Wherein Chris Takes Bucket Loads Of Intrusive, Random, And Pointless Pictures

Megan moving bread from sack A to sack B

after setting sack A on hot burner.  I think she's trying to leave a permanent reminder for us as she nears the end of her time at home.  Good job, Megan!  We'll be scrubbing this off for years!

Hailey put on Megan's shoes and said "I'm Megan."  Makayla put on Megan's shoes and Hailey's glasses, points to herself and said "Megan Hailey!"  I put the camera strap around my neck, and "Megan" and "Megan Hailey" immediately struck a pose.

 Makayla riding her horse into town.  It's fun to watch these sisters play.  They almost always get along.

Stan politely smiling for yet another picture with the new camera.

In other recent developments, Makayla has decided to take matters into her own hands. 

Whenever she wets her diaper, even a little,

 she rips it off and throws it in the garbage.  She went through, oh, maybe 20 diapers today.

 Then she pulls the footstool over to the toilet, sits on the toilet for awhile, NOTHING HAPPENS, she cleans up using half a roll of toilet paper, and demands a new, dry diaper.  I tried sneaking slightly damp, recently removed diapers out of the trash and reusing them.  Makayla was not amused. 

 I tried explaining  the correct procedure is to sit on the toilet just BEFORE you go wet, not just after.  Makayla gave me an annoyed glare then stated firmly, pointing to herself, "good girl!"

I demanded Makayla let ME decide when it's time to sit on the potty.  Now she's ignoring me.

 If I remember right, I'm pretty sure all my children were potty trained before junior high. 

Makayla will figure it out by then, right? Right??

I Got Mail

I got another box in the mail today.  What could it be????  I already got a new panel for the dishwasher.  I've had almost every other part repaired in the last 60 days.  Of course, there's the heater element, the arm that sprays the water and a few other items that are still original parts.... 

Wow, you guys are so cynical! The box wasn't full of dishwasher parts.  It contained a group Christmas gift from our wild and crazy kids----a new camera!!! We are so excited!

It's not that our old camera isn't working.  It just has a few problems.  There is an extremely long pause between the time you push the button to snap a picture and when it actually takes a picture.

This allowed for endless bad pictures,

pictures of nothing,

and the opportunity for Megan to make it halfway around the world in an effort to avoid having a picture taken at all.

 Here is the very first picture I took with the new camera.  Isn't it wonderful???  Hailey said "That lady looks like you when you were younger.  Now you're old, really, really old, but it's ok, I like old, too." 

Umm, thanks, Hailey. I think.

 Here's my second picture.  I managed to take it after reading through the first 8 pages of the instruction book.  There are 62 more pages to read through, but being the techno wiz that I am, I was able to snap a few practice pictures.

Here's one I took in the dark.  I carefully followed the "taking pictures in low light" instructions.

Here's one of Megan's slightly puffy post-wisdom teeth face. 

She's off to a basketball game, even though she should be home icing that cute face. Look! Megan can no longer run, duck, or dodge fast enough to avoid my picture taking.

Here is another one:

Here's what I'm cooking for supper:

Oops, I was so busy snapping pictures I forgot to start cooking.

Here are some small children, with pants halfway off, playing with sharp kitchen tools.  Someone should be supervising them while I play with our new toy.

And I hope someone is tending these two youngsters who are turning my bathroom into a swimming pool and using my toothbrush to clean the sink out.  I would stop them, but I'm trying out the "how to take a picture without a flash" instructions. 



Good riddance bye, old camera!  You're going to the Backmans so that they don't have to borrow a camera to take pictures of cute little Krew anymore!

Thank you, children, for spoiling us with such a fabulous new toy!  We love it!

Megan Jones's Day Off

We are now one week into the last semester of Megan's senior year, so of course Megan decided it was time to take a day or two off.

Megan says she wants to start the day lounging in an unconscious state in a comfortable chair.

 I expressed my concern, but Megan didn't want to hear about it. 

Wisdomless people are like that.

Now I could make some old, tired jokes about how our once wise teenager will now be foolish, but as it turns out, Megan is not as wise as her average peer anyway.  Yep, her upper right wisdom tooth never formed, making her 3/4 as wise as everyone else. 

Stan and I suspected that.  We've had other children in the same boat and recognize all the symptoms.

Let's do some math:  6 kids x 3.44 average wisdom teeth removed per child x $1598.34 average cost per wisdom tooth extraction=Gulp. That's our entire retirement fund, plus all the pennies in our change jar.

Kids, Dad and I will be coming to live in your basement soon!

Stan bid Megan farewell as I took our last child to get teeth extracted for the last time-

at least on our dime. 

 Forty minutes later it was over, and I loaded Megan into the car and headed back home.  She could not stop giggling.  Geez, it was like someone gave her laughing gas or something!  After I wrestled her into the house, she collapsed onto the couch where she slept,

and snoozed,

and snored.

I offered her a variety of tasty treats,

but she didn't even wake up while I gave her the first round of pain pills and antibiotics.

I'm not sure at this point if Megan is sleeping, unconscious, or dead.

 I gave her a bag of ice to snuggle with and she didn't even stir.

We did not come away empty handed.  Megan got this cool t-shirt from Dr. Bennion.  He says the writing is Chinese for "wisdom".  I'm willing to bet it's Chinese for "pay your bill or I'll put 'em back".

Our Three Day Weekend!

My weekend started on Friday when I got this mysterious package in the mail addressed to "C. Jones".  What could it be???  I bet it's a yacht.  Or a live-in maid.

No, wait!  I think it's a 10 day European vacation!!!

On Saturday I baked cookies.  Oodles of Coconut Oatmeal With Chocolate Chip Cookies and bunches of Snickerdoodles. "What?" you ask, "are you replacing your ice cream obsession with cookies???"  Uh, no.  I was making cookies for the fifteen sack lunches we  provided for the regional Stake Presidents' meeting.  My presidency met at the church Saturday morning to assemble them,

then I ran off to a Hearts and Hands meeting.

Sunday my presidency and I visited Skyview Ward, and I spoke in Sacrament meeting.  It was a long two days, but don't worry, I ate 328 of the leftover cookies to keep me going.

 Today (Monday) I spent the day working on some cleaning/organizing projects

 including sorting, throwing away,

organizing,

and finding Kailyn's lost backpack!!!  Can you believe it Kailyn? It vanished one of the summers the Bassetts were staying with us, and despite some serious looking, neither I nor Shelly could find it. Today I found it in the bottom of a stack of empty laundry baskets.

I guess I'll have to visit you in, oh, March or so, and return it! 

Stan spent today working at the sucking hole of the duplex.  The wiring is, to be polite, wacky. My favorite electrician has been rewiring everything.  For all you electricians out there, the laundry room and storage room had two hot wires instead of one, which meant the lights in those two rooms have never worked and we're probably lucky the duplex hasn't burned down.

My favorite drywaller (who happens to also be my favorite electrician) also filled in a door that use to connect the two sides between the storage room.

  For some reason, our renters have never wanted a door

to connect them to the people who live on the other side. 

In between all of the package receiving, cookie baking, meetings, and duplex fixing, we also enjoyed  spending time with and caring for our favorite local pumpkins.

 As for Megan, I think I saw her for 2 minutes on Friday and 3 today.  P-Dubya left Friday to go finish his senior year in his hometown, and Megan has been noticeably AWOL.

 Rumor has it she did an overnight snowboard trip with her girlfriends and Harvest Church at Big Sky, followed by movies, hanging out, and general get-you-through-this-tough-time sessions with her pals.

 As for that package, have you guessed what was in it?  Yep.  A dishwasher part.  We had a new problem-the control panel died.  Fortunately, it is STILL under warranty.

 My SECOND favorite repairman, Don, fixed it this morning.  See you next month, Don!