Story Time

Mom, I'm going to tell you a story.

Ok.

Once upon a time, I broke these glasses. But it was an accident. The End. Now wasn't that a nice story?

Hmmmm.....

Also this week:

Gavin learned to put on his own lipstick. Red is definately his color. (I am going to start locking up my purse....)

When it started to snow cottonballs on Friday, I asked Aliyah if she wanted to make a snowman. She said no, she wanted to make a Snow Bunny. (Huh?) so we gave it our best attempt, and I think we did pretty alright for amateurs. Gavin kept tearing his face off, so he was banished to the mud pile at the back of the yard, which he thoroughly enjoyed. The best part was having a Family Kung Foo Fest later that afternoon when Mr. Snowbunny had wilted and was no longer recognizeable as much of anything. All in all, a very enjoyable activity.

The Law of the Pack

My children have started moving in packs. Well, one pack, seeing as there are only two of them. But two is enough. More than enough. Their pack mentality is "Search and Destroy." They roam the house searching out freshly cleaned spaces, and preying upon the unprotected remnants of my sanity. Then they wait oh-so-patiently for that unsuspecting moment when their usual innocence has rendered me completely unsuspicious, and then...... they POUNCE!

Today while I was cleaning up lunch, they wandered into their room to play with their toys. Innocent enough right? Wrong. They emptied every basket, drawer, and shelf in their room into one mass pile in the middle of the room. When I discovered them, they scattered (of course) and re-grouped in the bathroom. While I was still reeling from the bedroom destruction, they grabbed the toilet brush and it's little recepticle, and used both to shower the bathroom in toilet water. I came running when I heard the splashing and uncontrollable giggles, and stood sputtering in the doorway, stunned and speechless. With a tremendous amount of self-control I removed the tools of destruction, stripped Gavin down to his skin and stuck him in the shower. Aliyah was suddently nowhere to be found, and when I finally located her, she was 10 feet up, in the top shelf of her bedroom closet (how did she even get up there??!!).

After prying her down and sticking her into the shower with her brother, I stepped out to get towels to throw over the toilet-water mess (we have a standing shower w/no tub so no drowning dangers) and discovered that somewhere amidst this chaos, Aliyah had time to sneak out to the kitchen and dump the remaining lunch into the carpet. Gavin must have been acting as the decoy. Figures. Defeated, I made my way back towards the bathroom where I was absolutely unsurprised to see water running into the hall carpet. They had worked together to create a masterpiece of hydro-engineering using water toys that made all the shower water run out onto the bathroom floor. Genius.

Time elapsed since onset of destruction? 10 minutes! In as many minutes as I have fingers, they had managed a more efficient demolition job than any orange-vested crew I've ever seen. Sigh. I called Troy and told him I was hiring a sitter to take over for the rest of the day.....week.......month(?) and I would be back when the house was clean and I had relocated my fragmented sanity. He reminded me that the economy hardly permitted such luxurious measures, and suggested I take some time out for group-therapy (blogging). So, thanks for the session ya'll, now I'm off to get ahold of my day, or some tranquilizer darts. Whichever I find first.

Goodbye, My Funny Valentine

The last few weeks have had me running at top speed just to keep up with the pace of life, and amidst the hullabaloo, we lost Troy's Grandpa a few days before Valentines Day. It was not entirely unexpected due to the fact that he had Pulmonary Fibrosis that was rapidly advancing, but he was so top-notch in every other aspect that the speed with which the end came took us all a little by surprise. A little over two weeks ago he was golfing in St. George, and today we laid him to rest.

He was only my Grandpa for 8 years, but in those short years I quickly learned to love and admire a man who had built a family business that continues to be successful, and the father and grandfather that created one of the most closely knit families I have ever seen. I am sad for the fun times we will not share in the coming years (Grandpa was usually the center around which family fun rotated), but glad that the end was quick and the promise of eternal families in our hearts. I cried a little saying goodbye to this man who meant so much to so many people, but could not cry for long because he brought too much laughter into our lives to leave much room for tears.

Until next time Grandpa Moss, my adopted Grandpa, our Eternal, Funny Valentine