1st Day of School

My kiddos started school today: Cody's off to his last year in elementary school; and Tara's off to all-day kindergarten. Part of me wants to cry a little, but the other part is quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., "Free at last! Free at last!" (Is that bad?) Anyway, the house is sooooo quiet. And now I have so many things to catch up on that I don't know where to start...

"The Five Love Languages of Children"

I just finished reading "The Five Love Languages of Children" by Gary Chapman & Ross Campbell, M.D. The bottom line is that children perceive love from their parents in 5 different ways: physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, and acts of service. Each child has her/his own main love language, so we parents needs to focus on that one particular style for that child but sprinkle in the other love languages, too. For example, Tara is always asking to play games, so I know her love language is quality time. In regards to discipline, it is detrimental to the child to discipline in the form of her/his love language. For example, if a child thrives with physical touch, spanking would be a horrible form of discipline. The book also discusses anger management in regard to love languages and discipline. After reading so many parenting books, this one has a different approach that I think may be worth investigating. Craig's sister lent it to us saying that she used it with her kids, and it worked.

Bears oh my!!

I have been having all these animals encounters lately on my various adventures, but the most recent was the scariest and most interesting. As some of you might know I have been very involved with Asheville Hoops, a blooming hooping business run by my friend Melanie. Well I was at a music festival last week, at a venue called Deerfield. It's 1000 acres privately owned by these guys who took over the land after their father passed and now use it for various events. Well the beauty of this place is that you can camp and see music, hike and bike on trails as well. So I was on a morning run before all the festival goers woke up and lost track of time. I think I had been running on some barely marked trails for about 45 min. when I decided I might want to turn around and head back to camp. Well about 5 min later a baby black bear darted in front of me from a bunch of blackberry bushes in the corner. My first thought was, "Oh my God a baby bear, how cute!" Then I realized the what that really meant. Baby bear=mama bear. Then I heard a low grumble above me in the bushes and some mulling around. I had two choices: try and slowly pass through the area where I could hear them mulling around, or run further in the opposite direction of camp. I chose to risk it and creep past the area above me where I could hear them, and then I ran faster than I thought was even possible. I was almost back to camp and starting to slow down and feeling a little safer, when I saw a different kind of bear....bare skin that is. Let's just say there were two people in the middle of the trail with bare skin. So I jumped over them and thought, "Hope the bears don't get them." I promise you this is an totally true and a reminder that indeed my life continues to get stranger and stranger. I'm glad to be alive and have a new found respect for bears. Later in the festival we were asked to join a friend's band on stage to hoop it up and though I was nervous in front a thousand people I thought about my bears and jumped in stage, you only live once after all...

Notice the shirt?

Not that it really matters, but, girls, did you notice the shirt on Dad in the photo above?  It's the one I took.  Now it's even more special than special.

On another note... I had a dream last night that I had breast cancer.  It was very real and very scary.  I woke up in the morning with a weird feeling that I am too stressed. 

Sisters Together

On Saturday Deana, Jill, Mindy, Kristi and myself, Jane, drove out to Barbara's to sort out and/or inventory Ed's belongings. His things, the things that made up his life were in the basement, in the barn and in two different sheds. I went to provide verbal history to some items and to provide a vehichel to transport large items to the girl's homes where they could sort at their leisure. Of course leisure is not a word any of us knows. KK has a new job and starts school this week. Jill and Mindy are both moving the end of August. Deana is always busy with kids and work. My life is constant motion. I felt that Ed was with us as we were trying to create some order or at least get an idea of what is there. The uniforms were packed in moth balls and as we pulled them out of the trunk and hung them up the memories came flooding back. He was always so handsome in his uniforms and more than that was an outstanding Army officer. He was a first rate problem solver and respected for his problem solving and knowledge. Whatever the challenge was in his work, he always met it head on with success. Ed could do just about anything he put his mind to. I hope he sees how his children are working together and honoring his memory as they learn more about who he was as a person. They all have so many of his wonderful traits.

Walker Zoo - July 2008

I thought I'd try to summarize the July craziness at my house for those of you whom I haven't talked to recently.

• Craig lacerated his right leg (just above the ankle) all the way to the bone. He went to the ER via ambulance. It took over 2 hours to get him cleaned and stitched up: 9 stitches in his left leg and about 40 stitches in layers in his right leg.
• Tara got a concussion and had a CT scan at the ER. (She was doing a stunt on the stairs.)
• Cody had 2 baby teeth pulled - on 2 different days.
• Cody & I got stung by yellow jackets.
• Tara gave herself a black eye jumping on a trampoline.
• John got fired from Thrifty Nickel, so I thought I would get laid off and discovered I was happy about it. When I didn't get laid off, I submitted my letter of resignation.

Hopefully, August will be a better month for us...