So... picture this. The kids all went back to school from Christmas break on Thursday, by Friday afternoon it was time to tackle Cameron's room (best when he is not at home---don't check the trash!). While I am sorting through all the tinfoil pieces, rocks, nails, screws, memorabilia from the Air Show 2 years ago, broken erasers, little tiny bits of old pencils, Lego pieces, etc. etc. I found a nicely folded paper. It was folded and shaped into a sort of funnel with a note inside it. Having gotten the same thing from Erin just before Christmas with a note inside gushing about what a great mom I am, I figured it was probably a nice note from Erin gushing over Cameron. "I love you and am so glad you are my brother." etc. etc..
I had all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings being so grateful for how loving my children are and I would be sure to save that wonderful note. This is what it really said,
"Cameron,
I am soooooo mad at Mom right now. Aren't you too?
Write back,
Erin"
Needless to say....out went the fuzzy feelings and into file 13 went the note. Not the first and I am sure not the last. Oh well...one can hope.
Some of our family wanted to see the house with all the brick (at least all that we could afford....!)
Cindy, domestic goddess that she is, prepared a tasty breakfast of french bread french toast this morning.
Reactions among the kids varied.
Cameron ate one bite and then ran into the bathroom. His face wan, he emerged a minute later, faintly asking, 'Does the toast have egg on it?' Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he then went on, 'I choked on the hard brown stuff [that would be the browned egg mixture] and threw up.'
Note: Cameron has a hair-trigger gag reflex--anything that he even thinks (and I stress thinks) will stick in his throat is rebuffed. As such, he hasn't eaten a nut since he choked and threw up at age 1.5. Nor will he deign to eat eggs--scrambled or fried--if there are any browned sections.
Lucky for us our kids don't wake up too early. Cameron and Erin were up first at 7:30. By the time we went downstairs it was 8:00 (they had to wake Makenna up---and I made them wait for me to take a shower!) This is the first year we have let them open a present on Christmas eve. Of course they all got new p.j.'s.
Allyson loved the entire day. She is a good gift opener. Probably because she has 3 older siblings to follow. Her favorite gift was this baby doll and stroller to push it in. She promptly found the little silky ribbon tied underneath its chin.
Cameron has become our little Buckeye. Since Christmas he has only taken these clothes off to sleep (that is 3 days worth of wearing.) I am washing them tonight while he sleeps. The football is from Aunt Kim and Uncle Ryan and tops his list of favorite Christmas gifts. Some other favorites of his are, MP3 player, eyeclops, Harry Potter scene it game, and rubiks cube.
One of the hightlights for Makenna was having "Cousin Josh" come. She loves him. He came home from his mission in October and she still says in her evening prayers, "We thank thee that Josh came home from his mission." She got several Polly Pocket toys, a Barbie head that has all kinds of hair clips and even a braid that grows "magically", and even her own little MP3 player.
Erin also got another MP3 player as she lost hers last year. She loves music and carried it with her all over the place so it is worth it for her to have another one. She also got an American Idol Karaoke Revolution game for the Playstation. This is Erin and her friend Kirsten doing what they did for most of the day today......singing with the game. It is a fun game---unless you are me (see previous post). She also got a manicure set, High School Musical 2 movie, cd, I love Troy heart pillow and Troy necklace (shown here). Tonight she told me that she is never going to take her necklace off. We will see if she changes her mind when her neck turns green.
We had Louis' sister Denna, and her family (Quinn, Josh, Caleb, Ben, and Jordan) along with Louis and Denna's nephew, Carlton and his family (Liz and Hunter). We feel very fortunate that for being so far away from "family" we have this much family close by. Our numbers are growing and we love it. We had a very relaxing day that involved eating, singing Karaoke, visiting the new house, and hanging out. All in all I think it was a perfect day.
This is the latest photo of our new home. This was taken on December 26th. It is so much fun to see everything we picked out coming together with the design. It is so different looking at a design on paper or a little square board with brick. What a relief to see it in reality and still love it!
So Erin got an American Idol Karaoke game for the Playstation for Christmas. She begged me yesterday to sing for it. Everybody else had done it and she wanted to hear me sing. I know I don't have the ability to carry a tune so singing is not usually something I try to stand out in a crowd for. I sang a song titled "You and Me". Erin thought it would be a good song. So I do my best as the words scroll across the bottom of the screen and when it is all done here come the judges to tell me what they thought.
Randy: "I'm sorry. That just didn't do it for me. Dog, you were way off tune the whole song."
Woman: "The pitch was way off. I'm sorry it just wasn't any good."
Simon: "That was the worst I have ever heard. You were off tune. It was so bad I can't believe you actually wanted to sing."
Get the idea? Even an animated video game doesn't want to hear me sing! I don't think Jill Pierce will be recuiting me for the ward choir anytime soon!
Allyson was sticking to me like a tick on an ol' yaller dog this evening. She is definitely a daddy's girl right now.
I was here at the computer looking for something, when she came over and commandeered the mouse and the keyboard, asking to be shown pictures of dogs and cats on the Internet.
After about 5 minutes I tried to take back the mouse, and she would have nothing to do with it.
Then Cindy came to the rescue.
'Allyson,' she crooned, 'Do you want a bath?'
Allyson began replying with her stock answer, 'No,' but cut her reply off in mid-letter and instead hopped off my lap and ran into her, gushing, 'Bath! Bath! Baaatttth!'
I was thereby able to use the computer without interruption to do these two posts.
Thank goodness for warm baths on cold nights!
Last week I was perusing a walk down memory lane reading thru a Calvin and Hobbes collection, and I came upon a section of comic strips where in the days before Christmas Santa is pondering and Calvin is worrying if his behavior throughout the year will put the kibosh on his presents.
In the Christmas day strip, Calvin gets up and finds that he has a huge pile of presents waiting.
Filled with a child's joy of Christmas, he gaily cries out,
"Ha ha! Acquittal on all charges! Complete exoneration! Ha ha ha!"
A few nights ago, Erin was at a friend's birthday party and wrote the following sweet, touching, albeit disturbing story of (at least tangentially) Christmas spirit and mayhem. According to Erin, she and a boy made up the story, acting it out as they thought it up, and then Erin later put it into words.
Erin will now proceed to type in the story. We recommend that you get your tissues ahead of time, as it ranks right up there with Ralphie's theme about a Red Rider BB gun, but much more sophisticated.
There was an out-of-the-ordinary couple, their names were Harold and Jessica.They had 2 babies and named one Germany and the other one, well, let's just say they put the other one up for adoption, because they were soon to have more of what Jessica called "its."
Harold had cheated on Jessica with a reindeer for 2 months and had 37 mutated pups, soon to be 57. jessica was furious and demanded marriage counciling. It still did not work out--Jessica had caught them 7 times in the past week. [Sad huh?] They got a divorce, but Jessica still loved Harold.
And Harold still loved the reindeer.
The End
[ p.s.][If you liked the story please mail a dollar! It's just buisness!]
Erin
Kenner slept in today, and she was still in bed at 10AM after a trip to Sam's Club.
Erin informed us that Kenner had awakened but still in bed, as she had come up with a plan to make Christmas come sooner.
Yep, she figured if she spent all day in bed it would make bedtime tonight come quicker, and ergo, Santa, the reindeer, presents, etc., etc., etc.
We gently explained to her that she'd do much better to get up and not be bored out of her gourd all day.
Of course, as Cindy later belatedly related, 'Maybe we could've gotten all the kids to buy into her theory and then we could've enjoyed a nice, relaxing day!
I came back from shopping this morning with a half-gallon of egg nog.
Allyson, who has only experienced this fat-filled ambrosia once about a month ago, obviously recognized it for what it was and began grunting and pulling at me.
Just to make sure, I leaned her over the array of purchased items and asked, 'What do you want?'
She reached over and patted (dare I say, caressed?) the half-gallon container.
Superfluous though it may be to recount, she sucked down an entire sippy-cup of the stuff. (Though I did thin it down with milk--I'd hate be responsible for her bouncing off the walls and ceilings this AM.)
Update: Later on Cindy got a small glass container out of the frig. It was clearly full of something chocolate.
I was holding Allyson at the time (big surprise there!?) and she immediate leaned towards it and assumed the position--one finger crooked in anticipation of scooping up some chocolate stuff--and also began making small sucking noises to mimic what she was definitely planning to do.
I gave her a spoon instead.
For reasons unfathomable to mere mortals, Erin has developed a new look.
Her modus operandi is to sidle up to you and then just stand there with what can only be called a 'vapid, disturbingly mechanical frozen grin'.....
...on her face. She will often stand there for minutes on end with nary a change of expression in her continuing efforts to creep you out. Moreover, she is able to maintain it under most circumstances, including threats to life and liberty.
Last night we had the missionaries over, and as she was sitting next to me on the couch during a serious conversation she turned and did 'the grin.' For whatever reason I broke out into uncontrollable chortles, and Cindy ended up sitting between us, muttering some gibberish about child behavioral problems.
Cindy was just barely able to find time to keep up this somewhat annual tradition.
The kids were all excited at first, but then Erin and then Cameron soon lost interest.
It had something to do with their stomachs hurting from all the candy they had eaten!
Here is the final result--a house even the wicked old Hansel-and-Gretel-eating witch would've been proud of!
Fleshing out the details of a post from a month ago....
It all started with an email from Cindy's sister that linked to a site where you could upload pictures your family and get them pasted on dancing elvish folk.
It was rather cute.
And as you might've expected, it soon snowballed into a hailstorm of emails on the Bowcut side of the family, as everyone in the family vied for the title of Grand Elfer (motto 'I'm the elfiest elf of elf who ever elfed an elf').
Here are the kids.... 
And here we are....
See the November posting for a link to the animation....
But you've been warned! Please upload responsibly
Allyson has learned another word in the past 2 weeks.
BARBIE! BARBIE!
She has become infatuated with the 5-odd Barbie animated movies we have and she incessantly asks to watch them.
Her favorite ploy is to come up, grab your finger, and then vigorous pull and tug you into the front room. She coyly stops by the video cabinet, looks up with her big blue eyes shining in admiration, and then sweetly rattles off, 'BARBIE! BARBIE! BARBIE! BARBIE!BARBIE! BARBIE!BARBIE! BARBIE!BARBIE! BARBIE!'
If you say yes, she exudes love, then assumes the position.
This is her position today. 
If you say, 'No Barbie,' she begins hitting things, yelling, and doing other toddler antics. (Since she is doing this well before age 2, does this mean she is precocious?)
After 10 hours of intense high-precision manufacturing over 3 days, Cameron and his cousin Josh 'I'll be Engineering Aircraft Someday' Coburn completed Cameron's Pinewood Derby racer.
It was crafted with a scroll saw, dremel bits, a router, a blowtorch to melt the lead in place (according to Cameron, the lead even began burning with a greenish-blue flame), and finished off with some SuperGlue to hold the nail axles securely in place.
Like any good Cub Scout, Cameron also picked up the handy skill of safely using a drill and a metal file to grind scalpel-sharp nail tips. (Not that they were used in the car at all--it was just an extracurricular learning activity.)
(Also, Cameron is so sweaty not because of all his efforts, but rather from playing tennis using their Wii.)
Cindy got on a 'throw away all the junk that has been accumulated over the years' kick tonight.
Included in the ever-growing garbage pile is Cindy's pressed plant collection from 1982 (she got a perfect score of 300 for it), every girl's camp memorabilia she had kept for at least as long.
Nor was I left out--out went an FBI t-shirt that my brother Wezzo gave me 13-odd years ago, but which in the past year has been used by Erin as a pajama top, a paint shirt, and the mainstay of that pile of clothes she routinely constructs in an empty corner of her room. As Cindy commented, 'It ain't worth the water to wash it.'
So, Cindy here, this is actually the first time I have done anything on this blog before. Louis will be pleased I am actually doing something. I just couldn't let the moment pass.
Today is Erin's 11th birthday. It is 2:30 in the afternoon and I just picked her up from school. She has been at Camp Kern, a YMCA camp, for 2 1/2 days with all the
5th graders. Before we are even in the van she begins to tell me about "Tim. He is so HOT. He was one of our counselors. The minute I saw his abs I nearly fainted!" After the shock and laughter from me subsided I collected my wits and found out that she actually did not "see" his abs. He just had a tight t-shirt on. As I have told Erin many times before...she and I were cut from completely different molds. I think I am going to have my hands full with this one.
Cameron has been home sick these two day with what the doc thinks is strep throat.
As such, he has had a fever and a sore throat.
Anyway, when I got home from work tonight, he was in the bathroom doing what I assume was just a normal, non-squishy, number 2.
I base this deduction upon the following clue: Cindy told me that when he had gone into the bathroom he had declared (somewhat proudly) that he had been holding it in for 3 hours!
I thus reasoned that even someone as stubborn as Cameron can't hold in a case of 'The Diabolical Dib-Dabs' for 3 hours!
Ain't NO WAY!
When Cindy tried to put Allyson down on Santa's lap at the ward Christmas party, Allyson was fine until a fine line was crossed--that line being exactly 12 inches from Santa's knee.
As she saw herself being lowered towards this strange red-suited, hairy man, she finally figured out what was being done to her and jerked her body back in one huge spasm and let out a huge scream!
It was one of those "I wish I had had the video camera" moments!
As such, we can proudly report that our kids are 4-for-4 in this category.
Cindy was putting up some pine garland on the stair railing, with Allyson closely eyeing her every move.
As Cindy next began weaving some lights along the garland, Allyson watched intently, repeating in her usual throaty whisper:
'Wow!'
'Wow!'
WOW!'
When I got Allyson out of her crib this afternoon and took her downstairs, she puttered around for a minute or two, then bee-lined it to Cindy, and it was at that time she finally uttered the magic words "Mama" and put up her hands to be picked up.
The next words to be heard were from Cindy, and they sounded like a good blog entry title. Whaddya think? (And this takes a lot of pressure off of me too--there's no way I can top this, so why even try!)
Of course, Allyson was still groggy from her nap and was thus somewhat disoriented, so I'm not sure if this really counts......but I am more than willing to count it, as the price is definitely right!
UPDATE: Cindy is now telling me about Wednesday (when the kids were out of school due to the horrific snowstorm that dumped all of 4 inches) when Cameron got Allyson up in the morning. Cindy was taking a shower at the time, and she soon heard little hands knocking at the door and the melodious sounds of 'Mama! Mommy!' coming through the door.
They got the roof on before the big snow that's supposed to hit tonight (up to a whopping 3~4 inches!!!!)
I even gave the snow-blower a test-run!
I guess it has been a yearly event for a long time, but this was the first time we had heard of it. From 6~9PM tonight you could walk the 1/2-mile to the falls and see the falls (a trickle at this time of the year) with some faint colored backlights.
The first highlight was when we met this jolly old fellow on the trail...
As you might guess, it was about 32 degrees out....
Then Cindy took a picture with the falls as a stunning backdrop....
However, as you can (or can't) see, our simple digital camera doesn't have a long exposure setting, so everything behind us showed up black.
On the trail to the falls, Allyson was content to be carried, but on the way back she ran most of the way, chortling as she played footsie with Makenna.
But the real highlight for Allyson was the dog she got to pet.
She just loves dogs, and we are more than happy to let her interact with them--just a long as they don't live at our address and/or leave landmines in our yard!
(This photo somehow reminded me of the old B-movie, 'Devil Dog: The Hound from He__.')
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!
UPDATE: They worked on Saturday too, and the second story is pretty much framed now too.
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.
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.)
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!)
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!
These may take the place of a family Christmas letter!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9577556864
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9603359085
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!
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.
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.
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.
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?)
Well, we now have a concrete floor to match the concrete walls. 
The plan is to start framing next week....
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.
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....)
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.
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!
"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....
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!
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!)
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]!'
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! 
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!
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.
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.
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 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?
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.
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!
(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!
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!
We started at six, and by 7:15 it was finally getting dark.
But the weather was fine, and a fun time was had by all.
Erin: Rock star
Makenna: Fairy princess
Cameron: Explorer
Allyson: The Great Pumpkin (Made by Cindy while we lived in TN, it has now been used by all 4 kids)
Cindy: Indian maiden (Erin's homemade costume from 2 years ago)
Louis: A pirate (Erin's costume from last year)
Allyson is sure a gregarious sweetie. She loves to say 'Bye-bye' to everyone as she leaves or they leave, and even tries to give kisses to complete strangers (like the furnace repair man). Even tonight as we went trick-or-treating she was gaily waving and saying 'Bye-bye.'
However, she does need to work on her pronunciation, because her pronunciation is much closer to 'Die-die' than 'Bye-bye.' It is especially ominous-sounding when she truncates it down to a simple 'Die!'
I especially get nervous when she says this to the more elderly types, all-the-while sporting a huge smile and waving amiably at them.
For the time being we will assume it is just a phase and not a preference.
Our home of 9 years is now up for sale.
And here is the future site of our new home.
(Including all the trees in the background and another 20 feet or so.) 
First comes the gutting....
And then comes the filleting results....
And of course we brined and roasted some of the seeds.
Good eatin'!
Allyson hit 18 months yesterday, so I thought it would be appropriate to list all of her many accomplishments.
However, Cindy preferred that I do so in the negative rather than the positive.
1. She has said 'Dad-die' for 6 stinkin' months, but has not yet said 'MaMa.'
2. She can make the sounds of a pig, a horse, and cow, and a cat, but cannot get around to saying 'MaMa' yet.
3. She can clearly enunciate the name of the girl up the street who often comes to play at our house (Josie), but nary an 'M' word crosses her cute little mouth.
4. She can say 'Fishie,' but cannot find it in her heart to refer to the mother who gave her birth by being cut open in a roomful of people.
5. She can do somersaults, but can't wax poetic about her darling mother.
6. She loves to wave and say bye-bye and give kisses and hugs, but Cindy might as well be invisible.
7. She can say 'cheese' and loves to eat it, but any little girl that can't call her mommy by name is just a little curd!
8. The other day, it sounded like she called Cindy 'Cindy,' and Cindy was too ecstatic to try to correct her ill manners.
Did I mention she says 'Dad-die' a lot?
For dinner tonight Cindy made some chicken enchiladas, and, surprisingly, all the kids gobbled it up!
Even Makenna--our finicky eater (we should refer to her as 'Morris'?)--gushed about how good it was, exclaiming, 'This enchilada is so GOOD! If it wore a dress I would marry it!'
We were gratified to learn shortly thereafter that she was quoting a boy on some Disney Channel show.
Having learned a valuable lesson, she mentally regrouped and then exclaimed, 'If it wore a bowtie I would marry it!'
After 4.5 seasons (at approx. $70/season, not counting cleats, shin guards, gas, balls, team treats, and final parties) Cameron finally scored a goal in a soccer game late in the 3rd quarter!
According to Cindy, he had a huge grin the rest of the game and was playing 'on point.' (Allyson and I were watching Kenner's game.)
This also meant we had to get ice cream--Cameron selected 1/2-gallons of Moose Tracks and Cookies and Cream.
By the way, the outcome of the two games was approximately the same--1-6 or so. Their respective losing streaks are still going strong!
I was waiting for the kids to get themselves ready for bed last night, and I was somewhat surprised when all three of them (Ally was already asleep) marched into the room with huge grins on their faces and huge.....tracts of land.....on their fronts.
Each one of the kids had put something (or multiple somethings) under their shirts in an attempt to show some cleavage.
Erin called out, 'Drum roll, please!' puffed out her lightly augmented chest, and began beating on them like tom-tom drums. TAPTAPTAPTAPTAP. (She obviously used something somewhat hard.)
Then Makenna--with a coy southern drawl--belted out, 'Jest look at mah big boo-bies!' (The effect was somewhat dampened when the tube of kid toothpaste she was utilizing fell out.)
Cameron finished up by pointing at the major jutting mass under his shirt and excitedly exclaiming, 'Look at me! I have a 'Cyclops' boobie!'
Really, I don't know where they get this.....
After going put to bed tonight, Cameron called out and I arose to answer the call.
He was hot and wanted me to turn his ceiling fan on. (He even kindly pointed out where he was already sweating--behind his knees, etc.)
I smelled something musty in his room, and, crinkling my nose, commented, 'Something kinda stinks in here.'
Cameron replied in an off-hand,matter-of-fact tone, 'That would be my butt.' Then, ever ready with alternative hypotheses, he continued in the same way, 'Or, it could be your butt.'
Yes, he is also a budding conversationalist.
We have related previously that Allyson loves to hold onto anything silky, be it undergarments, blankets, or even clothes that are currently being worn.
It is great fun to watch. As soon as she touches something soft and silky--even if it is just a tag on a shirt), she immediately pops her right index and middle fingers into her mouth and rubs the silky softness with her left hand. If she happens to touch it with her right hand first, she does a 'border shift' (gunslinger lingo), letting go to put her fingers in her mouth while simultaneously grabbing it with her left hand.
One recent morning, both Cameron and Makenna purposefully put on silky clothes to see who could win Allyson's affection. I don't know who won, but they seemed to have a lot of fun with it!
In this photo, you even get to see how sleepy it makes her!
Another Erin anecdote....
She and some of the other kids were watching TV just before bedtime, and when Cindy came in to tell them to turn it off, there was a small rebellion.
Being the perfect mother, Cindy sweetly--yet stressing every syllable--told them, 'Turn off that dumb TV! I don't want my kids to be spending all of their summer vacation with their eyes glued to the boob-tube!'
Erin quickly piped up, 'But I LIKE boobs!'
Cindy was taking the kids swimming at the "Y" today, and while driving Erin started a sentence with, "When I'm a Mom..."
Cindy quickly cut in, "You'll be perfect! You will let them have whatever they want , whenever they want. They will be able to eat candy and treats all day, watch movies and play computer as much as they want, stay up as late as they want and have sleepovers every night. You will buy them anything they ask for when you go to the store and they will get Happy Meals every day, and never have to do any chores. Is that what you were going to say?"
"That's right!" Erin pertly replied.
"Yeah," Cindy thought to herself, "I probably won't want to visit those grandkids much....spoiled!"
Erin (and also Cameron) were quickly grounded from the computer this morning, and sometime in the afternoon Cindy caught Erin sitting at the computer doing something.
Erin begged Cindy to 'Just let me input the password, pleasepleaseplease' because Erin truly and sincerely had no intention of doing anything else besides that, but Cindy, being wise to the ways of Erin 'Take It to the Limit' Elizabeth, just gave a motherly snort and said 'No.'
Adding to the English lexicon, Erin whined back, 'You're just a....a....a RUINER! A great big RUINER!
Cindy just smiled quietly yet smugly to herself and sauntered away.
I took 'Kenner to her soccer practice (she is by far the tallest kid on the team, and one of the most aggressive too--is she really our daughter?)
After practice, I opened the car door for her, saying 'Please get in, your highness,' and she giggled like crazy.
When we got home and I started to get out, she went, 'A-hem! Who is the princess?'
That was my cue to go around and open the door for her too.
Well, our vacation is over, my major translation project is done, so hopefully this blog will start blossoming again.
Then again, it may wither on the vine like a couple of the zucchinis in the garden!?
Day 4 (for some reason the Title section of the blog is disabled right now....)
With Cindy and the kids off in Utahr, I have found ways to keep busy at home.
So far:
2 bedrooms painted (including the ceiling in one of them)
1 prehung door installed
12 pieces of door trim painted
1 big section of replaced drywall sanded
1 stair rail painted
3 6-panel interior doors cut, drilled, and chiseled and ready to paint
Some other little stuff....
It is Sunday, so I am now going to take a nap!
Halloween isn't the only occasion of phantasmagoric images of the supernatural.
For example, we had an 'angel-sighting' in our backyard: 
As you might expect, the snapshot is rather blurred, but the golden gossamer wings and the halo perched[?] at a jaunty angle leave no room for doubt.
We also had an apparition appear in the whirling eddies emitted from a smokebomb:
If you look close, you can also see two more ghostly images to the rear left. Could this be the Virgin Mary and her babe?
Curious minds want to know!
Being the not-so-doting parent, despite Makenna's pleas I never seemed to get around to taking her training wheels off. (Of course, she hasn't ridden her bike much, so I didn't think she could do it yet.
Cindy, being the doting parent, took them off a little over a week ago, and took her up to the school to practice.
One push, and she was off, and never looked back!
Yeah, yeah, when I got home from work I gave her a big hug and told her how proud I was of her. (Cindy had had to threaten Cameron to keep him from blabbing the news to me first!)
