22 July 2026

Today we became a minivan-less family... the Pan has been having issues and it was time to bid it farewell.  My parents generously offered to sell us their Toyota Camry, so we are now a two-sedan family.  We bought the Pan because Rosebud was on the way and we needed accommodations for four kids.  Right now we have one kid away at college and the second on his way out the door as well, so we don't need a minivan any more.  The Pan entered our life when we needed it, and it faithfully served until it wasn't needed any more.

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We have 113 books checked out from the library right now.  This is what 113 library books around the house looks like:

Yep, they are everywhere.

 

15 July 2026

 My parents invited my family and all of my siblings' family to a vacation in Tennessee this summer, and it was finally time to head down there!  Rosebud has been counting down the days for about two weeks.  She's super excited to see her girl cousins that are her same age.

There was a little alarming health issue for me on Thurs/Fri/Sat of last week, but when I finally went to the ER with it, the chest pain turned out to be strained cartilage on my ribs and the ear/jaw/throat pain was a cyst in a salivary gland.  It was all manageable with some medication, so we didn't have to cancel our trip!

We packed on Monday and got on the road early Tuesday morning.  We drove down to Pigeon Forge in a very uneventful manner in a red minivan we rented, which Mr. Brown calls 'Cherry'.

Kids had a good time, alternating playing video games on the Switch with reading books and looking out the window and other activities.

There are two Buc-ee's on the route, and we stopped at both of them!  Once for lunch and once for dinner!  That was definitely a highlight because we love Buc-ee's and miss it from when we lived in Texas.

We arrived safely at the house my parents rented.  My parents and my brother's family were already there, and cousin connections were revived.  Rosebud is sleeping in the same room with her girl cousins, and D played foosball and shuffleboard and video games with the ones his age.  Happy to see that they will probably be having fun together this week.

This morning Mr. Brown took Nut Brown and Rosebud to the water park with most of my brother's family.  D and I stayed home because he took a fall yesterday and had some big scrapes and a twisted ankle.  Grandpa took us go-carting (fun) and to lunch at a car-themed restaurant (fun) and then we did some grocery shopping for dinner and also ice cream :) . D has also been playing video games and reading his book and having quiet time, which I think is probably the best choice for him today.

12 July 2026

 This morning Rosebud decided to occupy herself by using some of her craft supplies.  She got out a soap bar sized chunk of wax and began work on a bird sculpture.  We looked at some bird pictures, and she sketched it out and then made a mockup of it in putty eraser, and then dove in with the carving.  When Nut Brown saw what she was doing, he asked if he could join in.  She gave him one of her other bars, and he started work on a human figure.  They spent a long time working steadily on their projects.

30 June 2026

 

20 June 2026

 Rosebud and I shelled the peas that we got from the CSA this week.  She started playing a game that involved rolling them up the brim of her hat.  Then she ate all the peas.

14 June 2026

 D is trying to delay taking a shower by laying on the floor contorting his body and trying to get Rosebud to guess which letter he's making.

13 June 2026

Rose Pink and D set up a time to game online together.  D was very careful to make sure that we would be home and the computer would be available, but then he didn't sleep the night before and when the time rolled around he had passed out on the couch and I couldn't wake him.  Fortunately Rose Pink was flexible and rescheduled for later.  Here he is playing with her, with Rosebud tagging along as best she can.  We miss Rose Pink. 

 Also, here's Rosebud's 4th grade class, but without her in it... she missed picture day.

12 June 2026

Friday night and we ordered pizza and maybe we got a little too much?  You can see how excited D is from the fact that he's actually looking at the camera.  One of these pizzas he bought for himself with a gift card he received for his birthday.

Rosebud surprises us again with another school activity.  She auditioned and won a spot on the team that does the daily announcements at her school.  She is very excited and pleased with herself.

10 June 2026

Mr. Brown leads a Bible study class on Wednesday nights at the church for investigators and new members.  I attended tonight and had a beautiful spiritual experience.  Plus I got to take a picture of my handsome husband without him noticing. :)

 

9 June 2026

Picking cherries at a friend's house.  Yum.

 

8 June 2026

Nut Brown submitted his missionary application a couple weeks ago.  All our bishop friends told us that his mission call would come today, so I was on tenterhooks all day thinking it would come in any time. (It's an email from church headquarters instead of a paper letter.)  Nothing happened all day so I figured it would be next week instead.  Then at around six pm, Nut Brown said, oh look, I got the email!  Mr. Brown shouted from the back of the house, Don't open it! Wait!!

We called Rose Pink in Idaho so she could listen in, and Nut Brown opened the email.  And then he had to log in to his missionary account on the church website.  And then he had to click okay a couple more times.  Mr. Brown and I were reminiscing about opening our own mission calls years ago, and I said that I thought all the clicking was supposed to replicated the envelope experience.

He finally got to the letter, and he read the whole thing out loud, and finally got to his destination in the last paragraph - California San Jose mission!  It was a wonderful experience to listen to the counsel and the prophetic calling, and when he read off the location, there was a sweet feeling about the rightness of the call to California.  Nut Brown was really pleased and excited as well.

What a wonderful thing today was.  What a blessing to all of us that he is going to serve a mission.

 

5 June 2026

Another busy day at school for Mr. Brown and I.  We started the day watching D receive an academic award for good grades.

He was the best-dressed in the parade of 8th graders crossing the stage.

This afternoon we went to the elementary school to watch Rosebud perform in the school's variety show.  She had to audition of this, and wanted very badly to get in.  In 2nd grade, she was accepted for singing "Somewhere Out There", but she was too sick to perform on the day of the show.  Last year she and a friend auditioned a skit together and didn't get in.  So she really wanted to get in this year.  She practiced hard and passed the audition!  Here she is in the spotlight, playing her viola.  She very effectively merged two separate pieces from her viola book to make a longer piece for performance.

 

3 June 2026

Some drawings by D

 

31 May 2026 (3)

 

31 May 2026 (2)

Rosebud and I went around picking mulberries this afternoon. We tried the shaking method that Grandma taught Rosebud. We visited six trees and came home with 2.4 lbs of berries! Rosebud was very pleased.

Then we sat on the bed and folded origami together.  We made frogs.  Rosebud made a bunch of other things as well.  That was really fun too.

31 May 2026

Rosebud played her viola in church today as part of the Primary singing A Child's Prayer. She did so well! She was transposing into the alto clef on the fly and also having her first experience matching tempo with a pianist and choir and she was great! One of the ward members who is a school band director came up after to let us know that she has excellent tone on the strings for such a young player. She is something special with her music.