Daily Guffaws

Here are just a few of the things that have made us smile lately:

Today I found Kate alternately dipping her banana in the toilet and then taking bites. Yum!

Conversation with Hayden in the sandbox the other day:
Me: Hayden - don't throw sand! We don't do that.
Hayden: Yes, mom. People up north do that.
Me: What??
Hayden: Yeah. In North Virginia. It's a tradition.
(he was totally serious. crazy kid.)

My nephew Todd (my brother Aaron's son) is coming Tuesday and will be staying here for two weeks. Hayden is beside himself with excitement. Hooray for older and cooler cousins!

Our garden is producing large amounts of zuchinni and squash. However, our huge and beautiful tomato plants refuse to produce anything. Cletus has a pet watermelon plant that he checks on daily. Just between us, I think he's going to love it to death - literally. (Does anyone have any tips on killing pesky garden insects without using something that would be harmful to children? We are under attack.)

Cletus and Hayden went on the Raleigh Stake Pioneer Trek. They had a great time and came home alive and pretty much unharmed. Hayden proved his pioneer skills by eating a grasshopper (he then threw up, but we'll leave that part out). He said that it "squirted in his mouth and tasted like blood". How lovely. But, don't feel bad for him! He earned 11 pioneer dollars (??) for doing it. It was totally worth it. I actually enjoyed seeing Cletus at the end of the trek with his mountain man beard and a bandana tied around his head. What a good-lookin' pioneer!

Kate got her cast off. This was celebrated by us all. Hooray for baths without a plastic bag! Hooray for sprinklers and pools! Hooray for a right arm that doesn't smell moldy!

I got a wheat grinder and have started grinding the buckets and buckets of wheat that we have. I love it! I'm trying to make all of the bread that we eat, but we'll see how that goes. I'm turning into a food storage nerd, but that's okay. I'll embrace it.

We went to a cabin in Boone a little while ago and enjoyed the 40-50 degree weather in the morning and in the evenings. It was so nice! While we were there, we lit the wood furnace, then went outside to play in the creek. After awhile, we heard a beeping and looked up to see smoke billowing out of the cabin and to realize that the fire alarm was going off. We rushed inside and found that Cletus had left the bellows on top of the furnace. It was a mess! Everything turned out okay, except that the owners charged us $60 out of our security deposit to replace it (and, I got a stomach virus and was miserably sick for 2 out of our 4 days there).

Cletus and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary last month! I can't believe it's been that long. Man, we're old.

We finally installed a celieng fan downstairs in our living room. It is so wonderful! I love it! It makes such a big difference in the air temp downstairs.

Hayden (with the help of my mom's musical talent) has memorized the first 20 presidents of the US. He's pretty awesome.

And, finally, we enjoyed a fun 3rd of July in Garner with the Simpsons and the NC Symphony with an amazing fireworks show.

That's it for now. Life is sure fun. And hard, but mostly fun.