I said Funnier!!!!

9 years ago, before we were married, I told Mark, "You could be funnier." He thought that was not a very funny comment. Let me just say that he has a terrific sense of humor and makes me laugh frequently, but at the time, I just thought I could be laughing a little bit more. So over the years, he's reminded me of this remark and redirected it at me. (The nerve!)

So today, I told him that if I were, in fact, funnier than I am now, he would no longer be the funniest one in the relationship. Mark retorted that I have a long way to go before I approach his sense of funny. How could this possibly be true? Admittedly, the longer we're married, the more he makes me laugh. But still!

And uh, Mark, if you're reading this [which I'm sure you're not], I didn't really eat the rest of the carrot cake. I couldn't really eat half a cake in one afternoon, even after a day like this one was. Unless it were chocolate.

Nana and the Big Snow

After Black History month was over, and the curtain had fallen for the last time on the BHM program which she directed, Nana came to visit. And just in case you can't tell from all that which side of the family she hails from, I'll just tell you: "the black side" (Felicity's reference! Not mine!)

She was very busy all of February working on aforementioned program, so she did lots of this while she was here:

and I was very grateful to have her hold a fussy baby who recently has been puking all over everything. More on that later.

While she was here, there was a freakish event for March in TX and it snowed twice. Monday night, it snowed. Tuesday morning, the sun came up, it got up to 65, and melted everything. Then on Thursday, it snowed again. All the kids in the neighborhood went out and hurriedly constructed snowmen, which long outlasted the cold weather. Here are

Felicity and Matthew trying to make do with limited winter gear (we ditched most of it upon leaving Boston, who knew?)

Matthew really loves his "deejay hat". This was actually knit for me by one of my elder buddies from my mission. Check out the Nike swoosh:

In fact, he loves it so much that Katrina and he incorporated it in his "fireman costume". ( The firehose is the jumprope.)

And just for kicks, I thought I'd include a picture of the Cutest Baby in the World:

Fun in a Box

Isn't it amazing how the most fun you ever have as a kid either involves garbage or nothing at all?



At the end of February, Felicity asked permission from "Mr. Kevin" next door to take the large box his Valentine's gift (a desk chair- yes, you are a romantic, Kendra) arrived in, to make a clubhouse. Enter the BFF club and pretty much days of fun playing outside. The recipe was a box of broken crayons, the cardboard box, and several little kids. At one point, I counted 7 children in this thing.
No time spent watching tv, and no mess in the house. I backed over the crayons and probably dragged "magenta" several blocks, but other than that, no lasting damage.

You may not have noticed, but since most clubs have to exclude somebody, at one point there was a "No boys alowd" sign. That was crossed out for "1 boy" and then it was opened up to include everyone. And a good time was had by all.

Nicknames

It's snowing outside- puts me a little in shock, since it's March and Texas and all the trees and daffodils are in bloom. I'm also sitting here waiting for the sheets to dry (spit-up upon and I-won't-tell-you-what-else sheets have to be laundered frequently), so I can take my tired self on to bed. So rather than folding clothes, I think I'll waste some more time here.

When we were dating, Mark introduced me to Ghetto Names. Just in case you go to one of those parties, you need a readily available ghetto name because Elizabeth Jane (Recently read Mayor of Casterbridge, sorry) just doesn't call up the back stairs so well. Try Tanjeniqua (Mark's Kindergarten girlfriend's name) instead.

Speaking of nicknames. For FHE last week, we were thinking about nicknames because Katrina has decided that she wants to go by Katie again. (Easier to write.) Since her name is Katrina Suzanne, we called her Katie Sue when she was first born, along with lots of other nicknames, some of them much sillier. The girls and I decided to try out everyone else's names with a similar formula- one or two syllables from the first name and one from the middle. Add changes for rhythm.

FeliJess -rhymes w/ religious; sounds like a talent of some sort.
MarkOr- Either an upcoming Crayola product or a sidekick to that ghastly He-Man foe with overactive salivary glands.
JoHan- Mine sounds a little masculine and like I'm trying to Germanize myself.
MatPat- also passes for hurried instructions on how to handle the baby (as opposed to picking up by the head)
Maxhen- this one sounds like a powerful boss. Come to think of it, he is pretty powerful and pretty bossy these days.

And just for fun, we gave Katrina a new one:
KatSu- Is it edible? Or martial arts?

There's the buzzer. Sheets are done.