Title

December, 2007
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	This month, I decided to purchase for Button the makings of stink bombs. Here, we have a mixture of Valerain Root and vinegar. This brew produces an oder most foul! It even looks gross.
	Nettie and the girls decided to make candy pretzels. This is not as much fun as making stink bombs, but at least you can eat the results.

	Here, a kid got carried away and just glopped the white chocolate onto the pretzels!
	A sideways Christmas tree.
	Nettie started crocheting a tree skirt. It got big fast. It got too ruffly. She will have to rip it out. Nettie is sad.


	This is a true monster. He was making the "Wall of Jericho" in Nettie's flour, and then knocking it over. What a mess.
	Here is the monster again, after playing the "Wall of Jericho" several times.
	Megan rebelled against the margin.

	OK. So Ne--ie decides to make a Christmas tree skirt. Here we go. Ready? This is picture one of Ne--ie's tree skirt.
	Now this would be Ne--ie bread. Mighty tasty stuff this Ne--ie bread.
	Right. Here we have a now slightly larger Ne--ie-tree-skirt.
	This is truly an amzing sight, and well worth a picture. Ne--ie's desk is clean. Usually, we can't even see Ne--ie's desk!
	Rain is not a common thing in these here parts. We had a LOT of rain this month, and Ne--ie decided to take a few pictures of all of the water.

	As you can see, we don't have the greatest street drainage in the world!

	Also, we don't have ANY back yard drainage.
	Nope. No drainage what-so-ever!
	On the rainy day, we decided to have an art fest. The following pictures are the result. Jaguar Beside Redwoods -- by Geneva (graphite and water color)
	Jacob drew a very complex picture that tells a story. The title refers to the Omaha steaks that someone was kind enough to send us for Christmas. It was just after learning of this upcoming gift that he was inspired to draw this picture. The Journey of the Steaks -- by Jacob (graphite)
	The steaks begin their journey here, on the train.
	Here you see the engine chugging along, its light blazing ahead, and smoke pouring from the smoke stack.
	The train must take a turn at the switch, to go up the spiraling track to the top of the mountain
	At the top of the mountain, there is a tall, tall bridge that takes the train all the way back down to the valley.
	The tracks continue past the Deathly Hallows, between the mountains, and finally end at the door of our house.
	The Journey of the Steaks. It's a beautiful thing.
	Cabin in the Forest -- by Megan (graphite and colored pencil)
	Ranch Sunset -- by Laurent (graphite and water color)
	Orodruin -- by Laurent (graphite and colored pencil)
	Time for a chemestry lesson. This lesson is all about acids and bases. We were using phenolphthalein, which turns pink in the presence of a base. We tried with baking soda and vinegar first, but the baking soda was not quite basic enough...
	Mixing a test tube.
	This is our bottle of phenolphthalein.
	This is Mudge.
	Button and a beaker.

	After failing with the baking soda, I decided to go for one of the big guns of the alkinies -- LYE. That turned that stupid phenolphthalein pink.
	See? Lye!
	When ordering the phenolphthalein, I also ordered a mess of sulphur, so we could make stink bombs! Here I am smelling up the house with sulfur.
	The finished tree skirt!
	Closeup of the tree skirt!
	Tree skirt under the tree!
	Tree skirt with village under the tree!
	The village sitting upon (you guessed it) the tree skirt. It looks snowy and Nettie is very happy.
	"You say you can't decide whether to crochet or read? Why choose?"
	Megan is making a very bright green afghan.
	RANCH! I love going to the ranch. I had to go up this month to get Piggy-Pigguns. Piggy-Pigguns was (and I mean WAS) our neighbor's boar, but now he is sausage, some of which is mine. I was lucky enough to be up there when it was snowy (that doesn't happen all that often). Here is our ranch, from the NE corner.
	Ma's Bell.
	The view from the cabin.
	Ne--ie's "artistic" tree.
	Looking east at the ranch.
	Looking east across the valley.
	This was taken on Jason's ranch.
	Speaking of Jason, he asked me to take a few family pictures, with his camera. While I was at it, I took this picture with ours.
	My ranch hat accidently came home this time, Mudge put it on, and Ne--ie took a picture.

	Some on-line friend of Ne--ie mailed these pot holders to her as a gift. Cool, huh?

	We got several boxes of Omaha steaks as a gift this year.
	A Ne--ie made pretty thing.

	Another Ne--ie made pretty thing.
	This is our house. Why this picture exists is a mystery to me.
	This Christmas, Opa and Oma came to visit. It was cool to have them here.


	Ne--ie's chetney.
	Poundin' the Piano!
	Annette was giving the boy a hair cut (a buzz), and she briefly stopped when Jacob's hair was like this. He looked in the mirror and said "GREAT -- Now I look EXACTLY like Dad!!" Thanks son...
	Bald is beutiful!
	These are our kids (in case I forget).

	This is my wife (in case I forget).
	Jim and Jan had their annual Christmas party. This picture of Calvin sleeping was taken there.







	Roo helping with the Zalad.

	Kids playing in Jim's back yard.

	Button and Mudge got Harry Potter wands for Christmas. Here they are placing curses on each other.
	Me-Clause.
	As always, we celebrated Christmas in Sun Lakes. This and the next several pictures are from that celebration. People there; Laticia, Sam, Jon, Kika, JT, Joe, Kayla, Gracie, Me, Ne--ie, Roo, Mooms, Mudge, Button, Jay, Pauline, Jeff, Susan, Pa, & Ma. Not bad, huh?





	Dressed up for the part of an angel.
	Dressed up for the Christmas program, but I'm not sure what Ma was supposed to be.
	I think Jay was supposed to be a sheppard, or something.
	Susan, I think, was an angel.
	Jeff played the part of a sleeping Inn guest (hee hee).
	Jacob got this marble run thingy for Christmas.

	Ne--ie got this new monitor from me for Christmas.
	Ne--ie got this new keyboard from Jeff for Christmas.
	Mudge got this new dress for Christmas.
	Roo got this caligraphy set.
	Mooms got a drawing instruction book and drawing pad & pencils.
	Playing a game of Sorry (which one of the kids got for Christmas).
	Mudge got sewing stuff for Christmas.
	More Marble Madness.
	Somebody got Twister for Christmas.
	Mooms was tired.

	This was Jacob's birthday party.
	Jacob's rather odd birthday cake.

	Jacob needed new socks and underwear, so we gave them to him for his "birthday presents", before he got his real presents. Here he is opening his "presents". The boy does not look pleased.






	OK, Here is the boy with a real present. Looks a bit happier.

	Now this is just plain silly.


	Roo got to open a birthday present early, because Opa and Oma were here.
	This is one of Jacob's robots. He got these from Opa and Oma.
	Ne--ie's Christmas lights.
	Our Chrsitmas tree.
	These shots are from the Christmas service at which we helped out at the Glendale Care Center.

	Family pose.
	Kids and Grands.
	Don't we have enough pictures of boys with wands?

	It seems every year we have a birthday bash down in Sun Lakes to celebrate all of our "near Christmas" birthdays (Kika, Roo, and Button). We took lots of pictures at this year's bash, and this would be the first of them. Nice bike-seat-cover-hat.
	It was a good thing that Susan, Laticia, and Sam were able join us.
	Poobie is turning 13 this year. This can't be a good thing.

	Button Boy, Button Boy, blow out your candles Button Boy!




	Why is it that I am always attacked by kids? Why?




	Trying out the new roller shoes...



	Down here in Arizona, there are few places where leaves fall (down here in the valley, only where people import non-native trees). The kids almost never get a chance to jump in the leaves, so this was fun!



	Duh.

	This would be the Lou...

	Roo got this comforter as one of her birthday presents.
	On the very last day of 2007, Jeff and I took the Church kids for a hike, in North Maricopa Mountains Wilderness Area. This is one of our group shots, taken by the well site not far from Margie's Cove trailhead.















	Another sideways pic...




	Unfortunately, near the end of the hike, things went badly, and I ended up getting attacked. Here is the story (names changed): The majority of the hike went well. On the way back to the trailhead, the usual fights started breaking out between (mostly), Joline and Kim. The real problems for us began when Kim, Luann, and Luann's sister decided to run away from the rest of the group, into the desert. Since getting lost in the desert is a really bad thing, I followed them, while Jeff stayed with the rest of the group. It didn't take me long to find them (about 5 minutes). Unfortunately, not long after I found them, Kim decided to spit off from Luann and her sister, leaving me with the decision of which to follow. Since Luann and her sister were heading in approximately the right direction, I decided to follow Kim (note: Luann and her sister refused to follow me when I asked them). Once I caught up with her, she sat down in the dirt and refused to move. As I watched Luann and her sister get further and further away, I tried to motivate Kim by grabbing her backpack, and ended up dragging her about three feet (this may have been a mistake on my part, since it only made her madder). Soon after, I managed to get the attention of the rest of the group, using my whistle. I kept Laurent with me and sent the rest of the group in search of Kuann and her sister. I spent the next half hour or so trying to talk to Kim, and trying to get a cell phone signal. During this time, Kim got a pen from her backpack, broke off the clip part, and started using it to stab herself in the arm (drawing blood). I couldn't let her do that, but stopping her got me stabbed in the hand with the same pen-clip thing (not a very serious wound at all). Once I finally got a cell phone signal, I managed to get a hold of Kim's Mom, but Kim refused to talk to her. Next, I called Jeff, and asked him to bring all of the kids back to where we were (by this time, they were all back at the trailhead). Once Kim knew this was happening, she got up, and took off (running) into the desert (away from the trailhead). At this point, I had to stop her (the desert is a dangerous place to be lost), so I caught her and grabbed her. Unfortunately for me, she had a rock (the size of her hand) in one hand and a pen in the other. She bashed me (full force) in the head with the rock, and stabbed me in the ear with the pen (piercing my ear). I took her down, pinned her, held her on the ground, and bled on her until Jeff and the others arrived (Laurent was able to use the whistle to guide the group to us). Jeff used my first aid kit to patch me up as best he could. We all hiked back to the trailhead, and left. Once I was near the blacktop, where I had a good cell phone signal, I called Kim's Mom and told her the rest of the story, and asked her if she could think of a good reason why I should not press charges against Kim. Kim's mom didn't seem to have any problems with me pressing charges, so I called the Maricopa County Sheriff (they are the authorities that have jurisdiction out there). The sheriff dispatcher asked me to bring Kim to my residence and wait for them there. This we did (with all the kids), and waited almost two hours (the kids were good natured about this, thankfully). Finally, I got a call from the a Sheriff's deputy, in which he specifically asked me not to press charges (once they figured out that Kim has mental problems, they thought that it would be a waste of time since the courts won't do anything anyway -- I'm not sure that would have been true in Kim's case -- I also think that they were overwhelmed with New Year's related stuff and didn't want to deal with this). Since the deputy asked, I did not press charges (for that reason only), and we took Kim home.