Creative Popcycling

Just in case you were wondering, cornflake popsicles are not tasty. Grace insisted on making a cereal popsicle even though I was trying to explain how unsavory it would be. Because I was on the phone with Annie discussing important life matters, Grace managed to make one and put it in the freezer before I could stop her. She tried to get Emma to eat it the next day. Emma was willing but found it a little too unique for her and left it on the table to melt, where I found it and decided it needed it's photograph taken before disposal. After all, I think this will be the only one ever concocted. Does it look attractive to you? :)

Visiting Hours

We had a fun visit from Brittani. She came and spent Tuesday with us, spent the night and left Wed. Morning. It was quite eventful with much trampolining, spider swinging, candy land gaming, intense talking involving all person's present, eating, bathing, and a big walk to the school involving Grace, Emma, and Brittani. Luckily the sprinklers were on at the school so they ran through them. It was such a hot day I couldn't imagine walking anywhere but they had fun and the little girls wanted Brittani to go back outside as soon as they came in. She was a little overheated though and had to take a break and read few blogs with me.

It's fun to watch Brittani come zipping in and play with everyone, teaching them new tricks on the trampoline, testing them on their colors, names, etc. The girls always are very excited to see her and can't wait to have some attention from her and show her all their new tricks. It's so fun to have Brittani come and be such a "happy girl" . I think I need to be a little more happy and spunky like her sometimes!

Clara participated with some trepidation and fussiness.It was very quiet after Brittani left.

Dad also paid us a visit. Clara decided to attach herself to him. She looked very content to have him hold her, strangely calm and happy. It seems like I remember Grace and Emma having a moment at about this age where they suddenly decided they liked Grandpa Rod and were happy for him to hold them. Poor Grandpa Rod is usually tired and busy both at these moments but never passes up a moment to hold someone that wants to be held by him!

It's a "Super" Morning!

You know it's going to be a great day when you have to get up and put your "Super Hero" cape on right over your pajamas! (John was recharging in his fortress of solitude).

Camping and Relaxing

It's been a fun week for us. John, Grace and Emma went camping Friday about noon. They headed up to Horse Thief reservoir. I stayed home with Clara thinking a tent was not the place to wake up a few times in the night to feed a baby. The girls went out in a boat with John and they both caught there first fish, a rainbow trout each. I think they cooked them but didn't eat much. John came home saying he didn't know how they survive because they don't eat enough to stay alive. He did admit they had an completly emptied bag of cookies, however. I think they slept alright though they were a bit cold. John somehow ended up with a short sleeping bag and Emma was found to be under her sleeping bag instead of in it in the morning. She then tried to climb in with John to get warm which was a little difficult because these are "mummy" bags and not very large. They went hiking at Sage Hen on Sat. and came home around 6:30 p.m. Now you may understand why John was recharging in his Fortress of Solitude this morning.

I, meanwhile, was home absolutely relishing every quiet moment. I watched they end of two or three movies during which I had previously fallen asleep, watched one that John would have perished from boardom if forced to watch, swept, mopped, vaccumed, decluttered the house a bit, cleaned out the girls closet and spent lots of time talking to Clara and the neighbors dog (we were dog sitting).

Clara learned to turn over back and front on Friday morning. She's very spunky and wiggly. She was a bit bored with Grace and Emma gone. She loves to "play" with them. This usually just means they either play around her while she watches and comments or they abuse her with tons of kisses to the face, raspberries on the tummy, and loud strange noises that Grace and Emma make for Clara thinking she enjoys this. I guess she does. I'm always lecturing about being soft and quieter and then Clara will laugh or smile and prove that I worry too much and that she loves it all! She's also been kicking herself almost right out of her bouncer seat and occasionally making really loud screeching sounds especially when she's feeling big or excited that she just rolled over or something. It's been alot of fun.

Name? We have to name this thing?

Well, our first night of blogging has been interesting. John informed me that I was to do the blogging. I did think that he could use some of his addicting games.com time to blog but I think I might have been presumptuous in that assumption.. Oh well, I am glad John has quiet ways of unwinding!

I did finally weasel my way onto the computer. I watched carefully and was lucky to notice that John had taken a break from addicting games to rummage around in the garage to find his paint ball gun. He was probably going to shoot an unsuspecting dog or cat or something. I did think I heard him shoot a wall in the garage. Thankfully the girls were in bed, eh?

Well, by the time I had this blog thing started John came in , claiming to have taken Koko (the Chihuahua) for a walk and a play on the trampoline. (I can really only imagine how much fun this was for Koko. Maybe I was just unaware of how enjoyable trampolining is for Chihuahua's. What's with that name anyway! I feel like I could just type along for quite awhile and it would sound the same.... chiahuauahauhuahuah..) ANYway, John came in and plopped down in his chair and out came Gracie having had "scary thoughts" about robbers or something. (Do you think it had anything to do with John in the garage with a paint ball gun?) I told John, "Alright, we have to name the blog." I was on the first page of set up trying to find a suitable name and Internet address. John is always very creative with words, often spouting off clever rhymes so I was very surprised at his first suggestion. How about "The Fat and the Crabby" he said. After some contemplation and a few giggles I decided that was not very complementary. Grace had a few suggestions like cat, and car, and finally "How about socks" she said. "Socks?", I asked, "that doesn't really describe this family." (now that I think about it, it actually does - "....socks..... - that sums it up. We're a pretty basic family. Socks here, socks there. Hmmmm.) Then as she heard me considering John's suggestion, she came up with another great one. "How about, "The Fat and the Mad" she said. I think she was fairly serious too. "Perfect" I thought while I had a good laugh, "but actually, not very positive." John really had no more ideas after that, well other than "Crabby Carters". He sort of closed his eyes to little slits, a blank look. I knew I'd lost him. He's snoring now. Helps my concentration.... not very much..

So there we have it.

"The Fat and the Crabby"
"Socks"
"The Fat and the Mad"
"The Crabby Carters"
Maybe someone could help us out. Do they have tutors for this kind of thing? I know they had free tutors in college for things like math and english. I think we need one. Just a good family tutor.

Bloggified

Being made aware of our duty to share we are attempting to become bloggified. We have known for a good year or two that it is really very negligent to leave a gaping hole in cyberspace. We've come to know that a truly responsible family would be carefully posting daily, meaningful moments using descriptions, pictures and even videos . We regret our careless inattentiveness to the matter. Please be assured, we are penitent and will hear after make every attempt to connect with you, our family, friends, and curious strangers. May you laugh at/with us, cry with us, and feel the love we really do have for each of you as we share our life's moments, be they ever so humble.

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2006 Newsletter

Hello, I had this great idea. I though since John and I were both feeling uninspired about writing a newsletter this year, maybe Gracie could give a good summary of the year for you. We finished a batch of banana bread, popped it in the oven and sat down to write.


Me, “ok, a newsletter usually says what we did this year.”
Gracie –(bouncing around)“ok, what did we do this year…..”
Me, “O.k., what do you think our newsletter should say this year? Do you need to use the bathroom? …..”
Gracie–(more bouncing and hanging on the computer desk.“No, Ok, tanks cot”
Me- “No, what did we really do this year?”
Gracie- “What did we do, Kay, “We went ta church, We went ta nursery, ahhh, we got hats and played, and had treats, and got our hats..”
Me-“ok, this newsletter should say what we did aaaalllll year since last Christmas….. hey don’t push on that you pushed the whole computer table over…… get that out of your mouth.”
John,- “Something’s burning isn’t it?”
Gracie, “I’ll go check”

Me, “ok. What else?’
Gracie “put your pinky up….”(smiling )
Me “No, for the newsletter Gracie, what did we do this year?”
Gracie “Um, decorate our Christmas tree. Um, trim the tree.. um…. Set up the tree I mean, weeee.. got our Christmas tree down?”

Gracie “We had so many days, I can’t remember. Just write everything down.”

Timer rings
Gracie “I better go check that”

Gracie and I go check the banana bread and come back.

Gracie Whispering “Let’s write about our best dad!”
Me ‘Ok what should we say about dad.”
Gracie. “He answers the telephone”
Me “what else?’
Gracie “uh, we made hats in nursery, Me, I mean my friends, That’s all we should write.”
Me –“We need to write about the rest of the family.”
Gracie –“Koko and Brit.”
Me –“o.k what should be write about them?’
Gracie – “Koko ate her breakfast.”
Me – “What did Brittani do in school and stuff?’
Gracie. “I don’t know because I REALLY didn’t hear about it.”
Me –“What about Emma, what did she do this year?”
Gracie –“She played for the rest of her life.”
Me- “What about Mama, you didn’t tell about me.”
Gracie- ok. You write about you.”
Me –“I don’t know what I did’Gracie- “I don’t know either…You worked…..”

Gracie finally surrenders to the restroom, comes back and hangs around the living room rolling around and doing the things a 4 year old does when she’s bored and tired.

Me “ Ok. What should I put for the rest of this newsletter?”
Gracie “NOTHING else, NOOOOOOOOOTHINg else.”
Me “Nothing?”
Gracie “NO”

So there you have it. Our year in a nutshell. John answers the phone, “Gracie goes to nursery, Emma plays really hard, Brittani does go to school but we don’t hear much about it, Koko ate, I did work though I often feel like I am starting back at the starting line by the end of the day, Kind of a interesting little cycle of insanity mingled with lots of giggles, tears, tons of drama, a few diapers, and finally a quiet, cool, pillow as a reward for the finishing of another day!


Ok, in real life….

John-Worked hard. It’s been a tough year for us with the loss of John’s dad and Brittani’s best friend in her accident in January. John’s been the strong one, taking over completely in the family business, and dealing with all the emotional strain and legal problems to do with the the accident too. He’s worked hard and enjoyed the business especially with the addition of his nephew David to the work crew.

Jackie – I’ve tried to keep a stiff upper lip, but it has gotten pretty limp sometimes, I have to admit. I have enjoyed this year though and have been very grateful for all the support I have had from everyone. I am very grateful for the faith my parents taught me to work at as it’s the only thing that gets a person through some of these trying times. I have had some fun with everyone though and Gracie is a good back up sometimes when I am feeling sluggish. “I’ll help you mom!”

Brittani – is really ready to graduate from High School. She was co captain of the cheerleading squad and cheered for the football season. She’s done really well to keep up things even when it’s hard. She’s counting down the days until she’s 18 too, ready to venture out, get a job, go to school, have some space! She’s had a lot of fun working for a wedding decorating/set up company. It keeps her really busy and there is even a motivating cute friend of the opposite gender who works there to keep her spirits and the corners of her mouth turned up!

Gracie – Gracie has had a fun year but does feel the stress at times too. When we talk we really have to watch it as she always has one ear cocked in our direction and is busily recording everything we say. She makes us laugh when she remembers what we said and uses some of the words later. “ACTUALLLY, I was going to play now mom.” Gracie loves to dance. I thought of putting her in a class but so far I think she enjoys her imaginary class with Emma and herself, with an occasional lesson in tumbling from Brittani!”

Emma – has really enjoyed herself as she has grown into her body. She’s tough and rough and enjoys running, jumping, singing, and of course following Gracie around playing babies. Her favorite word of the year is “hamburger” spoken with a slight European accent. She was surprised to learn what a hamburger really was at a football game but has really learned to like a good McDonalds burger.