The Fabric of Our Lives

Greetings from South Carolina again! This time, the cotton is in full bloom so this afternoon Paul and I pulled over and checked out what all the hype is about in cotton!
I took several photos of Paul picking a cotton flower, but I won't incriminate him here!
But I know there are many of you who had no idea what I even look like in my new AF uniform, so enjoy!
(I put that piece of cotton back, by the way!)
This is possibly be my last trip to South Carolina in a long time, as I start my training for my deployment to the Middle East (not Iraq or Afghanistan) early next year. I believe my next trip will be to the Florida Panhandle in December.

I Am in LOVE

The city of Bellevue has an Early Childhood Center colocated with their school board headquarters building.
There are two rooms each set up like preschool classrooms and any Bellevue residents with preschool-aged children can visit. They're open 5 days per week, 8:30 - 4:The parents stay with the children and are encouraged to participate in the activities.
Timmy and I been having a wonderful time playing house, dress up, putting together puzzles, and today Timmy threaded these wooden beads onto a string to make a necklace.

Relaxing Weekend

Not quite that relaxing.

I figured I've give a little briefing on our weekend...we didn't do a ton, but we had a nice time.

On Saturday, we started with a family bike ride. Dave wanted to step up his workouts a little, so he volunteered to pull the boys in the trailer on the trail. It was really tough since both boys together are now about 90 lbs...and it's a tight squeeze for the boys, too. After several instances of fighting and one hitting episode in the trailer, by the end of the ride Dave and I we so frustrated that we decreed that if Jake wants to join the family on any more bike rides, he has to supply his own transportation.

We started near Offutt AFB and rode towards the northwest into Papillion. I'd say we went about 10 miles total.

Afterwards, we joined our neighbors Steve and Alissa, who lives behind us, for a smoked brisket dinner, cupcakes for their daughter Dawn's 4th birthday, and Penn State football on Pay-Per-View! ABC was nationally televising the PSU-Illinois game in part of the country, but here ABC was showing Nebraska-Virginia Tech. Go figure. Steve is a Michigan State grad, so we can all say "Let's Go State!" together, no matter who! We had a nice time hanging out drinking beers (and Woodchuck Cider) with our new friends, while the kids played and watched videos in the basement.

On Sunday, the family slept in (anything past 7:30am is "sleeping in" for the boys). Mom and Dad weren't out of bed till after 8am, and we wanted to be out the door by 9 for Sunday school! Yikes! We quickly dressed and had breakfast and were out the door for church about 5 minutes late. That's okay...Jake's Sunday school class started late today anyway.

After church we hit Home Depot for the supplies for Timmy's R2-D2 Halloween costume. A small bullet garbage can, white, silver and royal blue spray paint (the trash can is this iridescent beige color) and some masking tape. More on the costume later this week as we get to work on it. Dave will need to cut the bottom out of the trash can, then we'll have to craft some sort of suspenders out of white duct tape (left over from Jake-the-Astronaut from 2006). Timmy's arms will be R2's side legs.

This afternoon we had visitors from NORTH CAROLINA! Yes! Some friends from our church in Cary, Kathryn Vollmer and her sister Ruth Schwasinger, are in town this week and paid us a visit. To our knowledge, Kathryn's and our Vollmer families aren't related going back several generations. Her part of the family is from the midwest, ours is from Pennsylvania.

So Kathryn and Ruth are both U. of Nebraska graduates and next weekend is Ruth's 50th reunion! So Kathryn and Ruth are here for about 1 1/2 weeks visiting friends and family, and next weekend they'll get to enjoy (?) the Nebraska-Missouri football game. Since Missouri is ranked #4 this week...we'll see.

Kathryn and Ruth stopped by for about 2 hours...they're quite a pair. If you are a fan of the movie "A Room With A View", Kathryn and Ruth remind me of the "Miss Allens", "Catherine" and "Teresa". Two older sisters who enjoyed life to the fullest, traveling and spending time with friends. We spent the time talking about a wide variety of topics: books, movies, the economy, and our recent travels.

(Side note: "A Room With a View" is my favorite movie in the universe, for those who didn't know.)

Made steaks for dinner, and enjoyed a relaxing night of watching "The Amazing Race" (beekeepers?) and the final episode of "Feasting on Waves".

I think I've officially recovered from this crazy busy week -- I have 3 days of further catching up before I head to South Carolina for 4 days of work.