SmokeLong Weekly—"What You See When You Think Of Home" by John Mark DeMoss—February 8, 2010

This short story is written by a man who was instrumental in making me the person I am today. When I was young him and his wife took me in and were a wonderfully positive influence in my life, they were a line to hold onto when I had drifted astray. I was very lucky to have had their family's kindness and who knows the kind of life I may have had with out them. He has recently taken up writing fiction and this story is Amazing!!

SmokeLong Weekly—"What You See When You Think Of Home" by John Mark DeMoss—February 8, 2010

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Caution Monkey At Work

This weekend a friend of mine and I took Monkey to Dinosaur World. It was amazing. It was laid back and low key. When we arrived around 9 am there was only 1 other car in the parking lot and I think it belonged to the people that worked there. We spent a few hours walking the trails that lead around the little park. All over they have representations of all kinds of dinosaurs and other ancient creatures.

Roo looked at every one. He got to have a little fossil dig and he found 3 shark teeth. He found real fossils too but he didn't want to keep them. We were there for a school assignment but we found it to be fantastic. If you live in this area and want a great place for the afternoon I suggest you check it out. You can take in a lunch and they have lots of picnic areas. The admission is really inexpensive also.

So on the way out I told him he could pick out a souvenir so he selected this dinosaur encased in tiny rocks that he then dug it out with his chisel and hammer and his brush. He then worked with daddy to construct the bones into a skeleton. See the below pictures

Some assembly required....

Celebration of Life

This is what Noodles school does for the children's birthday. You can't really tell but on the ground is an orange candle it represents the sun. The children put around it the four seasons and the 12 months of the year. Then the birthday child walks around the sun and for each year he makes someone reads a story about his life in that year beginning from birth. So I read about when he was just a baby all the way to all about Noodle in his 4th year. They sang a great song about enjoying their time with him and good wishes for the future. It was very touching and I only cried a little but I thought this was a great way to celebrate the kids' birthdays and still teach them the reality of a birthday.

Touch a Truck and a bit of Nature

So my city is wonderful and has several fairs thought the year. One of them this year was Clown day and Touch a Truck. During this day they invite all the city and county groups to bring out their equipment for the kids to look at and climb all over (the honking was ear splitting). We saw old police cars, garbage trucks, semi trucks, recycling trucks, street sweepers, buses and of course the fire truck. The care flight helicopter landed and took off from the park right in front of the kids. It was great. And as always we have a much better time when we have friends to enjoy the day with. In the picture above is Noodle, Pip, Popeye, Pearl and Jason.

They also invited several other vendors and below are some pictures of Noodle and his friends Pip and Popeye checking out the butterfly garden. The children learn all about the life cycle of the butterfly at school and just loved holding them and how beautiful they looked in person.

Funny Things a Kid Says

Today Noodle, his friends, their mom and I went for a little walk. The kids were running ahead the other mom asked them to slow down a bit. Noodle turns around and says "We can't we are going to eat your dirt."

One more tid bit to share to those of you I haven't told already, I am just never more amazed by my son then when he asks me this stuff. We were chatting as we often do in the car on the way to school. Noodle asks: "Mom if you don't take care of a baby will it die?" Concerned where this is going, I answered yes because a baby can't feed itself so it needs people to take care if it. "Well mom, then who took care of the first baby?"

And I thought I would share a few new pictures of him we just got in for his big 5 year old birthday!

Catch Up

I am so sorry it has been so long. It will take me a bit to catch up. We will start with the big events: Noodle's big 5th Birthday party! It was a wonderful day. The weather was perfect and the party went off with out a hitch. The kids loved Mrs. Kim and the Parents loved that I didn't have pizza.

He got wonderful gifts from all of his friends. The very best part was seeing all of the kids having fun and being successful. And of course the kido's loved playing on the playground together. Thank you to everyone that joined us.

Gold Belt

Here it is, mommy bragging time!! My wee monkey has worked hard for this day and he has moved from his white belt into the world of colored belts. Below is a piece of his big test today. His teacher Mrs. Kim Jackson is amazing with the kids and he just loves her!! She is also coming to his Tae Kwon Do birthday to teach his friends how wonderful this discipline is! I couldn't be more proud.

Check out his great moves: