Goodbye!

To nobody in particular....I am heading of to the hill country of Arkansas, to join a band of rednecks and become a hillbilly..... Contrariwise, I am heading off to Arkansas to learn about medicine! However, that means I will not be on here for 2 weeks, so there will be no more updates from this blog unless Mama or Laurie decide to get on. (This is supposed to be a family blog, but somehow I'm the only one writing on it. ) Regardless, the next two weeks will be spent at the hospital near my grandparents, and here is a list of what will be going on, supposedly.

M*A*S*H objectives:

1. Students will be able to describe the role of each participating healthcare team member in the overall care of an individual patient.
2. Students will be able to perform simple diagnostic procedures that demonstrate their understanding of basic science theories.
3. Students will learn how to administer first aid to accident victims, including bandaging, control of bleeding, splinting, and spinal immobilization.
4. Students will learn to administer Basic Life Support (CPR).
5. Students will demonstrate a better understanding of medical terminology.
6. Etc....

M*A*S*H stands for something. Unfortunately I can't remember it off the top of my head. Oh well! It's going to be a very interesting 2 weeks--Arkansas, here I come!

~Debra

Off the wall post

For some reason, all of the sudden, I’ve taken a great interest in how authors’ describe their characters’ eyes. Where do they get these descriptions? Here are a few examples (all emphasized words are my own doing):

“And Aslan said nothing either to excuse Peter or to blame him but merely stood looking at him with his great unchanging eyes.” (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis, page 141.)

“As she spoke these words she rose from her seat and looked Edmund full in the face, her eyes flaming…” (Ibid. page 36.)

“And both the girls cried bitterly (though they hardly knew why) and clung to the Lion and kissed his mane and his nose and his paws and his great, sad eyes.” (Ibid. page 165)

“A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits.”  (The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien, page 169.)

“He caught the strange gleam in Boromir’s eyes, yet his face was still kind and friendly.” (Ibid. page 414.)

(These were almost all verbs of the eyes. The following are more descriptive.)

“In his aged face under great snowy brows his dark eyes were set like cols that could leap suddenly into fire.” (Ibid, page 239.)

“…his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars.” (Ibid. page 239.)

“…and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night…” (Ibid, page 239.)

Why do the authors describe like this? I know these selections are only from 2 books, but if I am correct there are countless others which are the same. There wasn’t time for me to go searching through all of them. My question is, did the writers see peoples’ eyes like this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone flash their eyes, nor have I looked into someone’s eyes and guessed their character. But it does have something to do with that—their character. You wouldn’t expect an elf to have jolly eyes, at least not Tolkien’s elves. And you wouldn’t expect a little boy to have eyes full of wisdom, unless he was extraordinary. Is it something you do with your eyes? Or does it also have to do with what mood you happen to be in?

I don’t know. And does it really matter? No! It just struck me for some reason, and I decided to blog about it.

~Debra  

Today is the Fourth of July. Has it just become another holiday? Sure, we shoot off fireworks, spend time with family, have cookouts, etc…But what really made this day special? It was a day (and a following of days) of sacrifice made by our founding fathers. Bob Aldrich says this a lot better than I could:

“Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education.

They had security, but they valued liberty more.

Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged:

"For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor".

They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot of what happened in the Revolutionary War.

We didn't just fight the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government!

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted.....we shouldn't.

So, take a couple of minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots...”

(http://keelynet.com/4th99.htm)

Oh, I’m such a wet blanket, aren’t I? J Everyone, enjoy your 4^th of July. I know I’ll enjoy mine. Actually, we already have enjoyed some festivities. Last night Gretchen and Reagan put on their own "firework" show. They obviously weren't allowed to use explosives; so how did they do it?

Well, the first thing on their schedule was Roman Candles. We were outside, facing the playhouse. Suddenly, out from the upper deck of the playhouse came little bombs, followed by the exploding noise of bubblewrap! The bombs themselves were crackling--due to the marbles in the balloons. After Roman Candles came Black Cats. Gretchen took the 3 submarines that if you whack hard enough on a solid object, they will light up into all sorts of colors. She whacked all of them, and as they sat and illuminated the grass with their lights, Reagan pounded around in the fort, banging on various things and popping more bubblewrap, creating a very realistic firecrackly sound. The finale used the same 3 submarines, only this time they were thrown up into the air, while either Gretchen or Reagan made more exploding noises. Wonderful fireworks, kiddos!

Thank you to everyone, living or passed on, who has worked or is working to keep America free! Long live liberty!

~Debra

My goodness, Debra, you are a blogger, and you haven't been recording all that has been going on this week for Gretchen and Heidi! Well, I'll make up for it now.

We have some friends at church who are very musically gifted, and they hold summer music camps. The one Gretchen and Heidi are attending is called Melody Makers University, MMU for short. They do a lot there, and the little girls have been enjoying themselves immensely! One of the first things the students did this week was make little mailboxes, so that throughout the week they could send notes to each other. From what I've heard they are studying 3 different composers (and not Beethoven, Mozart, or Bach...) and learning about all sorts of instruments. The one they use the most, however, is their voice. We often hear the little girls practicing their musical pieces; Gretchen is learning how to sing alto! Along with learning about music and different instruments, they are also memorizing different Bible Scriptures. What a wonderful camp!

Hannah Malone is in charge of it all, I believe, and she emailed Daddy and asked if we could do a bluegrass de-mon-stra-tion for the kids one day of the week. For Daddy, that was like Briar Rabbit and his briar patch. Of course he would! So all last week and into this week we were practicing hard on various instrumental songs and a couple of Gospel songs. Daddy played banjo, Juli fiddle, Mama guitar, and I played the mandolin. Laurie and Rebecca sang the songs with us, while Reagan videotaped. Each of the instrument players took turns at leading off the instrumental songs, so that the MMU students could hear each of the different sounds. I think they enjoyed the music, but their favorite part must have been the time when they could come up and play the instruments themselves!

My goodness, either I'm distracted or something, but this didn't come out quite the way I wanted it to. Oh well! I suppose that journalists run into that sort of problem from time to time. Sometimes their writings are inspired, and other times, well, they aren't. Regardless....Here are the words to one of the songs we sang. It's Gretchen's favorite:

Are you lost in sin my brother,
Can you hear God calling you?
His Voice is coming down from heaven,
And His word is kind and true.

Chorus:
Oh please listen won't you brother,
God is calling you today.
He'll come for you so unexpected,
So now's the time to change your way.

If you're not prepared to meet Him
When He comes to take you in
You'll never reach the gates of Heaven
And you'll lose your soul in sin.

Chorus

When this life on earth is over
And you reach the Pearly Gates
Will you be ready, then, my brother
To meet the One who there awaits?

Chorus

We aren't at professional level, but we love to sing!

~Debra

Lake Travis is a huge, man-made lake, made from the damming-up of the Colorado River. It is a popular place to go for Austinites. We have some friends who live near the lake, and they invited us over for dinner last night. It took awhile to get over to the lake, since it is quite a bit south from us, but we made it in good time. We actually didn't go to the Hastings' house. Instead, we met up at one of the Marinas. I always find it strange to walk down the boathouse paths, because they aren't solidly attached to the ground. They actually are floating! Therefore, when you are walking on them, it feels like you are on a ship. It's even more fun when a speed boat goes by, causing bigger waves!

There is a restaurant on this marina, and we stopped there first. Not to eat; we were interested in the fish that conglamorate around the dock! As we were walking down the marina we saw a bluegill or perch here and there, and sometimes a group, but none of us were expecting the sight that met our eyes when we got to the end. The water was litlerally black and churning with catfish! Not just ordinary catfish. These were monsters! Some were at least a yard long, and the widest part (their head) could possibly have been 10+ inches! I would not wish to go swimming with them. Mrs. Hastings had brought some bread, and so the feeding frenzy began. The water became even blacker and churned wilder with all the fish grouped in one spot. They were feroucious! Often they made great slurpy noises whenever grabbing a piece of bread; no table manners whatsoever. There were ducks, also, but they were wise and stayed away from the pack. We threw bread out to them, too, so they didn't miss out.

I could have stayed and watched the fish forever! It was amazing to see them. But we had come to go swimming, and the sun was already low. So we went off to a place of the lake where there weren't any catfish, and a nice beach area.

The lake evidently is very low this summer, because from the beach we could see a sand bar that Christina said hadn’t been there before. Well, all of us wanted to swim out there right away. There was still plenty of water, and it would be fun to be on an island! It took a long time to swim out there, and we lost one on the way, (just kidding—Paul had to leave to go to a meeting) but the swim was worth it. We played that we were sailors that had been in a shipwreck, and had been swimming for days. Land Ho!!

We didn’t spend that much time on the island, however, because I thought we were being summoned back by Mrs. Hastings. Unfortunately it turned out that it was some other lady, dressed very much like Mrs. Hastings! (How can you tell when the beachfront is so far away? Also, the person was standing next to Mama, and she was also standing, so I thought she was summoning also.) Oh well. We spent the rest of the time playing Marco-Polo, and jump-off-the-shoulders. Only Reagan and Gretchen could really do the latter game easily, because of their weight. It was so funny to see them bursting out of the water and flying backwards! My shoulders are a little bit sore from being stood on and jumped off of, but it was delightful to give the youngs the pleasure of flying.

The Hastings’ take care of a weekend rent house, and therefore they have a key. We went there for dinner. The house has a stairway that goes right down to the lake, and after dinner we spend some time there, skipping little stones and throwing big stones in and shrieking at the huge splashes, watching sailboats glide gracefully across the surface of the water, and talking. It was a very pleasant evening altogether. However, all things must end sometime. We said our goodbyes and traveled home. Daddy had come in a separate car, since he was still working when we left; he took Reagan and me home. Lago Vista has a difficulty with the wildlife. There are deer everywhere! Deer in the road, deer in the yards, deer eating the gardens up, etc….You can’t shoot them, because you are in the city limits, and they are so tame that you can drive up to them and they’ll just look at you. Silly deer…

~Debra