A New Profession?

For as long as I have known Bob he has cut his own hair. He has worn out a few sets of clippers, but the savings more than make up for an occasional new clipper. Since he cut his own hair, he did not see any reason to not cut his sons' hair. Clipper #2 works well, keeps the heads cool and provides a nice clean cut and neat look.
Recently Lukas has wanted to grow his hair a bit. And does he have hair... It is thick, coarse, and curly. He would happily accept trims around the ears, but not anything else. However, tending to hair takes time, it requires combing, drying, more thorough washing and combing again.. too much time wasted on unnecessary practices when there are robots to be designed, Legos to be built, programs to be written for the computer and tree house construction to be completed.

On Saturday night he decided that enough was enough and asked for a hair cut. Bob set him up and was all set to begin cutting, when Lukas asked to take it over... He calmly handled the clipper, hand mirror and wall mirror and began the cumbersome process of cutting off all that extra hair. He only asked Bob for some final touch up assistance, but he is definitely on course to begin handling his own hair cuts. Our little Lukas is growing up right before our eyes.

So, if the Lego programming, engineering, software developed, tree house construction, security system creator, new weapons designing is not working out, maybe his fall back is Barber?

Happy Noah

Noah can light up a room, he can make people laugh and he can crack a pretty good joke. Last week, Noah and Lukas were given a bunch of balloons as thank  you for their work on a community project. Noah could not resist to pose for a Happy Noah picture. This is a great representation of who he is.

Where was the camera????

I am usually really good about remembering to capture our daily life on film, eehm I mean digitally. The camera sits by the door on a shelf, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. I take photos of every day normal activities, special things we do and just for fun photos, simply journaling our daily life in photos, rarely news worthy, just every day stuff. Well, on Sunday the camera remained on its shelf, and it was not just an ordinary Sunday, it was a true camera moment Sunday. What was a I thinking?? No telling, but unfortunately this special extra ordinary Sunday moment was not captured.
On Sunday we met some of our distant relatives, cousins as we were called by this dear couple, Richard and Diane Severinghaus. It turns out that there are some Severinghaus' not far from here, and on Sunday they graciously offered to drive down so we could meet. They came armed with a binder full of genealogy information, photos and old records and we spent a few hours visiting, eating, and talking. Lukas and Noah's great-great-great-grandfather Johann Frederick was the brother of Johann Deitrich ancestor of Richard Severinghaus. We hope to go and visit in their home town in the near future and I know I will take my camera with me this time!

A good man

It can happen in an instance, the life you knew is no more - and somehow those things that seemed to important and critical are shown for what they are - insignificant, meaningless. But what mattered, and what still matters is the time you had together, the memories you made, the laughter, the tears shed together, the relationships. If I can only remember this lesson when my to do list looms too long for a sheet of paper.... and I rather brush everyone aside to cross something off - in an instance that to do list matters not at all, but the people around me do. Hug your family, and tell each and everyone you love them - we only have today so make it count!

Jeff Knutzen a great man: husband, father, brother, son, in-law, uncle, dentist, friend, elder, neighbor, and so much more was called Home too soon in the eyes of all of us left behind. Please pray for his family as they adjust to life without him.

Shed be gone

When we first moved into our house, the shed in our backyard served a great purpose! Slowly but shortly we needed the space less and less and it began to fill up with odds and ends. The location of the shed made it a bit of an eye sore. With Bob back in town, the boys itching for some 'man' time, the shed was a natural target. Armed with tools and ladder, the clean out was quick, the tear down more tedious and slower than anticipated. Lukas and Noah lobbied for keeping the metal for shop projects, Mamma and Dad convinced them that there was money to be made by selling the shed with proceeds to boys for future projects - case closed. Shed sold, shed disassembled, shed gone.

New pet?

We have been inundated with these little critters in the last few weeks. Our neighbor tells us they are called oak worms, although they are really caterpillars. They live in California Oaks all the time, but every five years or so, there are too many. They eat the leaves, apparently not to any detriment to the tree, but our drive way, side walk and patio area is covered in green powder, which I took to be a sort of pollen. In reality it is the left over from the leaves.

This is just one small area.....

Another freebie science experiment right outside our door.

Chocolatiers

Lukas and Noah really enjoy cooking, baking and creating things in the kitchen. This week, Lukas decided that they would create chocolate sculptures. Out came bowls, foil, spoons and the two of them were ready to melt and create.

The end yielded some good learning: butter scotch is not so tasty when melted; white 'chocolate' melt faster but hardens faster than other chocolate so it is necessary to work quickly; and not all experiments results in greatness although it can still taste good. Maybe they do not have a future as chocolatiers???

Homecoming

As part of Bob's SMART scholarship, he is required to spend the summer months with his sponsoring agency. Although it is hard to be apart, this separation is so much shorter and far easier to handle than any deployment, yet it is time apart. The sweetest moment is the home coming, and yesterday was our day to welcome Bob back home. Since we were waiting for something great, time seemed to move very slow, fortunately we were invited to birthday party that made time go faster. We arrived at the airport just in time to see the plane land and a few short minutes later Bob appeared through the doors! What joy! Lukas and Noah had each made a nice sign that hung outside our house welcoming Bob home. Saturday September 3 is a red letter day in the Severinghaus family!