Hellllllo

This blog has become a regular snooze-fest of non-existence. I have been super busy with life and Etsy. They don't tell you that selling stuff means you actually have to market stuff which means you have to spend time not actually making stuff while doing things that do not come naturally to you all while you wish you could just be sewing. Did that make any sense? Probably not. The short answer is that my brain isn't business oriented but I am learning. Slowly.

Anyhow...moving along. Besides Etsy, the kids have been busy with school and I am busy helping them with their mountains of homework each night. I am seriously ready to write a big ol' "I'M NOT DOING THIS ANYMORE" note to their teachers. Enough already. That and getting three kids to do their homework when they just want to play outside or do anything but is getting rather cumbersome. James has his Wax Museum coming up and is excited about that! He has been reading numerous books about Lewis and Clark since he began reading. In fact, his very first solo-read chapter book was about Lewis and Clark's Expedition, which is naturally the reading material of choice for a first grader who just learned to read. Fast forward a few years and his subject matter of choice is still the same. That is why he chose to be Merriweather Lewis for the Wax Museum. I am so excited to see him. He gave me his speech last night and I realized that he already has more speaking skills than me. Eek! He's gonna be good.

In other news, Tyler came home recently and informed me that Mrs. Stinkybitch had told him bla, bla, bla. I don't even remember what she said, because I was hung up on 'What did you just say?!' "Mrs. Stinkybitch" he reiterated. I had to then clarify that her name is, in fact, Mrs. Stankavich, without letting on that he was saying a bad word. Because if you have kids, you know that there is nothing dumber than saying 'that's a bad word!' when they don't know what they are saying. Because guess what? Now they do, and they are going to say it 97 times.

In other, other news, I seem to have gotten a rooster in this year's batch of chicks. He is the prettiest of them all and I don't want to get rid of him. Right now, he can only manage to croak out a few little half-baked crows. You wouldn't even know if you didn't know what you were listening for. When he gets a little louder, he will have to go. I have someone who may be interested and has a farm, so we will see. Otherwise....well.....

And one last chicken-related story. At night I go out and lock the chickens up. I check the coop for skunks and possums because they seem to squeeze through the fence every now and then just to give me and the chickens a heart attack. I am getting pretty good at skunk show-downs and getting them out of the coop but the possums.....well, they still unnerve me. Anyway, I used to have a big flashlight but it broke and so I have been using my cell phone flashlight. Which is great if you don't need to see more than 3 feet ahead of you. I was fumbling around trying to hold my phone, count hens and grab the eggs when I must have bumped something on my phone. All of a sudden, and mind you this was 10:30 at night and pitch black, my phone started blasting Rihanna really loud. I almost died of fright. Then I realized what happened and shut if off before the chickens mutinied. I feel that there is some sort of cosmic conspiracy of some sort that tortures me with Rihanna. I am NOT A FAN, and yet Pandora chooses to play her music on my account at random times. Hey! You like Johnny Cash? Well then, you'll like Rihanna! Kids Folk Music? Yep, Rihanna's your girl. The fact that my phone decided to play Rihanna also was just too ridiculous. So there you have it, a very random update from the homestead.

Tyler may be in Kindergarten. He may not be able to say his "R" and "W" sounds, but this kid has a vocabulary that boggles my mind. Here are some of his more recent statements:

• This parking lot is treacherous!
• (after asking him to tell Chappy which word he used to describe the parking lot) I don't remember. Did I say it was despicable? 
• Mom, the bathtub synthesizes cold water into hot water.
• Let me show you what I did with my Legos. I built it so that structurally it is strong.
• The other kids at school did not do it correctly.
• Mom, that is not correct.
• I can't conduct my experiment like that!
• Water from the ocean evaporates and goes up into the sky, and the clouds are made of stuffing and it collects water and when it gets full it rains.

Helllllllo

Well. First off, we're still alive. Now that we've got that out of the way, I shall proceed with random updates.

 Easter was fun! Easter egg hunts never get old. The older they get, the harder I get to hide the eggs which is fun.

 Following age old tradition, they each get two colors of eggs to search for so that there is no squabling.

 Tyler's hair is getting long-ish and what I like to call 'baby bird' hair and I love all the little unruly tufts sticking out. :) 

 This girl and her faces. She's a nut. A very funny nut.

 I repeat: a nut!

 Look how tall the James man is getting!! He's up past my chin now and I'm not exactly short.

Despite my best efforts to convince him otherwise, he insists on continuing to grow like a weed!

In other news, I have been putting all my time into a) keeping the kids alive (SUCCESS!) and b)keeping myself alive, and c) working on my Etsy shop. Business is picking up and I have gotten enough custom orders recently that I have been very busy sewing! It is a nice outlet for me and I am really having fun with it.

Overhead In The Backseat

James: Mom, I just taught Tyler about friction!
Tyler: Hey, we learned about that in school too. Friction, and non-friction!

Random Updates

It seems I haven't been on the ball at all with ye olde blog. Things haven't exactly been fabulous and my life reads as a big long soap opera. To add to the fun, last week James fell from the recliner part of the couch, hit his face just right and broke his two front (adult) teeth. I could see the nerves in there which is always a bad sign. I was told he was going to have to have two root canals which was not happy news, and I took him in Tuesday for what I thought would be two root canals. I could have hugged the dentist when he said he thought he could avoid doing root canals and seal the teeth instead. He was able to seal the broken ends to protect the roots, thereby saving the 'life' of the teeth. If that goes well, in a month James can get new bonding done which will hopefully hold him over til he is older. As my sister said "those kids don't do anything half way".

In other news, we are on what seems to be the millionth ice storm of the winter. Just when I optimistically chipped away the 2-3 inches of solid ice on my back patio, it storms again! Someday, I would like to see green grass and dirt that isn't frozen. Today, Tyler was upset and lamented that NOTHING was going to make him better except  'ice cream sundaes in the summer' and I had to agree with him there.

And in other, other news, James came to me today and told me "I feel warm and fuzzy, like a manatee is brushing my teeth". I would go ahead and try to explain this, but I got nothing.

And lastly (sorry, this isn't exactly the most scintillating post in the world) I decided today to teach James a new word: rotund. It is such a great word and I don't believe I get to use it often enough. Well, after teaching James the word he looked at me and said 'so your butt is rotund?' Um, yeah, forget I ever taught you that word, kid!

Cold, Cold and More Cold

It is pretty darn chilly here. It got down to something like 1 degree overnight with a 'real feel' of minus 15. I have had a sheet of ice outside the coop door for month now. It just isn't warming up and this week is no exception. Brrr! Every time I think about going out the door, I reconsider and think better of it and stay in. Who needs milk? Not us! Taking out the trash? Pshaw! The chickens are not amused and mill around their little chicken hatch giving all the snow a dirty look. The kids want to go out, but when they do it doesn't last but a few short minutes. And you know what is more annoying that spending 15 minutes getting 3 kids dressed in snow gear? When said kids spend exactly 2 minutes outside before coming in, stripping off their snowy gear onto the floor and saying 'it's too cold!'. C'mon, people! According to my mathematics, if I spend 15 minutes getting you ready, you should spend at least 15 minutes outside. Sounds fair, right?

In other frigid news, I was able to go on a fun photo-taking adventure with a friend, except I forgot my memory card and thus took pictures with my phone instead. What I failed to take into consideration was that the area we went to is accessed by a pretty steep hill. The hill happened to be covered in solid ice. My friend had never been to this part of the park and she was in for an adventure. Fortunately we were able to take the long way around and neither of us broke anything. It really was gorgeous in the snow, even if we did have to walk down there like two elderly ladies who broke out a nursing home. Here are a few pictures from the walk:

Don't Hate, Educate! Also Known As A Public Service Announcement About Chickens

After having this conversation no less than 3 times in the last week and a half, I have decided to put a fascinating post up about chickens and egg laying. It will be every bit as interesting as it sounds. So, first things first.

• Chickens, they don't lay eggs forever. After the two year mark it drops significantly and depending on the chicken they may lay anywhere from 2-4 eggs a week, or none if they feel so inclined. They will continue to hang around, I am told, for upwards of 5-7 years. I can't confirm this because I don't have the space to run a chicken retirement facility. 
• They also stop laying if they are broody or molting. Broody means they sit on a nest hoping to hatch a clutch of eggs. Since we don't have a rooster, there is no chance of those eggs every hatching. Molting means you go to check for eggs one day and it looks every bit like a chicken exploded in the coop, but without the guts. Just feathers everywhere. And they go around half-nekkid waiting for their feathers to come back in. At this point, they put all the protein they can get toward the production of their fancy new down jacket instead of laying eggs.
• In addition to all that, eggs are a seasonal product. Fo' real, people. Chickens need light to lay eggs,and when the days get shorter the egg supply decreases or stops altogether. I recently had one hen come out of retirement to lay us blue eggs again. She hadn't laid an egg in about 4 months. First, she molted. Then, the days were short and somewhere in her little bird brain, she went on a sunny beach vacation where no one is expected to do silly things like lay eggs.
• Chickens don't lay eggs until they are about 5 months old, at which point they begin gearing up to lay approximately 5-6 eggs a week. At first, they are just getting used to the whole thing and they lay tiny 'pullet' eggs. Sometimes they even lay rubber eggs which are pretty gnarly and not in a good way. Gradually the eggs get bigger and as they work the kinks out, you might be graced with a double yolker. If they get really crazy, they might lay an egg so big it has stretch marks. It basically looks like they bought the add-on package and stretched it right in the middle. Finally they get into the groove and lay almost an egg a day.
• Fresh eggs do not need to be refrigerated. When a chicken lays an egg, it is covered in 'bloom' which protects the porous surface of the egg from absorbing bacteria or spoiling. Factory eggs are washed, bleached and then lightly coated in mineral oil to replace the bloom. (Store bought eggs I would not trust outside of the fridge) Fresh, unwashed eggs can keep. I usually refrigerate mine because what else am I going to do with the egg drawer and it keeps them from getting broken, but I have also left them on the counter many times and NEWS FLASH! I didn't die. Word on the street is that in Europe they don't refrigerate eggs even in the store. 

So there you have it! I could add a whole other section on roosters, hens and the blasted chicken sweaters everyone thinks I should make, but I will spare you. If your eyes aren't bleeding by now, I hope you learned something and can bust out your new found knowledge on an unsuspecting-but-soon-to-be-very-impressed friend.

Drawing Again!

I have been doing a few sketches lately. I forgot how fun and relaxing it is to draw. I have a painting idea in my head which involves a jackalope, thus the reason I was drawing jack rabbits. :)

Grandma's Stories

At Christmas time, my Mom's brother sent a copy of some writings they found of my Grandma's. This one was written on the back of an envelope. She is the Katie in the story. I will post some of her stories here and there because I think they are so interesting!

Papa had gone to go somewhere and Mama was home alone with Katie their only one so far.  Mama was baking bread. She took the bread out of the oven and set the loaves on the table, turned back to the stove when she heard a noise behind her. She turned back to the table. Just like that as Indians are they walked into Mama’s kitchen. There they stood. Mama did not scream. She took the knife and cut off big pieces of bread and gave it to the Indians. And they took the bread and said ug and went out. But Papa was getting to feel uneasy about the Indians. Somebody was killing deer and taking the head, hide and inside of the deer and leaving it on somebody’s property. And when the Indians found this he said *** people who owned the fields had shot the deer. The Indian said the deer was his just for him. So there were ugly feelings between the white people and the Indians. So Papa and Mama said they would go back to Wotam One Co. (not sure I am reading that right) Minnesota and Grandma and Grandpa Harder and his on their family farm. So they got ready. By now they had a white haired baby boy. Two children Pete and Katie.

Tell Us Another!!

Today I told the kids a few stories of my childhood shenanigans and they loved it. Tell us another, they begged. I remembered some pretty funny ones and figured I should write a few of them down every now and then for posterity. So, without further ado, I present to you Cheyney Shenanigans, Part 1 of ??

When we lived in California, we had a very unconventional but convenient-for-3-kids bathroom set-up. The bathroom was separated into three areas: a room with a toilet and a small sink, a room with only a shower, and a 'dressing area' type space with a double sink. All of it was carpeted, which is weird. Hey, it was a parsonage so they probably got the carpet free from somebody's Uncle Bill's discount carpet shack. But I digress. The bathroom arrangement allowed the three of us to peacefully coexist. It also allowed for some spectacular pranks. For example, my brother fancied himself a singer and would belt it out in the shower. However, in reality he put the 'wail' into Bob Marley's Wailers and not in a good way. This was back in the days of ye olde tape recorder, and I would silently lay outside the shower door and record him singing for blackmail purposes. Another prank we would do to each other was to very stealthily slide the person's clothes out from under the door. That way, they got out of the shower only to find they had no clothes to put on! My kids thought this was hysterical of course and wanted to know who was running around nekkid. And last but not least, I was known for taking *somewhat* lengthy showers. This distinction is strictly in the eye of the beholder because I saw nothing wrong with them whatsoever. Apparently my Dad thought differently and if I exceeded the 20 minute mark he would shut the hot water off.

So there you have it! A few silly stories from my childhood. :)

Cooking and Christmas

Today we woke up to lots of rain and ice. Church was cancelled and we stayed put. After spending the week watching episodes of Chopped and Cupcake Wars with Katie, baking seemed like the right thing to do on a cold, dreary day. It started out making cupcakes with Katie, but I thought it would be fun (and crazy) to do a baking project with each kid. So...cupcakes with Katie, Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars with Tyler, and Chocolate Chip and Sprinkle Cookies with James, then cupcake frosting and cornbread with Katie. At some point in that mess I threw some Enchilada Soup in the crockpot. It was fun. It was tiring. And I have a bunch of stuff to put in my freeze. And a sink full of dishes. But three kids were happy and filled with sprinkles and mommy-time so I can take care of the rest later.

Now, on with the rest of the Christmas pictures! In very random order!

 I think this was when he opened his Yoda Lego alarm clock. He was so excited!

 Baby Squatch liked his new learning pad

 The kids with Grandma!

 She is, after all, the most spectacular grandma EVER

 Have you ever tried to get three children to a)look at the camera b)at the same time and c)look like they are not dying/killing each other/constipated? Yeah, it's not easy.

 But the memories!

 Oh, the memories.

 We got to play games with Grandma which is always fun, and James and Katie have come to love Uno!!!

 We play it almost every night now. I love it!

 Back to Christmas morning and my randomly ordered pictures. This is for sure the Yoda alarm clock. He loves it.

And all three of my beans, unwrapping. I didn't take too many pictures because I was busy enjoying the moment. :)

Sick, Sick and More Sick

Tyler is recovering nicely from his concussion although I cringe every time he wrestles with James or goes running across the living room at 90 mph. Just when I thought I was getting ahead, BOOM! Last Saturday night Katie woke up sick, with varying symptoms which made for a confusing Dr. Mom diagnosis. Was it strep? Stomach Virus? The Black Plague? She basically laid on the couch for days without eating and only drinking as I coaxed her every 15 minutes. I was pretty sure it was strep and carried her poor little sick self to the Fast Clinic. First mistake. The sign says: Fast Care without the wait. Hahahaaaaaaaaaaaa. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. After an hour, I finally asked how long it would be before we would get in. (Katie was in my lap, crying and telling me how she just wanted to go home and lay down) We were told another 30 minutes. What?! It was an hour and half before we got in. At that point, the nurse questioned why I would think she had strep, and said they don't treat stomach issues. It was at this point that I had to reign in my Mama Bear instincts and told her politely that HER THROAT HURTS HER REALLY BAD and I want to have her checked. Oh, she said, we will check. She then looked in Katie's mouth and gasped "OH!! DOES THAT HURT?!" Um, yes, I believe that is what we just discussed. She did the swab and it came back negative. What?! We were both surprised and then, in an act that I can only surmise was an act of CYA, she diagnosed Katie with an ear infection and sent us off with the antibiotic. I will spare you the gory details of how long we had to wait at the pharmacy but needless to say I came home on my last nerve. I put her on the antibiotic, and the next day she was only a tiny bit better. Not what I was expecting. Later that morning, she came down with a rash all over which I thought was the antibiotic but turns out the STREP was so bad she got a strep rash. That required another visit to the regular doctor who diagnosed it immediately by looking at her throat and gasping 'That must be so painful!' It was really bad. Turns out the dose of antibiotics for an ear infection is lower than for strep, so she increased the dose and sent us home. Getting Katie to take the medicine is like trying to coax a wild monkey to wear a top hat and sing 'Oh, Susanna'. Nearly impossible. But! It is working! After missing 4 days of school, she was back today and happy to be in school.

If you made it to the end, yay! I think this post might cure your insomnia, anyway. I will post the rest of my Christmas pictures, Lord willing and the kids stay healthy. Maybe then I can get caught up after having them home for Christmas too. A girl can dream, right? :)

Well....

So life is crazy and on Sunday our regularly scheduled programming was interrupted by....Tyler getting a concussion. At church. When the kids were littler I remember asking the pediatrician how I would know if one of my kids had a concussion. They have all taken their fair share of falls and I was worried I would somehow miss it. The pediatricians answer? Oh, you'll know. Well, guess what? You'll know. And it'll scare the bejeebers out of you.

We ended up spending 4 1/2 hours in the ER, waiting for Tyler to perk up. He slept, threw up, slept, and slept some more. They did a CAT scan to make sure everything was alright. Thankfully, it was!! After about three hours he started to get a little spark, and slowly it came back. I knew he was feeling better when he kept whining that he was hungry. The doctor brought him some crackers, which he ate in no time. He also got pretzels, which he patiently gnawed into the letters 'E' and 'R' to commemorate his visit. That was encouraging because it meant he was firing on all his mental cylinders. When he got a little more energy, he amused himself by watching his stats on the machine. I told him that his O2 levels were supposed to be 100, and so he would breath really fast to try to get the line to move. It was pretty funny! He wasn't having problems with this to begin with, but when I told him 'You're at 100, that's good!' he said 'Yeah! When the doctor comes in to see me he'll think I'm awesome.' Crazy kid! After the doctor fed him, he wanted more to eat. You see, Tyler is like a squirrel. For real. He's like the cute, fat and fluffy squirrel you see at the park. It stands there longingly staring at your picnic lunch. You think it is so cute, and you cave and throw it a few pieces of popcorn. The squirrel devours the popcorn and looks cute doing it, so you give it a little more. In no time flat, the adorable squirrel turns into a demanding tyrant who is begging for the last of your sandwich and leaves you questioning why you ever fed it to begin with. That's Tyler. He can sniff out 'special snacks'. I could offer him a snack, he would say no, but he hears you have goldfish crackers and its all over. In this case, who can resist a sad little concussed boy who just wants another snack. And in his defense he was truly hungry. He managed to down a Popsicle before we left. We had to wait until he could walk out on his own, and he did, in his hospital gown and wrapped in my coat with the promise of French 'fwies' on the way home. Which he also devoured.

And now, who knows where I can order a bubble wrap suit to go with the bike helmet I'm thinking he should wear til he's 27?

Christmas Photo Dump, Installment Numero Uno

 First of all, I realized like....4 days after the fact that indeed, I posted the camel post unfinished and without pictures. Fail. So here, without further ado, is the picture of me, my BFF Abdul, and my awesome friend Hannah. Isn't he cute? He was just about to nuzzle my head. I haven't washed my hair since. Joking!!!!!!

 James was also lucky enough to meet Abdul and was thrilled to get his picture taken with an actual camel. Woo!

 

And now, on to the Christmas festivities!

 Grandma was here!!

 Aunt Sally showed up for the party too!

 And no, we don't look that much alike, do we? haha

 Ma, Me and Katie

 Speaking of Katie, this girl is delightfully weird

 

Katie got to show off her reading skills for Grandma and Aunt Sal

 And Tyler got to use his mad glue gunning skillz to build a sculpture. Seriously, this kid has the art gene but I think his is more of a creative building/3-dimensional brand. He has been successfully wielding a glue gun for the last year, and he will pretty much glue anything that isn't nailed down into one of his projects. He walks around the house with a vision in his mind and you can just tell, he may not know what he is looking for, but he KNOWS what he is looking for. :)

Guess What?!

I got a selfie with a camel. C'mon, I know you're jealous. We are now BFF's, this camel and I. Not to be confused of course with B-U-T-T's. So after the camel made his appearance in the act (which I was totally not paying close attention to, because....hello! Camel!!) Hannah and I decided to see if we could get a closer look at the camel. Then I asked the guy if we could get our picture with the camel and he said YES!!! I have no idea why I love this camel so much, but I do. He let us get right up next to the camel, who I found out goes by the name 'Abdul'. Touche. Abdul kept nuzzling my head which was hilarious and kinda scary at the same time. I asked the guy if he was going to spit on me and he said 'Only if I tell him to.' Super. But Abdul was a friendly camel and there was no spitting whatsoever. Only awk

Tyler

Tyler told me this morning, "Mom, you are a B-U-T-T!" I told him that wasn't a nice thing to say and he looked at me and said sweetly "What? You're my best friend!" It was at that point I had to inform him that indeed, what he meant to say was "B-F-F". This kid is a nut, but I love him. He's my BFF. ;)

FaceTime Is The Best Time

Guess what folks? I need bifocals. I'm like...so...geriatric. I needed someone to help me pick out glasses, because dang! There are way too many styles and some of the ones I like don't like me. For example, I really like these throw-back frames:

But they make me look like a hardy German which really isn't far from the truth come to think about it. I am 99.9% German. And these....

But they overwhelm my face, and I don't know what to pick which is why I needed....my sister! Stupid geographical distance. That is where FaceTime comes in! Yep, I FaceTimed Rachel in the middle of America's Best. Note to Self: The 'America's Best' claim is a stretch. But I digress. I basically went though every frame in the women's department, trying on anything promising in front of ye olde camera. It was quite possibly the funniest thing ever, because a) really?! It was funny, b) Phil was involved and c) There was no one else in the store so I am pretty sure they were all thoroughly entertained. Especially if they heard the part where Phil kept asking me if I had pooped today. Sadly, we decided that all the frames of America's Best were not, in fact, best for my face. Except for the most expensive pair in the store. Therefore we will probably be repeating the FaceTime spectacle in the near future. :)

Random Tidbits

**I have had this blog post half written for a week and a half, so it might be a bit disjointed and random**

I have absolutely no brain power left but I am going to write anyway. The past week has been Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child. This is my favorite, favorite thing to help with and my kids love it too. During Collection Week, different churches and organizations around the area drop off their shoeboxes where they are counted, rubber banded and packed into cartons. The cartons go onto semi trucks and are sent (now) to Baltimore. Today, Tyler had the day off and the other kids didn't. I told him it would be our 'date' day and asked him what he wanted to do. His requests? Go help with the shoeboxes and eat french fries. "Two big boxes of fwench fwies" to be exact. He kindly suggested that I could buy my own if I wanted any. We went to help with shoe boxes and as it turns out there was a crew of men coming up from the city to help. They came from a rehab house that our sister church runs in Kensington. The guys were big, burly and tough. Tyler got right up in there and started showing them all how to pack shoe boxes. He just walked right up and started talking. I basically exploded with pride. While some of them were talking about O.D.ing and their wife leaving and their mental illnesses, there was Tyler chatter away. They all learned to pack shoe boxes and they packed them with joy. When it came time for us to leave, they called out 'Goodbye little guy!' to Tyler. I think he made some friends. :)

In other news, James made the funniest of funnies. Last year, we went with some friends to a live nativity play. There happened to be a live camel there with which my friend Hannah and I were fascinated. We might have even hatched a plan to camel-nap said dromedary and keep him for our very own. Fast forward to this year. We are all going again, and Hannah mentioned a great 'Camel Caper'. I was joking to the kids, and said I was going to knit a really large bag so that Hannah and I could steal the camel. Tyler's eyes grew very big and he said 'REALLY??' Um, no. But it would be fun. James looked at me, wheels turning, and said 'Mom, you don't need to knit a bag. Just wear a really big sweater and you can just stuff it in your shirt and people will think you just have large breasts.' (yes, those were his near-exact words) Then he looked at me and added deadpan 'But make sure you steal a two hump camel, Mom. Not a one hump camel.' And I died. Pretty much, this kid has my sense of humor, which I inherited directly from my dad. At first, I wasn't sure if I should be proud or embarrassed, but dang it! I'm proud. That kid is hilarious and quick thinking. And heck, he might be on to something for Operation Dromedary Shenanigan....

Dentist

Tyler had his first dentist appointment this morning. And by first, I mean the first dentist appointment where he actually opened his mouth for the dentist. And when he did, oh...when he did, the dentist declared 'Wow! Your teeth are so green!' Now in the span of about 1.5 seconds the following thoughts ran through my head: "Green? They can't be that gross! I mean, I brush them everyday! No, that's not it. Did he eat something green? Nope. Just oatmeal. What the???' I looked into his mouth and bet your bottom dollar his teeth were green. In fact, there were stunningly green. It was kind of mortifying actually. And it could only be one thing: crayon. I have no idea. I asked him if he had eaten a crayon and he said 'No, Mom, just oatmeal, I didn't eat a crayon!' I am wondering if he ate one in bed the night before? Why??? The dentist cleaned it out and confirmed it was crayon. Tyler told me after the appointment that it was the way Grammy made his oatmeal, that she made it different and in a way that turned his teeth green. Because that seems totally reasonable....

Grammy gave each of the little kids a little box with Bible verses on note cards. As I type, they are upstairs (supposed to be sleeping) practicing their verse together. It's very sweet. Today, Katie came and showed me her box. She inscribed it with a touching personal note:

Bibul Vrsis
Dow not red or you or goonu blo up and I men it.

Translation: Bible Verses  Do not read or you are gonna blow up and I mean it. 

Sharing the love o' Jesus, that girl! hahaha