Riding and Reading

So Justin and his buddy Mike have taken up gravel riding.  He loves it!  Anything on a bike and outside is right up Justin's alley.  His bike handling skills have improved greatly since moving to KS and he hardly ever wrecks any more!!  There for a while every time he got on his bike he would crash.  The weather has not been great for doing anything outside but Mike is dedicated and drags Justin out any way.  He ends up happy he went.

The pictures below are from a ride I think was 50 miles or so, they left early in the morning (like 5am  crazy) and then we (Catherine, her 3 girls, and my kids) at a local cafe for a late breakfast.

 Caroline learned the great lesson of how-to-get-paint-out-of-clothes after getting paint on not one, not two, but 4 pieces of clothing!  Two of which were brand new!  Rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush and lots of elbow grease later and she agreed that maybe being more careful or wearing a smock might be a good idea!

 There for a few days Lili took a liking to this pillow and it didn't  matter if you picked it up while she was on it she wasn't moving!  Eric liked having her in his lap!

 And we have been doing a lot of reading with it cold and windy out still.  We are all anxiously waiting for spring and warmer weather to arrive.

Busy as Usual

Life has been busy as usual in the middle of the country the past couple of weeks.  

Caroline has promoted in belts again and has a goal to have her black belt by the time we leave TX.  

 Justin has been traveling more than usual lately.  He left on a Sunday for Germany, was back home Friday night.  He traveled around, ate great food (and drank a few beers), and saw his best buddy from HI, Mark Morgan!!

 After getting in late Friday night Justin was up with Caroline and at the jr high school for a 415 am departure for the Odyssey of the Mind competition.  It was 3 hours away and they didn't get home until 1030 pm.  The jet lag and early morning/late nights hit hard on Sunday.

 Trying a new braid I saw on a girl from Eric's basketball team.

 While Justin was gone I still had plenty of work.  I was making sure Will had rides to and from school as the walk is still too much with the walking boot on.  I had to get sub plans ready since I was going to an all day math conference.  Sub plans just mean double the work!  Then since the kids had a half day of school on Friday (I had a full day, plus prep for the next week) I had a friend pick up the boys and Caroline ride the bus with her friend and she feed them lunch and kept them until another friend brought them to me at my school.
Then I got the chance to have the boys practice some of the math I had learned at my conference while we waited for Caroline at karate!  It was a great conference and I loved it!

 Then it was a typical Friday night of trying to grade papers and Lili sitting in my lap.

Our next adventure

Well, the Redferns are moving to TEXAS!!!  We found out that Justin will take command of the 553rd CSSB at Fort Hood this fall.  It is not something we expected as Justin doesn't have any experience with division level stuff.  So it will be a bit of a learning curve!  He will have 7 companies and gain an 8th when all CSSB's in the Army will stand up new companies called a field feeding company.  So he'll start out with 1,300 and then add another 200 when he gets the field feeding company added!  Yikes that's a lot of soldiers!!!

So if you've ever wanted to visit TX we would love for you to come visit!!

Will update

Well, Will is half way (hopefully) through wearing his walking boot.  He was thrilled to find out that he didn't need surgery or a cast!  He goes back to the orthopedist April 6 to see what happens next.  In the mean time Will is ready to move again.  I have had to tell him not to run, "remember you have a broken leg" and not to jump on the neighbors trampoline!!  Oh man this kid!  I love him dearly but he is a button pusher.

 He also got a hair cut.  He went to the barber shop with Justin and just wanted a trim.  Well they aren't quite used to trimming long hair, that whole high and tight thing you know. And they butchered it so I had to buzz it to fix it.  He says he's going to let it grow out again!

But the swelling and achy-ness has almost completely gone away.  So things are looking good so far!