Wordless Wednesday

How come I keep feeling like I'm behind in posting and that I am forgetting tons of things that I meant to post. Oh well I guess.

The other day Hazel came up to me and said, "I'm ready for a baby sister." Hmmm, well now that I know YOU'RE ready I can get right on that.

On Sunday Brett ran in to school to set up some of his experiments for the following day. He set up for THE LAST OF HIS EXPERIMENTS!!! and it would take him 12 hours. He only had the confocal microscrope until 2 p.m. so he went in to work that night/morning at 2:00. But now he's done experimenting and can focus on data analysis and WRITING. Joy.

Ethne's into being "gaiwd" or scared of stuff. The other day at dinner she was really being a clown, and she pointed and said, "Gaiwy!!" and I said, "Of what?" And she she pointed again and said, "I gaiwd!" (with a really funny scared/stricken look on her face), and I said, "You're scared of the orange juice?" and she said, "Yeah." Then we heard Brett get home and come into the garage on his motorcycle and she said, "I gaiwd." Silly kid.

I love this picture of Hazel and Talmage.

The other day we went to Sportsman's Warehouse which is going out of business, and everything was 60-80% off and got some fun goodies. We bought a really nice GPS, which we're considering selling on ebay but I don't know for sure, some nice shoes for Brett, a waterproof jacket (I used it today in the rain and was completely dry!!!! I could jump in a river in that thing and not get wet!) which was originally $119 or something outrageous like that. We also bought a hand-crank radio/flashlight which we really wanted for our 72 hour kit anyway, and some really warm winter gloves for the kids. Pretty sweet. But they didn't have any shotguns which was what Brett wanted to buy in the first place.

Jethro is so cute here.

Another of Hazel's great illustrations.

Oh, what an adorable boy. I love him sooooo much! He smells so sweet.

Yesterday at Wild Cat Creek

Little girls are the nicest things that happen to people. They are born with a little bit of angel shine about them, and though it wears thin sometimes, there is always enough left to lasso your heart.
-Alan Beck

Children are the past, the present, and the future all blended into one. They are consummately precious. Every time a child is born, the world is renewed in innocence.
-Boyd K. Packer

Hand in hand, with fairy grace,

Will we sing, and bless this place.

-William Shakespeare

Oh the laugh of a child, so wild and so free,
Is the merriest sound in the world to me.

-Habel Athelwood

The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

-Robert Louis Stevenson

-

Nothing excellent can be done without leisure.

-Andre Gide

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

-Kahlil Gibran

O young thing,

your mother's lovely armful!

How sweet the fragrance of your body.

-Euripides

Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.
-Plato

Rich in the simple worship of the day.
-John Keats

When I grow up I want to be a little boy.
-Joseph Heller

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth.
-Ecclesiastes

Bliss it was to be alive, but to be young was very heaven.
-Wordsworth

If there's anything half so much fun as being alive, I'd like to know what it is.
-Mary Engelbreit

The child-soul is an ever-bubbling fountain in the world of humanity.
-Friedrich Froebel

Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everywhere.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sweet springtime is my time is your time is our time

for springtime

is love time

and viva sweet love.

-e.e. cummings

Today was good, today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.
-Dr. Seuss

9 is fine.

1. So, to answer the bread questions, yes, you can do half a batch in a kitchen aide. Yes, the total cook time is 30 minutes, and as to whether you can do it by hand--Yes it can be done. My mother and her mother made it without a mixer many a year. However, I tried it a couple times at college without good results, so I don't really have any advice for that. And I do not know where to buy 9 grain cereal. I think my mom buys it at a store called Kitchen Kneads in Utah, and I think they ship, but I've never bought it so I don't know.

2. A bird built a nest on top of our wreath on the front door.
Silly bird. But we only noticed it today, although I did notice that the door was a little bit muddy on Sunday, but it was rainy... So, silly us?
3. I'm kindof trying to keep a tally in my head of things that I could be glad of if we were to stay here instead of moving. Things like- I already know my way around and don't have to be lost half the time, many good friends (although I don't think of the part about 9/10ths of them being students and so they will be moving away anyway), I get to continue playing volleyball every Tuesday night (that is a huge one), it's not somewhere worse, and Jethro maybe being in the Challenge school next year (he did testing there today and yesterday). But the other day there was a sign that we shouldn't stay here, because one of my positive tallies for Indiana was that I have a great obstetrician who has delivered 2 of my babies, successfully did a version for 2 of my babies, was doc for another of my babies--so he knows me and I love him for saving me from having to have a c-section. Anyway, I got a letter in the mail saying he's leaving his practice here. Crossing that one off the mental list.

4. Jethro got a really cool football in his Easter basket. We played today. It was fun.
5. One time, I told my sister Lindsay that ever since she brushed their teeth for them when we were in Utah, they make sure we don't ever forget to brush their tongues (heaven forbid!) because Aunt Linday said you should. And she said, "YAY! I've made an oral impact on somebody!!" Ummm? What a weirdo.
6. Here is a cool poem I found in a book I got at the library today. I've never read it before. How could I have missed it?! It is by Lewis Carroll.

"SISTER, sister, go to bed!
Go and rest your weary head."
Thus the prudent brother said.

"Do you want a battered hide,
Or scratches to your face applied?"
Thus his sister calm replied.

"Sister, do not raise my wrath.
I'd make you into mutton broth
As easily as kill a moth"

The sister raised her beaming eye
And looked on him indignantly
And sternly answered, "Only try!"

Off to the cook he quickly ran.
"Dear Cook, please lend a frying-pan
To me as quickly as you can."

And wherefore should I lend it you?"
"The reason, Cook, is plain to view.
I wish to make an Irish stew."

"What meat is in that stew to go?"
"My sister'll be the contents!"
"Oh"
"You'll lend the pan to me, Cook?"
"No!"

Moral: Never stew your sister.

7. Talmage has two sharp little chompers on the bottom. They came in about a month and a half ago, but I forgot to record it. Now when he does the really cute eat your face thing, it hurts quite a bit.

8. We don't have any apples left. That is sad. I've eaten almost my weight in scotcheroos and texas sheet cake in the last couple days, and an apple sounds good.

9. Brett's going to bed, so I have to go. He goes to bed early. But he gets up early, so I guess that's reasonable.

I'm married to an oldie, and park pictures

On Saturday Brett turned 30. Which means I'm a very young girl married to a very old man. Luckily he's a good-looking old man, so it's all good. :)

On Saturday Hazel woke up in the morning and came into my bed and Brett was already gone with Jethro to a service project, and I said, "Guess what day it is," and she said, "what?" and I said, "It's Daddy's birthday." And she asked how old he was, and I said 30!!!! And she gaped. And I said, "I KNOW! OLD isn't it?" And she said, "But we still love him. Cause he doesn't have grey hair."

We did Bug Bowl stuff on Saturday, so we had his birthday celebration on Monday. Here he is blowing out his candles (obviously not 30 of them) on his Texas Sheet Cake, with a portion sans-icing because that's how he likes it (the weirdo).

And here he is with our friend Jared (who lighted the candles with his propane torch (gotta love Jared)), with the strawberry-rhubarb pie I made him. He loves strawberry-rhubarb pie, but I don't like pie at all (fruit was never meant to be hot), so he gets one per year, on his birthday. It looked nice though.

And here he is with all his little friends that he invited to his party. :) Just kidding, but between us and two of our friends' families, there end up being a lot of little kids. We had to laugh because it looked just like Brett was having a little kids party.

Oh, and the balloon that was given to us free at the grocery store that morning, which had a pink breast cancer awareness ribbon on it that I turned into a 30 balloon. Classy, isn't it? ;)

Everybody mocked me that I got him all presents that were really for me. Rude--can I help it that my husband and I have similar tastes? He likes Coldplay, I like Coldplay. He likes almond joys, I like almond joys. Okay, the ball glove really was for me, but I need someone to play catch with!! And I got him a Dremel tool, which was definitely not for me, which he returned and instead bought a much more expensive version.
So, really nothing too cool for his birthday. Which is sad, because I wanted a really exciting celebration, but oh well. I was going to hide the presents and make him do a treasure hunt to find them, but life happened and the treasure hunt did not. I really think Brett probably minds a lot less than I do. :)

These pictures were from the other day when the weather was nice so we walked to the park.

Jethro and Hazel inside the blue tunnel thing on the playground.

Bug Bowl

Last Saturday was Purdue's Spring Fest, better known as the Bug Bowl. I don't remember if we've gone every year we've lived here, but most anyway. It's a good time.

Making chia pets.
Ethne getting her face painted.
There are insects galore at the Bug Bowl. Including really big bees.

And you can even EAT bugs, if you are so inclined. I asked Jethro if he was going to eat a bug this year, and he said no. But I reminded him that this could very possibly be our last year here, so it was now or never. And since he's an awesome kid, that's all it took, and he said okay.

Here he is with a cricket on his tongue. No fear.

Hmmm.

Good!

And here's Hazel with a meal-worm infested brownie.

NOT!---she didn't really eat it! She got it that close to her mouth and promptly set it down, saying, "Changed my mind." :) (Brett ate the meal-worm brownie and fried meal-worms and crickets. What a man.)

This is the Head-Honcho Entomologist himself, or Spokesman for Roach Hill Downs--The Greatest Show in Cockroach Racing. Better known to us as Brother Provonsha. I love that guy. He's so funny. And he really loves bugs. :)

Here's a picture of the Cockroach Tractor Pull.

Brett and Talmage watching in fascination. (Brett got to come with us for a little while in the morning until he had to go be a T.A. and he took Talmage for me, since he was falling asleep, so that the other kids and I could go see more things. Sweet!)

Jethro holding something. I don't know what it's called since I didn't really listen. But there's no way I would have held it.

Hazel petting a Madagascar hissing cockroach.

That scary thing again.

Hazel looking cute with her face painted.

Holding a really cute baby duck. Except Ethne was scared of it.

Good times at the Bug Bowl. Talmage was wiped out by the end. What a CUTE boy!!