After These Messages...

We'll be right back.  Do you remember those famous words from when you were a kid?  Or 'now a word from our sponsors.'  They always indicated that it was time to make a mad dash to the bathroom, or over to the kitchen for a snack.  Commercials.  Yuck.  Now that I have DVR I hardly ever watch commercials.  And I LOVE it!! I don't think I can ever go back.  In fact, last year a friend told me she was thinking about getting a dvr and what was my opinion.  I told her that they were awesome, but her life would never be the same, so if she was prepared to never go back to watching normal television, then to go ahead and do it.  She did.  And she admits that her universe is forever altered. 

The whole reason behind this post was not to ruminate on the past, or glorify dvr's, it was to record a funny thing that Porter does.  My boys love to record shows and then watch them back later. They just haven't figured out how to fastforward the commercials.  All the cartoon channels, especially Boomerang (which is their favorite), have the "after these messages we'll be right back."  Porter will throw his head back and bellow, "I hate your messages."  And then look at me and say,   "Why do they all ways give you these dumb messages????"  It totally exasperates him and totally cracks me up!  You know how it is with cartoon channels, they show the same commercials every cycle and run them about 5 minutes apart.  It's ridiculous.

Micah's Latest

I really need to update my Micah stories, but here is his latest photos. The first two are from doing rocket training the last two are from sling hoist training.

Nothing happens too fast here but I finally got my rocket training

accomplished yesterday. It was very cool and I actually hit the target
every time unlike the first batch of guys who launched a rocket over the
target backstop while they were trying to figure out the sights.

Micah.

Here are some photos from the sling training he organized.  To his knowledge he is the first (in recent history) to do this with the Afghans.

 We had a momentous occasion yesterday here at the Afghan Air Force Kandahar Air Wing. For the past couple of months we have been gathering equipment, expertise, and doing training so that we could perform sling loads. A sling load is when a helicopter carries a fixed external load in a large cargo net that is attached to the helicopter via a sling cable. There are many advantages to performing sling loads. In our case we are often limited by the space inside our aircraft. On a given day and location we may be able to carry 6600 lbs of cargo but we run out of space inside the cabin before reaching our weight limit. In the first picture our guys are loading 2 boxes (called tri-walls because of the triple thick cardboard the box is made from) in our cargo net. In addition we loaded another tri-wall in the cargo area. Normally we can only carry a total of two in the cabin. So in this case we increased our cargo by 33%.  Another advantage of a sling load is the added measure of safety. If we had some type of emergency or if we were engaged by the enemy we push a button and the cargo drops away instantly. Good for us and good for random nomads if it doesn't fall on top of them.

In the second picture I am standing next to the Afghan pilot Abdul Wadoud on the left (Abdul the Dude or Wolfman for short) and the crew chief Shapur in the center. (Micah told me that the Wolfman was conscripted to fly for the Taliban way back when...he was told to fly for them or his family would be killed.  Micah says that he is one of the older pilots who really tries hard.)We don't have official mentors for the crew chiefs yet but it was a positive experience being able to work closer with them. Unlike our older pilots they sucked up the info we gave them like a sponge. The crew chiefs play a critical role in cargo sling ops.
They act as our eyes on the load and we count on them to talk us over the precise location where the load needs to be dropped. They stepped up their game and were nearly flawless. It makes me want to work with
them more and push for some younger pilots as well. The old hat pilots might be able to hold things together for a while but the Afghan Air Force is really going to takeoff when we start getting new pilots out of the training base that opens this month.

Mud

Back in October there was a warm spell.  One day is was nearly 80 degrees.  My kids were outisde playing in the sunshine.  I went outside to investigate and Sam was very muddy.  The boys had started a mud hole and let him climb into it.  At first I was quite cross, then I figured, Oh well...it will probably be the last nice day, so they had a great time playing in the mud.  Seriously, it was like October 14th...way to late in the year to let your kids run around in their swim trunks.  My boys love to wear their swim clothes and pretend they are going to the beach so being in swimsuits is not such a stretch around here.  Of course usually when they get out their swim suits and play "beach" they also get ALL their blankets off their beds and lay them out on the floor.  Their comforters are a nice solid blue on the back and make the perfect "ocean."  And all their other blankets are the beach towels, etc.  They lay on them and pretend they are "tanning!"  It makes me CRAZY!!  Because they aren't so good at cleaning up.  Imagine that!  But i digress...back to the mud.  I took Sam in for a bath and let them continue in their mud delight.  They sledded in it, rolled in it, buried themselves in it and slapped it on themselves until they were covered!  It finally started getting chilly and froze even more when I hosed them off with the outside hose!  Harmon managed to sneak past me and climbed into the tub completely covered in mud.  He looked like he was bathing in hot cocoa.  There was a lot of dirt in the tub after that!  And like a typical boy he didn't get why we had to drain all the water and start again. 

SPLISH SPLASH!

I hate mopping. Hate it hate it hate it hate it! Anyway, I also hate this ugly kitchen that needs to be remodeled. The floor is ugly, old and stained which makes me feel like mopping it even less. I was complaining to my mom about the state of my kitchen floor when she recommended giving my kids a rag and letting them help. I've done that before and they get water EVERYWHERE! But I decided what the heck, it needed a good soak. So I rallied the troops and told them we were going to mop. I gave each of them a rag and put them to work. They were excited to be playing with the rags and water. I stepped away to make a phone call or do something (read a book, drink a dr. pepper, have half a box of chocolates, soak in the tub...ya right). When I came back the boys had donned their bathing suits and were sliding across the floor. I had heard their shrieks of delight and laughter but hadn't yet seen what it was they were up to. Sure enough they were putting the rags under their bellys and sliding across the floor. Then they did away with the rags and just slid back and forth the length of the room. After a bit I had them start soaking up the water. This required putting the rag back on the floor, sliding across the room to pick up whatever water would fit into the rag between the bellies and the floor. Then they brought the rag to me to ring out. It actually worked really well!! Go figure! And I had a clean floor when it was over. Now they ask me when we are going to mop the floor again!! HA HA!

Foam Curlers

I bought some foam curlers for Ella. She was in LOVE! And wanted them put into her hair before she went to bed. I didn't get an after picture...I'll have to do her hair again and
get a curly shot. She looked kind of like a crazy princess! But she lot she was Beautiful!!

Sam wanted his picture taken too but also wanted to grab at the camera. He is getting quite busy!

Swim Lessons

In August I signed the boys up for swim lessons.  They had a FANTASTIC time.  Every day for two weeks we packed up and headed to the pool.  The lessons were only 30 minutes each but they learned alot and their confidence grew.  Next year we will start the swim lessons earlier! 

This is Porter trying to smile...it is so hard to smile for the camera when you are 5!

Jumping in!!

 The look of happiness on Porter's face makes me smile and wish it was warm enough to go to the pool again!

 Harmon's lessons were in the inside poole so pictures of him didn't turn out so well.  I am biased but he was the BEST in his class.  He really enjoys swimming.

Ella roamed the place like she owned it. I thought the sign in this picture was pretty funny.  She wanted to get in so bad!

 And my favorite photo....Harmon jumping in.  I love this picture! 

Harmon the Hatless

Harmon enjoyed playing baseball this summer too.  He misplaced or lost his hat early on so if it was bright out then he looked a bit like this first picture.

 Sam got a hold of a chip with nacho cheese on it and wouldn't let go of it.  He LOVED that stuff!  I was really surprised because it is quite spicy.  He does look a bit concerned in this picture.  Oh well!  Lucky child number 4! 

Carsen was on Harmon's team and this is the one photo I had of him playing catcher.  They sure had lots of fun!! 

Slip and Slide

Porter's birthday is in June and his Aunt Serena sent him a slip and slide for his birthday.  One warm June day my mom and I lined up all the kids to give them a haircut.  After the super short summer haircut they rinsed off in the super slide.  It was lots of fun!

This is my favorite picture of the bunch!

Porter's 1st T-ball Team!

I sat down to do a massive "this is what we did this summer and I suck because I haven't posted in months" post.  But the first file I went thru were some pictures of Porter at his t-ball games.  There were so money funny pictures that I decided I would just try to get got up one file at a time. 

Porter was a real crack up when it came to his games.  He was so excited to play, but his grasp of the game was quite basic.  I don't even know if he had the basics!  But he loved to put on his hat and shirt.  Quiet often he could be found distracted and laying around.  Enjoy!

This was before a game...trying to get some good vibes I guess.

Ready

 Get ready to swing...

Nothing...so they bring out the t.  I swear he wasn't even watching the ball.  He'd get this goofy grin on his face and swing the bat all over the place.  Then he'd smack the plate real hard, like "dang, I missed it."   Grinning the whole time.  It was soooo funny.

Contact!

Running with his sideways hat.

Sam was always a good little trooper.  He was getting his first tooth and drooling everywhere!

Ella didn't find the games as fascinating.  Somedays she was good other days she was wild!!

I like this pciture!

Harmon sporting some new teeth.

The oh so beautiful "rubbed my hair on my carseat" look.

Porter's cousin, Easton, was on the same team.  Easton is a year older than Porter.  Because Porter was so close to his 5th birthday we put him on the same team as the 5 &6 yr olds.  You could tell he was 4.  He was so funny!  But it made coordinating practice and games easier.  Harmon and his cousin, Carsen, were on the same team as well.  That made it convenient for my mom and I to get everyone where they needed to be.

Looking cool....talking to his fans.

And my FAVORITE picture.......

Yep...middle of the game.  Taking it easy.  That is my Porter.