April in Arkansas

April brought us some unseasonably warm weather.  The Easter egg hunters didn't seem to mind.  In the photo above, Jack's pre-school class (he's in the center with blue bucket and check shirt) gets their instructions on how to hunt.  You can click on this VIDEO, and at one point, you can see him pick up a shovel full of sand to pour into his basket like it's a sand pail. There may have also been a dog turd, a stick, and a few stones in there. A pretty good haul.

We took a walk through the new Crystal Bridges Museum's trail system.  You can see part of the museum in the background.   There was an installation of civil war uniforms, and I took the moment to tell Jack his "team" wore blue uniforms and was called The Union Army, and the other team was called The Confederate Army.  I'm sure someone in the crowd muttered something about damn yankees.

There is some artwork along the trail.  Here you see Jack with a big bronze hog.  Yes, he has to go to the bathroom, and no, he would not go when we were inside the museum.                                           

Spring rains are here.  Bring out the rain boots and fireman coat.  He keeps asking for a fireman hat.  When he wears this to school, they give him a red plastic hat to wear, otherwise he refuses to remove the coat.  The spring storms also signal the start of tornado season.  We've already had two watches for systems within 35 miles of us.  You may recall from an earlier post, that you get a "Watch" when doppler radar notices conditions capable of producing tornados (that usually gives you about 35 minutes to prepare).  Then, if one is actually spotted on the ground, you get a "Warning" to seek shelter immediately.  We were looking up at the sky, and you could actually see them forming and breaking up, and forming and breaking up again.  So, we decided with them forming right on top of us like that, we would have very little notice, if any, of an upgrade to "Warning".  We'd be the ones calling in the warning when it ripped the roof off.  So, we sat on the floor of the walk-in closet for the next 20 minutes. 

The Fayetteville Farmer's market has started up, and there is quite a bit of fruit and veg for this early in the year.  One old farmer we talked with said it was the earliest he'd had strawberries in 20 years of growing.  Here, Jacqui is modeling  Birkenstock footwear and a third trimester belly (only 3 months to go).

There are usually three of four "bands" playing.  These kids are one of our favorites.  As you can see from the sign, they call themselves Farmer and The Markets. They have a Youtube chanel you can check out, or you canmsee some links to their videos here:
All I Want Is You
Little Lion Man
Chicago

This is the look Jack gives you when you mention that the Sox are at the bottom of the AL East with only 10 wins.

We took a short hike up in Bella Vista (about 40 min from us), and here Jack is saying he JUST wants to put his foot in the creek.  Just a little bit.  This turns into both shoes off, and me, with both shoes on, in water half-way up my shins.  He also likes throwing stones into the water and watching leaves and sticks float down the creek.  No sign of snakes.

I did see this one on one of the bike trails the other day, and stopped to take a photo with my phone.  It's one of the most common ones in our area, and is not poisonous.  It's called a North American Racer (link to Arkansas snakes ).  There were a couple of UofA girls that also stopped, and one of them, apparently a good country girl, said she'd like to grab it by the tail and swing it around her head like Annie Oakley.  I said, "I'll give you 5 bucks if you let me post that on YouTube".  She didn't take me up on it. 

I have a related story that also illustrates this difference between city people and country people.  We went on a hike last weekend, and at the trail head, we said hello to a girl and a guy who were putting their kayaks into the stream.  It's very scenic, and the trail runs along the top of a bluff about 20 feet above the stream.  The trail was just a tight single track, and despite it only being spring, the vegetation was already encroaching on both sides of the trial.  It was thick, and buggy and there was that sweet smell of honeysuckle hanging in the air.  Jack was stopping every 10 feet to pick up a stone to throw in the water, so with all of that, I knew it wouldn't be long before we decided to turn around and go back.  Just then, we heard the girl call to us from the stream below.  She said, "Hey, can you see that snake?"  We grabbed Jack by the hair, and turned to go back.  She said, "not up there, it's on the other side".  We looked over to see her buddy jump out of his kayak, and belly flop into the water to catch the snake with his hand.  He grabbed it in the middle, and flung it up on the opposite shore and started splashing water at it as he retreated to his boat.  That's "country" for ya'.

We may have more stories for you next month, as we head to Gulf Shores Alabama, a.k.a. The Redneck Riviera, for a few days of fun on the beach.  Until then, we hope you enjoyed the pics and our View Of Life In The South.



First quarter 2012

Thought I’d use these photos to update the blog with what’s been happening in the first quarter of the new year.  I’m also going to add a few 2011 Christmas items for laughs.

The first picture here is from the annual Christmas parade in Bentonville, Arkansas.  You can see the very first WalMart in the background (Walton’s 5 & 10).  They’ve turned it into a mini-museum, which is on our tour of the area, if you’re interested in coming down to visit.

Here’s a photo from the Beaver Lake Sailing Club Christmas Party.  The team I race with won the “King of the Lake” trophy for the 2011 season.  The trophy is only awarded if a team wins all three of the major regattas (Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day) in a single season. Winning this trophy is made especially difficult because each regatta is a multiple day event, and if you win on Saturday, they give you a bottle of rum, and expect you to drink it that night.  Drinking the rum usually results in a poor performance in the next day’s race.  We’ve got skills though, and were able to perform like Vikings, or Kennedys.

In other Christmas news, we drove to MI to celebrate with Jacqui’s family, then drove to Chicago for the next leg of our trip to MA to see my family for a few days, and for Jacqui to eat some lobster and a huge horse carrot.  Jacqui barely had enough time to digest that carrot before we had to fly back to Chicago.  We did get to spend the night with our friends, the Garretts, and celebrate New Years Eve before the big drive back to AR.

We had a typical mild winter in NWA this year, with very little snow and temps rarely dipping below freezing.  We did get a chance to build a snow man (about a foot tall).  Jack says we need a "Corm Pop Pup" (that's a corn cob pipe in case you didn't know).

Jack's has had to endure some big changes recently.  Namely, moving out of his crib, no more diapers, and getting used to the idea that he's going to have a sibling this summer.  Since we moved him out of his crib and into a bed, he's only fallen out once.  We've got a safety bar on the bed, but he was  restless one night, and he did a forward roll, right over the top of it.  After the crying stopped, and he calmed down, I left him on the floor with a blanket and he slept there the rest of the night.  Cold comfort. 

We've been working on potty training with Jack (nombre uno, y dos), and have had great success.  Only a few accidents so far, and we're hopefull there's no backsliding this summer. I recall the process is rarely consistent, and new sibling arrival could de-rail the whole operation. 

Here's a photo of his pre-school class.  For some reason, a few of his best buddies are missing from the photo.

Jack is in the top row, 2nd from the left between a girl named Nysha, and Mr. Orville Reddenbacher Jr.  Jack seems really tall in this photo, despite the majority of kids in this class being 6months older than him.  His height and weight are both a bit below the average (he was a 30lb, 3yr old at last weigh-in).  Also, missing from this photo, are his two best buddies, Vivianne and Logan.  They are the "giants" of the class.  Vivianne greets him each morning with a bear hug, and twirls him around in a circle.  Logan is teaching him wrestling moves that involve alot of "HiYah" karate noises and "Oy, Oy, Oy" which might be MuiThai or Krav Maga, I'm not sure.  I'm teaching him some moves from home, such as, chin-whip, nose-pry, fish-hook, some assorted Indian leg moves, and yelling "arm-bar, arm-bar, arm-bar".  I saw him put the leg moves to good use against a much older kid at a birthday party last week.

Jack turned 3 in March, and Jacqui's mom Bonnie came down for a visit.

The black eye in the photo did not come from wrestling.  Jacqui says he ran into something in the cafeteria at work when she brought him in one weekend.  Also, the single candle is for Bonnie's friend Pat, who was with us also, and celebrating her birthday.  Nice of him to share his racecar cake.

The red part of the cake is rasberry frosting I think.  The wheels are frosted with chocolate and it is rolling across a "dirt track" made from chocolate cake and crushed nuts.

While Bonnie was in town, Jacqui and I took a quick trip to Tulsa, OK to spend the evening away.  While there, we took advantage of the "western" ambiance.  Here's Jacqui talking with some cowpoke.

We also went to the famous Cains Ballroom.  It was awesome and they happened to be celebrating the birthday of country legend Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.  He pioneered Texas Swing music.  Here's a link to a video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmTYJRbUrvI .  Bob Wills is dead, but the Texas Playboys are still around, and the guy singing with them in the video was also the the MC at Cains the night we were there.  In the video at the 54second mark, you can see people dancing exactly like what we saw.  It wasn't a "cowboy night" or "mechanical bull" fake thing.  It was the real deal.

We went to the Thomas Gilcrease Museum while we were there.  It was impressive (see the link here http://gilcrease.utulsa.edu/Explore .  We had dinner in a place that offers Luchadore Wrestling.  That's the Mexican wrestlers with the leather face masks.  They had a ring set up right in the middle of the restaurant, but we missed the wrestling.

We had a good time, and a few laughs, and Bonnie got some good alone time with her grandson.

St. Patrick's Day had us on a road trip to Eureka Springs for the annual parade, and wearing of the green.

We saw a this band that played just about every Ozark instrument you could think of.  Washboard, spoons, mouth-harp, banjo, fiddle, and a few traditional instruments too.  They all sang, and the drummer was chaneling Janis Joplin (au-natural underarms).

 Here's our crew (Theresa, Joel, Lindsay, Chad, and either a wookie, or squatch, on the right.

It finally dried out enough for us to set up the inflatable in the back yard.  Jack had a blast jumping around in it and sliding out feet first and head first.

I usually end the blog posting with a funny story, but I can't think of a recent one. Back in December though, a WalMart greeter saw that I had purchased Old Spice deoderant, and he told me a funny story. Funny because he was a WalMart greeter, and because he shouldn't be sharing this type of story with customers. He said, he was working on a forestry crew when he got out of the army, and he wanted to get drunk, but had no liquor. The crew did have a bunch of old spice calogne that was given to them for Christmas. They told him, if you strain it through a loaf of bread you could get drunk on the alchohol in it. He said he drank a pint of this bread booze and got sicker than a dog. Since then he can't even look at old spice.

That's about it for now.  Next up, we'll probably cover Easter Egg hunts, maybe a hike and a video tour of the area.  Until then, we hope you enjoyed the photos and our View of Life in the South.

War Whoop Road

War Whoop Road, or actually, Warloop Road is a place which shall live on in the memory of all those who have given-in to backseat drivers. Or, it will live on at least until I’m told to take this video down “if I know what’s good for me”. Picture this scene:  You’re driving along, knowing you’ll have to head south about 18 miles before connecting with the only road heading back north again. Then, you hear it.   A suggestion to turn the car around, and go the other way, down a dirt road that surely must connect with the highway, because it seems to be pointing in the right direction. Why go south when you can go north on this dirt road instead?

The link here to the first video sets up the story, and the second video shows you what happened next on Warloop Road itself. 

The road shows up on the g.p.s. as a major time saver, shaving almost 40 miles off our trip home from a hike in the Ozark National Forest. But, that shouldn't be the only factor in deciding whether or not to take a route. Should it?  How about considering whether or not you have a chainsaw in the trunk to remove trees that have fallen across the dirt road? How about considering that it’s the first weekend of deer hunting season in Arkansas and you’re not wearing blaze orange? How about it’s getting dark and if we get stuck, AAA isn’t coming to the rescue, and you’ll have to hike over to that farmhouse/meth operation to ask for someone to tow you out with a tractor?  How about considering that it may be time to turn around when the road starts out like dirt, then turns to loose gravel with mud holes, then washed-out gravel as the walls on both sides begin to narrow, then broken rock with small saplings growing up in the middle of the “road”, then larger and larger boulders in the road, then completely impassable unless you’re on a dirtbike. 

Speaking of dirt bikes, I googled Warloop Road, and there’s a video of some guys on dirt bikes going down this very same road. Take a look at minute 4:08, just as they make a banking turn to the left. That’s where I was finally able to convince the backseat driver that it was a bad idea, and even though the g.p.s. said we only had 2.3miles to go, we weren’t going to be able to go forward another inch. I put it in reverse headed up a bit, turned the wheels and rammed the rear end into the embankment, cut the wheels all the way and was able to turn the car around and begin the un-nerving climb out.  Did I mention we did this all in a Honda?  No, not the SUV, the car.

Since the Warloop incident, I’ve done some research on the area and found several references to the condition of this road, but this one pretty much sums it up “WarLoop Rd is littered with various mud pits and washout, with plenty of rocks to deflect any and all round wheels”, and this one ,“thankfully this road ends at a small service station where you might be able to get your ATV repaired”, and my favorite “take this road if you have a good friend with a tractor and a long length of chain”.

That’s about all I can say about Warloop Road.

We had a much better experience the following week on a hike in the same region. Jack got in a good nap during the hike.

We hiked up a peak in the Boston Mountains for about a mile, then traversed a rocky area on the way to what I think was called Fern Gulley. It was very erie walking through this tight gulley with lots of growth on the trees and weird bird noises.  After a while, even the bird noises stopped, and  Jacqui got spooked by all the signs (poop) of animals (probably wild hogs and bears). There was a notice at the trail head about black bears in the area. Good thing we brought that little bell.  Next time I'm bringin' the Ruger.

The farmer’s market season is ending on the Fayetteville square, so we took one last trip and listened to some old-timey banjo music.  I should have let Jack bring his harmonica and spoons.

As Thanksgiving approached we prepared to celebrate the expulsion of the Dutch (Jacqui’s people) from England (after being thrown out of the Netherlands), and their subsequent arrival on our shores. We get out our pox blankets and whiskey and buy all the fixins for a big meal. Some of us still want to play baseball.

November is also time for the big Alpaaca show here in town. Did you know that Alpaaca are herd animals and very social.  So, if your neighborhood association allows it, and if you want one, you need another for a pal. Other fun facts: The fur is sheared once a year and the gestation period is 11months. Huh? Who knew? Maybe this event will be a new family tradition.

As for Thanksgiving traditions, we had a great meal and plenty of adult beverages. Our friend Chad joined us, and Jacqui made an incredible cranberry glaze for the bird along with the usual sides and a great corn casserole that I may want to request each year. I instituted a few of my family traditions, some of which were embraced (pimento stuffed olives, kosher dills, cracking whole walnuts), and some of which were not (jellied cranberry sauce from a can).

 We like to celebrate traditions here. It’s one of Jacqui’s traditions to go out on the first weekend after Thanksgiving and get the Xmas tree. So, we went out and I believe we might have been the first people to get their tree this year. I think everyone else just hangs stuff on the ones out by the stil.

 As we took all the decorations out of their boxes, we were reminded of the many good memories that went along with each of them. There’s the paper cake I cut out of a magazine and hung on my first Chicago Xmass tree (because those were lean years and I had no lights or ornaments). Here’s Jack playing with the “Matt-Johnson-High-Kick-Santa” from one of our white elephant parties. He doesn’t care why it’s called that. He thinks it’s just fun to try to say it. There are all the “Chicago Tribe” ornaments from that first post-divorce Xmas party. There’s the creepy Christ/Mary hologram manger that I picked up at one of the Wicker Park art fairs. Good times.  

It’s also the traditional time of year to read from the “Chronicle of 1620”, as recorded by N. Morton, keeper of records at Plymouth Colony, in what later became Massachusetts.  It’s one of the first records of how our first settlers (the dutch - see one above) felt about living in their new and strange land.

…Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain them…If they looked behind them, this mighty ocean which they had passed was now as a main bar to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. 

Sitting here in Arkansas, I sometimes feel just like an early Pilgrim.

I think that’s about it for now.  We hope you had a good Thanksgiving, and hope to pass along more about our View Of Life In The South next month.

Getting Back To Basics in October 2011

October has rolled in and we’ve kicked off the fall season with all of Jacqui’s favorites (Football, Tailgating, Octoberfest, etc).  We killed two birds (not litterally) by taking in the Arkansas vs. Auburn game over at Razorback Stadium but stopped first at a tailgate party with some people Jacqui knows, for the mandatory “Calling Of The Hogs” (see my low res. video below or click the link here)  

Had a few adult beverages, some great grilling, and a few games of baggo. They call-em about 10 times in the stadium, and after a while your arms get tired, and your voice is horse. Arkansas won, and we had a blast. 

 It was a great game and we had a blast.

Jacqui celebrated Octoberfest in Chicago at Andrea’s bday party, and from what I understand, it’s probably best that I don’t have photos, as they might be used in their DJ’s slip and fall lawsuit.  While Jacqui was out of town, I let Jack get into as much trouble as he wanted (climbing on rocks, playing in the mud, eating like a hog and running around outside like a nut).

Bonnie came down for a visit so we took the opportunity to bring Jack out to get some pumpkins. 

Jack wanted to smash the gigantic ones, but settled for picking our own like a good field hand.

 Here, Jacqui models the appropriate footwear for walking in a muddy pumpkin patch and going on a hay wagon ride.

We put Jack on this chemical barrel ride before we realized the tractor was going to pull him about half a mile down the dirt road and around the field.By the time he got back he was sobbing like he thought he was never coming back.

They did a good job on the hay ride.  They had set up scary scenes in the corn field, creek bed, and down in all the hollows ("hollers?").

We went on a couple of great hikes and the foliage has been good. I’m hoping we’ll have another shot at camping out in the tent before the season is over. 

 Maybe we'll take the tent out over Veteran’s Day weekend at Mt. Neebo.We should come back with some good video from that one if past history is any indication.

I thought I’d throw in this photo of Jack in the street it's hard to put it in context.  Usually at half-time during Razorback away games our neighbors go out into the street to toss a football around.  These guys just graduated last year, (you may recall that one of them asked me how old my “grandson” was).  Anyway, Jack was invited to throw the ball around with them, and you would have thought it was Christmas, Easter and Fourth of July all-in-one (if you click and zoom on the photo you can see the wierd look of ultimate joy on his face). But, when half-time was over, and they headed inside to watch the game, he tried to follow them inside hoping for an invite.  When the door shut behind them, he was crushed.  Very difficult to watch that.  He wouldn’t even let me console him.  He hung his head low and started walking down the street (like a runaway) and told me not to follow him.

We had a few Halloween events for Jack to attend in his Shark costume (he says “a shark is eating me”).  The daycare had a thing that I brought him to on Friday, while Jacqui was out of town.  And, on Saturday, the neighborhood association had the street closed off for a party (pony rides, keg, piñata), but it was the day Jacqui got back from a work trip to MI, so a late start resulted in not too much time spent there. 

 

We did go to a party that Jacqui's boss held that night, out in the hills where she lives (ghoulies, whole hog, haunted tree house, hay ride). On Monday we were spurned by the neighbor moms who held a party three doors down from us, and when they took their kids around to trick-or-treat, they didn’t even stop here (haven’t figured that out yet).  Maybe they found out we’re Catholics.  We’ll keep a look-out for them burning a cross on our front lawn.

Sailing season runs through November into the first week of December, and we’re in contention to win the fall series and to repeat last year’s first place finish in total points for the year.  Maybe I’ll try to get some video of the next few races and will post a link.

Well that’s about it.  Hope you liked the photos, and we’ll hope to catch you up on our View Of Life In The South next month.

Succumbed in September

The Red Sox are not playing in the post-season.  Maybe they could have used local ace Red "Swamp Thing" Pooter (pictured here in an undated photo). What happened? They've done better with worse teams. Looks like it's the pitching guys. In September seven starters combined for a 4-13 record and a 7.08 ERA. I think that's got to be the worst in MLB history. The Boston sports writers are pointing at Theo Epstein saying that he didn't replace Buchholz and Matsuzaka injured and out back in July, and Ownership is pointing at the coach (the Coach?) for not being able to "reach" the players (the pitchers?). Bunch of babies.

We're not all baseball down here.  We went for a ride the first week of September and stopped at a road-side craft fair. I chased Jack around while Jacqui looked for a wreath for the front door. There were a bunch of old farm tractors on display so we took some photos. We went into an old historic two-room house and Jack ran around like a nut. It was built on a platform of planed logs, had two enclosed rooms (one for all the beds and one for cooking, eating, living) divided and separated by a pass-through, and was covered by one roof. No electricity, no indoor plumbing, no insulation.  It was built in 1940.

We had a good weekend on 9/11. On Friday night we saw a Texas League playoff between the Naturals and the Travelers and didn't have to worry about terrorism. It ended up being the only game they won in the best of five series. As always, Arvest Balbark was a good time, but Jack needed a distraction from the baseball, so we took him over to the area inside the park that had slides and a jungle gym.

His bad behavior over there (he pushed someone for crowding him) got him a time-out, and his subsequent melt-down unfortunately resulted in a quick departure. He’s still talking about this pushing incident, and getting pulled off the slide for a time-out, so I’ll assume it made an impact on him. Then, on Saturday we asked friends Chad & Theresa to join us to watch a polo match in Goshen, the town to the east of us.

We brought Jack, but not surprisingly, he was more interested in throwing a football around than watching the polo ponies run back and forth. After the match, we all went back to our place for more food & drinks, and to watch the Notre Dame game. Exciting game, but the result was a big disappointment, as Michigan scored twice in the last 1 ½ minutes (insane).

 On Sunday, Chad, Joel and I headed up the road to Rogers, AR to walk the course at Pinnacle Hills, and see the final round of the LPGA event there. We followed Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer, and the Spaniards, Belen Mozo (above) and Azahara Munoz. The course was in great shape too.

 Jack has been asking to go outside to kick a ball at the neighbor’s fence and for us to chase him around to fake like we’re going to take it away from him. It’s like running wind sprints in high school. I can taste lung. Also, it was biker weekend here in Fayetteville (they call it BikesBluesAndBBQ's) so we included a few photos of Jack on his Harley Davidson big wheel ("my WHEEL") that he thinks is going a hundred miles an hour. He’ll pedal it for a few feet untill he gets some momentum, then takes his feet off the pedals. He leans back and gets this look on his face like he’s thinking about bailing out.

Watch out for road rash. We walked up to the neighborhood elementary school playground and Jack rode his tricycle ("my BIKE") until he got tired and made Jacqui push him. He and Jacqui went down the slides for about two hours and I took a ride on my bike. I’m thinking about mounting the video camera on the handlebars to give you a view of the ride around the neighborhood and the local trails.

On 9/18 weekend it was a rainy and cool so we took Jack to see the movie Lion King in 3D. That movie is about 20 years old and still doesn’t look too bad, but Jack didn’t like wearing the 3D glasses, and the story-line was a bit beyond him; Where did the daddy lion go? (He’s dead); Where did the little lion go? (He turned into an adult in 10 seconds Jack. It’s called magical realism); Why is that other lion in trouble? (He murdered his brother). He did like eating handfuls of “BOPcorn” though.

Anyway, how about a laugh? Jacqui has been saying she wants to get into birding, and she purchased this bird feeder to get started (click here for video).

We got to watch some football and baseball on tv over the rainy 9/18 weekend. AR beat Troy (but not by much due to turnovers) and looked to have a serious challenge against ‘Bama (they lost). Jacqui was very conflicted watching Notre Dame (as an MBA alum) beat her undergrad alma mater, MI State. And, after winning only 4 of their last 18, and loosing all 3 against the Rays, the Red Sox were only 2 games ahead of Tampa, and were looking more like they’d struggle to be a wild card team instead of the conference champs they looked like two months ago. There was still some hope, with 7 of the 11 remaining games in September, to be played against last place Baltimore (Tampa also had the tougher schedule with 7 of their next 11 against the Yankees). BUT, it didn’t work out and the Sox went on to lose 20 games in September and blew it in spectacular fashion.

The post season Red Sox fall-out may be just as devastating: they didn’t renew Tito’s option (and he’s rumored to be going to the W.Sox), and there’s talk that Theo Epstein may go to the Cubs (but yet they have him making some crucial personell moves?). The fan support for Carl Crawford, that had already been deteriorating since before the All Star break, has completely disappeared (7 years and $142 million?). Focus now shifts to Tom Brady not throwing any more interceptions for the rest of the season and then looking forward to seeing the Celtics roll their wheelchairs out onto the court for another winning year.

And, here’s a typical day of Jack returning from school: Walks in and says hi dad, goes into his room to get his Lightning McQueen car; goes into the other bedroom that is set up with his Matchbox car ramp, and then smashes them all into each other; looks in the little kid kitchen set for a treat (usually a cracker or some cheerios I put in there) and comes back out to tell me there’s a car pile-up on the ramp that I have to look at. What else is he into? Here’s a summary:

• Turning all the lights and ceiling fans on
• In bed he wants to hold but not use his pacifier
• Skipping some afternoon naps (click to see video)
• Not wanting his hair washed
• Eating Mom’s home-made oatmeal,
• Eating broccoli and asking for more
• Not eating any of his food unless you stand over him
• Taquito’s are still his favorite food
• Tearing the pages out of flip-books
• Pooping on the couch
• Continuing to get bitten at school
• Not wanting a band-aid
• Asking to play the game “we throw the football to each other” (called catch)
• Moving up to the size 5 diaper and asking to sit on the pot but not going
• Pretending to be a sleeping, snoring, codfish

We went to the air show in Forth Smith about 30 minutes south of us. They did a re-enactment of the bombing of Pearl Harbor (with fireballs and explosions) including a narration that was trying to be patriotic, but ended up being a little uncomfortable to listen to. We looked at some helicopters and planes, but Jack didn’t seem very interested until we got him a red toy airplane. The Thunderbirds were there but Jack was melting down so we headed home. 
Well, that's all for now, as we bring a close to summer. Next month you might see: Tu-Tu's visit; pumpkin patch pickin’; photos from Jacqui’s d-i-y furniture refinishing project; hike in Hobbs State Park or maybe out towards the Buffalo River to look for some fall foliage; we head to the AR vs Auburn game to call The Hogs; and Jack’s Halloween costume. Also, I think this will be our last shot at going to the Backwoods Barn BBQ before the weather turns.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated with our “View Of Life In The South”. Also, as Jacqui likes to say, "Fall is all about getting back to basics."  So, whatever that means, you'll be seeing it too.