Gee, I Can't Imagine Why Not

Justice (6) and Clayton (3) were just now having an argument as follows:

Clayton: NO!!

Justice:  Fine. I'm NEVER playing Indiana Jones with you ever again. I'm never ever going to play Indiana Jones with you again, Clayton. Never.

Me: What's going on?

 Justice: He won't get tied up when I hit him with the whip!

Messy Man

Clayton and I baked a cake together.  As we were finishing, I told him that we need to wash him up because he was all messy.  He immediately took off with that idea.

"I'm MESSY MAN!! I have Messy Power!  Pshzew!  Pshzew!"  

As he is pretending to throw his 'Messy Power Lightening' at the wall, I'm thinking, 'Never were truer words ever spoken, kid!'

Then as I attack him with a wash cloth, he whisper-screams,  "No!  It burns us!  It burns us!"

That kid cracks me up sometimes.

Understanding Isaiah

After years and years of not understanding, I FINALLY get an Isaiah verse!  It's Isaiah's version of a wiggle song!  In the middle of all of that stuff that I can't quite grasp, it's time to stand up and get the wiggles out, so maybe I'll have a better chance of understanding what is to follow.  See look: 

 Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 20:37: 

"Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion."

compare to


"Oh, How We Love to Stand," page 279 in the Children's Song Book:

"Oh how we love to stand
And turn ourselves around
Shake the left and shake the right,
But best of all sit down"

(I'm so going to the bad place!)

Drill Sargent

My brother Todd and his wife Suzanne are home on leave!!!! YAY!!! Todd got up to run with my early running group and me. After we ran, Todd came over for breakfast. The best part though was Todd waking the kids up for school. They haven't seen their Air-force Uncle in about a year and a half, so it was hilarious to see the mixture of shock and surprise and then delight as Todd sneaked up and got right in their faces and woke them up like a Drill Sargent.

"GET UP! GET UP! GET UP! IT'S TIME TO GET READY FOR SCHOOL! GET UP! GET UP! GET UP!!!"

Variations on the Barnard

A tribute to one of my very favorite families ever.

Sorry to Burst Your Bubble

On the way to school this morning:

Clayton: Where does the REAL Indiana Jones live?

Justice: In California.

Me: No, Indiana Jones is a fictional character. He isn't real.

(Then follows a conversation about how movies are just actors dressing up in costumes and playing pretend.)

Justice: But Harry Potter is real. Harry Potter land is in California. I saw it on T.V.

Me: No, what you saw was a theme park with rides like at Six Flags or Santa Claus, Indiana.

Justice: Well then... What in California IS real?

Me: Ha ha! Not much!

Conversations On The Way Home From Church

Clayton (3 year old): Jesus made the world for me.

Justice (5 year old): No, he made the world for me.

Clayton: No, he made it for ME!

Justice: Nuh-uh! He made the world for ME!

(this goes on for a minute or two)

Lydia (14 year old) shouting: Jesus made the world for everyone. Now SHUT UP!!

One Mixed Up Kid

Clayton to me:

"Hey Marius, I'm Indiana Jones, and I'm going to Junie B. Jones' Hogwart's School of Whipping."

Three Years of Growing

Well, it's been three years now since I started with the pictures at the growth chart. We usually take pictures before school, so here are three years worth of our kids in various stages of bedheadedness.

Good Idea / Bad Idea

Does anyone else get the sillies? It can't be just me. Driving around town, or at the store, do you just get the urge to do something goofy? I do all the time. Sometimes these impulses are to be acted upon, just for kicks, and other times, maybe it's not so appropriate. For example:

The other day it was wet outside, and the guy, walking down the isle, behind me, at Walmart had squeaky shoes. Should I turn around and yell, "Your shoes are too loud!" ~YES!

Driving my kids home from middle school, should I roll down the window and yell random strange phrases at all the kids walking home. ~Yes, nearly everyday. We actually have rules about when and where you can roll down the window and shout random things at people. They are these: Not in our own neighborhood - people can find out where you live and egg your van or something. Not at stoplights when you'll be stuck sitting next to them for a while. Other than that, it's pretty much "go ahead," but don't say anything particularly rude.

Yesterday driving past the cemetery and seeing a few people gathered around a grave, should I lean out the window and sing "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out..." ~No, it's probably not a good idea.