[Britt] Well, Summer is now over, and Grumps has FINALLY gotten around to helping us with blogging about our vacation with Ahna and Grumps.
[Ruth] Yeah! FINALLY!
[Britt] Yeah, Grumps has been making up some excuse about working a lot of “over time”. Just when I start thinking that I have this “time” thing figured out, Grumps tells me he has been working “over time”. Even though I still struggle with “time” sometimes, I do know it isn’t like a table. I can be over, beside, or under a table, but “over time”? Grumps is pretty good at pulling my leg so this “over time” thing must be him pulling my leg – yet again! But I’m getting pretty good at catching on to him.
[Britt and Ruth giggling together]
[Ruth] What is “time”?
[Britt] I’ll tell you later. Right now, Grumps is helping us with our blog.
[Ruth] Britt is so smart!
[Britt] We were with Ahna and Grumps for five weeks. One week with Momma and Daddy there, three weeks with Ahna and Grumps all to ourselves, and another week when Ahna and Grumps took us back to Momma and Daddy.
[Ruth] What is a “week”?
[Britt] I don’t know. I think it has something to do with “time”. I’ll tell you later.Right now, concentrate real hard so that Grumps can pick up our thoughts for our blog.
[Ruth] Britt is so smart!
[Britt] Anyway, during that first week while Momma and Daddy were with us at Ahna and Grump’s, we got to get in the “Big Water” (kiddy swimming pool).
[Ruth] No, it was the “Big Splash”. [Britt] Big Water! [Ruth] Big Splash! [Britt] Big Water! [Ruth] Big Splash!
[Britt] I’m telling this story! Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. We had so much fun playing in the “Big Water”. [Ruth] “Big Splash!” [Britt] The most fun was scooping up water in my pail and dumping it on Ruthie and pouring it out on the ground. Grumps said I was making a “moat”. I don’t know what a “moat” is, but it must be fun because I sure did have fun dumping water out on the ground.
[Ruth] Ahna and Grumps said that I am the only person they know that can splash and splash and splash without even blinking! When I wasn’t splashing, I would crawl round and round in the “Big Splash”.
[Britt] Yeah, I can’t splash without blinking. Sometimes I would play with the water hose. Daddy can be so mean. When I would look in the water hose, Daddy would turn the water on.
[Ruth laughing hysterically]
[Britt] We went bowling close to where Grumps works. Momma, Daddy, Unk Benji, Unk Nick, and Grumps were all there with me and Baby Ruthie. They weren’t very good, but it was very entertaining.
[Ruth] The great thing about the bowling was that everybody took turns holding me and playing with me.
[Britt] We didn’t see much of Unk Nick and Unk Matt. Unk Nick lives in his own house, and Unk Matt had to work a lot. But I got them both real good. When I saw Unk Matt, I called him Unk Benji on purpose and would laugh and laugh, and I did the same thing to Unk Nick.
[Ruth] Unk Nick and Unk Matt are so easy. All I have to do is smile at them, and they would hold me and play with me.
[Britt] One day UncaBenji made these BIG bubbles for me. He would make several at the same time. I would chase them and see how many I could pop before they hit the ground.
[Ruth] Yeah, I wanted to chase those bubbles, too, but I just wasn’t able to make my feet go where I wanted them to go.
[Britt] One night Grumps took me out to look at some bugs that have their own green light. Grumps called them “lightning bugs”. He said they are also called “fireflies”. I wanted to touch them so Grumps caught a couple in his hands. But I got to thinking that “lightning bugs” might make lightning, and I didn’t want to get struck by lightning so I just let Grumps hold them. I never did see any lightning or fire. All I ever saw was green light so I call them “green light bugs”.There were so many of them in the yard.
[Ruth] Grumps showed me the Moon. I don’t know why, but the moon isn’t always there when I look.
[Britt] I like the Moon. I tell Grumps to let me touch it, but Grumps said he couldn’t reach that high. I am absolutely sure he can reach it. Grumps is always so mean to me.
[Ruth] Ahna sure is a good reader! She would hold me, and rock me, and read to me. We read so many fun books. Ahna would make the stories so interesting and fun even though I didn’t understand a lot of the words.
[Britt] I like “Duck, Duck, Moose”. Ahna didn’t seem to know where Florida and Alabama were in “Duck, Duck, Moose” because she kept asking me to show her where they were. So I showed her again and again. Ahna must be getting forgetful.
[Ruth] The most fun was when Ahna and Grumps would get down in the floor with me. I crawled to them and crawled over them and laughed the whole time. I think Britt was jealous because sometimes he would get between me and Grumps.
[Britt] I am NOT jealous!
[Ruth] It was so much fun when they got down in the floor with me to play – I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. People don’t realize how much fun it is for me to have them at eye level. When they stand up, they seem so high and far away. Afterwards, Ahna and Grumps would moan about how hard it was to get up out of the floor. Yeah, I know about that because back then I couldn’t stand without holding on to something either. Ahna and Grumps must be pretty young because you have to be older to stand without holding on to anything.
(Grandmother), and Ant Meeawee (Melanie) took us to go see Ant Rea and Yoid (Lloyd).
[Ruth] Yeah, I remember. Ant Rea was making chocolate pies and I … [Britt] Let me tell the story because you don’t know many words yet. [Ruth] You’re forgetting that Grumps is helping us with our blog. Remember? [Britt] Oh, yeah. [Ruth] Britt, I don't know if you are so smart after all.
[Britt and Ruth laughing hysterically]
[Britt and Ruth again laughing hysterically]
[Britt] One day we went to Tennessee to see Grandma, Billy, Ant Brenda, and Ant Cindy. So many Ants and Unks – I can’t count them all.
[Ruth] That was another fun day. Grandma, Billy, Ant Brenda, and Ant Cindy all picked me up, and loved on me, and played with me.
[Britt] Granmomer is the best puzzle fixer there is. She helped me with the farm animal puzzle, the car puzzle, and the clock puzzle. And any time I wanted cacorn (popcorn) she would fix it for me.
[Ruth] Granmomer is a very good reader. I can see why Ahna, Ant Meeawee, and Momma are such good readers. Granmomer would hold me, and rock me, and crawl in the floor with me. And every time we are there, I play with “One-eyed Sal”.
[Britt] Grendy is the world’s best “Wooler”. He always says, “I’m going to wool you!” I don’t know what “wool you” means, but I definitely know what comes right after he says that – the most crazy tickling I know!
[Ruth] Yeah, wooling makes me laugh and squeal. I can’t get away because I am
so busy laughing and squealing.
[Britt and Ruth laughing hysterically]
[Ruth] Another funny thing is how Britt is afraid of the fish.
[Britt] I am NOT afraid of the fish. “Fish be happy!”
[Ruth] On another visit to Grendy and Granmomer’s we met Ant Annie and Unk Hoyt. Just like everyone else, they make me laugh and smile, too.
[Britt] They kept getting in the way of me playing with my puzzles. I was just starting to warm up to them when they had to go. Just about every day Unk Benji would tell me this wonderful story about a dragon that breathes fire. Unk Benji is my hero because he always “beated up” the dragon. He is the only person I know that “beated up” dragons.
[Ruth] And I was the princess that was always saved from the “beated up” dragon.
[Britt] I was sure that Unk Benji was going to go back to Florida with us, but he wasn’t able to make it. He said we were leeches. I don’t know what leeches are, but they must be a good thing because we had so much fun with Unk Benji.[Ruth] Yes, we are Unk Benji’s leeches. We had so much fun with Unk Benji that everyone must want to be a leech. Ahna stayed home with us every day while mean old Grumps left us to go to work. One day Ahna showed us a green frog that was on the outside of the window. That frog was there all day on that window. I think that frog liked to listen to Unk Benji tell the story about how he "beated up" the dragon.
[Britt] Ahna and Grumps know how much I like “Cowboy” (Toy Story 3), so they got me my very own Woody and Buzz. Woody is so funny. He talks every time I pull his string.
[Ruth] I like to play with Woody, too, whenever Britt isn’t looking.
[Ruth] After Ahna and Grumps took us back to Momma and Daddy, Ahna and Momma found my first tooth. Ahna called it an “eye tooth”. Ahna must be pulling my leg because I don’t have an eye on my tooth, and I don’t have a tooth in my eye.
[Britt and Ruth laughing hysterically]
[Britt] Grumps wanted to go see the last Shuttle launch so we rode in the car FOREVER to see that. I don’t know what all the fuss was about. We watched a rocket make a cloud from the ground up to other clouds – and just like that it was over. We then drove FOREVER to get home. I mean, like, what was that all about? I could have drawn Grumps a picture of a cloud going from the ground to other clouds with my crayons.[Ruth] Yeah, what was that all about? At least we did get to go to the beach for a day.
[Britt] Yeah, I like the beach. We always have fun at the beach.
[Ruth] Yeah, always.
[Britt] Well, Grumps is sending word that all of this talking with thoughts from hundreds of miles away is giving him a BIG headache.
[Britt laughing manically, Ruth laughing hysterically, thought signals across hundreds of miles slowly fade]
[Grumps exhausted and head throbbing takes two Tylenol and heads to bed]
We had a really good time at the beach last week. A way better time than I expected. If you know me, you know I don't really like the sand. It gets in everything, I mean Britt even brought a pocket full home with him, and I'm sure it's still in our laundry room from all the clothes I've been washing this week. I only want to be in the water when it's really warm, what Gary refers to as a giant bathtub. I don't feel very comfortable going out too deep, because I don't swim well, and don't want to loose my balance. I'm just not a water or a beach person. I like to sit out a little bit with the kids, watch the sunset, and head home. In times past when we've been it's been a little difficult to keep the kids coralled together. Britt didn't carry for the beach for a while, and Ruth was eating as much sand as she could get into her mouth. Not relaxing in my opinion.
Gary has been helping me with a few time consuming and larger projects in the yard, since he doesn't have any work this week. A bunch of new oak trees have taken root in the flower beds, and a few plants needed to be moved, so those were projects that he helped with. There were also all of the old leaves needed raking out of the flower beds and plenty of weeds to pull. I like yard work, it's so much more full filling than house work. You can see everything you've accomplished, and I love to hang around in a nice yard. The temperature this week hasn't been anywhere near as high as it has been over the last several weeks, and rain has caused us to take a break a time or two. I have a few more little projects that I hope we can knock out tomorrow or Saturday, before we take a trip to the beach for a week. (It's all fun and games for the kids, but Gary's going to be doing some more work on the beach house.)
The month of July was filled with seeing the last shuttle launch, Church meetings, Ray's games, and planning for Ruth's birthday party. Here and there along the way, we had to finish up Gary's final research assistanceship/project/thingy, he presented and by the time graduation rolled around July was gone.
After graduation, August was full of days in the swimming pool, Gary working a new temporary position, attempting to find a new routine, and Ruth's birthday party. Along the way again there were many Church meetings, and alot of fellowship with the different men who have been filling in for us at Little Union, while we continue to search for a pastor.
