The More Fruit on the Hat, the Closer to God

Sorry it's been a while....it's been busy!!!!!!! Between dressing like " The Lady with the Fruit on the Hat/ or You Can Call Me Chiquita" , teaching and having fun with my little fmaily...I have been one busy lady.

PLumkpers is now a gang member. She's been ridin' dirty for a while with ADG. That would be Apple Dumplin' Gang to you folks not in the know. That little gang banger has been hitting the apple rice cereal hard these days. She just can't get enough. It makes her dealers quite proud.

She has really become a little person here lately. She used to have to "stand" on a Monet art book ( yes, she's very sophisticated...don't look her in the eye) to play in her exer-suacer...now her little feet touch the bottom!! she loves her exersuacer...she's figured how to really manipulate the little thingamajigs on it. It's really cute....

We just had our 8th anniversary! I'd like to say it was nice and quiet...but Plumpkin was probaly the grumpiest she has ever been on that very day. When I cam home from work that day, Bing said that if hadn't have been our anniversary, he would have had to leave and go sit in his little truck down the street and drink. haha....good times.

But she got over whatever that problem and has been quite the good girl...laughing and playing and eating that cereal like a champ.

3 MORE DAYS~!!!! yippeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am soooooooooooooooo excited!!! then off to Louisiana. Can't wait to have some warmth and sun. Have I mentioned lately that Washington is bleck? A Dio Mio. The sun did come out Sunday though...it was nice. We went for a drive...all piled up in the truck ( Jones stayed behind to watch the house). Picture it....two very grown adults and a baby in a bench seat small truck with two dog heads hanging out each side of the camper window. rainier was gorgeous....it's still my favorite thing about living up here ( a short list but a good list)

My 8th graders had their formal Friday. Those girls spent fortunes on their dresses. Below is a picture of my dress. There were 2 other middle schools at the dance.....my kids were explaining to those kids that "it's ok...that's Mrs. Smith...she's funny." And just like that...alll was right with the world. If only everything could be explained that easily.

Mr. Rogers for President 2008

one of my favorite stories ever was reading how Koko The Gorilla ( who used sign language) used to love to watch Mr. Rogers. Well, Mr. Rogers heard about it and wonderful man that he was, decided to pay her a visit. She often got jaded with regular visitors but when she saw Mr. Rogers she just started acting like his number one fan, hugging him and signing over and over' " Koko love Mr. ROgers, Koko love Mr. ROgers". He visited with her for a long while, talking and hugging each other.

I get teary just talking about it. Apparently Koko would talk about it till the day she died.

I love those two.



Plumpkin did a lot better eating cereal today. I sat her in her Bumbo and she actually kinda chewed and swallowed and DID NOT have a screaming fit. Sweet success.


We got fish for our pond today. We named them El Jefe, Orangina, D'arbonne, Punk Fish, and Boudreaux the Fish ( bot to be confused with Boudreaux the Dog, Alligator, or Bench). We put them in and they immediately disppeared. We haven;t seen them since. I'm guessing they're magic fish. Perhaps we should have named them Houdini, Siegfired, Roy, David Copperfield & Boudreaux the Magician.

The cover of the Seattle Times was "JUNE GLOOM"...they are forescasting this sucky weather for the rest of the month.



Luckily, I have a wonderful family or I would go on a shooting rampage. Louisiana in 18 days...sun and warmth, here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahaha...this picture is for Grit. hahahaha....we grew up having Moma read is "Berenstein Bears" among other things. Who doesn't love a family of bears living in a the best treehouse ever? I still have my late 70's copy of " Scratch and Sniff Berenstein Bears" . ( You don't actually smell the bears though, which was both good and bad.)That thing still smells!! It shows how papa makes a pizza and you can smell each ingredient. I keep it in my hope chest Bing made me...I still sniff it from time to time. Is that weird? The mushrooms and garlic are my favorite.

Anyway....margaret has this horrible phobia of people in mascot uniforms. She just freaks out. Well, one day we're at Books A Million...just perusing books. Imagine a well lit book store....light breezy pop music bopping in the back ground. Then you hear it.....

shuh...shuh...shuh...shuh..

what was that?

you keep walking.

shuh, shuh, shuh.....

getting closer. what is that noise?

SHUH, SHUH, SHUH, SHUH....

We turn around and there right uponst us is.....Mama Bernstein creeping stealthily up in all her giant mascot-costumed glory. Her teddy bear head the size of a small bathtub. Her big furry slipper feet shuh-shuh-shuh sounding like her own "Jaws" soundtrack.

Margaret jumped straight into the air and did that thing that Wily Coyote always did in mid air---- that running to stand still thing. In my mind she even said " Woomp-woomp-woomp" like Curly from the 3 Stooges.

Needless to say, I had to escort her out of the store. Leaving Moma Berenstein to fend for her own next victim. Shuh, shuh, shuh.........

Bing said Plumpkerstilskin got so tickled today. He said she was on her mat just kinda fussing for fussing sake. He went over to her and said " Pipe down, youngster!" APparently, this is the best baby joke ever. She cracked up and for about 30 minutes - a comedy routine of alternate Popa giggling and " Pipe down youngster" ensued.

The kids were exhausting today. 13 more days!!!! i can't wait for the end of school!!!!!

I love to watch the birds in the backyard. The hummingbirds remind me so much of caroline. So tiny, yet so fiesty.

I would like to smush a magnolia all over my face. I love that smell. And the little yellow things. I used to draw with the purple ends of them. I thought I was so avant-garde. ooh, look at me...I'm drawing with the reproductive parts of a plant. ooh la la. somebody call masur musuem.

I miss magnolias. I want Lady Bird to know all about them. One day!

Well, I'm off to see the Wizard......hasta luego.