29 July 2018

We have been listening to a Percy Jackson audiobook, from the series by author Rick Riordan, and it has been super fun for all of us.  Nut Brown loves these books - they turned him on to more serious reading, and he loves the author's sense of humor.  He laughs and laughs as he reads them, and he loves listening to the audiobook because it makes him feel like an expert.  I love to see his happiness and joy.  He really lights up from the inside when he's happy.

25 July 2018

We went to the thrift store to do some shopping for Halloween costumes, and Mr. Brown found a realio trulio cosplay costume that fit Rose Pink.  She tried it on and loved it- it's from some video game that we don't play but of course it's super glamorous.

One secondhand cosplay costume: $6

Watching my morose 13 year old light up and be playful: priceless

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We also found a toy cash register for sale for $3 that bings and does real math and wow, that is a priceless toy too.  Bobo and Rosebud have been playing with it nonstop.  I think Rosebud regards it as a computer/laptop.

It was a good day at the thrift store - there was a scooting toy shaped like a turtle which we purchased for $2 (this is why we don't give our kids presents at Christmas...) and Rosebud is riding around our huge open space in the living room on the turtle with her boppy on her head at this very moment.

24 July 2018

Bobo last night sat on my lap and looked at me and said, "I see into your eyes, Mama."  I said, "And what do you see?" and he said, "Smiles... and Papa... and love... and one more thing.  It starts with an 'H'."  I guessed 'Honda' and 'hamburger' and he laughed and said, "No, Mama!  Home!"

23 July 2018

We just returned from a farewell visit up to our friends the Peers in Charleston.  They are moving to Idaho at the beginning of August, which is so far away!  We will miss them very much.  We went to the children's museum downtown, and on TWO double dates for dessert and a walk on the waterfront.  We went swimming in their apartment pool, and took the kids down to the waterfront downtown one morning.  We also watched our kids and their kids play together and have so much fun.  There were card games and video games and imaginary play, and altogether no fighting, in spite of the fact that we were all cramped into a three bedroom apartment for three days together.  They are such good friends.  We're excited for their good fortune to be going to Idaho but we will miss them SO much!

We were supposed to go on to Ohio after this visit in order to attend a family reunion on Mr. Brown's side, but I have an upper respiratory infection (going on 3 weeks now) and Mr. Brown wasn't feeling well either, and Rosebud and Nut Brown have also been coughing pretty badly for a couple weeks.  I throw up when the coughing gets bad, and we didn't feel up to the drive or the reunion or the time away from home, plus we didn't want to get everybody else sick.  So we went home instead.

We got home Saturday evening, and everybody crashed.  Only Mr. Brown and Rose Pink went to church on Sunday, and after all the other kids got up, I went back to bed and slept for two more hours.  Rosebud is experienced with amusing herself next to a sleeping parent and when I came back to full consciousness I found books and drawing papers scattered over the bed next to me with vague memories of her talking to me about what she was doing.  I suggested to her and Bobo that they get out the toy kitchen and toy food and do some cooking, and that occupied them for another hour of delightful sleep, at which point I felt like I could get out of bed without immediately wanting to lay down again.  It has been so nice to be home.

8 July 2018

The other evening, Mr. Brown went out into the backyard to (what else?) shovel mulch while I was putting kids in bed.  Nut Brown eventually made up a glass of ice water and took it out to him, and said, "I thought you might be lonely" and they worked together and talked about Norse mythology.

6 July 2018

We've found a website that matches up gardeners with arborist companies for free loads of mulch, and as a result, we are able to get a lot of mulch now.  My sister's family was here last weekend and spent a good chunk of Saturday helping us clear the mulch pile and get it spread everywhere.  That afternoon, just after we'd finished, another company called asking if we wanted to take a load and we said yes (this is our fifth).  He left it in the backyard for us, and my sister looked at this brand new heaping pile of mulch and said, "Do you ever get discouraged?"  Her question surprised me so much because it felt like asking someone who was running a marathon if they were discouraged after the first hundred yards.  We haven't gotten far enough along in our plans for the yard to get discouraged yet! 

4 July 2016

This morning was the 4th of July breakfast at church and I discovered that the pavilion behind the church is actually quite nice - well built, with nice picnic tables and ceiling fans!  There were a bunch of fun games for the kids that involved catapults and water balloons, a beanbag dunking game, paper rockets fired with an air compressor, and badminton.  Someone also brought facepaint, and Bobo and his best friend got their faces painted the same way- in the same way as Rose Pink as well.  Rosebud got a tiny little rainbow on her cheek that she was very pleased with.  The food was not so great as usual, and I got a chance to talk to some Brasilians (who apologized for not coming to dinner last Sunday, but begged our understanding that it was a Brasil match in the World Cup... we forgave them) and with another Spanish-speaking family also in our ward.  It was cloudy, so not too hot, and we had a good time, although we then came home and lay down for awhile afterwards!

2 July 2018

Our dryer died, and a friend gave us a new one.  Mr. Brown gave the old one to Nut Brown to take apart, which he did and had a great time working on.  He pulled the drum out and had Bobo push him around in it in the backyard.  So he's braced inside it, and Bobo is rolling it over and over and over.  Eventually even Nut Brown got a little seasick.  Then they brought it inside and strapped it to a piano dolly, and have been pushing each other around the living room in it.  Nut Brown used cardboard to make doors for the "coach" and they had a lot of fun with that, too.  Interest has finally waned, however, and now the drum is going to be turned into a planter in the yard.

21 June 2018

Our dryer died, and Mr. Brown encouraged Nut Brown to take it apart before we put it out by the curb.  He had a ton of fun doing it, and thanked Mr. Brown for inviting him (which is kind of a big deal).  Nut Brown took the drum out and had Bobo push him around the backyard inside it, while he was basically doing propelled somersaults.  He got tired of it after awhile, and then he brought it back inside and strapped it on to our piano dolly, so now the kids give each other rides around the living room inside it.

20 June 2018

We're officially out for the summer!  Back to school on October 12.  To celebrate, Mr. Brown and kids went to Wal-Mart and cleaned out the discount bakery rack.  He also gave the kids certificates for finishing their grades.  Bobo was so pleased with his.  When I put him in bed that night, he told me that he wanted a certificate for his birthday for not dying before his seventh birthday.

18 June 2018

Rose Pink went away to girls' camp for a week and had a lovely wonderful time. They were in cabins near a lake and they had classes every day and free time to hang out, and they stayed up late doing crazy silly things.  She had a total blast.

16 June 2018

Bobo tells me a joke:  How do you get in trouble in Star Wars?


Mama: Um, I don't know.  By joining the dark side?


Bobo: No, by trying!


Mama: ????


Bobo: Do, or do not!  There is no try!

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Rosebud tells me a joke:  Knock knock who salad!

Mama: ????

Rosebud: Knock knock who salad!

Mama: (gets it) Salad who?

Rosebud: Ummmm... ummm.... people eating salad!

(this sounds like a four-year-old joke coming out of my two-year-old)

15 June 2018

I have an unforeseen problem with my work commute.  Rainy season has started here in Florida, and the weather is lovely in the morning.  I ride my bike in.  I get off work about 4 - 4:30.  It rains every day, lightning and thunder, for an hour starting at 4 - 4:30.  So far I've waited it out or just gotten wet... clearly I need to get into work by 7 so I can leave at 3:30.  I didn't expect the regularity of the daily downpour!

14 June 2018

The other day Rosebud woke up early (as she always does) and came in to see me.  Then she went off calling for her brothers, who were still sleeping.  I said to her, "Please don't wake your brothers!  They're still asleep!"  She came into my room making crying noises, and then lay down on the floor facedown.  She picked her head up and said, "You don't understand my problem."  I was surprised to hear this from my 2-year-old and said, "Oh, I'm very sorry you're upset!" She picker her head up again and looked at me and said, "Don't talk to me, Mama."  And then she 'cried' some more and then got up and went out to the couch where she lay down and sulked for a few minutes, and then she came and asked for breakfast.

26 May 2018

Reading scriptures with Bobo.  We get to the part where the Liahona points which direction they should go.

Bobo: How did the Liahona work, Mom?

Mom: It's not explained in the scriptures.  I don't know.

Bobo (very seriously): Let's Google it.

25 May 2018

Why do my kids always end up in bed late?  Wednesday evening I practiced bike riding with Bobo and then it was time for baths, but he asked very sweetly if we could blow bubbles and because he'd worked so hard at bike riding practice, I said yes.  I blew a thousand rainbow shimmering spheres in the front yard, and he and Rosebud ran around as ninjas and popped them all.  I blew and blew as the sun went down and it was beautiful and peaceful - and suddenly it was late and kids are late to bed again.  But I'll never forget it.

23 May 2018

Happy birthday to me!  Bobo and Nut Brown were invited out for the day to Legoland with friends, and they went and had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed very much knowing that they were off having a wonderful time.  Mr. Brown and the girls took me out for lunch to a Thai place for curry, yum, and brought me some of my most favorite chocolate as a gift.  Some former coworkers in Michigan remembered my birthday, which warmed my heart.  Master Guns also remembered but waited until almost midnight to text me, so I thought he'd forgotten!  Mr. Brown had planned steak for dinner, which is a super treat for me, but we were still full from lunch so we didn't have dinner.  But that was a treat too, because Nut Brown loves steak as well and I was a little sad for him to miss it.  Then another friend randomly chose that night to bring us a dryer, since ours has been broken for several months.  It was very sweet of him, and I had a good time hanging out in the front yard waiting for him.  Mr. Brown took Rose Pink to volleyball so I could stay home and get the first reports from the boys of what their day had been like.  It was such a wonderful day for me, mostly because of Mr. Brown.  He is so good to me!

21 May 2018

We now know what Rosebud's favorite color is.  She has begun to identify everything that's pink as 'mine' and 'for my birthday'.  It doesn't matter what the item is- she wants it to be hers 'for her birthday'.

She recently got a new Sunday dress - it's really cute, black with red and white flowers.  Rose Pink told her that it was her 'princess dress', and so now she says she's a princess, without any other real context for what that might mean.  Her Sunday shoes with bows on the toes are her 'princess shoes'.  Tonight I put her in bed and said, "Good night, chicken," which is one of my terms of endearment for the children, and she said, "No, Mom, I'm a princess."  Except that she doesn't say the 'r', so it comes out, "pincess". 

19 May 2018

This week I've been doing grammar homework with Nut Brown over the phone at lunchtime.  I love it.  He's so funny and I love having 20 minutes on the phone with him.  I told him how much fun I have doing this and he looks at me and says, "That's because you LIKE grammar, Mom."

17 May 2018

There's a book about Pete the Cat and his four groovy buttons.  It's a super fun story and both Rosebud and Bobo like it.  Also me.  I told Rosebud that the snap at the top of the zipper on her footie pajamas is her 'groovy button' and when I'm putting her in bed at night, if she finds out that it's undone, she cries out, "My groovy button!  My groovy button!" until I fasten it.

A couple days ago, Bobo found the container of miscellaneous buttons in the toy room and brought it out to the living room.  When Rosebud saw it, she exclaimed, "My buttons!  My groovy buttons!  Oh, oh! My groovy buttons!" and poured them all out so she could play with them.