"So freakin' excited!"

So today is the last day of Law School, forever, for Joe. By 11PM tonight he will be just three final exams away from being an Alumnus (and a Bar Exam away from being an Attorney but, small pleasures right.) I have learned through sad experience and from many clues and hints from Joe that not everyone likes surprise parties or anyone but me for that matter. So, I'm not planning any kind of event for graduation etc. but I do think the following clip is an accurate representation of how I feel today. Sue has channeled my inner excitement at having Joe around here more often and the end of this Era.

Ahoo gets a bob

WARNING: This post contains shameless loquacity about how cute my kids are.

So Ahoo/ Tess finally prevailed and after a week of pleading, got a haircut like Scottie. Monkey Dooz has officially become a grail quest for my girls. Scottie now wants to have her next birthday party there and even spent her own money to buy the shampoo ( It is root beer scented!). I must admit, I love the place too. I realized as I was still smiling after putting three miles between me and Monkey Dooz it is a terrific place and it's not just the $10 cuts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The walls are lined with the kinds of impractical goodies only mothers of small girls who grew up in the hideously tomboyish 70's could dream up. So after a new barrett, a dum-dum for each gal and a quick spritz of sparkle hair spray we were off and better for the visit. To think I actually wanted Betsy to be a boy! I am amazed daily at how fun three girls in a row is. Yes, in a decade when I have two female teens and a tween you can all come and gloat at my pain but that just makes these times all that much better. I can do three laundry loads in a row and never see anything navy blue or hunter green.

In other news, Scottie lost her first tooth, Gunner is the narrator for his school play and I still smell good. I'm not bragging, it's straight from Gunner's lips!

Church smells

Today during a very quiet part of sacrament meeting Gunner, who apparently has some sort of a voice modulation problem, leans over to me and loudly declares, "You smell good." He then starts sniffing me repeatedly throughout the next few minutes while I tell him again and again to stop it. He even gets Scottie to smell me. Then he blurts out, "Why do you smell so good?" and continues to sniff me. I decided ignoring him would be best. After several minutes of this and once all the Deacons had finally been excused to sit with their families. He shouts in one last loud burst, "Well, you certainly smell better than dad." too true Gunner, too true.

P.S. I am sure I heard someone behind us chuckle. If only moms just naturally smelled perfect. In reality 10 or so bottles of goo contribute to that nice mom smell.

"Death Comes Unexpectedly!"

We know Easter has come and gone but we have recently had a fun time with the subject at our house. On Wednesday the girls had a babysitter mid-day who had them watch Pollyanna. Gunner who came home from school part way through loved the movie too and has since been trying to memorize Aunt Polly's dear Reverends sermon. He often reminds us, in a loud voice, that, "Death Comes Unexpectedly!" Unfortunately the whole family discovered this first hand when the girls discovered a dead bird in the back yard. It was Thursday and I hear one of the kids shout, "Mom, there's a dead bird out here!" And before I can say dead things have grody germs, Scottie was at the sliding glass door, bird in hand. They had several questions, "Why do they have germs?" "Why are the eyes missing?" and chiefly, "Why is it's neck so wobbly?" I guess they buried it and I had high hopes that the episode was over. Not So. This morning Scottie showed me a feather she had taken from the bird so she could always remember it. BLAHK! It was even worse to hear myself saying out loud, "We do not pluck dead birds!" In the end Scottie had this to say about it, "Well I guess this was a really rotten bird because, I dug into the grave and there it was. It hadn't rised up to Heaven." Then the girls took turns trying to rise up to Heaven themselves with the help of the trampoline.

Other highlights of the week include:

• Besty discovered chicken noodle soup and feeds it to herself!



• Gunner's first wet and cold Toss Ball game brrrr.


• A trip to the zoo sunny yet scary.



• Scottie's First real girl hair cut at the salon, which she loved.

Shennanigans

Thank you to whom ever pulled this little prank on me. It was a day-maker and if you are who I think you are you know I could use a little pick me up. Keep in mind, I've got my eye on you and on a wheelchair at Good Will to put on the top of your roof. I am not above getting a shower chair as well!!! Thanks again, my life is just a bit more tangy, delicious and chromo-magnificent for your efforts!

Busy, Busy Weekend

Gunner is down visiting Grandma and Grandpa Smith this next week for his spring break and our house is a totally different place with out him. For instance We are not held quite so tightly to a three meal a day schedule and Joe has ALOT more time to spend with the little girls. As you can see, with no reason not to, we spent Conference weekend listening and painting nails! We miss Gunner but hope he is having a great time with all his friends in Eugene. I'm sure he will not miss all the nail painting.

Who's that tripping over my bridge!

So we spent a little quality time with the Fremont Troll down town. Gunner even checked his nose for cliff-hangers. Unfortunately Tess fell asleep in the car and missed the whole experience but that was alright, the Troll even freaked me out a bit. That one shiny eye seems to follow you. I think he was eyeing Betsy as a delicacy. Fremont is the place in Seattle where the residents annually paint themselves and parade nude in the streets which is the one good thing about the sub-arctic temps in Spring; no one would be caught dead with out a coat.

Which brings me too our next point, Karma. Remember all those terrific days in late February/early March when it was near 60 degrees and sunny day after day. Well we are paying for it now. This morning we awoke to a nice crunchy layer of freshly fallen hail! We've had snow for the past few days but hail . . . that stuck! The kids have no interest in it. I don't blame them, we are ready for better weather or a move to Nevada.

We did manage a quick trip to the science center. We have really gotten our money's worth out of that place. It wasn't one of our better trips though. Tess got seriously lost for at least 2o minutes and Gunner managed to push a stage over onto his foot. The manager that day was so glad to see us go after having to file both a missing child report and an accident report under E for Ellsworth. Sadly, Tess stayed lost for as long as she did because she told the nice, matronly lady who found her that her name was "Ahoo."

On a kind of a weather related side note. The last picture is of Gunner for "Crazy Hair Day" at school. He was of course scrambling to get out the door for school after sleeping in and then having to be goaded and prodded through making a lunch and tying his shoes. We managed to cram in a 5 minute scripture read but the tenor of the home was not charitable by the time he headed out the door. In addition it was sleeting outside. Imagine my surprise when a few minutes later he's back, crying and telling me everyone at the bus stop had crazy hair and he'll be kicked off student council if he doesn't crazy up his hair. I wanted to say, "Being Impeached as 2nd grade rep. is nothing compared to the punishment you're going to get for missing the bus because your hair isn't right and making me have to drag all the girls out of the house, one of them a sleeping baby, into the sleet to drop you off at school!" But instead, I just shut the door, more firmly than was probably good for the panes of glass, and set to work with mousse and blue paint. You can see his eyes are still a bit moist but he was starting to cheer up.

Nice Roach!