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| 25 Dec 2006 |
Merry Christmas. I didn't notice the tree leaned until I took the photo...
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| 22 Dec 2006 |
Well, we didn't depart today for Alaska. :-) |
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| 13 Dec 06 |
This weekend we all worked at Scott's office, babysitting for someone's Holiday party. It was a reciprocal agreement thing. They watched children during our squadron party a week ago, and now we watched the kids during theirs. There were 16 kids not counting ours, and we didn't get home until 11:30pm Friday night.
Saturday, Scott and Nicholas are going to an overnight scouting event at the Ralph. The Ralph is an ice skating arena hooked to UND where Tira recently graduated from. They're watching a mens hockey game and when the crowd goes home the kids take over the arena and they'll show movies, go ice skating, eat popcorn and pizza, and then sleep in an attached basketball court. Pizza is at midnight, lights out is 2am. All together there should be 1700 scouts and scouters (kids and parents). Now that is a huge number of kids!
Sunday morning, when the event is over, Nicholas' Boy Scout Troop is cleaning the Ralph. This is a major project that takes about 200 man hours. So, we'll have 30 or more scouts working from 8am (yes, after an all nighter at 8am we start cleaning!) and we clean until we're done, probably 2pm or so. |
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| 03 Dec 2006 |
Today dawned bright and clear. Everyone is home and mostly healthy. Tira is over the flu or whatever she's been fighting for 5 long (gross) days. This is what we do in ND for fun. If you haven't done this before, Nicholas is throwing a cup of hot water into the air, and it's turning directly to steam. Some of the larger droplets are actually freezing and that forms the streaks in the steam. No water is landing on the ground.
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| 02 Dec 2006 |
Today was downtown day. I say "downtown" because we live 20 or more miles from the city of Grand Forks. So, anytime we have to make extra trips into "town" it's an event. Anyway, today both Heather and Melanie had school events in town. And it was a long day for them, we left the house at 5:45 and didn't get home until almost 8:pm
Melanie, who is on the dance team had her first dance competition today, it was down in fargo at one of the High Schools there. Her team (Central High School) came in 4th place. (out of 4 teams... :-)
Heather is on the debate team and went down for the first debate tournament of the year. She didn't debate, she was an observer this time. She'll debate next time. Melanie is also in debate with Heather but didn't go because of the dance competition. She'll go on the next debate trip. |
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| 29 Nov 2006 |
Hail the coming of the ice god to the great northern plains. 50°F last weekend, -3°F today.
Oh well, just think, winter will be over in only 5 more months. :-) |
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| 19 Nov 2006 |
  Nicholas was awarded his 2nd Class Rank Badge for Boy Scouts today, at a mini-Court of Honor ceremony. |
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| 09 Nov 2006 |
 Lots going on today... maybe you heard?
SCOTT IS GETTING PROMOTED AGAIN!
And since he made Chief, (Chief Master Sergeant) it is also his LAST promotion! :-)
Here are the family plans, for now: First, our assignment to Alaska has been cancelled. We knew that would happen if he got promoted, and it has. Second, we do not know where we will go next. Third, yes, we will move. There is no Chief job here at Grand Forks AFB so we will have to go somewhere that has an opening. As of right now, there are none. But things change and one should open up eventually. And Finally, when? Well, if he doesn't get an assignment in Jan and move in April, he'll probably get one in April and move in July.
And that's as much as we know right now! :-) |
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| 29 Oct 2006 |
It's a dog's life, ain't it?
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| 29 Oct 2006 |
Nicholas completed all of the requirements for his 2nd Class badge in Boy Scouts and was signed off today after his board of review. He'll have it awarded during a future Court of Honor.
CONGRATULATIONS NICHOLAS! |
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| 23 Nov 2006 |
 Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Hope your day was as pleasant as mine! We did Thanksgiving dinner with just our family. This is our norm I guess. We get up, have toast for breakfast, skip lunch and pig out on an early dinner. There was a big turkey, stuff, cranberry sauce, scalloped potatos and gravy. Lots of fillers like eggs, pickles, and olives. It was outstanding! Easily one of the best cooked Thanksgiving dinners I've had the pleasure to consume.
We all told what we were thankful for, and ate. The rest of the day was filled with playing games together, cooking and cleaning together, and laughing together. Finally, of course, we all had some pie, together. :-) Wish you were here! |
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| 20 Oct 2006 |
Today was Heather's last day at Burger King. She's a little sad, but it was her decision to stop working. |
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| 19 Oct 2006 |
Nicholas and his Boy Scout troop took a train to Minneapolis and went to the Mall of America. It's one of the largest malls in the country and has an indoor amusement park right in the middle... right next to the big sea aquarium.
He said he had a pretty good time but boy I was sure worried. The mall is a long way away (6 hour train ride) and he's still pretty young. But it all worked out and man he can't stop talking about what a good time he had. |
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| 13 Oct 2006 |
Scott is still a Cub Scout den leader and took his Webelos den camping this weekend. They went to Camp Wilderness, in MN. This is Scott's 6th camping trip to BSA Camp Wilderness. These are some pictures, if you're interested. |
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| 12 Oct 06 |
First snow of the year. Not much snow, just enough to remind me that I never finished raking the yard. Also, just enough to cause a serious crash just outside the Air Force Base here. No one we knew, but it's a sobering reminder of what's to come, and that we all need to drive extra careful in the bad weather.
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| 08 Oct 2006 |
Fall is here!
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| 30 Sep 2006 |
Had to go to Heather's job today to talk to her boss. She's been scheduled for too many school nights, working at Burger King. With her work load in HS, Heather is totally struggling to keep up, much less study and learn stuff. She's been working 20+ hours for 3 weeks and it really shows in her grades. I told her boss 1 school night per week, but that means she works more weekends to keep her hour count up, equal to the other kids that work there. They can't hire extra people to give her a break, so she has to "hold up her end" by working min 3 days a week, preferably 4, which gives her 20 to 25 hours.
I'm not sure how long I'll let Heather work there. I spoke to her boss about hours and she gave me the sad story about other kids not wanting to work and pulling her share of the load... Well Heather does pull her share. She's taking advance placement English, pre-Calculus, History, English, Biology... real academic classes. She's not floating through HS, and she's working too and playing her flute (DID I MENTION SHE'S THE BEST FLUTIST IN THE WHOLE DAMN HIGH SCHOOL?)... Yeah, she is one stressed out/over worked young lady. And, she won't talk about it, but I think she's got a new boy friend too. |
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| 30 Sep 2006 |
Nicholas is off camping for 2 nights with his Boy Scout Troop. They have a web site, http://scouters.net/troop319 (which I built and maintain). If you go check out "Past Events", click on "Orienteering" and "Work Weekend 2006" and you might see pictures of Nicholas. He's not in any of the older sets because he just moved up to Boy Scouts this year. |
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| 30 Sep 2006 |
MELANIE IS #1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What an exciting week. Yesterday Heather made first chair, today Melanie was selected for the High School Dance Team. They'll do exibitions and contests throughout the year. She did a 3 day tryout where they learned a little about dancing, and were exposed to the type of group/coordinated dancing they'll do on the dance team. We're very excited... sort of like Melanie but not quite so much :-), but man I have a feeling this is going to be more work than she ever bargained for! :-) |
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| 29 Sep 2006 |
HEATHER is #1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, yes, it's true. Heather really is number one! If you see her or talk to her please congratulate Heather for making 1st chair, flute. Now that might sound like an
innocuous title, what it means is, SHE IS THE BEST FLUTE PLAYER IN HER ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL!
Now what do you think? I think she's great!! In fact, I'm so excited I'm going to try and record something to post here on the internet. She was playing flight of the bumble bee the other day and I was totally impressed, I think I'll try and put that up.
Heather was so excited when she came home it was contageous and we all jumped and pretended to play the flute with her in the kitchen. But, even with "air flutes" she still played better than the rest of us. :-) |
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| 25 Sep 2006 |
I bought a truck a week or so ago and wanted to post a picture.
Nothing fancy, it's got real low miles (2003 w/ 27K), and is immaculate. Lots of people say so, this one really is. Guy lives in the country, garaged the truck, works at a small business... No door dings, no dents, no rock chips, nothing.
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| 23 Sep 2006 |
Home Coming at the High School... Can you believe I have two girls in high school? Damn that really scares me. Know what I mean?
Heather (far left) and Melanie (2nd from right) and a couple of their friends on their way to the Home Coming Dance...
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| 19 Sep 2006 |
Happy 20th Anniversary Tira, I love you. |
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| 16 Sep 2006 |
What's up with the weather around here? I know fall is coming and winter is on his heals... But what's up? Last week in the 80's... then a night that dropped into the 40's. Then, it cooled off w/ a high in the 50's... Then warm again, we set a record high for 90degrees last week. At my house, it was 90. Tomorrow, cool again and Monday there will be a high of 40 something!!!!! Brrrr.... |
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| 01 Sep 2006 |
We went to another race track tonight... River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND. We enjoyed it more than the Ada track because it was not so loud. The Ada track had a roof over the bleachers and the noise was absolutely deafening. There is a covered section at River Cities but there are also bleachers without a roof that were really pleasent to sit in and watch the cars. There were sprint cars this night and we watched a couple of pretty violent crashes. The crashes w/ most other classes are not so severe. No one was hurt and we were pleased w/ that! |
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| 31 Aug 2006 |
This is the last day with Grandma and Grandpa in town. I think that it's been a great week. Of course that might be a little selfish? But with the kids and Tira in school I had mom and dad all to myself! And I really really enjoyed the time. I hope that they did. They leave tomorrow, so we took a few fotos of all of us today. This is my favorite.
Scott, Charon, Heather, Larry, Melanie, Tira, and Nicholas in front.
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| 31 Aug 2006 |
Oh my! Guess what happened to me (Scott) today? I called the college I've been taking classes from, the University of Maryland, University College, and was looking into what class I should take next semester. I am only one class away from my degree, you know. So anyway, they're looking at what I need... is it civic responsibility or humanities? Anyway, so this lady calls my house and leaves a message with Grandma Charon and says "yeah, we found a civics class so he's done."
So I get the message and I'm not sure I'm understanding it so I call this nice young lady back to see what's up. One of my first thoughts is I need yet another class for my degree... then I think maybe they find the class I need and I'll call to find out what it is... but the note makes no sense to me.
Eventually I get to talk to my new favorite records custodian person and she tells me she found a civics class on my transcript and she's giving me credit for taking it and I"m done. So now there's a pause because I'm thinking about the word "done"... And I'm not a quick thinker, so I ask her what she means. She tells me I'm done with my degree. Of course this elicits yet another long pause while I think about this. It's starting to sink in, a little, but remember I'm not too bright. I think she's noticing now because when I said "done with what" she said my degree... she told me UMUC was granting me a degree effective today, 31 Aug 06..
I'm sure your'e seeing a trend here, but yes, this caused me to once again pause. This time I wasn't thinking too deeply, but was trying not to pee my pants with excitement. Can you believe it? UMUC finally granted me a degree!?!!!!! I am now a college educated person! :-) I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Studies and I also have this huge smile on my face and I was also thrilled that Mom and Dad were here to share it with me! |
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| 27 Aug 2006 |
 Nicholas earned his Tenderfoot badge in Boy Scouts. Tenderfoot is the first rank that a boy earns in Boy Scouts, after joining and getting his Scout Badge.
He's well on his way to 2nd Class and expects (hopes!) to earn that before we PCS in December. And, most exciting of all, Grandpa and Grandma were here to see it! |
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| 26 Aug 2006 |
Mom and Dad (Grandma Charon and Grandpa Larry) arrived today for nearly a week long visit. |
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| 22 Aug 2006 |
Heather got another job today. She has got to be the hardest working kid on the block. Reminds me of me! :-)
she was hired by Burger King today!
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| 13 Aug 2006 |
Scott went to Webelos summer camp over at Camp Wilderness, MN from 13 thru 16 Aug. It's about 150 miles from Grand Forks. This was his 4th trip to Camp Wilderness. Nicholas didn't go, he's in Boy Scouts but Scott is still a Cub Scout leader.
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| 10 Aug 2006 |
Went to a dirt track over in Minnesota. These pictures are from the Norman County Raceway, in Ada MN.
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| 08 Aug 2006 |
Nicholas has a small, hand pump rocket launcher that he plays with sometimes. It shoots small, safe, sponge rubber little rockets into the air maybe 40 or 50 feet. Of course that is not good enough! :-) In this series of photos Nicholas has discovered that a small 12oz water bottle fits tightly over the rocket launcher pump thingy. Then, he discovered that if you filled it part way with water then there is more pressure and hence it flies higher.
Nicholas putting water bottle on rocket launcher..
Pumping up the rocket... errr... water bottle
Initial water bottle release...
Water bottle flying high! (50 to 100 feet)
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| 04 Aug 2006 |
Happy Birthday Melanie! We love you very much! |
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| 24 Jul 2006 |
Nicholas hung a swing from the tree in the back yard. Not sure why... guess he just wanted one? So this is me testing it out. I'm pretty tame. Nicholas will stand on the swing; or sit on it and swing so high he can kick the branches over his head, perhaps 15 feet off the ground!
Scott on swing
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| 07 Jul 2006 |
As I've mentioned (I think?) Nicholas has played baseball this summer on a Cal Ripken League. I'm new to all this baseball stuff so if you're like me, it's a travelling little league team. Anyway, it's been a lot of fun and going to the games has been a great time. The season is over and we were at an end of the season picnic, and one of the highlights was the parent/kid baseball game. The parents got to play against the kids... and we won! :-) but it was all fun. The score was 12 to 10 so it's wasn't a blowout, I thought the kids would win once or twice, there.
Heather and Melanie played on the adult team and Melanie was the first person up to bat. She took a strike and a couple of balls and swung and missed. Count was 2 and 2. Next pitch was a little inside and Melanie started to duck! But a little too late and a little too slow. The pitch caught her under her left eye. Well, you can see the result. Poor Melanie. No stitches or anything thank goodness, just a little swelling and a little purpling.
Melanie, the day after the ball game.
Melanie, 3 days after the ball game.
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| 06 Jul 2006 |
HEY! Guess who got her driver's license today?!?!
Congratulations Heather, we're all very proud of you. |
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| 30 Jun 2006 |
Went camping this weekend. Started out heading for Lake Astabula, but couldn't get a camping spot and ended up at a small county park called Little Yellowstone, about an hour or so south of Ashtabula Lake, just near Fort Ransom state park.
This is how we got there.. (and yes, that's Heather driving. She drove the whole way home, about 3 hours!)
These are a couple of pictures of our camp site:
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| 29 Jun 2006 |
Was planning on going camping today, Friday, but we heard there might be some rain in the area so we decided to wait and go tomorrow... what do you think, good idea?? :-) That white thing at the bottom right of the picture is my car-top-carrier on our van, all packed up and ready to go camping.
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| 18 Jun 2006 |
Scott's big inspection ended today and they got an overall "Excellent". It was an ORI, an Operational Readiness Inspection and it tests their ability to do their job in a war time environment. |
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| 13 Jun 2006 |
Melanie Nicholas and Scott went for a wonderful walk over at Turtle River State Park. It's only a few miles from here and it is a real pleasure to spend time here relaxing or walking. These are a few pictures that Melanie took this day.
Scott and Nicholas
Deer coming out as dusk approaches
We almost stepped on this duck's nest, before we saw it.
... and the final walk home
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| 02 Jun 2006 |
Scott is the den leader for the Bear Den on base here. With kids PCS'ing out lately, there are only 2 boys left in the den. He recently held the last meeting of the year for the boys, and they had a small crossover ceremony because the boys will be Webelos scouts next year.
These are a few pictures from the day... |
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| 30 May 2006 |
hey, it's been a busy day here...
1. It's my birthday, it's my birthday! Come on! Sing it with me! It's my birthday, it's my birthday...
2. Had a nice day, thank you.
3. I'm off of work today. Very sweet.
4. Heather started Driver's Ed today. Very scary.
5. And hey, happy birthday, I got another assignment!
Alaska Here We Come!
More Details: Ok, I received an assignment to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. It is in Anchorage AK, the largest city. As you know, Ken and Elizabeth are up in Fairbanks AK, Eielson Air Force Base, which is some 6 hours or so north of Anchorage. My Report No Latter Than Date (RNLT) is 31 Jan 07. Of course Tira and the kids will be in school in Jan so we'll have to kick around some options about how to get there and when. Anyway, needless to say, we're very excited and will be sharing more info as we get it. |
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| 20 May 2005 |
Today, Heather was awarded her Silver Award in Girl Scouts. The Silver Award is the 2nd highest level award in all of girl scouting. Her big project was putting on a day camp (2 days) for all of the girls scouts. There were perhaps 20 or so girls and Heather planned and organized the whole event from what to do and where to do it at.
This is Heather today, receiving her Silver Award
This is Heather leading Summer Camp last year, 2005
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| 17 May 2006 |
Nicholas got hit in the mouth with a baseball at his game tonight. Knocked a tooth clean out of his mouth. Nicholas said it's ok, it was already loose! Yeah, whatever. Still hurts you know. It was his fault too, he was catching a ball and just misjudged it. Could have been because yesterday he broke his glasses at school and so now they're super-glued together? |
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| 14 May 2006 |
Happy Mother's Day! |
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| 10 May 2006 |
I volunteered to take a job in Anchorage today. Elmendorf AFB, doing the same thing I do now at Grand Forks, HARM Chief. If I get it, we'll be moving around Christmas. |
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| 08 May 2006 |
Melanie is on the middle school soccar team and they had their first game of the season today... yeah, they lost. |
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| 05 May 2006 |
Nicholas (and Scott) went to camp Wilderness in MN on a work weekend. Camp Wilderness is the council's 200 acre youth camp. Nicholas and Scott were up there helping with spring cleaning, to get ready for the youth summer camping season. You can see a few pictures from Nicholas' Boy Scout Troop's Web Site. |
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| 11 Apr 2006 |
Nicholas started baseball last week. He's on a traveling little league team. Mostly he plays left field where he can't do much damage. |
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| 10 Apr 2006 |
Scott bowled a 170, a 190 and a 210 today. His average of 190 for these games was not as good as his scores last week, when he shot a 600 series. |
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| 09 Apr 2006 |
Imagine our surprise when we looked out in the yard and saw this salamander walking across the grass. It's an Eastern Tiger Salamander. They can grow up to 13" long, but mostly stay about 7 or 8 inches. This one is around 6 or 7 inches so it's pretty much grown. They live underground most of their lives, except in the spring when they come out to have babies. They're not uncommon in MN and ND, but are not often seen because they are generally underground and/or hanging out in the water.
See how it blends in so perfectly?
Looking at my hand. Again, note how well it is camouflaged.
Melanie holding "Sammie" the salamander, you can see the wonderful coloring and get a pretty good idea of it's size. |
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| 07 Apr 2006 |
Burning up them lanes! Scott bowled a 190, 210, 215 for a 205 average tonight (and we still lost 2 games!) |
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| 25 March 2005 |
The official announcement of a few weeks ago has been officially rescinded.
It's official (again)... I AM NOT GOING to Korea in July! WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| 07 Mar 2006 |
A little warmer today, went bowling with the kids. Everyone did real well.
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| 25 Feb 2006 |
We recently attended the annual Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet with Pack 319. Because I am (was) the Den Leader for the Webelos II's, it fell to me to plan and organize the event. I only had ideas though, it was all of the other leaders that came through and did stuff that caused the B&G to be a great success. And it was a tremendous success! Please take a few minutes and check out some of the pictures
Nicholas is holding an arrow that he received as a gift from the Pack for earning his Arrow of Light Badge. The arrow is hand painted and the arrow head is hand carved from a buffalo bone, and the fletching is from turkey feathers.
The Arrow of Light badge is the highest award that a boy can receive in Cub Scouting. It is also the only award that a boy can wear on his Boy Scout uniform, from Cub Scouts. |
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| 17 Feb 2006 |
Whoah! Did I say last week was cold???? How about -24 degrees F., air temperature, and a wind chill right about -50. Anyone who tells you that wind chill is not a valid temperature measurement is an idiot. They need to come spend a few minutes at -50 and if their lips aren't frozen shut or numbed by the cold, then tell me it's not a "real" measurement. :-) |
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| 10 Feb 2006 |
Well it's official. If you haven't heard yet, Scott has been given an assignment to Korea. He'll be stationed in South Korea at Osan Air Base. It's in northern South Korea, near Seoul. He has to report by 10 Aug06... more to follow. |
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| 05 Feb 2006 |
woke up to a cold, frosty morning. -10F, but no wind. Went for a nice walk.
from my back porch |
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| 16 Jan 2006 |
This year's Pinewood Derby for Nicholas' Cub Scout Troop. Nicholas' car did ok this year, no awards but it wasn't last either. Plus he made it all himself. Every inch, from cutting to sanding to painting to aligning the wheels he did himself. He should be very proud.... I know I am!
(Nic's car is a grey car shaped roughly like an old Buick Riviera, with a black cloth top. Not pictued, sorry.)
Nic is the read-head, slightly right of center in both pictures |
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| 14 Jan 2006 |
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday Dear Tira,
Happy Birthday to you.
Amazing how at only 30 years old (again) you look as young as the day we met. :-)
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| 08 Jan 2006 |
Heather and I went for a walk up by Turtle River State Park. They close one of the roads around the park in the wintertime and it's our favorite place to walk. It's like having our own private path. When the weather is really cold we'll slide down to the river (big stream) and walk along the top of the frozen stream. The snow is less deep there and it winds back and forth where no one else ever gets to go. This picture was taken from the road at the edge of the park, there are tons and tons of deer tracks in the snow here.
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| 04 Jan 2006 |
We didn't make it to Fargo. Wish we had, it was a nice day. Unfortunately, we spent most of it cleaning up after the holidays and before we all went back to school and work. Took down the tree, uplugged the lights, boxed up the christmas decorations. :-(
And I've already had 2 people ask.... no, that's not a champagne bottle Nicholas is waving around! :-) It's apple cider. The kids hate champagne so I figure, why pay for it? |
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| 02 Jan 2006 |
Updated web pages. Added Christmas 2005 pictures to last year's news page. (At the bottom, old news 2005). Looks like Scott and Tira will be driving to Fargo this morning. It's an hour each way but should be a pretty drive. |
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| 01 Jan 2006 |
Midnight, New Years Eve, at the Alvars! :-)
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| 01 Jan 2006 |
Happy New Year
Tira and I want to wish everyone a very happy New Year.
In the immortal words of Col Potter, "May she be a damn site better than the old one." |
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