The Clubhouse

 

This is the house that Grandpa Copper built. These are the people who live in the house. My parents were able to come and visit in July and in the last three days of their visit Grandpa and the children worked in the backyard on this clubhouse. They love having a place where they can keep and arrange their important things that aren't appreciated much in the house (baby snake skeletons, cicada bug shells, dead butterflies, pine cones, beautiful rocks, cowboy paraphenalia, pop guns, to name a few of them). This house is a dream come true for my two oldest children. It has renewed their relationship with some of the neighbor children who are several years older than the Carne kids and often have been too busy and important to play with them! Not any more.
We had to paint it after Grandpa and Grandma left since the finishing touches were put on before the trip to take them to the airport. It was hard to choose a color. We were afraid that it was going to be bright pink instead of red but with the second coat it relieved us all by drying dark and really being red. (The possibility of a pink clubhouse was just a little bit horrifying.) The children helped paint and it was fun, and not as messy as I thought it would be.
No one has camped out there yet, but they are working up their courage and maybe they will do it next year.
I need to post some pictures of 2 birthdays that we have had and the last pictures of swimming at the lake, but I will save that for another time.

Of Urine and Quarterbacks

From July 2009

As you may surmise from the title of this post, I have been fortunate to have had some contact, both direct and indirect, with my children. This summer has been much more like a Pacific Northwest summer for us here in Ohio, that is Dry and Pleasant. Only just recently have we had hot and humid make our acquaintance.
Jan has been reading like a nun, and we usually have to intervene physically between her eyes and whatever current page she is on to ask her anything that we might expect a reply of. She also has been training for a triathlon, which will be in a few weeks and is designed for kids (100M swim, 3 mile bike, 1 mile run). Kristi and the children have been frequenting a local lake, which is the ideal place to train for such an event, as it has a long swim lane, and a road around the lake which provides the opportunity for biking and running. She has also been afforded the luxury of royalty in the form of weekly riding lessons on various steeds at a local stables (the western variety, not the snooty equestrian variety). This week we are very excited as we anticipate our first episode of cantering. I believe our trot calluses are thick enough now.
Alec has enjoyed becoming a guy. He enjoys shooting hoops in the driveway with a basket "stolen" with the blessings of one our neighbors. He also finds great enjoyment in inciting a variety of somewhat predictable responses from his three sisters, and they rarely disappoint. He is quite coordinated still, and has played a bit of baseball with some local homeschoolers, and now has once again begun his most cherished sport of american football on the 5-6 yo flag team. He is very serious about it, and has earned the reputation along with Chance as one of the two fastest players, so they often share the ball-carrying and flag-pulling duties. This is where you all get to hear one of his many memorable quotes, relayed to me by my wife the other day in the form of an email while I was on call. "Mom, I know why quarterbacks make so much money.... It's because they have to touch bottoms." Once a follow-up question was addressed, we learned that quarterbacks have to feel bottoms so they know where the ball will be hiked, and because of this duty they perform, they are generously reimbursed.
Anne is still very much the loner. She does like to do her own thing, and seems to be quite aware of her surroundings as she has recently become a 4 year old. Much to her delight she received a new pair of authentic cowgirl boots from cowboy country from her grandfather in Central Oregon, and along with her new stick horse and sidearm very much enjoys her own rides and adventures on stickhorseback.
Pati is more and more the life of the party, the host of the party, and the pooper of the party. Very much the CEO if we would just get out of her way, she is in constant opposition to the encouragement of others to proceed in any specific way. I suppose that is what her somewhat unopinionated parents get, but there is nearly constant friction, and I suppose she will allow us to enjoy all sorts of events, companies, and trips and products, once she becomes of an age to afford her the benefit of our doubt. She is quite happy, in spite of us making her do what we want most of the time, and loves to have fun, and seems to find plenty of it. I am afraid she will need to procure gainful employment pretty soon, as she is already developing the most expensive tastes I have ever seen in a 2 year old. We are already praying for her life partner, and for their employment as well.

Kristi has been incredibly busy this year, and we were talking about this today on the way to or back from our new church in Cleveland called Parkside. She realized she has been unable to use the excuse of a nursing baby as the need to stay away from all sorts of activity, so we have been much more busy this summer travelling to all sorts of activities. These travels are balanced out by at least one or two bathroom visits each 20 min, so at least we don't have to get decubitus sores from inactivity at any point in our daily activity and travels.

Work at the hospital has been very busy for me this year, and it doesn't seem to slow down at all... in fact perhaps the opposite. At least I am over 3/5 done now, and am at the place where I perform much more of the operating duties, and am operating more. When on the service, I am chief of the service from now on, and am allowed to enjoy a bit more comradery with my attending physicians. I still don't get much time away from work, even when I am home, and feel more pressure to study and read and work on projects that I need to get done before my time is up. At the hospital there is very rarely down time, and we are still understaffed with more work than we have ever had, so balance and time management is always a challenge, and we never seem able to make anyone happy, but we still try to please everyone.

I hope you are well this summer, you enjoy time with family and closeness with God that you haven't experienced before. If you ever come this way, give us a visit. Call or write us as you are able, we would love to hear from you.

Servant in Training,
David

Independence Day

From July 2009

On our way to ride horses in our little neighborhood parade. After a week of cold temperatures, grey skies and rain, Saturday was a beautiful day for walking in a parade. It was fun to talk with the children about Independence Day and all the freedoms we enjoy that many people don't.

Good Times

From May 2009

After really doing school it has been our first summer to fully appreciate and celebrate being out of school! We have taken on different classrooms than the dining room or the kitchen table and been able to head out of doors. One of the great things about Ohio is the change in the seasons - they are so different from each other. I have always loved the summertime but here I marvel everyday during the summer that we can be outside in bare feet, that it is warm.

There is a metro park here that has a great lake for swimming in the summer. We have been there quite alot this year already. All three of the big kids swim out to the dock and spend hours jumping off. Pati jumps off too, just not without me. We pack a sparse kind of lunch (who cares about food when you can swim?) and towels and stay out for hours.

From May 2009

Grandpa and Grandma Carne came out for several days and we had such fun getting to spend time with them. We were sad to see them go.

From May 2009

Jan received a gift from some friends of horseback riding lessons at a western sort of farm. She has had two lessons so far and thinks it is the best thing that has ever happened to her.

From May 2009

When David had a vacation the first week of June we took a quick car trip to Washington DC. We were really only there for a day and a half, but it was a great time for us as a family. Because we were driving and staying one night at a hotel the kids were a little disappointed when we did not get into the hotel swimming pool right away when we arrived, but instead headed to the National Mall to see a few things before it got dark. They really did think that we had driven 8 hours to swim in the hotel pool.

From Washington DC

Riding the subway helped make up for putting off the swimming. I do think that the subway was Alec's favorite part.

From Washington DC

From Washington DC

This was us outside of the National Museum of Art ...where we couldn't stay very long because "Mom, they aren't wearing any clothes!" "And neither are they!" "Why is everybody naked?" We had escaped into the Art Museum on our way to the Museum of American History. It had been a long walk and it was really hot outside. The Art Museum looked so air conditioned.

From Washington DC

From Washington DC

Eating lunch on the National Mall. We got to watch a pick up soccer game out on the grass while we ate.

From Washington DC

From Washington DC

From Washington DC

Now that we are back home it is hard to believe we were really there. Tomorrow is the fourth of July and we have things to decorate for our neighborhood parade. The kids decided that they would rather ride their stick horses than their bikes in the parade this year. The best part is that David gets to be home tomorrow for all of the excitement.