Something to Make you Smile

Ruth's Con:

Since it's Mother's Day I want to share a story of something that happened in our family a few weeks ago. It's a story that may make some mother's mad, but I found it very funny.

A few Sundays ago both Ruth and Kaitlin were feeling sick and so they stayed home from church together. I'm not sure how it all began but somehow Kaitlin and Ruth started trying to build card houses. When the rest of us arrived home from church, Chaz too joined in the card building challenge. As the kids worked on their towers Ruth seemed to get the knack of it because soon her towers were taller then everyone else's. We were all amazed. This went on for some time as Ruth's skill seemed to grow exponentially while Kaitlin and Chaz still struggled. I took out my video camera thinking "I'm going to put this on Youtube! This kid is amazing!"

I drew close to her with the video camera to record this card building prodigy. Only then did I notice something that wasn't quite right. I've included the video here. Perhaps with your keen eyes you will catch the same irregularity that I noticed.

I didn't say anything right away, but it didn't take much longer before Kaitlin discovered the trick.

Now I found this whole thing very funny and congratulated Ruth on being so clever. I also thought Ruth did a great job at keeping up the charade for over a half hour. Kaitlin is sorely disappointed in me. She thinks I should have punished Ruth for her deceit.

This week at the Barnums:

School is starting to wind down for us. The kids only have three weeks left. Both Kaitlin and Chaz are busy working on end-of-the-year projects. Kaitlin is working on a report and display about Scotland for the "World Fair" at her school. Chaz is working on a similar project about Ecuador for his "Cultural Fair." Kaitlin is working on finishing an autobiography and Chaz just started an insect collection for Biology (more on that in a minute). In addition to these projects they are all also taking the end of the year CRT tests.

Yesterday we went up to my parents' farm in Deweyville. Mom had some chores for us to do including some planting and transplanting a few trees. We took a fun ride in the back of my Dad's truck up on our mountainside past the irrigation canal, which was running very high. Dad is renting the high mountain area out to some cows this spring and they watched us lazily as we bumped by. We ended the day with a fun hot dog roast. My sister Kathy and her husband Mark were also there. We had a really fun time.

On the way home we stopped to pick up Kaitlin who had been visiting her father for the weekend. Oh, I forgot to mention that while we were at the farm that Chaz collected some insects for his insect collection. Anyway, when we got home I sat down to check the email when I felt something at the back of my neck. I reached up and pulled out what looked to me like a little beetle. Instinctively I flicked it away but then Kaitlin helped me find it on the floor and then we called Chaz, thinking he would want it for his collection. After Chaz collected it in his jar he said "I think this is a tick." I answered that it wasn't at tick but just some beetle, ticks were much larger I thought. Chaz then pointed it out it had 8 legs. I assured him that it was really just six legs and some long anteni. But to humor Chaz I looked up a picture of a tick on wikipedia (just to prove him wrong). And guess what I found! A picture of our little "beetle." Sure enough it was a tick! I'm just glad I was able to pull it out of my hair before it had a Becky blood snack. Chaz proceeded to gas the tick for his collection and I went to take a shower and wash my hair, twice.

Chaz's Eagle Project:

This week Chaz did the collecting for his Eagle project. He was collecting outdoor toys for a charity that sponsors school stores in 8 inner city elementary schools in Salt Lake City. The school stores called SOS Stores are a reward system for children to well in school. Our ward was very supportive of Chaz's project and he collected several boxes of balls, jump ropes, frisbees etc... He is now just a couple of merit badges away from his Eagle.