I happen to think there's not much cuter than a boy and his dog but even a great thing can go too far! Yesterday I walked into the kitchen just in time to witness Kaden taking a big lick to the top of Max's head. Kaden explained to me that Max had given him a "lick kiss" and he thought Max would like one in return. This conversation obviously took place AFTER my horrible, wretching scream which traumatized Kaden for a good 5 minutes! (don't pretend you wouldn't have made the same sound!)
Yes, that is a Rottweiler (aka Spawn of Satan, Dog of the Devil, Who Would Buy One of These, etc.) attempting to come through our fence and his little chicken nugget snack friend actually making it! Luckily, since I'm particularly fond of my children, my legs and my life, the neighbors are on board with our plans to redo that particular section of the fence!
even though we think something is incredibly funny - like our big sisters dressing us up like the flower princess - Dad definitely does not see as much humor.....
painting and hammering together our very own monster truck is a great way to spend an afternoon.....
Even when you're feeling grumpy and just want to be left alone it's still pretty cool to find out that at this very moment in time your little body is the EXACT same size as a stair...
I think he's a keeper!
The other great thing that is new this summer is having my brother, Matt, and his family living closer. They moved up to Vancouver from Beaverton, Oregon this year and we are having such a great time playing with them whenever we want! Andrea and I have conspired together and are now the "couple" on a zoo pass and an OMSI pass and there are lots of field trip plans in the making!
So, there's a glimpse into summer at the Poston household. Any and all of you are more than welcome to come on up and try it out for yourselves!! (Offer not limited to Poston summers....we're also fun to visit in the Fall, Spring and Winter.....) :)
An NBA owner I hadn't spoken to in a few years called the other day. Before we talked about the reason for our conversation, he asked, "What'd you think of the LeBron-a-thon?"
"A bit much," I said.
"Yeah, maybe just a bit," Peter Holt said through a laugh. "I don't know what went wrong there, but they must have had some bad blood when you hear everything."
In a way, Holt also had to deal with a 25-year-old leaving home this past year. Like any owner/fan, he has a paternal side too. But free agency and South Beach weren't trying to whisk his baby away from the San Antonio Spurs.
Holt's daughter was leaving for Vietnam, for the first time.
Her father went back -- for the first time in 43 years.
"Unbelievably emotional," Holt said.
She saw where her daddy fought and almost died. She saw him weep over his friends who didn't make it back. She saw him sit down across from the same people who tried to kill him all those years ago, before he was the heir to the Caterpillar heavy-machinery manufacturing fortune and instead was just an irresponsible kid who, after drunkenly leading a police chase across South Texas, was given the following choice by a Corpus Christi judge: "Jail or the Army?"
That's how the son of a millionaire ended up in the Tet Offensive, pulling the trigger as an infantryman alongside poor kids whose fathers' connections and money couldn't get them out of Vietnam.
"I think it gives her a more worldly view of where I was at her age as opposed to where she is now," Holt said. "It helps with perspective, no doubt about it."
It's been a grim week or so in the sports-owner business, a week that needs a story not about a feud in Cleveland or funeral for the Boss in New York or even Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban. We need one about an original Texan, how he continues to make sacrifices four decades after he served his country.
Holt called to say he was personally pledging $1 million to the construction of an education center to be built beneath the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall, an $85 million project that will give the names on the wall a human face and identity beyond the chiseled granite. On Wednesday, he asked fellow Texans to meet that pledge in order to honor their 3,416 names on the wall, the third-most Vietnam casualties by state.
The goal is to display all 58,267 photos, along with stories, letters and many of the more than 100,000 mementos now stored in a Bethesda warehouse by the National Park Service.
"Some will be of them in football uniforms or with family members before they left," Holt said.
"We don't want them remembered as just fighting and dying in Vietnam. We want people to know that this was someone's cousin or uncle or brother or grandfather. They're going to be immortalized in a way they haven't before."
According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, about $26 million has been raised for the museum -- meaning, as chief fundraiser, Holt has his work cut out for him. In this economy he knows not all the other 49 states can go to www.buildthecenter.org to match his pledge. But he's hopeful people will not forget, either.
Holt was in country by September 1967. During the spring of 1968, a fragmented bullet lodged in the base of his neck. He had volunteered with two other soldiers to rescue his fellow soldiers from a burning tank in the middle of a large cemetery.
Holt played dead for seven hours, using the bodies of two comrades to blanket himself until the North Vietnamese eventually pulled back. As he saw the Americans roll past, he stuck up his arm and was pulled to safety.
"We got ambushed and I had no place to go," he recalled. "It was an open field. We were on one side, and they were in a tree line on the other side. It was daylight and there was no cover."
There were other firefights, and in Holt's unit, only one other soldier who originally came in with him returned home alive. He personally knew 54 soldiers from his company whose names are on the wall. He was later awarded the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart.
During his tour of duty, no one ever knew he was the son of a millionaire, or that his old man later told Holt's commanding officer at a reunion that he could've gotten his son a deferment but that, "Peter wanted to pay his dues."
"They didn't choose to go," Holt said, through a slight drawl. "And we did the best we could when we got there."
During his trip back with Gen. Barry McCaffrey, 11 other veterans and his wife and daughter this past January, Holt finally met the enemy face to face during a lunch and reception in Ho Chi Minh City, still known as Saigon.
"They call it the 'American war' over there," he said. "Some of the men were amputees. Some were wounded in other ways. Look, we were invading their country. At the end, we were talking soldier to soldier, two guys who had gone through similar experiences, thankful we were survivors and still sad many of our friends weren't."| |
We had a really great time visiting with Ned and Rachel who came to play with us the end of May with their new baby, Jack. What a fun week!!
It didn't take the kids more than a minute to realize that in OUR house WE make the rules - including whether or not to have pets! We fell for it and now we have Max, a brand new Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix.
Our new ward is awesome. It's very different from the one we left. You'd never think we'd only moved 2 miles into the ward next door. We are really liking it though. Everyone is super friendly and we already feel at home. They don't waste time around here either....we were only here about a month when they called Steve to be the YM President!
We were all a little nervous a few days ago when we woke up and saw a strange, glowing object floating up in the sky! Then we realized it was just the sun - FINALLY - and we've been having a great time. School got out last Friday and the kids have spent the whole time outside in the park, running through the sprinkler and catching frogs and salamanders with all the new friends they've made.
Another thing that got lost in the shuffle this last year was getting the kids pictures taken. SO - I took some myself for Father's Day.
So, there it is. Our lives in a minute.
I think we have a new tradition in the making! Every morning I hear: " It's summer! Can't we have a picnic for breakfast?" Why not! So, they've been eating breakfast in the back yard all week. Again I say: I LOVE SUMMER!!
