Beyond the Yellow Brick Road

Don't you love it when you sing along to a song and your kids look at you like you're in pain? I've never seen Michael's head whip around faster than when I sing along to this song (haunting and so perfect since I'm from Kansas and all that ... FYI: I don't live on a farm but wouldn't mind if I could be close to a Target). Try it!

Joel Crosses Over to the Other Side

Of course I have tons of pictures of last night's event, but my dad is more on top of life than I am, so I'm posting the pic he emailed me a hot minute after the event. Retired guys and their iPhones ... what are ya gonna do with 'em?

So this is Dad Steve and Stepmom Nancy (note her Nana shirt ... very cool), who came to Joel's Blue and Gold Scouts banquet last night. Yes, folks, he walked over a real bridge and crossed over ... to the other side of scouting ... Boy Scouts, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Oops, stuck in Beverly Hillbillies land again.

It was AMAZING. Over 100 people turned out on a Sunday night to celebrate two boys crossing over. Crossing over sounds like the boys died and went to heaven, right? Actually, it's like Aron and I died and went to heaven because I hear parents are less involved in Boy Scouts. In Cubbies, we had meetings at our house, coordinated day camp last year, recruited new boys and were Den Leaders for 3 years. Since Michael doesn't want to do Scouts, we are on a break until Sam decides to join.

Keeping up the crossing over/heaven schtick, when the boys go to Boy Scouts they are at that age when they are starting to want their parents less involved in their business anyway. I was a little struck last night by the fact that I have to start letting my baby boy go :-(


So besides Dad and Nancy, Aron's parents and brother came along with 5 of Joel's cousins! Jordan and Ian came early to help set up and chase kids, and Abby and Spencer (my very 1st Confirmation kid ever two years ago!) stayed to clean up. Aron and I took them to 711 after for drinks. Not like margaritas, but like Slurpees!
Gotta go ... Sam woke up a little crabby and I gotta slam some coffee while it's hot since the microwave broke. It's a whole new world without a microwave!

Naughty Babies Helping Out (Part Three) by Eva

Hi, it's me, Eva. Recently I got to help my dad out. He's more patient than Mommy. One time the shower was leaking and he took out some of the ceiling! Then he fixed the pipe and put the ceiling back. THEN IT LEAKED AGAIN! It was funny! So when he got a chance he had to take the ceiling out again. Then he put the ceiling back in wrong and had to do it again. We heard some words that usually only Mommy ever says. Then he got all chill and let me SPACKLE! Did I spell that right? I'm still learning. I'm only fo, you know. Here is part two!

Naughty Babies Helping Out (Part Two) by Samuel

Hey, yo, this is Sam (aka Naughty Baby #2). These are some cool pix of me weilding a hammer and helping with the door frame to the bathroom. I like to do neato stuff like my dad does cuz I wanna be like him someday and be all handy around the house. Chicks dig that cuz my mom digs my dad when he helps out and stuff. So enjoy my cool pix, kay? And remember, no Naughty Babies were harmed in this photo shoot. Mom was supervising the whole time. It's dumb that we have to put disclaimers on here or haters would worry that we were being mistweeted. I mean mistreated. We are not mistreated. The guys at Collector's Cache the other day called my mom a good, solid mom because she bought us ring pops. She rules pretty much. So does my dad. Sometimes I compare myself to Stewie on Family Guy. Here are the pix! And here is Part One! And here is Part Three!

Naughty Babies Helping Out (Part One)

This is what our master shower looks like right now. Note the 1966 light blue tile. I LOVE it! No, really, I do! So it was leaking into our family room a while back and Aron finally got a custom shower pan in and had to some retiling and other fun stuff. It looks better than this currently, but is still not usable. It's all good because we have another bathroom. Anyway, these are pictures of my naughty babies (not really babies at ages 2 and 4, but they are the youngest so they are the babies). They are trying to be like Daddy and put in shower tile or caulk or something. Eva one time got caulk all over herself and said it was "gwissy cockin" and we laughed until we figured out she meant GREASY CAULKING. That's one of those things we will tease her about until we die, I'm sure.

*No babies were harmed in this photo shoot. No babies were into anything dangerous and their Mommy was close by putting away laundry. Babies are naughty by nature, so if you have sex you might make a baby and there is a 99% chance you will get a naughty baby.

Here is part two!