Here's Jonathan (finally)

This one's for Lil (but everyone else is welcome to read it, too)

Our kids love to dress up, so I'm quite good at finding clearance Halloween costumes. These are the newest (except Michael -- he's a vampire Knight Rider, in case you can't tell), and Jonathan really wanted to send a picture of them to Lil. Too bad she hardly ever checks my blog -- oh, well, the rest of you can see them...

DJ is Superman, Nina is a Vampire Queen, and Jon is a vampire.

Here's Jon's message to Lil: "I got a picture with a vampire in it. It's really cute."

Crippled

Alright, so if Kirsten can put pictures of her severed neck on her blog, I feel I can put pictures of my swollen ankle on mine.

On Wednesday I went to PT (Physical Training) for ROTC. We are training for summer leadership camp at Ft. Lewis, Washington. Part of our training is to lead the PT session in stretches and drill movements. (The Army complicates everything) Anyway, the guy that was supposed to do it didn't show up, so I volunteered to do it.

Anyway, a the beginning I was having the soldiers jog in place, which we do before stretching. While I was jogging in place, I stepped half way on the pavement and half way on the grass, and rolled my ankle. I of course finished the PT session. It's a lot like taking a puck off the ankle, which I have done, the minute you take your skate off, it's not going back on.

I've now been hobbling around for the last few days, just hoping that the swelling goes down.
We're supposed to be taking a PT test next week, which involves push-ups, sit-ups, and a 2-mile run. I hate running, and this gives me an excuse not to. I don't need excuses not to run, I need excuses to run.

Oh, and Michael wanted a picture of his foot taken too, so here it is.

Michael's Ears

Last week DJ was diagnosed with an ear infection. Sunday Michael started complaining about his ears. Now, if you know Michael at all, you'll know that his complaints cannot generally be taken seriously -- I swear he is a born pessimist and a developing hypochondriac -- so, I decided to watch him for additional symptoms. Well, yesterday afternoon I saw drainage coming from his ear, so I called the doctor and scheduled the next available appointment (which happened to be today). Later last evening, I started looking more closely at Michael's ear. Something seemed a little odd about it, so I started wiping away the drainage (which I assumed was wax). As I was doing it, Michael said, "Get that Captain Crunch out of my ear." There you have it -- after some coaxing for details, I determined that he had, at some point that morning, stuffed a piece of chocolate Captain Crunch cereal in his ear. So, with Derek's help, I flushed his ear. Sure enough, large chunks of gross looking matter emerged. I did still take him to the doctor today. He actually does have an ear infection. The whole office staff enjoyed the story immensely, especially since Michael was so matter of fact about it with them. Oh, and the doctor asked if his throat hurt -- and, you guessed it, tonight he was complaining of a sore throat...

The Initial Results are in

Well, we had an ultrasound today. We took Nina with us, but left the two little boys with a friend and Jon was in school. We thought she might enjoy it, but I'm afraid I didn't prepare her too well. Without thinking about what her conceptualizations would be, I told her we would see "pictures" of the baby. I don't think she was too impressed with the quality, though she did tell Michael and Grandma that they were "cute." But when Lil asked her what the baby looked like she got silent and handed me the phone.
Now, I'm sure you are all wondering what we found out. As I previously told you, my kids are dead set on having a girl. That's part of why we took Nina with us -- we thought it might ease the pain of having another brother. But, oh, joy! It looks like a girl! We have one very happy child in our house now. The boys have accepted her assertions that it would be a girl all along, so they weren't at all surprised. Now, Derek and I are just praying that the technician was correct. How would we ever explain the appearance of a brother now?
I must say, that I am also feeling tentatively elated. I really do want another girl, too. Nina and I are a bit outnumbered at our house. Besides little girl clothes are just so cute!
Oh, some of you are probably wondering when we're due -- My due date is June 27th, but I've been guaranteed that I will be induced a week early, if I haven't already had the baby by then. (That's the benefit of having a child in the car -- doctors never want to wait for the baby to arrive on its own...) I can't wait until we've made it to that point! As Meg and I were discussing today, the only good thing about pregnancy is that (ideally) you get a (and I, personally, am very glad to emphasize the singular nature of 'a') baby out of it.

Getting my Hockey fix

Going to the university that is (don't laugh) the cultural center of Oklahoma, offers a large variety of activities for our family. For example, last night I took Jonathan to Romeo and Juliet. It was difficult for him to understand the language used. Heck, I have hard time. If you ask him, Romeo fell in love with Juliet who was bad because the families didn't like each other. Romeo killed his cousin. Juliet killed herself twice, once with poison then with a knife. She didn't really die though, she was just pretending.
I think he got the jist. I was trying to tell him that Shakespeare didn't write about too many happy things. There were always families that were jealous that led to some catastrophe. I hope I didn't offend any Shakespeare fans out there.
We've also taken our kids to The Scarlet Pimpernel, Jenn and Janina went to The Nutcracker, Jenn and Jonathan went to a choreographers showcase, and we still have two musicals and a dancing show left in our university theater season tickets.
Last night I took the family to watch the University of Oklahoma's club hockey team. I've been to quite a few with the boys, but Jenn has come on occasion too. This was an important game because the win would seal first place heading into the championship tournament that takes place in New York at the end of the month.
This was probably the poorest officiated game that I've seen on the collegiate level. Even Jenn was getting frustrated. She hates poor officiating at all levels. It was as one sided as it gets. OU did end up prevailing in a shoot out. I was a bit confused though. In NHL hockey which I'm used to watching, the shootout allows three players to shoot on each goalie. In college it's five. OU scored on their first two shots, so when the save was made I thought it was over, but no. It still was an exciting game. It's how I get my hockey fix since I only get to watch games on TV.
Speaking of watching on TV. I came home and watched the Sharks play the Nashville Predators and oh what a great game it was. Not the best by any means, the Sharks could have been a lot more defensively responsible, but it was Ron Wilson's 500th win as a coach, Jonathan Cheechoo scored a Hat Trick (3 goals) and the special teams looked good. Let's see what the Sharks do heading into the February 26th trade deadline.
Enough on the Sharks, I guess the point that I'm trying to get across here is that in contrast to the hours that I was working in Korea (horible hours), I have time, the means, and a long list of things to do with my family, and I'm thankful for it.