A 14 year old…and a bird
My little brother turned 14 today. Ok, tomorrow, but we celebrated today. 14. Next year he can DRIVE! Crazy talk.
First we ate Z’s choice for dinner: baked potato pizza. Yum.
The birthday boy himself, dressed for his basketball game tonight. Gooo, Zachary!
Eating from the Red Plate. I love this tradition!
And here’s a video of him opening his present.
Zach’s present
And a random video from this morning, just because it was so sweet to get this close to a crane (or heron), WITH the dogs. Cool!
Crane in flight
First Haircut
Bristol’s layers are finally evened out! I had been dreading trying it myself, so when we saw this place in the mall I had to go. It turned out well and they gave us a certificate with a lock of her hair attached. 
Then we went to the playground in the mall. At first she thought it all was a tad overwhelming! Then she got used to the noises and sights and started climbing and running (as fast as her little legs can run) all over the place!
Hopefully this means she’ll sleep tonight.
It’s Official
For those of you that haven’t heard yet, Tobin received nonconcurrent orders a week or so ago. That just means that Bristol and I can’t go with him; unless, that is, we’re willing to rent in Minot somewhere. Which we are; however, the housing situation in Minot is ugly right now with the after-effects of the flood. Renting is expensive or nonexistent, and buying a home is not really something we want to do.
Our solution is for Tobin to go ahead and live in the dorms on base while Bristol, the dogs, and I head north to Chicago for the time being. We’re on a waiting list to live on base. The wait times are unknown, ranging from the official 12 months to the unofficial 5 months to the rumored 2-3 months. I’m hoping for 2 or less!
It is probable that Tobin will be deploying in April, so I hope to be living in Minot by then. If not, Bristol and I will head to North Dakota to see him off.
It’s crazy to me that our time here in Barksdale in almost over already. The moving company packs us up on Thursday, and we’re planning to drive out of here on the 24th. It will be a busy 2 weeks!
Bristol walking
We’ve still got some work to do.
Check it out!
Skeletor Baby Shower
Our friends Dale and Mary Frances Russell are expecting a baby this spring, so we threw them a baby shower today. At their anatomy ultrasound visit, the tech kept calling the baby “Skeletor”, and the nickname has stuck. So we planned the theme for the party around that name; incidentally, it was pretty much a Halloween themed baby shower. :) I made the food while our good friend Margaret planned the games and made the cake & favors. (thank the Lord, game-planning is not one of my strengths) Thanks to her creativity, we ended up with a daddy-long-leg (for the dad) and “Mummy” (for the mom) theme for the food. Cute! Here are the results.
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- Daddy Long Leg Avocado Sandwiches
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- Mummy hot dogs with cheese
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- Mummy pizzas
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- Green punch
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- Margaret’s cake…she hand drew that skeleton! Wow.
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- Margaret’s amazing masterpiece, the Skeletor Candy Land
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- Skeletor game pieces for the Candy-Land board
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- Don’t land on the black holes.
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- Playing Skeletor Candy Land; the mom-to-be is in white with boots.