real quick update

It seems like life often goes slow slow slow slow sloooooooow, and then whammo!! So we just hit the whammo, and we're moving, although we're not sure where exactly. Right now we're in Vernal, but we'll be driving back to Indiana to pack and move....somewhere. I'm pumped.

p.s. more details to come, but who knows when.
p.p.s. No, Derek did not just have a suture kit on hand (though he totally will from now on!) --Ethan called his team doctor who gave us a kit.
p.p.p.s. Yes, Brett's eye was numbed with lidocaine--the injection of which he said was the most painful part.

If you get queasy easily, you may want to avert your eyes.

The next exciting installment of the Rasmussen Reunion 09 (which doesn't officially even begin until this evening), the benefit of having a doctah (cheese-man) in the house, and it wasn't really my fault even though I told him to do it.

It all started out innocently enough. The grandkids were helping Grandpa make a little dam for the irrigation water, everyone else was milling around watching and visiting.

Here's a picture of Ethan and his girlfriend Kourtney, my sister Amy and Talmage. Notice the little ditch behind Kourtney? Because that proves to play an important role in this story.

You see, Brett leaned over and whispered to me, "Should I throw Ethan into the ditch?" I said of course, of course. Amy said yes too, so Brett barreled into him, and they did some nice dancing over from side to side of the ditch for a minute before getting more down and dirty. Literally and figuratively.

It happened really fast, and Brett stood up looking like this. Ethan got him in the eyebrow with an elbow. Brett said, "What do you do, Ethan, sharpen those things?"

Good times.

Luckily, we have a doctor in the house. Three to be exact, but only one of the medical persuasion. So we set up an operating table and everyone grabbed a seat around it to get in on the action. I got to sit the closest, since I have a VIP pass since I'm the wife.

Here's my brother Derek, the doc, prepping.

Mom was the nurse. She loves this kind of stuff. Should've been a doctor.

Four stitches.

It was a good show. Jokes abounded. Pictures were taken. No money exchanged hands, but doc and patient got a Fat Boy for their trouble. We all clapped at the end.

Oh, and my four-year-old nephew Chad went to the ER earlier in the day for stitches in his forehead. We're all very excited to see what the first "official" day of the reunion will bring!

Guess what I did this morning

Oh, just took a little early-morning trail ride with my dad, hubby, and son. Oh, I loved it. LOVED it.

Dad stuff

Me and Dad.

Yes, I am up at 12:30. But not because I didn't go to bed. I did, but I couldn't get to sleep, and with no sexy body lying next to my own, there was nothing to keep me from getting out again.

So anyhow, as I was lying there thinking about zillions of things I wondered if I had ever posted this one funny e-mail my dad wrote one time to one of my friends in high school. Well I don't think I have. Though even if I had, it would be worth reading again. So I got up, dug through the boxes next to this very desk I sit at now, found the Dad book, and found the e-mail.

So my friend's name was Matthew and he used to sign his emails Matthew the Magnificent, and my dad knew him well enough that he considered it appropriate to put him in his rightful place, and wrote this:

I believe that you are suffering from delusions of grandeur. Your inability to come to terms with the insignificance of your puny life, when compared with my many talents must have finally crushed your fragile psyche and caused your mind to go into hallucinatory self aggrandizement and denial. GET OVER IT!!!!!!!! Get a grip!!!!!!!!! WAKE UP AND SMELL THE PIG PEN!!!!!!!! You will only finally reach nirvana when you accept the relativity of your position in life!!!!! There is no shame in being an amoeba, be the best single celled organism that you can be---reach out, stretch, divide, conquer your little world. But, pine not for that which cannot be. Continued failure to reach the unreachable can only destroy the mitochondria of your soul. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear--or in this case, out of an amoeba.

Some more that I think are funny:

Yo, master of the universe!!! It is with enthusiastic entrails that I etch this erstwhile explicative epistolic email of epic, expansive, and euphoric proportions. Have a nice day!!! FG

Yo! It is a nebulous sort of morning on which I pen my regards to your little eyes. Have joy in this current historic space of time. tata

One to my sister Andrea when she was at BYU:

It is with a heavy heart that I address this epistle to you. It has come to my attention that not all is well in our little kingdom. While you may not be entirely to blame, the shortfall in revenues that I am currently experiencing is, at least in part, due to your lack of consistency in forwarding to me what is rightfully mine. Repent now and support your genetic supplier with the necessary funds to allow for his removal from this cold barren wasteland (he lived in North Dakota at the time). After all, it is a much better place that we go, if only we could get gone there.

Another couple to Andrea:

Hey, have you ever heard of the word Succinct---look it up, use it, make it your emailing code of honor. Never abandon it again. I just used up half of my morning getting acquainted with each second of your life over the past few days. Gadfrey Moses I must have the gene pool checked. Thanks and love ya DAD.

Gadfree Moses your emails are nigh unto a Harlequin Romance. Get a grip girl. Have a nice day!!!

A letter written to Andrea while she was at Utah State. The Relief Society president in Andrea's singles ward requested that lal the parents of RS sisters write letters expressing their love for their daughters. The letters were then collected and distributed at a RS party. A part of the letter not included here mentions that Dad thought Andrea's hair was cooler than Dorothy's--as in the girl with the little dog Toto.

Dear Andrea, I truly believe that the wolf would have repented and become a reformed and useful member of society had not the impulsive woodsman dealt him a terminal blow to the noggin. Anyway, we can discuss my philosophy at length another time.

Here are some memories from various children of his. Again, I might have shared these before. Oh well.

Kami: Dad always licked our glasses.

Kayli: Dad often showed his love by bumping my head into his belly.

Wyatt: Dad, Tarren, Tate, Uncle Montey, and I were haying. Tarren, Tate, and I were up on top of the trailer and Dad was throwing bales up to us. Towards the end when the stack was at least ten feet tall, we started mocking Dad and saying he wouldn't be able to throw them up anymore. After that, Dad started chucking bales 15 feet in the air and would have thrown them all the way over the trailer if we hadn't been up there to stop them. Needless to say, we all know that our Dad is the strongest one out there!

Kami: One time Dad said to Leo, "Sorry for all the mean things that I've said about you that are true."

Kami: Kayli and I rode with Dad back from Young Women's in North Dakota to Des Lacs since Dad was in the bishopric. We always got really hyper. One time, Kayli was trying to give Dad wet willies so he rolled her hair up in the window so she couldn't reach him. Also, he gave us lectures on how to make money selling drugs by mixing in a little cornstarch or oatmeal.

Kayli: We were all at stake conference one Sunday and Wyatt was sitting there minding his own business when Dad leaned over to him and whispered, "It's not my fault you're ugly, you must be a throwback."

Ethan: Every night after scriptures and prayers I dominate him in wrestling and make him say uncle.

umm--ha ha ah ahahaaaaaa!!!

Megan: During a father/daughter interview one Sunday in Provo, Dad asked in a very concerned voice, "What drugs have you been doing lately and did you steal any from me? You shouldn't take mine, I am your father." Then he started talking about his brain on drugs.

Brett: When Dad and Mom lived in Uintah, they went to a dance with Andrea and Tim and Kayli and I. After the dance, everyone got in the car and Dad went around in circles in the parking lot for several minutes. It was very strange.

A short excerpt from a lengthy correspondence between Dad and Megan.
Dad: Your epistle is well received, however is the hare (they were discussing the March Hare) really the major problem here? I say no!!! Did the hare steal Red Rotten Hood's cookies and neck with her grandmother? Did the hare terrorize the three little pigs with "ham"burger in mind? Was it the hairless one in question that had 23 offspring and then left them living in a shoe? I say no again!!! It was Donny Osmond and he should pay the price!! Off with his head!!

Megan: Alas sir, I beg to differ. The giraffe is responsible for who else could create the long neck? What about the Hunchback of Notre Dame? Did anyone think to send him for counseling from our feathered friends (quacks) before he threw himself off the top of the tower? What is this world coming to? Mass hysteria has led up all to , belief not in miracles, but in Prince Humperdink! True love and the giraffe must be saved!!

Dad: True love is but a mirage in the desert of life and exists in reality only on MTV. However, do not despair because Santa is alive and well and will soon be dropping drugs off for all the good boys and girls in the world. Then while mom and dad are doing turkey the kids can smoke opium and snort cinnamon. Don't you wish you had've been a better little daughter and had given your money to your Dad instead of gambling it away in Vegas?


Yes, my dad is a bizarre man with an unhealthy obsession with drugs and his children giving him money. But what can I do?? You can't choose your predecessors.

My boys

Jethro turned 7 this week. Can you believe it? It's amazing how kids just keep getting older like they have no control over it or something. Sheesh.

My oh my he's a cute kid.

I freezer-paper stenciled him his 7 shirt, but it was late and I was meaning to grab a different shirt --one that was a light blue. Oh well.

I pulled his first top tooth out last night. I was pretty impressed with myself, since heretofore Brett has done the pulling. But it was super super super wiggly and I couldn't leave it alone. You can kindof tell in these pictures that it is pushed back a little bit farther than normal, just cause it was so wiggly.

What a kid that Jethro is. Today he started reading a book called Ranger's Apprentice Book One: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan, which is 250 pages long and finished it right after dinner! That was with a morning full of park/errands too. It's a very good book, I read it yesterday. Jethro loved it. He now wants to be a Ranger when he grows up. :)

And the other day, we went to Purdue and Talmage participated in a study. Jethro and the girls hung out with a girl while Talmage and I were doing the study, and when I came back in I asked the girl if Jethro talked her ear off. She said, "Well, he sure knows a lot about sharks." Hee hee. Then on the thank you postcard to Talmage that they always send, it said "You are lucky to have a knowledgeable big brother to teach you everything." I think he is pretty lucky. And so am I.

I freezer-paper stenciled a shirt for Talmage too, and it is my favorite so far. The above picture shows it the best. The below picture I just ADORE. What gorgeous eyes.

More pictures just cause he's cute.

Oh, what a sweetie head. Just wanna squeeze him.

In other news, why do kids have to be so destructive? I had a few things I meant to mention, but really the main one is that I was letting Ethne wear my black high-heeled shoes because she LOVES playing with them, and she took them outside and took them off and left them near the sidewalk, and only one was ever found. I think that some random person walking by took the other one. I don't think it's funny. I don't have any other black church shoes. Okay, that's a lie, I have the pair that I've had for like 12 years now or something, but really. Both Brett and my mom pinned the blame on me, saying "Why did you let her wear your nice shoes?" but really, who would expect one shoe to just walk off on its own? That's my story.

And finally, best news for last, Brett's coming home tomorrow. YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rainy Day Adventure

Today we had such a super time. Brett actually cleared out his stuff from the lab yesterday and will never be going there again, so we had to do something fun to celebrate. We decided on a little trip to Shades State Park. It was raining when we got there, so we ate our sandwiches first, but ended up hiking through rain most of the time. But it wasn't cold and we actually really enjoyed no mosquitoes and seeing pretty much no one else.

All the pictures are pretty blurry because it wasn't very bright out.

This is the beginning of where the trail says "Rugged section." Which just meant we had to walk through the little creek and climb some ladders. It got darker--quite dark actually-- and rained harder while we were in the rugged section, and it was really pretty cool and spooky. Not scary, but a cool atmosphere.

For a long time while we were walking, Jethro was watching the little creek running down the middle of the trail from all the rainwater, and he kept saying "This would be whitewater for ants!" "This would be really rugged for ants!" "This would be a HUGE waterfall for ants!" And after about twenty minutes of this Hazel said, "Enough of the ant stories now!!!!!" It was quite funny.

These pictures are when it got dark and I had to use flash...so it does look darker than it actually was, but it really was really dark for awhile.

Here are the ladders. I love the ladders. They're so fun.

Here we were camped out under a little ledge for a couple minutes to wait for the rain to die down a little bit.

I was there too. Hi!

Talmage--wet and loving it.

It was so much fun to go on an adventure with our little family. Brett and I and the kids all had a great time. Next week Brett will be going to a town a couple of hours from here and staying all week to work construction for a friend of ours who was nice enough to give Brett some temp. employment so I'm sure it will be a long week. Good thing we got in some good playing today.

Another shirt-dress

Remember when I made a shirt-dress and had a cute little girl model it for me? Well, it was so fun I made another one, and had another cute little girl model it.

I think this pretty blue color is just beautiful on Hazel. And I love how cute and summery and fresh the dress looks. These are really easy to make--especially since the tutorial is so excellent. The only sort-of hard part for me was making the pattern. I think the armpits are tight on Hazel, but she says they aren't - I think because she wants to wear the dress. But it's okay, because luckily I have another daughter who will be able to wear this, well, now actually. It just fits a bit bigger on her. Anyhow. So if you feel an inkling, you really should head to the thrift store (or your husband's closet) and give it a go. I have another shirt waiting actually.

Typical Hazel. Jumping and smiling.

Gosh I love those big bows.

The hardest part of this whole project? The hair-do. I can never do two good braids. One maybe...but I had to do the other side over and over and over again. It kept getting worse. But it looked cute finally.

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. ~Eleonora Duse

And then we saw this little dearie on the way home.