HAPPY BIRTHDAY SURVIVAL KNIFE!

Monday is Survival Knife's birthday. Here are some cute stories about him:

We had just finished doing some grocery shopping and as we were leaving the grocery store parking lot, Survival Knife noticed a satellite dish store. They had some satellite dishes out front. He said, "I wish we had one of those." I said, "You do?" Then I asked him why he wanted one. I asked him what he thought they did and he said, "They bring the stars down to your house!"

My husband built a storage shed in the backyard. Survival Knife would go put his hat on and tug at his dad's sleeve and say, "Come on Daddy, let's go work." He loved to be out there with his dad and was sad when the shed was finished.

Survival Knife was always interested in how things worked. He reminded me of Twist in that way. His favorite thing to do was to tip over my vacuum cleaner and get a screwdriver or something that looked like a tool and pretend to work on it.

Here is a story Survival Knife wrote. I think he was in middle school:
"I know how it is to be lonely. Sometimes on Saturday everybody is gone and there is nobody around and I get real bored. There is nothing to do that'll make you not lonely. I hate being lonely but I love it when I want everybody to be gone."

And one more:
"My favorite Memory was when I went to robber's cave. We stayed there for a day and rock climbed. I had just free climbed doing bouldering and exploring. After everybody left my dad his friend and I went to go look around. Then we found the Devil's slide (which is a climb). So we decided to climb it without ropes so I was scared to do it but I did and when I finished it I had the greatest feeling I had ever had."
Happy Birthday Survival Knife! We love you and miss you and think you are a great man and wonderful daddy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEETIE!

Saturday, March 28th is my husband's birthday. In honor of his birthday I have written some interesting facts about him:
1) The first 10 years of our married life he went to school, earning two degrees, and the last 4-5 years, he worked full-time and went to school full-time, as well as held callings in the church.
2) He had his name put on a patent with 2 other guys when he worked for Texas Instruments. Below is a description of what the patent is for:
Particulate removal from point of use exhaust scrubbers
The present invention relates to the field of equipment used to reduce factory generated air pollution. More specifically, the present invention relates to submicron particulate removal from point of use exhaust scrubbers to facilitate the reduction/prevention of visible plumes from semiconductor wafer fab exhaust systems (stacks).
3) He has a standing invitation to go fly with the New Mexico Air Force in one of their jets whenever he wants to go, because he is an honorary sort of Intel ambassador to the Airbase there.
4) He organized and was president of one of the first climbing clubs in the Dallas, Texas area and he and some other members built the first indoor climbing wall in that area.
5) He took an Outward Bound Expedition in Colorado a couple of times.
6) He loves the outdoors and is proficient in climbing, white-water rafting, canoeing, hiking, camping, and survival and rescue techniques.
7) He has mountain climbed in Yosemite California, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado
8) He has an incredible memory and can tell you the detailed plot of every movie he's ever seen.
9)He built a "dog-sled" to use in the Boy Scout Klondike race, which we had in our shed for years
10)Callings in the church that he has had are: Elder's Quorum Secretary and Counselor, Ward Clerk (twice), Gospel Doctrine Teacher (twice), Young Men's President (twice), Teacher's Quorum Advisor (Counselor), High Priests Group Leader (three times), Bishop's counselor (twice), Stake Sunday School Teacher Development, High Councilman, Sunday School Marriage Class Teacher (twice).
Happy Birthday! I Love You!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABS!

My son, Babs (Bullet for Babs), has a birthday this Friday so I thought I'd go ahead and write a post about him. Here are a few stories:
Babs was 4 years old and I was having him use my husband's hand cleaner to clean some ink off of his hands. When he finished he came in where I was and said, "I know what that stuff's made of....old spit."
One time I was going to the store and Babs pointed to himself and said, "Take him, take him!"
We were concerned when Babs was little that he didn't talk much. This is taken from a letter I wrote to my parents when Babs was 2 years old:
"Last week our blue jays were attacking people...Later that day, Babs went in the back yard and he came running in and said, 'Momma bird' and then flapped his arms and pointed to his head. The kid can't talk too good, but he gets his message across."
Here's a story he wrote when he was 7 - written exactly like he wrote it:
The Days of The Week
Monday I was sick. I could Berely eat. Tuseday I felt better than I youst to but I had a bad day that day. Today, were see how it turns out. Tomorrow, I don't know. Friday, it will be really fun. Saturday, all have a long time to play so it will be fun. Sunday, It will really really be fun cause it starts a new week and get to go to church and get to watch the Super Bowl. The End.
We were watching the movie, "Fat Man and Little Boy" with Paul Newman. In the movie, Paul Newman (a one-star general) and a two-star general were arguing. Babs said, "Whoever gets ten stars gets to be the captain."
Babs favorite toys were his Ghostbuster Firehouse and figurines, Ghostbuster Photon Pack (or whatever you called it), Ninja Turtles, Matchbox cars, and Big Wheel tryke.
Happy Birthday Babs! We love you and miss you and are proud of the man you have become!

A BIRTHDAY SUPRISE

This is the guitar I bought my husband for his birthday. Before I went home to the states for a visit, I ordered this from his wishlist on Music123 and had it shipped to my house. Then I hand carried it through 2 airports - well 3 counting Dublin - to bring it to him. It was worth it to see the look on his face when I came through the door from customs, pushing my luggage cart with the guitar on top. Only one other time in our married life can I ever remember surprising him with something he wanted for either his birthday or Christmas. The other time was at Christmas, when I had a poster of the Golden Gate Bridge and a blueprint of the Golden Gate Bridge framed for his office. We had bought them on a trip to San Francisco one time several years before but we had never framed them. I just love surprises! Unfortunately it just takes me a long time to think of something. His birthday is March 28th.

SECOND TIME AROUND

I've got the cold/flu AGAIN! I know I just had this in February, because I remember getting it the weekend before I smashed my finger. AAAUUUGGGHHH! This is not fair! At first I thought I just had a dry throat due to breathing "airplane air". But the next day it got worse. Unfortunately by then I had already kissed my husband, so now he has it too. Ah well, misery loves company! We're both supposed to speak in church on Sunday, so we'll see how it goes. Of course going to church last Sunday when they had no heat in the building certainly did not help.

MY FAVORITE BOOKS

Babs did a post on 100 books, so I decided to post the titles of my favorite books. I can't really list these in order of my favorites, so here they are in no particular order:

1. Harry Potter books by JK Rowling
2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3, Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt
4. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
5. My Cousin Rachael by Daphne du Maurier
6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett
7. The Secrets of the Infamous Nicholaus Flamel books by Michael Scott
8. The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
10. Love is Eternal by Irving Stone
11. Lord of the Rings books by JRR Tolkien
12. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
13. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
14. The Golden Compass books by Phillip Pullman
15. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
16. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
17. Pride and Predjudice by Jane Austen
18. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
19. Inkheart books by Camelia Funke
20. The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
21. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
22. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
23. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
24. Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott
25. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

MRS. SYDOW

Mrs. Sydow was my 4th grade teacher. One thing I really liked about Mrs. Sydow was that she loved books. I think I really developed my love for reading from her. She would read to us almost every day. She read us The Little House on the Prairie books, which later became one of my favorite book series. I can also remember her reading us The Wind in the Willows, and The Mill on the Floss. I'm sure she read more, but I can't remember what they were. I know she read us several of the Little House books.
Mrs. Sydow also loved pictures of Mary and Baby Jesus, which are known as Madonna and Child pictures. She had a collection of these pictures, which she would put up on the bulletin board at Christmas. Because I loved to look at those pictures, I started a collection of Madonna and Child pictures of my own. Mine were mostly Christmas cards my parents got. After Christmas I would go through them and ask if I could have the Madonna cards. Since they were just throwing them away, my parents would give them to me. My parents received a LOT of Christmas cards - close to 500, so I would get a lot of Madonna cards after Christmas every year. I wouldn't just keep any old Madonna card, it had to appeal to me to become part of my Madonna collection. Later on, when we were moving to Texas, I took my Madonna and Child Christmas card collection and gave it all to Mrs. Sydow. She was absolutely thrilled! I have regretted it ever since.

We were always writing stories in Mrs. Sydow's class. One Halloween she brought a Halloween Witch doll and sat it on her desk. She told us we were supposed to write a story about the witch on her desk. I can remember my story started out: "The Witch on Mrs. Sydow's desk came to visit us on Halloween...." That's all I can remember, and because she thought my story was so wonderful, she had me stand up and read it to the class the next day and she also kept it. Two years later, when I was going into 6th grade, I found out Mrs. Sydow had moved up to be one of the 6th grade teachers, and you guessed it - I was in her 6th grade class. That Halloween, she had me read the same story that I had written in 4th grade. I was so embarrassed!

I was not the only one from our 4th grade class that was in Mrs. Sydow's 6th grade class. In fact, almost her entire 4th grade class was in her 6th grade class. There were 2 boys in both the 4th grade and the 6th grade class that I didn't like. One boy's name was Steven Whitehill and I can't remember the other boy's name. I always had to sit by those boys, probably because she knew I wouldn't talk to them because I didn't like them. I don't think Mrs. Sydow liked them either, especially Steven Whitehill. She used to get so frustrated with him that she would take her book (whatever one she had in her hand at the time) and she would hit him on the head with it and scream, "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE??" I am not lying when I tell you that she did this several times a week. After she would scream at him for several minutes and hit him on the head and grab his arm and shake him, then she would appologize to him and then give him his punishment, or even do nothing. A few times she even got so frustrated she would walk out of the room. I remember one time she walked out and she didn't come back for a long time and then the Principal came into our room and talked to us, or took Steven to her office.

I sympathized with her, because I hated Steven Whitehill too. He would torment me almost EVERY SINGLE day! He would follow me home from school until we got to the Junior High and he would push me down and sit on me and not let me up. Now, I wasn't a sissy girl, and I was pretty strong, but he was stronger, and I promise you I could NOT make him get off of me. I can even remember being at the Junior High, and the Junior High kids were getting out of school, and some of them walked past us and saw him sitting on me and yelled at him to leave that little girl alone, but it did no good. Finally he would give up and get up and go home. I can remember I started taking a different route home every day so I could avoid him. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I even told my mother about him tormenting me but she didn't do anything.

I can also remember Mrs. Sydow telling us all the time how much she loved us. That made quite an impression on me that a school teacher would love us. Plus because she yelled at - not just Steven Whitehill - but the whole class so often we wondered if she hated us. I guess Mrs. Sydow was one of those teachers that "when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid." But she is the teacher I remember and think about the most.