She claims this really happened

Since my wife is unlikely to blog, I figured I would share this with you. She claims that it really happened, but I'll let you be the judge.

Last night, I went to bed before Jenn. Mind you, I didn't go early or anything... it was after midnight (due to the wrapping). Knowing my wife, it was probably 2am by the time she arrived. I was, apparently, asleep already.

Jenn: kneels down to pray as she does before getting in bed
Tim: Are you looking for the bovine creatures?
Jenn: ignores me... thinking I'm just mumbling in my sleep
Tim: Are you looking for the nekkid cows?
Jenn: What? No, I'm praying. [laughs]
Tim: [annoyed] Stop laughing. I used the right word. Bovine means cows.

Mind you, I'm not the only one who says silly stuff when sleepy. Back in, oh, 1996, Jenn and I had this exchange as she napped one day:

Jenn: [deep in her nap] You missed your pick!
Tim: What?
Jenn: You missed your pick!
Tim: What are we picking?
Jenn: We're pickin' pigs.

Well, obviously.

And lastly, can I ask you this? Should I be pleased about Jenn's current judgment or concerned about her initial judgment when I hear last night that she has to return something she's purchased for me because it's for a woman?

A Lasik Success

Alright, so yesterday was the first day where Jenn was supposed to open her eyes.

On Friday, before the procedure, she couldn't read the top line of the chart. (Really, she tried, she indicated she was looking at an E. The nurse informed her it was a number.)

Yesterday, Jenn checked out at 20/30, and further improvement is expected over the next several months. The doctors were thrilled, and Jenn is pretty happy too. So, all is well!

Oops!

OK, so I managed to go through the whole of Jenn's birthday yesterday without taking a picture... Oh well, I'm sure she'll be crushed.

As the girls wrote on countless banners around the house, "Happy Brithday, Mammoo!"

Aspen (with Oakley's help) gave Jenn a really sweet gift. She took one of the sunflowers that had grown in the garden and harvested the seeds from it herself. No, they weren't in great shape. But Aspen collected them and packaged them up and wrapped them herself. It was really sweet. (This was on top of the vegetables that she snuck out of the house to get yesterday morning.)

Aspen packed the sunflower seeds by placing them in a ziploc bag full of water (so they wouldn't dry out), and then putting them in a gift bag, all several days before Jenn's birthday. Somehow, and boy am I thankful, the two ziplocs both managed to stay closed.

Do you all know that seeds are best kept dry? Can I tell you now, that never, not once, has such a sweet gift smelled so incredibly bad?!?! The smell literally knocked us all back as Jenn removed the ziplocs from the gift bag... and they were sealed! The odor was so bad we had to take them out of the house immediately!

So, happy birthday, Jenn. We do love you... enough to give you stinky gifts. (And thanks Aspen, for having such grace throughout the opening. Aspen laughed with us... she is so incredibly sweet.)

Lest they feel left out, Oakley and Lindy both brought sweet gifts for Jenn as well. Oakley's cards are everywhere and very cute, and Lindy drew pictures of both Jenn and me, Jenn's with far more hair than mine.

Where did the strawberries go?

Well, I'll tell you. I've got a family that can eat some serious strawberries. Thus far, they have been eaten as part of jam, sorbet, frozen yogurt, parfaits, shortcake, and countless other things. And do we like them? Yes we do.














Lastly, an old picture... can you tell who it is that like strawberries so well at 9 months?

"I was just offering."

Tonight, we had dinner on the screened porch, and had recently finished. Aspen and Lindy were wrestling on the floor inside, and Oakley was finishing up her strawberries. (Yes, we finished the 16 quarts from last week, and yes, Jenn bought five more this week.)

Oakley stood up to go inside, and started to hand her plate to Jenn.

Jenn: You can take your plate in.
Oakley: Do you want me to take your stuff in?
Jenn: You can if you want to.
Oakley: No thanks, I was just offering.

I have to admit, I was not ready for this question...

We were upstairs helping the girls get ready for bed.

Oakley: How do babies get in mommies' tummies?
Tim: ______ [shifty glance at Jenn, look at floor]
Jenn: Well, Oakley... a man and woman... a husband and a wife... a husband gives a wife a seed, and it grows in the wife's tummy.

[a moment passes]

Oakley: How does he give her the seed?
Tim: ______ [Very busy with, um, anything, please? Anything at all? Yes, Aspen's fingernails were very long, and they required great focus.]
Jenn: The husband and wife lie very close together.
Oakley: How does he give it to her?
Jenn: Whoa, Oakley, we didn't finish brushing your teeth!

Let me just say, I am awfully proud of my wife's answer. It would have been easy pickings to say, "God puts the baby in the mommy's tummy," or some contrivance about a stork, but she did not. She faced it head on, and I liked that.

And if Aspen's fingernails hadn't been so dangerous, I'm sure that I would have been right in there with the answer. Without a doubt.

Stories from...

Jenn... See, I haven't gotten Jenn to blog herself yet, so you get stories that I hear.

Jenn was making dinner with Aspen tonight, and Aspen's getting old enough where she can actually put stuff in a hot pot. Jenn reminded her not to touch the pot, because it was very hot and she could be burned. Aspen's response:

I won't, Mommy. I'm not like you.

Later, Jenn was playing with Lindy. Lindy decided to scan her.

Jenn: Lindy, how much do I cost?
Lindy: Two dollars.

Lindy then scanned herself.

Jenn: Lindy, how much do you cost?
Lindy: Too much.

Looking cute

Nothing of importance, other than making up for a lack of pictures.