Just what WAS Cindy doing all afternoon?

Well, to hear her tell it, she was "Makin' babies all afternoon!"

(She made 73 little Baby Jesus' as part of a Primary craft activity tomorrow.)

Sorry I missed it!

Day 3 of Framing.....

UPDATE: They worked on Saturday too, and the second story is pretty much framed now too.

Sight Reading

Tonight we were reading from the Book of Mormon, and Makenna begged to read first. (Being a pretty good reader for a 1st-grader, it is really quite amazing to see her sound out some of the big words she comes across in the scriptures!)

However, tonight her sounding-out wasn't quite up to snuff.

She read, 'And King Mosiah did cuss...'

And verily, Mom and Dad did chortle!

Unfortunately, Makenna seemed to think we were laughing at her misreading of 'cause' instead of the visual picture her misreading painted.

Then again, as I seem to remember, King Mosiah had some excessively wild and rebellious sons, and as such her mistaken rendition, though not scriptural, could quite possibly be factually correct.

Mr. Manners Returns

Dear Mr. Manners,

The recent new tastes of my 8-year-old son—for the sake of anonymity I’ll call him Clameron (as he ‘clams up’ whenever you try to have a serious discussion with him)—concern me greatly.
Yes, like every boy he loves to play soccer, throw baseballs, and act like a real stinker to his sisters, but his taste in music is keeping me up nights worrying. Worrying as I hear it playing in his room every night, somehow lulling him to sleep—those melodies transforming into frenetic jousting of harmonies, the keyboards flying madly between octaves, and then the denouement triumphant!
What is a mother to do?
While other mothers can brag about their children listening to dreamy Zack Efron, Hannah Montana, or those fabulous American Idol musical superstars, I must hang my head and confess that MY SON (sob!!) only listens to that punk rocker of his century, (another sob!!) Beethoven!
And it is a piano concerto! Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat to be exact!
And my husband is the one who dug out this old CD of his and gave it to him to listen to!
They are conspiring against me! What can I do?
I do so want to have a normal boy!

Yours sincerely,

Keyed Up and Pale in the Heights
__________________

Dear Ivory Keys,

Tempting though it is to segue your cry for help into a recital of that trite motif of the atonally droning chorus of pop psychology, ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ I must refrain, as you are obviously already suffering from classical cognitive dissonance.
For the problem is much more discordant than you might imagine, and may even be a prelude to even greater mischief of the cacophonous kind.
(Excuse me as I now leave the verbiage of musicology behind and don the robes of psychology.)
You see, this particular piano concerto is commonly referred to as the “Emperor Concerto’ and as such, repeated listening to it could lead your little Clameron to fall prey to a superiority complex.
Yes, as he hums and conducts the complex harmonies of Beethoven in his mind while his slack-jawed peers drool onto their Ipods as they revel in those musical maestros you mentioned, he may subconsciously draw conclusions that could lead to such visions of grandeur.
And such, he would probably end up with anti-social behaviors such as prizing education, thinking critically, contributing to society, and maybe {gasp) even taking a liking to Mozart.
Be that as it may, there are two easy steps to snap him out of this self-destructive behavior.
1. Get cable or satellite TV.
2. Make him watch the Disney Channel 24/7.

He will soon be cured of any nonconformist behavior, and will be able to converse ably with his friends about all the nuances of the latest wacky antics of Zack and Cody, Raven, Hannah, and the East High teens.

Sincerely yours,

Mr. Manners
PS: Please let me know if you need a prescription for his slack jaw, as I will be glad to write one for him. (I have already included your own personally inscribed prescription with this reply.)

What a difference a day makes!

Today they started framing.....

Smart Alec!

So, here I was at the computer playing a time-waster game where you have to unscramble 8-letter words to score points.

Ol' Cameron came over to see what I was doing right when a new scrambled word popped up. He looked at it for all of 0.25 seconds, then suggested "Obedient!"

And the little rat was right!

Yes, I realize that this takes irony to an entirely new level--he has never been so quick to show obedience! (I assumed that he didn't even know that word, much less have the ability to recognize it when he saw it!)

Mmm....fresh-baked bread.....

Cindy was on a baking roll today, and pulled off a couple touchdowns.

She first made a batch of cinnamon rolls using Tamlee's great recipe--where you are eating hot cinnamon rolls approx. 1 hour after you start making them.

She then made 2 loaves of bread. Allyson, who is cutting 3 teeth as we speak, slammed down 3 whole slices (it didn't hurt that they were generously slathered with the saltier Amish butter)! Cameron and 'Kenner stepped up to the plate too, and as a result there is just 1 loaf remaining.

Yes, once again I am glad that I taught Cindy how yeast was our friend, not something to be scared of!

We all got 'elf'-ed....

These may take the place of a family Christmas letter!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9577556864

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9603359085

Kermit visits....

To keep the kids from being too bored on Friday while Cindy was out shopping, I borrowed an activity from my sister Tamlee's playbook (circa 1986).

The result was the Singing Frog Trio belting out a "High School Musical" song:



The kids have enjoyed watching and re-watching the video I took too.

There was a lot of tongue-action going on--and frankly speaking, it was kinda gross!

Black Friday

As usual, Cindy was out of the house to shop with her similarly-demented girl-buddies at 3:45 AM.

I, being more normal, got up at 5 and was one of the first ones in line at Lowes for a doorbuster or two, then on to Staples for a couple more.

I was home at 7:30 AM.

Cindy was home at 4:30 PM.

We were both asleep by 9 PM.

Simple Pleasures

Allyson has picked up the new habit of looking for and picking out the toe-jam every time a sock comes off.

She is quite meticulous, leaving no toes unspread.

Turkey Day

It didn't help that our power went out at 7 AM and wasn't restored until after 11 AM, but we were able to get the turkey cooked by taking it to Dean and Kay's house across the street.

And as you can see, it ended up being a fine affair of fine foods in large quantities, and we even had some extended family to boot! (Carlton, Liz and Hunter joined us.)



Not seen in the above photo are the 7 pies (2 pumpkin, 2 pecan, 1 lemon (with cream cheese), 1 fudgy chocolate, and 1 choco-brownie pie). If you do a headcount (and include the photographer) that translates into 1 pie for each person over age 2.

Mama Myopia

And it continues....

Allyson has learned lots of new words:
--Apple
--Outside
--Silky (her blanket)
--PooPoo
--Bath
--Cereal
--Dean (our neighbor)

Other words we might have heard are:
--Misanthrope
--Flatulence
--Perdiddle

But still, but when it comes to saying 'Mama' or 'Mommy,' she clams right up or completely ignores the eager prompts from stage left.

As Cindy wonders, 'Maybe I didn't nurse her long enough. Or maybe this is her revenge for when I slapped her hand during the last nursing session while she was intent on maintaining her toothy grip of death.'

(Maybe I can get Allyson to say, 'Got Milk?' instead?)

Concrete Evidence

Well, we now have a concrete floor to match the concrete walls.



The plan is to start framing next week....

Slouching towards Gomorrah.....

Well, I now possess my own cell phone. That makes 2 for our family.

Sure, it is another Tracfone, and only for occasional use, but it is still a sad day.

Really sad.

Of course, I get Cindy's hand-me-down---she has sucked most of the minutes off of our existing Tracfone, so now I get the one with only 120 minutes left and she gets the new one that has a whopping 820 minutes for a year. (I figure that in three months I will have about 100 minutes and she will have about 600!)

OK, so that's not a lot of minutes, but then again, it is more than enough for us and it only costs $99 for a year of service.

Timberrrrrrrr!

On Saturday I joined Cameron and an entire herd (pod? gaggle? decibel? terror?) of Cub Scouts and their leaders to cut down the vermicious honeysuckle at Carriage Hill Metro Park.

The honeysuckle in question is a Chinese variant that had trouble growing in the area when it was planted in the US, so the government stepped in and of course it is now choking out all the native plants and trees in a number of states.

Gee. Who would've thought that a well-meant government program could've had such unintended results? [Insert deeply sarcastic tone here.]

But I digress....

According to the pre-event literature, only the 11-year old scouts would be wielding the pruning saws and loppers, but since I was with Cameron I let him go ahead and have some destructive fun. (I apologize for the fact that this may have directly resulted in every cub scout and even some pre-cub scouts ending up armed. But no one was hurt!)

We lopped and sawed and sawed and lopped, and 2 hours later Cameron was still a'rarin' to keep going. Being drawn to the saws, he took especial pleasure in finding big trunks to saw through.

I was really quite proud of him--he worked like a demon!

As he pronounced in the midst of his honeysuckle killing spree, 'The only thing funner than this is making fires!'

(Sadly, there were no cameras at the event....)

Toddler Terrorist

Cameron loves to lay down in front of the TV, his feet up on the entertainment center.

As he innocently (if anything that boy does can be considered innocent...) gazes at the screen, Allyson likes to saunter up and do any one of a number of things to him.

--Squat down and slap him up alongside the head.
--Lean over and slap him right between the eyes.
--Try to kick his ear off.
--Lob a toy at him from 12 inches away.

For some reason Cameron finds it annoying.

We just smile quietly to ourselves and at Allyson, as we see the gospel, specifically, The Golden Rule in action.

She is merely doing to another as she has seen others done to by that other.

Funnily, she doesn't do it to Erin or Makenna.

Live-blogging at the Floyd home

The previous post about buffalo wings makes one think of yummy chunky bleu cheese dressing. The following should completely replace that yummy image with another chunky--and much less tantalizing--image, and I sincerely apologize.

It is 1:42 AM on Saturday morning.

Erin had planned to sleep at a friend's house tonight, but at 11:30 PM she called to say her stomach was hurting, and after a second call at midnight I went and picked her up.

She had mentioned that she felt like throwing up, so I even took a barf bowl with me in the van.

Arriving home, she felt barfy but didn't spew any chunks, and she finally got to sleep after 1 AM.

15 minutes ago, I heard her lurching into the bathroom and then I heard a big splat. A big WET splat.

Getting up, I peeked around the corner and saw Erin frozen in mid-stride. Unfortunately, that mid-stride was about 3 feet shy of the toilet, and the floor was covered with little chewed bits of raw carrots and other flotsam and jetsam.

Obviously not wanting to step into the existing mess, she barfed again where she stood. And probably again. Thanks to her height, the chunks and liquid splattered quite handsomely.

One could even see that the pizza she had eaten for dinner had been festooned with at least one partial mushroom.

Cindy was able to extricate Erin, and get her into another room.

Armed with a squeegee and many paper towels, I was able to get all the visible stuff up. As you might image, a rose smells like a rose, and barf doesn't. The stink--actually the noxious fumes--was tremendous, and it almost caused Cindy to add her own bit (bits?) to the effluvium.

Cindy is now mopping up and doing some laundry (Erin's winter coat for some reason had been lying on the bathroom floor and was unluckily within the 'Splatter Zone.')

Afterwards, Erin said she felt MUCH better--her stomach didn't hurt at all.

No surprise there!

She apologized, ruefully saying, 'I was trying to get to the toilet.' Then she promptly went back to bed.

The only mystery during this entire episode was, Where did Erin leave the barf bowl?

Alas, the mystery was solved. Sherlock Holmes is not needed here.

It was in her right hand the entire time.

She is clearly blessed with mouth-floor coordination, but she obviously needs to work on her hand-mouth coordination.

Still, though the barf (and toilet) bowl was sadly empty, our cup can truly be said to be half full, as she didn't do this on the new carpet!

He shore ain't my son!

"So Cameron, are you going to watch the game tomorrow?"

"Am I going to watch it!? It's the biggest game of the year!"

He continued on, "I don't care about Michigan State, but I hate Michigan--I hate the color yellow!"

Yes, tomorrow is the big Ohio State-Michigan football game.

Yawn.

Maybe I'll watch some of it with Cameron and give my own brand of commentary.

And who knows, maybe Ohio State can continue their streak!

(Of course, per another friend, even if they do make it to the championship game they'll then have to play a team from the SEC that has actually played against real competition in almost every game....)

Yet it is a good excuse to microwave up a pack of buffalo wings, though....

Like uncle like niece.....

The past couple days Allyson has been sporting a grin that for some reason reminds me of the grin of her Uncle Wezzo (one of my older brothers).

A genteel translation of the vulgar parlance that comes readily to mind might be rendered 'Cowpie-masticating grin.'



What do you think about the startling resemblance--of the grins, anyway. Oh, the hair too.

Of course, the resemblance in the smile is accentuated and heightened by the mischievous sparkle in their respective eyes.

Also notice the sucker stick jauntily clenched between her teeth. Almost Churchill-esque in her demeanor!

Cows do WHAT????

Erin is busy(?) studying for a test on Friday. One of the test items is to name the 6 parts of the eye.

Cindy and Erin came up with some good mnemonic devices for her last test (she was the only one in the class to ace it), so taking the first letter from each of the parts of the eye Cindy tried to come up with something that would be easy to remember.

The letters were C, P, L, O, R, I.

Cindy never finished because Erin quickly came up with her own particular favorite.

Ahem!

'COWS PEE LARD OVER ROTTEN IGUANAS'

I don't imagine that she will forget this soon.

(The visual imagery may not soon be purged from our memory banks either!)

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Part I
While Cindy was sacked out fighting the flu yesterday, I was downstairs with Allyson, where I watched 'The Sixth Sense' with Allyson (or at least occasionally watching it while playing with her).

That afternoon while driving back from the new hole that is our house (see below), I told the kids about it, and stressed how it was pretty scary for kids, etc.

Erin;s interest was piqued by the storyline, and she said she would like to see it. I quickly pointed out that it had bloody ghosts, etc., and that it would scare the pants off her, and that even their Mom wouldn't watch it (again).

Erin sagely commented, 'Yeah, but Mom's a scaredy-cat.'

Part II
As Erin and I were driving to Kohl's (see below), Erin began expressing her desire to get her ears pierced.

Being a loving parent, I attempted to divert her attention, saying 'That's a girl thing. You need to talk to your mom about that!'

That failed.

Trying tack #2, I told her to talk to Cindy about how much it hurt--the blood, the scabs, etc., etc.

Erin rejoindered, 'Yeah, but Mom's a wimp! She won't even ride the wicked rides [at Lagoon]!'

Dancin' Padders

While Erin and I were shopping (see the previous post), Cameron and Makenna got out the dusty old dancepads and quickly became sweaty messes.

Allyson also joined in the fun!

"Shopping Madness," or "The Torch has Passed"

This is a true case of mixed emotions--Cindy got a 30% discount coupon in the mail from Kohls for this week (a good thing), and is thus planning to use it repeatedly (bad thing).

But it was actually Erin and I who went to scope out the sales first.

Yes, Erin is in need of basketball-worthy shoes this year. After 2 hours and 2 stores, we ended up back at Kohl's and because the deal was so good ($20 after the discount), I bought me a similar pair too. (Actually, we put them on 'Hold' so Cindy could come buy them the next day.)

And no, they weren't "girls" or "womens" shoes.

I got a size 12 mens.

Erin got a size 13.

Also Mens size. (She could wear a 12 comfortably too, but she didn't like the color, and the 13's also fit well.)

Tangentially interesting fact: When I lived in Nango Japan, I won the award for the biggest feet in that town of 13,000.

NOTICE TO ANY LOCAL BLOG READERS: In a continuing effort to maintain my life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, I would appreciate it if you could please refrain from making comments to Erin about her shoe size (at least within hearing distance of Cindy). I wanna live!

Commencement

Yesterday we got the call that they had started excavating at the new house site.

Cindy was down with the 24-hour flu and I was thus home taking care of Allyson, so the two of us drove out to scope it out.

The excavator guy was kind enough to offer to take a picture of us....



Right after school Allyson was still napping, so I took the other three kids out to see the completed hole in the ground.

Handstands galore....

Erin and Makenna took tumbling classes with friends at the YMCA throughout October, and even a month before that and continuing to the present day they spend every idle second doing handstand after handstand after handstand.

We are very pleased by the girls' progress--by the end of the month they were doing 'back bends' (where you lean backwards until your hands touch the floor behind you).

And Cameron, realizing that it is a competition of sorts and that he is behind the curve, has even joined the daily fray.



And,as a parent, it goes without saying how irritating it has now become.
Imagine this going on every second they have a little space--in the frontroom, in the kitchen, in the hallways.
Further imagine that they are doing this within a second after you tell them to hustle their little booties to get their homework done--or eat dinner, clean up, take a bath, put on pajamas, get ready for family prayers, get ready for school, etc., etc., etc.

And worst of all, it is rubbing off on Allyson!



She's not scoring perfect 10's on her somersaults...,yet.

Day at the Columbus Zoo II

We went in early October--the weather was fine and the kids were out of schools, so we all went to the Columbus Zoo, and a merry time was had by all. Allyson loved to get down and run free. I would imagine that the tigers and leopards would have looked upon this little frolicking morsel with keen interest—if only they had bothered to wake up.

Somewhat sadly, the kids enjoyed playing on the various statues around the zoo as much as viewing the monster snake, the elephants, and the other live attractions.

A day at the Columbus Zoo I

A picture says it all....



...but answer these questions three, and the wiser you will be.

1. Who do you think was the instigator?
2. Who do you think was the instigatee?
3. Who do you think was the disinterested bystander?

Losing a stalwart family friend....

Although well over a month has now passed, we still keenly feel the loss of what was a fixture in our homes since we got married. However, we have now dealt with the grief and feel comfortable about sharing our loss.

Let me begin with an appropriate poetic eulogy.

Kindling and particle-board,
Formed into a hutch,
You were missing your top,
But were too proud to blush.

Purchased a block away from Cindy's parents' home at a yard sale in 1995, the bottom half of a hutch accompanied us to Tennessee and Ohio. Being overly sentimental, we lovingly referred to it as 'Ten-Dollar Thing' (as in, 'Hey Cindy, where's the dutch oven cookbook?' 'Look in the Ten-Dollar Thing!) It was the receptacle of choice for cookbooks, platters, and tablecloths.
However, we put it out to pasture (specifically, the front curb with a big 'FREE' sign) in September during the great decluttering that preceded putting our house up for sale. It was accompanied on the curb by 'Rickety Old Chair' and 'Cheap Particle-Board Shelving.'

Sadly, after two days no one had hauled it away to a new life, and we assume that it is now finally resting in piece[s] somewhere in the Montgomery County landfill.

Always prone to maudlin sentimentality, you can see Cindy spending a few final moments with it. (If you look closely, you can even see it waving a door at the camera. Strike that--that was the door with the bad hinges that I had to hammer back straight every year or so.)



Oh 'Ten-Dollar Thing,' may you never be replaced by '$3000 Amish Thing.'

Now that would really make me cry!

Wishful thinking

On Halloween night we joined Denna's (my sister) family at the airport to welcome home their son Josh from his 2-year mission.

In the great Bowcut tradition, as Josh came into view down the airport security hallway Cindy began yahoo-ing and cheering at the top of her lungs. The rest of us were a bit more stoic.

Anyway, as we were going towards the baggage pickup area, Denna was talking to Erin and said something to the effect of 'Just think. In 10 or so years you could be coming to see Cameron off on his mission.'

Erin immediately--actually instantaneously and simultaneously--got this shining ray of hope in her eyes, smiled hugely, raised her hands and crossed both of her fingers, and began a little dance.

I guess she'd miss having the little feller away for two years.

NOT!

Basic math

(2 hours of trick-or-treating + 1 trunk-or-treat event) x 4 kids = Approx. 22 pounds (10 kg) of candy (not counting what they have already eaten).



Cindy did the only sensible thing and took half of the kids' booty for other purposes (gingerbread houses, etc). Heck, the kids had so much they didn't even mind!

Missing in action.....

Cindy called me at work yesterday.
She was in a dither because she couldn't find her purse.
As we talked through where she had been the night before (a sultry, even passionate shopping trip to WalMart--sultry because she was pretty heated at 9:30 PM, and passionate because she kept muttering 'Stupid cupcake paper cups! with great emotion).
The other end of the phone suddenly got quiet.
'Oh,' I ventured, 'Did you find it? Where was it.'
'I don't want to tell you.'
But she did, and at my urging she even took a picture 'for the blog.'
She probably thought I wouldn't write about it.

And yes, it is camouflaged pretty well.

And even Cameron couldn't find it.



And yes, it is at least 3 feet from where it was supposed to be.


And yes, I'd better stop before I really get into trouble!

Due to popular demand......

Here is 'Pirate Daddy' and a close-up of Ally and Erin.