Beneath the Wraps

Randy has always been charismatic.   Often he has conned others out of favors based on his charm.   One time in fifth grade, someone dared him to wear a dress onto the playground.   Of course Randy needed incentive and said he’d do it for five dollars.   Randy wore the dress for the entire recess – but there had been a commotion about it.   Roland was called in and learned all what was involved.   Randy ended up having to give back the money on Roland’s orders. When the boys were older, we had a family home evening on the talents.   To each boy we gave 20 dollars and told them to go multiply.   Randy purchased 20 candles the following day.   He took his 20 candles from door to door and sold his one dollar candles for three dollars each.   And he would use his profits to purchase more candles until he had doubled his money and had made 40 dollars with the twenty. Jenna was a cute baby.   People would melt w...

I’ve seen three socks and five socks in a package entitled “mix and match” I remember purchasing two five packs of the same prints so that I would have mates.   Selling socks by odd number seemed more foreign to me than mismatching.          They actually work out perfectly for Jenna, who doesn’t pay much attention to whether they are even the same length or color.   I think she started a fad when she wore her mismated owl socks that I mention in this post          So I’m sorting socks this morning and since the Joe Boxer socks can be mated with whatever I decide that I can mismatch whatever other socks I can’t find mates for.   I tried to make mine match but took all the left over printed socks and mated them by length and didn’t worry about the print.   I put all of the foreign pairs into Jenna’s drawer.   And she’ll not even care. ...

Biff has always kept his body in great shape inside and out.   I wish I could say the same for his room.   I don’t have a picture of how it looked before I started cleaning.     These pictures truly represent half-way done.    Anyone who has been in Biff’s room can tell you that this is the cleanest it has looked from the day we moved in. Actually it was clean one other time.   I took a picture for evidence.   But somehow I have misplaced that evidence.   Doesn’t matter.   I told Jenna that when David moved out, she could move into his room.   Not that her room looks any better I had eight garbage bags FULL of Biff’s stuff (clothes mostly) I think three or four full of garbage.     And four loads of towels.   FOUR LOADS.   This is a fraction of what I washed         Jenna’s room was fine when we moved in four and a half ye...

  In this post I mentioned the ability that Jenna has to create book projects to share about what books she has read.  One of her reports was a letter to the author of Junie B. Jones.  This is a letter which Jenna created for a grade.  We wanted to share it with the author who passed away in November.  We didn't realize that she had passed until we started searching for an address to send the letter to.  This is what Jenna wrote: Dear Barbara,   i’m a girl in 4 th grade at [Vantana] Elementary in [Tannersville], Utah.   My name is [Jenna].   I absolutely love your books Junie b. Jones.   I’m going to tell you why. First, Junie is like me: lonely but enthusiastic.   Secondly, I’ve almost read the entire series of Junie b. Jones just not BOO . . . and I mean it and The Thanksgiving Light. Now I’m reading Cheater Pants Thirdly, is Junie B from your childhood? Lastly, Thanks for reading From Jenna...

Shortly after Roland and I became engaged, he wrote me a mushy letter filled with sentiment and quotes.   One of the lines he had written was: “. . . as Pikachu say, “I choose you”” I had absolutely no clue what that even meant.   Pikachu?   I figured it must be a quote from some movie I hadn’t seen.   Not only had I never seen Pokemon, I had never even heard of it.     According to what I’ve read (or rather my understanding of what I’ve read) Pokemon started out as a video game before it became an animated cartoon that somehow made its way into the boys hearts.   The three knew all the Pokemon characters by name and site.   At least one of the three boys seemed obsessed. I don’t know where Roland may have found the time to sit down with his boys and learn the names of each character and whatever quotes.   But Pokemon has done absolutely nothing for me.   And after learning somewhat of its origin and based on a vide...

Jenna has always had a fascination with “secret codes”.   She enjoys translating and sending coded messages.   She has rewritten the alphabet and created characters for each letter.    For a while we were doing picture characters, but drawing an octopus got tiresome after attempting to draw it the last six notes or so. I am okay with stick figures and symbols – but when it comes to drawing, many of my animals end up looking the same.   So I changed some of the characters from the code that Jenna had and wrote a note and told her to translate without using the key.   An early introduction to cryptogram.   More clues.   More puzzles.   How fun! Jenna’s last code was symbols drawn at random – but it’s something I can/could learn. L 7 O € £ ≠ ÷ © ∞ Ω π × " # % + \ [ ^ ] ¦ ¤ ◊ ∂ √ ∆ for example I am so grateful for her enthusiasm and her desire and willingness to learn and create.  

          Jenna has outgrown the fort which I mention here. I was hoping to save it for Anna and Garrett whenever they would visit but the slide broke and the idea of having Anna tromp around  with so many openings did not thrill me.  The slide would have been Anna’s favorite part, but we took it off after it broke.               Bill and Kayla don’t exactly have a place for the fort right now – though we did offer it to them.  Jenna really doesn’t play much with it anymore.  Especially since we got the trampoline.  But lately, the tarp to the tramp has been so hot, the trampoline itself has been neglected.  I thought if we pushed it back to where we have the fort that it would get a little more shade.               I posted Jenna’s fort for free i...

After the pathetic attempt of a yard sale, I loaded the trunk of my car with a few items that hadn’t sold.  Two of the items I brought home with me were: the practical bread box and the fun cup full of memories. When I was younger, I remember getting bread out of a white tin box with copper trim.  The box could hold up to four loaves and then some.  Mom also had two canisters that held sugar and flour.  I don’t know if the three came together, or if it was just coincidental that there was a very similar appearance. I don’t remember what happened to the tin bread box, but I remember it had to be replaced.  I remember mom and I had to hunt hard to find one – and then the only ones we could find were less than half the size and made out of wood.  This one holds only two loaves at best. The bread box is quite a practical item for me as we live in this cracker box house in which all the furniture and appliances are squashed together...

          Jenna has worn earrings almost everyday since collecting them “from grandma” but I think the novelty has worn off.           There are girls at school who see her earrings and wish they had earrings too – even if they are the ear-pinching clip-ons or twists.  Parting with her earrings has not been a big problem – especially when there is one who is trading her for marbles – well, that’s what Jenna calls them.  To me, they look like the shiny rocks that go into bottles or vases or line the bottom of the fish tank.  But Jenna loves them.  She sorts them in the same manner that she has always done with rocks .            Yesterday Roland called to see how we were both doing.  I informed him that Jenna had gone to school.  He asked why and I told him I thought it was mostly for the earring/marble exchang...

I once attended a Relief Society enrichment meeting where we made “journal jars”.  What is a “journal jar”? you may ask.  It is a jar containing questions that will hopefully provoke thought to get written answers one may record in his or her journal.  Questions like: “Do you remember your grandparents?  What special memories do you have?”           “Did you have a favorite radio or TV show as a child?”           “Tell about the changes you have seen in your lifetime: society in general, technology, fashion, politics, laws, inventions, etc.”           Jenna absolutely LOVES to explore these questions – or my answers rather.  Often she can answer for herself, but many ask for detail on things that she hasn’t experienced yet such as marriage, parenting, high school, dating, etc.    ...

This morning I was helping Jenna to get the knots out of her shoelaces and adjust the shoes back to her feet.  She tugged at the heel of the shoe and stomped on the floor in attempts to get it to fit over her own heel.  It reminded me of the convenience of the shoehorn.           I had worked at a daycare only briefly.  The children were required to take naps.  All shoes had to be removed before naps.  After the naps, all shoes were to be returned to feet.  This was not always an easy task.  Some of those children had really tight fitting shoes over really fragile feet.  Thus  I started bringing the shoehorn to work.           Funny about the different reactions I received from the kids.  Suddenly I had this long line of children who would wait their turn to be fitted properly into their shoes – while others would go out of their w...

          Trying to get Jenna to pick up after herself has been a chore.  I just don’t understand why it is such a big deal to remove clothes from one’s body and not put them away or put them in the dirty clothes as soon as they come off.  Granted, to take them off and discard them to the floor does take less time at that given moment – but when it builds up – it does take much longer than it would if initially put away.  She’s a smart girl – but she is also very lazy about certain things. There are actually four or five charts I would like to incorporate – but not all at the same time.  That would be overwhelming for both of us.  I did have the “Go to Bed on time” chart up, but as there are just a few weeks of school left, and it is her whining that is really grading on my nerves right now, I have changed the incentive chart to “I will go an entire day without whining” I hope there will be enoug...

          Roland and I purchased a playground set for Jenna the year that she turned three.   The set included two swings, a glider, sandbox frame, picnic table, slide and fort.   I must have taken at least a hundred pictures of Roland and our boys putting it together.           Jenna loved her fort.   When we moved, we dissembled it and put it back together about five months after we moved.   We like the yard here so much better than in our first house.   But she doesn’t seem to spend near as much time there as she used to.   I suspect she’s just outgrowing it. Over the years I’ve repainted at least twice.   And the wind has torn away the green nylon roof.   On the lawn itself one can find pieces of board that were initially attached to the play set.   When (if) we ever leave this house and move again, the fort will stay for the new ...