The same thing every night

I used to think Bill Cosby was really funny. If you have listened to the copy of "Himself" that we had on tape, you'd remember the story of his kids after dinner. Unfortunately for me, now it appears that he had more insight and less humor although we have variations on the theme. For instance, the announcement that she will be in charge of loading the dishwasher is actually hard-wired into Emily's bladder such that it triggers an immediate trip to the bathroom where a sojourn of Uncle Nigel proportions ensues. For Ryan it's a crap-shoot; he could go either way. The dishes may start crashing into their homes with reckless abandon or, and we have yet to prove this theory, he uses some sort of transporting device to re-materialize in front of his friend Brandon's Nintendo. Rachel is like Brownian Motion. Every once in a while she will wander past me, singing and planning her next art project, and my arm will shoot out, grab hers, and tell her, for the 12th time, that the table better be cleared by the next ice age or she won't get to...to...and there, often, my creativity fails me and I say something meaningless, at least to a 7 year old dreamer, and although she carries a dish to the sink to placate her sputtering father, she then resumes her random path as soon as my focus is turned to another child.

When I am not chasing them around trying to activate their work gene, we have been having a lot of fun. A photographer from a magazine that Kersten got a idea published in came over for a photo shoot the other day. We had a good time posing for a couple of hours in various states of journal writing and the kids did really well for having to act like things were going on when they were not. It probably would have been a real pain but the photographer and his friend were cool people (what did we expect?) and really knew how to work with the kids (and their parents). We also went on our traditional Fourth of July fire truck ride. This year, the temperature were high so everyone brought their water implements to the Johnson parade. The tiny street was PACKED with people, so much so that there was very little room to drive the vehicles side-by-side on the out-and-back route. One float filled the back of the trailer they were hauling entirely full of water to make a swimming pool of sorts, and used that as their water supply for the ensuing battle. Sarah did not know what she was in for are was pretty miffed when the crowd started shooting their water guns and chucking water balloons. For our part, Ryan and several others manned fire extinguishers full of water that did nothing to convince the crowd to let us pass unscathed. All was well until an errant water balloon popped between me and the fire engine (I was standing) and I was dripping from that point on. Everyone (save Sarah) seemed to have a good time, so much so that we did it again in Albion a couple of hours later, but to a much smaller crowd.

Last Saturday, we also got out together, heading down to Costco so Mom could have the day to write her Ensign article. We had lots of fun talking in the car as we went down. When we got to Costco, I realized (I am sure I am the last to figure this out) that it would be a lot less painful if we had our lunch first, then did our shopping. Getting food for all the kids was quite a spectacle for several of the patrons as they made comments as I walked by with six hot dogs and drinks, but we made it without so much as a mustard splotch on the shirt. After feeding them all, Costco was a breeze; we just wandered down all the aisles and put the stuff on our list into the basket with a fraction of the usual complaints. Generally on this trip, the drama queens (Rachel and Sarah), the happy beggar (Ryan), and the Oh Please-er (Emily) turn the trip into one "be quiet" after another. The one downside to doing the lunch first is that, using the "unlimited refills" policy of Costco, Rachel and Sarah can put away a significant volume of liquid. Then, at inopportune times, they can announce impending disaster if we don't beeline to the loo. Such was the case twice in Costco and once at the train park where I had just announce a general play time on my personal favorite attraction in Lewiston from my childhood (not sure how many times we actually went there, but it seems like it was a lot and it was COOL). Happily, there were no accidents in Costco and we left the train unmarked from our visit.

That's some of the news from here. I am off for a bike trip with the young men this week in my dream calling (YM pres) and look forward to getting to know the boys better. I am learning in my old age, this time checking the gear of the kids on Wednesday instead of waiting until 4 miles down the trail to discover one kid forgot (actually he hadn't but that's another story) his sleeping back, and one couldn't walk another inch because his pack was too heavy (turns out he was packing in an 8 pack of Gatorade!). Wonder what the stories will be like from this trip...

The pic of me in the strange jacket was taken when I was surreptitiously taken out of the crowd in Asakasa Japan to carry some item of importance (god's house? not really sure, not well explained). Everyone was yelling and moving the thing up and down. I was a little bewildered.