Come What May: 2015

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Hy-ism #347

"I like to poke myself in the eye,
because then I get to see fireworks.

But sometimes it doesn't work and I just see art."

If you cross your eyes it helps to see-

- that that is a space helmet, a moon rock, and some space aliens.

And that Curious George is
playing Matt Damon's role from Interstellar.

I know, because I saw the five minute head-butt reenactment.

Because that red dot war paint in the middle of the forehead might need an explanation-

It started as Maddie's attempt to instill a cultural awareness lesson on the Hindu bindi mark.
Which rapidly backfired.
...Sometimes you just have to throw your plans out the window, dress up as a cowboy, and agree that it's a bullet hole.

When you're just too lazy to decorate your trunk...

You remember that your faithful orange truck would

probably be more than happy to come to the rescue.

I think our negligence might have been induced by early Halloween

burnout ~ cuz making the Ghost of Paladin in September

was much trickier, painful, and more time consuming than any of us bargained for.

There's only one real smile here.

And this is in lieu of the costume picture we forgot to take.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Two weeks in August

Night at the casino for Jesse's 21st birthday

Work and a baby bobcat

Games after work

Vehicular Maintenance FHE

Tyler, TX Zoo

Morning Scripture Routine

House Boat on Broken Bow Lake

It was a good two weeks...

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Hydn

*Yesterday he came into the bedroom as I was doing my hair and leaned against the bed. He crossed his legs and had his elbows propped up behind him as he leaned back in an old western pose. He said, "Mom," then pretended to spit and said in his best slow drawl, "I'm a Cowboy." (spit again) "And I'm gunna go feed the ducks!"

*In a sudden, somewhat unexpected move, Hydn's decided to become an artist. You now have the chance to recreate Winslow Homer's success story. He is painting pictures by the thousands and requests/begs that Maddie take them to the bistro to hang on their walls and sell. He's already spent the money in his head, so be a good brother and get over there and buy one. Or maybe just grab a handful of them stashed behind the seat in Maddie's truck - cuz I'm not sure she's actually hung them yet.

*Hydn's good deed for the day was to make Halloween pictures for the neighbors. They turned into postage sized drawings of ghosts that not even a piece of tape could fit on comfortably. He happily skipped from one door to the next to deliver them. Then he came back to get the camera -you know- so he could, "take pictures of how happy the people were to see him." So funny. I let him... just because I was curious to see just how happy they were myself.

* Hydn and Dad are on shaky ground this week, "Hey Dad, are the Cowboys your football team because you used to be a cowboy?" Apparently Dad was once cool, back when we had hay growing, horses in the pasture, and A cow. Now he's just dad with a small 'd', and he should probably think about changing his football team.

*Hy asked me the other day when he would do, "that thing.... you know where you go under the water and a lot of people are there?"

"You mean baptism?"

"Yeah, baptism."

"Well, I'm not sure. I'm still thinking about it. Do you know what it means to be baptized?"

"Yup! It means when you get baptized all your prayers come true!"

"uh...not exactly."

"Well that's what they teach me in primary!"

Awkward moment when you tell your kid not to believe everything they teach you at church.

*In primary they did a talent show for celebration of completing the children's program.... of which I was unaware. Apparently Hy was just as unaware because he said if he'd only known, he'd have taken his recorder and played Hot Cross Buns. Their loss, right? I asked what he did instead. He assured me he was sufficiently able to pull another talent out of his pocket for just such emergencies. I choked, "oh no..... what was it?"

"I told them my jokes!"

It was just as I feared. "What jokes did you tell them Hydn?"

"My two best ones!"

In dread, ".......the ones you made up this summer?"

"Yup! They liked them a lot!"

Joke #1 - A guy drinks milk. The guy says, "this tastes like milk."

Joke #2 - A horse walked up to a volcano and said, "It's hot!"

I kid you not. That was his best material. I blame Jesse, Maddie, and Paladin for laughing at them earlier this summer.

Maybe I should kill two birds with one stone and save Hydn from primary, while saving the primary from Hydn.

New Tricks

*Not pictured but equally impressive -
He's now up to not three, not four, but FIVE juggling balls.
What a kid.

Little Rock

A new place to live gives us a new central starting point.

Which gives us more places to explore in our day's driving range.

Before we went we read a couple of books to help us catch

up to speed. I highly recommend them both.

We call her Baloo

Dear Calder,

So do you want the long or short version? Monday, while Dad was at his continuing ed conference, Maddie and I decided to go down to Natchitoches to eat meat pies at Lasyones. But, we were wondering what else we could do to make the extra hour drive worthwhile. We found a couple of plantations to go explore (and when you get back we can watch a John Wayne movie that was filmed there.) We decided to eat lots of snacks on the drive so that we wouldn't be hungry until early that evening. After we spent a couple of hours on the tour we drove back to Lasyones only to find it CLOSED! Oh the horror. Who knew people ate pies from 7 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon, but that anytime after that was a faux pas? Only the South.... We had to settle for generic meat pies at a hamburger joint. I couldn't help but feel a bit of a failure, as that was what we'd look forward to for an entire month. It was an especially hard disappointmnet after visiting with Maddie on the drive over and how as a little girl she drrrreeeeaaaaded to hearing the words "California Spanish Mission" when we went on drives. She recalled, "I just remember walking in the hot sun forever on those days." And as soon as she said that I looked in the rear view mirror at poor Hydn; who had dutifully, if somewhat sullenly followed us all around every nook and cranny of that plantation. The only difference being that it was probably twice as hot, and twice as far to walk.

The guilt of the failed day had me trying to make things up to him with more promises that I'd be unable to keep - like swimming in the pool with him the next morning. Unfortunately it was closed for repairs. So I tried the science museum down the road. Yup, it was closed too. So we glumly watched cartoons on the t.v. and waited for Dad. When he came we decided to visit a civil war site an hour away (because of course everybody knows that's SOOOO much better to walk around in the hot sun for a young kid than a plantation...... )

However, on the way the much needed air conditioner clunked. No fear, it was only 97* plus humidity! Dad offered to pull into Walmart to buy me a bikini to ride in, in effort to help prevent heat stroke. But, being the trooper that I am I told him I'd spare humanity.

When we got to the site, guess what? Site CLOSED. Oh gosh - we were really batting a 100. Dad pulled into the lone shade offered by the lightpost of the Walmart parking lot and tried to youtube the repair while we huddled in the air conditioned entry. Dad found out it was a little more complex than originally thought, and would require a repairman. A specialized repairman who couldn't see it for a week. And the parts were even harder to come by than the repairman. Combine that the bad brakes, a clunking sound, aging tires, high mileage, not enough seats, Dad still having half a day off, repairs costing more than the car was valued, and did I mention NO AIR CONDITIONING? ...well... it was the perfect storm.

So, because of guilt, disappointment, heat stroke, and the uncanny ability to shirk responsibility we're now the somewhat sheepishly proud owners of a new car. We call her Baloo.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

It could be a long year.

Paladin teaches Hydn art once a week and does a fantastic job!

Last week's topic was Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel (the pictures are self explanatory.)

Notwithstanding Paladin's patience and diligence there are usually a few hiccups.

I love listening in:

Paladin - "So Hy, what's the name of the place where Michelangelo painted the ceiling again?"

Hydn - "...............................the 14 gospels?"

I get it.

But, I've had years and years of practice playing charades with Jesse and Calder, and following the most intricate pathways through the brain.

*Sistine >16>14, and chapel>gospel

Later Bert came home and asked the same question, but with the passage of time the answer got both closer to the mark -and further away. (Spacetime continuum next?)

Bert - "So Hydn, what'd you learn in school today?"

Hydn - "I learned about 16 Joseph Smiths."

Cache texted three hours later - "Are we to '666 Jesus Christs' yet?

But, nope! So far we're sticking with a solid - "60 Chapters"!