Have you ever wondered...

...what goes on in our house 2 minutes before you knock on the door? If you have (or even if you're just curious), take a peek below:

1. Car pulls in driveway

2. Household is alerted loudly by alert family members within nanoseconds

3. Half the family members rush upstairs in panic

4. Half the remaining family runs to windows on the driveway side of house, while other remaining half stays in kitchen/living room area to act as spies

5. Everyone starts yelling "Who is it? Who is it??"

6. Astute member a) recognizes car and fills everyone in or b) doesn't know, and this heightens the suspense

7. Car finally parks.

8. Everyone is glued to a window, ready to duck should the visitor glance up at the windows. (It is incredibly frustrating to be covertly watching someone, especially from the bathroom window, only to have them glance casually upwards and give a cheery smile and wave.)

10. Person finally gets out of vehicle. If the visitor(s) are recognized, there is a mad rush to the door. If the visitor(s) are not recognized the people downstairs rush madly upstairs, leaving a hapless parent or unaware child to answer the door

11. As visitor walks to door, s/he is scrutinized by at least 8 pairs of eyes

12. As parent talks to stranger, curiosity overcomes several members, who creep shamefacedly downstairs and eavesdrop until satisfied that a) the stranger is not a menace or b) the stranger does not concern them, and they can go on with their life, as long as they can safely keep several square miles between themselves and said stranger to avoid detection

13. Stranger finishes conversation with parent (and greater unseen audience) and leaves. 8 pairs of eyes watch him/her go.

14. Life returns to normal.

Stay tuned for the next edition: "Have you ever wondered what happens when the phone rings?!"

Joanna

On February 25, something occurred which dramatically changed my life forever. Joanna May was born. It still doesn't sound right that she's eight. I think she's six. The whole eight-years-old thing was just made up to trick me, I'm sure. Joanna is quiet (most of the time), but she has been known to talk incessantly, especially when I'm doing something which requires concentration. She looks a lot like how I did when I was her age, but when I was little, I had to occasionally be told to "settle down" and "be quiet," words which are very rarely used in conjunction with Jo. Joanna is in Sparkies in our Awana club, and is in second grade.

Today

Grandpa came up today for Joanna's 8th birthday. I thought this was kinda cute. He was reading my blog.


The same hands that plowed a field with a team of horses maneuver a computer mouse. How times change.

CLS 09

Well, I really don't have a big long wordy thing like last time. Hopefully my pictures can give you a glimpse into what the other cadets' CLS was like, and if you can picture me either behind my camera or behind my laptop, you'll have a pretty good idea as to how my CLS was.

These are the basic cadets in-processing. You can see a pretty good mixture of staff, basics, and senior members.

Friday night, after everyone had more or less arrived and gotten unpacked, we had introductions of the staff and exec flight, plus opening and welcoming talks, and our safety briefing.

Saturday morning we had opening formation. That was at 0730, if I remember correctly. I went to sleep a little after midnight Friday night/early Saturday morning. This was after we had 2 fire drills. A fire drill, for those of you who are unlucky enough to have never participated in one, is where you are in your room, dressed, sleeping, or otherwise, and staff begins yelling "Fire! Fire!" You pull on your shoes and wrap a blanket around yourself and dash outside. Then, those in charge tell you the time it took everyone to get out (4 and a half minutes the first time; 3 1/2 the second), and you laugh at everyone else for looking like a mini Lawrence of Arabia. Then you go back to bed. Repeat.

Anyhow. We had our opening formation, and then breakfast.

After lunch on Saturday, the cadets did PT (physical training). Another public affairs cadet and I went over to the gym to observe and take pictures. I think they mostly speak for themselves.

These are the stretches

Above is what is called the shuttle run. You have to run, pick up an object, go back to the starting line, drop it, come back and get the other one, and then run back to the starting line. The catch is that it is timed.

I should hope you all know what a push-up is.

Okay, so there was this little balcony type thing behind the basketball hoop. Far off the floor, let me add. Being the naturally inquisitive photographer that I am, I decided that I wanted to go up. Seriously, how many of you have been in the balcony of the gym of the local Air Reserve base, taking pictures?? I asked around a bit (I'm not stupid enough to go up into balconies without asking first), and the cadet commander (who is in the above picture holding the orange things) assisted me in uncovering the ladder. It was a little unnerving the way the ladder creaked, but I climbed up, got some cool "above" shots, and then climbed down. That was my exciting adventure for the day.

The cadets had classes and drill in another building.

Graduation.

Above, the cadet commander is at the podium, giving his closing remarks. The rest of the people on the stadium are (from left) a colonel from the base, the group commander, the school commander, a lonely chair and the cadet commandant.

This is me getting my loverly certificate.

So I'm sure you all are asking, "Well, what exactly did she do?" I was on Public Affairs, which meant that I and the two other cadets and our senior member mentor had to create a "yearbook" for the weekend. It was really close. By that I mean that 2 minutes before we were dismissed, she literally ran in with the yearbooks from the printers. As we filed out of the theater, we grabbed our books.

That was about it. I got home around 2000 Sunday night, tired, but still glad I went.

Last Year...

Last year at this time (Presidents' Day Weekend), I went to Cadet Leadership School. I will be going there again this weekend and would appreciate prayers for safety traveling, cadet relations (when you have a semi-stressful situation and a lot of cadets on little sleep, well, yeah...), and that I will be able to eat. Hopefully I'll have a good report next week! (And a better picture, rather than this scanned-in pic of us looking half dead.) (Which we were.)

Counting Down

28 more days

4 weeks

4 more CAP meetings

4 more AWANA meetings

Until...

...Daylight Saving Time begins!! I can't wait. Because, you know, that means that spring, contrary to popular opinion, is indeed and truly going to occur again this year. It also means that it will be daylight out until 7 PM instead of 6 PM. Those of us who are optimistic enough to look ahead will start getting excited about being able to shed Clothing Layers 4 and 5.

Yup. I can't wait.

Latest Big Hit

The birds who frequent the cat bird feeder have been a big hit with us lately. (And with the cats.) One of the first things the girls did was dye Greg's white fur blue so the birds would be able to differentiate between him and a harmless patch of non-bird-eating snow.

Then they figured out that if you put birdseed in your hand, the chickadees will come and eat, right out of your hand. (I'm planning to teach this technique to the cats shortly.)

What special things have you done this winter that you won't be able to do this summer?