Spring Commeth

There's been some variability in the climate as of late, and it's led to a spectrum of activities and projects. We had three girls eating popsicles on the back porch. We had two little girls cleaning the table with soap suds, cheerleader-carwash style. We had one girl disco skating 'til the break of dawn while the rain poured afuera. Then the weather got bleak, and we moved the TV, cut out the baseboard and chair rail, affixed a cement backer board,... tiled over the backerboard, and installed a wood-burning stove. The exhaust pipe was surprisingly resistant. We figured we needed to have something to help us make use of all that wood we have after cutting down the tree. So it's current;y 38 degrees outside, but 75 in our little house, without using any gas. Of course, it smells a little bit like a campfire, but there are worse things for a house to smell like. And there's Nora, and her nocturnal activities.

Like Unto a Log

A shot to gain some perspective on the mess:

ROCK-PAPER-CHAINSAW

Sam's school hosted a "Literacy Night" during which parents were encouraged to dress up as their favorite rock stars. What does rock n' roll have to do with literacy, you ask? Well, that's an excellent question.


The next day, Samantha was honored for her superior literary skills at the Elementary School Reading Jamboree or something. It was there that they got to pet a snake. What does petting a snake have to do with literacy? Another excellent question. You should be a reporter.

Here are our three girls standing next to and sitting on a fence. Why is our youngest daughter look like she picked up her outfit at Chico's? It's because it's been a Chico's kind of day...all week long.

We're thinking that we'll build an addition onto our house next year, assuming we still live here. In order to do that, we need to destroy a couple of ginormous trees right behind our house. This year, we want to put a privacy fence along the east side of our property. Well, we can't put up the fence, until after the trees are down, so we paid a guy to come out and chop down our biggest tree so we wouldn't crush our house doing it ourselves. That's the explanation. You read the whole thing, sucker.

We didn't pay him to haul the wood and branches away because that was really expensive. So now our yard looks like this:

That picture really needs a person standing in it to lend some perspective. That big log in the middle is about 10 feet long.

Purple Unicorn

It's been a busy a busy month or so. Becky, Lucy, and Sam took a roadtrip to Illinois for Great-Grandpa Marlowe's funeral. Nora and I had to stay home, but we got to hear all about the fun, especially when Aunt Chrissy almost stole Grandpa in his urn for a keepsake.
In all seriousness, he was a very cool man who did a lot of very cool things throughout his very cool life. Plus, the pool at the hotel turned Sam's hair green.


Here they are on their way to the madcap adventure.


I attended Father's Night at Lucy's preschool, which wasn't quite as awkward and weird as I thought it would be. Here I am, about to spit ice cream at the back of Lucy's head.

Here, a group of 4 children are racing about building towers and destroying them, just like the Hebrews of old.


Here, those same children's fathers/father figures have constructed their own tower, soon to be destroyed by the rampaging pre-schoolers. It's as if the tower represents the dads' dreams of financial independence.


This is Marcie, whose husband was featured to the left of the tower above. She does anything you ask her to do. Just walk up to her and ask.



Nora becoming more human day by day. English is her primary mode of communication now, with screaming and crying a close secondary.