HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACE!!!

Are you ready for the surprise?? It was a ..................KAYAK!!! Yep. When Race got home yesterday (after his 4 hr drive), the boys led him into the house, made him close his eyes, and led him into the living room. He opened his eyes to see a brand new, bright yellow KAYAK, along with it's supplies taking up our whole living room. Above it was hanging a huge Happy Birthday Sign (made by Savannah). He was SOOooo surprised!!! He LOVED it! We can't WAIT to get in the water! I made the executive decision to skip Martial Arts yesterday, and I am so glad that we did. It worked out great, because we got to spend the whole evening with Race. He took both boys out to baseball practice, and then we they got home (at 10:00 pm!!) we had the chocolate cake that the kids and I made.
I will post a picture soon.


Poor Race had to get up at 2 am this morning to get back on the road. He will be home on Saturday. We all really had a great evening yesterday, and our gift to Race really lifted his spirits. He loves stuff like that, you know.......toys.

As I review all that needs to be done by Sunday, and knowing that Saturday will be a day of mostly cooking and baking (which I LOVE), I am thinking that I may need to talk to our principal about having a Teachers Workday today. Hmmm.....

BTW, as an aside, I'll bet that you didn't know that you could do school in a kayak did you? Jack did all of his lessons yesterday sitting in the kayak in the living room.

OMgoodness, I almost forgot. Last night , right before bed, Jack was hogging the upstasirs bathroom for a Loooong time. He was making jokes (of course) about being in there so long, but still the door did not open. Then, he came downstairs to OUR bathroom. I said, "Whatcha doin?" He replied, "Oh nothin' just have to get something". I hear the water running loudly. He tries to go quickly past our bedroom, and cringes when I say "Hey, wait a sec. Come here." He walks back into our room sheepishly, and that's when I see that his shirt is covered (O.K. not covered, but smeared considerably), with blood. Calmly, Race and I look at each other. Race says , "So what happened here?" Jack didn't even know all the blood was on his shirt......he was pleasantly surprised to see THAT. He had been using his pocket knife, and it slipped and cut his thumb. I guess he thought that we would wisk away that pocket knife forever, so he tried to hide it. It was a pretty good cut too. He had cleaned it and applied, Oh....I don't know......about 10 band-aids to it, and a hair elastic applied over the top for a turnicate. We took care of the cut, and talked a little about "deceiving", (which, incidently had been part of our Bible lesson that morning), and let it go. He scurried off upstairs to show Austin and Savannah his " cool bloody shirt". When I asked to see his pocket knife, it had blood all over the blade, Jack could see me eyeing it, and he said, "That didn't happen from the cut ,Mom." "I actually smeared that on there." " Um, why??", I ask. "I dunno, I just thought that it would be cool". And I was asking prayer requests for the OTHER boy?????????
(FYI- Jack's (now blood-stained) knives are each about 3 in long,closed. They are boy scout-type. He carries them on a long "dog-tag"- like chain around his neck, inside his shirt. And he HAS been taught knife safety by Race. He was working on dissecting a baseball when he slipped up. Lesson learned. It's gonna be sore today!)

Have a great day !
Melissa