Moving soon

This has been a week of a lot of exciting happenings. Abby just finished second grade and was awarded for her attendance, getting all “A’s” and for being a top speller. She also spent more time reading books outside of school than any of her classmates. We’re very proud of our little girl and her accomplishments. Abby has been to lots of parties with her friends in the past weeks. It seems like every weekend has something for her to do. Now, we’re getting ready to get into summer vacation mode and Pam has lots of activities lined up for Abby for the summer. She will be taking swimming lessons; going to a horseback riding camp; attending an “American Girl” doll camp; Vacation Bible School and other church-related activities, plus lots of playdates with her friends.

From Abby

David had a follow-up appointment with his kidney specialist this week and we are happy to report that he is doing well. His blood pressure was the best it has ever been and his blood chemistry is not doing bad. His creatinine and potassium did creep up a tiny bit this time, but the amount of movement was small enough to be dismissed as testing variances.

From David

David keeps getting more cute and sweet and he has been showing us how smart he is. Pam got him some soft letters and numbers to play with in his tub during bath time. He has been learning the names of them and he likes to hold them up and call them out to us. He goes through his numbers and several letters. He enjoys interacting with people and he loves his teachers at our church. David loves music and dances around when he hears tunes he likes. He is still obsessed with watching “Barney” and he seems to have a love/fear relationship with all vacuum cleaners. He likes pointing them out to us, but he doesn’t want to be near when they are running. He also calls anything he does not know the name of a “vacuum.”

Last Tuesday, David performed with his class from our church’s “Mothers Day Out” program. The kids sat in front of us and sang songs to us while making gestures with their hands that also told about the songs. I took video of this and it has been posted to our channel on YouTube for you to view if you like. In the video, most of the children need help getting seated at the start, but David climbs right up into a chair and sits like a good boy. There were many distractions during their performance (they’re two years old, what do you expect?) but David was able to stick with the performance and did a very nice job.

The biggest news of all this week is we are going to be moving soon. We bought a house closer to my parents’ house and much closer to Abby’s school. So, Pam will have much shorter drives to get our family to and from the places they go most often. We’ll also be closer to my folks so we can be helpful to them and vice-versa. It will be good for the kids to have easier access to them. I timed the drive from work to the new house and found it is about the same distance and time as it was to our current house, so my daily routines will have little impact at all.

The house we’re buying is larger than our current house and seems to be laid out better with more storage. The downside is we will no longer have a garage, but Pam and I are working on solving that problem. The big bonus for me is I will have a larger room to dedicate to my music interests. The current space I use for music is just too small to be practical, so I’ll enjoy the upgrade.
What Pam likes about the new house is the kitchen – it has lots of character and three ovens! She also likes having an upstairs for the kids. She likes 2 story homes. There are a lot of neat built-ins in this house. The neighborhood is nice and quiet and there are no houses directly behind us, just open fields and woods. The back porch and back yard look really nice for sitting around in the evenings or entertaining guests.

We had the new house inspected today and that’s always a sobering occasion. There are some things we’ll have to fix up and some things we’re going to expect the seller to fix for us. But, we’re not going to be difficult about it. I’m pretty handy when the need arises. Since this is an older home, I’m sure the need will arise – often.

Well, that’s about all the news for now. Stay tuned for more updates on the kids and the move!

Finally got to jam!

From Jam at West EMS

It has been more than two months since I went to Pete Wernick's Bluegrass Jam Camp in Argyle, TX and that was the last time I got to jam with other musicians until yesterday evening. My friend, Dave Blevins, who is a helicopter pilot for West EMS also happens to love to play music. He invited me to come play music with his friends, most of whom are associated with West EMS. We had a wonderful time. I met with another helicopter pilot, Matt Ashcraft (pictured next to me in the above photo) and we spent some quality time working on some very old fiddle tunes together. I was flatpicking a song called "Soldier's Joy." Matt heard me playing it and took an interest, so I showed him the notes from my guitar and within about 15 minutes, he had it and we were playing it together. Then, I moved on to another fiddle tune called "Eighth of January." Matt wanted to learn that one, too. It helped me a bunch as well since I have only begun playing these tunes a few weeks ago. The rest of the guys in the group had a wide variety of musical backgrounds, so there was plenty of work for me just to keep up. One of the players has played professionally with Earnest Tubbs and even went to high school with Willie Nelson. He has lots of stories to tell. I had a great time, but I also know I have a lot more to learn.

From Jam at West EMS

I sure appreciate Pam for taking care of the evening duties with the kids and house and let me have a chance to have some music fun. I have a sweet wife!

Abby's first attempt at making cookies

 

Abby has been a busy girl today. She planned out most of Pam's day after church with all sorts of activities. Then, Abby went off to the kitchen to "create a new recipe." A short while later, Abby called out to Pam, "How much baking soda do I need for cookies?" Abby got her answer and continued to work. Later, she came and showed me that she was mixing up some batter for some cookies. I could tell she was proud of herself, so I gave her an encouraging comment and sent her back to the kitchen. Later on, she came back and showed me one of her finished cookies. I tried it and it was really good! Abby made this from scratch, without following a recipe in a book. She did ask Pam several times about what ingredients she needed, but Abby did the majority of the physical work. This is quite an accomplishment for our little girl! So, I thought we would share the moment with our friends.

Wildlife encounters

If you have been following our posts on Facebook, then you already know we have been encountering more and more wild creatures outside over the past few weeks. We all enjoyed watching the baby bunnies grow up and go their independent ways. We still have rabbits in our yard and around our neighborhood, but I don't see the babies any more. They must have moved on to other yards or got so big that I can't tell them apart from the adults any more.

From Wildlife

The biggest excitement this past week has been from snakes. Early this past week, I was leaving one of the microwave tower sites I maintain at work and saw what I thought was a stick in the road. A closer look revealed that the stick was actually a snake. I couldn't tell if it was alive or not, so I stopped the van and got out. The snake did not move. I began thinking it must have been hit by another car on the road and was dead. Not totally trusting my assessment, I kicked some dust at it. That's when I realized the snake was very much alive as it coiled up and prepared to strike at me. I was a safe distance away (out of the strike zone, any way) and I was trying to capture a photo of the snake with my phone while it was still coiled up, but it uncoiled and slithered off into the grass next to the road. The photo above was taken as the snake was fleeing. Examining the photo later, I determined that it was a diamondback rattlesnake. The rattles were missing from the tail, but all the markings were correct. I guess I should be glad I didn't get closer and risked getting bitten. I was pretty far from a hospital at the time.

Today, I was in the back yard of our house and decided to move a pile of wood panels that had fallen over in our grass. I expected to find some wildlife in or under the pile as I lifted it, so I picked up each panel slowly and observed for movement each step of the way. About halfway through the panels, I found three large toads hiding under there. They were so cute, I had to take pictures of them for Pam. Here are some of the better shots:

From Wildlife

From Wildlife

Then, I lifted the final panels to reveal one small brown garden snake. It tried to hide, but I was able to pick it up and move it before it went to hide with the toads. I was able to capture this photo with my phone before he disappeared:

From Wildlife

It is fun to see what kind of wildlife lives all around you. It is a little creepy, too. I always worry about the kids discovering something before I do. Especially if it is something harmful, like a poisonous snake. So far, those have not been found around the house, but I have found and killed a large rat snake in the back yard before.

In family news: We're all doing fine. Pam has a birthday coming up this Monday. I got her something special and she won't let me give it to her early. She wants to wait for her actual birthday. I can admire that, but I sure would like to give her this gift early!

Abby is still doing very well in school. Her social calendar is filling up and Pam has loads of activities lined up for her this summer. It sure is nice being a kid.

David is still being a two year old in every way. He can be very cute and really turn on the charm, then he can turn right around and be very difficult. Pam occasionally tells me via text messages to my phone whenever David draws attention to himself by throwing fits in public places, like Abby's school. David has a couple of obsessions at the moment. He won't stop talking about "vacuums" and he is addicted to "Barney the Dinosaur." He wants to watch Barney all the time. We limit TV viewing on both the kids on most days. Abby is used to the restriction and is usually pretty cheerful about finding something else to do. David on the other hand will get really sad if you tell him he can't watch Barney when he wants to. We remain firm and hope he finally gets the message.

Both kids are looking taller and older now. Pam and I have both noticed how much they both have changed since the start of the year. They both look taller and their faces look more mature than before. It is scary and fun all at the same time.

I haven't done as much with the music lately. We always seem to have a lot of stuff going on and since we got on Facebook, I'm always finding reasons to spend more time on the laptop in the evenings. I need to get back into a regular practice routine. I picked up the banjo today to see if I could play a Gospel song that Abby said her music teacher would like me to play. I think I can learn it, but I need to spend time practicing or I'll never be confident enough to play it in front of anyone. I have been playing the guitar a lot more when I do sit down to practice. I'm trying to learn to "flatpick" Bluegrass style. I've always been a strummer and only dabbled at picking tunes. Now, I'm trying to focus more energy on the flatpicking side so I can start doing more lead work and be more effective when jamming with strangers. Speaking of that, I have been invited to jam with a bunch of guys up in a town 20 miles north of here next Saturday. I'm not sure if I'm going, yet. I may not make up my mind until that day.

More news later. Thanks for checking in!