Elser Family Blog

Since bush managed to have the military..oops.. I mean the military managed to lose bushes military records, I’d figure I’d add a link to try and help the guy. If you have proof bush showed up to guard duty, there are three Veterans groups willing to give you free money! Not to mention 10 grand from Gary Trudeau.

Ill sign off with a quote from Colin Powell:

“I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed… managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units…Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country.” (Colin Powell’s autobiography, My American Journey, p. 148)

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Oh my goodness! No camera and I practically stop posting! Sorry ’bout that. Nothing special going on though, lazy days of summer I guess.

H asked if she could have her library card today. I told her sure, but don’t lose it, or we could not take out any more books. I wonder if she thinks that I mean forever… R is walking more than crawling now, and learning that “night nite” means he’s going to bed, so when you say that, he starts crying…

We still have not decided what school H is going to go to in the fall. Had to replace the starter in our 99 minivan. What else is going on… hmmm.

K is having a “virtual babyshower” for her sister in Switzerland. If you want in, mail anything baby related to “Teri and Juerg Stalder, Route De Corniere 1, 1241 Pupling, Switzerland” you can also visit the the evite page for the baby shower. For more info, (I think, let me know if that link works or not)

THe neat thing is she is going to open the gifts, take pictures and post them at swisstales.com

These modern days, ehe?

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Well, I guess I have to write more and make pictures less. My camera is on the fritz. But before it went on the blink, I did take some pictures this holiday weekend.

For instance, here are the little ones in their patriotic clothes that their aunt V sent them (notice the sizes are in order! I like little touches like that)

As the night wore on, and we drank more beer, we were caught in funny poses like Grandma A here…

We also purchased 40 pounds of oysters for the occasion. MMM MM don’t these look good!?

K’s little sister got a tattoo on her back.. She designed it herself. Do you recognize what it is?

H is getting a new tooth in, and the other two teeth around it are loose now! Perhaps this time she wont have to write a letter to the tooth fairy!

Just a picture of H hanging out. She is really growing up. She is finding attitude and humor quickly.

And here is a picture I took after my camera went on the fritz.. It only focuses close now.. I had never seen a coin like this before. It’s exactly 100 years old this year!

Does any one know the denomination of it?

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Well, we have signed up H to go to the “Mxxx Vxxx preparatory School”. H at a prep school. It sounds more bizarre than it is. MVPS is a public Charter school, teaching the “CORE Knowledge” concept. It seems like a viable idea. We are not 100% on it yet. If anyone has any input, feel free to visit the forum and let us know.

On another note, while K was researching the White Cloud debacle, she came upon a Hilarious Website This guy writes letters to corporations and others asking them questions… They are semi legitimate questions, but unmistakably (or mistakable??) funny. The responses are funny in their seriousness.

I laughed.

We were supposed to go to an outdoor concert tonight, but it was called off because it looked like it was going to rain.

It didn’t rain.

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Arthur needed some help installing a new thermostat in his icecream machine, So the kids went swimming while I worked.

Sorta cool with the barn in the background and what-not ehe? You can just imagine how many kids have swam in this pool over the 40+ years it has been there.

On the walmart diaper front:

K won the war!

They have changed the tab on the diapers!! It took 6 months of incessant pestering, but they just sent us another case of diapers, and this time, the tab has been replaced with a soft one just like the 2 year old diapers!!

K also got a 100$ gift card as hush money I suppose.

I am so proud of her. She really was NOT going to let this go. I think they knew it!

K said if she had a clear picture of R’s bloody leg, she would have taken them to court for some serious money, and then donated the winnings to a children’s charity.

But the darn digital picture was unusable. No flash at the time. Bummer.

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H and M and I visited a ARRL field day site today. For the un-initiated, “Field days” are a contest to see what amateur Radio Relay league group can contact the most other HAMs in a 24 hour period. The purpose is to practice Code and contacting others in less than ideal situations. Since everyone else is trying to contact everyone else, it equates operating in a mass emergency.

It was not very exciting for the kids, but at least they have been exposed to it.

HOWEVER, The location WAS attached to a firehouse, so they got to check out all the firetrucks and such. That was a little more exciting…

H found a locust in the back yard today… Here is she is sharing it with M.

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H, M and R went with K and met a neighbor at this commercial mouse’s house. Rumor has it they had fun.

I dunno’, I can’t tell if they are having fun or not….:)

[parental boast mode] Hey, Take a look at my cell phone pictures… See the one with H standing in front of the tree? While they were being watched during a education committee meeting tonight, H made the tree, and cut out the birds and colored everything… And then made a skit where she had the birds taped to her hands, they flew to the tree, and started eating the fruit. H had the teacher cut out pieces of the fruit as they ate. Then the birds fell asleep in the tree.. “The end”. I was impressed, so was the teacher. She said it was all H’s idea.[/parental boast mode]

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When it rains in this state-in-the-south, It pours. And rain is always fun to play in, of course.

Here is our Friend A, giving a ride to R. He sure liked doing laps around the parking lot of the church… We had just finished a “movie night”, watching Disney’s Pocahontas.

It was fun… Did you ever consider the parallels of our conquering the Indians, and the situation in Iraq?

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Here is H’s idea of having some fun…

OK, even I think it was pretty funny. You should have seen the video!

Great story: K had used the walmart brand of diapers for all our children, until R came along. She purchased the diapers and immediately noticed it was causing a rash, even bleeding near the velcro type attachment. She immediately wrote a letter complaining of it. Tyco (the walmart manufacturer) sent her a letter thanking her for the input, and, sent her a case of the same defective diapers.

It just so happened that she had a couple of two year old diapers of the same brand, (she found them in an old diaper bag!) and could clearly see the difference between the two. I can tell you, it was quite obvious.

So, she sends off one of the old examples and one of the new ones, pointing out the difference.

What does she get? Another case of defective diapers

She called them back, And the lady apologized profusely, and now it would appear they are actually doing something about it…They have called K a number of times in the last couple days asking questions, and thanking her for notifying them. It was a good thing K had the example of the two year old diapers… I think that is what got their attention.

Little K getting action from the worlds largest retailer. Sorta cool!

On a different tack, I said, “why help them? Let them lose market share, they will figure it out” But K didn’t care about walmart, she was worried about all the babies out there that had parents that didn’t know why they were crying… She didn’t want the babies hurt or abused… Such a liberal she is.

Anyone know what to do with two cases of defective diapers??? No, we are not going to give them to charity… That would be defeating the purpose of the whole exercise, no?

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Happy Midsummer Day!

Kathi and I really wanted to get married on the solstice, but the year we got married, it was on a Friday.. 🙁 so we settled for the day after. 🙂 Anyway, little did we know at the time that it was a big event in Lithuanian folk culture.

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