17 September 2010

Mr. Brown emails me this morning and says, "what we did"

"(it's a hover car if you can't tell)"

14 September 2010

Rose Pink lately has been making a sulky puppy dog face when she doesn't get what she wants. Mr. Brown and I find this extremely irritating. She did it last night during scripture reading, which generated a quick direct very firm lecture from Mr. Brown about how puppy dog faces would not get her what she wants, and she might think about that next time before she makes a puppy dog face, etc. He finished and Nut Brown said, "Ruff."

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I made half and half cupcakes tonight (an orange cake mix and a chocolate cake mix) with Mr. Brown to celebrate that tomorrow is halfway through September. We had batter left over (two cake mixes makes too many cupcakes) so we made an excellent cake to wrap up.

D&D

Last night Mr. Brown wanted me to play D&D with him but I didn't want to. It was about nine p.m., and I was hungry, so he offered to make me an omelet- and cooked up a most delicious ham and potato and egg concoction, with rye toast. Fabulous. Wonderful. While he was making it, he somehow cajoled me into role playing with him.... so it turns out that I will play D&D for food. :)

12 Sep 2010

A few notes:

*Mr. Brown got out the fall clothes to sort out what fits now that's long sleeved and long legged. Rose Pink, our clothes horse, told me that some of her new shirts were so cool that she had no choice but to play air guitar when she tried them on.

*Nut Brown stands on his head by putting his head down between my legs while I'm sitting indian-style on the floor. Tonight he got his legs up in the air by himself, bracing his arms on my thighs. He waved his feet artistically in the air and kicked me in the face.

*We went down to Davenport over Labor Day to celebrate an old friend's re-employment and to see the Iowa City Browns. It was interesting to be somewhere so familiar but not to feel as if we belonged there at all. We ran a couple errands for things we hadn't yet figured out in Michigan (haircuts and oil change) and felt very uneasy about the idea of driving past our old house and our old neighborhood. (So we didn't.) We missed Detroit. We did enjoy very much seeing our friends and family!

*While in Davenport, the kids and I went to see the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus (pardon me - the greatest show on earth). I had wanted to go the whole time we lived in Davenport, but when the kids were finally old enough, we moved. The kids enjoyed it but it turned out that they weren't quite old enough. Nut Brown curled up in his seat and went to sleep during the last fifteen minutes.

*Have I mentioned that Mr. Brown & I are the nursery leaders at church? WE LOVE IT. And Nut Brown does a truly excellent job of sharing his parents with everyone else for two hours. He really is well-behaved in nursery - I have first-hand evidence now.

*Nut Brown is just about through with potty-training. There were a few accidents and incidents but it overall went very smoothly. Good work, Nut Brown! He's a big boy in big boy underwear now. His favorite is the pair with Batman on them. He has the darling habit of putting his underwear on backwards, because he wants to be able to see the picture instead of having it on his bum.

*He's not quite staying dry through the night so he wears pull-ups to bed. He pronounces it, "pull-ips". He also has been half-waking himself at night because his body is learning to wake up in order to use the toilet. But he's not awake enough to actually go to the bathroom and use it, so he just cries in bed until Rose Pink wakes up and shepherds him into our room so we can help him. Last night he actually did get himself out of bed and into the bathroom. We will all be less grumpy once he gets this part totally figured out. We are very proud of him!

*I have a new boss at work. New boss makes me feel safe, like finally there is someone to help me instead of attack me. I am really starting to feel a lot better. Also, old boss that we moved here to escape came up to visit, and I called in sick in order to avoid seeing her. Successfully choosing not to see her has really helped me feel more in control and has also helped me feel a lot better. I think things may be on the upswing for me at work... even if it is September!!

*Mr. Brown has a friend in playgroup that he told about our tradition of having a practice Thanksgiving. She invited herself over for it as soon as he mentioned it. They made two 9x13 pans of baklava this week (Amri's recipe: thank you, Amri!!) and I have personally consumed half the pan in the last two days. Rose Pink didn't want to try it at first but then she had a bite and has been totally absorbed by it ever since. Best baklava ever, she says, and I have to agree.

*I hosted book club at our house the last day of August. We read Chalice, by Robin McKinley, which is a honey-themed book, so Mr. Brown made a bunch of honey treats and bought five kinds of honey for us to try. We had honey cake and rolls with honey and this completely fabulous fig-honey-goat cheese pita pizza.

*Rose Pink's two favorite colors are pink and orange. When my parents were here visiting, Rose Pink one day chose a pink top and an orange skirt combo (the colors actually went together more nicely than it might sound) and my mom commented that with her red hair and pink sandals that Rose Pink had nice layers of orange, pink, orange, pink.

*At the moment, when people compliment Rose Pink on her red hair, she says, "Thank you. Actually, it's copper."

*My brother Chris has moved to Chicago to attend grad school. We are hoping to see lots of "Uncle Kiss", as Nut Brown calls him.

2 September 2010

Rose Pink asked me what the longest song I know is, and I made the mistake of telling her. Now she asks for "Master, The Tempest Is Raging" every other night at bedtime.

Glub

Last night when putting the kids in bed, Nut Brown requested that I sing the green and speckled frog song (the one that counts down the frogs on the log as they jump off into the pool, glub glub). I sang it with three frogs, because that's about as many verses as I like to sing. Then Rose Pink reminds me that Raffi sings it with four frogs, and decides that she's going to sing it to us with five frogs. She gets through the first verse and finishes with one glub, and tells me that she's going to do one glub for each of the frogs that's jumped off at the end of each verse. So verse 2 finishes with 2 glubs, verse 3 with three glubs and so on. I thought it was pretty great that she could keep separate the number of glubs versus the number of frogs left on the log, because that's what the song tracks. Then she finishes verse five and starts glubbing, and she keeps going, and then more glubs, and I realize that she's singing the Star Wars theme using the syllable 'glub'. I start to laugh, and she stops and says, that's a lot of frogs.

27 Aug 2010

So in the car, on our vacation in Utah, we're driving about an hour, and Rose Pink asks Mr. Brown to tell her a Princess Rose Pink story. Princess Rose Pink stories always start: once upon a time, long ago and far away, lived a beautiful princess with red hair and blue eyes whose name was.... and Rose Pink shouts, "PRINCESS ROSE PINK!". That night we were all tired, so Mr. Brown tried to get Rose Pink involved in helping tell the story.

Mr. Brown: One morning Princess Rose Pink received a message from the dwarf chieftain (is anyone surprised that it was a dwarf? Me neither.) asking for assistance! So Princess Rose Pink mounted her trusty steed Fluffy and rode to the dwarves' mountain. What is wrong? she asked the dwarf king. Oh help us, Princess Rose Pink, said the dwarf, for we are overrun by zombies! (Zombies are popular in our house lately.) See, mighty Princess, look here? And she saw a whole cavern full of zombies fighting the dwarves and moving inexorably forward. There were hundreds of them! What does Princess Rose Pink do?

Rose Pink: Princess Rose Pink runs away. She runs all the way back home to get Prince Nut Brown.

(Prince Nut Brown was falling asleep in his seat but revived when he heard his name.)

Nut Brown: Prince Nut Brown kills all the zombies with his axe! Whack! Whack!

Mr. Brown: With his axe?

Nut Brown: From his father! It's silver! Whack! Whack! They're all dead!

Mr. Brown: And then what does he do?

Nut Brown: He climbs up to the top of the mountain!

Mr. Brown: What does he see?

Nut Brown: He sees a dead dragon.

Mr. Brown: How does he know that it's dead?

Nut Brown: It's been eaten a little bit.

Adrian: Well, if there's a dead dragon, that must mean there's dragon treasure around here! (Is anyone surprised that the chronic rogue felt this was an opportunity to jump into the story? Me neither.) You should look for it! Climb around the mountain and see if you find a cave.

Nut Brown: I go in a cave.

Mr. Brown: What do you find?

Adrian: Treasure!

Nut Brown: Another dragon! It's alive!

Adrian: Run away! Are you going to kill it?

Nut Brown: No! I have my axe. And my two swords. They are named... um... (insert five minute discussion about what the swords are named, and I don't remember now)

Adrian: So are you going to kill the dragon?

Nut Brown: No! He fixes my swords. They're broken. And then I kill more zombies!

Rose Pink: Princess Rose Pink gets out her sword, too, and goes to visit the dwarves.

Adrian: As Princess Rose Pink prepares to attack the zombies with her sword, she suddenly feels weak and wobbly. Her muscles won't do what she tells them to! She begins to collapse on the ground! What are you going to do?

Mr. Brown: I smell a hidden magic user.

Rose Pink: Ummmm....

Nut Brown: I take Princess Rose Pink to the dragon! So he can fix her!

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That was the first time that Nut Brown demonstrated his interest and capacity for telling his own stories. Last night he asked me for a story again and we started with Prince Nut Brown setting off to explore, and staying overnight in a barn on a farm.

Adrian: Early the next morning, Prince Nut Brown is awakened by the farmer hollering, "Git outta here, you no-good varmint!" Prince Nut Brown runs out of the barn and sees the farmer yelling at a gigantic chicken, as big as the barn. "bock bawk bokk" says the chicken, and then it lays an egg as big as the table!! What does Prince Nut Brown do?

Nut Brown: (with very round eyes) He lays an egg too!

Adrian: He what?

Nut Brown: He lays an egg too! Out of his nose!

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Another time Prince Nut Brown was riding on his steed with his daddy on his way to the Mountains of Doom (it was Nut Brown's decision to bring his daddy on this quest) when a tiny groundhog popped out of the ground in front of them and warned them about not continuing on their quest, for they would surely come to a BAD END if they pressed on. Then the groundhog dove back down its hole. What did Prince Nut Brown do? He dove down the hole after the groundhog.

This type of storytelling is entertaining for everyone. He keeps us on our toes.

dreaming

Tonight we drove up Woodward Avenue to a park in Birmingham. Please note that today is August 18th. Here are a few of the sights we saw driving up (photos taken out the window of our car): The Woodward Dream Cruise isn't until the 21st of August, but there are already tons of people cruising, and watching the cruisers, all along Woodward Avenue.

On our way back, we ended up in the middle of a lot of Corvettes of various years. How many distinctive double taillights can you count? Double that, because there were more ahead of and behind us. What do you call a group of Corvettes? A cruise, of course. Wish you were here, Dad!

trip to greenfield village

4 August 2010

Woo hoo! We are OUTTA here!! Off to Utah to go to my brother's wedding and visit family and friends!! See you all on the 17th!!

1 August 2010

Putting kids in bed tonight.

Mom: Nut Brown, take off your shirt and put your pajamas on.

Nut Brown: I can't take off my shirt!

Mom: How are you going to solve that problem? What are you going to do?

Nut Brown: I'll take off my head!

Nut Brown, when he means 'alright', says 'o-white'.

Mom: Nut Brown, I'm giving you some beans on your plate.

Nut Brown: O-white.

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Yesterday Nut Brown trailed after me when I went out to open the garage door. I opened the side door and pressed the open button, then went around front to wait for the door to open. I came around the front and discovered Nut Brown hanging on the bottom edge of the door as it rose, riding it up. It was startling.

23 July 2010

Last night we ate some poor lady's hair and eyeballs for dinner, stewed in her blood, and accompanied by her crunchy feet and slightly mushy fingers. Our daughter is a little morbid. We were having spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and green beans for dinner.

16 July 2010

Life is a blur with two little kids. (spinning in an office chair)

Nut Brown in particular is usually blurry.

Occasionally we all stand still together.

Here we are in our living room, and you can see the dining room through the door.

frogs

Making origami frogs.

Note the tongue.

bicycle

I rode my bicycle home from work six miles IN THE RAIN yesterday. Truly I am a champion.

color

Rose Pink lately has been making bold use of color, covering large swaths of paper with solid brightness. Nut Brown also uses a tremendous variety of color, unlike his sister when she was this age. He is very proud of his ability to draw circles.

*cough*cough*

Yesterday Nut Brown got out of bed with a slightly croupy cough, and Mr. Brown made him hot chocolate to ease the cough and give a sick boy a treat. Rose Pink also had hot chocolate for breakfast when she got up.

Nut Brown's cough got better during the day, and was pretty much extinguished by the time he went to bed. However, this morning, both he and Rose Pink got out of bed *coughing* in an effort to get hot chocolate for breakfast again.

batman smells

Lately Nut Brown's technique at bedtime is to ask if I know any songs about --fill in the blank--. Last week he asked if I knew any songs about Batman. I said no, but Mr. Brown called out from the other room, sure you do! What about 'Jingle bells, Batman smells'?

Jingle bells, Batman smells/ Robin laid an egg/ Batmobile lost one wheel/ And the Joker got away!

The kids were both completely enchanted. Rose Pink told me in awe on Sunday afternoon that the singing leader in her big class at church knew the words. Rose Pink has altered the words to say, "...and the Joker went to the beach!" Nut Brown sang to me the other morning on the phone, "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg, the Batwagon lost a wheel, the Joker went to the beach!" He wants to be Batman for Halloween. (Can we borrow the costume, Jessica?)

8 July 2010

Rose Pink: And do you know why her skin's green, Mom? Because the stuff in the bottle is green!

2 July 2010

Rose Pink's conception and execution of the idea of 'princess'.

We went to dinner at someone's house this week and they told us about a cure for kidney stones that involves drinking a six pack of Coke, not urinating for an hour after drinking the last one, and then eating asparagus before unleashing what must be the world's longest pee. Mr. Brown had a kidney stone (we think) a couple weeks ago and still wasn't feeling top of the line, so he decided to try it. He drank the Coke, which he said a) was nasty and b) tastes completely different from Diet Coke. We pretty much never have caffeine in any real quantity, and so he was bouncing off the walls all day. I came home from work and was completely amazed by how much he'd done that day and by the energy he had left. The kids and I had to beg him to let us go to bed.

This morning Mr. Brown was watering pots on the porch as I was carefully backing the car out (Flash, our newer car) and sprayed the windshield as I backed past. I was busy flirting back and backed into the house. The brick part of the house. The house is fine but Flash may need some body repair.

My parents came to visit "on their way" to Utah. I suppose Michigan is on the way to Utah.... We were glad to see them and try out our guest room setup. Mr. Brown and I slept downstairs, and the guests got our room, which seemed to satisfy everyone. We had a good time together going to parks, visiting Greenfield Village and the Rouge car factory, eating good food and hanging out.

Mr. Brown, Rose Pink and I have decided that she's going to attend kindergarten here this fall. The school is not too far away, and it's very small: three kindergarten classes of about 20 kids each, two first grade classes, and then one class each of 2nd through 5th grade. Rose Pink is very, very excited. Mr. Brown is pleased, and I am anxious.

We are going to Greenfield Village this afternoon as a family. Also the kids and I have bought fireworks for setting off in the driveway this evening or tomorrow evening. There's an all day celebration in a town not far from us so we're going to go check that out on Monday. Not sure if we'll stay up for a big fireworks show- last year Nut Brown was trying to fall asleep on the sidewalk before the show started.

Happy Independence Day!

25 June 2010

I rode my bike to work today!! Six miles each way. It took me forty minutes. I am SO PLEASED with myself. Our red Honda is broken right now, and I'm glad for it forcing me to actually try it after talking about it for six weeks.

hair

How do you get a tender-headed little redhead's hair combed? She cries every time I pick up a brush. She screams whenever I find a snarl. What to do, what to do?

Give her a bottle of spray-in conditioner and her own comb, and make it her job. Now she dries and combs or brushes her own hair after baths, and does her own hair for church on Sunday (it usually involves eight barettes; must get a photo of this soon). No more tears and no more frustration.

20 June 2010

**content advisory** Nut Brown has a handful of acorn caps that he has been referring to as "donut seeds". Yesterday he and I were playing with them, and he fed them to the teddy bear. I helped and the donut seeds disappeared as they were being fed. Nut Brown was surprised but pleased that the bear had really eaten them. Then he asked for them back. I told him that he couldn't have them back because the bear had eaten them, and he'd have to wait until the bear pooped. Poop? he asked. Yes, I replied.

He sat and looked at the bear and when the bear started to make straining noises I suggested that he check and see if the bear had pooped. He whipped the bear off the bed and saw his three donut seeds there. I wish I could have captured the absolute amazement on his face.

We don't lack for hysteria over bodily functions at our house. Last night when I started singing "She'll be coming round the mountain" for Nut Brown, Rose Pink started substituting "when she poops" for "when she comes". I couldn't keep a straight face. Go ahead - you sing "we'll all have chicken and dumplings when she poops" and don't laugh.

Some of the other songs we've been singing lately at bedtime: The Horses Run Around and Little Bunny Foofoo. We've also been practicing a special Father's Day song for Mr. Brown, which I think he enjoyed when we sang it to him this morning.

15 June 2010

This morning Nut Brown crawled into bed with me, patted my cheek, kissed my forehead, and said, "You're the best cute mommy in the whole wide world."

7 June 2010

Today Mr. Brown went to the dentist to get his crown snapped into place, and he asked our nice dentist to look at Nut Brown's teeth. Nut Brown has a sizeable overbite, and we were beginning to suspect it has developed because of his habit of chewing/sucking on his boppy. The dentist confirmed our suspicions, and added that if we could get him to stop, Nut Brown might get by with a minor orthodontic intervention at age 8-10 instead of full out braces.

So we did the unthinkable . . . .

. . . we took away Nut Brown's boppy.

I cried myself to sleep. It felt like we'd killed someone. When I realized after the dentist visit that Mr. Brown was set on it, I started praying and praying that Nut Brown would let it go easily. I asked Mr. Brown to do the putting in bed part of our bedtime routine because I couldn't face telling Nut Brown that we weren't going to give him his boppy for bed tonight. COULD. NOT. FACE. IT. God hears my prayers - Nut Brown went to bed without fussing about it too much, just asking wistfully about it. But there were no tears or tantrums. I told Mr. Brown that he'd better hide it from me, too, and he did.

It took him longer than usual to go to sleep, and he got up several times before he went to sleep, which is unusual. Also he got up in the night crying, because he couldn't find it, but with some cuddles and a drink of water went back to bed easily.

Mr. Brown and I felt like we'd taken away his best friend. Mr. Brown checked in on them before we went to bed and when he found me crying about it he told me that I should go look at Nut Brown and see how he was sleeping just fine. So I did, but I ended up crying again. I was not ready for Nut Brown to give up his boppy, not ready for this at all. At all. I want to write down here how he folded the satin border a certain way to make a point to go in his mouth, how he threaded another section through his fingers as he chewed. How he asked to bring it with him everywhere. How Gia exclaimed that she didn't realize that she'd was making a chew toy when she made it for him. How he greeted it ecstatically when it was brought out at bedtime, and how he sighed with happiness when he'd settle down for a cuddle and a chew. How he'd ask lately for "one more chew" when we were going to put it away for the day. Oh boppy! Oh my baby boy! Is it silly to grieve over something like this? Nut Brown misses his boppy, but I think I am more upset about what the loss of the boppy represents in terms of growing up.

Greenfield Village

First off, I apologize for the lack of pictures. I didn't think to take the camera while I was at home and missed the camera the entire time I was at the village. Apology aside this was a wonderful trip. Greenfield Village is a historical village built with Henry Ford's money. He bought a number of historically important buildings and had them moved to Dearborn, MI. Then they have a wonderful staff to answer any and all questions you might have about anything. They have a working farm, a craftsman alley, and then all sorts of houses to look in an learn. We had a great time and if ya'll come and visit us we'll take you and you will also have a great time. So Ya'll come see us ya'hear

27 May 2010

We have a gas stove now, to Mr. Brown's delight. Our first week here, I set the library books on the counter and went to get something from the fridge. Rose Pink says, "Um, Mom, I think the magazine's on fire!" I turned around and sure enough, Nut Brown had tugged his book out of the stack and pushed the Big Backyard magazine that we'd checked out into the flame under a pot. I grabbed the magazine and went to put it in the sink, but it blew out as I moved it through the air. Very exciting - and we don't put books on the counter any more!

22 May 2010

Happy birthday to me! For my birthday, Mr. Brown took me to the garden center and turned me loose. I bought a lot of annuals, two azalea bushes, and some dahlia bulbs. At the farmers' market, I got two tomato plants and some herbs - basil, thyme, rosemary. I am making progress digging up hostas and planting flowering things. For my birthday present, Rose Pink picked out lots of seeds for me: lettuce, cucumber and peas, also poppy flowers. Nut Brown randomly sang Happy Birthday to me all weekend.

Sunday afternoon, Mr. Brown let me do something that I love, which is cook with him. We made applesauce (with the kids' help) and ham and mashed potatoes and dill bread and strawberry rhubarb kissel, and he made steamed asparagus. It was wonderfully fun, and the food was delicious too.

I went to the doctor this week because I have a sore index finger that won't heal. It looked like a bruised fingernail, but it didn't get any better for six weeks. I learned to type with nine fingers, and Mr. Brown decided that I should see a doctor about it. Poking around online, it looks like it might a digital ulcer that's a complication of Raynaud's syndrome that I'm pretty sure I have. The doctor was pretty fabulously unhelpful. Luckily our ward is full of medical residents and they were ready to look things up for me. (It was a couple of them who named the phenomenon of my fingers turning completely white when they get suddenly cold.) Hopefully they can find out what sort of specialist I should consult.

family pictures

We had these made back in March. For our Christmas letters.

21 May 2010

Today I called in sick. We were going to have pancakes for breakfast, but were out of milk, so we were going to run to the store just to buy milk, and on the way out the door Mr. Brown collected all the things we had to be mailed at the post office and also our rebate check so we could open a bank account...so we went out for breakfast and then ran errands.

We got chocolate donut holes for the kids, five each. Nut Brown said he was still hungry afterward, and Mr. Brown wanted another muffin, so he and Nut Brown went back to the counter. Nut Brown selected a chocolate donut. Are you sure? Mr. Brown asked. Oh yes, Nut Brown insisted. I've never had a chocolate donut before!

We stopped at the bank in the grocery store to open a cash account. While we were waiting for some paperwork to print, Rose Pink started a game with Nut Brown. You stand over there, she directed, and sing the song. It goes like this:

I looked out the window and what did I see...

A great big zombie coming after me!

And then I'll chase you!

They took turns being the zombie.

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Tonight, reading scriptures, Rose Pink read, "...saying that he was a... Mormon..."

Mr. Brown corrected her, "Close but not quite, it says monster." I objected. I think there's a fair amount of difference between Mormons and monsters!

hostas

In the beds at our house, some previous person planted hostas, and no one has done anything since. And now, in my beds, I have HOSTAS. I like hostas well enough, but I like them usually in combination with other more colorful things. So I announced my intention to dig them up, and replant them along the side of our house in a strip of dirt there. (In the photo above, you can see the crater where I successfully (with Mr. Brown's help) uprooted one of the monsters. He got planted farther back in the yard by a tree.)

Rose Pink wanted to help. With no supervision or assistance from me she dug up a smaller hosta, broke it into four pieces, and replanted them in the dirt strip. And then she watered them. And then she told me she'd done it. She is amazing.

20 May 2010

Rose Pink went to the dentist for the first time this week! I was surprisingly nervous sending her off with the nice pediatric hygienist but she was a champ. Had her teeth scrubbed and a fluoride treatment and earned a treat from the dentist's treasure chest. No cavities! The waiting room had a white board with markers for entertaining children, and Nut Brown and I had a blast with that while we were waiting for her. (Mr. Brown was also in the back getting fitted for a crown.)

Sorry no pictures- we had issues uploading them. Hopefully we'll figure it out soon.

17 May 2010

Saturday we went to the Detroit Zoo. The zoo that is a five minute drive from the house. We had the choice of paying $36 for our family to get in for the day, or buying an $80 family pass for the year. Did I mention that it's open in the winter? We bought the family pass.

The zoo is definitely a "zoological park". There are lots of animals and exhibits but also lots of green areas, lots of picnic tables, and a big playground. We enjoyed the butterfly house and aviary immensely, checked out the penguins (very cool) and then walked all the way to the back of the zoo to see the polar bear & seal exhibit. You can walk through a glass tunnel that runs through the pool they have set up for the bears & seals. It was neat, but the shifting sunlight patterns made me a little seasick. Very cool to watch the seals swim around, though!!! The polar bear wasn't present.

Rose Pink and I turned over one of the small garden beds and got ready to buy some annuals to go in it. And a very nice person from church offered to watch our kids on Saturday night so Mr. Brown & I can go out for my birthday!

13 May 2010

New toy at our house - blocks that snap together. Super, super fun. Nut Brown likes to make guns out of them. Yesterday he made himself a gun that said 'bum, bum'. Then he made me a much, much smaller gun. I told him that since my gun was so much smaller it said 'bing, bing', but he insisted that my gun also said 'bum, bum'.

12 May 2010

Here we are in Michigan! The whole move has gone very, very smoothly, and we are very pleased and excited by our new house and our new town.

The movers came on Monday, May 3, to pack up. One of them was named Brandon, and he turned out to be the grandson of Walt Peterson, one of the former bishops of our ward. The other guy was named Todd, and Rose Pink had the hugest crush on him. It was so cute to watch her follow him around and talk to him. He was really nice about it, and luckily for her, he was our driver so we saw him again in Michigan when they were unloading our stuff!

Tuesday, May 4, the truck was loaded. We were so impressed with our moving company. They were fast and efficient, and also took good care of our stuff, much better than the company that moved us from Texarkana. We had asked my vt'ers to come help us clean on Tuesday afternoon, and there were five people who came to help us clean our little townhouse. The cleaning was all done by five pm, and we decided to go ahead and start on our journey instead of camping out in our house. We had dinner with our friends the Whites and then set our backs towards Iowa and our faces towards Michigan, and stayed the night in Peru, IL.

We arrived in Michigan on the afternoon of May 5, Wednesday, got the keys to our house and started exploring Royal Oak. There were two immediate hiccups with the house: the fridge didn't work, and the previous tenant had cat. Or cats. Fortunately, the maintenance person for our landlord came by, and we told him about the fridge. He brought us a new one the next day!! We rented a carpet cleaner on Thursday and went over the carpets very carefully. With that plus the strategic application of pet deodorizer products, the cat issue was taken care of. It was fortunate that we had no furniture, so we could go over the entire carpeted area of the house VERY THOROUGHLY. Mr. Brown & I and probably Rose Pink are allergic to cats.

Having overcome those obstacles, we gave ourselves over to learning our way around our new neighborhood. There is a park one block away, super awesome, and another one three or four blocks the other direction. We found the library and got a library card. We checked out the farmers' market on Saturday. We visited a thrift store downtown, and found a variety of grocery stores, including a small one a short walk from our house. We ate dinner at some fun restaurants in downtown Royal Oak, and made the acquaintance of several families at the parks near us. We also found a few things left behind by the former tenant, including some toys, two swivel chairs, a little wheeled table cart, and the most awesome folding chairs ever. We cleaned up everything we wanted to keep, and the kids had a great time playing with their new toys. We really had a good time together in our new house.

On Sunday, we found our ward and discovered it to be very welcoming and full of friendly people. We also had the best Mother's Day ever. Rose Pink was nervous about going to Primary, but did not complain about it afterward, which is a good sign. Mr. Brown & I enjoyed attending Sunday School together, something that hasn't happened in almost five years - either he or I have always been teaching a class somewhere else before!

The Mother's Day gift that Rose Pink produced for me in Primary was a questionnaire. It was a perfect gift for me, and really made me feel so special. Here I reproduce it for you:

1) What is your favorite thing to do with your Mom?

Play Life.

2) Name one of your mom's talents or things she does really well.

sing songs at bedtime

3) What is your favorite food your mom makes?

spaghetti

Ed.: I don't cook. I reheat Mr. Brown's spaghetti.

4) Write about one of your favorite times with your mom.

Going to the mall and getting candy.

5) What are you goin to do for your mom this morther's day to say thank you?

Tell her I Love You.

It really was my favorite mother's day gift ever. And my best Mother's Day ever.

On Saturday, Mr. Brown's tooth started to hurt, and it got worse on Sunday. When I got to work on Monday, I asked a friend for a recommendation for a dentist, and the dentist was kind enough to get Mr. Brown an appointment for that very afternoon. Mr. Brown had an emergency root canal, and he liked the dentist so much that he made all of us appointments with him for later in the month. So even though that started badly, it turned out well.

The truck arrived on Monday morning, and our idyll of stuff-less-ness was over. Our house filled up with boxes and furniture, and we are busy unpacking and figuring out how to live with it. I think the space will suit us very well: the front bedroom is going to be Mr. Brown's "nest", with all his video game stuff and D&D stuff, but also with the family games and homeschool stuff and children's books. Since it has a closet, we put the futon in there so it can double as a guest room for visitors. There is a half bath right next to it. The living room at the moment is going to have a piano in it and some pictures on the walls. We may or may not decide to buy couches. The dining room has a wood floor and a sliding patio door. The china closet is going in there, and I am actually going to get to display my dishes for use. We have put the dining room table in the basement for the moment and are still using the little one in the kitchen for our family meals. The kids love sliding around in their socks on the wood floor.

Upstairs there are two bedrooms, a small one for the kids and a slightly larger one for the parents. Also a larger, full bathroom. The door to the bathroom is awkwardly set up. I am lobbying Mr. Brown to replace it with an opaque, floor length curtain. He protests that it would be awkward for guests, and I rejoinder that we can put the door back when we have guests. So far his strongest argument against is that all the steam from the shower will escape and you will shiver worse than usual when you get out. In our bedroom we put the dresser in the closet (it's a big closet) so actually out in the room there is just our bed, night tables, my clothes chair, and our pink reading chair with a lamp stand. I feel overwhelmed by all our stuff so I'm hoping to keep things simple.

The kids' room is very crowded at the moment with their beds, dressers and boxes of toys. The basement is clean and tidy but completely unfinished, and doesn't even have any extra outlets. I look forward to going through everything we have stashed down there. Mr. Brown yesterday attempted to replace the lousy washer that came with the house with our nice front-loader. He got everything all hooked up, but tells me today that the washer rocks and leaks, sadness. Do washing machine repairmen still exist? Any advice about getting this fixed would be helpful!

I don't like my workspace so much, but at least my teammate Chad moved up at the same time so we can keep each other company. And we're supposed to move in a month or so. Fingers crossed that happens. My commute is only fifteen minutes and is practically traffic-free (we probably could have foregone replacing the side mirrors on the Civic) and I don't mind having a ten-minute walk in from the parking lot. (In the winter that may be a different story!)

Our initial overall impression of our new environment is pretty positive. Further updates as events warrant! Photos once we find the camera cable!