"Funny"

I, along with some of my favorite bloggers [shout out to you], have issues with the abuse of the poor, misunderstood quotation mark. I saw an example today on a sign advertising a little family farm down the road. It read:

"Pumpkins"
Pick your own

Hmm. So if they are "pumpkins," I am left to ponder their actual nature. What will you pick today? I choose eggplants!

. . . and More on the Topic

Here's today's Morganism that made me literally guffaw.

Jeremy: Morgan, you're so smart.

Morgan: Just don't call me a fart cookie.

Oh, man!

So Fecial

Morgan has a few lingering speech difficulties. One of them involves the "sp" sound. I personally love it, especially when she says words like "sparkly." Who can resist something farkly? Or spider/fider. That's another favorite. Anyway, Marissa was trying to help her say "sp" today. It went something like this.

Ma: Say "spoon"

Mo: Foon

Ma: Say "s"

Mo: Ssss

Ma: Say "p"

Mo: P

Ma: Say "sss - p"

Mo: Sss - p

Ma: Say "spoon"

Mo: Pah - foon

Oh, it will come. But until then, I will savor every farkly and fecial thing.

Moon Party

Did you know that last night was International Observe the Moon Night? Well, it was, and that is it's official name. I didn't know until I saw a flyer advertising a moon party at our little local library. I was a bit skeptical, but they successfully sold the nerd in me by stating they would have telescopes. Yeah!

The weather all day yesterday left me fearing any lunar observations would fail, but the kids ran home from the park [and their most excellent flag football game] at dark saying, "We can see the moon!" By this time I was frankly done for the day and still had to vacuum, dust, finish laundry, put sheets on beds, bathe the kids, and clean my bathroom. And it was cold outside. And Jeremy was at the BYU game. And I dislike crowds. But my curiosity won out. We grabbed some jackets and headed over to our blessed gem of a library. [More on that another day.]

We did find a decent crowd gathered. I overheard the head librarian say they had expected about 100 people but ended up with more like 400. Outside they had about half a dozen telescopes of various sizes set up. They had a station for building construction paper rockets to then launch with an air compressor. Another station had a "moon landscape" obstacle course through which the kids took turns guiding a computer-controlled rover. There was free pizza and water and cookies and moon pies [which were gone before we arrived]. Inside the library was a coloring station and computer games to test your ability to land a rocket. We ended up spending about 2 hours at the party. The sky ended up incredibly clear, and the moon was in top notch form. We also snuck a peek at Jupiter, which was bright in the eastern sky, and several of its moons [I was told it has upwards of 60]. I'm not an astronomy buff by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something about space and the planets that fascinates. After all my balking, and in spite of a late night for the kids and not finishing all my jobs, I'm glad we ventured out. Three cheers for the moon, and for itty bitty libraries.

Now if I may diverge for a moment, I just passed Marissa on the stairs. She had blankets stuffed in both of her shoulders and must have noticed the confused look I gave her, because she explained, "We're playing tackle football." Why do these things make me laugh so hard?

The Mother of Invention

Jeremy and I were puzzled when Caleb, Marissa, and Aiden walked out of the house today with socks dangling out of their pants' pockets. Our puzzlement turned to amusement after we realized they were playing flag football. Of course, how perfectly reasonable! May I say, though, it was one of the funniest looking games of flag football I've ever seen?

Frenetic Genetics

Some of the traits Jeremy and I have passed to our children make sense. Caleb and Marissa, for example, got my "pond" eyes, while Morgan has Jeremy's bright blues. Other things, however, give us a chuckle and make us ask, "What the. . .?"

A couple of our favorites:

Marissa bites the corner of her cheek when she's nervous. She just sits there and nibbles away. Guess who else does that? Me.

Morgan squishes her bread into a doughy ball before eating it. I suppose this could be learned behavior, but I'm pretty sure she inherited it from her dad.

Just weird. I thought there were more, but I'm blank now. I'll have to revisit the topic another day.

Aaack!

I knew this day would inevitably come, but I lived in a hopeful state of delusion that it would arrive at least a little bit later.

Today Caleb walked past me, and Jeremy said, "Whoa! He's taller than you." We stood back-to-back, and lo, and behold! It was true. It must have happened during the night. No kidding. At the beginning of the school year I had at least a 1/2 inch on him. Curse those prepubescent growth spurts!

So now we just wait and see if his torso ever catches up with his legs. [For reference, I just bought him a pair of pants size 29W 32L. I would have gone smaller in the waist, but it seems that size doesn't exist. And Jeremy wears 32L and is 6' 2-ish".] Ho hum. I guess I'd just better adjust to my future role as the shrimp of the family.