When Brother saw the pictures from Sister’s fishing adventure he wanted a turn of his own.  A couple of weeks later in weather several degrees hotter he got his chance.

No fish were caught but there are rumors of ice cream afterwards.

Hmm…

I thought about calling this post “The Saga Doth Continue” or “Step 124″ except that the saga doth not continue and I have sinned.  I am totally coveting our neighbor’s pool.  It taunts me daily.

See it?  All perfect and round and full.  So smug.  I can’t abide a smug pool.

Especially when ours has this….

in MULTIPLE places.  ACK!

Today we are headed to a pool party at a friend’s house and it occurs to me that if I schedule enough pool parties then perhaps we can spend the whole summer living vicariously through others more aquatically inclined than ourselves.

Anyway, it’s a thought.

Brother’s Picture:

Brother’s Comment:

“Here’s what happened.  The steam went up and the laba and by my comutations it went into the river and got all the fish dead.”

Perhaps the idea came from this recent library book???

Who knows how this sort of thing gets started?  An innocent little picture taken at the zoo the day before Sister’s birth

and another taken in the same spot 11 days before Brother arrived

means that, of course, we must make a zoo trip in the heat of mid-June to capture this baby’s coming for posterity.

Is it just me or does the current “37 wk” belly look equally as large as the two “past due” bellies from above?

Oh, and we looked at some animals while we were there too.

but mostly we just came for this…

I could spend hours combing through my posts finding errors of all sorts but I have better things to do.  If I see an error and it’s easy to fix, I do so; but if it’s not, I don’t.  I know you internets are smart enough to figure out what I mean and research seems to support that assumption.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

I pulled this little tidbit from Staska.net which has some great blogging tips among other things.

If you happen to sponsor a child through Compassion International then you’ve probably already seen this video.  If you don’t (and why not?) then please take 11 minutes to reflect on all the good that can come from being unfair.

Friday, June 5^th

Today I rode home with Brother and his sister and their mom. We had supper and went to bed a little early because Brother’s mom says we have a big day tomorrow.

Saturday, June 6

This morning we traveled to Bartlesville for an outdoor festival called SunFest. First we got to jump on some cool blow-up toys.

Then we played games like toss the bean-bag and knock over the cans. At one booth Brother decorated a cookie for me. It was really yummy because he used LOTS of frosting.

Later we watched some dogs catching Frisbees and doing special tricks. That was cool because all of the dogs had been rescued from shelters and now they were famous for their catching skills. I guess you can teach old dogs new tricks. Also, I found out why they call it SUNfest. When we got home Brother’s dad covered our burns with cool washcloths and that helped a lot. His mom also told us we could use apple cider vinegar on the washcloths instead of water but Brother and I thought that sounded yucky so we just used the water.

Tuesday, June 9

Today we went to with Brother’s mom to see her midwife. A midwife is a lady who helps mom’s to have their babies. Brother’s mom is going to have a baby in July though she says it might be earlier or it might be later. You just never know with babies. Whenever it is time, the midwife will come to Brother’s house and the baby will be born there instead of in a hospital. Brother and his sister will even be able to see the baby born if they want to!

At the appointment, the midwife checked Brother’s mom’s pulse and blood pressure just like a regular doctor would. She also listened to the baby’s heartbeat with a special tool called a Doppler. The heartbeat sounded very fast to me but the midwife said it was normal because baby hearts beat faster than grown-up hearts. After that the midwife started pushing around on Brother’s mom’s belly. When I asked her what she was doing she said feeling the baby’s position. She showed me how you could feel where the baby’s head or bottom was and that one especially pokey part was a little foot.

Wednesday, June 10

We visited Brother’s grandma today. His cousin E. was there. She will turn three this month. It was very hot so Brother and E. and I got into our swimsuits and Brother’s grandma sprayed us with the water hose. Then she used the hose to make a water slide on the swingset. It was much faster than a regular slide and once I almost fell in the mud at the bottom.

After we got cleaned up and had lunch, we drove over to the library for Lego club. Lego’s are one of Brother’s most favorite things in the world. At the library we found out that there was a rock concert in the same building so after we played Lego’s for a while we walked over to see it. There was a big dinosaur on stage playing the drums. He was really good. There was also a man playing guitars and singing. Most of the kids were up at the front dancing but Brother and I just danced near our seats. At one point in the show, the dinosaur (Thaddeus Rex) ran through the audience and shook hands with a lot of the people. When he got close to us he shook Brother’s hand; then he went over to Brother’s grandma and PUT HIS MOUTH ON HER HEAD! I know you shouldn’t laugh at people but it was so funny that Brother and I both laughed and laughed. We had never seen a dinosaur try to eat a grandma before.

Thursday, June 11

Brother’s sister, Sister has been going to Horse Riding Camp all week long. This was her last day so family and guests were invited to come watch her ride. When we got there Sister and some of the other campers were washing one of the horses. They had painted the horse just like Indians might have done before battle but since they weren’t planning on going into battle anytime soon they also had to wash the paint off.

Before we watched Sister ride, Brother took me through to the barn to see some of the other horses. Most of them were very big but then we found one I thought was just my size. …. UNTIL it tried to eat me. Fortunately, Brother saved me. I thought maybe this happened because of how I laughed at Brother’s grandma yesterday but Brother’s mom said it was probably just a coincidence.

Friday, June 12

We spent this morning at the house. It was very stormy outside and Brother’s mom thought it might start to hail so she ran out in the rain and drove her car into the garage. Then we all sat down on the couch to read a chapter from a book called Henry Huggins. It was a very good story about a boy who finds a stray dog. He names him Ribsy. In the chapter we were reading Henry enters his dog in a contest. Because he wants the dog to look nice Henry sprinkles Ribsy with talcum powder except it isn’t white powder. It is pink! Just as Henry was about to show his pink dog to the judges we heard a loud CRACK! from outside. It was so loud we all jumped. Brother and Sister and I ran to the window and saw that the wind had blown down part of a large tree in front of Brother’s house. It was a good thing his mom moved her van because the tree limb was laying in the driveway right where it had been parked.

Later that afternoon, Brother’s mom and dad had to go to a meeting to sell their old house so Brother’s grandma came to stay with us. We did lots of stuff but one thing we did was read a chapter from the book Homer Price. It was about a doughnut machine that keeps making doughnuts and won’t stop. It was a funny story. When Brother’s parents got back they had a plan to put up the swimming pool for the summer. We worked all evening on getting it set up and filled and then we discovered A LEAK!

I think it was frustrating to Brother’s dad but we kids had fun anyway because we still got to swim for a while.

Saturday, June 13

This morning when Brother and I woke up the first thing we thought about was the story of Homer Price and the doughnut machine. We told Brother’s mom about it and she said that sounded yummy and maybe WE should have doughnuts for breakfast. Of course this was what Brother and I wanted her to think but we didn’t say that because sometimes it’s best to let grownups think that they come with ideas all by themselves. When we got to the doughnut shop Brother got a chocolate one with rainbow sprinkles for us to share.

Wednesday, June 17

Finally, the pool is really ready to swim in.  After Brother’s dad found the leak on Friday, he had to empty the pool AND let it dry out.  This took a long time because when the pool was finally empty it started raining.  Eventually, everything did get dry and we put a patch on the leak.  Then the patch had to seal overnight.  Once the patch was sealed we filled the pool AGAIN and it took most of the day.  But even then we could not swim in it.  Brother’s pool has a saltwater filter.  That means that you put salt in the pool and let it dissolve. Then you turn on the filter and it turns the salt into chlorine.  This is cool because even though it is chlorine and will keep the pool clean it is not as harsh as regular chlorine and it doesn’t hurt your eyes.  It is also not cool because it takes a long time for the filter to generate the chlorine for the first time. When it was finally finished, we swam for about an hour but then we had to go inside and get ready for bed because tomorrow we are going on a field trip!

Thursday, June 18

This morning we met up with some friends and traveled to Bartlesville to see a bird show by the Sutton Avian Research Center.  It was awesome!  The birds flew right over our heads and one of them even touch Sister on the cheek.  Even people who don’t know about the Sutton Center have probably heard about the work they do.  For example it was the people at the Center who invented programs to keep the Bald Eagle from becoming extinct.  They have lots of information about birds on their website (www.suttoncenter.org).

After the bird show we found a spot downtown to have a picnic lunch and after that we went to the Phillips 66 museum.  Actually, I got lost in Brother’s mom’s purse so I didn’t go to the museum but Brother said it was really neat.  It tells a lot about the history of the Phillips Petroleum Company.  Also, they have a biplane INSIDE the building which is really cool.

Brother’s mom found me just in time for the next event - a science show.  A man from the Tulsa Air and Space Museum showed us all sorts of experiments with water and air and even electricity.  Did you know that you could make water boil just by removing the air around it?  Pretty cool, huh?

Tomorrow I will go home to be with my own family but I had a great time with Brother and think that I’d like to come back again someday.

***Don’t know who Flat Stanley is??  Look here.

Why are these three words so difficult to utter?  Today I stumbled upon this short quip that got me to thinking.

A little boy was having difficulty lifting a heavy stone. His father came along just then. Noting the boy’s failure, he asked, “Are you using all your strength?”

“Yes, I am,” the little boy said impatiently.

“No, you are not,” the father answered. “I am right here just waiting, and you haven’t asked me to help you.”

Author Unknown

I am like this.  Most of us are.  Why is that?

Remember that slogan.   It implied that technology could bring us closer together.  That it would close the gap between far away families and friends.

Tonight, Will ran into the video store to pick up a movie.  The children and I waited in the car.  It’s much faster that way.  So we’re sitting there when the pickup two spaces down starts laying on the horn.  It’s occupied by a couple of down-home country boys and the object of their honking? is a twenty something woman inside the dollar store.  She looks out the window at them.  Clearly annoyed, she mouths some words their direction in that exaggerated way people do when they’re talking through glass.  Something about “over there” and “can’t”.  That’s all I caught.  Apparently our good ole boys caught even less because she shakes her head, heaves a sigh and whips out her cell phone.  Some part of me felt as if I were eavesdropping and should look away out of courtesy but I was fascinated by the unfolding drama.  Angrily her thumbs began to move with lightning speed.  There was a pause.  Clearly she did not like the return message.  The thumbs took off again.  There was another pause.  She looked up and out the window, giving a look which roughly translated means, “you are an idiot” and headed off toward the back of the store.

This scenario was wrong on so many levels I almost don’t know where to start.  Since when is it too difficult to take twenty steps to communicate.  “Reach out and touch someone?”  More like “withdrawal and text.”  Forget Math and Science, Grammar or History, if I can only teach one thing as a homeschooling parent let it be how to talk.  Let it be how to communicate ones own thoughts in an clear yet engaging way.  Let it be how to truly listen to the words of others.  Let it not be how to rely on technology to the point of ignorance.