How do you love me? Let me count the ways

When I drop my computer, you take it apart and reconnect the wiring so I can use it again

When my phone takes forever to load Gospel Library, you download the new version so you can stop it from checking for updates every time it opens

You drag me up to the mountain to play in the snow when all I want to do is read my new Kate Shugak novel

You make me watch and fall in love with the new TV show everybody's been raving about

You put my candy experiment photos on the computer and organize them so I can find them again

You think of a new experiment for me, try it, and film it so I'll have something for my blog

You take care of the kids at church

You tell me I'm beautiful when I smile

You know what makes me sparkle (cathedrals, castles, sightseeing, and candy experiments) and what doesn't (kissing? puh-lease!)

You tell me it's all right when I'm sad

You understand me

Caskets and cars

From a conversation with Rebecca:

After your birthday, we'll be going to Washington D.C.
After my birthday we go to the airport? Did great grandma die again?
No, she's living with Heavenly Father. She died last year.
Why?
Because her body got worn out. She got old.
Did her car die?
No. And there's a difference between people dying and cars dying. When people die, they go to live with Heavenly Father. When cars die, they just break. Great Grandma Hulterstrom died.
Does she not has a body anymore?
No, her body got buried and her spirit went to heaven. She's in heaven with great grandpa.
Why?
He died. So now he lives in heaven too.
Why?
Because he got old. His body didn't work any more.
Did his car die too?

One day, Grandma will be resurrected. She'll have her body again, and we'll get to see her.
Will she have her car again?

Entertaining

When, bombarded by food demands in the car, we told the kids we would not pass out snacks for another twelve minutes, Alex complained, "How can I entertain myself for twelve minutes?"

(Of course, two minutes later we started hearing zooming sound effects as his hands flew aircraft maneuvers.)

After the crash

Talking bears

I asked Becca this morning about the movie the babysitters brought over last night. "Did it have bears?"
"Yes."
"What did the bears do?"
"They talked," she said.
"Do bears talk?" I was expecting to hear a resounding "No!"
"Yes."
"Really?" I asked, startled. "How?"
"They say 'raowr,'" she informed me. "That's how they talk."

In the rain

Went to pick up Alex from school, and stayed with him and Rebecca for half an hour watching raindrops and building dams in puddles.


Alex watching raindrops make bubbles when they hit the puddles, and trapping the bubbles behind pine-needle dams (you can see the dam directly under his left hand in the photo

Plumbing

After about 45 minutes of frustration, plus nine months of back and forth to the plumbing store for the right parts, I may actually have fixed the stopper to the bathroom sink. I believe there was supposed to be cursing involved somewhere along the line, perhaps I should take lessons.

It's not instant food when...

...you turn 2 instant meal ingredients (rotisserie chicken and ready-made Tikka Masala Sauce) into 4 hours worth of work on 2 main dishes (Lar's Tikka Masala with fresh-grilled chicken thighs sauteed in sauce, and my chicken enchiladas with home-made sauce and brown Spanish rice filling). But it's yummy.

Even better than a housemaid...

...is a 3-year-old so diligent about scrubbing the kitchen floor with a toothbrush, of vacuuming the downstairs, or folding all her washcloths, that before I knew it we had together washed the whole kitchen floor, tried several piano exercises, and folded most of the laundry.

In the back 40

The extra step for preparing an outdoor basketball court

Sweeping all the water out of the huge puddle in the middle of the driveway.

My New Favorite Activity

Driving!

That is, until I finish the next 7 episodes of the radio show Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which Lar for mysterious reasons loaded onto my sound system.

If you ask the babysitter to make tomorrow's sandwiches

...don't hide the honey in a cupboard when you have bowls of honey-colored bitter-orange-flavored sugar water on the counter.

Mom and Grandpa

The Wrong Tool for the Job

It's best to use the right tool for the job, but if you're in the mood to do the job, and you don't have the right tool, sometimes the wrong tool works fine. A garden hoe will de-ice the driveway when the snow shovel is in your husband's car. And you'd be surprised how much Christmas tree trunk you can bisect with a small pair of garden shears and a lot of perseverance. Mm, I can still smell the sap on my hands!

The kids' new favorite treat at dinner

Romaine lettuce leaves.

Katherine says they're sweet (although not like apples, so you shouldn't eat them together), and Becca begged for "the white part" from every leaf I ate. The kids were actually arguing over who got the last ones.