confessions of an odd-eater:

There is something about Brett being gone that puts me into absolute ANTI-COOKING mode. For some reason, when he is not here, it's more difficult for me to get the kids to eat the more "grown-up" meals (you know...normal stuff, like chicken and rice, lasagna, blah-blah-blah). So I don't even try. Instead we have "kid stuff"...mac 'n cheese, Campbell's chicken noodle soup, pancakes. Stuff I don't have to force feed with a back hoe. The only problem is none of that kind of food appeals to me after a long day of single-parenting, so what usually ends up happening is me sitting and visiting with the kids while they eat their dinner. Then, after they go to bed, I eat whatever sounds good but does not require much preparation. Here's where things get interesting. When I am the only responsible adult around, I eat the stupidest stuff. There. I admit it. Take last night for example. Once I had the house to myself I settled down for a real pathetic feast. First, I finished off the last half of a small jar of green olives. Then I moved on to the three remaining dill pickles that have been sitting lonely in the back of our fridge for a month. I was thirsty, but had a hankerin' for something sweet, so I had a large glass of chocolate milk. Popped in a DVD. Watched half of it before deciding the olives and pickles didn't cut it. Paused the DVD while I set myself up with 3 slices of bread and a generous puddle of A-1 Sauce to dip it in. Don't forget the string cheese and a tall ice water to wash it all down with. I know, I know. I'm nuts. Now, I must defend myself (if it's at all possible at this point) by saying typically I fill my nights with a heaping bowl of cereal. But after three days of Marshmallow Maties and Honey Bunches of Oats, I was feeling a little "cerealed-out". How I made the leap from cereal to A-1, one will never know. I think I've mentioned in the past how much I love sauces, so I guess at the time it didn't seem "off". Heck, at least I was eating it with bread instead of a spoon! Now that would just be weird.

i'm just a kid who's four, each day i learn some more...

Wyatt has been looking forward to his new PRESCHOOL ADVENTURES for many, many months now! So has Mommy... It's weird to have him gone, even if it's only for a few hours twice a week, but I am so anxious for him to have more social interactions with other children and he is more than ready to learn, learn, learn! He's such a sponge, absorbing everything around him. He's attending Foxtales Preschool and so far we feel great about things. His teacher, Miss Amy, seems more than qualified, and I like that she is so organized and purpose-focused. Here are some pictures of his preschool "firsts":

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At "Meet The Teacher" Night

Making a "frame" Miss Amy was going to glue his picture onto

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Getting ready for a storytime

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Rico Suave on his first morning of school, September 2

Like his new duds?

He was so pumped about wearing new school clothes!

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Miss Amy, Mr. Wyatt, and the bright Sunshine

on our FIRST DAY!!!

leavin' on a jet plane...and eating bean dip.

Well, this Sunday evening I find I have the entire house to myself. OK...myself and my three beautiful, funny, and at the moment, hyper-active children. After lunch and FHE, Brett hopped on a Southwest jetplane for 113 degree weather in sunny Arizona. He'll be gone for a week, enjoying the life of a bachelor (the kind that wear a gold wedding band). I, in the mean time, will enjoy days filled with kid-friendly dinners (when he's gone it's usually mac 'n cheese or pancakes for dinner) and hearing every creak this house makes at night (my "manly-beefcake" won't be here to protect me from the imaginary home-intruders that my mind conjures up in paranoia). It will also be an interesting week as it is our first to "endure" with downgraded cable. (But it feels soooo good to save $$$!) No more DVR. No more HD-TV. No more channel above 25, and really, we don't get that many since about 6 of them are either shopping networks or in a language 4 out of 5 people in this house do not understand. (I'm actually starting to wonder if Brett really has legitimate "work" down in Phoenix or if he's using it as an excuse to get himself back to CABLE TELEVISION... Hmm...I definitely have my suspicions.)

While he is there, I asked him to please eat at our favorite restaurant in Gilbert. If I can't go there myself, I'll "eat" vicariously through him. Moly Moly, I miss the bean dip, the horchatas, and the shrimp-mango quesadillas at Gecko Grill. (Any East Valley Arizonan knows exactly what I'm talking about!)

So honey, know that I'm (we're) missing you while you're away. Try to have fun during your short time free of family responsibilities, and...we'll keep the light on for you.

gearin' up for another year of learnin'

The all-important backpacks.

SIDE VIEW and STRAIGHT ON:

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And here we are.

Halle, the mighty 1st-Grader standing in front of Washington El.

with her co-student & gal-pal Hannah Banana. (I'm loving the legs crossed!)

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Is this the door opportunity knocks on?

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Wyatt had fun helping big sister find her seat.

Oh, and he just had to wear his backpack, too!

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Here is Mrs. M.

Remember how much you idolized your elementary school teachers???

I wanted to grow up to look just like and be just like my first-grade

teacher, Mrs. Womack...I thought she was the nicest lady and so perdy...

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It was probably disruptive, but I couldn't resist:

I snuck in one last picture after the bell rang and class started.

There's our A-student!

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Day 2: Riding the bus to-and-from:

I love how she looked that morning! I wish I would have gotten a better picture without the glare of the sun! Her bus stop is super-convenient, being just at the end of our street. It was a leap of faith for this over-protective mommy to let her baby be driven back and forth by really a stranger on a bus that potentially could be occupied by a few children with values that may be less than ideal, but it's been a good growing experience for us both. Mostly me (let's be honest). She's doing great walking home by herself (with Mom watching out the window like a hawk!) and has even told me about when the "older kids" were being bullies or vulgar and how she chose to change seats closer to the front.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

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That's my girl.

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Playing with sweet friend, J., at the bus stop.

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Talking to daddy and telling him all about school!

toothless wonder

On the back of our pantry door I have a list of chores the kids can do to earn money. Halle has been saving her pennies to buy a new clock/radio/CD player for her room. She's got $7 out of $10 earned already ($10 is Mom's special price). Let me tell you...at the rate she's going, she's not going to have to do any more chores to make up the $3 difference! In the past month, the tooth fairy has paid her for three, yes THREE, chompers! She's losing teeth left and right! I keep teasing her that soon all she'll be able to eat is applesauce and pudding! The third tooth (the bottom one) she lost at school, which made it all the more EXCITING!

A Tale of Two...Cup Sizes?????

You have to read this hilarious story...this hilarious TRUE story. Not that I'd ever buy an inflatable bra, and my mother definitely would never have given me one, but if I did ever wear one, I could totally see this happening to me! Betty, you rock, even if your boobs aren't the same size when you fly commercially!


A Bra's Tale:
Detour On A Daughter's Trip Abroad
As a young woman, Betty Jenkins received a gift from her mother that was meant to attract the attention of young men. But as Jenkins, who is now 94, tells her niece, the attention she got wasn't the kind she was expecting.

"Back then I was very skinny, and I didn't have any curves. I guess my mother got kind of worried, because she didn't think I had enough boyfriends," Jenkins said.

The gift was an inflatable bra that was designed to enhance its wearer's figure. A straw-like tube was used to inflate pads in the cups.

"I was real excited, so I blew and blew to about [size] 32," Jenkins said.

But things didn't go smoothly during a plane trip in South America. The plane was flying near the Andes Mountains when Jenkins began to feel pressure and sensed there was a problem.

It turned out the cabin was not pressurized, and the bra was expanding. [Is this what people mean when they say their "cup runneth over"???]

"As the thing got bigger, I tried to stand up," Jenkins said, "and I couldn't see my feet."

The instructions said that the bra's pads could be inflated up to a size 48.

"I thought, 'What would happen if it goes beyond 48?'" Jenkins recalled.
"I found out what happened," she said. "It blew out."

Only one of the cups burst, Jenkins said. But the noise was loud enough to seize the attention of everyone on the plane.

"The co-pilot came into the cabin with a gun, wondering what had happened. The men all pointed to me."

Jenkins then tried to explain in Spanish what she could hardly explain in English, "that part of your anatomy just blew up."

The plane made an emergency landing, and Jenkins was handed over to the police. She was ordered to strip, as the officers looked for what they assumed could only be a bomb.

After she showed the officers the hole in her bra, Jenkins was allowed back on the plane and her trip continued.

"A month later, I got a bill from the airline for $400," Jenkins said, "for an unscheduled stop."
Her mother enjoyed the story so much that she kept the broken bra. Her mother died in 1967. As for the bra, Jenkins says she no longer has it.
Produced for Morning Edition by Nadia Reiman. The senior producer for StoryCorps is Michael Garofalo. NPR stories
Read the actual article or even better LISTEN to Betty tell the story here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91943477&sc=emaf

How many are you, Grandpa?

August is a very celebratory month in our family. We've got Brett, Wyatt, Dixie, of course, but we also like to throw in a special birthday bash for Grandma and Grandpa Bauerle (you might call Grandpa's a bit of "Pre-BDay" fun).

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And how "many" might they be (as Wyatt asked Grandpa)? To answer your question, this year they are ONLY EIGHTY-SIX & NINETY-SIX YEARS YOUNG.

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Here are some pictures of the Bauerle clan--I really love this bunch. We don't get together often, but when we do we have a great time!

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"Blogs" have helped us stay in touch with Brett's Bauerle

cousins in a way that we hadn't before, and although it might sound weird, I really attribute blogger.com with making us closer to them and more aware of what's going on in their lives. We've always cared about them, naturally, but I'm ashamed to say we didn't make "staying in touch" a priority before, so for several years the only time we saw them was at the annual Christmas party, mission farewells/homecomings, and birthday parties like this. I don't know if other B. family members ever felt this way, but it's hard to feel overly "warm and fuzzy" with someone when you have the same conversation with them each time you see them because so much time goes by since the last time you talked ("So how's work? School? The kids?"). Now we can "blog-stalk" their families and feel as though we are part of their day-to-day, reading about their children's milestones, commenting on their new houses being built, or viewing photos from their latest vacation. Now we earnestly look forward to any opportunity we might have to visit in person--Brett has friendly, interesting, funny, loving, sweet, wonderful cousins, aunts, & uncles and I've seen the blogs to prove it!

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In this picture of Halle & Grandma B., you'll note the "lone hole" in the top of her grin. This is on display on purpose, as she'd just lost her tooth earlier that day! Halle has such a fondness for her Great-Grandmother. LaRee has a way of making you feel like you are the most important person in the room. She's so good to Halle. Halle loves to "converse". Gab. Vocalize. She can go on and on (and on and on and on) about this or that, usually talking so fast that it's a wonder Grandma can even keep up. Yet Grandma is patient (more patient than I usually am, unfortunately) and really listens to Halle. She makes Halle feel as though what she has to say just might be life-altering. I'm not saying my daughter isn't interesting, mind you, but let's be honest. A 7-Year old's stories can, after a while, sometimes be a bit...what's the word? Lengthy? Exaggerated? Tiresome? Yes, all three at times. But I think Halle knows that when she's around Grandma she's definitely got someone who wants to hear what she has to say.

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Speaking of gabbing, I LOVED seeing Halle and Kristen's daughter, Morgan, chat it up. They are only about 18 months apart, but when you are younger, 18 months can be quite a gap developmentally. This time they found they had very common interests (anything Miley or Hannah Montana...ROCK ON!). It was cute to observe them off in the corner, visiting happily and moving their hands around as they spoke with excitement.

20 + 11 =...

Earlier this month we celebrated Brett's 31st birthday in a small family party. It was so fun to have Mom, Dad, Heidi, & Tanner over for dinner that Sunday. We had one of Brett's favorite meals (okay, mostly one of my favorite, but he loves them, too): Bleu Cheese Burgers (thanks again, Jayme, for the recipe...YUM!), delicious fresh watermelon (thanks, Dixie!), and his favorite pasta salad, Bowtie-Cashew-Craisin. I made a Tishamingo layered cake with Buttermilk Chocolate Frosting (yep, I said layered. Are you impressed??? It "only" took me two batches of batter to get 2 workable circles!).

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In true Taft fashion, in a way only they can deliver, "Happy Birthday To You" was once again unbelievably loud, monotone, and hilarious. LOVED IT. Pause my music and take a listen:

I've been teasing him saying he's practically FORTY,

since he's closer to that then he is to twenty!

"do not question authority. do not question authority. do not question..."

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playgroundvideo3.swf

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I saw the trailer for this movie on another blog and it has me intrigued, to say the very least. To quote the blog I found it on, "It's an interesting analysis of our world of science today and how scientists that study and believe in Intelligent Design are being rejected to the point that they are thrown out of their research circles and fired from their jobs. The narrator and investigator (Ben Stein) makes an interesting point about free speech and how this seems to be one area where there is only one acceptable answer today, Darwinism... One scientist, siding with evolution, makes an interesting point, and says, 'They're distracting you from what's important.' I couldn't agree more, except for one detail... who is doing the distracting?"

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I can respect the work of all scientists and the intelligence and progress that they can offer. But as Ben Stein says in the trailer, "The more I thought about the situation, the more I wondered why we tolerate free speech in every other area of society, but not here. What makes this situation so different? In my experience, people that are confident in their ideas are not afraid of criticism, so that tells me the Darwins are afraid." Why is it so difficult to believe that we as humans have within us a spark of the Divine?

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I don't recall noticing this movie coming to a theatre near me last spring, so I plan on making a stop at Blockbuster to rent it. I'd be curious to know the thoughts of anyone that has already viewed it. Watch the trailer. Just that couple of minutes alone brings up some very, very interesting points.

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It makes me grateful to know that I don't have to rely on scientific evidence to tell me where I came from or how I was created. Just witnessing the bold colors of a sunset, or drawing in the crisp smell of the mountain air, or looking into the faces of my children, is all the proof I need that something, Someone had a hand in my life and the world around me.

boredom-buster bags!

What three words have I heard the most this summer? I'd like to say they were "I LOVE YOU", but alas, that fond expression was out-done by another set of words more common in my children's vocabularies.

MOM, I'M BORED!

After surfing the web, I gathered several ideas for premade activities my kids could whip out for a good fifteen minutes of entertainment. These "Boredom Bags" have been a lifesaver...and best of all, I feel like my kids are using their BRAINS as they sort, create with shapes, threading large noodles onto pipe cleaners, and read through flashcards!

Wyatt's favorite boredom bag is the felt shapes. I made two "mats" out of large rectangular pieces. Each mat has a different color on each side, black/green and white/brown. To help the large rectangles be more stiff and solid (easier to pick up when they want to show Mom their final creation) I used thin plastic cutting boards that I got at Wal-Mart, 3 for $2.

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Both kids love the flashcards and they are great to take in the car! Wyatt is more fond of the alphabet ones on the left and Halle likes the more complicated set on the right--it has things like "What do these three things have in common?", etc. I bought a pack of 4 flashcards at Wally's for just a couple bucks. BARGAIN!

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I bought a wide-range of assorted buttons (some even look like glass slippers and lady bugs and cars), "jewels", and sparkly fuzzy balls. Then I labelled two ice trays--one identifies colors and the other identifies an item's properties, such as "sparkles" or "soft" or "hard" or "round". It's been neat to watch them sort these little things into many different ways.

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(And yes, I know it is unacceptable, incredibly rude, and completely goes against "blog-etiquette" for me to not remember what websites or blogs I got these ideas from. I'd like to give you credit--there are 2-3 sites that inspired these boredom bags--so if you posted any of these crafty schmafty things on your blog or website first, I probably got it from you. Feel free to leave a comment taking credit...you deserve it!) I do know one of them at least...Marie at http://www.makeandtakes.com/about. She doesn't read my blog, but if she did, I'd say THANKS, MARIE for all her ingenious, and best of all: simple, ideas!