a couple nights later, just before bed . . .
Walker: I don't want the hammering tiger
Carla: Buddy, it's just a dream. It's not real
W: Well, I'll try to think of it like that.
C: Tigers can't even hammer.
W: I suppose. You're right, they don't even have hands.
C: Just try to dream about the Indians hitting a home run.
W: I don't know if I can dream about sports.

And finally a few new pics.

Anderson smiling and/or slobbering, as usual



Walker and Ellie enjoying the new toy

Walker and Micah getting ready to watch the Preakness (and Micah training to one day fulfill his dream of carrying the Olympic torch)
Princess Addie and Princess Ellie

Holy Hairy Hammering Tiger, Batman!

Walker woke up crying in the middle of the night on Saturday. Carla went up and tucked him in and he pulled the covers all the way up over his head.
Carla: What are you doing?
Walker: Hiding from the hammering tiger.
Carla: A hammering tiger?
Walker: Yeah. He's hairy and he keeps hammering me on my shoulder.
Carla: Oh, buddy, you just had a bad dream. There's no tigers, only mommy. And tigers can't hammer anyway.
Walker: Maybe it was a girl . . .
Then back to sleep and long forgotten.

I took the kids to the library again on Friday - it's becoming a Daddy Day tradition (how lucky am I that I get Daddy Days?). We got another veggie tales DVD (Sheerluck Holmes) and, this time, some books. They've probably watched the movie 4 times and, the books . . . well, um, I read one to Anderson. He just kept looking up at me and smiling with his chubby cheeks. He's a pretty smiley baby. Oh yeah, I read one to Walker, too, so 2 for 3. That ain't bad.

Saturday we had Micah and Addie over to play and, to complete the standard baptism joke, we asked them to bring along their parents. Ellie was so excited that Addie was coming over. She couldn't wait to play princess dress-up and show off her vanity and all the other pink stuff she has. Walker had been up late the night before at Grandma and Papa's house watching the Cavs but he did pretty well overall. He and Micah played basketball and trains and race cars upstairs for most of the night. They were actually all good enough that the 4 adults were able to play two full games of euchre with only a couple breaks to check on very noisy play or, even scarier, very quiet play.

Sunday fell into the usual pattern of church, parents', home, other parents', church, back to other parents', and home. Pretty nice weekend overall. By the way, I promise, new pictures coming very soon.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. I remember once writing about eating 4 lbs of grapes in a weekend and thinking it was something pretty special. I just shattered that record. I ate 7 lbs of grapes between Thursday night and Saturday afternoon, then bought 7 more lbs and ate half of those on Sat/Sun. What's wrong with me?

By far the most baby goats I've ever seen in the back of a '98 Durango

4. I thought they were dogs at first but they were definitely goats. It kind of made me think, "wow, that's a lot of goats."

Walker practicing his bible verse from Sunday School: I am the resurrection and the light.
Carla: Good job, buddy. Do you know who said that?
Walker: Micah.

Walker also told us what he learned about in SS last Sunday. The lesson was about Saul on the road to Damascus. He told us about how he went blind, then "some guy, like Anthony, made him see again."

Ellie let out a big whimper after taking a bite at supper the other night. When we asked her what happened she said, "I bit my teeth." Actually, she said "teef". Carla told her to take a drink and she should feel better. Ellie did and said, "Water makes my boo boo teef go away."

"They will never take . . . our FREEDOM!"

Sorry it's been a while. I was pretty busy with work and school projects and being sick. This week will be different - I just have work and a school project and a final exam and I'm still a little sick.

I actually got to spend some time with the kids over the weekend, so that was nice. On Friday, we had to drop something off to Carla at work so I walked them all over to the library. We found a vegietales dvd and, after that, they had no interest in picking out a book. Next time I'll have to reverse that order. No dvds until they pick out some books. On our walk back, we saw Carla outside with her whole class so we went over to talk to them. It was kind of funny watching all 28 of her kids converging on me and our 3. It kind of made me feel like William Wallace. Minus the kilt. Plus pants, underwear, and a shirt. After that, we went home to play outside and have a picnic for lunch but it started thundering so we had a picnic on the kitchen floor. It was a picnic of soup so it was pretty messy but funny to watch. Friday night, we took the kids to the Leopard City Deli for supper and the cool zone for dessert. Walker was insistent that we were in the wrong ice cream shop. He kept telling me we had to go to the one by Subway. "You know, over by the bowling alley." I think he got confused because we drove in the back way. I finally had to walk him clear down to Subway and turn him around and show him the ice cream shop. He said, "yeah, that one." I walked him back up there and, to his surprise, Mommy, Ellie, and Anderson were already there.

Saturday, Ellie got to spend the night at Gma and Gpa K's and wear her new "nightgownd". Walker and Carla and I watched the Kentucky Derby which really disappointed Walker. He was expecting it to be long like a nascar race. Fortunately, nascar was on shortly after the derby so he got his fix.

Yesterday, Walker finally went to the 4-5's class for Sunday school. He did fine even though Carla and I were a little nervous about the transition. It's funny seeing him be by far the smallest kid in the class again. Ellie and I went "shopping" at green farms for some BLT ingredients (the L and the T) yesterday afternoon. Any time you ask Ellie to go shopping she gets all excited. It doesn't matter where you actually take her . . . yet. On the way there she was telling me how excited she is this year to go swimming in the pool at "Grampapa's house".