Hello!!!

I'm back! And so happy to be, I tell you. That whole not being allowed to blog was killing me--no posting pictures, no rambling or bragging or whining, and no comments in my inbox!! Okay, but I must confess I didn't actually finish everything I said I was going to. I read through the whole book and made corrections, but I haven't finished the last letter (although I've started it...I've written hmmm... one whole sentence). Anyway, I know the last thing I said was "no matter what," but Andrea gave me permission to blog tonight since I'd been such a good girl to read and make edits.

On the whole, I don't know if our book is wonderful or not. I think the story itself is wonderful, but I don't know if our writing is. But then, as Andrea and I decided, it's very hard to look at it now with any kind of real perspective because we've been so close to it for so long. So, it's easy to see what we're NOT (JRR Tolkien), but not as easy to see what we are. But, the writing does really improve in the second half, so I think we've got something. Anyway, I'm sure you all do not care, but that's what has been on my mind. But I am glad that I set my no blogging rule because I really had to push myself to keep reading even when I was tired because I wanted to blog! :)

So, what else has been happening since I've been away. I almost started keeping a list so I wouldn't forget anything, but I didn't, so now I will just have to try my best to remember.

Hazel was sick, and then she got better the next day, and I got sick, and it was really brutal but short--which is all you can hope for when you're throwing up. Then I got better and Ethne got sick. Then Jethro got sick while on a Scout campout with Brett (although it didn't seem to hit him quite as hard, as he never did throw up and was able to still hike--better than some of the 11-year-olds, Brett said).

I ate my first zucchini and tomato from my garden. And then I forgot to go look at my garden for a few days, and tonight we found some REALLY huge zucchini. Good thing we like the stuff.

As I said, Brett and Jethro went to the Scout camp-out on Friday night, which is when I did the bulk of my book reading. Brett gave a talk in church on Sunday and although it was very good, it was very short. Too short, by about 10 minutes. Ooops.

Oh, I remember something I was going to remember. Hazel came out of the bathtub one day and put on some clothes, but what she picked out was black pants and a black long-sleeved shirt, neither one with any decoration at all. I told her that she looked like a bank robber, and she said, "A princess bank robber." And I said, "I don't think there are any of those," and she said, "There are now." What a kid.

Today at swimming lessons a lady came up and said "Excuse me, are you having a boy?" and I told her I don't know, but I hope so. And she said, "You are." And I said, "Well, my husband thinks so too, and he's been right so far. Are you right?" And she said, "I'm ALWAYS right." I guess she thinks so because of how I'm carrying the baby--she said that when it's just pure baby, it's a boy. But I don't really know if I look any different than when I was pregnant with Hazel or Ethne. But oh well, I really do hope it's a boy, so I'm going to choose to believe her. :)

AND...I got ready for Jethro's birthday party!!!! Which was today, and it turned out great!
A long time ago, when we first started talking about Jethro and Hazel's birthday parties, Jethro wanted a Jet theme, but I just couldn't get myself worked up about that. So I looked around on a birthday party site, and I saw a few Science parties and thought he would like that. It did not take any convincing at all---I just said, "Daddy said that if you had a science party he would help and do some really cool experiments," and he was sold. :) That was actually my favorite part of Jethro's party---that Brett came home and did so much of it!! (I was talking with some friends and a stranger at swimming lessons about the party, and I was telling them some of the experiments Brett was going to do, and one lady said, "Who's this--your brother?" and I said, "No, my husband." And then another friend said, "What's he in again?" and I said "Biomedical engineering," and all three said, "Ohhhh," right in chorus. It was pretty funny.)

Okay, first things --the kids got to wear a lab coat that Brett brought home from his lab. They were way too big, but pretty fun and cute. I started out with a few plates with milk on them, and we dropped some food coloring onto the milk. Then the kids took a q-tip and would stick it into the milk, and nothing would happen, but then they put the q-tip into some Dawn soap, and then into the milk, and the food coloring would fly off in kinda cool "explosions."

Next Brett put some vinegar in a bottle, put some baking soda in a balloon, attached the balloon to the top of the bottle and poured the baking soda in and the balloon would blow up. The kids actually got a huge kick out of this.

Then we took a hard-boiled egg, showed how it wouldn't fit through the mouth of a bottle, then put some alcohol in the bottom of the bottle and lit it and quickly put the egg on top, and it would get sucked right in. I thought it was so fun to hear Brett explaining how it works to the kids.
Then Brett did his famous 'Glowing Pickle', where you plug in a pickle and watch it glow. When I asked Hazel what her favorite experiment was, she said, "Fire pickle!" It actually is more impressive inside at night when it's dark and you can see the glow better, but it's still quite cool.
I took a lot of pictures of the pickle, but didn't really capture how it glows so well. You can kindof see here a little bit.
We did a Mentos and Pepsi explosion, which was Jethro's favorite experiment (you realize I'm using the term 'experiment' loosely here ;) ).

And then---volcano birthday cake. And that was a bitter disappointment for me, because you see, I had made it so that I could put some dry ice in the middle and pour water onto it to make it smoke, but unfortunately when I made a special trip to the only store that carries dry ice this morning, they didn't have any left. I thought that there was a teeny weeny chunk that would work, but it must not have survived the trip home, because when I looked in the bag it was no longer there. I was really bummed! Although, the kids didn't know to be disappointed, and there were sparklers that were neat (I especially liked how Brett lit them with his propane torch).

Then Jethro opened his presents and I was so impressed with how cool they all were! He really got some neat things. (Thanks everyone who's reading this who gave him one!)
Then we made Gak with Elmer's glue and Borax--which turned out really awesome too. All the kids got to take some home in a little bag. I really like the picture below because it looks just like Brett is duking Jethro one to the head, although he's really just pouring in some of the Borax solution. Ha ha.
Then we had a little time for games. First we played partner tag--I don't know if that's really the name?--where the person running away from "it" can link on to somebody, and then the person on the other side of the link starts running. Fun stuff.
And some good old Red Rover. Nobody was mortally wounded, I'm pleased to say, although Jethro did clothesline himself pretty good. Ahhh, good times.
Here's a picture of the boys.
Here's Jethro and Brett playing with a sword and Jethro's new Light Saber. They had a very good time, as you can see. Oh no, Brett's dead!
But wait, here comes the Angel of the Battlefield! Ethne would come give hugs to Brett or Jethro whenever they fell. What a cutie.
All in all, it was a super party. However, I've decided parties are a little bit like Christmas. You put all this planning and effort into it, and then Christmas morning is over in a flash. But still good times.

Well, I'm sure that was more than enough to make up for my absence, so that's all folks. Have a day.