The Brasfield Nation versus Paper Targets

This was our first time at the firing range.  Each one got to shoot a .38 Special from a distance of 15-20 feet.  The older kids shot from 20 feet, while the younger ones from 15 feet.  We had a lot of fun, although I admit there were a couple of our kids who made me nervous on the lane.  

I am very proud of their shooting abilities and their attention to safety.

Tilley took this picture of Tucker taking his first shot.  This was on the computer monitor just outside the firing range.  

Notice the nice shot groups; one group at the center of the chest, the other at the base of the head.  Nice shooting, Tucker!!

Riley was next.  We went in order by age; oldest to youngest.  I was probably telling him to keep it pointed down range at all times.  It looks like a security video from a gas station.

I took this one of Tilley.  They allowed me to have two kids at a time inside the range.  

Since Asher was paired with Tilley, I sat with Asher while Tilley was shooting.  Safety First!!

Asher won his battle against the paper man.  He was aiming for the head, obviously.

KK is such a girl.  She asked me to take the first shot for her.  Then another.  Then all of them.

Whatever gets the job done, KK.  Great job!!

I wish I could have taken a picture of Levi wearing his adult sized safety glasses and ear muffs, but

it wouldn't have been safe to let him hold the gun by himself while I took his picture shooting it.  So, we kind of did this together, with him standing on the bench, my arms around him, both of our fingers on the trigger at the same time.  

In my high school days, I was on the competition rifle team in JROTC.  I was blessed to win the Memphis City Champion award my senior year, among other awards.  We shot .22 caliber long rifles.  I loved it, but haven't been on a firing range since then, until today.

The kids are already asking me if we can go back next Saturday and do it again.  It was another good day for The Brasfield Nation.

God bless you all,

Dadofmykids

PS.  I want to dedicate this post to Jilly's papaw, who passed away last night.  What a strong man of God, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.  His example is worth following.

I love doing stuff like this to Tilley.

She thinks it's gross when Jilly and I hug, squeeze or kiss in front of her. We often hear unsolicited reactions from our kids.  Levi usually says, "Awwww".  Kk and Asher usually just grin.

So today, while Tilley was out shopping with her mom, she called to say that Jilly's phone battery was critically low and I should communicate through Tilley's phone, if needed.  "Okay", I said.

Then I sent this text message to Tilley:

I loved "barf" and "gross" in Tilley's reply.

Seriously though, it's all in fun. We keep reminding our kids that they are blessed to have parents who love each other. One of the all-time best gifts I can give to my kids is to love their mother in front of them.

I am not trying to change Tilley's attitude toward PDAs between her mom and me. At her age, it is appropriate to be grossed out. When she matures, she will find it appealing in the correct context.

Tell me about a time your kids reacted to you and your spouse.

God bless,
Dadofmykids

Our part time kid, Jack.

He's a real Dennis the Menace but we love him. And he knows it.

He lives up the street and plays here a lot. He's a good worker but also VERY destructive with a little mean streak. Every now and then we send him before he's ready to go.

But he keeps coming back. And I'm glad.

God bless Jack.

Dadofmykids

This is why I wanted a Zippo lighter.

No.  I don't smoke, although the smell of a sweet cigar is tempting.  But I am the proud owner of a Zippo.

This morning, Kk brought me her shoes.  One of them had a frayed string which had come out of the hole.  It is near impossible to push a frayed shoe string back into the hole.  If you are a parent, you have probably experience this.  And it only happens when you're getting ready to go somewhere, like school.  We had to catch the bus, too.  The bus won't wait, if you're not there.

I tried to capture the procedure on my iPhone.  Let's see how I did:

Sound effects provided by Levi.

Have a great day.  God bless you all,

Dadofmykids

Peanut Butter Shampoo

Asher got chewing gum stuck in his hair. And peanut butter actually works.

Here's how you can easily remove gum from your kid's (or your own) hair.

Put some peanut butter on the tip of a butter knife, about the size of your thumb nail. That way you will have enough, but not too much.

Put the peanut butter on the gum. Work it into the gum by rubbing it between your thumb and fingers. Keep working it till the hairs begin to loosen from the gum. Continue working it. Add a little more if needed. After the gum dissolves use a paper towel to pull the gum and peanut butter mix out.

Follow with a regular shampoo. It will smell like peanut butter scented shampoo. Then you'll understand why they don't sell it in stores along side the strawberry or coconut scented shampoo.

God bless,
Dadofmykids

With friends in both cities, who do we root for?

Seattle or Chicago?

Steven lives near Seattle. And Allen in Chicago. Their respective NFL teams face each other today in the play-offs.

Snow day with The Brasfield Nation

We went to Lakeshore Park in Knoxville today.  This was our first time there on a snow day.  The hills were fast and a little bumpy.  Check it out:

Levi was being careful.

Kaymie was a speed demon.

Asher was relentless.

Tucker needed a little push.

Then Levi wanted to make his wishes clear.

Tilley went the fast way; head first.

Sled Dad.

Our little neighbor, Jack, also went with us.  He's a daredevil and fearless.

Now, I am sore.  It was a good day.

God Bless,

Dadofmykids

Getting ready for #WWE Smackdown in Knoxville.

If you know anything about The Brasfield Nation, you know how our kids are crazy about WWE wrestling.

Tomorrow, WWE Smackdown is coming to Knoxville.  Yes, we have our tickets.  Our kids are getting really excited.  They are making signs and posters to take and show off at the event.

The newest issue of WWE Magazine arrived yesterday, too.  There's a feature in the magazine encouraging readers (mostly kids, I guess) to send in a photo and comments about their favorite wrestler or whatever.  So, today, we've been taking pictures and writing down comments from the kids.  We will finish by mailing them to WWE Magazine in hopes they will publish our kids out of the millions they will probably receive.

Here are some of our entries:

Riley and his buddy William writing to WWE Magazine: 

"We like it whenever Jerry the King wrestles." And, "John Cena, can we have your autograph? 2 please."  - Riley and William.

KK with her "619 sign".

She's Rey Mysterio's #1 fan.

(Does that make anybody else think of the movie Misery ?)

Levi, warming up for Smackdown.

He's going for The Big Show.  But, if you can read, you saw that.

Tucker is a fan of many.

If he was a pro wrestler no doubt he would be called Rambo.

Be watching for pictures from Smackdown Knoxville in the next couple of days.

God Bless,

Dadofmykids

My PC lab (warning tech talk ahead)

Sometimes, I get these odd curiosities to learn about something.  Such is the case with Linux.

Linux is a computer operating system, an alternative to Windows.  It comes in a variety of  versions from several manufacturers.  I selected a free version that appears to be very popular, Ubuntu.  (Ubuntu was not in my Windows vocabulary, so spell check wanted me to correct it.  Funny.)

I burned Ubuntu onto a CD.  It was the "mini image", which means it was the minimum amount of data to boot the computer.  Then the remainder of the operating system, aka O/S, would auto download from the Internet.  That was the claim.

So, here's what happened at first:

Not too shabby for a novice, huh?

It wouldn't detect my wireless network, so I plugged in an Ethernet cable and in a few seconds, it started the download. 

Now this PC is our old, worn out box.  It was running Windows XP.  I was trying to remember what exactly was going wrong with it the day I pronounced it dead.  I replaced it with a new Dell running Windows 7.  It may have been crashing a lot.  I think that one or more usb ports had died.  At least the hard drive and CD drive are working.

Here's where the dad stuff comes in.  When I came up from the dungeon, I mean basement, with the old PC, my kids started asking questions, especially Riley.  They wanted to know what I was up to and ultimately where this PC was going, if I got it running.  They were helping me look for a power cord and a mouse.  Never found a spare mouse, so they were ready to steal the mouse from our new computer.  No to that.

Tilley is roaming past the screen, telling me there's a message about partitioning the disk.  If nothing else is gained from this experiment, she learned a new word: par-TISH-on-ing.  Hang on for a minute while I go take a look...

I chickened out.  I didn't have the guts to use the whole disk.  But it looks like I left two hard drives in that PC.  There was a second hdd with 80gb total space that we had used for family photos and such.  I copied all those to the new PC, but still didn't want to overwrite them.  I also didn't want to erase the XP O/S from the primary hard drive.  So I selected the first option on the list, which was to re-size the partition and use all free space, estimated to be about 43gb, obviously on the secondary hdd.  It said it might take a long time.  We'll see.  It's almost bedtime.

That PC is on the kitchen island/bar.  Hopefully, I can get it out of the way before leaving for work tomorrow morning.

If you're not a gadget happy freak like me, then you're probably wondering why I am doing this.  The only answer I can give is this:  because I couldn't help myself.  Kinda like the guy who has to play the newest video game, or the one who must learn that new guitar chord.

At least my kids are impressed.

God Bless,
Dadofmykids

New car. Heart and Soul. Army knife in action.

Levi is such a giver.  He made a super cool two-sided paper car for me.  Check it out.

We stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast and Kk found a roll up piano in the toy section.  An accomplished pianist with one semester of lessons, she played for us.  Here is her performance:

On our famous trip to the knife store in Sevierville, Tucker bought an army knife.  Since the can opener in the condo was so lousy, he demonstrated his skills by opening a can with his knife.

Learn more about our famous trip to the knife store here and here.

Why they are called the Great Smoky Mountains

Today, Shane and I drove several of the kids up into the mountains.  What a beautiful ride.  Don't worry.  We brought all of them back with us.

Our new friends, Shane and Jill Haskins, are with us for a few days.  So, we left the Jills with a few of the kids for a little while to go see the Mountains. 

We first thought about doing Clingmans Dome, which is the high point in the Smokies.  It involves hiking up a steep incline to a tower overlooking several states.  But, when we pulled over at the Newfound Gap Overlook, we realized we weren't prepared to do Clingmans Dome.  It was way too cold up there.

See the "smoke"?  Driving up through that was awesome.

More "smoke".

It snowed a few days ago.  Although the roads were clear, there was a heaping pile at the Newfound Gap Overlook.

This is our attempt at a group photo. 

Tucker says he was thinking.

I would love to walk a portion of the Appalachian Trail.

"Mountain Climbing"