Duties

We've been keeping busy around here--you know, just doing the things that make every day life happen.  Some of us embrace our duties "with a heart full of song," while others think, like Nacho Libre, that maybe it's time to get some better duties.  Here's a run down...

Bella (9 months): believes her duty is to remove her collar.  She may have won this fight at last.

Benson (10 months): knows that he is responsible for pushing buttons.  His favorites are on cell phones (but only when they're not locked), remotes (but only those that really control the TV), and the DVD player (but only when the TV is on).  Now that he is tall enough, this also translates into a duty to "play" the piano.  Often when I realize he has crawled away, I just need to listen for a minute before he starts playing me a little tune.  This is actually adorable.  (I have been trying today to get a picture of the back of his chubby little legs while he's standing, but he always turns and sits, then crawls over to show me how to work the buttons on the camera. He's so helpful like that.)

Tessa (3):  has a self-appointed duty to daily check the pile of "stuff" I sweep up from the kitchen floor to make sure I don't throw away anything valuable, like that stray Polly Pocket shoe or the single bead left from a necklace I threw away a month ago.

Caytie (5): desires to be an entertainer.  When she's around Benson, he gets more attention than he can sometimes handle.  She loves to make jokes and be silly.  She also absolutely must add details, usually girly, to her drawings and school assignments.  Most people and animals are adorned with curly eye lashes, rings, bracelets, lacy dresses and elaborate crowns.  Her name is written in curly cues, and nothing is ever just one color.

Gracie (7): has a current duty to know the weather forecast.  This is in small part because of a weather unit in school, but is mostly due to the wind storm we had last week.  She has always been the most sensitive to severe weather, but now needs to know any and all information about the forecast, and if there is any wind that seems too strong, we can find her in the hallway closet waiting it out.

Emma (9): has a duty to try to express her fashion sense with the limited option of clothes that her mom provides for her.  This is particularly true with school shoes, which her mom continues to insist are best interpreted as tennis shoes, while she believes that almost any other shoe would be better.  She has compromised by wearing tennis shoes to school, and changing into her "church" shoes, cowboy boots, etc. after recess and PE.

Scott (11): has the duty of learning to balance time on his iPod with everything else.  I was hoping he could balance without intervention, but alas, this has not been the case, and some (additional, more stringent) rules have been set up.

Ben: has been testing the waters in looking for different employment, and has taken on the duty of getting certain certifications that will make him more marketable.  Current project: CCNA.  If you know what that one is, maybe you can hire him...

Me:  went to Stake Conference with all the children.  (Ben was there, too.)  This was a broadcast from Salt Lake, and while I really often enjoy them, I am convinced there must be a way to make them more family friendly.  I definitely felt as if I had fulfilled a duty after that one was done.  Ugh.  It is difficult when I see other families with kids, playing so quietly on all kinds of electronic devices, who may be ignoring everything that is going on around them, and knowing that my noisy kids aren't allowed to use them (my rule), but are not getting much more out of the meeting.  Oh, and I also have the duty to finish watching Season 3 of Downton Abbey.  ASAP. And, like Nacho, I have cooking duty.  But so far, no dead-guy duty.

Hear the wind blow, blow...

 Early Sunday morning (in the 3-4 am range), we were jolted from deep sleep by a sudden, strong storm.  The rain, wind and some hail came fast and hard, with spurts of lightning and thunder.  After checking the weather channel we were able to relax a bit, knowing that it would soon be over.

We get a lot of thunder storms around here, so we're fairly used to the routine.  The next morning, however, we found something new...

See that trampoline?  It's ours.  The yard it is in, though, is not.  You can tell, because our yard is full of balls,  which our neighbors with two teenage daughters don't seem to have around any more.

 I have known of trampolines blowing away in windstorms.  It has happened to my sister several times.  Usually, those trampolines are all bent up and on their sides and have to be trashed.  Not so with ours.  It looks like it took a neighborly stroll over to see what was going on beyond the fence.  Besides reattaching the top of the net, there was no damage.

Oh, except to the fence.

We're still not sure how the trampoline managed to go down the small hill, break the fence, and then somehow move back up the small hill on the other side, but that is the story, and there are trampoline marks on the fence to prove it.

We are SO grateful that the wind didn't blow the trampoline into the windows on the back of our house.  The fence we can fix.  The windows would have been a much more drastic situation.

Zoo Day

So, the other day we went to the zoo, and the only pictures I took were of these crazy animals:

It makes sense, though.  These are the ones I love the best.