A Little Perk

If Mike misses one of the kids' birthdays, then said child gets to have TWO birthdays!!!  We celebrated Charlie's birthday while Mike was at home with a little get together in the back yard.

The birthday gang feasts.

Matthew Thomas prefers bun and ketchup, no dog.

Jacob lets loose on the pinata, and cracks it open!

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

May all of your wishes come true, Speed Racer.

Would You Like Love and Sprinkles with that?

More of the Super Shiflets...

"Dad, these Burkes have worn me out!"

"Me too son...at least we get to go to Staunton, VA tomorrow."
The name Piper comes from the Latin, meaning, "Beautiful Girl Wearing Vanilla."
Pipes!
The best thing a girl can wear is a smile!

How Stone Shiflet Eats an Ice Cream from Rita's

Please Ask...We'll Tell

Warning! If reading about human sexuality bothers you, you should probably skip this entry. You should probably also not get on the Internet, turn on your television, go to a movie, or read a magazine or newspaper ever again. You've been warned...

Some of the younger members of this family recently asked their parents how a baby goes INTO a mommy's tummy. (These children already know how said baby comes out.) We educated parents blushed and did our best to change the subject, and hope that it would never ever come up again. EVER. We quenched the firestorm of questioning by mentioning that there was a deadly gas leak in the basement and that we had all needed to leave the room, disperse, hide and cower immediately. We were successful in avoiding the conversation...but the guilt persisted. We knew that if we did not answer the girls' questions, that someone else would...someone most likely their age, who had been taught that an enormous baby-carrying bird flew up to heaven, picked them up in a pink blanket, carried them to our house via beak, and dropped their tender ass down our chimney. So, we did what any reasonable Gen-Xer would do...we looked for, and purchased books on the topic on Amazon.

I could not even get past page two of the first "family friendly" and cartoon illustrated sex ed manual without complete embarrassment. So, I did what any Catholic would do, and I prayed, "Lord Please Get Me Out Of This Mess!" Mike and I knew what we needed to do. We needed to talk in an open, loving, age-appropriate way to our daughters. So we did. We both did (I went first, while Mike was cleaning the garage...with a toothbrush...for ten hours). After I finished with the mechanics, I explained to them that they really were gifts to us from God above, and that He breathed the life and spirit into them that makes them different from any other creature walking, crawling, or hopping about this planet. We told them how happy, blessed and grateful we were to have them in our family, and in our life. We told them that they could come to either of us, ANY TIME, with ANY QUESTION about babies, families, and how we all come together. We also told them that there will be many questions about many things that we may not know the answer to - but we will do our best to find answers for them.

The younger of the two, the scientist, was fascinated. Immediately, she had a list of 3200 questions. She wanted to know all about the ways of the birds, bees and Burkes. The older of the two, the tender young thing, was nauseated and asked me, "Are You JOKING? YUCK!"

Another part of this conversation was for us to explain that parents choose to share this information with their children at different times in their lives, and that this is something that we talk about in our home, with grown-ups. I told them how happy I was to have the opportunity to share the "miracle of life" with them...(which I said white-faced, as a lie, but now I believe to be true.)

Now, the fall out from this has been the barrage of questions that they ask on about a monthly basis. I lay on their floor in the dark, while they fire away at me. (This comes after we have done Grade One and Grade Two activity books, read The Rainbow Fairies, and drawn on Magna-doodles.) They ask about a million of them, mostly about puberty related issues. I finally tell them that they can each ask ONE MORE question, then they have to go to bed. So the other night, the topic was breastfeeding. Back and forth they went - asking some serious questions, and some silly ones. Finally I said, "Enough! It's bedtime!" But Caroline begged to ask one more.

"Fine," I said. "Go."

"Mom? How do they make a lollipop?"

There was a pause, then the three of us burst into uncontrolled laughter. We found that question to be the funniest one of all.

The man, the myth, CHARLES

Charlie is FIVE today.  Happy Birthday, Little Guy.  I remember how surprised Mike and I were five years to learn that we had a SON!!!  We had not even entertained the thought of having a boy - and we had not agreed upon a name.  I wanted to name him Mike, Jr.. Mike Burke wouldn't have it, so, immediately after his birth, I asked him, "What are you going to name your son?"

He didn't hesitate and said, "Charlie."

I had a student name Charlie when I was teaching that I really loved, and one of my colleagues had a son Charlie who was a great kid.  Mike's grandfather's middle name was Charles, and we learned from my dad that my great grandfather's middle name was Charles, too.  So, as with all of our names, we were able to keep it in the family.  The name Charlie is the perfect name for our boy.

Charlie has an enormous fan base.  Teachers at school pull us aside to tell us how loving and sweet he is.  At swim meets, the entire pool cheers for him, and he graciously takes the time to lounge on his back and wave at his subjects instead of actually swimming to the other end of the pool.  Passers by see him and ask, "Is he always this way?"  (We interpret that in a positive way!)

His latest issue is conquering the words sir and ma'am.  He keeps calling ladies "Man" instead of ma'am...but he's trying.

He gets so excited about the everyday things.  He wakes up every day humming the "Superman" theme, then he comes upstairs to "snuggle" Mike and me.  He is a good sport about being surrounded by all of these women.  In every make believe game that we play, he is a superhero, an astronaut, a doctor or a pilot.  We girls really need and love him when Mike is on the road, and he is Mike's salvation when he comes home.

Charlie - you are a true gift from God.  I know that your happy spirit will grow as you do.  Happy Birthday dear one, I LOVE YOU!

Heaven on Earth...falling asleep in Miss Jill's arms while wearing an astronaut suit.  Are you dreaming of space, or Miss Jill, Charlie?

Having a swim meet hug with sister Caroline.

The basic necessities in life:  Dad and Legos.

Oh, and crabs, too.
You da Man, Charlie.

Thank God They're Gone!

As they promised when we were on our way out of Louisville, the Shiflets came to visit us!  I now know why God guided us to leave The Ville.  Has we stayed, my liver would have atrophied, my voice box (larynx, whatever that thing is called...) would have disintegrated due to constant laughter, and I would probably have become a menace to society, and loved every minute of it.  

I don't think I've written about how hard it was to say goodbye to my special friend Jill, but I can tell you that I truly believe that she (and her crazy family) was one of the reasons, if not THE reason, that it was in the cards for us to go to Louisville.  Jill is a wonderful, wonderful friend.  She is spirited, beautiful, happy, fun, generous, athletic, courageous and funny.  She lives her graceful life in a bold way, and I really admire her.  Her husband Mark, is gentle, loving, silly and completely outrageous.  Jill and Mark are good, good people, and because of that, they are able to live life on their terms.

When we left Louisville, the last stop that I made was to Jill's house.  I felt sick saying goodbye to her, knowing how wonderful it would be to keep on living near her.  She made us a CD for the road trip called "The Long Road Home."  That CD is still one of our favorites - and I'm glad that my long road home...a trip 14 years long, really, ended with a stop at her house.

Shiflets, you'd better come back soon.   We love you.

Maggie and her best friend Grady on the porch at the cupcake store.

Souvenirs:  Grady bought a watch at the USNA shop, and he got a t-shirt at The Boatyard, but his favorite find was this huge rope that he pulled out of the bay.
"Rappers" starring Mark Shiflet as Juvenile, and Mike Burke as Lil Wayne
I love you!  Don't leave!
Okay, I won't leave...let's just go outside!

Thank God They're Here!

It is so wonderful having the Pesuts in town. We went out on the boat the other day and had a great time. Russ and Jen are Maggie's Godparents. I'm happy that they will be here to watch her grow. I'm excited to be with the Pesut kids too. With Jen and Russ, and all of our crazy navy friends, friendship is a given. These years will be a wonderful opportunity to get close to the kids...even sweet baby Anne Marie!

We will not get in as much trouble as we did when the guys were deployed...and the guys will DEFINITELY not get in as much trouble...but I know that while we will be in for many family nights, we will have some wild times too.

We love our Coors Light around here!

Russ, Mike and Jacob at the helm...check out Charlie sleeping.  He'd make a great P-3 pilot!
Maggie and Russ enjoy the bay.
Introducing Anne Marie Pesut.  Look at that face!!!

"Faster!!!"

Happy Birthday Maggie

Margelly Dargs...I wanted to write a post on your birthday...and look! It's August 10th! Poor girl...you have to wait for your ENTIRE birthday month to end, to get to your special day - July 31st. You are EIGHT. I can see you changing everyday, and I am so happy to be a part of your life. I love you every second, every minute, every day.

Beautiful girl.

Sharing the love, up late on a summer night.

You love your nanny.
Oh those eyes! Those smiles!

Maggie, you are better than a dream come true.  I love you.

Hi!

I have not been at The Wheel for a while. It's summer! The weather is great, the kids are at home, the friends are in town and there is waaayyyy to much goodness going around for me to be at the computer. Having said that, there are about a billion posts that I have "in my head." I'm going to try to bang some out this evening before I go to Easton for the rest of the summer. My folks do not have wireless internet, so I'll be away from my computer. Blogger has an option where you can write an entry, then choose when you would like for it to be posted...so I'm going to try to get a few entries written, then have them sent out while I'm away.

Mike has the kids at the pool for an hour, so I'm going to indulge in putting up a few photos and sharing some stories.

Here are some photos of Caroline eating a peach. Does it get any better?