A Most Ingenious Paradox

I was raised with a healthy dose of Gilbert & Sullivan...I expect only Daddy & Katie will get the most enjoyment out of this post...but if you haven't happened to see this production of Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline & Angela Lansbury, you've been desperately deprived so go see what you've missed. I only wish this would come out on DVD.

This is the best way I know of to "celebrate" Feb 29th...enjoy:


Happy Leap Day!



And for you Katie...happy memories of our "maiden jammies" (watching this makes me long for a little girl all the more--I want to make a maiden nightgown for her to jump & twirl around in too...Theora & Nola will have to be the next generation of maidens.)

Birthday, Benno, Beauty, & Bub's Buddy

While yesterday ended up being a fairly routine Wednesday, George did treat me to a delicious french toast & blueberry smoothie breakfast, ravioli dinner & ice cream cake and birthday gifts... We'll all go out to eat tonight for a more thorough celebration.

Benno is 10 months old today... So let's see, what's new with him: Benno is a mover and a shaker, and that's not just an expression--it's literal with him. He climbs on everything and his favorite thing if we ever let our guard (or the gate) down is to dart up the stairs and go straight for the toilet where we find him happily splashing--YUCK!!! (Fortunately, for whatever reason he doesn't seem to know that there is a toilet here on the first floor so he's steered clear of that one.) Aaron used to do that too--something about these boys with April birthdays I guess. He's gotten awfully wiggly lately and can't stand to be strapped down or held for any length of time, which of course makes church and other activities really difficult. Along with his wiggliness, he's gotten VERY vocal and will scream out to voice his displeasure. It's not always displeasure though...a lot of the time he is making very happy sounds, very loud happy sounds... He's starting to try to say words--I'm pretty sure he's really truly saying "Mama" but it only comes out when he's mad at me. He also says "uh-uh" for uh-oh. He doesn't say Dada yet but he's definitely one of Benno's favorite people because the moment George comes home from work, Benno drops what he's doing to go crawling like mad to meet him, and when George scoops him up, Benno snuggles with him and then does his "happy dance" which consists of beating with both hands and rocking back & forth. Sometime I'm going to have to try to capture it on video. He's clapping really well now and tries to wave hi/bye. He keeps us laughing all the time--what did we do for fun before Benno?

Yesterday was another thoroughly gorgeous day, and while I know I've already posted a pic of these flowers, they were even more amazing yesterday than before, along with a new patch of them that has popped up nearby:

See the bumblebee hanging out in this one?

We spent yesterday afternoon at gymnastics as usual--I caught some fun stuff. Here is Christopher with his little friend--sorry it's so blurry...not allowed to use flash in there:

And then this totally cracked me up--as Christopher & his friend started going across the balance beam, they clasped hands, and of course I didn't have the camera ready until just before they dropped their grip, but it was pretty cute just the same (and sorry it seems I did something funny to this video clip too...):

On this day...

in history:
1951 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
1964 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
1974 - People magazine is published for the first time.
1991 - Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".

and of course:
1977 - I was born!!!!
1986 - I celebrated my "first" 9th birthday. I promised my dad I would always stay 9.
2008 - So I am not 31 today...it is merely the 22nd anniversary of my 9th birthday.

Others who share my birthdate:
272 - Constantine I, Roman emperor (d. 337)
1807 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (d. 1882)
1886 - Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1971)
1902 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1968)
1928 - Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister of Israel
1930 - Joanne Woodward, American actress
1932 - Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress
1934 - Ralph Nader, American consumer activist (I'm clapping my hands that he's joined the presidential race, LOL)
1980 - Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton
1981 - Josh Groban, American singer

And sadly, today is the day the world lost:
1892 - Louis Vuitton, French luggage maker (b. 1821)
2003 - Fred Rogers, American children's television actor (b. 1928)
2008 - William F. Buckley, American conservative author and commentator (b. 1925)

Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes!

I hate to single anyone out when I so appreciate all the thoughts, calls, cards, etc, but special thanks again to Daddy for the wonderful card--a Snow White card that sings "Someday my Prince will come" when you open it...too funny. I have always, always loved Snow White. Apparently I wished a little too much for my Prince to come and ended up with 5 of them! : )
I'm a lucky girl!

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

Ordinarily, this really would not be a blogworthy topic...however, I spent a good chunk of the day on this and I must toot my own horn.

I can't remember the last time I cleaned out the car...not since before our long trip to AZ and back for Christmas (and it wasn't clean when we embarked on that trip), so you can imagine with 4 little boys what an awful mess it was...

Now, behold:

And, voila:

I have to say that the Magic Eraser is one of the greatest products ever--I had despaired of ever being able to clean these I-don't-know-what-to-call-thems but Magic Eraser did it! It looks almost new. Anyone have a magic trick for cleaning the carpets? I have scrubbed and scrubbed and that's about as clean as I can get that--I wish they wouldn't put carpet in cars. It's like carpet in dining rooms...doesn't make sense to me, at least not with all these boys...just means tougher messes to clean.

Sadly, the daylight was leaving me and the worst of the nastiness remains for another day...

And Christopher was waiting for me to finish and fell asleep...I wheeled him into the garage while I was cleaning up all the cleaning stuff and almost forgot about him...I said almost...

I love clean cars. My house might not always be perfectly clean (in fact, it's almost always not perfectly clean) but I like to keep my car that way. (I know that sounds a little hypocritical since I just explained that it's been forever since it's been cleaned, but it's a job that can't realistically be done when it's cold and/or raining out...I've just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to get to it--ie: today, sunny & low 60s!)

On a side note, today is my last day being 30. Tomorrow a whole new year begins.

On another side note, last night at dinner Anthony said the prayer. For some reason the boys would always pray that "Benno would grow up fast" and we told them, you've gotta stop praying that he'll grow fast because he's growing too fast! So last night in his prayer, Anthony said, "And please bless Benno that he won't grow too fast, just medium-fast."

This one's for you...

...you poor souls who are still braving the dead of winter...

Yes, this is in my own front yard. And my birthday is this week--my "spring" birthday. LOVE IT!

Lollipop, Lollipop, oooh Lolli-lolli-lolli-lolliPOP!

Up bright and early--so naturally I was too--Benno was as busy as ever this morning. I took him down to the toy room to work on tidying it a bit before we had to get ready for church. While I was busily tossing toys into boxes, Benno made a discovery...and what a happy discovery it was for him. He found a Dum-dum lollipop that was apparently being hidden away for future enjoyment behind a chair that normally sits right up against the wall, yet in my hasty tidying was pushed aside, revealing the tongue-tantalizing treasure.

Can you see the look of pure pleasure and triumph in that little baby face? He finished off the lollipop lickety-split.

Red Robin Sundaes

After 3 consecutive successful visits to the dentist (no cavities--none for George & me either!) the boys each had a coupon for a free sundae from Red Robin, which they begged us every night to redeem...finally on Friday, we all enjoyed a yummy dinner out and the boys finally got their sundaes.

Smile, Bub:

Take 2:

Ok, that's really cheesy but at least it's finally a smile:

You can always count on Aaron for a cheesy smile right off the bat:

Hey, where'd the sundae go? We heard an awful crash and looked up to see Anthony sitting there with only a cherry in his hand. I don't know quite how he did it but you couldn't help feeling really sorry for him...

Our great waitress went and brought him back another one.

Where's my sundae??? Not fair, little Benno cried...he's sure he has no cavities either, so where's his sundae?

I think I know why the dentist offers these particular coupons in the goodie bags--it guarantees him more business by encouraging sugar consumption. : ) We're not complaining.

Burnt Snickerdoodle Cookie

Well, we were super lucky and ended up with brilliantly clear skies for the eclipse tonight. Anthony, Aaron & I hung out at the park in the dark to watch...we kept waiting for the moon to get really red, and in Anthony's words, instead it looked like a "burnt snickerdoodle cookie." A tad bit disappointing as we were expecting a little more brilliant color but it was fun just the same and pretty cool to see. We played a rousing game of "I Spy" (I spy with my little eye...something round: the moon...I spy with my little eye...something orange-ish-yellow: the moon...I spy with my little eye...something shaped like a marble: the moon...I tell ya, this was exciting!) and looked at the stars, pointing out the few constellations I know (Orion and the Big Dipper, ha).

The most exciting part for us anyway though was at "moonrise" when the moon was first appearing over the horizon, it was enormous and pinkish from the setting sun, and we could already see the eclipse underway as well. It truly looked other-worldly. Unfortunately I didn't get a snapshot of it as I was driving the car when we saw that...oh well. I can't take any credit for this fabulous photo either--I tried but nothing I took really turned out.

I do love the moon... One of my favorite memories is from one night when George and I were camping with some friends in the middle of nowhere in the Canyonlands of southern Utah--as we sat by the campfire, we watched the full moon rise from the horizon until it was directly overhead, which happened over the course of a few hours. Out there in the desert with no obstructions to our view, it was just magnificent--the moon had a spiritual quality to it--and of course I was head over heels in love with George so it was about the most romantic thing ever.

Lunar Eclipse

Call me a nerd, but I've had a date marked on my calendar for a while now in wild anticipation of a full lunar eclipse--TONIGHT! And surprise, surprise, the forecast for my area is for cloudy skies:

With any luck, those clouds will part long enough for us to get a glimpse...


Better luck to those of you in places with blessedly clear skies (cough, Arizona..cough). For more info, read here.

*********Update!!!!********
Not 5 minutes had passed after I posted this when I heard an updated forecast on the radio--sure enough, look what weather.com says now...

There's hope for me yet! But I won't believe it until I see it at this point. Fingers crossed. ; )

President's Day at Mt. Hood

It was a gorgeous day here in the NW and with George off work and the boys out of school, we headed up to Mt Hood for fun in the snow.

This is our favorite spot for sledding around here--White River Recreation Park (it's free & there are bathrooms!):

Benno rides in the sled with all the clothes we shed...it was SO warm--we were definitely over-dressed.




We started out in one area with a lot of other families but decided to search for a less crowded, less "used" spot...we ended up turning around and going back only to find that most of the families had left by then, leaving the best spot almost entirely to us alone!



This shot gives you an idea about just how much snow is on the ground up here...we're literally up in the tops of the trees, and these are NOT short trees! Crazy, huh?

This is the snow bank you have to climb to get from the parking lot up to the sledding hills...those are Anthony, Aaron & Christopher sliding down.

Benno was happiest to get back to the car--you should've heard him here at the steering wheel, letting out continual squeals of joy and dancing up and down...

A very short video of Anthony bouncing down the hill...

And lastly, here I scream like a girl...oh, wait, I am a girl...it's easy to forget in this family. The setting here is just incredible. I love living so close to this! (Well, I guess "close" is a relative term...it took us forever to get home as the traffic was backed up heavily for miles. We stopped at Burgerville for yummy cheeseburgers on the way.)

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

"Every Sunday you'll see my sweetheart and me as we poison the pigeons in the park!
...and maybe we'll do in a squirrel or two..." Ahhh, sweet Dr. Demento...

Lest you take me seriously, we didn't poison anything today. We merely took a happy Sunday afternoon stroll to the park enjoying the fabulous near-60 degree weather...











This last one is here because I think it's so funny... I've seen this couple walking their dogs before. One is on a leash and is actually kinda hidden by a tree here, but it's the other one I laugh at--he walks without a leash, carrying an enormous bone in his mouth...can you see it?

Tattoo'd wonders

Playing with "Valentine's Tattoos"

The weeds of life

My favorite chore...or not.

Before, followed by many hours later:





Collected rainwater...since about November, I think.




And Monkey-boy on top of the shed.