ketchup list
I've been in Kentucky with the kids visiting my parents this week. They have DSL, thank heavens, but the computer is in Uncle Joe's room, where Daniel sleeps, so I haven't actually had much opportunity to be online this week. Here's a list to catch up with what's going on:
1. It's my mom's birthday today (All Saints' Day). Give her a big shout out, ya'll! I don't think I've been home for my mom's birthday since I was in high school, so this is special.
2. Yesterday, of course, was Halloween. Daniel dressed up as an orange kitty cat:
Notice the lack of mittens. I loved all those suggestions you guys gave me, but I just didn't have time to make them (I often vastly overestimate what I can do in a given amount of time). It was nearly 70 degrees here yesterday, so it's just as well that I didn't make extra warm felted mittens anyway. I DID, however, whip out that orange hat with kitty ears in one evening.
We went trick-or-treating. My hometown has trick-or-treating in the afternoon at downtown businesses for little kids (though I saw some suspiciously large children there who looked to old and too healthy to be missing school for extra candy from the local bank). I think most of the candy is too cheap and chewy for Daniel to eat, but he did have his first sucker, the classic DumDum. And then, immediately after, his second. And then he asked for one for breakfast this morning (I said No). I'm a little sad we've opened that door, but I guess it had to happen sometime.
3. My dad carved his first jack-o-lantern. His very first, can you believe?
Actually, he carved two. I guess these "firsts" come in pairs.
4. Anya tried to climb up the porch steps. She didn't get too far, but she sure enjoyed the attempt.
5. The other night I was jarred awake by several people having a huge screaming fight right outside. "COME HERE YOU MUTHAFUCKA I AM GONNA FUCK! YOU! UP! BITCH" And so on for at least fifteen minutes. I lay there a little frightened because it sounded like they were practically under my window, and I was nervous that Daniel would wake up (he didn't) and then after a while I wondered if I should call the police. Eventually I heard a car leaving and it was quiet again. The next morning I asked my parents if they'd heard the commotion. "No." (They're pretty sound sleepers, apparently). "Were they yelling obscenities?" my mom asked. "That was probably the next door neighbors," my dad said. "They don't really know how to manage their anger."
Understatement of the year.
6. There is an apple tree in my parents' front yard. It's always been there, but I think it's only been producing real apples for a couple years. They're small - just a couple inches across - and a little marked up, but my mom has been collecting them to make applesauce. The best ones are way up on the tree, far above where anyone can reach, so my dad devised a contraption to knock them down on the ground.
Daniel particularly enjoyed picking up the apples and collecting them in a bowl.
7. I've been practicing for my upcoming recital. Why, do you ask, do I come to Kentucky to practice for a recital in Kansas when I live in Wisconsin? Well, that's just my life: divided between my home in Madison and my family's home in Kentucky and my in-laws and alma mater in Kansas. I can't get much done with the kids underfoot, so I figured I'd take advantage of a week of free babysitting to get in some quality practice time. I'm a little frustrated at my rusty technique, but I am preparing as well as I can.
1. It's my mom's birthday today (All Saints' Day). Give her a big shout out, ya'll! I don't think I've been home for my mom's birthday since I was in high school, so this is special.
2. Yesterday, of course, was Halloween. Daniel dressed up as an orange kitty cat:
Notice the lack of mittens. I loved all those suggestions you guys gave me, but I just didn't have time to make them (I often vastly overestimate what I can do in a given amount of time). It was nearly 70 degrees here yesterday, so it's just as well that I didn't make extra warm felted mittens anyway. I DID, however, whip out that orange hat with kitty ears in one evening.
We went trick-or-treating. My hometown has trick-or-treating in the afternoon at downtown businesses for little kids (though I saw some suspiciously large children there who looked to old and too healthy to be missing school for extra candy from the local bank). I think most of the candy is too cheap and chewy for Daniel to eat, but he did have his first sucker, the classic DumDum. And then, immediately after, his second. And then he asked for one for breakfast this morning (I said No). I'm a little sad we've opened that door, but I guess it had to happen sometime.
3. My dad carved his first jack-o-lantern. His very first, can you believe?
Actually, he carved two. I guess these "firsts" come in pairs.
4. Anya tried to climb up the porch steps. She didn't get too far, but she sure enjoyed the attempt.
5. The other night I was jarred awake by several people having a huge screaming fight right outside. "COME HERE YOU MUTHAFUCKA I AM GONNA FUCK! YOU! UP! BITCH" And so on for at least fifteen minutes. I lay there a little frightened because it sounded like they were practically under my window, and I was nervous that Daniel would wake up (he didn't) and then after a while I wondered if I should call the police. Eventually I heard a car leaving and it was quiet again. The next morning I asked my parents if they'd heard the commotion. "No." (They're pretty sound sleepers, apparently). "Were they yelling obscenities?" my mom asked. "That was probably the next door neighbors," my dad said. "They don't really know how to manage their anger."
Understatement of the year.
6. There is an apple tree in my parents' front yard. It's always been there, but I think it's only been producing real apples for a couple years. They're small - just a couple inches across - and a little marked up, but my mom has been collecting them to make applesauce. The best ones are way up on the tree, far above where anyone can reach, so my dad devised a contraption to knock them down on the ground.
Daniel particularly enjoyed picking up the apples and collecting them in a bowl.
7. I've been practicing for my upcoming recital. Why, do you ask, do I come to Kentucky to practice for a recital in Kansas when I live in Wisconsin? Well, that's just my life: divided between my home in Madison and my family's home in Kentucky and my in-laws and alma mater in Kansas. I can't get much done with the kids underfoot, so I figured I'd take advantage of a week of free babysitting to get in some quality practice time. I'm a little frustrated at my rusty technique, but I am preparing as well as I can.
Comments
And, as always, your chillens are adorable!
I'm sorry about that Halloween when I disrupted our Spanish II class with that can of silly string.
Suze's Mom
p.s. You've apologized several times for that Spanish II class--deservedly so!!!
pps Thanks for the birthday wishes!
I did the silly string, and I was also one of those who drew on the outsides of the windows with dry erase markers.
I know there were other things we did. We were a bad, bad, class and I honestly don't know why.
We were equal opportunity, though. In Spanish 1, Brian Barnes and I tagged "en una estaca" to the end of every answer we gave Miss Godsey (long story, had to do with a talking jalapeno).
In Spanish III, Nathan Wright answered every question to Miss Godsey with something about a thousand-headed llama with flames shooting out of its posterior, and I turned a simple camping story into an alien abduction ending with the children eating a counselor.
We might not have behaved, but at least we weren't boring. You should hear what went on in Honors Biology.
Suze's Mom