Truman Family Blog: The Best Week of the Whole Year!!!

The day finally arrived. We had been waiting for six weeks and thought we were going to go crazy with anticipation. The school books were put away, the closets were organized, and the carpets were steam cleaned. As I was waxing the floor, I realized that my finger nails were getting a pretty shine also. The kids did everything I asked of them. If I had said, "Stop breathing!" I think they would have tried. When I had errands to run, Hannah kept up the frenzy of washing and straightening. It didn't help that the previous week we all had a terrible cold. Most of the kids stayed in their beds for several days. But we were better now, and we were excited. Here we are at the airport. Our clothes are pressed and our hair is curled. The baby even had a clean shirt on.

We didn't have to get to the airport so early, but we were excited. So we waited, and waited, and waited.

"I need more quarters!"

Then the plane landed and we all held our breath. We counted the passengers, "1, 2, 3, ...17, 18, 19! There he is!!! He's here!!!! "

DAD !

The kids ran from the viewing window to the security gate. I think some got trampled in the rush. Hannah said she touched him first. I thought I was going to burst, so I stood back a bit and watched him hug all the kids. He is handsome and perfect, he is my knight in shinning armor. His smile lit up the whole airport.

But even a knight lives in a castle that breaks occasionally, so he got right to work on the little things as soon as he got home. We had a list on the refrigerator of all the things we each wanted to do with him while he was home. Everything got checked off except camping in the backyard with Katie. Our knight wanted to relish every evening on a real bed. Katie took a rain check.

The boys thought it was pretty cool to have two computers in the house again.

Who can resist a game of crack the egg with Dad?

But a hurricane Irene was blowing our way. So Friday was spent battening down the hatches. Spencer did an amazing job of straightening the garage.

Braden still wasn't sure about Dad. But as soon as Dad got this keys, Braden became Dad's shadow. The car fit nicely in the garage.

Once the car was snug in the garage, it was time to tackle the truck. Braden was thrilled to be Dad's helper. I think they both wished they had more cars to move around.

Here we are, the happy home owners with all of our things tightly secured for the coming hurricane.

One of the locals told us to tape the windows if we were not going to put plywood on the windows. It felt silly. A roll of masking tape vs. 150 MPH winds. It is supposed to help contain the shattered glass. I hope we never find out if it works or not.

Then we sat and waited, and waited, and waited.

And we worried a bit. Should we evacuate? The island was evacuated and the bridge was closed. The whole town had a curfew from 6:00 pm Friday to 9:00am Sunday.

Several of our neighbors left town. We decided we would ride it out. The children passed the time playing on the computer, Mom went through and cleaned out some papers and old bills.

This gave Chad time to bond with Braden. Thursday, Braden wouldn't look at Chad. After driving in the car together they became, well....Braden would let Dad hold him only if they were doing something fun. Chad has always had this mysterious power to get babies to fall asleep, which is helpful if you are the father of eight children.

The pull was just too much for Braden he fell right in. Dad enjoyed every minute of holding him.

We were pleasantly surprised that either the storm wasn't that bad or our house is built better than we thought. Besides a few branches and pine cones occasionally hitting the windows we didn't really notice there was a storm raging outside. Saturday morning the boys put on there hurricane gear and went for a walk through the back woods. They liked the feel of the rain and the wind. And they wanted to see what the creek looked like. They said it was up but no where near the houses. In the afternoon the wind slowed and we all went out to play.

The occasional gust would catch us by surprise and send us running for cover.

By evening the air felt clean and clear and we were out walking the neighborhood. Some of the neighbors started to come home and said the storm had hit worse where they had evacuated to.

When we woke Sunday morning all was calm. So we kicked it into high gear. Gavin was being baptized that afternoon right after church. Our two chefs fried up some hot dogs, oranges and pretzels for a picnic after church.

Gavin is making himself a blueberry parfait for breakfast.

After church we had a nice lunch that we shared with several families. Our chefs were able to put together 32 lunches that we shared. We only took home 3 hot dogs for Dad who was too busy making arrangements to come and eat with us.

We hadn't been able to get in the closet to find white clothes until just before the baptism. This was not good. Everything was in grown up sizes. Gavin just rolled up his sleeves. I think he was too nervous to really notice. In the last few years he went from scared, to nervous, to thoughtful about being baptized. We had teased him a little that Dad was going to swish him good in the water to get out all the bad parts. But then when the time came, Dad thought he saw Gavin's leg come up out of the water so he really did push him down low and for a good second to make sure all was immersed. Emily played the piano, Hannah and Spencer prayed, Jessica gave a nice talk on the Holy Ghost and I spoke on baptism. I felt the spirit so strongly that I abruptly ended my talk because I felt I had already said that which was important. By the end of the confirmation I felt that Heavenly Father loved Gavin very much and that he would grow into a great man. Chad said he felt that the Holy Ghost would be very important to Gavin through out his life.

Gavin made and decorated this cake with me on Saturday during the storm.

Monday was spent cleaning up the yard. We were surprised that there were still leaves on the trees. We felt like we had raked them all up.

Monday afternoon we went to Lowe's to look at paint colors.

Tuesday was the girl's first day of Seminary for the year. They were very excited.

Chad and I went for a walk at the beach, then rushed back to get the girls. We did this every morning all week long. Very enjoyable.

On Tuesday, Chad and I went back to Lowe's and picked out what we needed to begin our Bathroom Decorating Project: supplies, paint, faucet, hooks, bowed curtain rod, garbage can and toilet paper holder, wainscoting, and trim.

We tapped and painted.

Then we studied the peachy-pink I had chosen. Was it pig pink, or band-aid pink. Either way it just didn't work. The girls looked at the paint swatches again. Katie and Hannah really wanted Fairy tale pink.

It was a darker shade than we hoped, but it will do. Now it looks like strawberry ice cream pink. Spencer and Dad did a fabulous job installing the new faucet. (It feels silly taking the other faucet out when it was still new, but we want the fixtures to match.) The wainscoting and trim are beautiful.

We love the bright, new bathroom. Thank you project man!!

Dad, did a lot of reading to us while he was home. He began with William Tell, a long library book. Then we moved onto The History of the Church by Joseph Smith. Dad was fascinated by all the additional information. He even got to read a few Louis Lamour's, and a lot of library books.

Braden enjoyed his new reading buddy.

We needed a family outing, but we wanted to stay close to home. We found canoe rentals for $3 on base. The older kids had spent their summer camps canoeing and were excited. The little kids were terrified or hesitant. They had no idea what to expect.

Mom gave a very thorough safety brief, then Dad loaded up the canoes.

Spencer and Jessica went first.

Off they go!

Emily and Hannah went next.

Finally, Gavin and Dad headed out.

Every half hour everyone regrouped and we switched partners, even mom and Braden had a turn out on the water. Braden was happy if the canoe was moving swiftly but he did not like turning or drifting. Braden mostly sat at the picnic table and ate crackers and played with his toy trucks. Some families go to DisneyWorld. Outdoorsy families will go on a white water rafting adventure. Our family likes a low key, low stress, something different activity but only for a couple of hours. Then were ready to go home. We have rented a pontoon boat in California to eat lunch in the middle of a reservoir. In Idaho we took out a ski boat and taught the kids to ski and tube. Now, we have tried canoeing in North Carolina.