Author: Mark

Daddy, ukhule uze ukhokhobe!

Daddy

 

Today is Daddy’s birthday.

The title translates to “Daddy, may you live to grow so old that you walk double over your walking stick!”

Daddy was born in South Africa. He is handsome. He loves Momma. He loves God. He tells me about God. He tries to obey what God says in the Bible.

He does good at work. He works on a jet engine.

CookingHe is fun. He is A LOT of fun. He took us to the Manitou Islands. He taught me how to put up a tent and use a camp stove. We hiked, ate, and had fun!

He helps me learn things. He helped me learn to hammer. He helped me learn about jet engines. He let me help dig up the rocks in the front yard and make the swing set.

Here is different ways to say “Happy Birthday” and “I love you”. Can you guess whereLast years family picture they are from? Thank you Oma, Opa, Uncle Phil, Grandpa, Great Grandma, Uncle John, and Auntie Beulah for sending me the notes on how to say the different sayings.

The languages to chose from are two from Zulu, Afrikaans, Greek, French, Spanish, Finnish, Polish, English, German and Swedish. The first line is “Happy Birthday” and the bottom line is “I love you!” (if they are not exactly right sorry about that. Please tell me how to fix it!)

  1. Language?
    1. *Ukhule uze ukhokhobe –May you live to grow so old that you walk double over your walking stick!
  2. Language?
    1. *Ilanga elimndandi kuwe!– “Happy Birthday to you!”
    2. ngiyakuthanda
  3. Language?
    1. *Grattis på födelsedagen
    2. *jag älskar dig
  4. Language?
    1. *Cumpleaños feliz
    2. Le amo
  5. Language?
    1. *Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin; the best on your birthday
    2. kocham ciÄ™
  6. Language?
    1. *Bon anniversaire
    2. Je vous aime
  7. Language?
    1. *Hyvää syntymäpäivääminä rakastan sinua
  8. Language?
    1. *Happy birthday
    2. I love you
  9. Language?
    1. *Xronia Pola!- “Many Happy Returns”
  10. Language?
    1. *Glücklicher Geburtstag
    1. ich liebe Dich
  11. Language?
    1. *Veels geluk met jou verjaarsdag! “Congratulations on your birthday!”
    2. Ek is lief vir jou.

I love you Daddy! Happy Birthday!

bog

I told you I would write more about our vacation.

My Jump

Daddy

Group Ostrich

We are going to talk about the bog. Where is the bog? Down, Down Down. The first part of the bog is called the moat. The second is the mat and the third is the middle, because it is in the middle. If you stand on a board walk and jump straight up and down, the bog wobbles in the middle of where the board walk is.

Guess who?The difference between and bog and a blog is that you do not usuallyUncle Dave write on bogs and you don’t usually use peat moss in a blog.

The difference between a bog and a swamp is that a bog is land overtaking water and a swamp is where water overtakes the land.

It was fun. We got to JUMP in. When you jump, you either go in face first, arms spread out wide (that is called a Superman). That one is the coolest one. The second coolest way is called rock star. You jump in knee first. This one is called the original, you jump in bottom first, legs spread out wide.

Momma’s jumpJumping down feet first is called the WRONG way! Because you sink. It’s HARD to get out.

To get out, you crawl on your hands and knees or do the army crawlAJ.

You can grow carnivorous plants in a bog. Indians used to use it as diapers because it is “clean” (Uncle Dave called it sterile) and it can hold 100 times its own weight in water! Settlers used it as a refrigerator! Scientists have found pieces of meat! In another bog they even found a person!

Momma and Daddy

I want to do the bog again!Family

AndreaAudrey

My Weekend 27-29 July Part 1

frog

Frog kissWe saw Reece and Cardin at their new home at Lake Ann. It was fun.

On Thursday we drove up to Michigan. When Reece came on Friday we also saw AJ.

We went to the beach with Reece and AJ. We found a frog. I found the frog, it surprised me. When I noticed what it was, I called Reece and he caught it. We were walking along the river when I saw it. Continue reading My Weekend 27-29 July Part 1

My Weekend 20-22 July 2007

GREAT Grandma BeaMy Great Grandma Bea had her 88th birthday! It was fun. We had cake, pizza!, pizza!, and more pizza! (All right, maybe not that much, but we did have a lot of pizza.) I liked to eat cake, of course.

It was a lot of fun. We got to play with cousins. We played volleyball ( I thought it was called ballyball 🙂 !) We played on the swings and the slides. That’s pretty much all.

The day after we saw Great Grandma Bea, we went to the circus. We saw them put upThe daring young men…. the circus tent –the big top! Oma and Opa took us. We got to see them clean horses hooves. We saw little horses, even a hippopotumuses.

Hoola hooping at the circusIn the evening, we all got to see the circus! It was fun. My favorite was the trapeze artists. I liked everything else though. The elephants were fun to watch. The clowns were funny. Very Funny! Very Very Funny! The girls who did the hoola hoops almost never dropped any. One of them dropped only one, but she was pretty young.

Oma bought red snow cones, slurp! They tasted very very very very very (you get the picture) yummy.

On Sunday, we went to the 4-H fair. I had a fun time on a roller coaster. My very firstMy first roller coaster one! The ride was much much much much (you get the picture) too short, but the roller coaster was big. I lost my stomach a couple of times. Every time it did, I felt like I was losing it twelve times! I went on it with Maryam.  It was very very fun.

I went on two rides with Esther (sorry no pictures!). One of them pretty much felt like a tornado, but I know you did not spin that fast. The other people on it did not spin at all, I don’t think they knew how to spin. I also went on one that felt like you were hang gliding. It was so much fun! Momma said it was scary seeing “her little boy” go on all those rides. But, I got to go on them.

It was a very very very very very very very (you get the picture) fun fun fun fun fun weekend!

But, don’t miss reading about this weekend (in a few days).

Science Class 2

The finished product….

completed.jpg

It turned the wrong way, I am kind of disappointed. It was not the way we wanted it to, it got stuck. If it went the other way, it would not have got stuck.

It was loud when it was on. It sounded like my “Weasel” robot. Momma says like a dentist’s drill!  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!silly.jpg

putting-together.jpg Here we are working, and here we are playing!

Here is a roller coaster web site to go to.  At this park you can design your own roller coaster!  It is neat, cool and fun.  I’m going to play it now with Andrea.

 

 

Andrea wanted me to say that we have been praying for rain. It rained! We got 4 inches in our pool!!

She also wanted to send more smiles for the day!

messy.jpg

 

Hog tie…

…there is such a thing as a silly question. I asked Daddy “what’s a hog tie” because Momma said something about being hog tied. So, out came the question.

What is a hog tie????

Daddy said it was much easier to show me than to tell me. He said, “go get some rope.”

I got some rope. And guess what happened?

I am hogtied!.jpg Daddy didn’t tie it very well! Escape!.jpg

I still don’t know how Daddy knows how to hog tie.

Science Class

tow strok you know tanks wikopda At Science Class I am learning about engines. This is a two stroke engine. I am NOT making a two stroke engine though it does look like it is less complicated.

(Click on the pictures ((they are coooollllllll))) 🙂

Four stroke engine at work (thanks Wikipedia!)On the four stroke engine, the more complicated looking one, if you look at the right of the number toward the circle right above it is called the cylinder block. The one that looks like it is metal is what a cylinder block looks like.

I have learned cylinder block, oil pan, motor stand, pistons (mixes everything up I think) piston heads, piston pins, and piston connectors.

Maybe I will make one of my own.

I will tell you more later. siilunder blokb thinks wekopda

Hummingbird Dinner continued

 

There was a very hungry Hummingbird. So he went to a potato (blech), a lady bug (ohJupiter (from Wikipedia) brother, where did she go?), and then…He flew up to Jupiter! (Do you remember this story? It was started in Two Stories in One.)

And he dipped his beak in the Big Red Spot! Well, as you probably know, Yucky! It tasted like horse radish and chalk; and even more disgusting than that.

So he flew back (it took a looooooooooig time) to earth. Soooo he looked for his house instead of a tree– there was a house! He saw a red hummingbird feeder. Yum! “I want to live here!”

He thinks “that door is open. I might go check there and see if there are any good nesting spots”. So he flew into Daddy’s workshop. He said, “If this is a shed, it isn’t too smelly which makes it seem nicer. It has some nice warm nesting spots, so I might as well nest here. But first I need to check out one of those nice warm looking nesting spots. Ow! It’s too hot. How do I get out?”

He flew around awhile trying to find a way out. He sees my daddy. He flies around, resting every so often, trying to get away from Mr. Humongous. “Hey, I like it in here, don’t make me get out! Oh brother! Don’t hit me! Hey, hey get away from me, not so close! Wait a minute, not so close! Mr. Humongous, what do you ….yipes… don’t try to hit me with that net!”

Fireman Mark to the rescue!He sees somebody all in red. “Don’t try to get me out with all that red! I like it in here a lot! I want to make my nest in here!” (This was before the Hummingbird knew me)

“What’s that big blue thingamajigy? Why are you hanging it up?” (Daddy was making the room smaller with a blue tarp). Later…. the humingbird is breathing hard….”you want me out so much, I will just land on your head and you can walk out!” (That’s a good idea, isn’t it?)

“Ah, much better for may aching wings!” Then he flies away, builds a nest to attract a girl friend, and eats lunch.

How do I (Mark) know this story? The hummingbird that this (pretend) true story is based on told me it. He has been telling me too many stories already, and has never told me his name yet. Our friendship is based on the low cost food that we provide at Bird Restaurant II. (There are three of them presently.)

Larger than life HummingbirdHe is married to the most beautiful hummingbird girl you have ever seen. They are expecting their first babies soon.

Here is a picture of him at his favorite outdoor restaurant.