Halloween Party

We carved pumpkins at Stella's.

There was a skunk siting outside her house before the party

MB made a yummy lemon pound cake

Diva Going to Church

The tiny Diva goes to church

Aren't I cute?

Oh no you didn't

Acolyte Brock

Brock was an acolyte at church on October 19th. He was a little nervous, but did a great job. Wickline UMC had a class for 4th and 5th graders this year and Brock was happy to participate. We have been taking the kids to Bible Bunch on Wednesday nights since school started. It is like Vacation Bible School for one evening each week! (for those of you who have volunteered at VBS, you can read between the lines that the good news AND the bad news is that it is like VBS one night a week!)

We are very proud of Mr. B!

Love,

4Vs

Grace's new walls

Grace has been asking to paint her room for almost a year. Of course, as you know, we should have painted the moment we moved here to get maximum enjoyment from our colored walls. When we move out of base housing, we have to paint it back. Thus, Grace has never had a painted room. I can see myself painting the first time, but I never could picture myself re-painting in the middle of a PCS move~ Those last few weeks before we move are always so hectic that the thought of adding painting to the "To-Do" list was always something I thought would push me over the edge.

But, the kids are growing up! They really are more of a help at home than they have ever been and it seems like our moves are getting smoother- practice makes perfect right?

So we compromised. Over Fall break we painted two walls in Gracie's room. She picked the color at Home Depot by using the color match machine and the pillow sham from her bedspread set. We did some furniture moving and some taping first thing in the morning, and with Brock's help, we had the walls done in about an hour and a half.

Grace is thrilled and I was happy to be reminded that painting isn't as difficult as I had remembered! Her room looks great :)

Remind me to come back and read this post when we are PCSing next summer and I am losing it!

Much love,

4Vs

3rd Annual Backyard Campout

Its time for the annual Back yard campathon along with candy and electricity

Eveyone gets their own cumphy bed

There is movies and TV too!

Random photos

It was fire pevention week. Hydro the hydrant poses with B Boy

We went to the OKC horse show. They had some fancy riders with ponies that pranced around

Some Halloween cookies with Pigs and Cowboy stars.

Rockettes

Grace and Ms Rockette at the Tinker Youth Center

Musings on skunks.....

Tinker AFB has lots and lots of skunks. We had actually grown fond of these little guys. We see them in the early morning along the jogging path and in the evenings along the creeks. Daisy is always excited to see them- much like her love of squirrels.

Last Tuesday morning, I let Daisy out in the backyard at 5am. We were getting ready to go out on the jogging trail. It was still dark. As soon as she walked out the back door, she turned suddenly and ran toward the fence. I swung the door open to see what was going on. There was a small hissing/cough noise and then the smell hit me like a bomb! Daisy had cornered a medium sized skunk against the side fence...about six feet from the back door. He sprayed her in the face/chest and then slipped out of the yard by scooting thru the garage. Daisy was now rubbing her face on the grass and bolted for the kitchen door.

I managed to stop her right inside the back door, but the damage was done. Unbelievable, burning rubber type horrible, horrible smell. We cleaned Daisy up as best we could. The house absolutely reeked. By 8am, we had all showered, opened all the windows, set up all our Japan fans, kenneled the dog and headed off to school.

Mike was working and I was subbing in 5th grade. Turns out, Mike and I had lost our sense of smell while we were cleaning up the dog. When I reported to the school office and Mike got to work, folks let both of us know that we smelled like skunk. It was on our clothes, in our hair, on our hands and clinging to our book bags and everything we carried. Horrid! I taught next to an open window and Mike came home to shower and wash his uniform. Lots of fun for all!

After school and football, we worked on Daisy and the house again. Lots of fans and open windows were slowly helping at the house.

We picked up some skunk smell rid stuff at Petsmart that evening. MSV had to take care of some work stuff, so the kids and I tried to douse Daisy with it at 8pm that evening in the front yard. FYI- Daisy hates water and did not enjoy the skunk rid bath. In the end, she got away from us and headed for the creek.

Long story short- by the time we caught her, she had been sprayed AGAIN down in the creek. So our Tuesday ended the same way it started- Mike and I wrestling a rancid dog, in the dark and trying to get rid of the skunk smell. We are lucky to still be married, continued dog owners and speaking to each other.....

I am happy to report that it only takes six full days of open windows and constant fans to get rid of most of the skunk smell in your house. Sadly, I am not able to report to you yet how long it takes to get rid of the skunk smell on a bluetick coonhound... Day seven and still workin on it.....

Much love,

Stinky 4Vs

Cousin Marshall

Cousin Marshall Cone checks out the lady bug

That's not fair my silly cousin Grace took the whole cake and kissed it.

The big 11 for Brock

Brock turns 11 on 16 Sep 08

Party time at Uncle Matt Cone's

The kids wanted to have a pool party but it was cold and rainy. They swam anyways in 80 degree cold pool water.

Dream date on the Governer's Carriage

Grace rides on the Governer's ride

Buffalo Brock and Wild Grace pose for the show

OK Critters

Tatonka

Ka Stinka

Bobcat eats a quail

OK Governer's open house

We visited the OK Governer's open house and hung out at his pool in the shape of the state of OK; the Hot tub is the part that looks like he pan handle.

Brocky Pop

Brock downs his Japanese soda pop and poses in front of the 66 foot tall soda bottle

The first Man Burp

Grace Drank &

Drank &

Kept Drinking so much pop that she almost popped at Pops. She did the loudes man burb ever heard on Route 66. Ripleys Belive it or not was reported to come hear it but she ran out of juice.