Tales of a Shoebox Princess

It's a Sunday morning, I have an hour before I have to leave for church, my Sunday School lesson is prepared, the kids get themselves ready for church, I've eaten lunch, so now what? Blog! It's almost the end of the school year, which means I tend to think about how old my babies are and wonder where the time went. Hayley is almost done being a junior and Matt is almost done being a freshman. I started this blog back in 2008 when Katie was just graduating, and Matt was in 3rd grade. It boggles the mind. Ok enough of that. I gots pictures. Band concert in the gym. Matt looked all nice and I think he knew where I was sitting. Trombonist in action   This was taken at the Robotics end-of-the-year banquet. The girl sitting next to Matt had no problem being photographed. Matt, on the other hand, would not cooperate. This was the best shot I could get of him. Matt and the KING TeC robot. I don't remember the name they gave it. Matt helped a little b...

Styx song anyone? This post isn't really about Mr. Roboto. It's about Matt. And robots. When Matt was little and when he talked all the time, I thought he was going to be interested in theater. He liked hamming it up on the stage--one time he sang "Bob the Builder" for a church talent show when he was three or four. Another year, he told jokes. He seemed to like the limelight. But now that he's a teenager, his interests have taken a very different turn. He came home from school one afternoon and said, almost as an aside, "Oh by the way, my friends want me to try out for the robotics team." and then he wandered off to help himself to a post-educational snack. He had never shown an interest in anything mechanical or computerical (other than using a computer to play games). Let me amend that: he did like drawing thousands of miniscule robots on pieces of paper when he was little. He could fill up every inch on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with tiny li...

Matt's turn for braces. He's the fourth and last kid of ours to get braces. (OJ never got them.) So, the necessary before picture. Keep in mind, this is an uncooperative subject. He has to make a face.  And the after picture. The braces were only fitted to the top teeth to begin with. No he is not naturally cross-eyed, but he will be if he keeps on making faces while I'm trying to take close-up pictures of his face. This process will involve exposure of #11, same as Hayley had to have done. He also is missing 2 permanent teeth, but we won't be doing implants. Perhaps someday. The orthodontist is fairly sure the braces will be off before his senior year.

I'm in danger of turning my own personal Valentine's day into Christmas-like intensity. It's been that way for a few years. I don't know why I like to have so much personal satisfaction sunk into Feb 14. And it's not about what's in it for me as much as what's in it for me when I watch the kids do their treasure hunt and what's in it for me when I sit down to a heart-shapes-and-shades-of-red-infested table at dinner time. I guess I do it for love. And if that isn't a bad pun, I don't know what is. I just love to do it. I love making up puzzles. Thankfully the kids are receptive to the idea of brain teasers and tests of random knowledge based on family favorite TV shows, movies, and silliness mixed in with general knowledge. A small sampling of the puzzle clues from this year's treasure hunts for Matt and Hayley: Where souffle girl crash landed The poltergiest who fears only the Bloody Baron The message John thought he got from the f...

Bet you can't guess what I'm counting down. Anyway, this post isn't about that. It's about this: It's a snow cave. It was also where Matt slept last night (well, for most of the night). The details are still unknown, but I have verification from Jim that Matt dug the cave, shoved the cardboard in it, and bundled up in whatever woolen gear he had and zipped himself into the heavy duty sleeping bag and spent the night in this hole until 4 a.m. All I can think of is COLD and hopefully he slept with his feet towards the back of the cave, because I would get the willies, the heebie-jeebies, the creepy-crawlies, and the hackles raised if he had gone in head first. I don't consider myself especially claustrophobic, but if I went in head-first and stayed there any more than a minute, I'm pretty sure a panic attack would find its way in there with me and take up most of the air available for breathing. By the way, yes, Matt and Jim are at a scout campout o...

In a good way. I was actually motivated to do housework. I also actually had time to do it. I had the whole day yesterday to get things accomplished. Too bad my quadriceps felt like dogs had shredded them, thanks to an overzealous personal trainer who "just wanted to see where I was at fitness-wise." Never trust personal trainers! after three sets of walking lunges, I wanted to chop my legs off. And then his. (I signed up at a little fitness club and with the sign-up I got two free sessions with a personal trainer. First they get you to sign up, then they try to kill you for free) But I kept going--squat/jumps, squats on a half-ball thing, a wall sit, and then the trainer said, "Last one, burpees." I said, "Nope. I'm not going to do them." I would have put my foot down, but everything from my hips downward seemed to be possessed by Jell-O. So anyway, my legs hurt. But I did housework anyway. In 15 minute increments. I love the 15 minute plan. I set...

I get to talk to my out-of-the-country boys this week! Elder Paul on Tuesday, and Elder Jimmy on Wednesday. We are so excited! Katie and Christian (and possibly Morgan) will be on facetime with us for Paul's call. If you have any questions for either Paul or Jimmy, post them in the comments and I will copy them down and pose them to my sons. I will probably forget the answers, but if I don't, I can relay them to you or post answers here. In other Christmas news, I took the photo for this year's picture ornament of my children. The picture is of whoever is home at Christmas time, and we're down to two kids in the picture this year. It's been nearly 20 years since I had only two kids in the picture. I didn't get happy cooperation from the participants this year, well at least from one. The other one was happy to oblige with picture-taking. Time to print the picture out and stick it in the photo frame and put it on the tree.

I don't think I posted pics of Matt actually in his marching band uniform.  At least not on this blog.  I must rectify this. 7 or 6 trombones led the big parade Here is our trombonist! There. Pictures of Matt, in his marching band uniform, playing his instrument or marching. I'm done here. Oh wait, not quite. I'm done with Marching Band for this year, but not done with yammering on about my precious charming little children. I saw a quote on Matt's facebook page--said by Matt himself--that either makes me want to give him a good pounding with a broom, or laugh myself silly. He said " the pro to having twins is that when a guy is trying to steal one baby, you can beat him with the other." Have I said before that he strikes me as kinda weird? Hayley came home from school one afternoon, and the first thing she said to me is: "My friends are telling me things about Matt. Like they are glad he's in Robotics because he's SO funny....

Family birthday celebrations are getting smaller and smaller. It was weird. Matt had his requested birthday dinner of taco salad, blue and green jello, and strawberries with just Jim and me. Hayley was at work. And the rest of the kids...well, who knows where they were! They all chimed in as much as they could though. Both Elders sent emails wishing little brother a happy birthday, and Mrs. McCall (that is still weird to say!) sent appropriate electronic greetings as well. Behold, the birthday TARDIC: Color is close enough, although it looks lighter than it does in real life. Either he's a hipster, or he's cold. Matt and cake candle duty So there you go. Matt turned 15. Today he came home with a smallish box. He said as he opened it to show me what was inside, "This is my assignment for the Halloween dance at school. As a member of the Robotics team, I have to help and they told me I was in charge of these." He opened the box. Tarot cards. (...

1. My mother has complained about me not updating. She is sick of looking at Matt in the tree and all those apples. So here you are, Mother. 2. I hear things while in the shower. Bumps and thumps and noises that I don't hear when I am not showering. I don't know if I'm more paranoid when wet or if we have a poltergeist that gets rowdy only when the house has one occupant who is in the bathroom. 3. Also the cats have taken to following me around constantly. They waited outside the bathroom door while I was showering, and right now, they are sitting in the living room looking at me. It's creeping me out. 4. Happy birthday to Matt. 5. I have a TARDIS cake to finish (TARDIS stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space and I am thinking of calling this cake a TARDIC--Time and Relative Dimension in Cake. Har) 6. I'm worried about getting the correct color of blue for the TARDIC. Apparently Doctor Who fans are rabid about the correct color of the TARDIS. There is e...

Today was apple-picking day. We have two apple trees in the back yard, one that grows regular sized apples, and one that is some kind of dwarf apple tree that grows smaller sized apples (but they are bigger than crapapples, which, in my estimation, are a total waste of tree. Crabapples are worthless as a fruit because they are too small to do anything with unless you use them to chuck at annoying neighborhood kids to try to get them to leave you alone).  Both trees are heavily laden this year. The apples have started to drop from the tree, and have become fodder for wasps and lady bugs. The wasps like both kinds of apples, but the lady bugs prefer the dwarf apples. I don't mind sharing a few apples with the insects of southern Minnesota, but just a few. They can have the ones on the ground. I get the ones in the tree, thankyouverymuch. Mine. So I had to pick them before the bugs moved upwards.  (Plus Mike wants my apples and I'm going out to SoDak on Sunday. Gotta have 'e...

You know how kids have minds of their own? I wanted Katie to play clarinet, and she chose flute. I wanted OJ and Paul to play baseball--and they did for a while and were good at it, but eventually moved on to other things. I wanted Hayley to play clarinet too and try out for drama. She did play clarinet for a bit, but then the weirder bassoon called to her (and now she wants a mandolin or a ukelele or both) and dressing up appeals to her, but not the stage. I don't mind that the kids ended up doing different things than what I would have chosen for them. I wouldn't have minded if some of them didn't chose to join band (and one of them didn't). I like to see them doing what they enjoy. I learned to like cross country meets and track meets. I enjoyed seeing (and hearing) Katie excel at the flute. I had a good time with Hayley at Meta Con. OJ always has tales to tell of his discing or paintballing adventures. So Matt. I have encouraged track and field as an option for ...

I have to show you pictures of the marching band from tonight's high school football game. The band wore shorts and navy/gold t-shirts (most of them). Had they worn their marching band uniforms, giant flat bed trucks would have been needed to haul them in, and recordings would need to be played instead of live music, as they all would have fainted from the heat. (and actually, it's getting cooler. Sort of)   The trombones lead in through the crowd. One band member has his face covered up by the back end of his instrument. No matter. There will be plenty of opportunities to get pictures of that kid's face later. Like now. Oh, wait. Stupid lyre. How about now? Dang. Now? Ugh. This is beginning to be annoying. I spy eyes! Finally that kid got the trombone away from his face. And thus begins the first of several episodes in a new blog series, "Trying to take pictures of Matt in marching band." I teased Matt (very gently) because when I as...

at the MN State Fair. In fact I was so NOT lost. I was the opposite of lost. A less lost person you could not find at the fair today. I say this because there are people out there who equate me at the state fair with getting lost. I shall not deny that once upon a time, I did get separated, unintentionally, from the people I came to the fair with, which caused consternation and concern, especially on my part. Several times.  BUT no more! I can navigate up and down Dan Patch Ave, through the horticulture/agriculture building, and in and out of the creative arts building.  I can tell the arena from the cattle building and the sheep building, I can pick out the two end points of the sky ride. I know where several of the less disgusting bathrooms are, and I can steer through the crowds in the food building without becoming panicky, and I know which end to exit to get to certain roads. Jim did his annual stint volunteering at the Little Farm Hands booth with his company, and Ma...

But no picture of him in those until football season gets underway. Some notes on school schedules: Our high school seems to be having trouble putting together viable schedules for Hayley and Matt this year. Hayley has overlapping classes--First quarter Concert band goes from like 11-12 and AP Comp goes from 11:30 to 12:30. And she has an open period (unasked for) at the end of the day. Really, high school? Also, during quarter 2 and 4, Matt has concurrent classes. We really like quarter 4--Spanish and Science for first hour. We were thinking perhaps they are going to teach Science in the Spanish language. Also also, Matt has been put in the marching band for first quarter, hence the spats and a hat title. As long as I have had kids in this school district, freshmen aren't in marching band unless they are also in Wind Ensemble (like Paul). Matt is not in Wind Ensemble. So I thought, OK fine, they must need trombone players in marching band and then he'll be in the fre...

Tomorrow morning around 8 a.m. we take Paul to the airport. He has spent most of the day packing and sorting through things. We got the last few things on his list, one which was a certain kind of insect repellant that is available only at a few places. Last night we had a collective near-heart-attack moment when Paul couldn't find his passport. Katie had wanted to look at it before she left for the airport, but it wasn't in all the places we thought it could be. My stomach was churning as I helped Paul search. Jim said he hadn't even seen it since we got it in the mail with Paul's travel plans. But he thought he would check his truck anyway, even though he KNEW it wasn't going to be there. And yet it was, in a manila envelope under some other papers. It's a good thing Katie asked to see it, otherwise we all would have assumed it was where it needed to be, and then tomorrow morning would have been even more hectic, scary, and panicky, with possible tears. ...

I keep thinking that I'm going to update Paul's countdown daily, but it hasn't happened that way. There is too much to do. Like right now, I'm making icing. Just a sec while I pour in another cup of powdered sugar. K I'm back. This is batch one of the icing. I still need 2 more batches. And I need 2 or 3 more batches of ground beef cooked. Maybe another block of cheese grated. All this for Paul's farewell. You're coming, I hope? Anyway, since I don't blog like I used to, I'm going to offer up some pictures. Just a few. And I'll probably blog even less when Paul leaves, mostly because I'll be keeping up two missionary blogs for a while. Here Paul eats a Juicy Lucy. It was his request to eat a Juicy Lucy. He got to go to the 5-8 Club again today for lunch with Jim, Granddaddy, and Matt. This picture is not associated with Paul in any way. It's just a picture of Lemmy. It looks like the crockpot is on, but it wasn't plu...