Saturday, July 30

Weekend

Having every other Friday off means that we have extra time on the weekends to wear ourselves out.  Weeee!  This weekend we went to:

- The Whiting Forest.  This is the forgotten little brother of Dow Gardens.  They're operated together and your $10 annual pass gets you into both.  Whereas the Gardens are all prettified, the Forest is, well, a forest.  There are paths through the various areas that show a half dozen different types of forests we have in Michigan.  And, there are forts.  Julia loves the forts.

- Frisbee Golf.  Turns out we have a disc golf course in Midland.  (The sport can't officially be called "Frisbee" golf, because that's a brand name.)  There were a surprisingly large number of people there.  Probably a few dozen, if we could have seen them all at the same time.  We were not your typical group, because of two things we didn't bring and one thing we did.  First, we didn't have fancy disc golf frisbees.  They make special ones that aren't good for catching, but are good for flying long and straight.  Secondly, we didn't bring any beer.  And finally, we brought little kids.  The basic demographic for disc golf seems to be guys in their 20s, drinking and smoking their way around the course.  We weren't terribly good, but I still had fun.  We didn't get anywhere close to doing all 18 holes, because Julia was melting down.  Every.  Ten.  Feet.  This also filled one of Shannon's 30 by 30 requirements, so I hope I haven't stolen her thunder too much here.

- Basketball.  Yeah, me playing basketball at the church isn't that noteworthy, but it's still something we did.  Shannon came to play the organ, and the girls got to play with all the other kids that come.  The older ones had a lesson and everything in the nursery.  They learned about firemen, and had pictures to color and everything.

- Blueberry picking at Russell's Blueberry Farm.  We did this a few weeks ago, and this time Shannon wanted even more blueberries.  We picked about 4 pounds (for $7.50) plus, you can eat all you want for free while you are picking.  And, as always, fresh stuff tastes better than the stuff at the store.  Julia did a pretty good job of picking them, and then a good job of spilling almost all of the ones she picked.  Ella, meanwhile was eating them as fast as she could.  From our buckets, picking them from the bushes, or off the ground.  Hopefully mostly from the first category and not much from the third.  We tried to keep an eye on her, honest.

And now, it's Saturday evening.  The girls are in the tub, we're exhausted, and the house is a mess.  Something tells me that it isn't going to get cleaned up tonight.

(A disadvantage of the every-other-friday-off work schedule that I have is that it makes little daily tasks harder.  I work a little bit more each day, which makes things like picking up the house that must less likely to happen.  And then, when I get all that time back in the form of a 3 day weekend, we sure aren't going to spend it all cleaning!  Essentially, this is a system of converting 1 hour a day that might well be used productively, into an extra whole day of play each fortnight.  But, it's much better than the last job, where my hours changed 7 or 8 times in the last year I was there, and included early morning, 12 hour shifts, afternoons, weekends and just about everything but graveyards and Sundays.)

Self-feeding

Julia came into our room today eating one of her favorite foods, a peanut butter tortilla, and said to us: "I made myself a peanut butter tortilla!"  Now, it's not like this is a difficult recipe to master or anything, but she's never made one before, even with our help.  So Shannon and I shoot each other a look that says: "I'm afraid to go look and see what she's left behind in the kitchen."  I offered to go scope it out.  And . . . there's nothing to report.  The peanut butter jar is sitting on the table with the lid on, there's a knife in the sink, and, best of all, no peanut butter smeared on the table, floor, walls or carpet!  So, I guess Julia is about ready to take care of herself now.

Sunday, July 3

The ants go marching

A few quick hitters from Michigan:

Julia really, really likes to type her name whenever anyone is at the computer.  Even if she is busy dressed up in her candy corn outfit, complete with high heels, giant flower headband and pom poms, she still wants to use the computer.

We have a small ant problem at home.  And I don't mean that the ants are small (though they are) but that the problem is very small.  We find ants very regularly, but only a handful at a time.  It's like in Michigan ants don't believe in working together in large groups.  So, we find a few, get rid of them and then they are gone for a few days.  But they keep coming back.  It's not like we don't have huge amounts of food on the floor at all times.  Apparently these ants just aren't very good.

Ella cannot be contained in a small space anymore.  Attempts to hold her are futile.  Even with food, books, toys, you name it, you can't keep her on your lap.  Any attempts result in tears and screaming.

In related news, we're going on a 3 hour long plane trip in 2 weeks.

In further related news, we're going to Utah in 2 weeks.  I think I've talked to both of my Utah readers in the last week, so this isn't really news for anyone.

Finally, we played soccer yesterday at the local high school.  ("We" being the elder's quorum and friends.)  I hurt today.  But things are made somewhat better knowing that of the 8 goals scored, I had 2 of them, and an assist on another.  This is not indicative of my soccer skills.  This is indicative of luck.