Stetson and UP

*SPOILER ALERT*

Yesterday I took the kids to see Disney's new movie, UP. It was a tear-jerker pretty much all the way through, which is a first for a Disney animated movie - certainly not the type we'll be enjoying time and again in our family room. . .

But there were some funny parts. . . The dog everyone has probably seen on all the commercials - a Golden Retriever - wore a talking collar which allowed his thoughts to be translated into English words. . . Anyway they really, really pegged *exactly* what a Golden would say if he could talk. The four of us laughed the loudest and longest of everyone in the theatre at the kind of "thoughts" this dog would have. Stuff like (while casually trotting behind his humans, "smiling" with tongue hanging out): "I am your dog. And you are my master. I am so happy you are my master." Or once several hours after he had been cast out forever: "I hid under the house because I love you."

There was a scene where the old man used one of the tennis balls from the bottom of his walker to distract and "lose" the dog which was really classic. The dog was in the middle of rambling on about something and when he saw the tennis ball he stopped mid-sentence and used every ounce of his concentration to watch the ball.

The big brown, caring eyes. . . swishy, constantly wagging tail. . . the upright, proud sitting position that says, "I have completed my task to the best of my ability." . . .topped off by a slobber-drenched tennis ball.

Whoever wrote this dog character either owns several Golden Retrievers or did a lot of research.

Here's a picture of Ashley and Stetson to show how huge he really is:
(she is wearing her new puppy paw-print leotard)


(I wanted all the kids to pose with him, but it took so long the boys lost interest. . .hopefully I'll get some pictures of them up here soon).

The view from behind:


Here's a "blooper" picture that was almost professional-grade perfection, until:

. . .A a few months ago we had some tennis-ball sized hail - the kind that hits the ground at an angle and bounces a few times before landing. . . When we opened the door to look, Stetson ran out. There was no need for a talking collar to translate what he was thinking: "Tennis balls from Heaven!"

Funny Ashley

It's funny how the three kids have different gifts. Brandon is our scholastic whiz. Jonathan is our Theologian. And Ashley is just the most responsible girly girl, girl I've ever seen. This absolutley *cannot* have been learned behavior. Posted below are before and after pictures of my office and formal dining room. . . Ashley's room is the only one in the house that never needs cleaning. Sometimes, she'll even decide it's not clean *enough* and reorganize her jewelry box, empty the "wastebasket" and arrange the clothes in her armoire by color. She neatly folds or hangs up her school clothes after school and changes into playclothes such that the only thing that's ever in her hamper are socks and underwear with an occasional shirt or pair of jeans she's deemed not clean enough to wear again wihtout washing.

She's also a very good supervisor. She has a great sense of organization and helps the boys clean their room too. She uses a pointer to help them organize things into piles. . . then she helps them sort each pile and put everything in its proper place until its as neat and orderly as her own room.

She also acts as a den-mother to the boys and our dog. Most recently, I've been impressed with her keen "a mom just knows" sense . . .only she's just a kid. A few weeks ago, our dog had a spider bite on his paw and licked all the fur off (and licked and licked some more) until it was swollen (the vet called this a lick granuloma). Ashley is the one who noticed this. "Oh mom, look at Stetson's paw. . . It's much worse. Come here, boy. We need to show mommy. Good dog. Now sit. Shake. Give me your paw. Now mom, look. See his paw is much worse than yesterday." Unfortunately, part of the treatment for this was a stylish lamp-shade collar he had to wear for two weeks - from which he developed an allergy to plastic. . . .And Ashley once again was the first to notice. "Oh mom, look at Stetson's mouth. He looks like he has itchy pink spots on his mouth. I think we need to take him to the vet." . . .Took him to the vet and lo and behold. . .
But last night was the most impressive to-date. She came downstairs before bed and said, "Mom, I think Brandon isn't feeling very well. His head feels warm and he looks tired. Maybe check on him before you go to bed." He did feel sweaty when I checked on him and this morning he woke up sniffly.

Honestly, she inherited some responsibility/presence of mind gene that's way more dominant in her than in any of the rest of us.

And she is sooooooo girly. Being the middle child, sandwiched between two brothers, no less. For our 11th anniversary, Karlon bought me a heart-shaped ruby necklace and presented it to me over a dinner date. I was wearing it when we picked up the kids and Brandon and Jonathan didn't notice at all, but it was the first thing Ashley saw. She ran up to get a closer look: "Oh, mom! It's so beautiful! Where did you get it?"

And she's been needing a new leotard for a while and when I took her to gymnastics, the gift shop happened to be open. I bought her two new leotards and when her class was over she wanted to know what was in the bag. . . she was *totally* delighted. . . you'd think I'd given her a pony. "Oh thank you mommy! I don't know how I can ever thank you for this." Asked which one she liked better, she said: "Oh, I don't know. I just can't decide. I love them both the same. . . .I just couldn't decide."

. . .And while the rest of us ate donuts for breakfast the other day, she said: "No thanks, I think I want something healthy for breakfast. Do we have any cereal?. . .

Where did this kid come from?

I'd think she might have been switched at birth except for having been born by c-section in a surgical suite. . . (and those eyelashes - I could have picked her out of a line-up after seeing her just once). I would have loved to know what God was thinking when He made her so completely unique from the rest of us. Maybe something like "What this family needs is. . .Ashley."

AND the TATTLE AWARD for the day GOES TO. . .

Ashley!

"Mommy! Guess what??!? Brandon kickted me in the lips and now my tooth is really wiggle-eeeeee!
See? It's bleeding! Hooray!"

Later: "And I owe it all to Brandon!"

Now *that's* what I call looking at the glass half-full.

(I should really note for the record that said baby tooth has been on the verge of falling out for several weeks).

More before and after

Well, Summer is finally here. I actually needed a few days to decompress and didn't dive right in like I thought I would. . . But the adventure has begun and I just finished the dining room. Here are the before and afters:




Messes of this magnitude actually happen a few times/year at our house and I have developed a great system for cleaning them. Because everything is so chaotic, there's no point in trying to put things away since the container for whatever thing might not be where it's supposed to be, either.

Basically I go around each room with a trash bag and a laundry basket sorting between things I want to keep, things to throw away and [create a pile of] laundry. When the laundry basket is full of things I want to keep, I dump it out in the closet under the stairs and close the door. The laundry in any given room goes to the laundry room to await the next wash day and the trash goes out in the trash bin to await the next trash day. When all the rooms have been sorted through, I use several baskets and sort everything under the stairs based on the room each item goes in. This is probably the easiest and fastest part of the job. . . and when the last thing is put away, everything is tidy again!

So that's two down, 12 more to go! I'm on a roll now!

We made it! Summer is *FINALLY* here!

Beginning at 10AM today, I started counting the hours. The first few seemed to pass quickly as Karlon and I amused ourselves by lunching at County Line. But things slowed up once we got home and at 1pm I began counting minutes. First 59. Then 46. 44. 42. 41. Then I got rather involved in a deadly spider show Karlon was watching on Discovery Channel and whittled it down to 34 before I looked at the clock again. He happened to be poking around on youtube with his laptop and we watched a clip of Susan Boyle's final performance on Britain's Got Talent, which knocked it down to 31, leading into the final half-hour. Calculating in my head, I knew I should show up about ten minutes early to say goodbye to the teachers. . .and figuring it would take about ten minutes to get there, I would need to leave about nine minutes later. What could I do for nine minutes? I decided to brush my teeth. . . it always seems to take longer than I think it should in the mornings, so it would stand to reason that it takes just as long in the afternoons, but no luck. It did knock a few minutes off, however, and brought remaining time down to six minutes and thirty seconds. So for six minutes and thirty seconds, I waited and waited and waited while the seconds ticked until it was finally time to go. I backed out of the driveway with a happy heart, arrived exactly on schedule in the parking lot. . . said goodbye's to the teachers and chatted briefly with some of the other mom's about summertime plans. And it was *finally* over. The three of us walked out to the truck and drove home cheering.

It was such a huge deal to me, Karlon even sent flowers. Gorgeous violets and star-gazers that match my office perfectly and fit the empty space on my office shelf like they were custom-made.


The beginnings of a GREAT summer!!!

Ashley lost her tooth!

. . .with a little help from an experienced big brother who suggested she turn it sideways and pull forward. She was genuinely grateful for his advice (especially since it worked immediately).

Isn't she beautiful?

One more day (and still counting)!

Today was the awards ceremony. It was scheduled from 8-10am, but was over by 9:25. Last year, everyone left when their kids' class presentation was over, so the poor fourth graders only had their parents to watch them. This year they made an announcement requiring everyone to stay to the end. Everyone was really impatient and hopped up the instant the principal thanked us all for coming (she forgot, I guess, that attendance had been mandatory). . . Brandon, Ashley and I were sitting on the very back row and led the escape. We all made a beeline for the parking lot and never looked back.

It's really been a very long year.

But we're done until tomorrow. One last fun field trip from 10-2 and it's officially SUMMER!