Terry's 3M's

Delton took the kids and I to Lake Mead today. (Lake Mead--at least the beach where we go swimming--is about 26 miles from our house.) Believe me, it was too early in the season to go swimming. The water was COLD!!! And you mustn't forget to take shoes to go swimming in. We don't have sandy beaches here. They are rocky beaches and you may have to walk over 6-8 feet of rocks and stones in the water before getting to a smoother part of the lake floor.

It was bad enough that the water was cold. The wind was also blowing at, at least, 15-20 mph. We had inflatable toys and any kid who had the misfortune of letting the plastic surfboards or rings go, sent the toy floating away and had quite a chore retreiving it. Stephanie kept trying to use the floating lounge and often ended up too far away from where we were on the beach. Delton finally ended up telling her to go up about 20 yards into the wind and then getting in the water. That way she would end up floating back down to us.

Johnny has a very slight build (he's 4'2" and about 50 lbs.) He had a lot of fun, but, because the child hasn't got an ounce of fat on his little body, he got very cold in the water. He had to come out 3 times to dry off and bake in the sun to get warm again. But, he insisted on getting right back in the water.

We finally decided to try to get the kids on track 1. This means that they will start school about 3 weeks later than Bryan. They will be off from the start of Christmas vacation (December 18) until the 25th of January. Bryan will have to back to school on January 4th. The kids will be off again from the last week of April to the middle of May. Then Bryan will get out of school at the end of May while the others go to school through the first week in August. Doesn't that all sound like fun!?!

It was a toss-up between tracks 1 and 5. If it can be made financially feasible, Delton would like to take Faye and their kids to Texas for the Christmas holidays. His whole family lives in Texas and he hasn't been home to see them in three years.

We didn't choose track 5 because it seems more difficult to have the kids home from Thanksgiving until after the new year--which is time when that track goes on break.

But, Johnny and I won't be going to Texas with the others. Johnny is all excited about "peace and quiet!" He also wants some time to have "MY Mama" all to himself. Sometimes he really misses being an only child. "She's MY Mama!" is the phrase that Johnny uses when he thinks the other kids are claiming more than their fair share of hugs and kisses...as if I didn't give him as many hugs and kisses as the other three combined.

Thanks to for the border background set.