Saturday, February 7, 2015

Phone Dump

This is not a Christmas post by any means, but it has been so long since I cleared out pictures on my phone that they go back well into December. More to enjoy I guess. Let's get going on all this random picture taking.

The tree was a draw for random photos. Whenever the kids got ahold of my phone, I would find more pictures of the tree.


I don't blame them. I took a few myself along with my buddy here.


Don't be deceived. This next shot was taken by me...not the kids. I was experimenting with light and movement. (Yes, the kids photos look basically the same.)



Like many church goers, we have found a pew that we like to sit in each Sunday. I am not above moving somewhere else, and I don't feel like we own it, but it is where we gravitate naturally. The church is supposed to be cleaned every week, but for some reason, this lone fruit snack was missed for weeks on end. Every Sunday, we would sit down and I would check to see if it was still there. Sure enough....it never moved. (Look closely.)


This is more impressive since in church there are any number of small children who could have scooped that thing up in a heartbeat. (Children are much more forgiving about old food on the floor.) Sadly, the day I took a picture, Tyler said it was all ridiculous and he snatched it and threw it away. I guess we will never know how long it could have remained there.



At church I am currently serving in the primary. Someone mentioned that two kids had fallen asleep in nursery and they looked so cute. This lady didn't have her phone and asked if I could take a picture. They are precious.


However the story didn't end so well since the girl woke up and puked all over the boy. Suddenly the whole scene seemed less adorable. I never did post that picture to the neighborhood FB page. The moment seemed to have soured. (Literally.)


Sometimes when your husband is on the phone and you are bored, do you find things to entertain yourself? Like stacking Little People nativity pieces? No...just me?


I was doing well. I couldn't quite get the fourth one to stay balanced. Each time they fell on the glass table, I got a crusty stare from the man on the phone. Sheesh...everyone's a critic.


During the holiday season we went caroling like we always do. It is a serious tradition. But we only got the one photo which was lost on the phone...until now.




My children like to draw pictures. (A lot.) (Lots of pictures.) Sometimes I will find them taped around the house in odd spots. One morning I awoke to this.


Daisy had made a cute Christmas tree complete with presents. And her photo was lovely, although devoid of all her siblings. (Maybe there just wasn't room on the paper? Maybe it is her secret dream?)


Strange Lego creation makes the blog. By June. (I think it is supposed to be a duck. Don't ask me how.)



In January (yes, December is finally in the past!) McKenzie was able to come to book group. She currently lives in Grenada, so it was kind of a big deal to see her. It was just for a moment, but I always love to catch up.




June has a NEVER ENDING stream of projects at school. She can barely stay on top of things in her advanced class. (Exhausting, but I still think it has been great for her.) Last month the sixth grade did something called a 'World's Fair.' The other classes focused on ancient cultures such as Egypt, Greece, and Rome, while June's class did modern countries with food samples. (The food was a big hit. That room was packed all night.) June paired up with her bestie and did Ukraine.


I think this had something to do with the fact that Tyler and I taught English there. Of course I couldn't remember any of the recipes I made there. (My only vivid memories of food were sour cream on everything and the turkey at Thanksgiving that came with feathers and head attached.) So we looked up an authentic recipe online. I give you Yabluchnyk Korzh. (Apple cake?) It was pretty tasty, but it got better each day it sat there.


Hannah's mom made some rolls with parsley, olive oil, and garlic. They were fantastic, but I picked her up just as they came out of the oven and in transporting them, the smell soaked into the car. My car smelled like garlic for two weeks. (There are worse things for a car to smell like.)


There was also a boy who worked on the project. His mom paid for the project board so he got out of making food. (Darn smart lady if you ask me.) I thought all their costumes looked fantastic. June's shirt was originally my mom's and probably came from Germany, but it looked great for the evening. Gotta love this awkward age where even small girls like June seem to tower over the boys.



Driving around town one day, I stopped behind a truck and was pretty appalled by their advertising slogan. Classy. I took the picture to share with Tyler. (You know you are in love when you send your significant other, pictures of all the weird things you see.)




Oh, more June projects. For this one, she had to make a musical instrument. She made a makeshift guitar with three rubberbands, which played three melodic bass notes. We had quite a time getting the rubberbands to stay put. They were more inclined to snap at the last minute sending tacks flying every which way. This chaotic procedure earned it the name of  the 'Stubborn Bass.'


Even as we drove to school, we saw that one band was stretching to its limit. As fortune would have it, it didn't break at school and hasn't broken yet. (Way to go hot glue.) And luckily, no one was seriously harmed in the making of this instrument.



Still with me? We have almost reached the end. Clearly I need to clean out my phone more often.

I still do my monthly date with the kids. Robyn and I had a fabulous night together in January. We stayed up late, watched a movie, ate snacks, and then she slept upstairs with me. (Tyler was on a campout.) Ivory was bursting at the seams for February to arrive. She really wanted to go out on Feb. 1st, but I told her that was a Sunday. Her date didn't come soon enough in her estimation, but when we finally went out, we had a good time. We shopped for journals for her and ended the evening with chocolate. Love her chocolate lip liner.



Did I mention that June has a lot of projects? I didn't even get a picture of her diorama she took to school the other day. But I did sneak this picture of her while I was giving her a spelling test. She is such a good kid. She really works hard.



Last picture of the evening and this one is incredibly current. It was off Tyler's phone, from LAST NIGHT. (It doesn't get much fresher than that.) We went out on a group date to play Laser Tag. Mainly, my gym buddy, Becca, heard about my triumphant victory against the men on Tyler's birthday. She was skeptical. She needed to see me in action.


I think I earned my title. We played with some other kids besides our group. I believe two other guys made off with first and second place, but I came in third. (Highest from our group.) I'm not saying that I am amazing, or even that this is something to brag about, but I can hold my own in laser tag. Doug (Becca's hubby) came in fourth, and for the record, our team (green) beat the other team that those two guys were on. (Actually, it is possible that Jake came in second because he didn't remember his number and therefore never got a score, and he is a cop...but I think it is unlikely. Sorry Jake.)


And that is all there is folks. Goodnight.

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