Indiana James

James is never bored. He always doing something or pretending to be someone. His life ambition is to be a police man. He loves "spy gear", hand cuffs, walkie talkies, guns, swords and nerf guns. Here is one of my favorites moments that I call - Indiana James.

Lake Day with the Wilsons

One of the highlights of summer was going to the lake with our dear friends and neighbors, the Wilson's. I am so amazed that James is fearless when it comes to the lake. He loves the tubing and insisted on jumping in the lake the swim. I did learn that when swimming in the lake with James even I need a life jacket. When he got scared he came holding on to me not realizing that I needed to keep my head above water to breath also.

Dad coherced Summer Walk

It was one of the few days that all the kids were together for a summer day in Branson. I decided it was time to put down the computers, phones and turn off the TV and do something together. My plan was a walk. The cries of protest came from every child but I insisted we would enjoy it once we got out there. We began the walk through the up and down hills of the subdivision. James protested constantly. He does not love walking. With my best efforts to inspire I led the group down the hill to look at the golf course and the fountain. After we got down there we realized, we now had a long walk UPHILL back to the house. After making half way, I could take the groans and moans from little James (and his siblings) no more. We sat down on the side of the road and called Mom to come get us.

My Project

Kung Fu Fireman

The Big Birthday

It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. It is not so much because James has not provided more stories to report, just kind of got out of the routine.

Well it has been a good summer with some great moments. First of all James turned 13. And so now we have a teenager. It is an interesting combination of teenage attitude, desire to be independent and yet there is this developmental lag that combines for some interesting challenges.
He talks constantly and is convinced that the problem is not that his speech is unclear but that his listeners just don't get it. As the vocabulary and understanding grows so does the complexity of the game of charades and "guess what word this is". The great thing is that every time we finally "get it" there is a great shared sense of accomplishment and fulfillment for both him and us.

I will post a few pictures in the succeeding posts with an explanation. Most 0f the shots are pretty understandable. Here he is at the big 13th birthday.

GUN FOR COCO'S TRIP

We got Coco up at the 4:30 am wake up time. She got dressed, bags packed and we loaded up the car for the airport. The group going on the Thailand mission trip was to meet at the airport at 6 am.

I went with Coco up to the counter and we checked her bag and got the boarding passes all the way to Bangkok. Just before the group went to clear security they gathered for prayer. Coco made one last check of her back pack and noticed a bulge in one of the pockets. She had not put anything in that pocket so she investigated further. When she opened it there it was. The gun. It was not some plastic squirt gun. It was James' cowboy revolver. It had a long silver barrel and a big white bone handle. Although it was plastic the silver barrel and the bone handled toy looked very much like the real thing at the airport. Cindy realized that now they needed to smuggle the contra ban out the airport. She slipped it into a friend's bag. We prayed with the group and off they went to clear security. It was only after we got outside of the airport that I was told what had just happened. James had "pranked" Coco by sending her off with one of his toys. It would not have been funny for the authorities to discover the toy gun. Cindy and I got into the car just thankful that none of us had ended up in the county jail. We were also glad that Coco got off in spite of her little brother's prank.