It was Dave's birthday on Wednesday. A few days earlier, the boys and I started making a list of character traits Daddy shows us. This is what the boys came up with (mostly Sam, of course). It was part of a present we gave him. Since he is working so much, it was important to me (less so to him, probably!) that the boys connect with him on their Daddy's bday. I think Dave would have preferred getting something "REAL" on his bday, from his wish list. But he tends to buy those things for himself so I went a different, rogue, direction. They also got a funny card for their daddy and gave it to him in the morning. On the right side of the board you can see our goals for each day - we get a star if we manage to work in these things. French is for me, guitar for Sam, uke for Ben. Sam is also learning German now. We've got 3 language learning endeavors going on at home right now!

Tuesday - Finally broke down and bought NEW jeans for both boys, at the Exchange on base. Not cheap! But we had a great time shopping. Ben loves to model, and pop in and out of his own dressing room "I'm in my little house, mom!" "How are you guys out there?" "Doin' alright?" It was such a pleasant shopping experience. I could leave the kids and run to get a different size without worrying. That is not possible at WalMart or anywhere else, really.

Sam trying on a pea coat. He really liked this one...we'll be back (or maybe Santa will!).

Ben loves to go to KiDiMu (kids' museum in town) on first Thursdays (free!). Here he is digging and filling big dumpers.

And at the cash register checking me out. He did a BEEEP for every item crossing the scanner. So cute!

Friday – after mountain biking with Ben,

Sweet boy and I having fun. Like my attire? Red HO HO HO hat, green sweatshirt with Lanikai Beach in red and white lettering. I try to run around Bainbridge and add some color. Then I saw a sign saying "Grand Forest is populated by Barred Owls. They are aggressive and attack people. Be careful." HUH? How do you prevent against a Barred Owl attack? Then I wondered if my outfit would help or hinder in that. I had no ready answer.

I went home and checked on the chickens – little peep girl with the broken leg is FINE fine fine! Can you believe it? 3 weeks of separate living and ensuring good food and water and she doesn’t even have a limp. Amazing. She is still catching up on size, though. When I went in to spread around some scratch and tidy up, I found that Merlin was particularly interested in my doings. He came over, acted menacing (beak to ground, pretending to peck but really giving me a hairy eyeball and scooting toward me). He followed me and even flew up on the door to stare me down from my height. That is spooky. This guy has some SPURS now. I was cautious but didn’t act scared. Eventually I talked him into leaving. I found an egg that Goose had laid – huge! She is our baby girl hatched by Jersey in the spring and she just started laying this week. So exciting! Blue eggs with a touch of olive green. VERY large eggs when she takes a day or two off between eggs. Anyway, back to Merlin. He kept looking and looking at me, threatening me. I finally realized that it was my Santa hat – it looked like – you guessed it – a BIG ROOSTER COMB to him! I just laughed out loud. People walking must think I am a real nut case! Which would be true. Then back inside to work on a 90 page thesis. That is the week in review. On Wed add to the mix getting up at 5:15 am to swim, then observe a math program at school, then to a meeting at the district office (with Ben).

Out mountain biking with mommy! We had a couple dry days (grey, but dry at least!) so we hit the trail. He gets unnerved a bit if it has been a long time, so we work on how to manage fear and frustration while having a good time and laughing. He did not like it when I tried to ride his bike downhill "Mom! You're going to break it!" It was pretty funny - me trying to brake on that tiny bike! I was skidding all over.