Dad's day

I've written my ode to Brandon before, which still stands. He's amazing. Love you, babe.

Here are some highlights from our day. Brandon, enjoying his oatmeal before church:

Then, a cookout with Grandma and Grandpa Chaney and Chris, Tonya, and Griffin. The boys had a fun time playing on this little battery-operated scooter. Mason liked it, but couldn't figure out how to turn it around. Let's just say it doesn't have the tightest turning radius!


While Mason took his turn on the scooter, these tough guys waited patiently:

Live long and prosper, says Dan:

Danny wanted a turn, too, but had a little spill on the sidewalk. Then he wanted nothing to do with it. I tried to get him back on the horse, so to speak, so he wouldn't be afraid, but he was done.


It was a nice night with good food and family. I'm so grateful for the dads in my life - my dad, my father-in-law, and my sweet husband. My family is truly blessed by these wonderful examples of fatherhood.

Economy sand box

Every summer, I ponder the purchase of a sand box. I've looked at tons of them, but never really found one I like. Plus, they tend to be a little pricey, so I've always held off. Lately, though, I realized my boys won't want one forever, so I'd better get going while they're still interested!

So, rather than shell out $50, I opted for a Sterilite container. I like this because (1) it has a nice lid that securely fastens, and (2) it cost about $9. Add the sand, at $4, and voila! Economy sand box.

Now, I would have liked one of the fancy elevated sand boxes with a shade umbrella, but for now this will do. The boys were plenty satisfied.


And since Brandon's so handy, he might build a little stand for the box. But regardless, this did the trick. Perhaps the sand will entice them away from the dirt...

Bring on the Mo Tab!

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir came to Cincinnati this week as part of their Central States Tour, and Brandon and I attended the concert at Riverbend with my folks. They performed with the Cincinnati Pops. What a treat!

Thankfully, what started out as a rainy day cleared up and we enjoyed a very pleasant outdoor concert, albeit a bit muddy. Our dear friends Corrie and Andy volunteered to watch the boys so we could go. Needless to say, we owe them big time. Thanks, friends! Mason and Daniel had a blast with the best babysitters of all time. Seriously, they brought crafts for the kids to do. Wow.

Anyway, here are some pics from the night. Brandon, perusing the program:



Mom and Dad, watching the action:

We were in the lawn seats, but we had a clear view of the choir. When it got a little darker, the screens sprang to life and we could see some close-ups.

Special guests for the evening included Bengal tight end Ben Utecht, who sang some solos and was surprisingly good. Who knew? A Bengal who can sing? Almost as surprising as a Bengal who can score touchdowns!

Also appearing was Neil Armstrong, who narrated a piece by Copeland honoring Abraham Lincoln. It was beautiful! And hey, this guy's been on the moon.

I especially enjoyed the armed forces salute - the choir sang the theme song from each branch of the military and those audience members who had served in the various branches stood when their song was played. It was moving and inspiring. I was so proud of my dad, who stood up for the Air Force hymn. What a lovely tribute to those who have served our country!

All told, it was a wonderful night of uplifting music. Thanks, Mo Tab! Come back soon.

A series of unfortunate events

Last Sunday, we had a pretty powerful electrical storm in our neck of the woods. The rain was really coming down and there were lots of very close lightning strikes.

Too close.

One powerful bolt of lightning - the kind where it's so close the thunder is simultaneous - actually did some damage. Although all our major electrical equipment is surge protected, somehow the lightning managed to fry our router, plus the network cards in our computers. Electrical equipment throughout our house either sprang to life, or else shut down! My elliptical came on, my computer shut off, it was bizarre.

In hindsight, I'm so grateful the damage was limited to the network cards. It could have been so much worse! Brandon replaced it this week, and I'm back in action.

I love living with my own personal IT support.

Unfortunately, our booming tomato crop did not fare as well. I don't know if it was the wind or the heavy rain, but two of our 4 plants were knocked over, compromising the stems. Brandon was so discouraged. I suppose we should have staked them sooner, we just hadn't gotten to it yet.

Here he is, posing with one of the broken branches. We counted about 25 tomatoes on this branch alone, counting green ones and blossoms.


It looks like two of our plants will be fine. We've staked them now, and tried to "splint" the broken branches a bit. We'll see if we can salvage them - you never know.

Here's the kicker - while Brandon was trying to diagnose the problem with our computers, I headed outside to survey the damage to the tomatoes and try and salvage what I could. I was trying to splint the branches when I felt this sharp pain in my foot. Yep, a yellow jacket had somehow gotten in my sandal and stung me - twice - in the foot. As if the computer/crop damage weren't enough!

Hello, Injury. This is Insult. Have you met?

Again, I know it could have been worse. The lightning could have set our house on fire. We could have lost all the tomatoes. I could have been attacked by a swarm of Africanized honey bees. So really, I'm quite grateful.

Really, I am.

First fruits of the harvest

This summer, Brandon decided to venture into the world of container gardening. His dad has had lots of success with these grow boxes, so we gave it a whirl. And by "we," I mean him. My involvement thus far has been limited to assisting in the staining process of the stand he built for the boxes, to keep the bunnies out. Which, by the way, has worked wonderfully.

Brandon planted four plants - 2 Patio, 2 Better Bush. So far, the Patio plants are a little smaller, but altogether we probably have at least 100 tomatoes on the vine out there.

Here's Brandon, proudly displaying the first fruits of his labor. Can you believe we have already had a red tomato, in the beginning of June? This was actually a few weeks ago.


Danny wanted to take a picture of the "potato" too. He is so funny.


Everyone had a taste of our tomato and seemed to love it. I guess it's true - everything tastes better out of your own garden.

Sadly, our harvest sustained some damage last Sunday in a powerful storm. But that's a topic for another day... For now, let's celebrate the tomato!

My Homeboyz

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If you give a kid a camera

If you give a kid a camera,

he’s going to take lots and lots of pictures.

He’ll take so many pictures, he’ll fill up the memory in less than two hours.

He’ll take pictures of everything: the floor,

the wall,

the TV,

the back of his dad’s seat in the minivan.

He’ll even take unflattering pictures of his mom. While she’s drying her hair.

His brother will love the camera so much, he’ll want to have it in his bed at naptime. He won’t sleep at all! He’ll just take pictures. Of his crib.

And his teddy bear.

And his feet.

Some of the pictures won’t turn out at all. They’ll be all black,

or all white,

or blurry,

or even spooky.

Most will not be in focus, because the camera only takes 2 megapixel images, if you’re lucky.

He’ll soon discover that you can superimpose funny images over your pictures. Like an elephant.

Or a dinosaur.

Or even a parrot.

The kid will take 400 shots in no time flat, completely exhausting the internal memory. He’ll give the camera to mom. She’ll delete them, one by one. Delete. Delete. Delete. She’ll get so tired of deleting images, she’ll read the owner’s manual! Mom will discover the “reset button,” which deletes the entire memory at once. Ta-da!

The kid will be so excited, he’ll want to take some more pictures immediately!

And chances are, if he wants to take more pictures...

you’ll have to give him back his camera.

Discovery center!

On our last day in Tennessee, we went to the Discovery Center with Nana and Papa Kay. It's a small little children's museum, where all of the exhibits are designed for kids. Our Cincinnati Museum Center pass got us all in for free (hooray for reciprocity!) and we were ready to roll.

Right off the bat, Mason ran for the simple machines demos. There were two setups, one for levers and one for pulleys. The lever display had three punching bags, each hanging from levers with varying arm length. Mason and his dad saw first hand how much easier it is to lift something with a long lever arm!


The punching bags definitely weighed more than Danny. He gave it a go, though!


Here's Mason, trying to lift the punching bag suspended by a block a tackle. Almost!


There was also a mock-up of a space shuttle, where little ones could press buttons and pretend. It wasn't at all accurate - just for fun - but the boys liked it just the same.


There were fish and lizards and all kinds of other things, but we spent a lot of time in the activity area, playing with the toys there while the grown-ups took a breather. Danny liked this magnet thing-y:


At the end of the day, a good time was had by all. We piled into our van and drove back home, grateful for the nice lunch Nana had packed for us. Thanks, Nana! We ate every bite. And thanks for letting us invade your home once again - we had a great time.

Out of the mouth of a babe

The last time I fooled with my hair color was on my mission. I admired the highlighted hair of a girl in our branch and went to the same place to have mine done. Of course, it looked nothing like hers when I walked out of the salon! Plus, being in the sun every day did me no favors and by the end of my mission, my hair was uniformly strawberry blond. It was too much! I came home and had it corrected back to my natural color, and I've not touched the color since.

Lately, though, I've been considering a change. I realize I'm starting to get more and more gray hair, but Brandon has continued to assure me that I'm the only one who notices. Even so, I've been noticing it more and more and I was on the verge of doing something about it.

Then, my sweet Mason pushed me over the edge.

For Mother's Day, his teachers at preschool interviewed the kids about their moms and filled out little questionnaires. The day of the Mother's Day Tea, they hung the papers up and we were supposed to guess which one was our child's.

I knew instantly which was Mason's.

Sigh.

I knew it was time.

Side note: you'll note that Mason left a few blanks empty. This is typical Mason - he doesn't want to guess unless he is sure he knows the answer. Other kids guessed their moms weighed 50 pounds and were 85 years old, etc. Not Mason! If he doesn't know, he's not guessing! My little perfectionist.

So, I booked an appointment and got my hair done. Highlights and lowlights! It's subtle, but it covers the little gray hairs that were driving me nuts. In fact, it's so subtle that no one noticed! I was bummed! It seemed so dramatic to me, as I hadn't colored my hair in 11 years!

Here's a picture, but I don't think you can tell much. You'll have to trust me. I colored my hair. I have the bill to show for it. Yikes!

Another sidenote: this is me with my friend Tiffani. We became friends way back at Miami, freshman year. She was a new convert to the Church and very supportive of me, although I had not yet been baptized. Just last week, she and her family came to town for a job interview, and we were able to get together and visit - it had been too long! Nice to see you and your sweet fam, Tiff!

Graduation '09

Mason's preschool end-of-year celebration was a few weeks ago, and we had a great time. We had a recognition program, where each of the classes sang a little song, and then everyone stayed and enjoyed a pizza lunch.

Unfortunately, Brandon couldn't leave work to attend, so it was just me and Danny cheering Mason on. Here's Danny, ready to see the show!


Mason's teachers, Mrs. Lamb and Mrs. DiStefano, organized his class at the front of the hall. Here's the Elephant class, getting ready for their big number!


His class sang the cutest song, complete with "choreography." Now, if any of you have seen Mason in action, you know that he is not one for joining in public musical performances. In fact, this past Mother's Day he wouldn't join the Primary kids up front in church to sing the traditional song for all the moms. I was crushed! Later I asked him why, and he told me it was because he didn't know all the words. If Mason's going to do something, he wants to do it right, or not at all. That's just the way he is.

So knowing this might be a problem, I talked about it with him in advance of the preschool program. He told me he didn't want to sing the song, that he didn't know the words, and I just told him to do his best. I told him I'd be so proud of him if he just went up there with his class and did the best he could, whether he sang or not. Whenever he'd express doubt about being able to do it, I'd just tell him to do his best and Heavenly Father would be pleased (and me too).

So he did! He went up there with his class and, although he didn't sing the words, he definitely knew the choreography! I was really proud of him, and he just beamed at me the whole time he was up there. He did his best and I could never ask for more.


After the musical numbers, each child was called up by his teacher to receive a certificate. The preschool actually splits this program into two days, so there aren't too many kids and parents each day. How smart is that??? As it was, Mason and Dan had a hard time sitting through the program.

We did have a lively moment when the fire alarm went off in the middle of the recognition period. I've got to hand it to the Director, she was cool as can be. She calmly directed us all to evacuate out the back doors, and we were out in record time! It was a false alarm and we were allowed back in the building quickly. The kids were pretty wound up at that point though, so it's a good thing we were almost through. They showed a really lovely slideshow with some picture highlights of the year, and then it was on to lunch.


We then proceeded to eat far too much junk food. The first half of the alphabet was supposed to bring a sweet treat to share, the second half something salty. Note to self: next year, no matter what they tell me, I'm bringing a veggie tray or grapes. There was absolutely nothing healthy in the entire room, unless you count the juice boxes.

So by the time we left, I had two very spazzy boys on my hands, hopped up on sugar and ready to roll. Ah, but it was a good day. My Mason finished his second year of preschool!

Next year, Danny will be attending the Tiny Turtle class two days a week and Mason will be attending a four year old class three days a week. It will be so strange to have my boys both at school at the same time! I'm sure I'll cry the first day I drop Danny off at the door. He's my baby! But for now, we have the summer ahead of us, and lots to do: writing practice for Mason, potty training for Danny. And lots of popsicles and sprinklers and trips to the park.

Hooray for summer! And goodbye to a fantastic year of preschool.