Jonathan's Art Work

Here are two pictures that Jonathan, our 2nd grader, drew. He is very proud of them. He did not trace these out of a book. He checked out a book from the school library that showed how to draw these pictures and did these free-hand. He did the picture of the dog first because he said it reminded him of Junior.

He said, "I'm a pretty good illustrator!" Then he said, "I bet I can write a book with these pictures" and added the captions.

So, here is the first rough draft of Jonathan's new children's book. No name for the book yet but stay posted.

Jason at Enterprise City

Each year, the 5th grade class at Taylor Elementary participates in an event they call "Enterprise City." In this event, each student takes turn buying and selling goods or services like they would in a real city or town, just on a smaller scale. Each child is given a checkbook and register with $5 in it and are required to buy items that fit into their budgeted $5 or sell items if they need or want more money for another item. They are divided up into teams with each team taking their turn at buying, selling, banking or any number of other services normally provided by a town.

When I arrived, Jason still had his $5. When he saw the Snickers bars, however, that changed. Jason loves Snickers bars and couldn't wait to buy one and eat it.

Our hope is that experiences like this help Jason realize the value of saving and budgeting his money. The Lord knows his parents are the best example in the world.

Karen Teaches 2nd Graders on Wednesday Evening

If you've never done it, its hard for a person that has to describe to you the challenge of teaching 8 - 10 2nd graders Bible lessons on a Wednesday night after they've been in real school all day. But, bless her heart, Karen does try and they do seem to get most of the information she is teaching them. Tonight we spent the first 35 minutes covering the lesson about the annointing of David and the last part playing over at ACU. I had the kids of the class stop running long enough to get this picture on the steps of the Administration Building at the university.

Joshua Just Can't Wake Up in the Morning

The truth is I wish I could sleep as well as Joshua does. The fact that I'm up at 10:40PM writing a blog entry says it all. Joshua does sleep well. The problem seems to be getting him up in the morning for school. On this particular morning he looked particularly sweet with the sheet wrapped around his head. So, I couldn't refuse a quick picture with the cell phone. What a cutey!

Jason - Service Patrol

The 5th grade class at Taylor Elementary has responsibility throughout the year for "patrolling" the campus each morning. Duties include monitoring the walk-ways for proper behavior, meaning no running or excessively loud noises, opening doors and helping wherever its needed. Jason is the co-captain of the squad this month. I dropped him off at school this morning at 7:25 for his first day of duty. He looked like such a trooper in his red vest that I had to grab a picture. Thought I'd share it with you.

Just a Beautiful Sunset

We were at church Wednesday evening having dinner, going to class and talking with friends. Karen taught her 2nd grade class. The boys went to their respective class. I was on guard duty. I put on one of the church walkie-talkies and monitor the grounds, parking lots and buildings. There were storms all around us but no rain on my head. This cloud formation due south of the church was just worth capturing and sharing. A cell phone camera can only do so much but I hope you get the idea.

A Football Day

Saturday was a perfect day. Not too hot or too cold. At the sake of sounding to "Three Bearish" it was just right. The boys were actually grounded from playing on the computer all weekend so they had to find other things to occupy themselves. As the day progressed, football became the activity of choice.

All the boys really like playing football but Joshua is especially fond of the sport. So, the boys put on their uniforms and played a full four quarters of football in the backyard. In fact, they had started their "football camp," as they called it, the night before. But Saturday morning, the real game began and went on for a few hours. There was even a break around noon for halftime and a round of Sunny-D. I can't really tell you who won the game but they had a really good time and worked up quite a sweat in the process.

We spent that evening at the ACU football game at Shotwell Stadium, across the street from the house. It was a perfect night. It was cool, a slight breeze. ACU won the game handedly against Eastern New Mexico University with a final score of 45-20. But, the real win may have been when Joshua came within a few feet of the ACU football team. You can't see Joshua's eyes in this picture because I missed the moment but they were as round as saucer plates. And the smile on his face was ear to ear. So I snapped this final picture of him looking at the team as they came out of the locker room for the second half.

We finished the day around 10:30 that night. The moral of the story: I guess we should ground the boys from the computer more often. They seem to find really good and interesting things to occupy themselves.

Karen and David in Florida

I, David, do solemly swear that I really am in Florida on business. I can't help it if the conference is taking place at one of the nicest hotels in the contiguous 50 states: The Westin Diplomat in Fort Lauderdale. This is a shot of the pool area at the hotel from the 18th floor balcony. The best part of all is that Karen was able to come with me. She needed some time away and we both wanted a little time together. The trip in was good (in aviation terms that means uneventful) and the hotel, as you can see, is very nice.
Karen will return to Abilene on Monday. I, on the other hand, will have to continue to suffer in this vacation purgatory until the end of the week. More later.

The Results of A Night at the Fair

After four hours of walking around in the dust, smelling cow and goat dung and spending $100 on tickets, food and games, here is the result. We ended up with a toy cartoon fish. Ironically, the boys and Karen named him "Ripoff." The name came from the $2 darts we bought at one of the game shacks. With that $5 (he gave us 3 darts for $5 instead of $6 -- Wow! What a guy!) we acquired Ripoff. So, the next time you come to the house be sure to say "Hi" to Ripoff, the newest member of the family.

Jason Writings - The Wooden Race

As I enter the building I stare at the track I greet my friends and head over to the officals table to enter my car in the PINEWOOD DERBY RACE. Soon after, the race begins and after 5 min of racing, its my turn.

I set my car up and race down to the end of the track to see who wins. In this race I’d be V.S. (see editor's note below) Hatus’s car. 3, 2, 1, and the cars were off. My car trailed and lost to Hatus’s car the 1st part of the round. But then my dad told me to put washers on my car to weigh it down. I tried it but, my car ended flying off the track and crashing. THUNK, CLANK, SSSS. I raced to my car to pick it up. But it was fine. After that my dad told me to tape the washers down. So I tried it. The judges called a re-run. 3, 2, 1, and there they down the track. But suprisingly my car WON! Then incredibly my car beat him to win the round!!!

After that for about 5 or 6 rounds against Hatus’s older brother Matheaus Then before the last race Matheaus accidently dropped his car. SMASH!!!! everyone rushed over to fix it and they did. Soon after, the final race began. The two cars went down the track but, the judges say, Matheaus car won. So I get second place But I was more proud then I’d ever been in my life.


*editor's note: the V.S. means 'versing,' which is Jason's way of saying 'versus' or 'competing against'. I've never heard this neologism until Jason used it. Kinda cool!

Hatus is a friend of Jason's at school whose parents are from somewhere in South America, although I can't remember where. Matheaus is actually Hatus' older brother.