Ring Out, Wild Bells

We sing this in church around New Year's Day. Only a few verses are included in the hymnbook, something I didn't know until I looked it up online. Beautiful.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

We spent our New Year's Eve at the Turleys' house and had a great time at their NYE party. We brought our Wise and Otherwise game to play and a plateful of chocolate-covered bacon. Oh yeah! We did cover that bacon with chocolate!! Later we came home and toasted the new year with Martinelli's sparkling apple cider. What a fun night.

Awesome Santa

DREAM:

We moved back to Logan and I was enraged to learn that there was no WinCo or Burgerville for miles. Quelle nightmare!!

To have Logan painted in that light was a shock. I miss the canyons and the mint brownies and the snow (a little). And my Logan friendies.

Carter's Birthday Party

We have a local gymnastics center that rents out for birthday parties.

That's what Carter chose for his party.

We held it earlier this year, since his birthday is so close to Christmas.

Left to Right: Roz, Nathan L, Harrison, Carter, Carson, Tyson, Luke,
Ethan, Hailey
Bottom row:

In the foam pit

What's On Your List Today?

I found this at Fred Meyer.
Heheheheheeee

Life Returns To Normal*

Concussion Child is much better today and going back to school tomorrow. Let us all rejoice. By the way, did you know concussions make people cranky?

*Whatever that is

Anyone Care If I Take a Nap?

No? Okay.

Later: Good nap. Hope I can sleep tonight.

"Luck had nothing to do with it!"

A lady from the ward called me yesterday and, perhaps being surprised that she caught me at home at 10:00 AM on a Monday, said, "Are you one of those lucky moms who gets to stay at home?"

I don't feel lucky so much as grateful - that I CAN stay home, that Hubby agrees that it's a good idea, that President Kimball gave this advice, and that we followed it. I don't fault any mom who wants or needs to work. I've held jobs and run little home businesses while I've been a mom. But today, I'm grateful that we made this choice. It was the right one.

A Personal Day

What you may not know is that if you give a talk AND perform in a musical number in the same Sacrament meeting, it's like a get-out-of-church-free card, which I cashed in with my family today, like the big heathens we are.

No explanation for our naughtiness, we have just been really busy lately and needed a day off. I realize this is not a good excuse, but it's the only one we have.

Later, watching Say Anything:
"Nobody thinks this is gonna work, do they?"
"Yeah. You've just described every great success story."

Today is Thankfulness Day #3. I am thankful for our success story: our marriage and family.

Whaaaaaa?

It's Thankfulness Day #2, and I am thankful for this song.



It's so dippy. It's so cheesy. It makes me laugh. I bought it on iTunes some time ago - why, I cannot tell you. I think I saw a clip of it on one of those Time-Life CD informercials.

(You know, I can appreciate those CD collection-selling companies trying like mad to hold on to their little corner of the music market, but I can't think of anyone who would rather make five payments of $26.99 for 8,000 CDs with maybe three good songs on them, when they can look the songs up on iTunes and get only the ones they actually like for 99 cents. More than once, a Time-Life informercial has been responsible for my music purchases.)

Miss Pam called me later in the day and asked if Bella was going to the Priest-Laurel murder mystery thing. I said, "What Priest-Laurel murder mystery thing?" But no matter, if the Turleys are in, we're in. Mike and Jaydn went to the high school to fetch Bella, where she was ushering at the school play. It ended up being at another stake, for the young single adults. Ooops! And that was how Bella ended up eating Taco Bell at the Turleys' tonight. Fun :)

ELLENOR GEE I THINK YOU'RE SWELL

Carter stayed home from school today not feeling well, and it wasn't because of the copious amounts of candy he brought home and then tried to eat last night.  Along with a snotty nose and cough, his jaw was really tender on the right side of his face - I was thinking, "WE IMMUNIZED!! This better not be mumps or some weird disease!!".

Thankfully, he later remembered that he and another kid bumped into each other and knocked each other down on the pavement last night, and he landed on his face and then rolled over and hit the back of his head, which - when he touched it - was also sore. Whew! Problem solved.

Today is Thankfulness Day #1, and I am thankful for indoor plumbing. I'm glad I was born into an era where that function is firmly in place and working well. Otherwise, YIKES.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Our first Halloween in the Main Street house was a very happy one indeed.

Carter as Robin Hood
 

We had a heck of a time finding a costume to fit Carter. He wanted to be Batman (The Dark Knight) but all the kid costumes were too small and the adult costumes too big. It's hard to be an in-betweener. Fortunately Dada found this one. It was adult-sized as well, but I altered it a bit. It's not Halloween unless I'm fixing someone's costume at 4:30 PM.

Carter, T as ??? and E without his Viking costume, which was apparently too warm to wear until trick-or-treat time.

Rosalind as a WALKING ZOMBIE!
(That's what the packaging of her costume said. I found it offensive and discriminatory -
what about wheelchair-bound zombies?) 

ZOMBIE FACE

E as Athena the goddess of ...wisdom? And Roz

Brennan used his mad culinary skills to carve our jack o'lanterns :)



ooooh, scary.

Carter left around 5 with his buddies for dinner and trick-or-treating. We were sad to see him go - just another reminder that our kids are growing up too fast. WAAAAA! No growing up!

Harrison wasn't going to go trick-or-treating this year, but we finally convinced him to come with us. He threw on a cape, a witch hat and glasses (he did it so fast, I didn't get a chance to grab a pic) and went as Harry Potter. Hubby and I took him, Roz and Emma around the neighborhood.  I wore my Betsy Ross costume and Hubby went as Hubby. The kids made A HAUL and we met many sweet people living nearby.

Brennan and Bella stayed home and handed out candy to our small number of trick-or-treaters - but they did come, which made us very happy. Halloween is alive and well in our neighborhood.  Hooray!

All Hallow's Eve Eve

Bella stayed home sick from Seminary and school today. Get well once, will ya? :)

One of the conditions of our moving into this house was that our friend the landlady would come over to inspect the house every six months, in April and October. Her previous tenants were prone to doing unhelpful things to the house, which she would later discover after they moved out, so she figured it was in her best interest to come visit every so often. Can't say I blame her, but the previous tenants I'd like to line up and fire-hose.

She's coming tomorrow, so today I'm scrubbing the bathroom grout. GROSS. I've decided that if the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the rest of hell is paved with tile. "Here's your toothbrush, Mr. Hitler!"

Speaking of odious people... then there's the overly helpful neighbor in Fargo, North Dakota, who planned on passing these out to the Fatty Fatterson children who come to her door for trick-or-treat tomorrow night. I hope she grows a heart. Or a brain. OR some courage (to sign her name).



How superior you must feel :)

After the daylong scrubfest, I settled in for some TV and watched Warm Bodies with Brennan and Bella. Such a HAPPY movie!  I loved it! And then of course Survivor. No Mutual tonight, we begged off since Bella was sick and Harrison had to clean his room. Meanwhile Hubby took Carter and Rosalind to a soccer meeting, which for some reason, they always enjoy.

Culinary and Marching Band Prowess

Today, after running people around to their various stuff, I came home to find Brennan making onion rings from scratch. Mmmmm. So happy that kid likes to cook.

Found this on the loveseat.

Found this in the bathroom. I think Mr. Loveseat did it.

This is seriously so cool. Watch and be happy.

The Incredibly Participatory Sunday

Hubby and I spoke in Sacrament meeting today. Our bishopric likes to (has been asked to?) assign a choice of two General Conference addresses for topics.

I took First Observe, Then Serve...

Hubby took See Others As They May Become.

Matt and Candice S, the ward choir directors, had asked me weeks ago to accompany them for a musical number today, so I played for them after I gave my talk. Kind of funny how that worked out. Here's what they sang.



Then choir practice after church... we're working on our November song and Christmas stuff, including this gorgeous, gorgeous song:



After all this, I put on my jammies and crawled into bed, only to be happily (I swear) surprised by my visiting teachers' coming for our scheduled visit.  Fun surprise #2: Candice was also wearing pajama pants. Fun surprise #3: Brenda brought pumpkin chocolate chip cookies which were promptly devoured after she and Candice left.

A good, busy day. Holy heck.

From the Derp Files

Today was our ward Halloween party. We absolutely love, adore and cherish Halloween at this house. I sent Bella up to the attic to fetch our Halloween boxes so we could costume up for the evening, and in one of the boxes was this little plastic pair of handcuffs:

Derp de derp derp

I tried several ways to remove them, including Hubby's real life handcuff key, but they weren't budging.

Some thirty minutes later I had to take Harrison to his soccer game and was just about to escape his embarrassed teenager notice when he spied my new attachment. "You're not wearing those, are you??"

Okay, I guess I'm not.

He had the bright idea of using a Swiss Army knife accessory to flip the little switch (this one's switch was broken, the other side's was fine - go figure) and free his mother from her stupidity...at least in this instance.

The game was great - I sat in the car and rehearsed my talk for Sacrament tomorrow - and we rushed back just in time to hand Hubby the candy and decorations and kiss him and the other kids goodbye. Brennan stayed home - ward parties aren't his scene. :) We had signed up to take one of the doors at the church and pass out candy, and also to bring a bread item. I made two pans of our favorite breadsticks and then Harrison and I were off.

Lots of good chili, tons of variety, and lots of food. Cute costumes, fun people, and candy. It was a good night.

Later: "Cry me a river so I can swim around and laugh in it" made me laugh myself to sleep.

And who names a town in Montana "Musselshell"??

My question, while doing genealogical research or something today. I have several relatives who were born there. I finally read that the town and county Musselshell are named after the Musselshell River, which was named by Lewis and Clark after they found freshwater MUSSELS living along the banks of the river.

WHO KNEW!!  It's an amazing world, isn't it?

Meanwhile, it's Parent-Teacher Conference week, and the kids are home from school, which means: keep the food coming and the dishwasher running. The Five Mouths are living up to their name.

Oh it's a tough little life

Messing around with iTunes today, I was reminded of this golden oldie, and of spending rainy days down in our Brookings basement with BC, listening to Mom and Dad's records. Good times.

Watch out for hop-ons

You're gonna get some hop-ons.

"How was your birthday?" (wink, wink)

Tonight I went out with the guy I started dating 22 years ago today.

We went to Red Robin and had burgers, and pretzel bites for an appetizer. Mmmm.

I'm really, really glad I started dating him. :)

Hubby's Birthday

A very fun day. Hubby stayed home from work and we ate, a lot.

If you order a biscuit, this is what you get.

For dinner we went to Red Robin with the kids. It was one of our weirder RR experiences - the table was VERY small and the service was slow (on a Wednesday night?). But we made it through, thank goodness.

Happiest of Birthdays to my sweet man.
The world is a sunnier place with you in it.
Love you always.

Church Ladies...

...from my old McWard, in particular, used to tease me about all my shoe pics on Facebook. I just really like shoes. Like, a lot. So here's one for them:

Score-age

I found these very distinctive Danskos at Value Village today. And I'm happy, dad burn it. They're in perfect shape and size 5 1/2, which has been pretty much impossible for me to fit into since I had Brennan.

SO THERE. Laugh your butts off. ;)

Boston Town

Woke up in Boston and I think we ate our leftover stuff from last night for breakfast... either that, or I was still so full from late dinner that food was nowhere near my agenda. Also, it was 4 AM our time, not a big meal time normally.

Mom and I packed everything up, took our bags downstairs and deposited them in the hotel's closet for people who want to traipse around without lugging their stuff everywhere... I will NEVER pack that much again. It was horrid. I think I reopened at least one of my hernias.

Here's looking at you

The Salem hat, which is awesome, had to stay unpacked or it would lose its awesomeness. It made for some fun stares and double takes, since I had to either wear it or carry it everywhere we went. When asked, I usually said "We bought it in Salem," which usually brought a knowing "Ohhhhhhhhh."

We went on a cute trolley tour with MILES the tour guide and his adorable Boston accent. The hat rode shotgun on my knee.

Mom and me on the trolley - I'm wearing my spooky Salem scarf

Keep in mind that the rest of these pictures are taken from inside the trolley. Miles wasted no time between stops. This first one is of the cemetery where Paul Revere and other notable Revolutionary era people are buried. I must say the "no left turn" sign is exceptional.

Granary Burying Ground

First Burial Ground, Woburn*, Massachusetts

After getting lunch and driving directions from the super cute Boston accent-having waiter - I could seriously move to New England just to pick that accent up - Mom and I drove around Woburn until we found our ancestor's cemetery. Lieutenant Matthew Johnson, a native of England, emigrated to Woburn, Massachusetts, was taxed as a resident in 1666, died and was buried in 1696, which blows my mind - some of my people were here in America at least a century before the Revolutionary War began.

This was fun: a woman on the sidewalk, seeing our rental car, with California plates, sang "California, here I come..." to us as we drove down the street in Woburn. Yes, the tourists are here. I haven't traveled much, so being asked "Where are you ladies from?" whenever our not-Boston accents made an appearance never lost its novelty.

This was a cemetery experience like nothing I'd ever had before. First Burial Ground was probably once part of a lovely community, and it's not that Woburn isn't lovely, but the cemetery is right in the middle of an urban area with a 7-11 store and rundown apartments across the street. I'm used to the closed off, landscaped, respected grandeur of Park Hill and Willamette. Of course no one has been buried in First Burial Ground for probably two centuries, so no close descendants are alive to care for the graves - and pre-Revolutionary cemeteries are so common around here, people probably aren't in awe of them.

We looked, and looked, and looked for a long time, trying to find our grandfather Matthew Johnson's headstone. It's not a big cemetery and many of the headstones have fallen prey to the elements or vandals, so we didn't have many to search, but we made the rounds two or three times and still couldn't find what we were looking for. Mom and I were disappointed, but I'm very glad that some sweet soul grabbed a picture of Matthew's headstone a few years ago, before it was lost.

Photo by Fred Rose

Many of these very thin, fragile headstones have the same design, with an extremely primitive-looking skull surrounded by wings carved into the top. I also love the lettering, and the paragraph style epitaphs.

What an absolutely cool experience.

*pronounced WOO-burn. Now you too can sound like a Massachusetts-er.

Four Corners Cemetery, Sullivan, New Hampshire

(Or "New HampSHIRE???" as I had to repeat whenever I saw a New Hampshire road sign. Thanks, Bob Wiley!)

This is seriously the coolest cemetery I have ever seen in my life, and that's saying something.  If you ever wanted to spend a spooky Halloween in a foggy, leafy, tree-y, creepy cemetery, this would be the one to do it in. So impossibly creepy, it doesn't even have a STREET ADDRESS - I had to use latitude and longitude measurements to find it. It's really kind of silly, since it's right in Sullivan. Sullivan has about three buildings, and then bam, there's the cemetery.

Also, bonus, my Revolutionary War patriot ancestor was buried here, the one my great grandmother Alice Keen connected herself to in order to join NSDAR. How very cool to see his grave in person.

Evergreen Cemetery, Rutland, Vermont

By far, one of the most memorable experiences of our trip.

Cemeteries make us ridiculously happy

Before we left for Boston, I spent some quality time researching this branch of the family and their last known physical addresses, which led us to Rutland Cemetery in Rutland, Vermont. It was extremely trippy.

While Mom parked the car, I walked into a dusty, wonderfully musty cemetery office populated by three men in various positions of relaxation. I spoke to the one who looked the most in charge and asked if he could help us find some family graves. He asked the names, I gave them to him, and he said. "Ohhh." Then to his cronies: "Those are the ones with the theft."

Uh, what?  "Something was stolen?" I asked, thinking maybe there was a figurine or some decorative thing removed by the neighborhood toughs. Just the usual cemetery hijinks. The guy was very quiet until he said, "Let me take you up there."

Just a beautiful, beautiful cemetery, by the way. It's located on a hill with huge old trees, and as it was a sunny day in early October, the leaves were starting to turn, but it was still pretty warm. We followed the man as he drove us around to the graves we were looking for.

We made it to our family's gravesites. The cemetery man explained that these family members had done very well for themselves, financially, and the father had had built an underground crypt for his family's burials, accessible by three granite slabs placed in the ground. Above ground is a cupola and other headstones engraved with their names.

"So what about that theft?" I asked.

Cue the neighborhood toughs. Cemetery Man said that as a prank, some high school boys had removed one of the slabs in order to access the stairs down into the crypt. Upon entering the crypt, they encountered the family in various stages of decomposition, and they stole a skull. They took my aunt's skull off her body.

I can't even imagine how gross, scary, or stupid, but I have to admit that my respect for the neighborhood toughs rose slightly - just the physical act of removing that slab was impressive. And then - this must have shocked the guy - Mom and I started cracking up laughing.

He continued the story by telling us that the crime went unsolved for quite a while until one of the boys' moms found the skull in her son's closet. We laughed harder.

Once the skull was returned to the cemetery, one of the cemetery guys had to go down into the crypt and, uh, give the skull back to its owner... speaking of gross. I wondered who the lucky cemetery employee was. And then, he said, they filled in the stairs with dirt. "So if anyone tries pulling up a slab again, all they'll see is a bunch of dirt. There's no way to access the crypt now."

A few days later in Salem, Massachusetts, to honor our auntie's skull's trip to the kid's closet, Mom bought a wonderful black scarf with cute white skulls on it for me. Thanks, Cemetery Man, for the memories!

All the Proctor Ladies

...pick your pens up!

At the Vermont State Archives in Montpelier, we found our ancestor Dorcas Dimmick Proctor's signature on a petition from the "Ladies of Vermont" to the state of Vermont to end the sale of "ardent spirits". 

SHE TOUCHED THIS.

When I tell you the air was thick in that little room, and there were goosebumps galore... 

Mom and I are having a WONDERFUL time.

Montpelier, Vermont

After not a great night's sleep at the airport Shilo Inn - I think we were too excited, worried we'd sleep in and miss our flight, and missing our beds (already) - we awoke in our hotel room, got ready, took our stuff downstairs to the shuttle, checked in at the airport and had a wonderful uneventful flight to Boston.

Boston traffic was an adventure. Stupid Boston traffic. We got lost, stuck in rush hour, someone's car broke down in our lane, the whole shmear, but we did get to see a little of Boston. It was exciting when it wasn't frustrating. Once we figured out how to get out of town, we headed northwest to Montpelier, Vermont.

We chose Montpelier as the first place to stay because the Vermont state archives are kept there at the capitol (actually, outside of town in a little office in Middlesex) and part of our reason for going was genealogy finding.

We stayed at The Inn at Montpelier in downtown Montpelier. It's a darling town and I wish we'd had more time to spend there. The Inn was lovely. The room was a bit small, but nice. I'd definitely stay there again.

Just. Ick.

My top three SNL alum films:

3. Wedding Singer
2. Tommy Boy
1. The Blues Brothers

After spending the morning becoming more intimately acquainted with the STUPID kitchen floor, I've come up with several solutions for keeping it clean. So far I have the "Adopt a Tile" program, rather like Adopt a Highway, in which each child would adopt a set of tiles to scrub. Or, I may number and name each tile and put them on a schedule. "It's Hilda's turn today."

I tried mopping. Mopping is also stupid.

The Most Interesting Woman in the World

I don't always watch mindless garbage on YouTube. But when I do...
Oh, who are we kidding.

And now, a recipe.

An Apple!!! No mixing needed!! Click SHARE to keep on your timeline!!!!!!
Recipe: One apple
Water for washing
A knife or maybe one of those cute apple cutter things if you're into those (optional)

Directions: Wash apple with water (add something else to the water to get the apple really clean if you're serious about it). Use knife or cute apple cutter thingie to cut into wedges, if desired.

Eat the thing.

Heather M: Where has this recipe been all my life? THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS! This is going to change EVERYTHING for me!
Heather M: Only, I don't like apple peels. Do you think there is a recipe for an apple without the peel on it?
Me: That's an entirely different recipe. Let me check my box and see if I have it
Stacey S: What luck, I have happen to have an apple slicer! Now, is tap water okay? Or should I use bottled? Maybe perrier or peru if I'm feeling fancy.
Jean Knee: can you make one on how to make toast? mine never turns out
Suzanne S: BWHAHAHAHA!
Suzanne S: I love you guys!!!
Angela B: Heather, Dr Oz suggests eating the peels to promote regularity. Also, I know someone who didn't eat peels and almost died from a rare but deadly peel-deficiency disease.
Heather M: NOOOooooooooo! Peel deficiency disease runs in my family!
Me: Sounds pretty serious. I couldn't find the recipe but it's just as well.
Lisa S: Glad I saw this! I needed an after school snack idea!
Mary Jean J: Pick it off my own tree, and washing isn't necessary...and I did today and even my bird would eat this one, but not the ones from the store. Figure????
Me: You have a smart bird
 Mary Jean J: Tells me he is smarter than I am.

(My friends and I got sick of everyone else posting recipes on Facebook so we decided to post ridiculous "recipes" to be silly. Heather posted a recipe for cold cereal.)

Whistlers' Mother

"NO PARKOUR ON SUNDAY!!!"
My boys are fans of American Ninja Warrior. I had to yell at Carter on the way out to the car from church today....little dinguses. He was doing it through the church shrubs. It felt a tad disrespectful. More than anything it was a fun thing to shout. It wasn't a really loud screamy shouty yell, more of a slightly higher-pitched admonition. But yes, I did have to consider which one of us was being more irreverent, the parkour-er or the shouter.

Two of my children have picked up Mom's whistling habit. It's as if they're wearing collars with little bells - we can tell right where they are at all times. I was asked to fill in for the Primary piano player today...was playing a song and soon heard someone whistling along with it. I looked over and sure enough, it was my Rosalind. Awwww.

Later: Eatin' lasagna. DON'T JUDGE ME.

George G: I would only judge you favorably for lasagna...
Me: ONLY JUDGE ME FAVORABLY
Erin G: Ha! That's actually what everyone MEANS when they say "Don't judge me".
Me: You are correct madam.
Ernie: How dare you eat lasagna...are ya too good for spaghetti or something ?
Me: Yes. I am. I look down my nose at spaghetti.
Ernie: Me too.. Only stuffed ravioli and manicotti for me please.
Me: Exactly. No ricotta = not happening
Ernie: Do you remember when Gran used to substitute cottage cheese... I felt like haha Gran, stupid great depression.....lol
Me: Yeah but I liked it.
Ernie: Me too
Melissa C: Next FB screen name....Garfield.
Me: I was tossing around Taft actually
Melissa C: Literally? Gross. Mans been dead a century or so.
Me: Which made him easier to toss...he lost quite a bit of weight
Mel: Now I AM judging you. So there.
Me: You CHUBBUCKS
Jami L: Makes a fine breakfast.
Me: It does.
Jason K: There are no judgments, only if that is not vegan style Lasagna.
Me: Five cheeses. All from a COW (unless they slipped something else in there)
Mel: Pot
Me: Pot. Pot?
Jason K: I am sure that Natalie would never let that slip through her keen sense of smell. Besides, I think Brian might have caught it as well. It is legal in that neck of the woods...
Mel: Caught it, but snickered as she ate it...
Me: This being WA, you never know. But I meant sheep cheese or goat cheese or yak cheese
Mel: It is Vegan too, so no worries.
Jason K: horse cheese
Me: Cat cheese
Mel: Horse cheese is better than horse buns. (horse buns horse buns)
Me: I one the horse buns
Jason K: but not as good as hot crossed buns
Mel: I two the horse buns... *snicker*
Me: Maybe there was pot in it.
Mel: At your house? I don't think we need to ask. It's always assumed.
Me: Is it?
Mel: Hee... No.

Later still: I had to shout, NO TWERKING BEFORE FAMILY PRAYER

Naughty

Being VERY disobedient to my timer today. Flylady would be so disappointed. "Flylady dropout...no purple puddles day for you...." The timer is the only piece of Flylady advice I've used more than once. 

Mel: Rebel! Rebel!
Me: Rebels against Flylady Frank
Mel: Won't do what she suggests Sigmond
Me: Tells off Flylady Fiona
Mel: Figures she's a dip Dan

While avoiding my timer's prompting like the plague, I've been genealogy-ing and listening to Oingo Boingo: "There's a place in the stars for when you get old."

And while genealogy-ing, I found my grandma's college yearbook picture online. Sweet find.

1938 Walla Walla College Yearbook

Karen R: I still see Candace in her, I also see Becky's smile
Mel: They all look like adults, even in high school!
Me: This is college.
 Mel: Oh. Well still, that generation mastered looking older than they were.
Me: You know, for these Keen girls to be in college during the 30s... Grandma and Grandpa Keen must have worked really hard. I'm looking at their 1940 census record and neither one of them made it past the 8th grade.
Mel: Wow! That's a pretty crazy step up.
Me: Inspiring, isn't it. Kind of feminist of them, too.
Mel: Absolutely! Equality is where it's at!
Me: But for this to be happening during the Depression... pretty amazing. I want to hug them.
Mel: Great drive and hope.
Me: Yep. I feel like I have no excuses for anything now.
Mel: Except your bad smell.
Me: Bad Smell Frank
Me: I smell awesome right now, I'll have you know
Mel: Me too, just did a run by showering on myself.
Me: With the hose?
Brian D: What does the quote say?
Me: "Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes, Soft as her clime, and sunny as her eyes." I think. Mel: When isn't it with a hose?
Me: When it's with your tongue
Nancy L: I never knew about her college days!!!
Gary D: Dot's secret life....lol
Nancy L: I guess so!!!!
Mom: Oh yes...remember she went to Seattle for a singing competition with a group from the college and got sent home for being caught drunk? She was supposed to write the college and apology but wouldn't so they kicked her out....??
Mom: Uncle Mel told me all about it.
Mom: She was engaged and he broke it off because of it.
Mom: Three weeks later she met and married Dad [Carl Dysart Jr.]
Mel: Sounds like crazy youth runs in the family. Now I know who to blame for my bad behavior! *wink wink*
Me: She was a sassy gal.
Me: I wonder who her fiance was.
Mel: Someone who didn't appreciate a rebel, apparently. Thank goodness! We wouldn't be here without Grandpa.

Can't. Wait.

October 1st, baby!!

Inferno

This heat is killing my give-a-crap. Just sitting here sweating and wondering what the point of showering today was.

First Day of School 2013

This was a tough one: Bella's senior year, Harrison starting high school and 

Carter starting middle school. My poor mama heart.

Poor little H looks so nervous

"Gimme money"

Love, love, love this outfit

His first year at D school, where he
"won't know anyone." We found out in June that
due to our living here, he wasn't registered at the school
we thought he'd be going to.
We told him he could try this school for a while. 

Fun :)

Rosalind the fourth grader has a double class and two teachers (Mr. W and Mrs. A-B) this year. It brings back fun memories of my fourth grade double class. 

The House at Twilight

Two great tastes that taste great togetherrrrr

Found this little beauty at Fwee Fwee in Seaside, Oregon.

Be jealous.

Busy Day

It's a tough life

So here we are on our busy Friday. The whole week has been horrifically busy and not a little stressful. Along with this stuff we worked in soccer practices, Mutual (the young women had a hike around a nearby lake for certification), Roz's Mother and Daughter picnic for Activity Days, Carter's crossing guard field trip to Oaks Park, and a planned weekend trip that I stressed out about until it was cancelled Thursday morning.

Here we are at Culture Fair, with our last third grader parade float. 

Roz's table had Germany, Germany and Switzerland.  And Keller ;)

Eating German pretzels from the kid next door

Then soccer practice was fun, as you can see from Harrison's bloody shirt. A teammate accidentally kicked a ball into Harrison's face and his nose started bleeding. "Tell your mom that someone made you mad and you went all Mike Tyson on him and bit off his ear," one of his teammates said. Yummy.



Soccer kills

Neenaw sez: Really a nice picture.How did you get so hansome in such a short time.Stay happy and healthy, I will pray for wealthy!!

And what was I doing while my child was bleeding all over the soccer field (and his shirt)? I was sitting blissfully in the car, listening to Dennis Miller on the radio and cross stitching.  It's weird to have my kid be that old and autonomous - he gets hurt and bleeds everywhere and I'm completely oblivious until he comes back to the car and shows me his shirt.  He told me that immediately after his nosebleed, he scored a goal with his head.  Way to bounce back, my boy.

Driving home, we noticed quite a plethora of cop car lights down at the bottom of our hill, close to our house - never a happy sight.  It turned out to be someone else's car accident.  Hubby and I arrived home about the same time and immediately took off down the block to inspect the damage.  The road was completely taped off with caution tape, which Hubby says usually means that someone died in the accident.  They knocked out a couple of power poles driving eastbound.  Hope they're OK. 

"Don't Kick Each Other's Bruises"

Loved this: 134 Ideas for Random Acts of Kindness

So today I woke up, looked at the calendar, and realized that my beloved Wall had failed me.  WALL!!  How could you do this?

Rosalind's Culture Faire parade float was due today.  Culture Faire is fun - the kids each choose a country and make a cute little portable display about that country on a cardboard box.  Carter's float two years ago (Scotland) was completely sad, as we had just moved and had no idea what this Culture Faire parade float thing was, and did not yet have the Wall in place.  I was planning on helping Roz with her float (Australia) this weekend.  Oops!

"Educational" Barbie play

Fortunately, because of the Wall, we already had a paper model of the Sydney Opera House to put together.  I spent my morning doing that, and scoring Bella's English paper (she had to get someone outside the school to edit it, which I did last week, but then she threw this stupid rubric at me this morning and I had to make up dumb score numbers out of thin air and leave comments about her paper, and I'm like, "SHE'S MY KID, she's a genius!  Of course the paper is marvelous, you TWIT!" but I couldn't, I had to act like a real editor.  Whatever). 

Almost done...

Finished product and smiling child

Daddy came home with more awesome Australia stuff.  The finished parade float:

She looks so *old* in this pic!  But happy :)

Sorry it's so blurry.

Completely off topic but worth mentioning:
"If I ever get executed, I hope it's in Texas."
- Bella