Quick Funny from Preston

Preston and Brekken are playing something. Preston is running around the house shouting "Go, Team Jesus! Go, Team Jesus!"

I don't know what the game is, but I'm glad to hear that's the team he's cheering for. :D

Mmmmm... Panda!

Last night I gave in to the pleas for a silly little toy currently in the McDonald's happy meals - Kung Fu Panda action figures. On the way home, the three older kids had an interesting conversation about pandas.

Preston: I think I would like to eat a panda. I would just take all of the fur off and eat it up.

Haley: That's gross! You would have to cook it first.

Preston: I don't know how to cook. So I would just have to take a bite.

Haley: I would cook it for you. You just pull off all the fur, then put it in the oven for 10 minutes and then it's done. ...{a few seconds of deep thought}... maybe I would need to have a recipe. Mom, where do pandas live?

Mom: In China.

Haley: Okay. Hey, Mom! I need to learn Chinese. Then I could go to China and find someone and ask them, "Hey, how do you cook a panda?" And then we could cook one and eat it.

Brekken: Mmmmm... Panda!

Quick Funny from Preston

"You know what, Mom? I have a really strong butt.

When I get mad, I get super strong - like the Hulk. But especially in my butt."

Preston's Questions

In the same file with Sounds from the Roadtrip (yesterday's post) I found a list of questions asked by Preston. Only some of them, because as I recall, this conversation went on for almost as hour as we drove. As soon as we came up for an answer to one question, he had another one to ask! This particular line of questioning was inspired by seeing a police car sitting at the side of the road:

• What if the police fall asleep in their car?


• What if they’re too tired to drive home?


• What if they don’t have any friends to come get them?


• What would happen to the car?


• What if a police was friends with a bad guy?


• What if a bad guy killed a police?


• What if you know a bad guy and know he’s killing police – do you have to make it a secret?


• What if you don’t know the policeman – can you talk to him?


• What if a police had to arrest another police?

Road Trip Story

Another prompt from Mama Kat's Pretty Much World Famous Writer's Workshop. Today's prompt is to share a memorable road trip story.

I don't know how memorable this is, but I had my work laptop with me on our last roadtrip. And after we got home, I found a file on the desktop. When I opened it, I found that I was apparently making notes about the trip as we drove. Here it is, exactly as I found it. :)

Sounds from the road trip

whisper mumble whisper giggle whisper (Haley talking to herself in the back seat)

snuffle squirm whimper (Rylen trying to decide whether to wake up and scream for dinner and a snuggle)

rustle wiggle giggle smack!* MOM!!! (Brekken and Preston playing in the far backseat… which inevitably turns to fighting and shouting, with Haley generally joining in at some point)


AARRGH! (the silent – and sometimes not so silent – screaming from me when all of the above gets to be too much. Remind me again why we do road trips?)


*As a side note, doesn't "Rustle, Wiggle, Giggle, Smack" sound like an excellent name for a children's book? :D

Comfort Food At It's Finest

This is a prompt from Mama Kat's Pretty Much World Famous Writer's Workshop. It's a fun way to come up with blog topics, and I've been reading the prompts for a while. Now I'm finally getting around to actually responding to a prompt and I'm writing about:

Comfort food at its finest. Share a family favorite recipe you loved as a child.

The one that came to mind was tacos. We had tacos pretty frequently growing up. They're easy, pretty inexpensive, and all 6 kids were willing to eat them. No wonder we ate tacos a lot!

Our taco recipe was pretty simple. Cook ground beef, add taco seasoning. Spoon beef into a flour tortilla or crunchy taco shell. Top with cheese and lettuce. Add ketchup.

That's right, ketchup. For some reason we always put ketchup on our tacos! I don't know where that started, but that's just the way we always ate tacos.

These days, I cringe at the thought. I guess I've become a taco snob. Plus, I don't like ketchup!

And yet... I remember how much I always loved those tacos. Maybe I'll have to try it again.

Pray for Kenley

A good friend of mine is going through a terrible time right now. Her 20-month-old daughter took a tumble from a slide at the playground. It happens to all kids. It's happened to my kids so many times. But this time, she just fell wrong. And Kenley hit her head. And her skull was fractured. And she had a brain bleed.

Kenley was flown to the hospital 3 hours away from her parents. While they were still on the way, it was decided that they had to operate. I cannot even imagine the pain of dealing with that. Knowing that my child was having brain surgery and I was not there with her? It brings tears to my eyes to even think about it.

Kenley's surgery went well, but she is still in a medically-induced coma and on a ventilator - and will be for several more days at least. They are still having some issues with swelling of the brain, and now running into trouble with her glucose and insulin levels. From all I gather, doctors are cautiously optimistic, but she's not out of the woods by a long shot.

As a firm believer in the power of prayer, I feel that the more prayers on her behalf the better! I've put her in my personal prayers. I've put her on the prayer roll at our temple. And now I'm asking for you to put Kenley in your prayers as well. She and her family need all the prayers you can send.