Weekend on the Farm

I took both girls to Ozark, AR this weekend to visit Frank's parents on their farm.  Although Faith has been there numerous times, she was finally old enough to "help" in the daily chores.  I think she really enjoyed all aspects of the farm, except for feeding the cows but really, I can't hold that over her!  Rebekah was happy and content as there were people to wave at and plenty of new sites to entertain.

Making the Cut

The last time I got my haircut the stylist remarked that my hair was so strong and beautiful that people would pay hundreds of dollars for wigs of my hair.  Of course that made me feel good but then later it got me thinking about a post I'd seen on the Babywise mom blog about her donating her hair to Locks of Love.  After talking with Frank about it, I decided that I should cut my hair off and donate it right after he left on deployment so it would have 6 months to grow before he saw me again.  I decided to donate it Pantine Beautiful Lengths as they actually provide wigs for free to women who are going through cancer treatment where as Locks of Love, while a great organization, charges for their wigs.  So, today, I made the cut.  It was a little bit shocking to see my hair so short as it hasn't been that short in 14 years, not since my freshman year at VT.  The average person grows 1/2" of hair per month.  I cut off 8" so by the time Frank gets back I should have recovered about half of that.  Neither Faith or Rebekah seemed to mind much, although Faith really wanted to get her hair cut too!

The Parting of the Red Sea

For the last 2 weeks our Bible story in the morning and evening has been from Exodus 14:21-31.  We have also done several crafts around the parting of the Red Sea.  One was with paper dolls.  Faith named all the dolls and although I insisted that a few be Moses, Miriam, and Aaron, the others were those in our family and the Langhaugs.  Another one was play-doh; Faith LOVES play-doh and she and Daddy had a pretty set imagination play going on before he left about the play-doh people (i.e., Faith, Mackenzie, and the rest of our nuclear families) and this craft upset the balance of that a little bit when I made Moses out of black play-doh (Brock is normally black but we just made him smaller so that Sabrina could carry him across!).  All the play-doh Israelites made it safely across the dry land.  When I asked Faith what they were going to do next she replied "go to the park" and lo, there was a see-saw right there in the wilderness!

The Deep Blue Sea

We have been frequenting the local and on base library about once every 2 weeks and picking up 6-7 new books each time.  We read them constantly as Faith loves to read.  Currently one of the books is The Deep Blue Sea: A Book of Colors by Audrey Wood.  It is a repetative book and while annoying to adults, toddlers love it and they memorize it quickly which is exactly what Faith has done.  It is by far her favorite in this batch of books.  There is the the sea, the deep blue sea.  There is a rock, a red rock in the middle of the deep blue sea.  There is a tree, a green tree, on a red rock, in the middle of the deep blue sea.  There is a nut, a brown nut, on a green tree, on a red rock, in the middle of the deep blue sea.  It goes on like that for about 6 more pages.  Well, tonight at dinner while serving the girls avocado, I left the pit in one side and it was sitting on the cutting board waiting for the rest of dinner to be completed.  Faith looked at it and said "There is a nut, a brown nut."  I replied "In a green avocado!"  She loved it and we continued with it being on a white cutting board, on a brown table, in the middle of the dining room.  So, repetition does work!  After dinner we cleaned off the avocado faces and headed for the park. 

Daddy's Softball Game

Prior to Frank's departure he was able to participate in 2 days of softball games with the 19th CS.  Although it was hot, the girls and I decided to go to the games.  I took them to the swings first and then had dinner at the game.  I was unsure how Faith would like it because she wouldn't understand the game or what was going on really.  Well, it was a hit!  She loved going for the Tuesday game and talked (and sang) about it almost non-stop until the Thursday game.  It has been a week since then and she still mentions it once a day. 

Day 180

Frank left today for his second deployment to Afghanistan.  Our good-byes were much easier this time, probably because I had to hold it together for the girls!  I met our neighbors across the street this afternoon and look forward to knowing them better.  I am going to try and blog regularly so Frank can read the updates about the girls in this format rather than just via email.  We'll see how it goes.