It Happened Last Monday

Last week I was having so much fun, I practically forgot it was Monday.

Aunt Shelly, Joseph, and I had planned previously to go bike riding in the morning. I was particularly excited about showing Joseph how much fun it is to ride a bike that actually has gears and brakes in a place that actually has a long bike path, a river, trees, and deer to look at. Somewhere between getting up and getting out the door, it was mentioned that Daniel would like to come with us, but he was being kind of slow, so Joseph and I decided to start walking for Aunt Shelly’s house without him. We made it all the way to the street when he came tearing out of the house and ran about half-way down the driveway, then TOTALLY wiped out.

Result?

A broken watch, a couple of long tough-guy looking scrapes and cuts on his arms and side, and a decision to forgo the bike ride. Joseph and I kind of just gaped, and then shrugged and went on with the plans.

It was a fantastic bike ride. We took the same route as on Saturday, but the path was even less crowded, and the weather was cooler, and I was riding Becky’s bike, which has a much comfy-er seat! Joseph had confessed to being most worried about going downhill, but we never encountered anything too steep, and he enjoyed passing us on every uphill stretch just as we enjoyed passing him on every downhill.

After the ride, I washed up and ate breakfast – delicious as usual – and then Grandpa, Aunt Susie, the Family of Floofs, Daniel, Andy, and I loaded up to go to the Hermitage (home of Andrew Jackson). It reminded me of the Carnton plantation we visited with Grandpa previously, but it was quite a bit fancier and more prestigious (oh yeah, and more expensive). We watched an introductory film about Andrew Jackson, and then got headphones that played commentary about things when we pressed certain buttons (and nothing when one of us, namely Edward, pressed random buttons and tried in vain to hurl it to the floor). There was a museum, but it was small and unimpressive, apart from these wax figures of Jackson and his wife, and their actual, real, live, honest-to-goodness chariot:

We went walking outside to see the actual house and get a tour (though you couldn’t take pictures of the inside). The house actually seemed rather small to me, smaller than the Farm (another southern house, currently owned by my mom’s younger brother in Johnson City Tennessee) and felt very vertically angled. The paintings in the walls were tall and placed high up on the walls. The walls, by the way, were ridiculous. Some were painted to look like stone and marble (and ended up looking totally cheesy, like a reject from a film set), and there were paintings of Greek stories (Telemachus on the isle of Calypso, I think!?!???) in the main halls. I liked the curvy staircase, and the fake food in the main dining hall, and those big tall beds with fancy curtains that make you think of Ebenezer Scrooge’s bed. One of the rooms was basically used by Sam Houston whenever he wanted it, whether Jackson was there or not.

After seeing the house (Eddie didn’t make it past the main hall, unfortunately), we checked out the slave quarters and the smokehouse and what looked like it might be the dinner bell. Everything had a very Southerny feel to it, which was nice.

We spent quite a bit of time walking in the garden (Rachel’s garden) and trying to avoid getting stung by sweat bees. Grandpa, myself, and Eddie all got stung at least once, but Eddie at least got kissed about twenty times to make up for it. In the meantime, we listened or pretended to listen to our audio tours and rolled our eyes when the tour guy suggested that we pretend to be slaves working in the garden on a hot day so we could concentrate on what it was *really* like back then. Yeah right, like the old ladies in costumes would even allow us to go digging in the garden wearing our headphones.

We left the Hermitage a little before 1 pm, arriving home for a scrumptious lunch – ham and cheese sandwiches with grapes and peaches! I love Grandma!

I took a nap after lunch, and had an odd dream of Grandpa waking me to go swimming. Since I believe in dreams coming true, I decided to get up and go. While getting ready, I was upset to discover that I had left my goggles at the fitness center. It’s very unusual for me to misplace things like that, and I was in denial up until the point when I actually got them back again. The teenage lifeguard actually wasn’t very helpful; she showed me a couple of pairs in a storage closet (none of them were mine), but I had noticed a bunch of goggles sitting out on a box next to the pool, and when I went to check it out on my own, voila! There they were. She didn’t even put the other pairs with the ones in the storage closet. Oh well.

Joseph went swimming with me, and we both did laps (alas, the pool was divided in short lanes for the rest of our stay… though on the bright side, we did each have our own lane) until we got tired. I tried to substitute 3 short laps for 1 long one, but may have lost count. Anyway, we stayed a bit longer than last time, and Grandpa got a considerable amount of work done on his Sudoku and crossword puzzle.

After showering at home, we all went over to Aunt Shelly’s for an amazing dinner – Grandma’s zucchini bread squares (looooooved these!), stuffed peppers (I’d never had them before, but they were very good!), chips and a corn/bean-like dip (always good), watermelon, and sticky chocolate chip cookie bars for dessert. Uncle Bill’s mom also came for dinner and it was fun having another person to chat with around the table.

The “young people,” as they say in Mandy, went outside right after dinner to play badminton. Julie, Andy, and I played against Becky and Daniel, though none of us was very good. We broke two shuttlecocks, got a lot of bug bites, and still had fun. Baffling, isn’t it?

It was Joseph, Kirsti, and Edward’s last night, which was tragic, so they went around telling everyone goodnight. Edward let me hold him for a few seconds and didn’t even cry – a miracle!

Saturday Cuteness

Yeah, I know, Saturday was a millennia ago, but cuteness is for all times and ages, 'kay?

Grass! What fascinating stuff! So luscious! So green! So . . . MUCH!

Father, I insist we buy this house. Look, Mother is even nodding to show her approval.

We had a tickle-monster trailing us for part of the way. . . Edward was the only casualty.

Here, I think, we were having a conversation on whether or not Joseph and Kirsti's shirts complimented each other.

E: "I have no memory of this place . . ." K: "It's that way, Eddiegrin Took. Don't you smell the chocolate? When in doubt, always follow your nose."

Extra! Extra! Get your free dose of cuteness right here!

Looking to the Past: Sunday through the Camera with Ruth

Apologies for running behind on the blog posts, everyone. I am trying! I am!

Soooooo...Sunday! I woke up, showered, ate breakfast, got dressed, and went to church with Grandma and Grandpa, the Hughes, Joseph and Kirsti and a very handsome young fella in the cutest Sunday vest and suit you ever saw. We had trouble keeping all the ladies off him all day!

Church at the Presbyterian building was beautiful. The program was interesting and I enjoyed looking over Grandpa's shoulder at a printed copy of the sermon, which was about "True Wealth." The stand-out of the program was the music, which was amazing. A red-haired young man in one of those flowing black-and-white choir robes sang many parts of the program, and his voice was really beautiful. I got chills every time he sang, and even had the tune accompanying the phrase “You alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship you” in my head all week. Too bad we can't recruit him for our choir :)

Unfortunately, the handsome young midget in our midst did not appreciate the quality of the program, and preferred to spend the majority of the time in a well-equipped playroom next door.

Afterwards, we had a break for refreshments and socializing, and then went to Sunday School. Daniel and I attended Grandpa and Aunt Shelly's class, which turned out to be 10 or so people sitting in a small classroom watching a lecture (produced by the same company which brought Potato Thompson and Frank Cardulla to my attention) on Gnosticism. I felt like I should have had my laptop out, taking notes to keep me awake. I especially struggled when they turned the lights off! What bits I heard of the lecture were interesting, but alas, I can't remember a thing.

After S.S., Aunt Shelly drove us to our church at 11. I wasn't sure I was going to make another 3 hours without falling asleep/getting grumpy/eating something. Sacrament meeting was hard, but it was a ward mainly of children, so the antics of youngsters both in the congregation and at the pulpit (it was fast and testimony meeting, and we got a slough of kids saying things like "I love my brother even though he is mean to me" and "I'm thankful for Jothef Smiff") helped a lot. Daniel bore a strong, powerful testimony, which he received many compliments on later, but it was also delivered in a very loud voice that distracted me from his message. Oh well, apparently the Spirit can speak in more ways than in a still, small voice!

After sacrament meeting, a nice lady who used to live in Orem, Utah (Daniel had mentioned that we were from there) came up and helped me find Gospel Doctrine - aka Sunday School – and Relief Society - aka Girl's Hour. Gospel Doctrine was on the Kirtland/Far West days of the Saints, and I enjoyed the history lesson. I was just beginning to get homesick for our Nauvoo Trip when the bell rang. Relief Society went by really fast, thankfully and surprisingly. I can’t recall the exact topic of the lesson, but it had to do with looking to the past and the Pride Cycle, and I remember our teacher got flustered at one point and mixed up the order of the Pride Cycle, putting "Calamities" BEFORE “Wickedness." Yeah, right!

After church, I was very excited to get home ("Grandma and Grandpa's home" - doing okay, Tar Heel?) and take off my horrible high heels and lie around the house (yes, it is lie and not lay. I was paying attention in usage class!). I ate lunch, practiced the piano piece for choir, read more in Fablehaven number 3, and probably fell asleep before it was time for dinner, which was vegetables from the garden and yogurt with fruit (which Aunt Shelly said she got from Mom!). There was something good for dessert, though I can’t remember what…possibly zucchini bread with chocolate chips in it… hmmmm.

For the Sake of Randomness

Why I don't allow Daniel to use the camera more often:

Here's what happens when you figure since you haven't had a bite in a couple of (Utah) summers, you're too tough for bugspray:

And this is a look at the results from the matchup between Daniel and Grandma and Grandpa's driveway:

Finally, three pairs of feet. Guess which two belong to the weirdos:

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... Superfloof!

I always knew that my little nephew had a special charm, but magical powers!? I mean, honestly, what DOESN'T this guy look cute in!?!?

In addition to being pajamas, these can function as Halloween costumes and objective demonstrations of the primary colors.

No need to even carry a weapon. Just one look at that little pout and chubby face, and the hardest villain's heart would melt.

This looks like a good place for take-off.




And lastly, a video demonstration of Superfloof - aka Eddieloo - 's flying abilities.

P.S.

Look, I'll even throw in my first video to make y'all feel better. Isn't he cuuuuuuuuuuuute?

About that picture post I promised...

It's taking about five minutes on Grandma and Grandpa's computer to load up one picture, so I might just hold off on this until I can use Aunt Shelly's computer. Or y'all can just be satisfied with this one of Daniel and me at the beginning of our trip, in the Salt Lake City airport. Whaddya say?