8/9

'Lexi's mad at me,and Grandma, and Uncle Derek. We are going to force her to take martial arts one to two nights a week. We feel that she needs to have some physical activity on a regular basis, more than swimming. We tried to get her to take soccer, but she's just not interested. She wants to do softball, but that won't start until next spring. We don't want to do it, but we really feel like it will be good for her. We think she will like it after she's been doing it for a while, too.

Mercedes seems to be doing well, though she's a handful. Her "school" starts again at the end of this month and some of the neighbors kids will be going, so she will have friends. Well, more friends than she already has.Derek is also talking about putting her into martial arts, so maybe she will finally use up most of her energy.

Mason seems to have stopped growing, of course that could just be me tripping out over him not growing as fast as he was. Yes, I worry too much. He sees the doctor at the end of this month,so Iam trying to hold out.

Derek is hating the class he's in right now. He took a test last week that he says he failed. I hope, for his sake, he didn't, but we'll see. He's considering going to martial arts classes too. He needs the physical activity.

I found out this week that there is a very good chance that I will deploy in January. I am not looking forward to it. I would rather wait until Mason is over a year old. Sigh! I go where they tell me though. And I will do the best I can. My biggest worry is how Derek, Mom, and the kids will do. I suppose they will figure it out.

Shoot, supper's working. Suppose I better go.