Fishy story

Of all the days to forget the camera ...


Yesterday the whole family went out to Canyon Lake to go fishing with the Deacons and the Beehives. Mason, of course, is always excited to go fishing. Spencer was just excited to be able to "catch" his red fish, meaning that I would cast out the red fish tied to the end of his line and then he would reel it back in. On the first cast I took, the fish went sailing out into the lake, but the fishing line didn't follow. It seems that I had tied the fish to the swivel quite well, but the swivel hadn't been tied to the line quite so well.

At this point I figured my only recourse was to throw some bait on the end of the line. Worms aren't as exciting to reel in as red fish are, but it's better than nothing. So I put a worm on a hook for Spencer and tossed it into the water. Then I turned my back to bait my own line. Next thing I know, Spencer says something to me, and I turn around to see that he had reeled in the line and a fish is flopping around on the pier at his feet. How about that for beginner's luck.

Fortunately, Spencer wasn't the only one who caught his first fish last night. Mason managed to catch a fish as well. In fact, by the time we went home, Mason had caught three fish and Spencer had caught four. I even managed to catch one, which was amazing considering all the time I spent baiting other people's hooks.

Spencer went for a swim with Sister Schneider

After our campout in May, we had vowed never to camp in the heat in Texas again, but our sense of duty got the best of us. After all, Teressa is the second councilor in the Young Women's presidency, and it had been her idea to have a campout to help foster unity among the girls—she had just been hoping to hold it earlier in the year. This time we left Mason home with friends and brought just Spencer and Sam.

On this trip I discovered that camping with a group of girls is not exactly my idea of communing with nature. As we arrived we were greeted by the sound of girls singing popular music at the top of their lungs, and apparently their goal was volume rather than proper pitch. Eventually they were convinced that the other visitors to the campground had come to listen to the sounds of nature rather than an impromptu concert and they quieted down.

That night was windy. The good news was that the wind cooled things down. (Teressa didn't even have to break out her battery powered fan.) But the wind did make plenty of noise as the tents were billowing back and forth. I was tired enough that I could have slept through just about anything, and when Spence finally fell asleep, he was fine until morning. Teressa on the other hand, hardly slept at all, and she wasn't the only one. Lack of sleep was a common complaint among camp the next morning.

On Saturday most of us went out for a 4.5 mile hike. The terrain on the hike was rough for part of the trail, so Teressa stayed back with the boys. There is talk of making this a once a year tradition for the Young Women of the ward, but I suspect that Teressa will vote that I stay home with the boys. Then she can just relax and sing popular music at the top of her lungs.

Boys and frogs

In wetter times, frogs like this are plentiful in our yard.


We found this frog under the the base of the basketball hoop.

As mentioned in a previous post, during wet years we have an abundance of amphibians. This year is dryer, so we are seeing more lizards around the house. But that doesn't mean the frogs are all gone. When the weather gets wet, the frogs come out. There are also a few places in the yard where we have found where the frogs like to hide. One day while I was moving some things around, I discovered four of the frogs hiding under the base of our portable basketball hoop. Mason begged to go back a few days later, and that is when we discovered this frog. It seems that we had scared off his other friends the last time we had been in to look.

Great wall of Scotland

Here I am cutting the last brick down to size.


The last brick was placed on Memorial Day.


Here we are with the finished brick wall.

The brick wall in our front yard has been a long-term project, as well as becoming an ongoing joke. Teressa has had a running commentary with her friends about how long this project is taking. (Answer: about six months.) I started pulling out the sod last fall. Then I laid the footing over New Year's. Then the project sat as a hole in the ground up until April.

Once April rolled around, I finally had some extra time to work on the project. I was invigorated and vowed to finish the project as quickly as possible. Well, that and Teressa bribed me with the opportunity to get a new iPod once the project was finished. Now the bricks are finally done. All we need to do now is to plant our shrubs. Take that, doubters and naysayers. Don't you wish you had a brick wall in front of your house?

Got milk?

This gallon of milk was 10 days past its prime.

After returning from our trip to Corpus Christi, we had the opportunity to sit down for family dinner on Sunday. We decided to have some milk to go with our meal. When I went to the fridge, I was surprised to find that our gallon of milk was 10 days past the expiration date. I'm not sure how this could have happened because we never let a gallon of milk last 10 days in our house. I can only assume that either the store had let its milk sit around a bit too long or perhaps the milk had been pasteurized or irradiated or otherwise preserved so well that the date should really read "05/15/2009." As Teressa and I were discussing the situation, Mason astutely realized the potential consequences of the situation and blurted out, "That milk could be bad. Let's have Dad taste it first." Nice to see that I'm the most expendable member of the family.

As it turned out, I did drink the milk first. The milk was still OK and we had drank it for Sunday dinner.

Beach trip

Mason was the first one in the water

For Memorial Day weekend, we decided to head to Corpus Christi to visit the beach. It wasn't a hard decision. I have been working at the children's hospital for the month, and my hotel room was already paid for, so all we had to shell out for was for gas and meals. I was post-call on Thursday, so I drove back to San Antonio, picked up the family and away we went. I had to work Friday, but I still got out early enough that we were able to head to the beach.


Sam looks serious, but he had a good time

The next day we went to the beach again, this time to meet friends who drove down that day from San Antonio. The kids had a great time playing in the sand and the surf again, and nobody got sunburned too badly (except for Teressa who missed some spots with the sunscreen).


Spencer wasn't sure about the water at first.

We returned to San Antonio where we finished our Memorial Day weekend with a decidedly lest festive (although wildly productive) note. But that will be covered in another post.

Saving the earth

For our Memorial Day weekend trip to Corpus Christi, we decided to save a little gas money by piling the boys in the back of the Sentra rather than taking the minivan. Near the beginning of the trip, Teressa expressed some trepidation about how the boys would do in the car. But since we had been driving the for a whole 20 minutes in peace, I think I said something like, "See, the boys are doing fine back there." Well, it didn't take long before relations deteriorated and Mason and Spencer were going at it in the back seat with Samuel stuck in between them. The rest of the drive down there continued pretty much the same way, and the drive back looked like the same song, second verse—until I came up with an idea.


All three boys in the back seat seemed like a good idea at the time.

My original brainstorm was to have the kids tell us stories. If they were busy telling stories, they couldn't argue. Spencer started off by telling a cute story called "The Five Buffalo," but we soon found that the stories were short and soon the boys were arguing about who's turn was next. That's when I took matters into my own hands. It was my turn to tell stories. My stories filled up the next hour of the trip, and all were as long as I could possibly make them because the kids were listening, and they were being quiet. And the silence was like sweet music to my ears. All of my stories had similar themes. They went something like this.

Two boys were taking a walk through the forest. Their names were Mason and Spencer. As they were walking they came across a large dark shape sitting in the trail ahead of them. "That's a grizzly bear," Mason said. "I can tell by the teeth." "No, that's a Kodiak bear," Spencer said. "I can tell by the claws." (Any guesses where I got the inspiration for my stories?) "Grizzly bear!" "Kodiak bear!" This argument went on for some time until the bear could take no more. He stepped from the shadows, stood up and said, "I'm neither a grizzly bear nor a Kodiak bear. I'm a polar bear." "You can't be a polar bear," Mason said. "The polar bear's natural habitat doesn't extend this far south." The two boys continued to bicker until the bear couldn't take the noise anymore and swallowed them whole, just to make them stop.

There were several other stories that were told along similar lines and were somewhat more detailed. I was just trying to eat up as much time as possible so the boys would stay quiet. Overall, I would say that my strategy was successful, but the next time we take a trip, I'm pretty sure we'll take the van.