Our Fun Family

This was a great way to spend a couple of days in the middle of the week. Twenty-two years ago I got to go to Fort Leonard Wood with my dad to see my brother graduate from basic training. On Tuesday this week, I headed up to Tyler to pick up my dad so we could attend Craig's retirement ceremony and reception. It was a tremendous honor to make this trip and made for another special memory that I share with my dad and my brother. This picture shows my brother, First Sergeant Clark (right) with Colonel Sage, who presented the awards and was the guest speaker for the retirement ceremony. During the reception, following the retirement ceremony, Craig was presented with the Quartermasters Corps Order of Saint Martin medal. Chief Sanchez (presenting the medal) singled out Craig's community service with Habitat for Humanity and charity work with kids while serving in Bosnia as meritous achievement for this award. Here is a link to the story of this award and levels of presedence. ht...

I am sure we will have lots and lots of memories, especially in the kitchen. Its fun to hear Grace say "help Daddy?". She doesn't quite have the strength to push the plunger down to actually chop anything. But she sure tries hard! And she looks great doing it!!!

From time to time Gram will email Brenda and I some pictures of Grace from her day. Today, Gram sent these pictures which definitely brightened up my day! I have posted all 6 pictures in an online album, which you can access from the links in the right hand frame. Grace is serious about her sandbox! I can even "hear" her giggle when I look at this picture and on days like today, a giggle is a precious gift! Man, she looks so much like Brenda, its scary. Its a darn good thing that I happen to think that Brenda is absolutely gorgeous!

Evidently, if you leave a camera at the Wiseman house, it wanders around the house snapping photos of cute things, strange places and familar faces. No doubt our little Kodak digital camera was seeking out a friendly face to reunite it with its proper owners. So let's take a little stroll around the Wiseman house with our Z730 and see what our camera was up to while it was away from us. This gentle fella is Tigger. Meet Roo. She's harmless but opinionated. She will tell you all about it... whatever "it" is. Um, not sure I want to know... Its either Tigger's bed, the eye of a hurricane or Bryan's belly button. Please let it be the hurricane. Can you hear me now? Check out the photo album for the rest of the pics from the Wiseman house.

Last weekend, we took Grace on her first camping trip. While some of you may challenge this particular definition of camping, the only good way that we know of to camp with a toddler is in an RV or camper trailer. I have mentioned in the past that I would really like to someday own a travel trailer or RV so that I can share with my family some of the joys I experienced as a kid RVing with Pa, Mema and my sisters. I do enjoy tent camping and Brenda and I have gone once before with Billy and Angie. While we had a good time, I knew Brenda wasn't all that excited by the prospect of tent camping with a toddler. Somehow I needed to get Brenda to warm up to the idea of someday owning a camper trailer and the idea of camping in general. We have been to a couple of RV shows and she has seen how they can deliver some nice features and conveniences that would make camping more enjoyable. She has had the opportunity to "visualize" the camping experience, but it wasn't tang...

Thursday morning, just as I was about to head out of the house, I got one of those mind numbing, bone chilling calls that nobody likes to get. Actually, to make it worse, it was a voicemail that nobody likes to get. It started out like this, "Honey, I am okay, but I was just in an accident..." Yuck!!!!! Frantically, I called Brenda back, who was shaken up, but overall, doing pretty well. She wasn't hurt, adrenaline was pumping, but nothing physically wrong. She was merging onto I-35, headed to work about 7:15am. Traffic was about normal, slow, but still moving. In the lane next to her was a Ford Bronco. Somebody cut off the Bronco, and when he slammed on his brakes, his wheels locked up and without any control, slid right into Brenda. Fortunately, no one was injured. The passenger side is pretty banged up, but it wasn't sufficient to deploy the airbags or break any windows. Thank goodness the guy had insurance, and he promptly accepted responsibility. Brenda...

Well it was a busy weekend for the Cornish house, but what else is new? Actually, it was a very busy Saturday, followed by a restful Sunday where we actually even played hookie from church so we could relax a bit. The Texas Longhorn football team wraps up their spring practices every year by having the annual Orange and White game, an inter squad scrimmage that is open to the public, free, and combined with a kids carnival and concert. The whole event makes up what they call The Spring Jamboree. What it really does is give the new freshman players a chance to see a simulated game atmosphere in the actual stadium, complete with thousands of fans, the Longhorn Band and spirit groups. It also gives fans like me a chance to catch a glimpse of some new guys, and give us some artillery for our armchair quarterbacking. But mostly, its 1 day of football in the midst of a very long, sometimes painful off season. It will be 151 more days until we will see these guys suit up for the season...