Beneath the Wraps

          When we are children and don’t know any better, we believe that McDonald’s is the greatest thing.  Oh, sure, perhaps we’re too busy at the play center or enjoying the toy that falls apart long before we have finished whatever lame meal was ordered.  What did we know about nutrition?  It wasn’t even in our vocabulary.           Teenagers seemed divided.  It’s fast, it’s cheap, close enough to the high school or jr. high.  Given the right time of the day . . . not that I think of it as a hangout – not in your larger cities anyway.  Not with a playland and 30 screaming kids.           “It’s not where you take a girl on a date,” says Randy.  Although I could picture Tony doing that very thing – and not with a limo and candles (which Randy said was too cheesy – why spend the money on a limo?  Why n...

        Corey showed me this cartoon about five hours after Roland and I had driven to Roland’s work.  He was talking about this very subject – commenting that there’s no such thing as multitasking.  I couldn’t believe he was saying that.  He is amazing at multitasking behind the wheel. And we have known several who fit in the “Molly Mormon” role – each with 8-14 kids.  And it seems the more children they have, the greater they are at multitasking.  Straighting the dress on one while fixing the hair on the other while cooking dinner and doing laundry, and feeding the youngest two and reading a book in order to prepare for the Relief Society lesson which actually isn’t until next month – but multitasker Molly Mormons don’t procrastinate.  They put all scouts to shame as they will never be prepared as much as Molly Mormon. (On a side note: many Molly Mormons actually do teach or at least assist with scouting) I was co...

          I once heard the following about an elderly woman with a very nice garden.  Someone had asked how she maintained without weeds.  She had set a goal to pull 15 a day.  I’m guessing she didn’t have to deal with pigweed.           I actually have two nicknames for the weed that springs back to life the minute it is pulled.  The more offensive name mentioned in the title of this post and “Rapunzel” – though I think it grows much faster than Rapunzel’s hair.  But unlike Rapunzel’s hair, there is absolutely nothing special about it.  It’s a weed.  A multiplying undying weed.           I will pull them up by their roots.  I will have a tremendous pile of these red-rooted pigweeds – more outside of the garden than inside.  It seems for every one I’ve pulled at least four to seven have grown b...

That’s how she described her passion for family history: “like a fly to cowpie”.  She had been raised on a dairy farm – it was a natural analogy – though I could think of better ones: “a duck to water” “a monkey on a cupcake” or Roland’s favorite: “like Godzilla on Tokyo”         I don’t even have a passion for genealogy or family research ( from an earlierpost )  but wouldn’t have compared it to manure.   Family History is a good thing and works for a lot of people.   And there are many aspects of family history that I do enjoy – but research is a far cry from being one of them.           It’s not just family history that gets her fired up.  I believe that it is everything that comes her way.  She greets it with her heart which shines in her smile.  I think she may have an even bigger love for life than my sister-in-law, Sunny, whom I truly admire.  Sunny teach...

          As soon as I hit “publish” on my last post – the very second (I kid you not) I could hear Highness scratching at the door – which made a grand total of 29 minutes and 41 seconds that he had been outside.  Which is 28 minutes and 58 seconds longer than usual.           We haven’t had him for a full year yet.  I think he stayed out longer when the weather was cooler – but not cold.  After the snow melted and the ground softened a bit, Highness started digging.  He escaped too many times.  But he hasn’t managed to sneak past the board that we put up in May.  Too bad we didn’t know about it sooner.           The couple next door has a grandson that visits almost weekly.  He’s a handful.           Truman’s Nana invited my daughter over to play shortly aft...

She came to me the other night. "What is that noise?" "It's the fireworks (all month long)" "I can't sleep." That was in her bed in her room fan going didn't drown out the noise. Tonight she is in a tent in the backyard next door Flashlights going I can hear her friend talking and his Nana asking why don't they all go to sleep. I let Highness outside before I went to bed. He usually returns in less than an entire minute. But he's out there lying down. It's been almost thirty. He must be taking comfort in the voices of Jenna and Trume. Hopefully I will have more details tomorrow about this exciting campout.

          I don’t know if I first noticed the resemblance between Jenna and Tigger (from Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh) or Frances and Eyore – I’m thinking the latter.  Frances would often wear shirts with logos that were either Tinkerbelle or Eyore.  I once thought “Frances could be Eyore” kind of sluggish, not very pleasant, somewhat of a pessimist – which is sad – because she hadn’t always been like that.            The transformation probably took place within the first couple of years after she received her first period.  And perhaps it was during those times I would happen to see her that she was going through PMS or whatever.  She’d become lazy, had always been careless.  She could easily misplace her tail.  Frances was Eyore.           Jenna has been enthusiastically pouncing for almost six or seven yea...