Things I'm Thinking About

1. We have been in Washington for 6 months now, and I have written one blog post.

2. I like Washington.

3. I do not like plugging my camera into the computer and downloading pictures. It seems like a lot of work when I could be reading a book instead.

4. I guess I do not have any pictures on the camera to download, anyway.

5. Which is weird, since we have done a lot since of STUFF while living here in Washington.

6. Yesterday, Maddie asked me while I was doing her hair if I thought Dad (Darren) might be one of the three Nephites. I laughed and said, "No."

7. In the mail yesterday Darren was happy to find a package from his sister Karen. She has taken their old family movies and transferred them to DVD. He immediately stuck one in the DVD player and started watching it. He insisted everyone else watch with him, too.

8. Though I think he regretted that decision when I mentioned that Maddie had asked if he was one of the three Nephites. No more mystery now we have all seen proof that he really was a baby in the seventies, and did not magically appear in high school, ready to help and assist where needed.

9. I found out later last night that Emily had asked him earlier in the week if he was a prophet. When he said, "No, Thomas S. Monson is our prophet," she quickly concluded that he was just an apostle. (He corrected her.)

10. The kids have such a high opinion of their father. I love that.

Snow!?!

Well, (this was my thought about two months ago) the one nice thing about moving to Washington is that at least we will not have to deal with snow anymore...

Not only do we have to deal with snow, but we live on a mountain. A steep mountain. We do not have four-wheel drive.

Maddie is in the pink hat, Emily is in the blue coat with white fur and Nicholas is holding the sled. They were outside sledding from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. which was when I finally insisted they come inside.

We Went To...

Disney World!

Rare family photos. This was one of the cold days right at the beginning of our trip. We layered.

This was from the first day there--Magic Kingdom. Emily is tired. I look like a deer in the headlights, as usual. But don't let that fool you. We had fun, fun, fun. The most fun of any trip we've ever been on, I think.

This was our last day--and we were back at Magic Kingdom. Emily loved seeing the characters, Cinderella and Snow White especially. And Belle too, and Alice in Wonderland, and Ariel, and...

Oh yeah. The kids and I read Prince Caspian right before our trip. So we were excited to find him at Disney Studios. I think Maddie was especially excited. Maddie did, however, express sadness at not being able to find Reepicheep. (Now we are reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, featuring you know who.) (The cute guy above, if you were unclear.) (That's Prince Caspian, if you're still not sure.)

We stumbled across this famous pirate. Nicholas was chosen out of the crowd to receive a pirate degree of some sort. He also learned how to fight, if ever challenged. Ask him to show you next time you see him.

Fighting

No adventure is complete without lots of fighting, so even though Nicholas had already learned some self-preservation techniques from Jack Sparrow, he wanted to fight Darth Vader. Emily fought him too, and stole the show.


Emily seems brave here, but informed us after, though it was "absolutely fun" to fight him, she did go pee-pee in her pants just a little. (She really did, too.) (Just a very little.)

Where is the photo of Nicholas fighting Darth Vader? Mom spaced that one. I was so excited to watch him, I forgot about my camera until just as Nicholas was walking off the stage. Luckily, Dad got some video, to be posted later.

Our favorite family ride was Toy Story Mania. We bought the Wii game, and have played it lots, probably too much.

Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios

This photo speaks for itself. Though we are missing a Thing 3.

Emily's favorite ride. This is a dangerous and fun ride, and it makes no sense it is just for little children, and their parents. This ride should be for all people, of any age and height! Free the ride!

Funny, funny donkey. I wish we'd caught on tape all the cute things he said to the kids.

I post this photo grudgingly, as I think Sponge Bob is dumb.

Sea World

The highlight of our day in Sea World was feeding the dolphins.

And so was riding this roller coaster called The Manta. We are in the bottom row. For this ride, you lay on your stomach the whole time. Don't worry, though. You can see that little net there to catch you if your seat malfunctions. Actually, you would have to ride this ride to understand its greatness. It's now our favorite roller coaster.

There we are (me, Maddie, and Nicholas's hair) in the very front row of this roller coaster called The Kraken. We liked it, until we rode The Manta.

Clearwater Beach

We found lots of shells, snails, hermit crabs, and a spotted crab.

Epcot and Animal Kingdom

We ate at lots of fun restaurants; the only time the kids had McDonald's was at the airport. Our favorite places were this T-Rex cafe (we ate in the ice cave), Bubba Gump's, (we went twice), Crabby Bill's (at the beach), and of course we loved eating in the parks, too.
And that's it! Though I will post some videos later. The kids cried for two days straight when it was time to come home. I wish we could live there. And go to the parks everyday. And eat out every night. Do dreams really come true? We'll see, I guess.

Halfway!

I am halfway finished! You thought I had finished long ago, and was just being humbly quiet about it?
Not so!
This book is simply the best gift, the gift that keeps on giving, the gift that blesses the giftee with the gift of knowledge, and then blesses others with their gifted writing.

(On rereading that, I may have used the word 'gift' too many times; I will consult Strunk and White later to see what is appropriate; sometimes repetitiveness is good, sometimes it is not; it can be confusing, this quest for good writing.)

However, I have mastered the following principles of composition.

It is not acceptable to write:

Jordan, against the wishes of all people everywhere, after watching Prince Caspian on T.V., named his first daughter Prunaprismia, thinking there could not be any other Prunaprismia's in her kindergarten class--that's for darn tootin' sure--only to be saddened later, after years of holding his breath in anticipation of his daughter having the perfect unique name, found that, indeed, there were other C.S. Lewis fans in the world, and sadly, there was not just one, but two other Prunie's in her class, as they were lovingly called by their families, and she, having a witchy teacher, had to write Prunaprismia C. on all her papers; what seemed like a blessing--to Jordan--had now become a curse to innocent Prunie.

It is acceptable to write:

Against the wishes of all people everywhere, Jordan named his first daughter Prunaprismia in honor of his favorite author, C.S. Lewis.

It is not acceptable to write:

Bear, who live in the beautiful and fun state of Alaska, are ferocious and own sharp claws and teeth, and will eat small children any time of the day at the slightest opportunity, even if said child is holding bear spray, because everyone agrees that does not work, and so, Cindy and her husband David, did what any good parents would do, and quickly moved back to Utah with their young son in tow, knowing that the greatest threat he would face there would be a swift kick in the butt from Grandpa for messing with the vent covers, like poor cousin James, who has happily recovered with minimal emotional scarring.

It is acceptable to write:

Though Alaska is beautiful and fun, Cindy and David moved back home to Utah to protect their young son from ferocious bears.

Smiley Hair

When Emily got out of the tub this morning I told her we needed to comb her hair.
She asked, "So I don't have smiley faces in it?"
I said, "What?"
She said, "You said I have to comb my hair while it's wet so I don't have smiley faces in it."
I said, "You mean snarls?"
"Yeah, those," she said.

Elements of Style: Update

Probably no one is very interested to know what page I am on in my love-hate relationship with this book, but I'm still noting here that I am now on page 26. And even though I am a little offended that Jordan says I should blog, but then proceeds to ignore my blog, (I know he cannot be very busy with law school, so whatever) I am still blogging, as you can see.
This post has already started badly by rambling, but since it is too much effort to rewrite it, and since my mind is mush from reading this book, I will just state here (because Darren said it sounded like I was giving Jordan a hard time for giving me this book for my birthday) that I am in fact very happy to have this book and can feel myself, mushy brain and all, getting smarter every day.
Now I am in section II called "Elementary Principles of Composition". This is the fun stuff. Also, I found I no longer have to look up every term on Wikipedia, because this tiny little book actually has a glossary at the end, where "gerund" and "participle" are defined (and much more simply than Wikipedia, too).
Only 64 pages left. Woo-hoo. And everyone I know is getting this for Christmas. You too, Jordan. Since you do not read my blog anymore, the book will be a surprise.

Thank You for the Birthday Present, Jordan. I Think.

Yes, my birthday was almost three months ago, and no, Jordan did not give me a late birthday gift. He gave this book to me right on my birthday. I opened it a day later, read the introduction, thought, "hmmmmm", and put it down on my nightstand where it sat undisturbed until last Saturday.
Do I, someone who was one of three people in my High School to pass the AP English test, need such a book?
Do I, someone who graduated from college with the degree summa cum laude, need such a book, I ask you?
I was sure Jordan was just being nice, looking for a unique but useful gift. I'm now wondering if he was actually giving me a hint. And when I think about it, it has been 15 or more years since either of the above mentioned events happened. Though I may have been decently smart once, all of a sudden I realize that now I am an idiot.
It's okay, though.
Because this book is going to change all that. Soon you will see posts with commas, and (?) other punctuation marks whose names I cannot think of right now, used perfectly. Though maybe not so soon, after all.
I started reading this 85 page book on Saturday. I am on page 13. This stuff is hard. This is what my mind mostly does while reading this book:

"What?"
"Okay, what did that just say?"
"Crap, doesn't it say here anywhere what a gerund and a verbal participle are?"
"Really, it has to say somewhere here what a gerund and a verbal participle are before it tells me what to do with them."
"Let me read ahead a little."
"Crap."
"I'm going to have to go Google gerund and verbal participle."

(Reading from the internet now):

In linguistics, "gerund" is a term used to refer to various non-finite verb forms in various languages:

• As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb (in its -ing form) as a noun (for example, the verb "learning" in the sentence "Learning is an easy process for some"). This is also the term's use as applied to Latin; see Latin conjugation.

In linguistics, a participle (adjective participial, from Latin participium, a calque of Greek μετοχη "partaking") is a derivative of a non-finite verb, which can be used in compound tenses or voices, or as a modifier. Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjectives and nouns.

(Side note: I couldn't even find a definition for a VERBAL participle. Are you sure about this book, Jordan?)

(Reading from book again after mind stops stressing from above definitions):

"Crap."
"I'm stupid."
"Hey, I know what a pronoun is!!! Yay! I'm so smart. How could anyone not know this?"
"A subjective pronoun? A prepositional pronoun? A possessive pronoun? An indefinite pronoun?"
"This book is dumb."

Help! I must finish it. It was a birthday present after all.

Maddie's Favorite Song

You thought there would be pictures today, but not so, my friend. I am in mourning for the picture I did not get yesterday, because my camera was at home by the computer. We were outside Maddie's dance class sitting next to the very old Victorian. The lawn was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves and we were making a pile of them to jump in, when the wind started gently blowing and leaves were softly falling all around us. It was beautiful. But then, the wind turned aggressive and the leaves started smacking us in the face. I did not know that dead leaves are SHARP and can HURT. Beware.

***

Over the weekend I heard Maddie telling her cousin Hanna about her new favorite song: Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. You know how it goes (because I know you're all listening to it in your vans, too, over and over and over and over and over):

So, Annie Are You OK?
Are You OK Annie?
You've Been Hit By
You've Been Hit By
A Smooth Criminal

Except for this is what Maddie sang:

So, Annie Are You Walking?
Are You Walking Annie?
You've Been Hit By
You've Been Hit By
A School Bus!

A Real Post on This-Here Blog

This cloudy but warm weather encourages writing. We must not have had this exact kind of weather since last March, since my Photoshop informs me I downloaded pictures dating back to that month. In fact, I just checked my blog, and yep, it has been that long. (I know you said seven months ago, Jordan, but to me that just translates to "sometime before June".)
I was going to make a beautiful and efficient PowerPoint-like presentation of pictures here, but then I remembered that PowerPoint presentations are often boring. I also saw the almost 300 pictures I have to work with, and this post is going to take awhile. (Don't worry, you won't have to look at all 300 pictures. Four or five of them were kind of blurry.)
We won't go into the reasons for my last silly post, but I'm happy to see that my faithful blog readers are out there, checking my blog every day, waiting to see what clever thing I have to say next!
Okay, I realize that no one checks my blog to see what I have to say. They check my blog to see what Jordan has to say about what I have to say. Even Jordan.
See you tomorrow!

So I do have a blog. Huh.