Cattails

I love cattails. I have ever since I was a kid and I think I always will. We used to pull them from the sides of the several ponds we had growing up and would haul them home with us after a fishing trip. We would shave them, dry them and color them with crayons. It always seemed there was a clever new way to rediscover the cattail. Last week Adam brought home an armful when he and Jonathan went looking for his bobber that we had lost in the neighbor's pond the night before. Matthew was reeling in a monster when I took over and the line broke. The mondo fish got away with everything from the bobber on down. I was just glad it didn't get away with Matthew after watching him try to reel the fish in. That was a sight in itself. Anyway... the cattails have by lying around getting dryer. Yesterday I was outside burning the garbage when I heard Matthew laughing the most peculiar laugh. It was a laughter of discovery, delight, and mischief all in one. It really perked my interest. When I went to find the source of the giggles I realized he had discovered cattails for the very first time. DRY CATTAILS. I sat watching him play in the plumes of cotton that he was distributing EVERYWHERE and just smiled. I loved doing that as a kid. Such simple fun. The little walk down memory lane was complete with Matthew's dad hollering outside to keep the cattails away from the garage because he was getting fluff everywhere and making a whale of a mess. MY DAD HATED CATTAILS... for the very same reason. They were messy. The funny thing is, that's my favorite part. As long as I'm around our kids are welcome to string cattail fluff from here to kingdom come. Some messes are too fun to make to simply forsake.

P. S. Cattails tickle your nose like nothing I have ever experienced and a person has a heck of time trying to comb them off the ol' tongue.

Say it like it is...

The other day Matthew was breaking up bread from his lunch and asked if I wanted to take a piece of his "snackerment." And so it is...

3 Weeks

Just 3 weeks left until... Halloween! AND the long awaited due date. The doctor today was gracious enough to tell me how low the baby's head was in my pelvis. That was so nice of him to point out... I couldn't tell at all :) Lou has requested pictures of my mommy tummy, but that will have to wait until I have a photographer. Jonathan is on call and had a c-section this evening, slept for a few hours got called during his nap for a couple scheduled scopes in the morning and was called out about an hour ago for a hip dislocation. He always loves listening to voices of people call him in. The adrenaline starts going and a winded frantic voice on the other line blows out..."We've got a carbuncle on the big toe! Can you come immediately!"... "You bet, I'll be right there to get that removed." We love frantic calls from the hospital. We all deal with stress a little differently, that's what makes life so fun. Such adorable E.R. nurses. Can't live without 'um.

Leaves!

We have a zillion trees. The leaves have really not started falling yet, but we decided to have a little fun with what we had. We piled up leaves and did the classic run, jump, hide leaf pile party. The boys loved it. I loved it too. The pile was really quite comfortable. I went to park the mower and came back to find Adam buried laying in the leaves with only his head poking out. He was listening to the rustle of the leaves and watching the trees blow in the breeze above him. I loved watching him have one of those little boy moments... when all the world exists in one scene, when everything holds still for you to enjoy a single moment in life, a filling of the senses that will linger into his adult life. My mother heart smiled.

Jonathan's Birthday in St. Louis

Jonathan reached the whopping 30 in August and we decided to celebrate in St. Louis. We had never been there and have never really taken a family vacation that wasn't to see Gramps and Grans so we picked a semi-close spot, made some reservations and had the time of our lives. Getting going was a little rocky... I decided to bath myself in poison ivy the week before we left so I was still oozing and puffy and itchy and scratchy. My face, ears, neck, arms, legs and chest were covered in blisters and a rash. By our last day there I ventured to wear mascara for the first time in weeks and I only got an occasional poor girl has leprosy look from strangers.

Six Flags... First on our stop was a visit to Six Flags in St. Louis. Being the plump, cute girl that I am I was restricted to the tamer of the tame children's rides and was the official 'wave every time I go around in a circle' Mom and designated picture taker. There were very few people at the park the day we decided to go so Jonathan was able to go on all the manly rides time after time. Jonathan was feeling guilty that he was having all the fun and I was watching him, but I really didn't mind. He said that was the problem. If he doesn't keep me going I'm going to turn into one of those old lady party poopers that doesn't have a thriller bone in her body. Need pregnant women have thrills?

St. Louis Zoo... I definitely recommend this one, it's free and my kids loved it. Other than being exhausted from constant fun we loved seeing all of the animals. They loved seeing the baby tigers roll around with their mom. The giraffes were close enough to feed leaves to and the fish and hippos were awesome under water.

The Magic House (Children's Museum)... Another winner for sure. If it wasn't so awesome I would say showing up on family free day was the best part, but the exhibits were tops. The boys fished, built fire houses, made sand castles, sent messages through vacuums, rode slides 2 stories down the building and explored their little hearts out. We we definitely hit this one again if we go back.

Grant's Farm... Another freebie that was a ball. The best part was by far feeding the goats. It was $1 a bottle to feed the goats and Jonathan decided this was a little steep, so we bought 2 bottles and kept filling them with water. The goats didn't seem to mind. Adam thought this was great. He had to keep butting some goats out so he could feed just the one he wanted. Matthew felt a little smothered by the critters and I just tried to keep them from eating my shirt.

The Arch... tight quarters! The little shuttle car to the top of the arch was TINY. We rode with two men on the way back down and one poor guy was beading sweat and tapping his feet trying not to vomit, but we made it. The view was quite impressive but the viewing space was small. It was a great place to celebrate the big #30.

Happy Birthday!! We made our way back to the motel and went for a swim. Late that night we ordered pizza and did a microwave cake with candles. Jonathan got an iPod and Matthew got his first bite of wax.

St. Louis Temple... beautiful. I only wish we could have attended. The grounds were perfect as was to be expected.

We had an awesome time. I was glad to have one more jont with the two boys before two turns to three.

Okay, Jess... you got me

It was Jess's last comment... "Where are you?" that made me realize it was finally time to do a little updating. I have no wonderful excuse, no life threatening illness nor natural disaster that has kept me away... simply the cognisant choice to procrastinate blogging. So here's a little catch up on life.