A conversation I just had with my son, The Talker, as he returned to find my fiddling with a couple of building blocks he wasn’t yet using to build his house:
Him, agitatedly: “Hey, hey, hey! Don’t play with those!”
Me, teasing: “Hey, hey, hey: ‘you’re not the boss of me.’”
Him, matter-of-factly: “Yeah, I know; Mom is.”
Me: laughing out loud
Wife, also matter-of-fact: “That’s right.”
Doomed am I. 
Our daughter, as one of her school assignments, had to write a “persuasive” letter to her parents, asking for something and making her argument as to why her boon should be granted. We each read the letter and thought you might enjoy it as well.
I present, therefore, A Persuasive Letter, as written (speeling, grimmer, and plunkulation [sic] are hers):
Dear Mom and Dad,
Can you imagine girl with no pet and really wants one. She wants a cat but, her parents wont let her get one. I know that you don’t think I can do it but, I’ll want to spend a lot of time to be with it. We could give it a color and you wouldn’t have to pay for all of it. Didn’t you have a cat when you were little?
If I got a cat I would keep interest in it. I would play with my cat with cat toys and other things. It would just be so much fun to play with my cat. Have you seen what I do at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s? Every time we go to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s, I look for their cats to play with. I feel sad that Peca died because I liked to play with her. Sense we don’t go to their house very often, I play with the neighbor hood cats instead. I think you’ve seen me with the calico and Siamese
If the cat does roam the neighbor hood we could give it a collar. The collar would have our phone number and address on it. If you don’t want to buy the collar, it could stay inside. You could get use to it if it were an inside cat. If we got one of thoughs metal fences it will most likely stay in the yard. The cat could hunt the golfers if you let it.
It doesn’t have to be expensive. It could be from the shelter. You’ve tolled me that the pound sales are cheep. I could save up my money to pay for it. I am saving up my allowance. Or [my sister] and I could combined our money and buy the cat. You know that [she] wants a cat so she could help. You could pay only for a little of it. It doesn’t have to be a store bought cat it could be one of the calico’s kittens. It could be from Animal Ark if they have some cats.
In my opinion, I would be much happier if I had a best friend at home. I wouldn’t be board with trying to get [my sister] to play with me. We could just keep it inside and [she] can help with the money. I want someone to play with at home. Don’t you want to see me happier in my lifetime. Lets go to the [neighbor's] today. Can we, please?
Love,
Your Pet less Daughter
[signed]
Will she be getting her desire? Only The Shadow knows. And where did she learn to speak Engrish?! (At least she properly wrote “a lot” as two words, unlike many adults I know.)
From a chance encounter at the Pleasant Grove Promenade (think “farmer’s market”) a couple of months ago, Soap Queen and her little soapy business got written up in the Herald Extra, a local paper. She got lots of good comments from the newspaper article and friends, and even got a little extra business out of it. (Score! 
) )
Then about two weeks ago, another local paper, the Deseret News, called to ask if they too could interview her and do a write up on her and her business. They came and did the interview and took photos while I was off in England for work, so I’d kinda forgotten about it. Apparently the article came out this morning because the phone has been ringing off the hook! (There was also a teaser article (with my favorite of the photos included below), which takes you to MormonTimes.com for the longer article (virtually identical to the Deseret News one above.)
Congrats, my Love!
Concentration
[Well, we'll see how well this goes, posting via iPod … hrm, "not so well", finishing edit with a real browser, many days later.]
The special time of year, when we eat too much, spend money on things we don’t necessarily need (because “it was on sale”), and say silly things about those we’re sharing a gorge-fest with … yes, the halcion days around Thanksgiving!
OK, time to stop being silly. It’s a defenese mechanism. We have difficulty expressing our feelings — our true feelings, anyway. So even though I want to say how much I love my family, how grateful I am for all that I have — for my sexy wife (rrrrrowwlll), for my children and their goodness, for my extended family and what they have done for us, for my Savior … so while I’d like to say all those things, I’m much more likely to say something unexpected about the Spanish Inquisition, because noone expects the Spanish Inquisition!
And large, fluffy pillows. Possibly decorative ones.
But mostly for my things like my Dad. And my Mom. And my
Sweetie. And yes, my kids. (All of ‘em.) And my other Mom and Dad.
I am thankful to the God who gave me life, who made it possible for this country to exist, for us to have the incredible freedoms that we enjoy.
That is all.
[Oh, and for those of you who don't "get" the title, you need to read The Chronicles of George sometime.]
Last Saturday we loaded up the truck with a small hunk of humanity (all of “us”) and headed down to the 2008 Utah County Fair. We had thought to see the Demolition Derby — ’cause what kid doesn’t enjoy a good demolition derby? — but the lines were pretty long … and we <ahem> failed to get tickets beforehand.
So we just wandered around to see what we could see. There was a building with vendors, but the only one that interested me was the lady selling board and card games. She was very nice, had some good suggestions, and sells them out of her home in Highland. She had already run out of business cards, so she wrote down her name and website address on a slip of paper. (She’s not real happy with the folks that did her site, so she’s having it redone. If it doesn’t look too good, it’s probably still the old site. Give her a call or send an email instead.)
Next we wandered through where all the sheep and young steers were. Two words: pheeew, that’s strong! And to my city-slicker-ified eye, one shorn sheep looks very much like the next. Not terribly exciting. (Sorry, all you shorn-sheep show-ers.)
The last building contained the 4H displays: all the home-canned preserves, hand-made dresses, home-baked goods, home-grown vegetables, student paintings and photos … and a very large, very fun Lego® display done by ULUG.
For just a bunch of kids making, baking, painting, and growing stuff, they sure did a nice job. I don’t remember anything spectacular, but the fact that the kids are learning how to do this stuff was very pleasing to my heart. Way to go, 4H Groups!
The County Sheriff’s Office had several displays setup. I chatted briefly with the SAR guys. Then we wandered over to the SWAT Team to see their gear and have a look at their SWAT transport vehicle. (I forgot to get a picture. 
) I asked if we could get the nickel tour, and he gladly took us inside and let us look around. Not as much gear as is in the MICC, but then the MICC is meant for communications and Incident Command, not hauling a bunch of guys in riot gear to take down a drug house.
The kids even got a chance to shoot pellet guns at targets in a little hunter safety trailer. (We had a hard time pulling them away, actually. Even the little ones made sure they got their turn. Twice.)
We took one last look at the line into the derby, briefly glanced around at the fair’s culinary offerings … and decided that it had been too long since we’d visited Lotus Garden.
On the way out, the found Beanies. I was doomed. Oh well, it wasn’t too bad; the folks selling them had reduced the price for the last day of the fair. We speculated that these were collectors, who had realized that there were too many Beanie Babies on the market to make collecting viable.
Next to the Beanie sellers was a lady with Alpacas. Very cute critters, very soft wool. (Do you call the stuff sheared from Alpacas wool?) They live down in the south end of the county and just have fun raising their Alpacas, and even make a bit of money doing it, by selling the wool to people to make sweaters and socks from. Very nice and friendly — both the lady, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, and her critters.
The boys were quite interested in these cute animals. 
Mr. Independent walked right over, hunkered down and they watched each other quite contentedly.
Lotus Garden, in Provo, is one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. We used to go every three or four weeks, and the folks there got to know us well enough that they would bring our drinks out without having to ask what everyone wanted, and would immediately start another batch of gyoza because we’d clean out whatever was there at the buffet; by the time we were finished, we would have had five or six each. Even though we don’t get down there but once a year now, they still greet us warmly and make gentle noises of amazement at how much our kids have grown and how large our family has become.
Thanks for a loverly dinner, Lotus Garden family!
The End. {contented sigh and smile as we headed home}
Our almost 10 year old and our 4 year old
Our 7 and 2 year old.
Our 11 year old
Our 8 year old and if you knew her you would not be surprised by this outfit (don’t forget to check out the feet).
Our little bambino, he’s 6 months old now.
[And if you're counting heads, you might know why this site is called The Quiver. -Kraut]
[sung to the tune of "What do you do with a drunken sailor"]
What do you do with a pregger wi-ife,
What do you do with a pregger wi-ife,
What do you do with a pregger wi-ife,
Er-lie in the mornin’?
Aparently you take her to the horse-pittal and let her bring a “new one” into the world.
Yup. Our latest was bornified this week. Cute little guy.
We’re glad to have him with us. He was our biggest baby—something which did not please the one birthing him. She was quite glad to have him in her arms, though.
I sure do love her, my Sweetie. I don’t, however, know how she manages to do all the things she does. Trying to get all the kids off to school—fed, dressed, with brushed teeth and combed hair—and then to take care of all the other domestic things that need doing every day and every week … and then to top it off with all the other things she does, like being the Primary President for our Ward, making and selling hand-made soap from our home and at the Holy Cow Boutique, teaching piano lessons to the neighborhood kids, playing piano for our church choir … <sheesh!>
Anyway, he’s here now; healthy and happy (as long as he’s fed and no one is messing with his diaper).
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for letting us play host to this wee one.