Shakespearean it was not....

Erin had a friend over after school yesterday, and a couple hours later they cajoled me into going to the basement to watch a play they had come up with.

The play consisted of play-acting an argument between Erin and her friend.

As I expected, there wasn't a discernable difference between this play-acting and the real thing!

I guess you could say they have 'practiced' quite a bit over the years!

Parental Units--That's all we are!

Being Sunday, I declined Cameron's suggestion to rev up the chainsaw to cut up more 'firewood' for their firepits (see below).

Cameron then scornfully exclaimed, 'I'm hungry! Since you won't get out the chainsaw, why don't you make yourself useful and cut up an apple for me!'

That kid had better watch out, or he'll find himself at the Emergency Room again!

Cliquishness

The 3 older kids are down the basement having their usual fun and fighting, and then it reaches a new level, so I go down to investigate.

I see that Cameron and Makenna have barricaded themselves in under the basement stairs to have their own club.

Then Erin begins complaining to me, 'They won't let me in there because I don't have any stitches!' (Makenna had some stitches on her lip 3 1/2 years ago.)

I just hope they don't start up a 'Non-Daffy Club,' as there would be no members!

A photographic chain of events

1. The kids can't play on the new grass in our yard, so on Saturday they shift operations to the periphery of the yard and then Cameron and Erin decide to create fire-pits.

Erin's is aesthetically pleasing....



Cameron's is more utilitarian....




2. Against Cindy's better judgment, I let Cameron use a hatchet to cut firewood for their firepits.



3. Cameron ends up in the emergency room with a nice gash that requires 4 stitches.




Supplemental Narrative

Much like the Obama campaign, outward appearances can be deceiving. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Actually, after using the hatchet for a number of hours, Cameron went to bed Saturday night with nary a mark and with a small grin of self-satisfaction.

At 4:50 AM, we awoke to a big 'THUMP' and then a slight scream, followed by Cameron crying his way into our bedroom cupping his bloody arm.

Cameron had fallen out of his bed and hit the steel mattress supports on the way down. As such he, got his first taste of an Emergency Room.

Sadly, this hasn't slowed him down a bit....

The grass is always greener....

On Thursday I got back from a short business trip to Mexico to find this:



The soddin' sodders had done sodded our yard.

My understanding is that we now have to spend about $1000 in water bills over the next couple months, not to mention non-stop moving of sprinklers, etc., in order to finally enjoy the new lawn.

Cindy and I were up past 11 PM that first night!

Flamingoed

This is what we saw in our front yard when we woke up Wednesday morning.
I guess this means we have officially been welcomed to the neighborhood.

A wolf in sheeps clothing

Sunday afternoon....Allyson is in bed napping.

Makenna: "Mom, Can I go in my room and get 5 pennies."
Mom: "No."
Makenna: "Please. I know just where it is. I'll be really quiet."
Mom: "What do you want it for?"
Makenna: "I want to buy a stick of gum from Cameron."
Dad: "I will let you borrow 5 cents. When Allyson wakes up you can pay me back."
Makenna: "Thanks."


Monday morning....two hour delay for school because of dense fog...kids are playing the the basement...mom cleaning up in the kitchen. Makenna comes running upstairs.

Makenna: "Mom, Can I have a quarter?"
Mom: "No."
Makenna: "Please Mom! I really need one."
Mom: "Why do you "need" a quarter?"
Makenna: "So I can buy a stick of gum from Cameron."
Mom: "How many pieces are you going to buy?"
Makenna: "Just 1."
Mom: "Why do you need a quarter for 1 stick? Yesterday it was only 5 cents?"
Makenna (exasperated): "Cameron said it was on clearance yesterday. Today it is only on sale!"

Erin walks into the kitchen waving around a dollar bill

Mom: "Erin, what are you doing with that dollar?"
Erin: "I am going to buy some gum from Cameron."
Mom: "How many pieces?"
Erin: "4."

Cameron enters with a sheepish little grin on his face. He has definitly swindled his sisters and he knows it. They, of course, are clueless.

I know Cindy likes Elton John's music....

...but this might be going a bit overboard!



(Actually, Ally loves these glasses and puts them on by herself!)

Fishing season arrives....

On Friday night I took Cameron and Kenner to the pond at work to see if anything was biting yet.

Within a couple minutes Cameron had landed the first one.



Then Kenner landed one with some limited help from Daddo (I only baited the hook, put the hook in the water, jerked to hook the bluegill, then let her hold onto the rod for a couple seconds.)

I soon picked up my rod and went off on my own, hoping with a kindly father's hope that this would spur Kenner to try to do more by herself--that she would pull herself up by her bootstraps and be self-sufficient. (That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!)

And it worked!

By the end of the night she had caught two fish, having loaded the hotdog onto the hook, jerked, and brought them in without any help from Daddo. (I use the word 'brought' instead of 'reeled' as they were fishing about 2 feet offshore...)

A budding reader!

Messing up?

Cameron is quickly becoming crazy about doing embroidery. Since I showed him last week he has completed 2 projects. They are not difficult and only use a back stitch but he does them very well.
Makenna has been watching him and for the past week has been begging me to let her do a project too. I needed to buy another hoop since they have taken over mine. I got her a hoop and this afternoon I put her project together and got it ready for her.
After her first two stitches she said she "messed up". She handed me the project and sure enough her thread had come out of the needle. I fixed it and got her started again.
Anther stitch...."I messed up again." I fixed it again and got it started again. Another stitch...."I messed up AGAIN! UGGHHHH!" She handed it to me and the needle and thread were still together.
"How did you mess up Makenna?", I asked.
Her reply..."It keeps ending up on the bottom!"

We both got a good laugh when I explained that it needs to go through the bottom, then it goes through the top, then through the bottom etc. etc...

Now THATS what I call a "GARBAGE" can!

[Posted by Mommo]
Last Saturday I made my trip to Target before it closed to buy the new garbage can I had wanted. I had looked several places, priced them out and thought I was getting a great can for a great price. It is stainless steel with a press down lid instead of a foot pedal. I was so excited for it. We used the can for several days before having to empty it. Many times I commented on how much I loved our new garbage can. I know...it is just a garbage can...but I loved it. I loved it until I had to empty it. The one flaw in design is the inner "lip" that does not raise up when you need to remove the garbage bag. I had been stuffing all I could into the can for days. Finally when I tried to take out the bag I could see there was going to be a problem. The "lip" does not allow the bag to come out without every single thing you put in the can getting stuck on it. By the time I wrestled the bag out I had so many rips and holes in the bag that garbage was spilling out on the floor.
This only happened twice! After the second time I called Target (which is my favorite store) and asked them if I could return a gargabe can I had bought 5 days previously, used since then, no longer had the box for but hated! Their reply....

Yes!!

We are currently using our old can. If you would like to see a photo of our "returned" can so as to know what NOT to buy you will have to check out the post below with photos of our kitchen and look near the end of the counter. (Sorry I didn't get a close up but at the time who knew there would be a reason to!)

Our students are like sauerkraut in our hands!

Yesterday Erin came home with a headache.

After she explained why I certainly understood! Her teacher had shown them some global warming propaganda--including Al Bore--I mean Gore--in his misnomered film, 'An Inconvenient Truth.' Leni Riefenstahl would be proud of him!

I went ahead and clarified a few things for her, such as, yes, there appears to be global warming (even though temps have been stable for the past 10 years) but the jury is still out on whether it is man-made or earth- (or sun-) induced, that the 'Hockey Stick' temperature chart has been pretty much debunked, that Greenland was called Greenland long ago for a reason--and not because the glacial ice was green--that the polar bears are doing fine overall, that Ohio won't be beachfront property anytime soon, and besides, there could be a lot of benefits from a slightly warmer earth.

Then today she came home with another howler. Her teacher had made the comment that Al Gore should have been president--he got more votes than Dubya.

This provided another teaching moment. I told Erin that presidents in the US were not elected by the number of votes, but by electoral college delegates from each state, and that the next time she should make the comment, 'It's a good thing that Gore lost Florida by 500-odd votes--and all hail the electoral college!' (OK, I added the last bit!)

Still, she has great teachers this year, and as long as I can deprogram her, it's good for her to hear many different viewpoints!

Radiance, Thy Name is Cindy

Before my talented nephew Caleb flew off to Hong Kong on his mission, I asked him to try his hand at making a sketch of Cindy and me. He kindly agreed, and I sent him separate photos of each of us to meld together into one.

I later found out that the photo I sent of me didn't have enough contrast for him to pick up all my rugged face contours, and that he was struggling.

Still, when I saw the result I am sure that my reaction was the same as anyone who ever saw Cindy and me together. "Wow! What is a fox like that doing with a balding geriatric-ward wanna-be? He must have a lot of money or something! Maybe it's blackmail!?"

Fortunately, our scanner cannot scan the both of us so I am just posting her result.



Caleb's equally talented mother, my sister, felt the same way about my half of the picture, so she tried us both with watercolors.

The result was basically the same, a rendition that recalls Esmerelda and Quasimodo. As such, again, only the better half is being posted.



In both cases, how I turned out was certainly not due to a lack of talent, as you can see from Cindy's results. I guess I will just have to live with the fact that my rugged handsomeness, as it were, just cannot be captured on paper.

At long last....

We finally took some photos of the new house for the curious-minded:

The rustic front yard:



The morning room:



And Cindy's nirvana:

Held captive by the Amish....

During our moving prep 10 days ago we moved all the dresser drawers from our better furniture to the new house beforehand, and Cindy came in to find Ally in the following predicament.



A genuine Amish prison!

A stitch in time saves contention....

Yesterday while listening to general conference via the Internet, Cindy got Erin started on some cross-stitching to help her pass the time. (There is more than one way for a kid to gain an understanding of the concept of 'eternity' during general conference!)

Cameron, seeing an opportunity to compete, also showed interest in this new craft, and he was also soon busily stitching.

When he came home from school today, though it was sunny and 70 degrees he plunked down on the couch and an hour later he finished:




(Cindy here...It is embroidery--not cross-stitiching. There is a difference. I also think that Cameron was not so interested in competing as he was in doing a craft. He is very competitive but I didn't see it this time. He has a knack for embroidery too. He is already planning his next "bigger" project.)

There's no princess at this house....

At Christmas time Cindy bought me a handy tool carrier.

Aside from showing her love, this was also an effort to prevent fruitless searches and fruitful mutterings as I looked for tools. As she explained it, 'Now you have something to carry the tools you use often. Additionally," she added while smiling quietly to herself, "You don't have to leave tools lying around the house anymore. Once you use it, you can put it right back in your handy-dandy 'tool purse!!."

For some reason she enjoys using the term 'tool purse.' But please note that it outweighs even the heaviest female purse by at least 15 pounds!

Anyway, I told you the above to tell you this....

Erin borrowed a hammer yesterday from my tool purse, and, naturally, she forgot to put it back in. Thus when I was hanging a small wall unit in the downstairs bathroom and I needed a hammer, well, it wasn't there!

Erin looked for it, but to no avail.

However, 10 minutes ago (9:20 PM) she came downstairs and handed me my hammer, relating, 'I found it in my bed. I think I slept with it last night.'

I guess not everyone can have princesses for daughters.

Sigh (of relief!).

Day 6 and Counting

Yes, yes, we know--everyone is clamoring for pics of our new residence of 6 days.

Though we would love to satisfy your desires (lust-filled or otherwise) regarding this matter, the truth is that we haven't taken a single picture of the house--inside or out--all week!

And let me get the usual 20 questions out of the way....

1. Yes, there are a lot of full boxes sitting around the house.
2. No, the only permanent curtains up yet are the ones in the den which we completed about 10 minutes ago.
3. Yes, the kids love the neighborhood--the small park, the quiet lanes that are perfect for bike-riding, and the climbing hill out back.
4. NO! YOU CANNOT WEAR SHOES ON THE CARPET! DID YOU HEAR ME KIDS!??!!
5. Yes, the same goes for any FOOD too!
6. No, the basement isn't full yet.
7. Yes, the kids love to play in the basement--they especially like riding about on their scooters.
8. No, we have not found a home for the empty boxes yet, but we are actively looking.
9. Yes, being outside of town is somewhat inconvenient, but Lowes is only 3 miles away.
10. No, there isn't any sod laid down yet.
11. Yes, even on Day 1 we could park in the garage (thanks to the moving helpers who worked miracles and even offered to move all the food storage to the basement!
12. No, the kids have not changed schools--the big change comes in September.
13. Yes, we have a new email address (floydlc@verizon.net) (though the old one still seems to work).
14. No, we haven't heard any roosters crowing.
15. Yes, the sun does shine directly into the morning room in the mornings--right in Cameron and Allyson's eyes!
16. No, we are still able to get by without cable or satellite--the rabbit ears should last a couple more years!
17. Yes, feel free to come by to visit--we can easily put you to work!
18. No, we have not yet run out of Ben-Gay, but we are pushing major cracks out of each other's backs on a near-daily basis.
19. Yes, this list is getting quite long.
20. No, we have not caught up on our sleep yet!