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?

Impersonating CNN Anchors...Etc...

Something that Annetta and I like to do occasionally is gang up on Jessica. We dragged Hosanna into this plot at the last moment, but they both did well, I thought. Those of you familiar with CNN, and have a weird sense of humor (like as weird as mine) should appreciate this. When Jessica gets into more important politics, it'll be fun to pull this out, won't it, Annetta?

(At second 32, that is not a UFO in the background...it is a car.)

(Background music courtesy of Jessica [unbeknown to her])

Yes, Jessica is a great sister.

My Latest Kitchen Project

Other possible title: My Latest Culinary Explosion Disaster Experiment.

A.K. Daniels posted a recipe for a 5-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake. I thought it would be fun to make several, and post my results. You can find the original recipe and her results at her blog. Since we don't have a microwave, I experimented with baking it in the oven.

Because the recipe is 1 serving size, I multiplied it by 9. Because I'm not good at guessing exactly how much 8 cups of anything is, I ended up having to change bowls in the middle :P




So I made it in a bowl, instead of the individual cups, since it seemed faster. I did the dry stuff first.








This is the stirring of the dry ingredients.




Milk, if you couldn't tell...

Pay no mind to the bit that worked its way onto my thumbnail...I'm not exactly the neatest or most precise when it comes to the kitchen. "It all tastes the same" is my motto concerning spills.

If the recipe calls for chocolate chips, put 'em in!!

Oops...I almost forgot the vanilla. I would have put it in with the rest of the wet stuff; that makes for easier stirring. Yes, the dough gets quite stiff.

Like I said, not the neatest, and the stuff sticking up did burn a little bit, but I think I also baked it too long, which would contribute to the turning black problem. They rose amazingly well.

In summary, next time I make it, I will:

1. Not cut down so much on the sugar. I thought 4 cups was a lot, so I nearly halved it, but it shouldn't have been cut back so much, even though nobody mentioned it.

2. I won't bake it so long. It was hard with no established baking time, and because of the melty chocolate chips, it was hard to use the knife test for doneness. But I think it was overdone some.

3. I would also cut back on the eggs, and consider adding some leavening of some sort.

4. I won't fill the cups as full, so that I can just pour my milk in with my cake and eat it right like that (okay, tell me I'm not weird...does anyone else always put milk on their cake?)

Okay...now go make cake (and eat it too...sorry, couldn't resist!)

Wishful Thinking

I want some. Actually, a lot. Like, a yard full. Green. With dandelions. (I am starting to drool here.) You will understand my obsession with grass right now if you will cast your eyes over these snapshots taken around the farm here. The snow goes up to/past my knees, just so you know.

See? No grass. None. Buried. Gone. Frozen. Dead. (*sniff*)

Another thing to note is that you're not just flitting through light, fluffy snow. This is the real stuff which weighs (loosely speaking) a ton.

Yes, it's pretty. And cold. Really cold.

Here you can see the snow goes up to the second story.

(Or was that a hill? I can't remember...it's been too long since I saw the ground...)

What is your winter like where you live?

Braces Update

(click to enlarge)

Yup. Got 'em. It was a horrifically traumatic experience that I'd tell you all about, but I don't think my shattered nerves could stand thinking about it :) Actually, it was okay, seeing as how I'm still alive.

This just in...

I just found this linky to an article about Wreaths Across America 2008, in NY Wing.


If you desire to read it, go HERE to read the article, and then I'll tell you the story of the whole morning. Sound cool? Good.

Okay, you back? Here we go. I got up early that morning. Early as in, before seven. AM. I ate my breakfast and grabbed a bag containing my dress blues and several layers to go underneath said dress blues (yeah, did you notice the snow on the ground? Yeah). Then I hopped in the car and Daddy drove me to the Jamestown Airport. Despite the promise of blue sky from weather.com, the sky was cloudy. Depressingly cloudy. It depressed me, but I nevertheless went in to "my" airport (you know you're in the Civil Air Patrol when you have referred to the local airport as "home" before) and had my flight simulator lesson. Flight sims are fun. You fly without getting sick, and you can wreck the plane or fly really horribly and it doesn't matter.

After my flight sim lesson, I strolled past the airport doors, glanced out and saw blue sky. Cheerful blue sky. Can I say "happy" applies here? More like "elated!" Then, while my cadet commander had her flight sim lesson, I read my history book (you know you're in the CAP if you have ever done schoolwork at your local airport) and talked with another cadet. Then, while he had his flight sim lesson, my cadet commander and I changed into our dress blues. Now, because we were on color guard, we couldn't wear our coats over the top (unless they were the specific dress blues coats, which we don't have). So we dressed in Layers. Major Layers. As in, 6 shirts-Layers (wow, say that 10 times fast...). But I was still cold.

At 1100 hours, we loaded up and drove to the Lakeview Cemetery. There, we met the rest of the cadets and senior members, practiced our color guard routine, and had BDU-clad cadets shovel a path to the Soldiers Circle. When the big clock struck 1200, we filed out. Our MC led the ceremony, which was kept short because of the cold. They laid wreaths down, had Taps, and the veterans' color guard fired their guns, three times. When it was over, we filed out. We put our color guard paraphernalia away until next time, and then went to our nice warm houses.

I have a proposition for you, reader: Next December, find out if any CAP unit near you is doing a Wreaths Across America Ceremony, and then show up for it. I know it may be inconvenient, but the veterans you will be honoring had to do much more inconvenient thing. More inconvenient than getting up at 6:51 AM, even. Who knows, you may even get your picture in the paper!