More Sundry Stuff and a Rope Swing

Orrin has a little stool to climb up onto the toilet, and oftentimes the other kids take it out of the bathroom to use for other things.  For some reason, I get all the blame for this, and Orrin always tells me, "When you take it out, put it back!"  And then today he ran into the bathroom to use the toilet and saw the stool still in there and said, "Oh, good job for listening Mommy!"

This is Wyatt howling like a wolf.

Talmage always mixes up the words yogurt and icecream.  So funny, but sad on the times when he asks if he can have yogurt and I say yes and then I have to explain that I didn't mean he could have icecream.

Kami and Leo were supposed to be coming in two weeks to travel, party, play, and hang out with us.  We had planned lots of fun places we want to visit and I was so so so soooooooo excited, and then their stupid tax refunds were less than they had expected and they decided not to come.  Oh the disappointment!!  I mean, really they should just go deeply in debt and stay here with me for a long time and Leo could just buy a plane while they were here and fly us all around to a whole BUNCH of awesome places.  This is a good plan.

I would not be a good detective.  The other day while I was in Bern, two different ladies recognized me.  One had just seen me one time at a Christmas concert at the stake center, but the other one was a fairly close neighbor and she knew my name.  Don't I feel silly.  But then again, I stick out right?  Red hair, six kids--it's pretty easy to remember me, whereas other people blend in more, so it's harder for me to remember them, right? Right?

Jethro drew this awesome guy during General Conference this evening.

Today I was getting a slice of bread for Orrin, but I couldn't find the bread knife at first, so I was looking and I found it and said, "Here it is," and Orrin said, "Where was it?" and I said, "In the sink."  He said, "Oh! The nink!  ...I can't say that."  It was soooo so sooooo funny.

Then Brett drew this guy.

I bought Jethro this really awesome guitar pick off etsy.  It's made from an old Indian head buffalo nickel.  It's pretty sweet.  Here's the link to the shop, in case you want to get one for yourself or a guitar-playing friend:  Guitar Picks Shop (Plus, they shipped free worldwide which pretty much NEVER happens, so I'm very happy to advertise for them.)

 

More than their unwavering belief in holiday myths like Santa or the Easter Bunny, I am dazzled by kids' abiding faith that cool shoes make them run faster.  (Talmage got new (second-hand) shoes and had to take me down to the basement so I could watch just how fast he could run.  It was impressive.)

So today I made part of my lifelong dream come true-- we put up a rope swing!  (The other part is to have a lake to jump off the rope swing into, but we'll have to wait a while for that part.)  I decided just to ask the lady in charge of the yard, totally expecting her to not allow it, but she said it was okay, so we went to Bauhaus and bought rope.

First Brett was trying to just throw the rope up over the branch, but I had specific plans, and he couldn't get the rope to go over the particular little branch/big branch that I wanted.  So I got a ladder that got me up to where the trunks start to V, and then I shimmied up to the branch and out on the branch and put the rope where I wanted it, wound it around a few times so it was the right length, and then realized I had to get down.  ;)  I could easily climb down the rope except that it wasn't very thick (unfortunately it was the thickest one available) at all, so I couldn't get a good enough grip (I knew I would slip and burn my hands), so Jethro went and got me the rubber gloves for doing dishes, so then I put them on, swung over, and climbed down the rope slick as a whistle.

It's really really fun!!

YAY for rope swings!