Something new to try....

So I have been using Picassa (Google's free photo handling software) for a long time. Today I discovered you can make a video of selected photos with it. I thought I should give this a try and share some photos from Jan 2010 with all the readers.

So with out further reading of my commentary, here is the video.

Jacks Big Jump

Jack and Brodie have been taking swimming lessons for quite a while. It has been a long struggle to find the right mix of pool and instructor for the boys. Bartlett pool was too cold and had big classes and Swim Like a Fish was a long drive and the pool was too small (among other problems). Then we stumbled onto the Alaska Club lessons. The first month or so looked like more of the usual problems but then we got bumped to two day a week classes that where empty. This left just our two boys in a class with a very good instructor. She worked for one month with the two monkeys and this is the result...



While its not a miracle, it sure is nice to see Jack doing something that he has never done before.

Here are a few more







And finally a custom message to two particular readers



Not to leave Brodie out, he did put his head underwater this lesson and that is a big step. For the last three months all we have heard is "its scary under water".

Good Job Boys.

Man Stickers?

I am not a fan of bumper stickers. I really don't care if a driver is pro-choice or their kid is on some middle school's honor roll. Fine you like the Grateful Dead, so do I. But I don't need a skull sticker slapped on the rear of my car to verify the fact.
Do I care to see Calvin peeing on your ex-wife, ex-boyfriend or whatever the name of the person that upset you so much you actually paid to buy a sticker and foul your back window? NO, I do not care.
So, it is with great surprise that I have bumper stickers. I did not put them there. My husband did. First it was a pretty cool G.Loomis red, white and blue, skeleton fish on my back window. That was good, I liked it. Until the wiper erased all traces of color and I was left with a bony white fish, looking like it sat at the high tide line over the summer. It was ghoulish.
Then I came back from a short vacation down South and my husband had "hot rodded" the Fuelinator. Apparently, when a man adds something to a vehicle the box the part came in has stickers. I don't need these stickers. I don't need people to know what's under my hood. Not that the Fuelinator is a sleeper. But hey, a girl's gotta have a few secrets.



Then my husband came home after picking our son up from bootcamp.
Wham bam, thank you Maam. He removed, spooky bony fish and added this doozie. But I am going to keep it. I am very proud of our son, so it will stay.

But how can I be surprised. These are man stickers and he is a man. Who likes big diesel vehicles, laden down with stickers.
Below, John's truck.

Bad Rockford Files Moment....

Flashback, January 2005 8:00AM
So I am driving into downtown Anchorage off the Glenn Highway taking the then 14 year old Dylan to school. I am eight months pregnant and Jack is sleeping soundly in his little car seat in the back of the Fuelinator.
I have to get over. My turn signal is on. Can they not see me? Three lanes of commuters and not one of them is nice.I need to get over in the other lane. I gently, ever so gently step on the throttle. I call it the throttle because it is a diesel and to say step on the gas is wrong, oh so wrong in my house. Never ever confuse diesel with gas.
Ice fog, no one said anything about ice fog. Okay, so I haven't driven in two weeks and John just left for the slope. The Rockford Files driving moment is about to begin.
One 360, all three lanes of traffic has now stopped behind me. 360 number two, this in not good. Wow, this 7500 pound car can really twirl.
A red truck made the mistake of being parked on the street. If it hadn't been there my 180 parallel on the curb facing the three lanes of stopped, freaked out commuters would have been grand, just grand.
But no, the red truck met face to face with the Fuelinator. Nobody won.
It gets better. Dylan are you okay, "yeah, I am fine". Get out check the baby, hes still sleeping peacefully. Get back in. Lock the doors, even at 8AM, this isn't the best place to be. Now slammed up against the curb, attached to a red truck and facing East when I should be West.
Call 911, no way I am going to find the owner of this truck. Tap, Tap on the window. Roll it down a few inches. Yes I say. Maam can I help you? 911 Dispatcher on the phone, is the man an APD officer "? Are you APD" I ask. He shows me his little tiny badge. Your not APD I say. Hes not APD I tell the dispatcher. No maam he says, FBI.
Well, shoot, an FBI officer isn't going to do me any good right now. But he was very nice and walked into the Polar Bar with me. By golly, that place was open and the bartender owned the mashed red truck.
Giant pregnant chick and an FBI officer walk into a bar at 8am on a Monday morning......
Life is Stranger than Fiction

And off he goes Again.

No picture in this post. Just a blank space, which is how I feel.
Dylan just left for the airport, returning to Camp Pendleton for combat training. Then he will be off to Pensacola, Florida for aviation training. After all that, we don't know.
It occurred to me last night that I don't know when I will see him again. After bootcamp we knew he was coming home and how much leave he would have. The leave after bootcamp takes up all the new recruits earned leave and left him with a negative three days. This does not bode well for a Mother wanting her son to come, if only for a few days.
I know I should be thankful that he was home for the holidays, and I am. It's just so hard to see him go away again. Even the dog knew he was leaving and got between him and the front door.
I should probably be a good Marine Mom, buck up and all that stuff. But tonight I think I'll have a glass of wine and a good cry.

Dali?

No, not a Dali. It's a Brodie! The three foot tall owl drawn in permanent silver pen is a Brodie original. He was given a stern talking too and sent to his room. But, I am now contemplating putting a frame around it and leaving it there for all to enjoy. Would that be odd?