Girl Talk

I played phone tag today with one of my best girl friends. As Madison walked out of her violin lesson, the phone rang and I grabbed it. We walked to the car, got seat belts etc. and then the call disconnected unexpectedly. I took the chance to quickly tell her why I took the call because she had had a very bad day today and wanted to talk for a minute but I apologized in case Madison felt ignored.
"We'll why do you care if she had a terrible day?" came the reply from my fend for yourself, don't bother me with your problems daughter. Such a Maddie comment. I will remember this when she is running up cell phone bills talking to her girlfriends at sixteen and seeing every move they make as critical and important to be discussed and reviewed in excruciating detail. Maybe then she will understand my reply, "Because she's a girl and I'm a girl and girls need to talk and share with their buddies. And also because we are friends."

Texas Longhorn Bus in Singapore

Got this picture today on the way home from church. The bus logo says "Moove Media embraces graciousness." I have no idea what that means but Hook 'em Horns! is all I can figure.

Farewell Snickers

Today is April Fools Day so when I picked up Jacob from preschool I asked his teacher if they had done anything fun to celebrate it. Nope. They did something else. Their classroom pet, Snickers the Guinea Pig, passed away Saturday night. Ms. Jennifer and her three children came up to school and buried him in a quiet spot Sunday afternoon.

During class today they read a story about a dog that gets old and his body is tired and he dies. Then the children gathered leave and little flowers from the school grounds nearby and took them and decorated his grave. Jacob was fine when I picked him up until I asked the question of his teacher and he was reminded of poor Snickers. He asked Jennifer to show him how to find it so he could show me.

We went out and he showed me and burst into sobs. Poor Jacob was so terribly sad. I did my best to give him hugs and reassure him it would be okay while juggling shoeless Ashlyn who wanted to attack the flowers on the grave and walk all over it. I wish there was something I could do to make it better. I know it's hard for kids. Ben still sobs over each fish he loses.

Good call by Ms. Jennifer not to do April Fools on a day like today. It would just be way too confusing.

Stalling Bedtime

Brian and I are laying on our bed talking to Ben in the bathroom about his party. Its 9:40 pm, two full hours past Jake's bedtime. He comes into our room, climbs in our bed with the worlds biggest smile and says, "Who's going to talk now?" He's stalling but so darn cute. Ben smiled and seeing me laughing at Jacob's sly charm said, "I bet there is going to be a blog post about him tonight." So there it is.

Zero Access Toilet

"Don't you know my underwear is a toilet that I'm not allowed to pee in?"
- Jacob when he had to pee after the skateboard park and there were no toilets to be found

General Conference Weekend

I used this sticker idea from our friend in Virginia for general conference this weekend. This picture is after a little more than one hour. Every time they heard the words on the tv they put a sticker on the right page. Maddie was big into it but the boys not so much.

She also decided she wanted to make a copy of the pages of her own so she could write down why each of the things were important. She finished writing this morning and I got a picture of her but I love that Ashlyn is licking her paper in the background. She was supposed to be doing the same project Maddie was. Here is what Madison wrote:

Recent Sightings

These pictures are all just waiting on my phone to be shared. I love this country.