Call It What You Want...

Today was Mark's first appointment with the dentist and he did a GREAT job!!!!

He got his teeth brushed and checked in a little office (not the big dental chair), sitting on my lap, and then when he got done, he got to go in the back and sit in the big dental chair and have his picture taken.

He also had his picture taken with the dentist, Dr. Chad.

(Yes, Dr. Chad is supposed to be old enough to practice dentistry. And there is a grown-up dentist in the office, too, with real gray hair, though we didn't see him. And just to the right on the counter there (that you can't see) is a picture of Dr. Chad and his family with three little kids, so apparently he is actually a grown-up.)

BUT. I digress. Mark was very very good. He didn't even act worried or like he was at all nervous. He opened his mouth up and did just what the hygienist and dentist told him and was just as good as could be! Oh, and he got an A+ for his great teeth!

 (Here he is pretending to open wide, since he'd already had his exam!)

(Name the source of the lyric and earn a reputation as a coooooooool person...)

I flicked a cicada off the window screen during breakfast so we could eat without having to look at a scary bug, and Mark looked at me and said, "Mommy, you're a hero!"

I'm glad he thinks so now.

In another story, he spent breakfast making up stories about "Grandma Crazy". I think she might be roughly based on another of his Grandmas, but only roughly.

What does she wear?
"Not a uniform!" (Turns out she wears only a diaper.)

Where does she live?
Docco, "not Kentucky" and Daddy's work.

What does she do?
"Not play with Mark. Cook. Fix supper." (I'd like it if she would just be my maid.)

What else does she do?
Plays on Mark's fort.

Does she have any pets?
A dog. A huuuuuge brown dog.

 A Little Boy got to join his mommy for a couple of hours at our olde tyme town. We were having a special Civil War weekend (a very quiet one, compared to the earlier one), and the Boss said young Master Adam could come by in his historical clothing.

He mostly wanted to just go watch the pigs (see the fence in the background).

He walked around with Mommy. He was cute and people loved him. He wasn't quite as outgoing as his brother was at his first visit to the Prairie in the same olde tyme clothes. (Remember?...

Mark with mommy, left, but taking of with Laura. P.S. He still likes Laura an awful lot, even though she's far far away.)

But he got to be cute, and he had fun, and he DID get to flirt with the girls from the Young Ladies Living History Society of Cincinnati, who were our guests at the event. He made a couple of particular friends from that group. Yeah, and he decided to hold hands with someone else's mommy -- not letting go of his own mommy at the same time -- and I thought maybe she'd have to join our family before it was all over. But he got to be cute and that was nice.

Author's Note: As a result of the below comment from Heather-in-law, I am willing to pay good cash money or prizes or admiration for photographic evidence of her and Mrs. Dunce in historical clothing of any level of cuteness. This offer should also be extended to the mother of the ladies in question.

Last week I ordered some silk for a hat or two that I'm working on. I ordered 5 one-yard pieces of silk, various colors. Great price, too, by the way.

Yesterday I got notification from the supplier that my order had been shipped, and here's the tracking information.

So. It was picked up at 4 p.m. on Tuesday in St. Louis. Arrived in the Fed Ex "sortation center" in Missouri that evening, was sorted overnight and departed in the morning.

It arrived in Grove City, Ohio (southwest suburb of Columbus) yesterday afternoon, was sorted, and left early this morning. "Electronic shipping information" was sent from Cincinnati, Ohio, about an hour later.

Now. It seems to me that the most likely route from St. Louis, Missouri, to Columbus, Ohio, is a very fine interstate that goes from city to city. It's called Interstate 70, and it runs right through Indianapolis -- which seems to be to be a great place for a package being shipped to Noblesville to stop. Perhaps they don't have the manpower in Indianapolis -- oh, wait a minute! There's a FedEx HUB in Indianapolis. Right off Interstate 70. Hmmm.

Perhaps it's being transported by the participants in ABC's new and certainly uplifting Fat March (egads).

Perhaps it's being brought by carrier pigeon.

Perhaps it's walking on its own.

The estimate "in home" date (I realize these dates are padded a bit to make room for weather, traffic, etc.) is August 27. Does it even take a week to crawl from St. Louis to Indianapolis????

Update, Thursday afternoon: 11:37 a.m. Enroute Cincinnati, Ohio; 12:37 p.m. Shipment Accepted Cincinnati, Ohio. I still don't know how going there is going to get things here...Please let Andrea's book shipment be a fluke, please let Andrea's book shipment be a fluke...

Update, Sunday evening, it's been "enroute" from Cincinnati since the 23rd. Tomorrow is the 27th and I guess the estimated time in home might be about right...

Or... how many degrees of separation?

The other day I was visiting the blog of my friend Chuck (also linked on this page as Dr. Chuck Pearson). Chuck had cross-posted a piece that he'd posted on the site Growing Up Goddy.

I went to the site, and fully enjoyed all of the posts I read. Pretty cool site, and I've marked it in my favorites.

One of the sites linked on 'Goddy was Kamp Krusty. Naturally, with a name like that, I had to go see. The name of the fellow who writes the blog sounded a little familiar. It was made more familiar when I saw a reference to it on 'Goddy, where Chuck mentioned the guy's previous involvement with a band whose name I recognized. Ah-ha! I scrolled down Kamp Krusty's links to find what I expected: my brother darin. No, not my brother, his. Darin was the youth minister at the church I attended during my glorious year of employment in the field of my college major in a town quite far away though only one state away. He and his wife were a breath of fresh air -- and friendship -- until he took a job in Indianapolis and moved away. (Oh, and they let me use their house to do laundry while they were gone.) 

So I visited Darin's blog for a while, and came across on his blogroll a name that was also familiar, for different reasons. Brian Eberly is a pastor who sometimes visits -- and links to -- my brother The Thief (yes, this time it is my brother).

And My Brother The Thief links to me.

(I could make this longer by saying that my brother the thief links to Big Mama who then links to the Dunce who then links to me, but that's just making things complicated.)

The band that the Krusty guy was in, incidentally, was Farewell to Juliet. Tim mentions that he wrote a lot of newsletters for the Rose-Hulman chapter of InterVarsity to the music of Farewell to Juliet. So we've just drawn the Noblesvillian in, too.

Somebody had a birthday today! Here are a few pictures from the day, with more words when people aren't waiting for me to play a game...

Mark helps Adam unwrap some presents in the afternoon.

Yummy cake!

Fun presents, shared with fun friends.

Happy Birthday! We love you!

Hello Gentlemen, as Mark would say, and welcome to our newest destination, Fort Markadam!

 Dad has told the story on his own website. I will just embellish...

It was built by the Dad and the Grandpa, with a little help from Mark and dog.

There's a wall to climb...

and a slide to slide.

 (At the moment, there's even a Grandma to watch in amazement.)

There are fun swings for both boys.

And a spyglass to watch for tractors.

Won't you come to our fabulous destination?

I personally am not a big fan of the way the last couple of weeks have been going. The boys and I made a trip to one set of grandparents' in Kentucky (since most of my readers were actually there, this is not news), and  now the other set of grandparents is here, and the boys' tempers are very, very "off." Adam decides in mid-bite that he doesn't want to eat that anymore (whatever it is), and Mark screams and refuses to do anything. I think the excitement has them completely over-wrought. Add to it that Daddy and Grandpa M are building a swingset in the back yard, so I don't have much of a break. I know. I don't have a break when Daddy's off to work. But they don't act like this either...

And I have a hoop to finish before the 25th (before then, really) that is missing a bunch of parts. (Ericka, if you're reading this, do you know where they are?)

And a newsletter that I have to get done soon.

And donors to find and tickets to sell for a terrific event in September to raise money for Riley (anyone want to buy a ticket? They're only $5).

But the title refers to something else.

The first full day Grandma and Grandpa were here, Mark was in the yard and told them, "I'm not a fan of big bugs."

Yeah. Me neither.