Gills-A-GoGo

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Veteran's Day

In honor of the men and women of the community who served their country in World War II

The kids were off from school for the Veteran's Day holiday but, ironically, Gary was not.

We were headed to Miner Park to enjoy the nice day when I realized where we should be going instead. This is the Veterans' Memorial at Glen Carbon at the end of Old Meridian Road, right across from the bridge. The memorial was overhauled a couple of years ago and is quite nice.

One of the new features are polished stone markers naming each branch of service. Gary had some issue with the wording on this Marine marker when it first went in, but now I can't remember just what the error was, like there is no "Dept of" or something like that. It was not something that most non-Marines would be aware of, but to the Marine, it was significant. And on something as meaningful as this, it should be done correctly, I admit.

The kids and I talked here for some time. I told the story of why Grandpa Darrell was not a veteran even though he was drafted for Viet Nam in 1965.

He and my mom were just newlyweds and he received his notice. He sold all his farm equipment, gave up his rented farm ground, even sold the furniture, and moved her back to her folks' house as she cried her eyes out knowing her new husband was headed off to a horrible, faraway, foreign place that was taking lives by the thousands.

But his service only lasted long enough for him to ride the train to St. Louis and then be deferred at the physical, due to a heart murmur that he never even knew he had and that has caused him not one problem in his life. But I guess it might have saved his life. And let me be here on Earth. Bonus!

Sam was determined to count the number of flags. It was not simple for him since he's not quite mastered the 10-intervals. He'd run back to me, "What comes after 59?" Then get back to where he'd left off and count the next nine and then run back "What comes after 69?" He got to 80 and stopped, and who knows, maybe that was the exact number of flags? Considering he's Grant Gill's brother, it's very possible. Speaking of Grant, he stayed home. If it is a beautiful bright sunny day, he doesn't really want to come out.

On this day, and I try to every day, I realize what all we have in our lives and just how rich they are. So many things. Kind of a simple one, but our library is wonderful.

Our trails are such a treasure.

These kids look so small next to the trees at Miner Park. Here Caroline is warning Sam not to walk down the concrete drainage way. She's a little mother for sure.

This is Judy's Creek that runs next to the library and park and under the covered bridge. Judy was the Americanized name of an early settler to The Valley of Coal, Glen Carbon. Without looking it up, I remember it being a Czech named Tschudy or something similar to that, and that's how we have Judy's Creek.

Three things I love are creeks, sycamore tree tops against a blue sky,

and red-orange maple leaves against a blue sky. It's a shame my camera just couldn't grasp the intensity of the color.

Finally, play time at Miner Park. I wonder if this type of slide is anywhere else? Probably, but it is the only one I have ever seen like it. 'Course my exposure has been mostly playgrounds in a few counties in Illinois. It's an old, long, metal one and it follows the slope of the hill, at ground level.

Notice Sam is always trying to go up when the others are coming down? He's so predictable.
He's so Sam.

Hey, do you think this one possibly shares some DNA with Ms. Bad Hair herself?

Caroline is always being gymnastic or acrobatic or whatever you want to call it.

Look, she had two boys spinning her on the merry-go-round.

I don't know really what to make of this one, but we all had a fun outing on this glorious fall day.

That night Caroline marched in the Veteran's Day parade with the Girl Scouts. Her first parade!

But back to the point, it was an important day and I hope everyone remembered to stop and think a little about the reason for the day.
Hopefully, the Gill kids always will.

My grandpa
Jimmie Mike McKinney

Army -- Europe -- World War II

My husband

Gary Warren Gill

Marine -- Persian Gulf War

Monday, November 9, 2009

Monday Morning

It musta been a tiring weekend. I opened Sam and Grant's door and found Sam asleep face down on the carpet right by the door. Don't know what he was doing on the floor but... here he's rolled over and kinda waking up.

Kinda.

Corndogs and cartoons. And you know, I am ok with that. Just keepin' it real.

Now here's someone who makes Sam look like Little Mr. Morning Sunshine. I wake him up and Grant's like a bear coming out of hibernation. And the bear bus will be here in 15 minutes! Not kidding. Still gotta potty, get dressed, eat, brush teeth, get the backpack, the glasses, clean the retainers. And Grant can do it. Does it this way everyday.

Thank goodness Charles is always even-tempered. He makes my day a little easier.

Caroline is more of a morning kid. She wakes up on her own early enough that she has lots of free time. Time that she can head outside and be greeted by Scooter.

Scooter says: Whatcha have for breakfast?? YUM

Time for some morning swinging and tricks.

Now look at that happy morning face. And look at the grown-out bangs, almost there!

Ok, now it's almost 8:30. Caroline's bus comes before Grant's. She does all her own wardrobe choosin' and hair stylin'.

And Gary and Jack are long gone. Gary leaves before 7 and Jack at 7:20. Mama here is normally a morning person, but not today. Definitely not after the night of weird sleep I had. Dreamin dreamin dreamin. They were fun dreams, but kinda tired me out. I had to figure out how to get my car home from Indy, or was it Cincinnati? Somewhere east. I had just left it there and came back to St. Louis (how?) and then remembered I left it and needed it. And somehow it all involved the Guelhstorf children and the Hobsons, our neighbors. Hmmm.

And here, welcome to my nightmare. My daily laundry and dishes just awaitin' for me. No wonder I like to play around on my little bloggie so much.

Pro-cras

tin-ation?

And check out this Monday morning bed head. Yikes!

I didn't know it could even do that.

Maybe it's not so bad from the front view?

DOUBLE YIKERS!!!

Have a great Monday!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Gills Go Camping - Well, Sorta

Today Caroline, Grant, Sam, and I joined Gary and Jack at Scout Camp north of Alton. It was the most beautiful fall day. Unbelieveable for November it seemed, with gorgeous sunshine and temperatures in the high 60's. Perfect except we could have done without the pesty Asian lady beetles.

You all are familiar with their pinchy bites and stinkiness. But that was the only imperfect part of the day and that was pretty minor.

The Boy Scouts left Glen Carbon last night and set up their camp. They built this rope bridge they called the monkey bridge this morning before the family members came. The bottom rope looks familiar? Well, it should. It was a section from Joe's giantic spool of rope! Thanks, Joe. You provided us with loads of fun.

They call it a monkey bridge, huh? Wonder why?

The monkeys had big fun on it throughout the afternoon. And yes, I did it, too. Once. It wasn't that bad but the taller you are, the trickier it is. It is a darn shame I wasn't hanging around with my camera when Matt Vance, Gary's former boss and still friend, made his trip across. Picture a tall, tall guy of 6'5 cruising across when something goes terribly wrong, I suppose like his center of gravity shifting, and then what was described as him falling without hitting the ground because both feet were suspended, hung up in the ropes.

I had just walked away not even five minutes before. Why is life like that? Come on, I have a blog to fill! And you know I like to go with the humor stuff.

And then there's this biggest monkey of all. Can't you just see the enjoyment across his face? This was a side rope off another couple of trees.

Here's Gary giving Sam some monkey tips. Like he needs them.

And then along came Jack. He spent so much of the day tromping all through the woods. I was amazed just how deep the leaves were.

There were huge sinkholes in these woods that the kids called "the pits." You all already know I am no good with numbers and, boy, I wish I were so I could tell you how deep they were. I am ok with house dimensions, though, and will say they were as deep as a two-story house. And that's to what you think is the bottom. Let me just say Sam was making more than one person around us nervous.

Did I already mention what a perfect weather day it was?

See Sam's stick. Finally he gave up on carrying around the 6-feet branches and traded for a manageable stick. Thank goodness. Even so, it kept on causing problems like blocking Caroline and my picture-taking.

Next try.

When is this hair ever gonna grow out? Ms. Shorty McShort. Photo by Caroline.

This is Gary's tent set-up. Yes, you see a Marine Corps flag and US flag. He fashioned this shade thing from the rainfly of my old dome tent. It was ok, if you were Sam's height.

Here's Jack with his scout tent. There are two boys to a tent and they are set up in rows, all alike. They have numbers on them, otherwise, I don't know how anyone would know whose is whose.

For supper, the scouts dressed in their uniforms and we walked to the camp's lodge for a super nice meal. A Thanksgiving feast complete with pies. Peach, blueberry, pumpkin, cherry. Maybe more! I should have taken a picture of that spread. So impressive! The boys worked at setting up for the meal and decorating, but it was some of the moms that were the ones cooking all day. That meal was so good.

Here's part of the bunch after the feast. This is about 7:00 p.m. after a full, busy day and moods and energy levels are crashing.

But what a fun day! No one wanted to leave. All three kids were begging to stay all night with Jack and Gary, but we really hadn't planned for it so they had to come back home.

But I think we might just make an attempt soon to go camping as a family. I just want to put in my order for the exact same weather, minus those lady bugs.