Things I've Learned. . .

. . . About Bedtime. My kids are much grumpier than usual on Wednesdays.  (So am I.) 

I've been a mom for going on twelve years and if there's one thing I've figured out, it's that kids (and grown-ups) need a good night's sleep or they're grumpy. We try for an 8:30pm bedtime, which means lights are out and most are quietly sleeping by 9:15pm. Our boys go to scouts every Tuesday from 7:00pm - 8:30pm. Scouts pushes our Tuesday bedtime to 10 o'clock at the earliest.  I am trying to be a mom who enjoys scouts, honest!  RO and JO have some wonderful leaders who are working hard to make things go well.  RO almost has his Tenderfoot (I'll just pretend like I know what that means!) and I just found out that Blazer Scouts is the same thing as Eleven Year-Old Scouts.  I'm coming along.  Minding my own business. Liking scouts.  And then I remember the pinewood derby is next week.  All JO has to show for it is a rectangular block of pine wood.

Before I sign off, I wish you a very Happy New Year! Those of you hoping for a glimpse of my kitchen and bath will have to wait.  It's Wednesday. 

First Day of School for My Baby Girl

This big girl had a big day today!
 
She's been looking forward to going to school all summer.

For 2 1/2 hours a day, four days a week, my children are ALL in school.

And I didn't get all weepy until I got home and walked into our messy kitchen. I said I'd clean it today.

And I will.

After I hit "publish post."

The weather's been just lovely today.

The boys rode their bikes to school.

Our primary program is in 6 days.

Ben's far away living in a hotel five days a week for the next six weeks.

I bribed CO to stop sucking her thumb and it worked.

I'm stalling?

Hmmm.

The kitchen sink I ordered from amazon arrived ten minutes ago while I was looking at pictures.

I'm forcing myself to clean the kitchen before I open the new-sink-filled package.

The kitchen's not getting any cleaner.

Here goes.

Kitchens are so stupid and I hate them and they're dumb and they never stay clean for more than a couple of minutes at a time and they're good for nothing and I hate the dishes that are still on the table because they're dirty and kitchens are stupid times infinity. (My kids would have gotten a time out for a rant like that--good thing I'm the grown-up, even though I'm not acting like it!)

What? 

Nothing!

Fine. . .

Bye.

:)

Housework and Homeschooling

Because last week was sleepover week, I have designated this week as cleaning week. My sons make no secret about their dislike of assigned jobs that start with "Clean up the. . ." and end with ". . . kitchen."  or ". . . living room." or ". . . guinea pig cage."  But today I discovered something truly wonderful.  My boys can organize stuff.  I'm pretty sure they didn't learn it from me. This morning RO organized the spices, kitchen utensils, and cake decorating items that were living temporarily on the window sill while JO organized ALL the board games downstairs.  And they enjoyed themselves immensely.  I have so many nooks and crannies that need the attention of a happy organizer or two.  I am writing a very different job list for the rest of the week. The closets, the books, the office supplies, the garage toys. . . this is going to be such fun! 

In other news, I applied for a full-time teaching position as a homeschooling teacher for our school district.  I will be monitoring homeschoolers from my home computer. The job would start in September and the posting closes tomorrow.  I am hoping for an interview and keeping my fingers crossed!

Not Another Downtown Freeway Fix

During the summer months, my husband hangs out on freeways, off-ramps, and busy city streets. He oversees construction and repairs of state roads. It's gritty and ugly work sometimes. His jobsites are often filled with smells of exhaust and hot asphalt. That's all about to change. He still has the same job for now, but he will be in quite a different environment. Some engineers have all the luck! Ben went north an hour and a half today to see his late August/early September jobsite. Aside from the fact that he'll be on a bridge and way too far removed from solid ground for my liking, I'm a little envious!

The kids and I will be visiting Daddy and his breathtaking jobsite OFTEN during this bridge repair! Can you blame us?

Summer 2011 Yellowstone Family Reunion

YELLOWSTONE SMITH FAMILY REUNION 2011
(RO took this picture, nice rainbow!)

The kids didn't mind the long drive. It might have had something to do with the new portable DVD player.  They are SO accomodating.

We had family photos, this is SO with my mom! 
Aren't they cute?

 

When three of the cousins are toddlers/babies, the "How about a quick shot of Grandma and Papa with the grandkids" idea ends up looking something like this:

 
(my four are on the left, Mom is holding Dave's, Dad's got Jamie's and Steve's, and Andrew's four are behind and on the right of Mom and Dad)


 

What JO was thinking about during family pictures
(He paid $75 for it at a yard sale):

Jamie's cute little man!

 

You'll have to tilt your head to the left for this
picture of Dave's baby, but it's worth it!

 

Silliness with cousins. 
Andrew's son is on the left, and my RO is on the right.

Tilt it again, sam! CO sporting her new glasses, swinging and smiling on this hose-swing:

Uncle Andrew wondered why SO was planking. Luckily, she's not "cool enough" to know what planking is. I think she was just tired of taking family pictures!

Wearing a green t-shirt under your nice shirt makes for a hot photo shoot, but it's worth it to JO, who was wearing "comfortable clothes" within seconds of the last picture.

Dang it, tilt one more time, okay?

Auntie Kiki was in her community's musical: "Cinderella" and the girls loved it.

 

CO even got to dance with Prince Charming after the show. After the final scene, CO whispered to me; "I'm nervous to dance with the prince, I only know how to pirouette." (if you read the last sentence and replace all the "r" sounds with "ow" sounds, that's how she said it.  And when a four year-old says a big word like "piwowowette" it is exactly as cute as you think it is.)
She's lucky to be alive, I want to just eat her up she's so delicious!

This is what Steve, Jamie, and I (and Dave for 45 minutes) spent our days doing at my parents' new home:

 

Uncle Buckethead strikes a pose.  Steve is quite an amazing guy.  He has worked so hard on my parents' house this summer.  And I love to hang out with him (I also love the wood detail over the entrance, don't you?):

 

Leftover wood flooring makes for some great puzzle pieces!

Bumper boat "after" picture. Because all flooring and no play, makes the kids wonder why it's called a "vacation."  Actually I didn't make them hang out at the construction site, my mom did a wonderful job entertaining my kids and feeding them ice cream and/or Shave Ice daily.  They went to the museum, the movie "Rio," and played and played and played!

RO takes after his uncle and namesake. He rocked the rock wall!

I hope your summer vacation is going well. Excuse me while I dream about going on a vacation to recover from my vacation.  As I type, my kids are entertaining the neighbors in the back yard.  JO is playing "Pink Panther" outside on the keyboard, CO is squealing, and I'm almost afraid to account for the rest of them, but I know digging for treasure is involved. 

It's good to be home.

Guest Post from the Birthday Boy

RO brought home his 5th grade journal at the end of the school year.  His teacher gave the students writing prompts every day and they wrote at least 13 lines a day.  Some of the prompts were "I wish I had a million dollars. . ." and "I get nervous at school when. . . "

I had to smile when I read what he wrote for the prompt: "If children were in charge of the world. . ." because I would have written something entirely different.

"If children were in charge of the world I would help in the kids' army.  I would help do world domination and I would fight to be president and I would fight to be in charge of my own continent and I would buy all the stuff I wanted and I would have my own farm and I would help anybody that needs help and I would have a big ranch so that I can have a lot of animals and stuff."

What I would have written is something like the need for 3 square candy meals a day, rollercoasters in every back yard, recess all day, and parents who do all the work.  Never though of the need to lead a kids' army intent on world domination.  Should I be worried about RO?  Happy 11th, my sweet, ambitious, army man. Perhaps you'll be riding a moose at your ranch?

Want to see a picture of the school-aged kids from May on "Crazy Hair Day?"  I thought so.

(Yes, that's sliver goo on her eyebrows.  And do you like the color of our new cabinetry in the kitchen?  It's Natural Hickory.)

Now for a picture of a rocky "sandy" world to practice ruling:

The X Factor

Thirteen years ago my husband and I were working and living in Brazil.  We stayed a short 181 days, but I learned a lot.  A blog I read titled Uganda makes me want to leave the United States again.  Every U.S. citizen should live in another country for a while.  Yeah, I said it.  Being an expatriate puts life in perspective.  I am glad I don't know what it's like to live in a country where violence is something "you'll get used to."  I am also glad the Uganda blogger is such a good writer!  I found myself reading and agreeing and loving his insights.  I also found myself wondering if eloquence is something you can learn. 

Well, I don't know if we'd be allowed to take my four children as far as Uganda or Brazil (or the Philippines--RO is half Filipino, after all).  But if it's for a few short months, maybe our parents will forgive us.  Maybe?  It would be quite a shock to my system to have expats for kids.   I would love to see how being expats would change their views of the world, of consumerism, and other ideas.  If the boys' desire to play computer games and be entertained were to vanish, I'd start packing right now.

And if I could avoid all future encounters with the boy scout program?  BONUS. No, it's not about the Pinewood Derby this time.  My oldest child is on his first scout campout tonight.

and

We aren't there. 

and 

It's no fair.

and

I miss him.

A cell phone pic of my boy who better come back alive and intact, ya hear me, scout leaders?

Breaking the Law is Fun to Do

Is it really breaking the law if you are volunteering?  I hope not, because I broke the law like 200 times.

As if renovating the kitchen, loads of job hunting, packing for a vacation, teaching Father's Day songs, juggling a household with opposite schedules (Ben's back to working nights again) and being a mother just isn't enough, Friday mornings I volunteer with the school district.  I teach a 4th grade math group, then a 5th grade writing group.  Then I drive over to the Community Connections Center (CCC) to help there for an hour.  So one day, a CCC teacher hands me the Teacher's Edition of a pre-algebra book and asked me to make a booklet of teachers' answers for the practice pages.  I don't know if you've seen TEs, but they'll often have microscopic answers for the worksheets in the margins.  This was the case with this book. 

I enlarged the margins and xeroxed my way through each section of each chapter of the whole entire book.  The teacher who handed me the book and led me to my xerox machine accomplice did justify the whole thing by saying "A solutions manual is available for purchase, but there's no money in the budget to order it."

Ohhh!

Well! 

In that case. . .

Bring on the criminal activity!

I believe I'm more excited this is the last week of school than my kids are.  Any suggestions for legal summer activities are greatly appreciated.

Staying At Home

I'm typing this in my bedroom while my fourth child, a lovely almost four year-old girl, is marching on the bed making up lyrics to a song she's shouting singing.  "If you wanna have it you want to have it stay. If you lost it you are really sad." Apparently  she lost. . . hold on, I'll ask her. . . she lost her stick.  Okay.  A song-worthy ballad.  And there she goes.  She's heading to the bathroom to show she's mastered the task of potty training.  But she'll be back to ask me about the faces in 100+ photos she distributed in a two foot radius around me. 

This is actually the quiet part of my day because three individuals who love humanity more than money are in the middle of the noisy part of their days.  They are educating my two ten year-olds and my seven year-old at our beloved public elementary school. 

I volunteer at my kids' public school twice a week.  I've taught math and writing to groups of six.  I've helped with after school activities.  I've tutored a fourth grader.  I've created spreadsheets for posters and administered geography quizzes.  It's fun and rewarding to pop in and teach.  But I'm ready to teach again full time.

I used to be a teacher.  I have an elementary education degree.  I worked as an elementary school librarian and reading teacher for two years.  I didn't make the kind of money folks in other professions make.  But I loved my job.  I loved the book fairs, I loved teaching vocabulary in my reading groups, I loved recess duty, I loved May Day, I loved finding books for the kids who thump, thumped up the stairs into my aqua blue library.  And I loved the acronyms, the curriculum realignment committees, and teacher's meetings. Wait.  I need to stop laughing.  I could have existed just fine without acronyms, curriculum rewrites and those ~humid~ Wednesday meetings in Tulani's room! 

In June 2000, a month before my oldest son was born, I "put in my 40 hours" for the last time.  Before the 2000-2001 school year was over, I had two new employers:

How I love them!  And I love the two additional employers who joined our company in 2004 and 2007.  There's no arguing my job description is more stressful than my old full-time career.  I do more cleaning and scolding than I ever did teaching.  Elementary school children also don't require diaper changes, thank goodness.  And I'm not as well-rested, come to think of it.  

I put in more than double my 40 hours a week, but I have loyal employers. This summer marks my 11th year with their company.  The perks are fabulous.  I listen to their jokes, join in their adventures, and end each night with their hugs and kisses.  I was even showered with gifts, jewelry, and hand-written commendations just last week Sunday!

An acquaintance suggested my being home for the past 11 years makes me an undesirable employee and teacher.  And while my most financially rewarding gigs in the last 11 years have been as babysitter and secret shopper (remind me to write a secret shopping post!), I think being a mother has prepared me to be an ideal employee and teacher.  Parenthood stretches the mind and challenges the intellect.  Parenthood changes who you are.  If you're reading this blog post, Dr. Chun, my "Teaching P.E." professor, listen to this:  I took what little athletic prowess you saw in me and voluntarily coached my child's soccer team--and they won two games (a "soccer coach" post is in the works!).  Parenthood exposes us to previously unattainable levels of selflessness.  Who doesn't want an employee like that? 

Now, would you like my employer's letter of recommendation in crayon or playdoh?

A dragon-wearing babysitting charge with my lovely fourth child.

Blogging From My iPod

Know how water and wood don't mix? Well CO has unequivocally established that bubbles and laptops don't mix. She forgot she was holding a wedding favor-sized bottle of bubbles and she pointed at a picture on the screen. Less than a tablespoon of soapy liquid dripped into the speaker holes. I did everything in my capabilities, including wiping the inside down with rubbing alcohol, but unfortunately I was unable to resuscitate our laptop.

It can be expensive to have a three year-old!

It's Back!

Spring weather isn't quite here yet, but soccer season is back. I am coaching SO's team.  With 6 and 7 year olds the game is more "mob ball chase" than actual soccer at this point, but SO seems to like it.  She scored her first goal ever this Saturday (our second game of the new season). We played my friend Tiffani's daughter's team and she e-mailed these pictures to me!

Here's our intense star player with her daddy, the referee. JO and RO are in the background watching the action.
Cool family shot, Tiff!

RO will be watching the action all season as his arm heals, but JO scored twice in the first half of his game before the coach put him back in defense.  Taking shots up front is a little new to him, but you can't argue with two goals.  Maybe our Goalie slash defender will be a forward this season.  

Thanks for the Wiggle Room, Easter Bunny!

With three spring birthdays around here, I give Easter as little attention as possible.  We do the bare minimum: one hunt for candy-and-coin-filled plastic eggs.  The end.  No baskets and no decorations.  I can't remember the last time we boiled and dyed eggs!  With a late Easter this year, we're having a bit of fun.  I saw a crafty idea for making a tea party set out of plastic eggs (link).  Yesterday CO and I made a set of teacups and cupcakes to give to her friend at a birthday party on Saturday.  The teacups are made with buttons and half an egg.  The other half of the egg is the frosting part of the cupcakes. I used felt for the cupcake bottoms instead of playdoh containers.

And after we hunt for our plastic eggs on Easter?  We're making more!  Even the boys are excited because I used an exacto knife to cut buttons in half for cup handles.  SO joined CO's tea party this morning before school, both girls sipping and pretending to nibble away on these little cupcakes.  (Side note:  as much as joining in any hip fad like cupcake mania makes me want to vomit, THIS was easy and fun.)

And I had everything on hand, so it didn't involve a trip to Michael's or Hobby Lobby--I love "free" crafts!

It was a crafty week.  After a spring break tending Mr. Gimpy Arm Boy, I got out my beading bin and made pomegranate pendants inspired by Sue Monk Kidd's memior Traveling with Pomegranates.  She co-wrote this book about mothers and daughters with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor.  I liked Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees but did not like The Mermaid Chair, so I was very happy to find that I enjoyed this one.

Two Tens

Ben took these pictures on Friday before RO got his big break. (Too soon?)

Sweet jump!

We love our TWO 10 year-old boys!

;-s Birthday to Me

I promise not to post pictures, but thought I'd mention that I'm spending my birthday in the hospital. RO fell off a swing and broke his arm between sessions. Not a happy birthday. :(

Guest post by JO

The Ginormus Injury

I was walking down to the river thinking about how fun it would be.  We were at the end of the steep hill and by the bridge to the bank.  Immediately I saw a big stone thinking that I should go a different way.  As I was looking at the rocks, pebbles, and pine needles wondering if it might be my last day on earth and what a lame day it would be to die while I said, "Don't follow me.  It could be dangerous" to my cousin and RO.

I was walking down a steep slope that came off the big stone.  I was luckily still alive.  It led me down to a pond of water.  My only way out was to climb over a big rock.  I climbed to the top of the big rock and saw that it was hard to cross.

There was a huge pile of sticks, but then I thought, "cool, a fallen over tree across another pond."  The tree led to where my brother, my cousins, and my cousins parents were.  I was walking across the pile of sticks with a bottle cap in my hand and one of the sticks snapped!  I fell and there was stick pointing up.  I fell on to the pointing up stick and it went up my shirt and gave me a huge wound.  I kept thinking over and over, "I have blood.  No dought [sic] about it." as I walked back up the rock and realized I had lost my bottle cap.  I didn't bother to get the bottle cap or look at my scratch.

I went across the bridge the usual way and I found where they were.  The first thing I did was show them my wound.  After that I looked for more bottle caps to make up for the one I lost on my fall.  I didn't even find any.  While I was looking I heard a big splash by the place I was when I got my scratch.  It was my brother trying (say sarcasticly [sic]) to cross the fallen over tree.  My Aunt and Uncle figured we had to leave and go back home.  I measured my scratch and it was 5 inches long.  I bet my skin is still on that stick.  I know, isn't it gross?  One of the [our last name] kids was wounded and one was soaked, but all the [cousins' last name] kids were all right.

JO wrote "The Ginormous Injury" this weekend after he came home from the river.  He is a fourth grader who likes World Cup soccer, jumping on the bed, roller coaster rides, and counting the money he's saved for trips to the amusement park. He does not like doing dishes or getting along with his 7 year-old sister. His teacher told me yesterday that JO is the best writer she has seen in years.  He turns 10 next week.  

My Sunbeam

My daughter loves her primary teacher.  When I went to pick her up from class after church yesterday, there was a Noah's Ark play set in the middle of the room and a chalkboard drawing of an ark on the water.  And this morning after the big kids left for school she was telling me all about how animals give us stuff. "The animals give food to us.  The sheeps give us socks and shirts.  Isn't that weird?!?  That's what sheeps give us!  And cows give us milk.  And mouses give cheese to us.  And horses give us. . . hay?  Jaguars give us. . . I don't know what jaguars give us!  Do you know what jaguars give us?"

I have NO idea.

But right now she wants to pretend we're animals who eat stuff.  "Real stuff."

Show & Tell

Guess what we've been working on!

The actual car isn't nearly as enchanting as she is (yes, our girls get to make cars too--I'm all about gender equity derby construction).  By the way, that last thing she says isn't about the car, it's about the video she's just starred in: "I wanna watchit. Click!"  

When I asked her why she wanted to watch it she said; 

"Mmm, because I'm cute."

Dentist's Office

I really love our dentist's office.  The waiting room has tubes like a McDonald's playplace, there are eight video game stations, a 10 foot tall chalkboard wall, and a toddler building blocks zone complete with TV screen.  And after their checkups, the kids get game tokens for toy-filled arcade games (like at Toy Story's Pizza Planet).  As fun as that waiting room is there's no getting around the fact that a needle full of anesthesia and mouth pain after a filling is NOT fun.  Our CO had dental work--some tricky in-betweener cavities that showed up on her x-rays.  Sure, CO got a mountain of toys, including a kitty cat Beanie Baby she's named "Cinderella,"  but she also got a numb mouth and tender gums!  One of my least favorite parts of parenting is having to buoy up my kids when they encounter pain.  I hate it when I have to congratulate them for being "Such a trooper!"  Because that's just grown-up-speak for "That hurt like hades, didn't it? Now suck it up and put on a happy face."   Grown-ups are seriously so mean sometimes!

"Cake Wrecks" or "What Happens When I Help My Cub Scouts"

My lovely sons are cub scouts and they like it.  They learn stuff and feel good about accomplishing stuff and get patches and stuff.  And stuff.  But this time of year, ready or not, I have to grit my teeth, roll up my sleeves, and be a mom to two cub scouts.  

I don't like February's Blue and Gold Banquet.  Or March's Pinewood Derby.  They are labor-intensive. Our ward has a cake baking/decorating activity to go along with Blue and Gold Banquets. I thought I was being smart this year when I picked a dozen cake options online and had each boy pick what kind of cake they wanted to decorate.  JO picked well.  He made a paper template, and did a Ninja design with powdered sugar and red sugar granules "for the blood."  

                 JO's is the cake on the left on the blue tablecloth.

With two boys, I have double the opportunity to ruin a cake.  This year I almost ruined RO's.  Apparently I've watched too many episodes of Cake Boss.  I didn't realize how hard it would be to make a 3D pirate ship.  I also don't apply my basic knowledge of physics to every day life.  

RO baked two cakes and we froze them.  Then Tuesday morning I made three layers of awesomeness, carved into the exact shape of a pirate ship.  This was going to be good.  I was going to dirty ice the cake for RO (Cake Boss nod) so he could decorate with chocolate wafers for the railing, Pirouettes (like cereal straws) for cannons and the mast, Cocoa Krispies for cannonballs, a peanut butter cup for the steering wheel (all boat-savvy people call them steering wheels, right?) and coconut dyed blue for the ocean waves.  But the icing was too heavy.  After a can and a half of frosting RO's cake fell apart-- I shouldn't have tapered the sides.  Stress!  

If only he'd wanted to decorate the Titanic, then we would've been in business.  The wrecked cake was on the table when the kids got home, and JO wasn't impressed with RO's cake.  He thought it was horrible. RO said "Woah! What happened?"  Another cake was in the oven almost ready to go.  RO ended up making a cool cake, just on a smaller scale, using some of the collapsed cake, and adding some legos.  The cub master teased him about legos not being edible, but at that point I didn't care.  The end result was almost much, much worse!  

Notice the shark eating the pirate who just walked the plank?  A nice touch, I think.

So. . . 

Mom, can we please start working on our Pinewood Derby cars now?  

I'm in Love!

(with our new vacuum cleaner)

We Got Jimmered!

(clap, clap, cla, cla, clap)

RO and I traveled (via actual airplane!) to the land of Jimmer where we were simultaneously surrounded by loved ones and enjoyed a little one-on-one time.   I miss out on so much living far away, so this was so nice to be able to have some time in the middle of winter to spend time with my family.

On Saturday my oldest brother, Andrew, bought RO a BYU basketball t-shirt and we were treated to seats at the BYU v. UNLV basketball game with all three of my brothers. Then we went to Los Hermanos with my parents, my three brothers, Andrew, Steve, and Dave, my two sisters-in-law, Crystal and Logan, and two of my nieces. Los Hermanos is a favorite family hangout where we enojy huge helpings of chile verde, chile relleno, nachos, smothered burritos and fried ice cream.  Nuff said.  Steve had to go back to work because the person who he'd arranged to cover his Saturday/Sunday shift went home.  Some people are so

classy.

 On Sunday my baby brother's amazing and tiny and cute and not-mine-so-it's-okay-if-she-only-sleeps-one-hour-at-a-time-at-night baby got blessed.   

(see how tired she is?)

Sunday afternoon and evening we were at Dave's in-law's home for dinner, the game, and so much food including, but not limited to way too many chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.  

Monday, after RO watched Jurassic Park, we took my parents and Andrew to our family's favorite spot, the Dinosaur Museum.

After touring BYU's Legacy sports memorabilia building (my dad and Andrew saw Robbie Bosco in the elevator) and a lunch there, we had frozen yogurt, mine was strawberry with mochi topping.  RO's was topped with practically everything chocolate he could think of, plus lots of bubble gum.  Funny kid!

After Mom got home from dropping my brother off at the airport, it was off to Trafalga with Grandma and Uncle Buckethead's family for mini golf, Dippin Dots, and game tokens.  (Did we have fun and is JO ugly?  Check the 8 ball RO got with all his tickets!)

We had dinner: chicken and cabbage with sautéed sweet onions, tomatoes and invisible black beans (because we completely forgot about them).  And dessert was root beer floats.  If you're counting, yes, that's three kinds of frozen desserts in one day.

Tuesday morning RO and his grandma went to the museum while I did some thrift store shopping.  Not that I didn't want to walk through a museum, just that thrifting is way cooler than that. Love you, Mom!  We packed our bags full of clothes and future birthday presents and headed north to Dave's house.  While there, we checked in on drywallers who never showed up because sometimes you just need to wait for drywallers to not show up.  (It's how you take a break from all the fun and excitement during a vacation.)  While RO was relaxing there, in front of a TV, I went with my mom and Steve to some open houses in the area.  We stayed at Steve and Crystal's house Tuesday night.  RO watched Kung Fu Panda and I did a Kitchenaid homemade bread tutorial and was tutored in both the proper way to roll rolls AND how to knife pictures onto an egg-washed bread loaf.  Dinner was pizza.  And root beer floats.

Wednesday morning RO watched Toy Story 2 and we turned our fresh-baked bread into french toast with homemade Magleby's syrup and fresh whipped cream.  Steve threw pottery, I watched in awe.  My brother made a beautiful bowl in 10 minutes.  Then we went to RO's Great Grandmother's house to visit, eat takeout, reinstall a voice-to-text phone, and have cookies and ice cream before heading to the airport.  RO and I had a blizzard shake at the airport and were surprised to find that Ben, JO, SO, and CO brought milkshakes to share with us at the baggage claim area.

We had a fun vacation and were spoiled rotten the perfect amount.  And this weekend, thanks to Andrew, who gave me a DVD copy of the animated Gulliver's Travels movie I recently blogged about, I will get to hang out with my own family, but I'm not offering them seven kinds of frozen desserts.  Ben seems to have survived being a single dad and only lost one child.  But he found her again so, he remains a pretty awesome guy.

Well, wouldn't you know it?  Blogging doesn't get the vacation laundry washed and folded.  Hmmm.  I had better take my dad's advice and wrap it up.  Love you, Dad!