Keep Smiling

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Kelly AFB, San Antonio, TX, June, 1988

Snapshots of a Life

I have been too busy to blog. Our life has been running along at a frenzied pace, and most of the stuff we have going on is not really 'blog-worthy.'

But of course, the littlest Noisykid is most blogworthy. My beloved wife is now 13 weeks, and feeling lousy. She is the only woman I know who rejoices with morning sickness, but even she is looking forward to the end of this phase of pregnancy.

Through it all, the little Noisykid keeps growing.

I suspect it will be a boy, seeing as how uncomfortable he is making his mother.

Here are two pictures:

Noisykid #15 reclines in his/her personal water bed. Head to the left.

Noisykid turns his/her head to the side, giving one a view of part of the face.

We got a video on DVD which showed a heart rate in the 160's, but the heart is still too small to determine if it has 4 chambers. Gender determination is a few weeks away.

Kinda makes you want to have another, EH?

There is one thing I can mention. This Summer is a time for transitions, and the words in this film clip sum up some of my activities this week.



"Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace
According to Thy word."

Watching this clip always reminds me that England was bombed in the Second World War, and we in the United States have never had to suffer in the same way that the British have. I am sure the British cherish their freedom more than we do, since they have a lot more relics of that conflict scattered throughout their land. Even the events of 9/11 seem to be receding into the past; someone else's problem.

Good Grief, It's Got Legs!!!!!

Take a look at the Feto-Meter above. I just noticed that the little Noisykid has sprouted a set of well defined feet and hands.

How I spent the 4th of July....on Liver Transplant Call.

Slept in, got up and did a little school work with the kids.

Spent most of the time in the school room writing checks for bills which are due at the beginning of the month. Watched the balance drop on my checkbook.

Had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.

Went to the store with Histor the Wise to purchase stuff for college. We shall pack the stuff up and send it on ahead.

For dinner, the kids made homemade pizza. It being the 4th of July, I had to grill something. Since it was Friday, I grilled Ahi Tuna steaks marinated in Hoisin sauce. I got the idea for the Hoisin sauce from our Anniversary dinner, where I got the Chilean Sea Bass with noodles in Hoisin sauce. (Two things impressed me about that dish: one is that I was eating the preferred fish of most giant squids, and the other was that the Hoisin sauce was delicious!)

4 out of 5 Giant Squids prefer Chilean Sea Bass, with or without Hoisin sauce!!!!!!!

After dinner, I wandered out to inspect the pecan trees. I took along an air rifle and pellets just for grins. I took some shots at a Papa John's pizza box that was in a huge pile of brush that I plan on burning this Winter.



One cool thing about the air rifle I used is that it is a repeater; one can shoot seven .177 cal pellets as fast as one can pull down the underlever device. It is a sweet little German air rifle made by RWS Diana, and is called the 300R. That is it pictured above. You can't see it, but the barrel has an engraving of the goddess Diana holding aloft a rifle, with bow and arrow discarded at her feet.

The pecan trees are showing some signs of recovery from drying out. Above the dead and dry leaves, there is new growth which shows great promise. There are also some leaves which look as if they were lunch, so I shall have to figure out something to spray on the trees to keep them from being eaten.

After watering the trees, several of my sons and I positioned the hose out on our property in case any fireworks landed and started a fire.

After night prayers, the younger kids sat on the back porch while the older kids cleaned up from dinner. We enjoyed watching other people's fireworks. To rephrase a line from General Patton, I didn't want to spend a fortune setting off fireworks; instead, I went out and let some other poor soul spend his money so I could watch fireworks.

I went for a walk around eleven p.m. with the older boys, and the fireworks were still going.

At 1 a.m., right now, I still hear the report of fireworks. It is also neat to hear the coyotes join in with the sirens that punctuate the night.

Notice that I never mentioned watching TV? Well, I was free to do all those things because we don't have a television; in fact, we got rid of it 13 years ago today. I mention this every year, and it wouldn't be the same if I didn't encourage folks to trash the TV.

We drove our TV - literally - out of our house. In retrospect, I should have used IT for target practice with the air rifle!