What is the secret to happiness? Nutella.
See? It works for Orrin just like it worked for Talmage two years ago.
Here are some more pictures of my cute baby who is growing so fast.
He likes to stand on the deck and look out at the horses and cows. (And dig in the dirt in the flower planter.)
And to remind myself that he is still a baby for a little while longer
1. Long fingernails on guys. Shudder.
2. Kids toothpaste. Hate the smell, hate the taste, hate cleaning it up from everywhere ALL THE TIME.
3. Gum. I hate seeing people chew it, I hate the smell, I REALLY hate when the kids leave it somewhere and I have to try to clean up gum from hair or clothes or whatever. That is why my children are never allowed to have it.
4. When you’re listening to a song, and right when it gets to the high point, someone turns it down because they say it’s too loud. It’s supposed to be loud- it’s the apex of the song. (Unless of course, I’m the one who turns it down, because then it really is too loud. Obviously.)
5. The phrase “Just sayin.” I know, I’m probably offending many people reading this, because it’s such a big phrase now, but for whatever reason/s, it just really bugs me. I wrote this whole big thing about it on our family website because someone said (wrote) it, and I figured I can at least vent to my family, right? And then they all mocked me the whole time I was in Arizona and said it to me all the time. Well, not everyone. Mostly Amy. That’s the kind of sister she is. :)
6. Uncomfortable clothes.
7. When someone is wearing a zippered or buttoned sweater and they let it hang off their shoulders around their arms. Hazel and Ethne do this all the time and I am always barking at them “Pull up your sleeves!” until I get annoyed enough and go zip their sweater for them.
8. When people do not wring out the dish rag and hang it over the faucet. I hate HATE having to pick up a nasty stinky wet rag from the bottom of a sink. AAAAaarrrgh! Wring out your rag!!
9. When people assign you feelings or thoughts that you don’t actually have. Or even if you do have them, but they’re just making an assumption. For a quick example, when I was in Morocco and we were looking at things inside this guy’s shop, and he invited us to sit down so he could show us some things. I kindof wanted to leave, but I was fine sitting there for a little while still, and then he stopped his spiel and said to me, “You’re angry. Don’t be angry- you can learn… blah blah.” I was like- I’m not angry! Or at least, I wasn’t until you started telling me I am!
“Sir, with no intention to take offence, I deny your right to put words into my mouth.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
10. When people talk about their health problems. Although, this is only some of the time, when they’re talking about something mildly disgusting, you know, like that character in books who is always complaining about their bowels or something. (Remember, I grew up with my dad always saying “it’s a long way from your heart” and “suffer in silence.”)
So, there you have it. 10 things I really don’t like.
So a couple weeks ago we drove way too far away for a pretty mediocre walk. Not that it was bad, it just was not cool enough to merit how far we drove.
So we saw some neat things, like this water… something.
And these coats of arms of the Swiss cantons:
Like these from wiki:
But the coolest thing was the decor on this house:
Did you see them? The masks? Mask 1:
And Mask 2:
It was so awesome because I read about these masks on a really neat blog of an American lady named Beth who also lives in Switzerland, and have been waiting and waiting to see one so I could take a picture and tell you about it. Here is what she said (this is so cool!):
It is a traditional hand-carved Carnival mask. In the Valais region of Switzerland, between Candlemas and Ash Wednesday, men put on hand-carved masks, some of which have real teeth in them, and are fringed with hair, and become Tschäggättä. They pad their shoulders, don huge wigs and clothes made of the fur of chamois, fox, or sheep, hold a staff, and tie a cow bell around their waists with a broad belt. They run through the village chasing those brave enough to go out after dusk! I would love to know the origins of this ancient celebration. I found a fascinating video of the event, which I have posted below. I got it from a website about the celebration in Loëtschenttal, and it features an interview with a mask-carver. The video is in German, I'm afraid, but the imagery of monsters chasing laughing children through the ancient village streets is unforgettable!
Watch this incredibly cool video! (And make it big for full effect.)
I wish I could figure out when and where this happened so I could go! Switzerland is pretty awesome.
So, it’s been way too long since I posted pictures of my cute kids, so here they are. Talmage, my favorite three-year-old in the world.
Bath time. Nice face Talmage.
This picture is Talmage holding his carrot cake that he made. He totally did it all himself. First he peeled a carrot and asked me to cut it into small pieces. Then he put them in this little pan. Then he asked me to get him up on the counter so he could put some spices and things in it. So I got him up and he pointed and told me things to put in. He put in some baking powder and I suggested some sugar and cinnamon. Lemon juice, a bit of sugar (just sprinkles of all these things really), and then he told me to put it in the oven. The oven was still warm from whatever we had had for lunch- fish sticks or something, so I put it in, and I think he really thought a cake was going to come out. Anyway, after a while, he got out his luke-warm carrot sticks and went outside and had a picnic with it with Ethne. Good times.
This kid is adorable any way at all, but gosh I love a guy in a cowboy hat!
And then he and Jethro shot each other from across the couch. (And he put on his Batman suit.)
I bought myself some flowers.
Hazel colored little paper Russian dolls.
And Ethne colored a Japanese doll.
The boys helped me bake.
Hazel drew a “sketch” of me and Talmage.
And that inspired me to draw a sketch of her.
Pretty darn good for a 3-minute effort, I would say.
( Trisha Thanks for the beautiful drawing. It's hanging in my room right now.
Napoleon Dynamite Really? It took me like three hours to finish the shading on your upper lip. It's probably the best drawing I've ever done.)
Last Saturday we went to Murtensee with the Nicks and had a good time running around and playing.
This is Josephine and Orrin, who were born only a couple months apart.
Those pictures reminded me of these pictures of Talmage and Isabel a couple years ago:
And here’s Talmage and his best friend Janice. Talmage absolutley loved racing that day, and kept telling everyone to line up and run. Sometimes we raced holding hands, sometimes not.
In other news, hmmm, Jethro’s latest craze has been Star Wars, and whenever I allow it he’s on the computer reading- nay, PORING over, wookieepedia.
Brett has been very busy lately. Also, I was so proud of us that we didn’t fight at all while we were in Morocco but then we came home and were like children coming home from a vacation—ornery and bad-tempered, and fought about three nights out of one week. We got better though.
We have been trying to make some decisions about what to do with our lives in the next few years. Hard decisions are hard.
Ethne is speaking pretty good Swiss German these days- it seemed like she just came home in February and could suddenly speak. Crazy.
Brett and I went to the temple on Friday night and I heard someone speaking American English so I started chatting with her and she’s an American who lives on a base in Germany with her husband and 5 kids. It made me a bit jealous because she goes to an English ward, has a lot of American friends, gets American food at the commissary, etc. but as she said to me, her kids aren’t learning German either. And we both miss seeing family.
I had a nap today after church and dreamed that my entire family came over here to surprise visit me. It was awesome. Traveling is awesome, but just know that if you feel jealous for every neat place I get to go to, I feel jealous for every baby blessing, birthday party, Sunday dinner, wedding, reunion, etc. that you get to go hang out with your family at.
Brett had an early meeting this morning and I was very late to church. It was the start of daylight savings time here (although that’s not why I was late).
My sister Kami moved to Texas. So did my brother Ethan I think (not sure if he’s there yet). Different parts though.
Yesterday we went geocaching, but I left Brett in charge of picking the cache- and he picked the same one we’ve tried finding about three times before! Which was annoying, but this time we actually started figuring out the clues (it helps that our GPS coordinates are correct now). But then we couldn’t finish because we had to go to a baptism.
Talmage brought his bike, so this is Brett with a sweater around him so that he didn’t get going too fast as we were going downhill. Brett told me that he let him go really fast for just a second, and then Talmage told him, “Nebba do dat again!!”
Orrin is sooo close to walking I think, he’ll walk along furniture and walk along with us even if we’re only holding one of his hands, but he still does this gorilla crawl, which is pretty hilarious:
I decided to learn all the European countries, because I am absolutely terrible at pretty much all geography. So I did- the games on here are pretty fun: http://games.co.za/topography. Next I think I’ll learn Central/South America, because it’s not too hard, and then maybe something hard like Asia or the states. I’ll probably never learn Africa.
The end.
