Gwen's Story

Gwen had to write a story about pizza for her math class. Here it is, with minor editorial corrections.

Once, not too long ago, there was a boy named Hamlet. He loved pizza. When ever he saw it, even if it wasn’t his, he would yell, “Pizza!” grab it and eat it.

One day, Hamlet was visiting the queen and she was eating pizza for lunch. He lost control, yelled, “Pizza!” and ate her pizza! He was sentenced to die for his crime, but the queen had mercy on him and said he only had to stay in the dungeon for two years.

When the two years were over, he got out and guess what? Hamlet hated pizza! He never took a piece of pizza again, but he decided to become a thief, because of his hatred for the queen. Hamlet stole and stole and stole. He was finally caught and sent to back to the dungeon. One night in the dark, he was thinking about what he had done with his life and how the queen had saved him from death. When he got out of the dungeon, Hamlet told the queen he was sorry and never did anything wrong again.

The End

I've been tagged.

A friend of mine (hi, Emily) has a blog and tagged me, so...here goes, six facts about myself. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether they are interesting facts...or not.

1. I like to bake - bread, cookies, cream puffs, you name it.

2. I can't stand buying clothes for full price. I get so excited when I get a bargain. Just last Thursday I got a pair of pants at J.C. Penney for $0. Mom, my budget thanks you for the good training!

3. My two favorite authors are Leo Tolstoy and P.G. Wodehouse. Here's one of my favorite short stories of Wodehouse's, because obviously we have the same taste in literature.

4. I have Sargassumophobia, or fear of seaweed, especially of it wrapping around my legs while I swim. I can trace this directly back to Whaley Lake and all those summers of swimming tests.

5. I have seven kids. Ok, that is about the kids, but it also defines so much of who I am, and I love seeing the looks on strangers' faces when I tell them, so I have to include it.

6. I've always enjoyed creating art in one form or another. I even went to an art high school. Life is busy, and I don't get to do as much as I like, but these are my outlets. Once or twice every five years I break out my favorite watercolors. I bead when I get the chance (a day to just bead is one of my favorite b-day presents from Stan). I love taking pictures - can you tell from my blog? And...I paint my toes. I've done that for a few years, but ever since the YW president treated me to a pedicure, I've been trying to put designs on them and have been getting more creative with color. I even keep a blog as a record of what I've tried. As you can see, My latest pedicure is a combination of past designs, culled and combined from my online journal of toes.

And now, I will share the love and tag Steph, Sarah, Sara, and Claire. I'll be watching your blogs with bated breath!

Humongous Egg

Buttercup must think she is a goose or a turkey (someone should warn her of the dangers in that last delusion this time of year). She laid an ENORMOUS egg. It weighed 94 grams and was 7 full centimeters from one end to the other (measured flat, not curved around the egg).

Here it is in a carton next some others of hers and Rose's eggs.

And here it is next to a large egg from the grocery store.

LIfe is too busy for pumpkins.

We didn't get around to carving our pumpkins for Halloween. Starting three weeks before, we kept trying to do it for FHE, or on Saturday, but we were always too swamped. The kids got so desperate to unleash their creativity on the orange fruit in the living room that they dressed them up one day. If you look closely, you can see that each pumpkin has headgear, shoes, clothes and hobbies. The gourds are twin babies - a boy and a girl.

I finally promised Rachel one day when she asked me when, "Before Thanksgiving!" Well, we barely made it. Here they are yesterday, the Saturday before every self respecting pumpkin is a pie, carving faces.

Stan and I were (still!) too busy to help carve, so our pumpkin got dressed up again rather than going under the knife.

Naomi is...

...nine months old!

She celebrated by eating her first donut :)

More Chickens Laying More Eggs

Buttercup laid a lovely light pinkish brown speckled egg.

Daisy laid a creamy off white egg, which was the biggest one so far. She's the biggest chicken, so that makes sense.

We're still waiting for Lily and Violet to start laying and still fervently hoping we get some blue or green eggs...

Naomi Videos

Naomi is learning all kinds of new things. The good news is, she's crawling, and the bad news is, SHE"S CRAWLING!!! I was kind of hoping she'd wait until after our upcoming trip, but oh well.



She's also learned what babies throughout time have all discovered. Life is just a smorgasbord and the world, including, but not limited to, sandy beaches, is just like Willy Wonka's factory - full of good things to eat.



There is so much going on around here and Naomi loves to be involved in all of it. Why, if it is as much fun as she is having, do we all lose interest in folding laundry as we age?



And finally, she's learning the all important, end of conversation skill of waving goodbye.

Goodbye All!