Jason's First Flight is Tristan's Training Flight

Preflight--about to go

Tristan at the controls for a training flight given to him by his more than awesome orthodontist. Thanks, Dr. Grey!

I gave Jason the camera as they were about to take off and told him to get some good pictures.


I thought he did pretty well, considering he usually loves to get photos of the inside of his mouth...

Post flight excitement. Seems flying really agrees with him, don't you think? 

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Cartoon That Speaks To Me

Thank you for the cartoon, Susanne!

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Ranting

This is about Barack Obama and the direction this country is going. I didn't vote for him, and I'll say it right out that I think he is the worst thing to happen to this country in...well, I don't have an exact time for "possibly ever".   And the worst of it? You can't say that out loud to many people because he's African American and you might be accused of being "racist".  Look, it's not his color that makes him a bad choice (how ridiculous is that!), it's his philosophy. You want an African American or a woman as president? There are a host of incredible people fit for the job. But why should that matter?  They have little minds that consider gender and color things that we should use as a measure of worth.  What does a person think and how do they conduct their lives?  Do they demonstrate excellence? Leadership? Courage? Integrity?  Faithfulness? Honesty?  It could go on and on. Choose a person based on who they are, not what Affirmative Action categories they fill--and certainly to call someone a racist simply because they disagree on one, five or twenty issues involved goes beyond petty.

I watched a documentary on Roman Polanski the other day. They talked about how tragic his childhood had been (Jewish in Europe in WWII--lost his parents to the Nazis, alone on the streets at a young age to fend for himself during the war, etc) and how talented and charismatic he was. He came to this country and became very popular.  But later on he also did some very horrible things and was on trial for it and fled the country when he realized he was going to be locked up. The commentator said that he couldn't get a just trial because people didn't like him because he was foreign. Because he was Jewish. Because he was short.  Oh, my goodness. I think he forgot to list "he wore white socks".  (Plus did he forget that he had just told us how popular he was?) It is more a sad reflection on that commentator to think Americans would not like someone based on those things.  Show us a true heart in bad circumstances and you've got us wrapped around your finger.  But be unkind, untrue, a liar, a rapist, a person who finds ways of getting around the law--yeah, we aren't so fond of that.  I won't go into the details of what he had done, but there were good reasons America turned on him, and it wasn't his outward appearance.  Just like it isn't with Obama. 

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Ants!

Jaime got an ant farm for her birthday. This is by far the neatest ant farm I've ever seen. The gel they tunnel through never collapses and it provides both their nutrition and water. Plus, look how neat it makes it all look. We all love watching it.

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Happy Birthday to My Sweet Twins!

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Moroccan Nights!

The girls transformed the room into a beautiful tent and we had lots of pillows on the floor and several delicious Moroccan dishes--lamb and couscous, basilla (Moroccan pigeon pie), watermelon and baklava.  

They gave a wonderful skit that showcased what they learned and they were so creative!  We've decided to do China next, so stay tuned.

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Birthdays and Fun Stuff

This is such a fantastic time of year. It's always a race to see who wins--if the weather stays nice I can get a jump on the weeds, or the weather is soggy and the weeds grow 4 inches a day and by the time it dries out they are above my waist. 

This year I want to do Square Foot Gardening. I got so excited when I read it last September and I can hardly wait to have a big garden this year. Big. Lots of stuff and a fall garden and then a winter garden.  Huge garden. Everything but the kitchen sink. 

The Iditarod is going on and we are following it again this year, although it is much harder to follow this time. Last year they had experimented with the top runners having GPS devices so you could follow them along the entire race. This year they charge for the service and it is way more difficult and not nearly as fun to watch. I can't find the screens for some of our favorite ways to follow. I'll try another day and then find someone who might be able to either show me how to access the rest or lodge a polite disgruntlement.

Never mind. Everyone is having trouble. Oh well. 

Jaime has started a blog. She loves to write and will write for hours. This bolts right on for her. Plus it's a great excuse not to be doing schoolwork. Hmm...

We are going to do our Moroccan night on Wednesday. We've been reading lots of books on Morocco and after Awana tomorrow our friends are coming over to spend the night so we can cook the baklava, couscous and lamb, yogurt and cucumber stuff (sorry, forget the name) and hummus and pita. They will all show their notebooks and tell what they've learned, then we'll eat on the low tables while sitting on the floor on pillows in a room they've decorated. It won't be entirely authentic, but it should be fun and we've learned a lot. 

And really? We chose Morocco because we love the food. 

Jason is going for his first overnight at the grandparents on Friday. He's so looking forward to it. I hope he has a wonderful time.

We just celebrated two of the four birthdays we have in this two week span. Kimberly is 22 and Tristan just turned 16. Happy Birthday, lovely children!

Also. The neighbors loaned Tristan a big set of drums to go with the electric guitar he got. I've had a talk with everyone about the difference between "noise" and "music". Practice and bobbles may be disharmonious but expected while learning. Standing outside your bedroom in the hall with the amp turned *way* up and making LOUD screeching and screaming guitar sounds that have nothing to do with any music on this earth is considered "noise" and will be treated with severity.  

That's all for now. Carry on, troops.

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