27 December 2019

I have tied a sheet over some of the toy shelves upstairs.  The kids have a new game where they lay on the floor and pull the sheet out over them and kick it so it billows.  It really doesn't take much to entertain kids.

23 December 2019

A couple notes to capture some of the sweetness of the season.  The kids are all really excited to open presents and are very impatient about Christmas Day arriving.  They calculate many times a day how many days are left until Christmas.  Christmas has felt a little awkward to me this year as we are trying to figure out how fit into our new house and new community  with it - how to decorate and how to reach out to others to share our traditions.  It's been tricky but generally successful and we have learned what we'll do differently next year.

Advent in particular has been difficult.  It is our most favorite tradition but we had a hard time finding people who wanted to come over on Sunday evenings and sing with us.  One Sunday we ended up with nobody as the family we asked got sick and cancelled on us.  That Sunday we had Advent just ourselves and we sang whatever we wanted and sang over each other and sang all the time.  Rose Pink accompanied instead of me, and it was so much fun!  Yesterday was the last Sunday of Advent, and we had three families over.  It was a little crowded but very enjoyable.  Mr. Brown and I both loved listened to Rosebud sing the songs she knew at the top of her lungs.  She also gets up and dances and spins in circles when the spirit moves her while we're singing.  I love how she is all in to the experience.

10 December 2019

I am teleworking today and Bobo is downstairs playing by himself in the living room (nobody else is awake yet) and he is singing "We Three Kings" to himself.  I love how my kids talk to themselves when they're busy and happy.

As we are getting ready for Christmas, I've been helping the kids plan gifts for each other.  Last night I was working with Nut Brown, shopping online for his gifts for his siblings.  He had a budget in mind but struggled a bit with choosing a gift for Rosebud because his first choices were too expensive for his budget.  He finally settled on something and we finalized the purchase.  Then as we were talking I told him that Mr. Brown and I are going to be giving him one present and $50 for Christmas.  He said, "You're giving me $50!!! Thanks, Mom! This is so great!  This will make it so much easier!  I can use it to buy something nicer for Rosebud!  Thank you so much!"

5 December 2019

Bobo is rationing my kisses.  He told me that if I don't kiss him for a week, then he'll give me a kiss. I keep forgetting but fortunately he hasn't noticed yet.  He says that if I forget that he'll add a day to how long I have to wait for a kiss.

On the Monday after Thanksgiving, we went to the high school and talked with them about getting Rose Pink enrolled to start after Christmas break.  It went well and we are feeling pretty confident about this decision.  It will be a big change for our family but hopefully will turn out well.  She is super excited, while Mr. Brown and I are a little more cautious.

30 November 2019

Thanksgiving!  We attended a potluck at church and discovered that there is such a thing as too much pie.  (We brought nine and took home six.)

Saturday I and the kids went down to San Antonio to hang out with my brother and his family who were there for the vacation.  We walked downtown through an awesome fountain park (stopped and played), had lunch on the Riverwalk (so cool) and toured the Alamo.  The Alamo has gotten a lot more interesting since I was there last fifteen years or so ago.  We walked back and spent a couple of hours at a super cool playground near the awesome fountain park, then walked back to their rental house and had dinner.  It was really great to see them and hang out.  Bobo had a great time with his cousin who was born the day after he was.  Nut Brown also had a pretty good time, although he was getting tired of the younger kids by the end of it.  Rosebud gets along well with my nieces too, so a lot of fun was had by all.

25 November 2019

Bobo and Rosebud are currently sleeping in 'hammocks' made out of quilts looped up on the bottom of the upper bunk.  They are both on the bottom bunk inside their cozy cubbies.  For an extra dose of cuteness, they have even had me make 'hammocks' inside their hammocks out of smaller blankets for them to tuck their favorite small stuffed animals in.  The whole thing is extremely adorable.

20 November 2019

Tonight putting the kids in bed, Rosebud says to me, "Mom, I have a question."  She has a specific way of saying 'question' that I can't translate into English phonetics.  It's kind of like "kes-shun".  She has a question every night, and it's usually related to something that just happened that evening and covers every topic from science to fantasy to imaginary friends. 

The following is not an exact transcription, because it was a long conversation, so I may put more adult words into her mouth than she actually used.

Rosebud: Mom, I can never feel God when I pray, so he must not be real, because I can never feel him in my body.

Mom: It takes practice to learn how to feel him, Miss B.  But whether or not you feel him doesn't mean that he's not there.  He is always there.

At this point, Bobo leaned over the divider and said: Rosebud, one time we had missionaries over at our house and they said that after you pray you have to listen in order to feel God.

Mom: Yes, you have to listen with your heart and your mind.  It takes practice!

Rosebud: But I don't feel him in my mind!

Mom: Can I tell you about how God answered my prayers this morning?  (She nods yes) This morning I prayed on the bus on my way to work and told God that I really needed to know that what I was doing was right.  Really really really needed to know.  Then I stopped and I listened hard with my mind and my heart, but I didn't hear anything.  Then I got out my scriptures to read, and the verse on the page when I opened it said, "Judge not that ye be not judged" and I knew right away that it was the answer from God.  I could feel it in my heart.  So today God answered by the scriptures, so I had to be listening to the scriptures to hear God talking to me.  It takes practice.

Mom: Okay, time for prayers.  I'll say prayers tonight. (Rosebud does not like saying prayers and always asks me to say them at bedtime.)

Rosebud: That's right.  No, I have to say prayers because I don't know how to listen!

And then she did pray, and I had a happy feeling in my heart listening to her.  After she had prayed, she seemed very happy and cheerful and settled, so I would like to think that she was feeling the same happy feeling from the Spirit that I was.

I went around to tuck Bobo in, and the following conversation ensued:

Mom: Don't forget to say your prayers tonight, okay?  (one of the sadnesses in my life is that Bobo has decided to keep his prayers between himself and God.  He prays so sweetly and tenderly when he is genuinely talking to God.)

Bobo: I already said my prayers, Mom.  And I listened hard but I didn't hear anything.

Mom: Sometimes it is hard to hear.  Tonight when Rosebud was praying, I had a very quiet happy feeling in my heart, and I know that was the Spirit rejoicing in Rosebud's prayer.  But it was a very quiet feeling.

Bobo: I think maybe I do feel a little better about making friends.  That's what I was praying about.

19 November 2019

Yesterday we went to a skate park near our neighborhood to check it out.  It was small but very very fun.  Besides our roller blades we took the scooters, and we all had so much fun!  Mr. Brown has a lot of experience with roller blading and he coached the older three kids (and me a little bit) through learning how to navigate some of the twists and turns and jumps and things.  Nut Brown was especially good at it, just as he is with most things related to body movement.  It was great to watch him.  I also was impressed with how often Rose Pink kept getting up and trying again, even though it was not as intuitive to her.  Bobo just raced around and around, and then I realized that he was jumping up on things and skating along the benches.  Rosebud skated around and sang the whole time, such a cheerful noise.  After awhile the littles gave up skates for scooters which was also joyful.

Today I had to go to work, but Mr. Brown took them back after homework was done, and as Rosebud scootered along with Mr. Brown she looked up at him and said, "I'm just so happy!"

4 November 2019

 Bought some dirt for the garden.  Turned out to be great entertainment.

30 October 2019

And the results of the great pumpkin search yesterday afternoon:

30 October 2019

Started the week on Sunday morning by discovering that I had washed a book with my boys' clothes in the washer.  Book was COMPLETELY shredded, tiny bits of paper blanketing the clothes and the washer.  I dried the clothes twice, and collected the resulting wads of lint for firestarter.  There was a lot.  Then I washed it one more time and dried it (another wad for the fire) and counted it good enough.  It was Bobo's spelling book.

Yesterday we decided it was time to get pumpkins for carving and discovered that October 29 is too late for pumpkins.  After four stores, we found pie pumpkins so we bought seven and one large pumpkin shaped gourd.  Came home and read 2 Timothy 2 while the hash browns were cooking for dinner.

We are in the middle of bad head colds (side effect from recent trip to Michigan maybe?) and Mr. Brown has been wiped out for the last couple days.  Nut Brown and Rosebud and I are mostly mended, and Rose Pink never got sick, but Bobo is also really really ill.  He spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon laying in bed dozing, which is unlike him. 

26 October 2019

We spent the last week in Michigan visiting friends and working on the annual clothing distribution.



We stayed with our friends the Scotts and had a great time.  Our plane tickets were only thirty dollars, which compensated for flying out at 6 am.  The flight landed in time that we got to help unload the truck, which was a key event, and then we stayed and worked for several hours before going up to the Scotts' house.  Thursday we rested up and that afternoon I went out to see my aunt and uncle in Ann Arbor, which was a very nice visit.

Friday we went back and worked at the clothing distribution in the morning, which was okay but not as fun as it has been in previous years.  It was not as well organized this year, and it's clear that interest in supporting it in the ward is waning.  It was nice to hug and love on friends from our old congregation.

Saturday was a beautiful day, and we went to a cider mill with the Scotts and watched the cider press work, and ate cider and donuts outside.  Yum.

Sunday we went to church, and then over to Tiffany's house for lunch.  The Laswells were sick so we didn't get to see them.  We played games with Tiffany and Ben Hafen, and went for a walk.  Bobo and I collected seven different types of pinecones.

Monday and Tuesday Colin took off work so we played hard!  Monday was rainy and we went to an indoor laser tag/go cart/arcade place in Warren.  It was super fun!  We drove go carts, played laser tag, ran around a giant play place playground and spent a lot of money on arcade games.  All of us had a lot of fun.  That evening it was a double date at a ramen place and an escape room for the adults, which was super cool.  (We successfully escaped from the Colosseum.)

Tuesday we went out to breakfast at pancake house, and then I took another friend out to lunch.  Colin and Mr. Brown split kindling for awhile, and we went to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, which was also fun.

It was a lot of fun to see old friends and familiar places and enjoy all our favorite things about Michigan.  By the end, Mr. Brown and I were ready to come back to Austin, but the kids wanted to stay longer!

26 October 2019

Nut Brown's Halloween costume:

26 October 2019

Joint creation by me and Rose Pink

20 October 2019

Pushing Bobo on the tire swing in circles at Tiffany's house and he suddenly stops shrieking and puts his head down. I ask him, " Are you okay?" And he says "I'm fine, I just feel like barfing. "

Then we went for a walk and found seven different kinds of pinecones. 

16 October 2019

Out to dinner and they bring the drinks and Rosebud says, "You ordered me some really good water, Mom!"

8 October 2019

Update for Nut Brown's birthday.  His birthday was awhile ago, and it wasn't until the end of September that I managed the birthday party he wanted - a trip to Main Event with all you can play laser tag and climbing walls.  He brought his best friend and the friend's dad and the rest of us, and we climbed, laser tagged, and mini golfed.  Next time we're getting all-you-can-play arcade games!

This week we had blinds installed in the house.  The installer commented on the fact that all our kids were laying around reading books.  He said it had been a long time since he'd seen a kid just reading, not on a device.  Mr. Brown told him all about our philosophy of no devices.  He was impressed that Mr. Brown also doesn't have a cell phone.

Last week I watched Bobo cleaning the living room.  He was moving the couches so he could sweep underneath them, and encouraging Rosebud to climb up and ride on them - they were playing a game as he cleaned.  It was so sweet to see.

15 September 2019

At church the speaker says something an keeping our first estate, and Nut Brown leans over and says, "I think we've sold too many houses to keep our first estate."

9 September 2019

When Rose Pink went to Nauvoo this summer, she came home and told me that in one of the bathrooms, she suddenly had memories come back from when we went to Nauvoo with Spencer's brother and sister-in-law when we lived in Iowa.  She was five years old, and she suddenly remembered how the hand dryers in that bathroom had made her nervous because they were so loud.  Funny how memories work.

7 September 2019

The kids heart attacked our bedroom door.  These are some of my favorites.

This one cracks me up.  You have to pronounce each letter to find out that it's not an insult.  Hee hee.

Bobo was writing 'in code'.  He was reading a Geronimo Stilton book that involved code breaking.

4 September 2019

Bobo tonight, explaining an imagination game to me: "Hold on, let me explain humanity to you."

27 August 2019

Rosebud has been 'changing her number' over the past few weeks, by which she means that she is increasing her age.  She announced a few weeks ago that when she is six she will be old enough to be married, and also to shave her legs.  This is funny to me because for my other kids at this age, five was the infinite number, but for her, it's six.  Now in the last couple of days, she's begun announcing that now her number is fourteen, like Rose Pink.  She just makes me laugh.  She wants to grow up so much.

25 August 2019

Rosebud, in the middle of praying, says, "and thank you for Mom and for Papa, God... Mom! Now he's listening because I called his name!"  It feels sometimes like I'm raising a little atheist.  When I tell her that God hears her prayers, she says, "Oh, but not mine."  When I talk about God loving her, she says, "Oh, but he's not HERE."  She is reluctant to pray on her own so I often pray at night instead of her in the evenings.  I will be very interested to see how this plays out as she grows up.

20 August 2019

Mr. Brown asked Rose Pink if she wanted a quinceanera. She replied that although she loves princess dresses that she felt it would be "cultural appropriation " since she is not Hispanic. 

20 August 2019

Sometimes things are just wonderful.  On Saturday morning, Nut Brown made breakfast for us- mint chocolate chip pancakes that were so good.  We ate them with chocolate syrup.  Then he made us eggs as well.  He was so clearly pleased with himself and his successful meals, it was really nice to see.

19 August 2019

Rosebud, during sacrament meeting, when I remind her to be quiet during the sacrament and think about Jesus, says, "I'm not thinking about Jesus.  I'm thinking about Jesus' dad!"

17 August 2019

It's been a busy couple of weeks!  My parents came to visit the first weekend in August.  We spent Saturday buzzing around downtown- we went to the Bullock Texas History Museum, and especially enjoyed the Cowboys in Space temporary exhibit on the top floor.  Then we walked around downtown looking for a place to eat (ended up at Subway) and in the afternoon we went on a tour of the capitol building, and then stopped in to see St. Mary's Cathedral downtown.  They invited us back to the hotel to go swimming, so we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then swimming, then to bed.  The day didn't turn out quite like Nut Brown had expected, but the rest of us had a pretty good time.  The next day was Sunday, so we went to church together and then my parents spent the afternoon playing games with us at home. 

That Sunday (Aug 4) they announced a fireside to explain the new ward boundaries as they were splitting our ward.  No surprise since sacrament meeting attendance was approaching 400.  Mr. Brown and Rose Pink attended and reported back to the rest of us.  This ward split will be traumatic for Rose Pink since most of her friends will be in a different ward now.  Fortunately we still have seminary and some friendships already established to help her.

The following week we had three sets of visitors in overlapping shifts.  Mr. Brown's best friend BJ came down from Dallas with his family (three daughters - roughly Rose Pink, Nut Brown and Bobo ages) and on Friday we went to Interspace Caverns with them (Mr. Brown the dwarf was so happy to be underground!).  We met up with them on Saturday morning at Barton Springs and swam and shivered in the cold water.  Our kids all got along really really well... BJ has been thinking about moving to Austin, and his kids were ready to go after meeting and befriending ours.  It's always nice when your friends' kids get along with yours!

After swimming we had lunch at food trucks (fun) and that evening Mr. Brown celebrated his birthday by inviting BJ and family, plus our local friend Derek and his family (two teenage daughters) and my brother Eric and his family (flying into Austin for an academic conference) out for dinner to a Korean BBQ restaurant.  Mr. Brown does love nourishing people through food and we had a lovely dinner together and a really fun time.  The teenagers plus Nut Brown were at one end of the table and had a very good time, and Mr. Brown and BJ and Derek were in the middle, eating and talking, and I got to have a lovely catch up chat with BJ's wife sitting with Bobo and Rosebud and her youngest daughter at the other end.  Unfortunately Eric and Kate missed their plane and missed the dinner.

On Sunday we had our first meeting with our new ward (most of the same people, very few of whom we know) which was a little weird but went okay.  Eric and Kate came by in the afternoon and we got to hang out with them and their baby, which was great.  Their baby is just at the stage where he wants to practice walking so our kids, especially Nut Brown, had a great time walking him around all over the house on their fingers.  He is a very busy little boy, that baby.  Sunday night our friend Christy called and said, "I'm in Dallas, can I and the kids come by for a couple days?" and of course we said yes.

Monday we met up with Kate downtown and went to the Bullock Texas History Museum again!  This time Mr. Brown got to come with us.  The kids were a little bored since we had just been there a week ago, but it's still a cool museum.  We walked down to Cava for lunch, which I have been so excited to share with Mr. Brown.  Then Kate went back to the hotel and we came home to try and cool off.  It's been SO HOT.  Like an oven.

Christy arrived Monday evening with her two kids in tow (7 and 5).  It was so great to see them!  Bobo had such a happy time playing with her 7yo daughter.  He needs more friends.  He was so much happier with someone around to play with him. 

Tuesday I went to work as usual, and Mr. Brown hosted both Christy and Kate at the house.  It was Eric and Kate's anniversary, and they'd asked if we could double-date that night for it.  Christy and Rose Pink graciously agreed to baby-sit everybody, so Eric and I ubered up from downtown and met Mr. Brown and Kate at Kerbey Lane for dinner.  Then we went over to Main Event and played laser tag and mini golf and pool until we remembered what time it was.  It was a lot of fun together, and we said goodbye to them regretfully at the end of it.  Eric said that this is an annual conference, so we may see them again next year for it!

On Wednesday, I went to work again.  Mr. Brown and Christy went swimming in Barton Springs, and then when I got home we went to Salt Lick for barbecue for dinner.  That was some good barbecue!  Christy left at some point on Thursday (I was at work again) and we were finally able to get some rest.  All of this visiting was wonderful but we are exhausted, and the house is really dirty because we lost two Saturdays of cleaning.  But it has been so great to see friends, people who really like us, and to get out and see a bunch of cool fun things in Austin!

2 August 2019

Bobo has learned to ride a bike!  He's been practicing much so that we can ride to the library together.  He rides around the block by himself, and starts himself, and he can slow down and brake satisfactorily.  We are working on finer control to better manage turns and riding on a sidewalk, and then we'll head for the library. :)  He is super cool.  He was lukewarm about learning, but he picked it up pretty quickly and is very proud of himself.

30 July 2019

Rosebud liked what she was wearing already when I asked her to get dressed for church, so she just added a skirt.  So she's wearing a black pants with pink capris over them, with a pink skirt and red white and blue skirt over that.  Last week she wore something similar (different skirt) and added one of Bobo's zip ties.  Truly fabulous (see below).

28 July 2019

The other night I ended up sleeping in the boys' room and when they found me there on Sunday morning they were so sweet.  Nut Brown crept out quietly and shut the door gently, and Bobo put all his favorite blankets on me and turned his fan on to me, and made this sign for the door.  

12 July 2019

At dinner, trying to resolve who would get the tiny cookie, Nut Brown and Bobo were doing rock paper scissors.  We chant, "Rock paper scissors shoot!" and Rosebud has picked up just enough of the game to shout, "Rock paper scissors shoot!" and show a gun shape with her finger and thumb.  We declared her the winner.

9 July 2019

When Bobo is reading, he kicks the wall during exciting parts.  Thump thump thump.  He shares a wall with Rosebud and she gets so mad when she's trying to go to sleep and he's reading in bed. Thump thump thump.  Mr. Brown and I woke up to it the other morning.  Thump thump thump.  I love that he likes to read so much.  At the moment he's deep in Geronimo Stilton, but I also caught him reading a Pippi Longstocking book that I'd started to read out loud to Nut Brown.

8 July 2019

I had July 5 off of work also, so we had a looooooooong weekend together which was really fun.  On July 4, we had three invites from people and we managed to get to each one.  The first was swimming with the family of Nut Brown's new friend in their neighborhood pool.  That was a good time, making some connections.  Rosebud has a floatie that goes across her chest and she gets in and paddles around all by herself and is very pleased with her independence.  Then we came home and had some quiet time, because the little kids from the family came back home with us and everybody played very happily upstairs.  Nut Brown stayed over with his friend at his house for awhile.  Then we swapped kids and went over to appointment number two, which was dinner with ward members whose kids are in a charter school that we're considering for our kids.  Turns out they're homeschooling one of their teenagers so we had a good talk with them.  They served us some of the worst food we've had at a dinner appointment but the conversation was useful.  The last appointment was for fireworks, and a member of our local gaming group (yes! we have one already!) had invited us to come watch with them.  We were crashing their usual fireworks party, so it was a little awkward, but Rose Pink had a bunch of fun, and really I guess the lats one was for her, so all good.  The littles were pooped out well before the fireworks started, so next year definitely making different choices about fireworks watching.  Apparently you can see them for our city from the end of our street, so I think we'll do that! 

July 5, we went to McKinney Falls State Park to explore and discovered two things: 1) you can swim in the river there and 2) it's too hot to hike in July.  Both useful information.  We will be back with our swimsuits. 

On Saturday 6 July, we stayed home. :)  Cleaned the house in the morning and took the older kids to D&D at the library in the afternoon.

And then on Sunday, I STILL didn't have to go to work.  It was a great weekend.

23 June 2019

This afternoon I heard Rosebud come upstairs and start playing pretend, talking to herself. Bobo called up the stairs to her- "What are you doing?" She called back, "I'm doing nothing! Stop calling me! I'm just going into Mom's room to argue with her!"

Just now she asked me to warm up some beans for her. "Put some butter on them, Mom," she said, "after they are un-cooled off."

14 June 2019

Bobo and Rosebud have set up a pizza kitchen using the plastic food.  What cracks me up is that they are "cooking" in the real kitchen, on the floor.  Good thing we're having leftovers for dinner tonight.

Bobo and I had a bike riding lesson today - he took off on his own, and then stopped on his own as well.  He was very cautious and reluctant at first, but I was right that he was ready for pavement (after falling over a lot on grass) and he figured it out and rode off.  I got a workout running after him back and forth, up and down the street.

13 June 2019

Rosebud occasionally chooses not to put underwear back on after using the toilet.  We've had a couple of embarrassing public incidents where we discover that she left the house with no underwear.  She also asked me the other day to take a picture of her beside the toilet the other day because she was so happy about her urination efforts.  It's so funny!

Last night she went with me to an interview with the bishop, and noticed that I kept saying, "mm hmm" and "sure" and so on, so she started to mimic me, clearly looking for the appropriate behavior in the situation.  Super cute.  The bishop gave her a piece of candy.

6 June 2019

I bought myself rollerblades for my birthday and they arrived yesterday!  Mr. Brown got a set too.  Nut Brown took me around the block yesterday, and I didn't fall down once.  Mr. Brown and I both felt the burn though as we are using muscles that we don't usually.  It was fun though, and fun to be out with Nut Brown and Bobo.

Rosebud has been insistent that she is going to rollerblade too.  She and I practice most days by skating down to the mailbox to check the mail.  She's already pretty stable on them, so she can move forward on a flat road without holding my hand.  She's still working on actually rolling as compared to walking, but it's coming and I'm really impressed that she's so good at it already at age 3.

5 June 2019

The other night we took Rose Pink to an activity at the stake center, and we decided to wait around for her rather than drive home and drive back over.  Bobo wanted to play Terraria, which is his favorite video game at the moment, so he was making up Terraria stories for us to play out around the church grounds.  Nut Brown cracked me up by announcing periodically, "William the Merchant has arrived" and walking back and forth, which is what the merchant does in the video game.

Then the sprinklers came on, and Bobo and Rosebud ran back and forth and played in them for awhile.  And THEN Bobo invented a tiny ghost who lives in my purse, who goes by the initials 'TCG' for Tiny Clean Ghost, because he knows that I don't like things to be untidy, so the ghostie in my purse is very tidy and clean.  He sweeps up after himself with a tiny broom, and has teeny tiny furniture and makes teeny tiny noises.  He's very friendly and kind and we went on adventures together.  Bobo was so cute himself with how much he was enjoying how cute his little ghost was.  It was really fun to create a bit together, although really I think Bobo was telling the story and I was along for the ride.

3 June 2019

So I am getting old, and I'm pretty sure that I'm not hearing as well as other people any more.  The other night Bobo climbed on the trampoline (I was on the back porch working out how much interest I owed each kid after almost 17 months of not paying it) while I was working with Nut Brown and says to me, "Watch me, Mom!  I'm going to do my awesome ninja move! I call this one 'Flaming Bits of Urine'!" I said, "Okay!  Show me!" and I said to Nut Brown next to me, "Did he say Flaming Bits of Urine?" and Nut Brown rolled his eyes and said, "Flaming FISTS of FURY, Mom!"

Part of what made me laugh so much is that I totally thought it was possible that that's what he called it.  I think it's a good description of a UTI, personally.  :)

1 June 2019

This year is my fortieth birthday.  On my birthday morning, Mr. Brown emailed me, "Welcome to the Middle Ages", and then decided that would be the theme of the birthday.  I came home from work to a medieval dinner.  We were all in costume, and I was the lady.  I patronized Nut Brown's store to buy treats for my courtiers, and then had dinner at the table, where we ate with our knives and our fingers.  Mr. Brown made steak and roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts, and he'd bought 'ale' of various sorts as well.  It was all super fun. 

The celebration went on for the rest of the week - he made my favorite things to eat, and two birthday desserts (kissel and trifle), and there was more 'ale' to drink.  It was so fun to be celebrated.

31 May 2019

Bobo had his birthday the weekend that we moved in, so it was a bit of a less celebrated birthday for him.  Ever since we got the lego box off the moving truck, he's basically lived in his closet with the legos, and he even opted not to go to the store with me to pick out his cake.  Nut Brown decided that we should all dress up in boxes (we had so many at that moment) and let Bobo attack us and defeat us in the backyard in order to get to his cake.  Nut Brown really did several things to make sure that Bobo had a nicer birthday than either I or Mr. Brown were up for, and I was really grateful.

I had to run borrow a lighter from our neighbor across the street, who was very kind about it, and we sang and had cake, which turned out to be yucky, and then we went to Sonic for dinner (bobo's choice).  His gifts arrived several days late because we hadn't figured out how to get mail, but eventually gifts from his grandparents arrived, and the lego set that he picked out on Amazon after the soccer socks that I picked out for him turned out to be duds (too big and un-cool).  He's such a sweetheart.  I'm so glad that he's part of our family.

20 May 2019

Spencer got everything out of the garage that is coming out of the garage, and every box opened.  So the kids have access to all their toys again, and the house is a MESS.  We're looking for places to put everything, or decisions about getting rid of things.  Spencer's making decisions about what sorts of shelves and other storage stuff he wants.  Just more settling in.

Tried to get one car registered and failed.  Adventures with the DMV...  First we have to get both of them fixed and past inspection, which is costing us several hundred dollars, and then I took the one that was fixed to the DMV on Friday and found out that the DMV only does driver's licenses and I have to take the car to the county tax office to register it first, so I hotfoot it over there where the nice man tells me that since it's a joint ownership I have to have both owners or a signed piece of paper to do the title transfer/register the car.  He gives me the piece of paper.  SIGH.  I'll try again this week.

It was a good weekend generally though.  Spent time with kids playing with all their new toys.  The boys have appropriated some of my old barbies and were playing with them in a decided non-princess kind of way, which cracked me up.  Rosebud started singing Pink Floyd at the grocery store on Friday... "We don't need no education..." and then she appended, "We don’t need to go to bed!"  Bobo is sleeping on the floor of his bedroom in protest until we buy him a new mattress.  This week both the roofer and the fencer are supposed to come. 

10 May 2019

One of the things that Rose Pink was most regretful about leaving in Florida was the chance to go to Nauvoo this summer with her youth group.  Happily, the youth group here is also going!  She was still wishing she could go with her old friends, until she attended a fireside at the bishop's house last Sunday about Nauvoo.  As she walked into the house, one of the guys said, 'Oh, Yoroko! Are you coming to Nauvoo too?' and she was so happy to be included that she's glad to be going with the new group now.  :-)  I love Texas.

8 May 2019

Nut Brown taped some weight into the end of a tie, and has been swinging it around like a bolo for the last couple weeks.  Last night he invited us all to a show, where he was a ninja who broke into King Pine’s laboratory to steal something valuable.  King Pine is a giant pinecone.  Then he invited all of us to have a turn throwing the bolo tie around.  It was pretty fun.