Happy Anniversary/Early Christmas??

We have been Texan-ites for the past year! and we really enjoy Texas! The other night I asked Glenn what he thought of our first year in Texas? We dilly-dallied and joked around about BIG TEXAS THIS and BIG TEXAS THAT! Texas truly is BIG! There is land all around... once you get out of the city. There are still cows nearby, horse ranches, it's very BIG and beautiful. Fall colors are setting in again. Another year...

Now, if you look closely at our old swing-set... the one that came when we purchased the house... you will see that it is pretty dilapidated. It has gone through a few years (before we arrived) without treatment and now the wood is starting to split and so forth. So, we decided to GO BIG and put up a new swing-set.

Glenn did some designing and some googling and came up with a swing-set that will swing 5 people, monkey-bar a few others, fireman-pole the neighbors and slide whoever is left. We are also trying to "place" the rock wall from the old set somewhere on the new. We don't know about that yet! Stay tuned for the FINAL gift!

Merry Christmas!

New Yeek

Christopher: Mom, this dessert is new yeek!

Me: What did you say?

Christopher: New Yeek!?

Glenn: Do you mean unique!

Christopher: Oh Yeah!

Christopher always keeps us on our toes!

I wish he'd stay at this age for a few years. He's just a hoot!

WELCOME home Ben

Benjamin spent the last three days and two nights at Camp Jolt. Camp Jolt is a science camp on the Texas Oklahoma Border (AKA Lake Texoma). He did fun things like fossil hunting, zip lines, animal tracking, hiking, scavenger hunts, etc.

This was his FIRST time being away from home. He had a WONDERFUL time and said that he never teared up - well maybe once or twice, but quickly got over it! (I sure missed him.) He's such a good kid!

It was a bit boring at home - Nick had no one to bug/make laugh... and when he tried to do his tricks on Zach - Zach didn't put up with it like Ben does! Zachary said it was a bit weird sleeping in his bedroom alone, without Ben nearby in his bed... something about an empty bed.

We're glad you're home Ben!

ER or FD

We have been in the school system now for 6 years and I have NEVER received a call from the school nurse... EXCEPT for last Friday! Here's how it went:

Nurse: Mrs. Thomas, could you please come down. I have your son here with me.

Me (panic): Which one? Was there a peanut mishap?!?! (Ben and Zach are allergic to peanuts.)


Nurse: No, no, I have Christopher with me. He has a... (pause)... a... ring on his finger. Well, no, it's more like a washer of some sort. He has two stuck on his ring finger.

Me: Oh, yes, I remember seeing those in the garage the other night. On the shelf.

Nurse: Yes. Exactly. During morning assembly he got the attention of the principal and he brought him over to his teacher. She then brought him to me and I have been trying to slip them off with soap and lotion but have had no luck. His finger is starting to swell and I think you should come and take him to the doctor.

Me: O?K? I am waiting for the neighbor to drop off her son (so she can go to the cannery) and I'll be to you in about 10 minutes, as soon as she comes with her son. Soak it in cold water and please keep trying to get it off!

Nurse: Well, please hurry!

I hung up and dialed the pediatrician and he recommended that we go to the ER for he had no way of removing the rings! GREAT! That would mean a very llloooooonnnggg wait and very very BIG $$! The neighbor brought her 2-year-old over and he (Dax) and Emma (3 yrs) and I took off for the school. We got to school and found Christopher with rings on his fingers (but no bells on his toes)! The middle-school nurse was coming down for she had a ring cutter in her equipment stash. When she entered and saw "the rings" she just laughed and said to the Nurse, "You told me they were RINGS, not heavy duty washers!" There was no way! But she had an idea that I never knew... Mrs. Thomas, did you know that the Fire Department cuts off rings?" My face lit up, "Really! Really! That's where we're heading first! I'll let you know how this all comes out! Bye!" And off we ran...

Fire Department: Well, well, what have we here?

Me: Yeah, Hi, my son got a few rings stuck on his finger. The school nurse told us that you may be able to help us out?!?! (Please... please...)

Fire Department: Ok, you bet. Where did you get these rings Chris? From a gum ball machine or something?

Chris: No, they were in my Dad's Tool Box.

Me. You see, they are heavy duty washers.

Fire Department: Yes Ma'am. Well, I'm sure they are not that heavy duty. (chuckle chuckle)

Me: Well, Chris, you need to show the officer. Christopher, open your hand and show him.

Fire Department: (LONG PAUSE) WOW! Those are heavy duty. RJ, can we get these suckers off?!

RJ: Yeah. Stick him in the ambulance and get the hax-saw.

They brought out these 3-foot snippers and could not get a good enough grip on the rings without squishing Christopher's finger. They got out every pair of pliers, snipper, etc. that they could find (at least 20 pair). No Luck! It's about 15 minutes into the procedure and I was starting to give up hope and thinking about the $$ that would be spent and the TIME LOST going to the ER. Then they got out the KY-Jelly and also axle grease. Emma and Dax had had enough of sitting in the ambulance. We had 4 fireman huddled around Chris. (Christopher was smiling for he thought it was pretty neat to be sitting in the ambulance.) Then they began snipping at the edge of ONE of the rings. They snipped enough to be able to start filing away and after they filed the one side, there was still no way to slide it off or bend it enough to get it off so, they began snipping and filing at the other side... an hour later, Christopher was FREE!

Tacos or Chili

Tonight I took Chris (K) and Emma with me to deliver a dinner to a family in our neighborhood. On the way home the conversation went like this:

Chris: Mom, tomorrow is election day.

Cindy: Yeah. You're right.

Chris: It's the day you go vote.

Cindy: Yeah. Do you know who there is to vote for Chris?

Chris: Well, there's Barack Obama or... or...

Cindy: John...

Chris: John McCain. That's right. John McCain.

Cindy: Who would you vote for?

Chris: John McCain.

Cindy: Really?! Why not the other guy?

Chris: Tacos Mom. John likes tacos. He also likes to hike.

Cindy: What does Barack like to eat?

Chris: Chili Mom. I don't like chili. We had chili at that one ward party a few weeks ago right? That was chili wasn't it?

Cindy: Yes. It's the bean stuff where you can put cheese on top.

Chris: Yeah. I like tacos Mom.

So, there you have it!

Vote For Tacos - Vote John McCain! :)

The Great Wolf Lodge

We are all HOWLIN' about The Great Wolf Lodge. Though some may say it's pricey, we took full advantage of the hours of operation and arrived Friday at noon and departed Saturday at 2pm (we could have stayed till 10pm on Saturday but we wanted to get back for the Dedication of our new church building at 4pm).

As we checked in, the bellman told us how "this would be the BEST night to visit the lodge." There were only 90 rooms booked on The Night Of Halloween. "Usually the place is jammed packed on the weekends. It's only been open since the first of the year and we have NEVER had a slow weekend. Lines for the waterslides can be up to an hour wait. You guys picked a GREAT weekend to visit us!"


We were feeling pretty happy inside after hearing his report! And when we were checking out on Saturday afternoon, we understood what he was talking about. THERE WERE PEOPLE (wolves) EVERYWHERE and EVERYWHERE! And the waterslide rides were beginning to have a longer and longer wait.

Ben and Zach had the best time on the waterslides. There were four large slides like this one. It was 93 stair steps to the top of this slide. Nick and Chris were just tall enough to go on slides like this one. (Chris would do these slides if you asked him, but he insisted that Mom or Dad would hold his hand.)






Whenever the Wave Pool was ready for waves, the coyotes would begin to howl and howl. That was the sign! All Thomas Boys could be found in the wave pool and once the waves were over, skat, the boys were all off to the water slides or play areas.

Saturday arrived and it was time to go...



As we arrived at the church building just in time for the dedication at 4pm, we filed into a bench and sat down. Within 10 minutes, Christopher was sleeping upright in the bench, mouth open and snoring. Drool began to drip from his face and we caught it with a Kleenex. Emma was nuzzled up in Glenn's arms. And we about lost Nicholas at the dedicatory prayer. It was kind of long and with eyes shut, heads bowed and arms folded, he began to teeter a bit. We propped him up! I think we may have played a little too hard - I have never had kids fall asleep in church!

The dedication was very nice. We are grateful for the people who built this wonderful church. It is a beautiful building and it will stand for a long time. It will see many holy ordinances performed inside its walls. We feel very blessed to be living in such a time. Though there are problems world-wide, the church continues to grow. People are looking for the truth. Many in our community and neighborhood are asking about the new building on Legacy (the street where it stands). We hope many will come out to visit.