We were all in the car coming home from dinner with the in-laws. Michael and I got in a conversation over which of us is better looking. We, being the good parents we are, drug our kids into the middle of the fight.
"Ethan, who is better looking, mama or papa?" My dear husband asks.
"Um...Papa is."
Well, then I needed to ask Libby in hopes of evening the score.
"Libby, who is better looking, mama or papa?"
"Umm....um...I AM." followed by giggles.
****
Yesterday, the kids and I were taking the trash down. I stopped in surprise and pointed into the tree. There were three fuzzy gray and black raccoons. We stared at them and they stared at us. Ethan was fascinated. Libby was terrified. She is not an animal lover by nature, and wild animals in her tree was just to much for her. She was crying and fussing. She finally conceded to inch past the tree, as long as I stood between her and the raccoons. We got down to the dumpster and Libby finally regained her ability to talk.
"Mama, the rattoons scared me."
"I know, baby."
"The rattoons really, really scared me."
"I know."
"My eyebrows were scared of the rattoons."
September 4, 2008
August 13, 2008
August 9, 2008
Camping Above Cascade - Part 3
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I am exhausted! It's a lot of work to enjoy our summer to the fullest. This time we went camping with my family in the Boise National Forest. Dig your own latrine, haul your own water, get eaten by horseflies type of camping. There were roughly a dozen adults and a dozen children under 18. Everyone found something that brought them great joy while we were up there. Everyone that is, except for the 17- and 15-year-old nephews, who are filled with teenage angst and can't function without electronics. We were camped next to a pond filled with frogs, polliwogs, bugs and shoe-sucking mud. My twelve-year-old niece made a small fortune retrieving lost children's shoes from the muck.
Kylynn showing off two of the frogs she liberated from the pond.If mud and muck aren't your thing, my brother Joe and his wife Kerry brought up their horses. Everyone but my little Libby loved the horses. Libby is still chicken. She lives in fear the horse "will shake [her] off". Uncle Joe promised her the horse has never "shaken" anyone off, but she doesn't seem to believe him. If you knew my brother, you probably wouldn't believe him either.
I have been on a horse about four times since I was twelve, and all of those in the last couple of weeks. So of course when Kerry asked if I wanted to run a horse with her I said yes. So there I was clutching the reins and pommel and bouncing around in the saddle like a yo-yo. Things were going well and life was good. Then Kerry ran her horse past camp with me close behind. My horse did not want to run past camp, my horse wanted to run TO camp. She threw herself around a corner that was more then 90 degrees with me screaming "NO, NO, ARGGG, NO, AHHHHH!" My foot slipped out of the stirrup and I was clutching the horse for dear life. Thankfully I stayed on and only suffered minor bruises. Kerry got down to the end of the road and realized I wasn't there. She came running back to camp panic stricken. She was terrified that I had been thrown. I took pity on her and only rubbed it in for two days that she could have severely injured me. I also made it a point to show her my bruises and complain about my twisted ankle, just so she would learn her lesson.
The only time Libby even sat on a horse. Her cousin Aubrey (the racketeer) with her.
The children were covered with dirt and mud the entire time we were up there. We tried washing them in the creek, but they were too smart to go past their ankles in the frigid water. We are still trying to soak all the grime off of their feet.
This was Xander during a clean moment. Yes, he does seem to be a bit of a pervert.
Oh, I love the dirt.I had a brief manly moment and chopped this pile of wood. It was a pathetic thing to see, but the wood was chopped, I walked away with all my phalanges, and I only got two blisters. I count that as a success.
It did rain the last full day we were there but it didn't really come down until everyone went to bed for the night. Then it stormed. Thankfully it had almost quit by the time we got up.
Rain....The creator of family togetherness.
Rain....The creator of family togetherness.Joe took Ethan fishing and he caught his very first fish. And his second. He was very pleased with himself. He even ate a few bites and deemed it good.
July 22, 2008
More Xtracycle Goodness
Okay, a little background: We subscribe to a Yahoo group called AdaCountyFreecycle. It is a group of people that post offers and requests of stuff they have or need. The primary, main, and abiding rule is that it all has to be FREE, with no strings attached.
Recently someone on this end of town posted "4 bags of men's clothing, various sizes". I thought "Heck! I can surely get some clothes I can use out of FOUR bags!" So, I asked for them, was given them, and set a time for pick up. It was about 3 miles away, and I figured I could just jaunt over there after we got the kids in bed and pick them up.
I arrived at the woman's house, and saw four HUGE bags full of clothes. Assuming these to be my cargo, I started looking in the bags. It seriously looked like someone's dirty laundry. I was in a nicer subdivision, so I thought it a possibility. I went and knocked on the door, and asked the woman to show me what I was expected to take.
She waddled out her front door. She stopped a moment and balked, "Oh. You brought your bike." After assuring her my bike could handle the load, she confirmed the four bags of dirty laundry were for me. I thanked her, and proceeded to load the 1 full + 3 half-full bags onto my bicycle.
About 10 minutes and a good deal of grunting later, I got it all loaded up, secretly hoping I would be mugged by a gang of relatively harmless homeless men running around in their skivvies looking for something to wear to the evening's barrel burn. Alas, I had no such luck. So, pedaling down Parkcenter Ave at 9:15 at night looking like a large, homely, overzealous bag lady I made the 2.4 mile journey home. I called Katie ahead of time to make sure she had the camera ready to snap some pics.
Here they are!
See the white bag hanging off the very back? I had another one of those strapped on the right side of my bike, which you obviously cannot see.
I unloaded them all, spread a blanket on the lawn I found in one of the bags, dumped out one bag at a time, and went through them using only my Leatherman to touch them. There were dirty socks, boxers, shirts, pants, backpacks, aprons, hoodies...it had most everything, and most of it was gross.
I sorted out a small pile of things I could probably put to use and give a good washin' to and stuffed the rest into one bag. I got a wash going for the stuff I was going to keep and took a thorough shower to scrub all the invisible ickies off me.
I was going to be nice and take all the rest of the stuff to a laundromat, clean and dry it, then donate it to the mission. I didn't have the time, and Katie didn't have the patience for a huge bag o' crap sitting on the front porch. So she started to wash it. Before she could finish the first load, she was sufficiently grossed out, and, going against our deep-seeded reduce, reuse, recycle mentality, I hauled the lot of it to the dumpster.
I did end up with some nice work shirts, a canvas apron, a down coat and several flannel jackets.
Recently someone on this end of town posted "4 bags of men's clothing, various sizes". I thought "Heck! I can surely get some clothes I can use out of FOUR bags!" So, I asked for them, was given them, and set a time for pick up. It was about 3 miles away, and I figured I could just jaunt over there after we got the kids in bed and pick them up.
I arrived at the woman's house, and saw four HUGE bags full of clothes. Assuming these to be my cargo, I started looking in the bags. It seriously looked like someone's dirty laundry. I was in a nicer subdivision, so I thought it a possibility. I went and knocked on the door, and asked the woman to show me what I was expected to take.
She waddled out her front door. She stopped a moment and balked, "Oh. You brought your bike." After assuring her my bike could handle the load, she confirmed the four bags of dirty laundry were for me. I thanked her, and proceeded to load the 1 full + 3 half-full bags onto my bicycle.
About 10 minutes and a good deal of grunting later, I got it all loaded up, secretly hoping I would be mugged by a gang of relatively harmless homeless men running around in their skivvies looking for something to wear to the evening's barrel burn. Alas, I had no such luck. So, pedaling down Parkcenter Ave at 9:15 at night looking like a large, homely, overzealous bag lady I made the 2.4 mile journey home. I called Katie ahead of time to make sure she had the camera ready to snap some pics.
Here they are!
See the white bag hanging off the very back? I had another one of those strapped on the right side of my bike, which you obviously cannot see.I unloaded them all, spread a blanket on the lawn I found in one of the bags, dumped out one bag at a time, and went through them using only my Leatherman to touch them. There were dirty socks, boxers, shirts, pants, backpacks, aprons, hoodies...it had most everything, and most of it was gross.
I sorted out a small pile of things I could probably put to use and give a good washin' to and stuffed the rest into one bag. I got a wash going for the stuff I was going to keep and took a thorough shower to scrub all the invisible ickies off me.
I was going to be nice and take all the rest of the stuff to a laundromat, clean and dry it, then donate it to the mission. I didn't have the time, and Katie didn't have the patience for a huge bag o' crap sitting on the front porch. So she started to wash it. Before she could finish the first load, she was sufficiently grossed out, and, going against our deep-seeded reduce, reuse, recycle mentality, I hauled the lot of it to the dumpster.
I did end up with some nice work shirts, a canvas apron, a down coat and several flannel jackets.
Camping Above Cascade
Yep, more camping pictures. Different trip though. We are trying to take full advantage of our summer. In August Michael starts back to school with five classes. Plus he will be working 36 hours a week. We are trying to play just as much as humanly possible because soon life will suck. A lot. In the mean time, life is wonderful and happy.
We went camping with my brother (Joe) and his wife (Kerry) and her whole family. Ethan and Libby think Joe and Kerry hung the moon. It doesn't hurt that they own horses and let our kids ride them, or that they take them to McDonald's, or that they take them to parades, or that they...well you get the idea.
This was the first time on a horse for both of the kids and the first time in almost 20 years for both Michael and I.
Super-flattering picture of me, yes?
Libby was a little afraid of the horses. She was willing to sit on them and pet them, but they had better not move. Any time anyone asked her if she wanted to ride one, her answer was an emphatic, "NO."
A pretty little meadow we found while riding the horses. I think this is where Joe let Michael shoot his .22 rifle and .44 magnum handgun. For the first time in years, Michael felt like a "true man."
Ethan is becoming quite brave! He used to be a bit of a pansy, but he is quickly becoming more and more willing to try just about anything!
Ethan and Uncle Joe taking on the river.
We went camping with my brother (Joe) and his wife (Kerry) and her whole family. Ethan and Libby think Joe and Kerry hung the moon. It doesn't hurt that they own horses and let our kids ride them, or that they take them to McDonald's, or that they take them to parades, or that they...well you get the idea.
This was the first time on a horse for both of the kids and the first time in almost 20 years for both Michael and I.
Super-flattering picture of me, yes?
Libby was a little afraid of the horses. She was willing to sit on them and pet them, but they had better not move. Any time anyone asked her if she wanted to ride one, her answer was an emphatic, "NO."
A pretty little meadow we found while riding the horses. I think this is where Joe let Michael shoot his .22 rifle and .44 magnum handgun. For the first time in years, Michael felt like a "true man."
Ethan is becoming quite brave! He used to be a bit of a pansy, but he is quickly becoming more and more willing to try just about anything!
Ethan and Uncle Joe taking on the river.
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