Thursday, February 10, 2011

Turtle companion

Suzy was telling me about the lesson she's teaching this Sunday.  "Preparing to become an eternal companion".  Kate, who was setting in the room with us, "What? A new turtle companion? what's a turtle companion?"

This reminds me of a song from my youth, "Love one another".  There's one line in it, By this shall man know that  ye are my disciples..."

Well, growing up, I always thought it said "By this shalmando".  I was trying to figure out what I was thinking it could mean, but for the life of me I can't think of what I thought it was.

Suzy thought it said "by this shalmenno".  I'm guessing this song confused whole generations of kids growing up.  "If I could only get a shalmenno I could be a disciple!!!"

Friday, February 4, 2011

Apostles

The Sunday School lesson is about Christ calling the Apostles. Suzy was talking about it to the Kids on the way home and asked them if they knew any Apostles names.
Kate, "Peter?"
Faith, "Unco Marso?" (Uncle Marshall)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Stealin' the chairs, Stealin' the chairs...

I stole a chair. Yes, I admit it. It's an awersome chair, and I love it!

My Chair at work broke last week. I've been living with it for a while (the back Pad fell off, but I could hold it together as long as I was leaning back, but would have to re-adjust it every time I leaned forward). 

Finally, I put the chair out in the hall for repairs (I don't know how it happens, but if you leave broken chairs out in the hall, they magically disappear. Occasionally they return fixed).  I have serious doubts about the repairability of my chair.  I've been living with a non-adjustable chair for the past couple of days (it also has no rollers).  Can you believe the trials I go through here at work?

Anyway, last night I decided that enough was enough. This morning, (I come in a bit early usually, so there are few people around) I went on a mission. I checked a couple of conference rooms, to no avail. They were stuffed with inferior chairs.  Finally, I was walking by one of the cubical areas, and noticed a Cubical with no computer, no name tag, but a Dang nice chair.  I furtively looked around, and saw no one.  So, I did it. I took the chair. As I traveled down the hallway pushing this wonderful, adjustable chair on rollers I carefully kept my expression set at "annoyed scowl" to discourage questions, or even looks. Luckily I only saw one other person during my heist, he quickly looked away and towards the ground when he saw my intimidating expression.  You never know what a man with a chair will do if you corner him. 

Accents

Those who know me know that I can really do accents. Okay, one accent. In fact, all of my accents morph into one particular accent, Irish Pirate.  I'll start off with a nice English brogue, or southern twang, but within a few lines my left eye starts to squint, my pointer finger starts to curl into a hook like shape, and out it comes, complete with Aaaargh maties and aye-ayes. 

Why do I tell you this? Because I think my poor children inherited my skill (or lack there of) with accents.  Suzy can do some Amazing Accents, especially Scottish, you'd think since they're girls they'd get some of Suzy's good skills instead of my warped ones. 

Yesterday the girls were being very fancy at dinner, and as you know, to be fancy one must speak with an English accent. I couldn't quite figure out what accent they were using, but it was definitely not British, and it wasn't American.  At least it wasn't Irish Pirate.  Accents can really raise (or lower) a girls attractiveness, and I don't want to have to pay out a big dowry to get some mediocre fellows to take my girl's hands in marriage because they go around with squinty eyes, hook like fingers speaking like Captain Ahab.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Leggings, Dresses and Leotards. A post about Faith.

Faith is extremely particular about what she wears.  Yesterday, she got up from her nap wearing her new pink leotard (the girls are now in a dance/gymnastics class).  We wanted to go out, and thus wanted her to wear something more appropriate, with sleeves and pants.

She of course wasn't too pleased, but after a bit of convincing acquiesced. I let her pick out some pants and a shirt. She always insists on "leggings" which are basically anything that's not jeans.  She picked some out, along with a purple shirt. 

She immediately started to get sad.  I ask her what's wrong. Well, it turns out the pants weren't like leggings, but were like jeans, and she wanted a shirt without "dees tings" .  "These things" turned out to be sleeves.  Keep in mind that it's about 30°F outside at this point. 

As a compromise, she decides to take off those clothes and instead wear a dress. It was very nice, the battle then proceeded to what to wear on her legs/feet.  I told her either socks or tights. Faith is decidedly against socks, and thus choose tights. She didn't want tights with strips (texture), only plain tights. The only pair I could find had a hole in it (on the toe), which of course she couldn't in good conscience agree to.

It may sound like this is taking a long time, that's because it did.

Finally she was ready, and she looked very nice (she finally relented and wore tights with stripes).

This determination, and refusal to bow down in the face of opposition (opposition in this case being me) has the potential to serve her very well in life. 

After we came home last night, Faith and Kate went upstairs to play. Within minutes, Faith was again in her precious pink leotard.

The Free Place - a post about Kate.

We recently drove down to Utah to visit Suzy's old roommate Monique and her husband Jacob.  As we were getting on the interstate, Kate pipes up with, "I recognize this! It's the Free Place! ". 

After about half an hour on the "freeplace", the "are we there yet?" questions started. She was especially fond of, "we've been driving FOREVER."  Although, I must admit that the kids were great going both ways.

Jacob and Monique run a house for troubled girls, ages 8-13 or so.  We met three of the girls, and they were very nice, especially to Kate and Faith.

As we were leaving, Kate started to get VERY emotional.  We asked her what was wrong, and she told us, "I'm sad because I didn't get to know my friends very long."  She has such a sensitive heart.

Yesterday, she was very service oriented. She likes to call it "surprises".  She cleaned up the shoes in the laundryroom and mentioned she wanted to do more. So Suzy lamented (to the air) that she wished someone would take the sheets off the bed so she could wash them.  Sure enough, a few minutes later Kate was done. (side note, she makes the bed WAY better than I do. I came in a few days ago, and the bed looked great, as if Suzy had done it (although our pillows were in each others spots). I asked her about that, and she told me Kate did it). ps - Suzy agrees that Kate makes the bed way better than I do.

Also, while Suzy was on the phone with her mom yesterday, Kate made her a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich.  It's her new thing.  You can recognize a "Kate Made" sandwich by the inch thick peanut butter. That stuff is hard to spread.