 We usually don’t do a whole lot for Halloween…In the past, we’ve gone to church festivals or had movie nights, but this year, we tried something different after talking to our friends who were missionaries in Sicily and this type of website, we did some friendly-costume, neighborhood trick-or-treating and passed out some word puzzle (rebus) tracts for the kids. For the next 10 weeks, Ben has training at Whiting Field, another base about 1.5 hours away, so he’ll be doing the weekend commuting again, like we did in CA (He’s gone during the week and comes home for the weekends). Posted 10/31/2006 at 8:59 PM
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haha, i’ve never seen a darth vader with such cute, crinkly eyes before!
 it took us a while to figure out what j3 was. very cute! j9 looks very regal!
btw, here’s a banana cake recipe i made recently that would be good w/the kids: very easy and fast, plus no fat (except what’s in the chocolate chips)! |
| Now that baseball is over for the two middle kids it opens up our schedule a bit so J9dd can resume Girl Scouts and the 3 olders can do swim team on the base. It was our first time at this swim team last night and they had a Halloween party complete with water games and goodie bags. One of the other swimmers was J9dd’s friend from the homeschool group. The convenient part of it is that it is within walking distance, a block away, from the house.
Posted 10/31/2006 at 4:29 PM
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| Ben had some classes in land and water survival and he came home telling the kids all kinds of exciting airplane crash survival stories. This link (see page 34, #6.3.2) is quite informative about how to use your pants as a life vest.
This afternoon, the kids and I were walking home from the base video rental and J6ds found an injured sparrow that couldn’t fly, but could only hop. J9dd and J6ds wanted to take her home to try to rehabilitate her, so we found a used Taco Bell cup on the ground and set her in it, took her home to the backyard, and tried to give her some bread and water.Then, before we could figure out what to do with her next, she quickly hopped away, back into the wild where she belonged…J9dd drew and wrote about it in her journal. Our dinner conversation focused on that bird and Ben told us something from his class…If you are starving and stranded on a life raft in the middle of the ocean and a bird lands on or near you, grab it, twist the neck, and use your knife to defeather and cut it to eat it. Ugh…Bird Sashimi. Posted 10/29/2006 at 9:15 PM
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| Relatively Healthier Candy – includes dark chocolate, gummy bears, licorice, and jelly beans.
Posted 10/29/2006 at 3:50 PM
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| Ben brought home a book from the base library, see below. Ben read it right away and enjoyed it and then he recommended it to me, as a subtle or rather not-so-subtle way to discuss our need for some financial belt-tightening, investment planning, etc. The chapter on the Latte Factor was quite enlightening. (More info is available here or from Oprah’s site here.)
Anyway, one little thing we thought we could do without was the newspaper subscription, even though we enjoy it and even the kids like J11ds read the comics and sports. Much of it we could probably read online for free. I compiled some news links (and added some others) which basically mimic what we were looking for in the newspaper…(See end of this post. They are in no particular order). We tried a month with it and now we’ll try a time without it. We’ve been trying to cut down on unnecessary recurring weekly/monthly expenses e.g. Cable TV, Blockbuster Online, newspaper, magazine subscriptions we can read from the library, etc. Now, if only I didn’t live so close to Walmart! I sort of have mixed feeling about how the newspaper or the lack of it will affect the kids , because it was such a part of my growing up years and my parents’ lives. Maybe some of that is generational, habitual, or cultural. Everyday, rain or shine, the Los Angeles Times would be sitting on our driveway as my dad woke up early at 5:30am to get the paper and start reading it with my mom at the breakfast table. · Calvin and Hobbes daily· NPR.org· Economist.com· NY Times.com· Washington Post.com· Wall Street Journal.com· Dear Annie Newspaper Column· Mallard Fillmore comics· Pensacola News Journal Opinion· Pensacola News Journal Neighbors Local Events· Gosport NAS Pensacola Base Newspaper· Political Cartoons.com· Political Cartoons Cagle MSNBC· ESPN.com· Sports Illustrated for KidsPosted 10/28/2006 at 7:18 PM
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| J6ds is ever the optimist when it comes to winning prizes or getting something for free. Our local health food store, Everman’s, is having a deal where the children can color a Christmas gingerbread coloring sheet and turn it in to get a free fruit. J6ds asked,”What is it, a watermelon?”
We heard an idea from a Jeff Myer cd about Public Speaking, to have kids practice their phone etiquette. I typed up a Telephone Answering Script for J6ds:
Posted 10/28/2006 at 5:6 PM
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| Scroll down and to the left to Gcast link to the 10/27/06 entry and hear J3 tell us about his favorite book, Fish Out Of Water. Also, J9dd says a few words about her last Perdido Fall Baseball game last night. (She and J6ds finished their season by playing against each other, J11ds age group finishes by mid-November.) Sometimes our schedule was quite crazy and hectic with the 3 of them in baseball, but they all enjoyed it immensely. Link to Perdido Baseball. Posted 10/27/2006 at 10:44 PM
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Using Cooking Demos, Elephants to Fill the Pews NPR.org
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| A couple of weeks ago I brought a book home from the library for the kids (although I was the only one who ended up reading it, J11ds didn’t want to end his affinity for cheeseburgers…), Chew on This (see below)…a teen’s version of Fast Food Nation by the same author. One point that struck me was learning about the food coloring, Carmine, which is in a lot of strawberry flavored yogurts and shakes, is actually made out of beetles from South America. I found an article online from the Wall Street Journal here. That’s good motivation to reduce one’s consumption of processed foods, don’t you think??
Posted 10/27/2006 at 7:53 AM
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| Last Saturday after J6ds was helping his dad wash the van, he accidently let a gecko or some kind of little green lizard into the house. J11ds always comments how Florida has so many creepy crawlies that we are not used to…Anyway, the gecko went into the study and stopped on our white, lacy, fabric-covered wedding photo album, the one made by the Choi sisters, Ben’s cousins. Ben got out the fly swatter (would that even work on a gecko??), I ran for the butterfly net and we debated what to do with this creature, kill it or try to catch and release? I really didn’t want gecko blood all over my white wedding album…Ben ended up catching him with the butterfly net and releasing him, although part of his tail got cut off from the net, but I think he should be ok and it will grow back, right?
Posted 10/26/2006 at 3:42 PM
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Ben brought home some photos from their recent training exercises, taken by his classmates, so they are not necessarily of him (although a body in a flight suit and helmet could be anyone), but they give us a taste of what it was like…Yesterday he went parasailing at a nearby place in Southern Alabama, nicknamed, “Redneck Parasailing”  I just Googled “helo dunker” and found links to other people’s experiences in the same or similar courses: Bryan Weatherup.com and here at the Neptunus Lex Helo Dunker, Here’s a video at YouTube.     
Posted 10/26/2006 at 2:51 PM
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Posted 10/24/2006 at 9:48 PM
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 Ben’s API (Aviation Pre-flight Indoctrination) class photo. He is at the end of the right, bottom row. Whew, thank God, he passed his helo-dunker test on Friday. He said it was quite disorienting to be strapped in, upside-down in the water and trying to get out, so an instructor gave him a tip to put your arm down (or is it up?  ) on the armrest as soon as you are upside-down, so you can keep your bearings. Most of it was psychological, to try not to panic and to remain calm.Posted 10/22/2006 at 7:57 AM
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that picture looks so top gun!
congratulations on passing the helo-dunker, ben, we’re proud of you!!! |
| Sunday’s Mallard Fillmore comic reminded me of a quote from a library book I’m reading Age Proof Your Mind, by Z. Tan, page 120, “Unhealthy foods are generally cheaper, more accessible, and have longer shelf lives than healthy ones such as fresh fruits and vegetables.”
Posted 10/19/2006 at 9:9 AM
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| The other day Ben was explaining to the kids how he uses a slide rule to study for his test in Navigation and J6ds exclaims, “Oh, We do that too, our coach told us how to slide!”
Posted 10/18/2006 at 10:3 PM
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| Clothesline Lovers Left High and Dry article -
Posted 10/18/2006 at 3:42 PM
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Click the Gcast link to the left and scroll down a bit or here (Oct 18 Phone Call) to hear J3ds recite some of Psalm 24.
Psalm 24 (New International Version)New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
Psalm 24 Of David. A psalm.1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, 3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, 5 He will receive blessing from the LORD 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, 7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; 8 Who is this King of glory? 9 Lift up your heads, O you gates; 10 Who is he, this King of glory? Posted 10/18/2006 at 10:7 AM
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| In case you’re interested, we added some photos to previous posts…one of J9dd at the Big Lagoon and J11ds’ baseball induced black eye, (scroll down or click links).
This morning after Bible, breakfast, and chores, we were working on math downstairs and I noticed that J3ds was a little too quiet upstairs…I called up to him asking him what is he doing. He replied, “I’m still doing my chores!” During the week, they only have to wipe down the mirror, sink and toilet, (J3ds is an “apprentice” helping one of the other kids) but today, he was doing “double duty” cleaning the bathtub!
J6ds tries on Ben’s new flight suit, minus the patches which were put on the next day. Posted 10/17/2006 at 8:50 PM
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hahaha…i need an apprentice like little j! thanks for the much needed laugh!
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| We had one of those funny, crazy-timing incidents today…I had made a bean, veggie, and turkey sausage soup in the crockpot today. Ben came home, opened the pot and told me, “I forgot to tell you, I was told not to eat beans or cabbage (or anything “gassy”) today because tomorrow our class is going in the high altitude/low pressure flight chamber.” Of all days for me to make a bean dish!
Posted 10/17/2006 at 8:27 PM
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| Life is so precious and fragile. We heard about a couple of unfortunate events with family and friends near and dear to us. Ben’s brother-in-law k. owns and runs a restaurant in Placentia, CA and the other day, one of his longtime employees A. was there at work, walking along the building’s sidewalk and taking out the trash when a customer ran over A.’s leg in a freak car accident (no drugs or drunk driving involved, an elderly lady, post dialysis was tired/confused and must have pushed the wrong foot lever in her car). The doctors tried to save his leg but ended up needing to amputate it to save his life. A. is from Mexico, is married with 3-4 children and had a hard enough time making ends meet before this accident. Please pray with us for his recovery and also for Ben’s sister and brother-in-law’s family.
Last night, our neighbor’s house (2 doors away, the next duplex from ours) had a kitchen fire due to a popcorn making mishap with a babysitter while the parents were at the Navy Ball. Our street was blocked off and that duplex had to be evacuated indefinitely due to extensive smoke and water damage. It’s kind of strange for this to occur during Fire Prevention Month…The babysitter did the right thing and got the kids out safely, thank God. Posted 10/15/2006 at 10:56 PM
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 Today we walked to the nearby parade field to see and hear the Marine Corps band from Washington DC perform. Posted 10/12/2006 at 1:34 PM
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A miracle birth is tempered by the reality of a life in povertyandThe solutions to teenage pregnancies are not easy to findPosted 10/12/2006 at 8:56 AM
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 I only include this recipe because it has a funny story behind it…I can’t remember who originally gave it to me to give proper credit, probably one of my friends while we were stationed in Iwakuni, Japan in ‘96-99 (if it was you, please let me know!) Anyway, our mostly un-backed up computer crashed recently and I must’ve lost the recipe. I would have forgotten about it until a couple of weeks ago when my friend here Lillian O. mentioned to me that I had given the recipe to her almost 10 years ago and she gave it to her mother-in-law in Pennsylvania. Her MIL entered it in a local cornbread baking contest and won FIRST prize! I just asked Lillian for the recipe (Thanks Lillian!) and I ‘ll record it here so I hopefully won’t lose it again…This recipe has so much butter and eggs that it HAS to taste good…definitely not low cal… It’s really not originally mine, but Lillian called it:
Posted 10/9/2006 at 10:24 AM
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Cal Thomas Article – I suspected things were quite different over here, as compared to CA, when I opened up the local newspaper and found daily/bi-weekly columns by Billy Graham and Cal Thomas..Can you imagine that in the LA Times?? Anyway, Cal Thomas made some interesting homeschooling comments here… although, I think homeschooling has enough of its own positive merits, we don’t need to necessarily or rather unnecessarily “scare” people into homeschooling to avoid school shootings. The tax credits would be nice though…
Posted 10/5/2006 at 2:57 PM
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Yesterday, the kids and I went on a nearby nature hike with some folks from the homeschool group (Rochelle and Stephanie and kids) to a state park across the street from the ballfield, Big Lagoon State Park. We went over a bridge above a lake and one of the daughters calmly stated, “There are some alligators down there” Too bad, we didn’t get to see any though…I was surprised that it’s no big deal here, there weren’t any rangers around to watch that we don’t get eaten, no barbed wire fences…
Posted 10/5/2006 at 9:1 AM
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Thank God, J11ds is doing much better, no more pain, less swelling…Just a big black eye, well actually, just a black and blue spot and an abrasion under his eye, (where are those youth-sized sunglasses when we need them??) plus he’s back to his perky self…We knew he was feeling better when he started to purposely annoy his little siblings again!
Posted 10/5/2006 at 8:56 AM
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| J11ds’ baseball injury curve is quite steep this first season. Last night during practice, a hard, fast ball to outfield hit him right in the upper cheek. I didn’t witness it because I was on the other side of the park at the playground with the other kids, but when I saw him coming off the field with his coach, at first I thought he just had another bloody nose. His face was all swollen and bruised up and he is sure to have a huge “shiner”…Thank God he didn’t lose consciousness or anything more serious. We were debating whether to take him to the ER, but Ben looked him over at home and decided he should be ok. My first thought was that we had a much lower injury rate with swimming! It’s also tough for him at this age because he’s more self conscious that his face is so disfigured, albeit hopefully it’s only temporary.
Posted 10/4/2006 at 8:42 AM
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Do-It-Yourself and Fix the PS2 instructions website – My friend Lillian used this site and fixed their PS2 at home so she recommended it for the kids’ video game woes. Of course, the real consideration is that it may be better to leave it broken  (10/17/06 Update: Unfortunately, Lillian later told me that the repair was temporary and only lasted about a week…)
We went to J11ds’ first orthodontist appointment this morning. I was impressed how accomodating to patients it was…They had coffee, cookies, and mints (were they sugarless??) in the waiting room, a PS2 video game room, and a mini-theater. J11ds has severe overcrowding but still has a lot of baby teeth, so we have to wait until February to see if he needs extractions and then braces. Of course, for better or for worse, that office was right around the corner from Sam’s Club. (Better for me but worse for Ben when he sees the credit card bill)…We hardly ever go because it’s relatively quite a ways away and it’s the opposite direction from our usual activities. I’m getting into this healthy teeth and healthy eating lifestyle…we broke down and bought a sonicare toothbrush, (among other “necessities”). Cousin Susan L. gave us rave reviews and her thumbs up when we saw her in Chicago. I’m determined to prevent J3ds from getting any more cavities. At Target (which is also down the street from the orthodontist’s office), we found that Listerine makes something called Agent Cool Blue, which is a rinse that detects and makes the plaque blue so kids know where to brush better. We bought a small bottle to try it. It reminds me of these little pink tablets I used to get from the dentist as a kid, which did the same thing. Speaking of shopping, last week, the kids and I ventured out to find a couple of wonderful local shops:
Posted 10/3/2006 at 3:15 PM
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| Cathy and scrapbooking/digital photo archives - J11ds saved this funny one for me… Posted 10/2/2006 at 10:5 AM
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| This website features a great mnemonic to memorize the 10 Commandments…My sister Diane taught this to the kids awhile back and it always comes back to them…It’s great for playing and winning Bible trivia games. A few months ago when we lived at my (Vicki’s) mom’s, we caught part of the TV show, Cash Cab and I couldn’t believe that a young couple had to ask for a shout out to answer, what was the name of one of the 4 Gospels in the Bible?
Posted 10/1/2006 at 10:38 PM
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   The kids teams are all named after major league ones: J11ds’ team is the St. Louis Cardinals, he’s #22. J9dd’s is the Detroit Tigers, #10. J6ds’ is the New York Yankees, #36. Posted 10/1/2006 at 9:51 PM
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| CPR Anytime – This sounds beneficial to families, esp those with elderly grandparents around…
Posted 10/1/2006 at 6:27 PM
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| I heard this NPR segment on the radio (see transcript) while I was washing dishes in the kitchen…very interesting. Speaking of somewhere in Africa, we’ve been praying for our friend Helen T. (cousin Jenny’s college friend) who just arrived in kenya to help prevent AIDS.
Posted 10/1/2006 at 6:7 PM
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He said if you do that, you would eliminate 90% of the highly processed junk food in your diet. For now, we are trying to eat better for the most part, at least at home and the kids have to get their major junk food fixes elsewhere. Posted 10/1/2006 at 4:29 PM
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| On Friday afternoon, our good friends from our days in Sigonella, Sicily, kellie Z. and kids (currently not too far away at Elgin AFB) stopped by on their way to a swim meet at UWF (Univ of West Florida). It was great to see them again…
Posted 10/1/2006 at 3:56 PM
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| Last Wednesday morning, the kids and I did our own little field trip and went to see the Blue Angels at their practice session. It was awe-inspiring as always. There was an elderly retired Marine tour guide in front of us who related their flying with one of my favorite sayings, “Inch by Inch, it’s a cinch” He told us that when the group with new crewmembers starts out early in the season, they might be 50 feet apart, then after practicing some more, they’ll go to 40 feet the next month and so on on until eventually, they’ll be what seems like inches apart as they travel 700 miles/hour. We’ve enjoyed meeting a few of the outgoing and incoming Blue Angel pilots and their families on our block and at the ballfield.
Posted 10/1/2006 at 3:22 PM
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| There is a particular intersection that we pass at least weekly on Navy Blvd and Hwy 98 on our way to the commissary. It’s the spot where homeless people stand on the corner asking for money. I find myself wondering how we should respond and “What WouId Jesus Do?” It would be no big deal to hand over a dollar or two, but how do we know if they will use it to buy drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.? Ben mentioned to me that it’s probably better to give them a dollar, just to lift their spirits and encourage them a bit, even though we don’t know exactly where the money will go. But is giving them our pocket change detrimental in the sense that it encourages their panhandling and their codependence on handouts, maybe preventing them from getting the rehab or job training they need to become productive members of our society? Would it be better to save up that pocket change and donate it to a homeless shelter, Salvation Army, or a local church group which ministers to those in need?
On that particular corner, it almost feels like a set up, because 4-5 from the group congregate on a field across the street under a tree, sitting around while they work the busy intersection in shifts. I don’t know if it’s a law in Pensacola, but they wear these bright orange reflective vests. Does the city provide that for them? A couple of weeks ago, we saw a man with his dog on a leash there, the man’s sign read, “Anything Helps” and the dog had a sign too, “Me too”. I was sort of taken aback by this situation, I mean, it’s great that he has “man’s best friend”, but if he can’t feed himself, is it a good thing to own a dog as well?? I read an inspiring story in the book below, Sally Clarkson’s Mission of Motherhood, a recent Paperbackswap find. She wrote about encountering a homeless man and using it as an opportunity to teach her kids compassion by giving him a couple of dollars and later, the kids wanted to go to Mc Donalds to buy him a meal set, which he greatly appreciated. For now, we decided to put together a snack bag to share. The kids decorate the outside of the bag and we inserted a couple of granola bars, bottle of water, and a tract. We’ve been carrying it around in the car for a week but somehow we keep missing our intended recipients…We’ll try again next week… Related article: Posted 10/1/2006 at 12:41 PM
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| Judge Must Decide Case with No Easy Answers news article This is a sad case all around, although I”m sure Ms. Bird will get more sympathy out here than if it occurred somewhere else, like Southern CA… Posted 10/1/2006 at 12:24 PM
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