Jack and the Pumpkin Stalk

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Lucky Leadfoot

All the suspense this past month has really messed with my concentration. I've been pulled over for speeding three times the last month, and each time I got off with a warning. I'm so stinking lucky! Lucky that is, to be married to the Navy. Every time those officers watched me pull my Tennessee (luckily) lisence out from behind my military I.D., I'd see them softening. This is a very red state. They'd ask me about Clint's service in the Navy then send me off with a warning. The second time I got pulled over I was late for a cub scout den meeting. After the officer asked me about the Navy he asked me to roll down the back window and he got a good look at all four boys in their seatbelts. There was Talmage in his full cub scout uniform, complete with hat, holding the American flag across his chest. We'd just folded it before we hopped in the car. Then Trace beamed at him as only he can do, and the the officer told me about his son the same age. The poor officer, he just couldn't give me a ticket. All I can say is it's a good thing warnings aren't recorded or they'd have thrown me in the slammer on the third one. Instead, the officer asked me when was the last time I'd had a ticket. I scratched my head and said, "I think high school!" I must have been pulled over 30 times since then! Phew! All I can say is I'm now being SUPER careful and use my cruise control to go the exact speed limit everywhere I go!

We're Moving to Utah!

August 2010. Clint will be the Commander of the Salt Lake City Reserve center at Fort Douglas on the corner of University of Utah campus. For all you Utahns, we're looking forward to seeing more of you!

Apples!

In September I volunteered to do a craft with Cole's 1st Grade class. My whole motivation for this endeavor was to make Cole feel special by showing up in his class. You know, give him some cool points for having the nice mom that comes in and does a fun craft. I spent weeks prepping for this. I decided on a theme of apples and tried out several ideas on the boys before settling on doing apple printing. I would make a print of their forearm for the trunk of the tree, and then print the green treetop and apples on the tree with the cut apples. To fill the hour I brought picture books about apples for Mrs. Rios to read while I took two kids at a time and did the fore-arm prints. I also thought an apple snack would be nice so, I brought caramel dip and Mrs. Rios asked all the kids to bring an apple that day. She wrote the parents in their weekly newsletter about it and also put a note in their agenda books the night before to remind them. Still, I felt nervous that some kids would be without apples, so my last stop before arriving at the school was to pick up a bag of 10 apples.
The craft went great. The kids totally loved it. And the books were good too, even the one by Madonna--a surprise (I guess tromping around the stage in your underwear doesn't automatically disqualify you from having brains).
Next I had the kids line up to hand me their apples to be cut. That's when the kids started buzzing, "But what about Cole? His mom forgot to send him an apple!" Apparently, all the parents remembered, but me. Mrs. Rios said to me. "They've been very concerned about Cole. I assured them that Cole's mom would bring him an apple when she came." Her assurances obviously didn't stick. They kept on saying, "Cole doesn't get a snack! How come Cole doesn't have an apple?" I said several times, "I brought Cole 10 apples!" and pointed to the bag on the table. One little girl had two apples and I asked her why, "My mom said I should bring two in case someone's mommy forgot to send them an apple. This apple is for Cole!" Through all this conversation Cole sat at his desk like a brave soldier while all the other kids lined up to get their apples cut. When we were down to the last kid and Cole still hadn't joined the line I said, "Cole why aren't you in line? I have an apple for you." Cole brightened and said, "I do?" Poor guy, but really! After weeks of planning and an hour in the class room, what was the impression left with the class? Cole's Mom forgot to send him an apple! I'm just glad I brought that bag of apples because I had to replace one kid's apple that was totally bruised inside--he must have a really sorry mom!