I'm What?

I forgot to post my funny story from last week. I am the chorister for the ward, so I generally don't really look at the program-- since I know what songs they are anyway (I choose them). So I got to church last week and sat down, chatting with my roommates, when Heather leaned over and said, "You're speaking today?"
"I'm...what?"
Never heard from any member of the bishopric about this, and I hadn't even been there in weeks, since I had been on Christmas break, then a farewell, then Seattle. Welcome back, I guess. So before the service started, I went up to the front and brought it up. The one announcing said, "Yeah, you're right, you're not speaking," and corrected it. The bishop just laughed about it, and the other counselor said, "What do you mean you're not? We had you planned for 20 minutes!" I told him I could do a tap number, but I wasn't very prepared for that.
Anyway, I just thought it was funny. "Bishop? I was never informed that I was supposed to speak today..."

Three of the Hardest Things

I've decided that three of the things I find hardest about raising children are teething, toilet training, and teaching them to drive. I'm completely done with the first two jobs, and we are now in the midst of the third task with the last child. By mutual agreement, she is spending as much of that training with her dad as possible because they do better together. I'm too uptight. But in my defense, I spent more time with the teething babies and did the majority of the toilet training with all three. I also put in my fair share of the driver's training with the other two. This is fair. I'm old and worn out.

Stupid Poems

In my English class, I have to recite a 2 minute poem by memory. When I first started, I checked on line, and came across some pretty stupid ones such as:

Nuffin rhymes with Muffin
Nuffin nuffin nuffin
Rhymes with muffin
But nuffin nuffin nuffin
Rhymes with 'orange'
Could it be
That a cup of tea
Is not as good with an orange
As a muffin?

Birds
by: Lucas
A bird soaring high and high in the sky
As soon as i i look in the sky
it craps in my eye……
(I just thought that was funny)

Ode to Spider
Once upon a moonlit night there was a little spider,
Who sadly came across a girl who’s name was Molly Snyder.
Poor little guy stood no chance against her platform shoes,
She screamed and smacked and reduced dear spider to ooze.

A little poem of sortsRoses are red
Roses are red

Violets are blue

Most poems rhyme

But this one doesn't.

Clownfish

This really is not appropriate.

I don't find this funny.


You can't just walk in here,

You and your "jokes"


You only come to mock me.

Shame on you.


Knocking on someone's door is funny?

I don't see the joke


That's disturbing the peace

And annoying people.


Why does that poor man have to go to the doctor?

What? That's a joke?


You can't make fun of other people's

Unfortunate illnesses


If the man thinks he's a pair of curtains

Then he really should pull himself together.


This really is not appropriate.

Funny I don't find this.


Funny.

Not.

Big Deal Around Here

So the new Draper Temple has been occupying a bit of our time lately. We were complaining (and yes, we knew how ridiculous it was) that it would be taking maybe five or ten minutes longer to get to our new temple than our old one. But now that we've seen the inside of the new one, I think we'll stop complaining. Mark and I had the opportunity of ushering one day, after which we got a quick, self-guided tour of the temple. Then we got to help serve food another day for some VIP tours, during which time Camilla got to sneak through with a couple of families in the ward. Our family will tour soon; I will have another ushering assignment in the next couple weeks; and then Mark and I will get an opportunity one morning in March to spend a few hours in a sealing room, taking a few moments to explain the purpose of those rooms to the visitors. I'm also spending every Sunday evening at choir practice for a dedication session choir. (We get dedication session #3.) It's a beautiful temple (as are they all), but I think the font area is the most beautiful one I remember seeing.

Meanwhile, I keep going to the Jordan River temple. I'll miss it, but I think I'll keep going there sometimes for the convenience and familiarity, and probably just out of loyalty. It will be hard to make the shift--like losing an old friend. This is the one where I started attending weekly at the suggestion of my friend and now more than weekly because of the production of my husband and his family history work. (So many DeGrandgagnage's, so little time!)

A visit from the sisters!

My beautiful sisters came to visit me this weekend! Okay, they mostly came to see this cute fellow. . .

. . . but they were nice and pretended to be equally as excited to see me and Matt.

On Saturday we took them on a tour of downtown Seattle. Matt showed them his office, the library, and the apartment where he lived over the summer. After that, we visited the troll under the Aurora Bridge. Unfortunately, Matt stepped in some sort of animal feces on the way back to the car. We dubbed it "troll poop" and had an interesting time trying to get rid of the smell from our car.

Next came a visit to the famous Seattle Space Needle, complete with strange poses behind these bamboo-like structures.

Andrew was pretty tired by this point, but he agreed to show off his model pose for the girls:

Next on our tour was the Seattle Aquarium.

These are my strange, yet lovable, sisters:

And these are some of the cool things we saw: a puffer fish, a Finding Nemo tank (See? It's Nemo and Marlin and Dory!) and some silly eels that bury themselves in the sand and watch for food to go by.

Andrew really liked the fish and was excited to bang on every tank we passed. He even banged his head into a few glass walls while trying to get the fish.

Finally, Andrew zonked out while we toured Pike's Place Market.

We got some authentic Seattle sushi at the Japanese Gourmet Restaurant at Pike's Place Market, then headed home.

It was so fun having the girls here with us this weekend! Andrew was especially excited to wake them up in the morning and play with them all day long. He even showed off his rockin' swinging skills at the park.

Thanks for coming to visit! We miss you already!

Things Nobody Tells You

I hate the secrets they keep from you. Nobody told me it would be this hard. Of course we assumed it would be, but it's sort of like childbirth--you don't really get how much it's going to hurt until you experience it. I miss my daughter and son-in-law and grandson a lot more than I expected. And I believe I'm going to just have to conquer that airsickness problem quickly so I can fly up to Seattle frequently. So here's to our favorite grandson and his parents! We love you!!

New Furniture!

As sort of a goodbye present to Matt and Bethany, we are sending our old living-room furniture to Seattle with them. So since the only furniture left in our front room was a piano, a curio cabinet and a grandfather clock, we had to go get something else to sit on. (The piano bench seats only two, and that's not very comfortably.) So here are pictures of our new stuff.

Here's the couch we ordered (which, unfortunately, I couldn't get a bigger picture of):

But it will be covered in this fabric:

And we have two of these chairs (no waiting):

This table is on order (not to scale in this picture, either):

And this table is already home:

Both lamps are here:

As are two pillows similar to (but not exactly like) this:

We'll miss the old furniture, but know it'll have a good home with the Hillarys. (Good luck keeping that white stuff clean, however. Notice it was always in our food-forbidden room!) And good luck in all your adventures up north! We love you!!!