Things that occupy my time

You say tomato, I say weeds and aphids.

Tow-truck drivers, in my experience, don't talk about very much besides tow trucks and towing.

This used to be our eastern view in our backyard.

Now it looks like this.

Teeth, Naked Hopscotch, and Rogue....

As you can see, Sam's teeth are finally repaired. She was a lot of fun after her dental work. Versed is a great drug, and she has no memory of the couple hours she spent grasping at the "white stuff" that was apparently floating a few feet in front of her.


Tile floors and recent potty training combine to create magical adventures.


Sam completed kindergarten. She got to play the drums during her class's rendition of "Blood in the Rio Grande," a Navajo death chant they learned for Culture Week.

And I have something to confess. I don't believe the plants I was trying give away were zucchinni. I'm 93% certain they were..... pumpkin. It makes sense, seeing as I dumped the guts of the one big pumpkin we produced last year into the compost. Unfortunately, I gave away about 6-8 plants to an interested coworker. I suppose I'll have to tell her. I am shamed.

Nitrous oxide, Commencement, and Rogue Zucchinni

And life progresses steadily onward for the Tolman clan. Samantha has had 2 of 7 cavities addressed. The first was filled, the second more rotten hole resulted in a quick extraction. That laughing gas is good stuff.




Lucy "graduated" from her first year of preschool. She was voted by her class as cutest and the most likely to be photographed in a cocaine-fueled rage.

This was her a couple days later.

Nora has gone pee in the potty for two days in a row. I believe our current box of diapers is the last we will have ever purchased. Can you feel it? Can you feel that fresh summer breeze? It's a beautiful day.


A red strawberry. This was eaten a couple hours later by one of the aviary creatures with whom we share our land.

Seriously people. Don't you want to be loving parents to one of these orphaned zucchinni plants? Our onions and broccoli insist they need more room. As much as I hate to play favorites... something's got to go. So sad.

Monkeys, Wigs, and Rogue Zucchini

It's very strange to realize that my 5-year-old daughter is a better athlete than I ever was.

Weaves are this year's hot, new fungal vector.

So last year, we started a compost box. We added our vegetable debri to it all winter and when we started our garden a few weeks ago, we mixed it in with the soil. Well, it turns out that if you include seeds in your compost, there's a good chance that some of those seeds will maintain their viability. We have what appear to be zucchini plants popping up all over the garden where they were never intended. They could be butternut squash, or even spaghetti squash. We ate all of those. They're probably zucchini. It seems a shame to weed them out, so if if anyone wants some zucchini seedings, just let us know.

Quality Eggs

Happy Administrative Professional's Day, everybody.

We travelled about 30 minutes north this last weekend to a place with nice, rounded bushes where the girls searched about and found brightly colored, egg-shaped, candy-filled representations of the Lord's Resurrection.

Samantha is wondering if the individual on the left is hiding an egg in his pants.

Lucy expertly navigated the ball-shaped bushes without touching them. She doesn't like balls. GOLF balls, sicko.

Nora is to skin pigment as her father is to hair.

Lucyis shorter than the camera operator by a ways, but she's smarter than 94% of all registered dolphins.


Becky made these lovely easter bags, which the girls can now use to carry distractions to church.


I didn't realize until I saw this picture, but my oldest daughter has some guns. Bam! Hyrum, you better start doing some curls if you don't want to look like a wuss next to your wife.

I wonder if egg hunting is anything like antelope hunting. I bet antelope hunting is easier and harder at the same time. Easier, because antelope are so much easier to see. Harder, because anteope are more difficult to open.

I've heard Independence is the meth capital of the United States.

In case you thought your kids were cute.

Parental Failure

Our lovely Samantha has had some tooth pain. We looked in her mouth the other day and noticed that she had a couple dark spots on a couple of her teeth. We took her to the dentist.

It's pretty cool that you can see her adult teeth pushing up on her baby teeth. However, the uncool part is that she has SEVEN cavities. She's FIVE YEARS OLD. SEVEN CAVITIES. We knew our girls didn't have perfect oral hygeine, but come on. Seven? We get to go back tomorrow to have them repaired. We haven't told her exactly what's involved. I've failed you, Dr. Shakespear.

If a Woodchuck Could Chuck

Over the last three weeks, much spare time has been occupied dealing with this: With some help from Colten, Faata, Larry and Paul, it became this:

And then with some help from Blake, Kyle, Tyler, and a woodchipper from Home Depot, it became this:

And this:

And this:

Thank you very much, guys.

If anyone needs a few wheelbarrows full of mulch, come on over.

Samantha lost her first tooth. Being such an accelerated child, she chose not to wait until her baby tooth was gone to start growing her permanents. Now we'll have to step up her oral hygiene, what with the life-long consequences and all.

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: