Don't mind the giant TV. We're getting rid of that just as soon as we (Forrest and Ethan) haul it up the stairs and get it into the car to dump it at the recycling center. Just how many giant, heavy TVs have been dropped off at recycling centers across the country over the last few years, I wonder?
I've also had a good deal of company from the kiddos over the last few weeks as well, mainly because of the POLAR VORTEX. I find it hilarious that if it was just the midwest that had been having this super-cold weather it would have been only mildly remarked upon, but because the east coast has been experiencing it, it's all over the news like Shark Week. The first sweep of the polar vortex necessitated two missed days of school, the week after school started again, because the high temp was -14, -40 with wind chill. Then we thought we were out of it; back to the relative balm of 18-20 degree weather. But no! Bam, it strikes again! School was closed today, too, as we spiraled back down into -14 territory. It's beautiful outside though. Blue, blue skies and perfectly crisp snow. I snapped this photo out the back door this morning, but very quickly because my hands were freezing.
And can you see the tracks leading from under our deck to the swing set? Those are bunny tracks. Our very sweet Indian neighbors have been feeding the rabbits carrots since summer, and now there is a whole troop of fat, entitled rabbits chewing up our raspberry bushes and decimating Forrest's favorite Mugo pines. The situation has caused Forrest to store his bow and arrow in the coat closet (I am not kidding here) on the off chance that he could pick one off at a time of day that the neighbors wouldn't notice. He paces in front of the windows, muttering. And the neighbors just keep throwing carrots out their back door into the snow.
The other big event of the last few weeks is Wyatt Dean's 7th birthday! My little boy is becoming a big one--bigger and bigger all the time. Here he is, curled up in front of the fire, reading a book on the morning of his birthday:
We celebrated his birthday on MLK day with a few friends from church. We piled them all in the car and took off for Pinz, the local bowling alley/laser tag joint/arcade. Here they are, looking so cute and 1st grade-ish, bundled up in the car:
And here they are enjoying the games. The games that award "tickets" (although they're electronic now) are the most liable to cause joy AND pain. Here Wyatt is, concentrating mightily on Deal or No Deal (he only ended up with 14 tickets, even though he could have won 200):
But then the tide turned and, hallelujah, Wyatt lucked out and hit the jackpot on a game. He earned *987 points*!! In the little kid arcade economy, that's a landslide, and he was thrilled. Here he is, methodically picking out his prizes:
One of his choices was a super cheap (of course) policeman set. Does he look like Officer Sweat once did, back in his motor cop days?
Here are a couple other cute photos of the party:
I love how the majority of the boys in this picture look awkward in some way. The simple cuteness of early childhood is behind them. But the more complicated cuteness of 7-year-olds is its own kind of awesome.
Finally, here's a video of the family singing happy birthday to Wyatt. He requested a chocolate pie for his birthday, and I was happy to oblige. (By oblige, I mean buy one from the bakery.)
We also saw some good (and not so good) movies over the break. Just today we went and saw Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (I get so confused by the whole Jack Ryan/ Jack Reacher thing) and it was a perfectly diverting action movie. I actively disliked Inside Llewyn Davis, though; it reminded me of the types of short stories that self-indulgent, barely-post-adolescent males wrote in my creative writing workshops. But it got like 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, so apparently I missed something.
And I just finished listening to the audio version of Double Down, the story of the 2012 election by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, the authors of Game Change in 2008. I LOVED Game Change--the 2008 election had so many twists and turns and huge personalities--but this book was really compelling as well, especially since I'm sympathetic to both Obama and Romney for different reasons, and frustrated with both of them for different reasons. The authors were given unprecedented access and, as with Game Change, they wrote the book much like a standard narrative, so it's very easy to follow and sink into. My three major takeaways: both Obama and Romney are essentially good men with some flaws, and neither of them are natural politicians (which comes as a surprise in Obama's case for some); our elections are absolutely saturated in money, and most of it, since the Citizens United decision, comes from a relatively small handful of superrich people who truly feel that by virtue of their extreme wealth it's their right to control the tiller of our national ship; and if Chris Christie is the Republican nominee in 2016 then the party is pretty much cray-cray. No matter how engaging he is, that dude has some skeletons in his closet and has a huge ego problem--the whole freeway closure thing is just the tip of a morbidly obese iceberg. (Speaking of morbidly obese: although the picture of Romney was good in many cases, I was most disappointed by a small anecdote: he would point out fat women walking down the side of the road and tease male staff members by saying, "Hey look! It's your date tonight!" Ick. I was genuinely surprised he would do something like that.)
Anyway, starting Monday it's back to busytown: teaching, helping judge a few speech meets, and a packed Stake Young Women's schedule going into the summer. It's been a nice little break, but I'm looking forward to getting out of the house again, too. If it would just warm up.
