Fish and Chips Story — The Story of Us

After three years of defeat, Heather and I faced greater odds than ever and won the annual Delong Gingerbread house contest.  We had to deal with a cranky baby and seven houses in competition but our log cabin style creation won by a single vote.  I will be posting pictures as soon as possible.

I went hunting for the first time this weekend. I sat in a tree stand for more than 3 hours on Thanksgiving morning and I saw nothing. Not an antler, not a tail, not a thing.

Friday morning it was foggier than anyone could remember at the camp but we went out.  I decided to try my tree stand since the blind I was in had frost on the windows and I couldn’t see out any way.  There I had a very strange experience.  As the sun came up and the fog began to lift it seemed to get colder and looked more like a cloudy day.  Then it started to rain.  As near as I can figure (and I had a lot of time to sit and think) the burn off actually blocked enough of the sun to make the fog below condense again it actually began to rain.  So I was sitting in a rain cloud which would have been fine if I would have actually seen any sign of a dear.
Then, Friday night, it happens. I looked up and there was a dear about 20 yards into the field and 130 yards from me. I got all kinds of excited since it was the first one I had seen all weekend. It was a doe but at least it was something. Then I put the scope on it and I saw the spikes. It was a tiny 4 point but it was a buck and it was legal. I put my finger on the trigger and fired, it took off like a bolt for the woods. I couldn’t get the bolt action rifle ready for another shot in time. I went to look for it but I didn’t find any blood. I walked over to the woods where it went in but I couldn’t find any sign.  My father-in-law and I looked but couldn’t find where the round hit the ground (assuming I missed)
I can’t believe I missed it. I had an easy shot I had to have hit it but I didn’t. I was to excited when I saw it, I didn’t take my time like I should have.  I am now assuming that I hit it but couldn’t find a sign. Next year maybe I will have another chance.

Ok, so Heather doesn’t believe me but the other night Alora walked from me to her activity center, all of two steps all by herself. I called Heather to tell her but she doesn’t believe me. Of course unless she sees it she never believes me.

Alora’s hair was getting really shaggy.  Her bangs were in front of her eyes and it was falling over her ears like an old man’s but I didn’t want to pay for her to get a hair cut.  So while mommy was holding her I used my electric razor with clipper attachment to trim it up.  It doesn’t look to bad if I do say so myself.

She has been cutting three teeth for a while now so it has been a little bit hard on us all but I guess everyone goes through this stuff.

Here are all of our AZ pics, if you want to look at them

http://fishandchipsstory.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=2717&g2_navId=x8206e397

So yesterday jet lag hit, the reality of being in Ohio for fall also hit. Now granted you have many more colors than Arizona, but it’s just a little bit more chilly. Yes Dale while you were still running your ac in the house we had the heat going. But on more exciting news, I swear i saw the beginnings of Alora’s second tooth and she managed to climb up on the couch all by herself. Most of that i think is due to the fact that her daddy was ignoring her on his laptop and she was trying to get his attention so out of sheer spite she climbed the couch to sit by him. But it was still pretty amazing to watch her determination and proud little face once she sat down beside him kinda like,, ha didnt think i could do that did you!

 Well i’m still exhausted and have all the catching up from missing a week to do. Miss you dale and steph and zander and fred and barney!

OK so we flew out to AZ to visit our second family the Sackriders. I don’t know much about the desert but I knew there was one place in AZ that I had to visit. The site of my favorite movie, Tombstone.

We drove four hours there to visit and unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. I didn’t know what to expect but it was very cool. Most of the original buildings burnt down in one of the three major fires in the city but I stood in the O.K. Corral. I stood where the shoot out took place and watched a reenactment take place. We walked down the streets and saw the Oriental and the Crystal Palace and I stood in the Birdcage Theater, one of the only original building in town. The place where Doc Holiday and Johnny Ringo shot at each other and missed. I saw the bullet holes in the wall. Unfortunately it was too late to take the tour but we did get to hear the story of Lester Moore.

Here lies Lester Moore
4 slugs from a 44
No Less No Moore

Any way it was a blast, I need to go watch the movie now…

Alora took her first flight today. We flew directly from Port Columbus to Sky Harbor on a four hour flight. Alora did VERY well, but she only slept about 15 minutes but she behaved very well and she seemed to hate flying as much as I do.

So two more days left until take off! Warm sunny weather, Alora’s first airplane ride, and great friends to see. I”m sooo excited i can hardly wait. Although i do hope that my sinus ick and alora’s cold and teething comes to a stand still before we leave or it could be a long bumpy ride 🙂 But God loves us so were taken care of.

 And just since i haven’t updated everything like i should be alora has her first tooth! So she has a tooth and is trying for some, can crawl really well, walk with your help and pull herself up by anything and walk around,, she’s quite a busy body.

But I did get to see my little girl in the cutest outfit.  Here are the new pictures

http://fishandchipsstory.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=2350