Silly Boy

The other evening, we were driving home late from a day trip. The kids were wiped out in the back seat and Jeff and I were chatting about a situation we know of that has been heavy on our hearts recently.

In reply to something I'd brought up, he said, "That's like that passage that says, 'When your child asks for bread would you give him a Scorpion?'"

He couldn't remember the exact wording of the passage, but the principle was there, and was a perfect analogy for what we were discussing.

From the back seat, Judah says brightly, "I would like a scorpion! For a pet! Or a tarantula."

Oh, mercy.

Poor boy wants a pet of his own so badly.

Perhaps we'll need to be getting him a puppy sooner than we thought.

Somehow, caring for a puppy doesn't seem quite so bad in light of poisonous desert creatures living in our house. With us. With Judah as their caretaker and the ever present possibility of them escaping. Or inflicting injury on members of our household.

I wonder if we could talk him into a Pygmy goat?

We Just Had To Laugh

This has been a horrible year for ants.

Beneath our plum tree is a very active anthill with tiny little sugar ants. They looove plums, apparently. That one we can't do too much about, as any chemicals used to eradicate them would eventually wind up in the fruit. So, while harvesting the fruit we must stomp our feet to keep the little buggers from crawling all over us.

We also have a red ant hill which the boys know to stay away from, as bites from those ants will make you miserable for hours.

But this was our first year to have large black ants in our yard.

Judah, boy that he is, has a 'pet' black widow which lives on a web on the fence in our front yard. He routinely catches bugs which he then goes and 'feeds' to the black widow, by sticking them carefully in the web so that the black widow will come out and wrap 'em up for later.

One day he came running in the house, shaking his hand wildly and saying, "Ow! Ow! It hurts so bad!"

"What hurts?" I asked, thinking it was probably a splinter or thorn from something out back.

"Da black ant bit my thumb!"

I examined his thumb, and sure enough, it looked as though two small rows of teeth had clamped on the pad of his thumb pretty good, though for his sake I was glad there was no blood.

"Well, how did the ant get on your thumb?" I asked, wondering.

"I picked it up to put it in my jeep (to take around to the black widow, I'm guessing), and he bit me!"

Well what did he expect, lol?

:: :: :: ::

The other day, Jeff took the boys into a local fast food restaurant that had an attached playground.

As they walked inside, the place was packed and there was the usual hum of chatter, particularly from a table filled with young teen girls near the door.

Jeff said he knew the moment Jericho had finally made it through the doors, because the conversation from the girls table stopped suddenly as they turned to watch the cute teenage boy walk past their table.

Totally oblivious to and unaffected by such things still, Jericho called out, "Hey, Dad...can I take Judah to the playground?"

Uh huh. Yeah, sure, Jericho...Judah wants to go to the playground, lol.

:: :: :: ::

While in a bookstore the other evening, we picked up a cute Little Golden Book for Judah called, Doctor Dan The Bandage Man.

It's a cute little story originally put out in the 1950's and has darling vintage illustrations to go with the story of a boy who hurts his finger and runs home, and whose mom puts a band-aid on his 'injury' which (as we moms know) makes him feel all better.

As a result, whenever anyone he knows gets a boo boo, Dan doctors them up with band-aids. Even the family dog. As a result, his dad gives him the nickname, "Dr. Dan the Bandage Man".

In a stroke of pure brilliance, the publishers include a couple of brand new band-aids affixed inside the front cover of the book so that any little kids reading the story and needing to fix their own real or imagined boo boos have their very own band-aids at their disposal.

Judah spotted those immediately, and like Ralphie dreaming of his Red Rider BB Gun, he, too looked off into space, eyes aglow with all the possibilities of where he could use them.

I just looove those moments where you can totally see the wheels turning in their little minds.

But why is it that I can practically guarantee I'll find them stuck to a wall, or a fridge or grandma's bathroom door?

:: :: :: ::

For Jeff's birthday yesterday, I baked a really decadent birthday cake.

First, I baked a dark chocolate fudge layer cake. The filling was a homemade ganache or hot-fudge type mixture loaded with macadamia nuts, and the the cake was frosted with homemade chocolate caramel icing and garnished with even more macadamia nuts. Yummo.

It sat under the glass of our cake platter all afternoon, taunting us as we waited for the family dinner and dessert later that evening.

When I went to put candles in it later that evening, however, I noticed two very narrow prints on the outer edge of the cake...where one very little finger had gouged out a couple of samples of icing.

Hmmm...wonder who that was?

Someone Has A Birfday Today & Funnies

After weeks of enduring the daily barrage of questions, "Is it my birfday today?", "When is it my birfday?" "Is tomowwow my birfday?"...it has finally arrived.

Our baby turns 4 today.





























**sniff, sniff** (I'm not crying...I just have something in my eye...)

SOOOooo hard to believe how time has flown!

One day I was holding him in the hospital when he was born, and practically the next day I was holding him in the hospital after he swallowed 'da money'.

Then there was the time he headed up the effort in which three tots splashed toilet water all over the newly painted walls and floors of our house.

And all the countless other incidents involving cologne, desitin, mommy's makeup, and stickers on grandmas bathroom door.

Yes, at first I was waxing nostalgic, feeling all sentimental that time was going by so fast.

But come to think of it...how in the world did he do ALL THAT (and sooo much more) in such a short time?

Even more, how in the world have I survived this long with lots of only extra gray hairs, a few years shaved off my life and the occasional heart palpitations and loss of sleep?

With his 'stunts' gradually increasing in their severity, it sends a little zing up my spine thinking that he will probably be the type of young man jumping out of helicopters on his snowboard or maybe doing covert ops in the Military.
Lord have mercy.

I know there must be a reason this boy has been equipped with this precocious streak and seemingly inborn fearlessness...some plan the Lord must have for him on down the road.

I have to trust that there is something behind it, because let me tell you, at times it's been a trial on this mama being the mother of such a rough-and-tumble, rambunctious boy. It's stretched and grown me, that's for sure.

And yet, I wouldn't trade Judah or any of his zany behavior for anything.

It's who he is. Who he was created to be. I sure do love that kid!

Happy Birthday, bubba...Judah-Man!

Love, Mom

I'd better cut this short because he needs me to help him 'transform' a helicopter to some sort of robot. See the stretching I'm talking about? I was so sure that I'd spend my motherhood years combing out tangled Barbie doll hair...and here I am, thinking in boy.

Wait until you see the shin-dig we have planned for his birthday!

:: :: :: ::

Funnies

Judah came home from a soccer game on Saturday (which we couldn't attend with him due to local Bible Bee activities, so a friend took him for us), and tells me, "Dere was dis girl dere wif beautifo hai-ow." He acted all shy about telling me. "She was reawwy pwetty."

:: :: :: ::

Judah started Bible Study Fellowship with his Grandma and me on Wednesday mornings. He comes home acting all appalled, "Dere were deez girows dere dat kep' showin' da boys dey're panties."

Turns out he was in the wrong class and it was little toddlers that were just idly pulling their little dresses up over their heads during the story time, lol.

Next week he'll be in the big kids class there.

The only problem is that class was where he saw "da beautifo gir-ow wif da hot pink shiwt on."

The one I found out about right after he asked if it was okay "if he got marroweed someday?"

Should I be worried, lol?

A Frump-Style Family Vacation (and Funnies)

Hi Everyone!

Well, we're back and I'm ready to roll with Frumpmama's Vacation Slideshow. Woo hoo! Aren't you excited?

What? You mean you aren't? **hangs head in embarrassment**

Oh. Well, I'll do my best NOT to make this presentation like Uncle Harv and Aunt Gertie's European vacation slideshow of yesteryear...in fact, I think you might just enjoy it.

Because let me tell you...we have had some WACKY adventures.

Oh, but before we get into all that, I must record the following Frump Family Funnies for posterity:

This morning we had to take Jericho in for his Middle School sports physical.

He was NOT a happy camper.

My son is not like most children in that he LOVES going to the dentist but loathes going to the doctor.

He gets this from his dad. Neither are fond of one particular aspect of routine physicals for guys.

This was the photo I took on my phone. Please forgive the photo-of-a-photo...I don't have things all hooked up to send photos to my computer, because, frankly, I'm just not that techno savvy.



Clearly, he was dreading this visit, and that I kind of sprung it on him at the last minute didn't sit well either.

"What's wrong?" I asked, knowing exactly what was going through his mind.

"I'm not looking forward to getting frisked, mom" he hissed. "I feel so...VIOLATED."

To which I wanted to add, "Honey...just be thankful you aren't a girl!

Anyway, the visit was over-and-done in no time, Jericho's dignity relatively intact.

I was just relieved that he didn't pull the same stunt as he did at the last routine physical.

That time, as I always expect him to do, the visit was over and I wanted him to thank the Doctor for his time.

He did so with a very weak "Thanks", but added in true Jim Carrey-esque, indignant fashion, "For NOTHING!"

I was SO mortified. Wasn't sure I could ever face the doctor again.

Thankfully it appeared the good doctor had forgotten all about that little episode.

:: :: :: ::

While driving around town today, I had an old Messianic Jewish song stuck in my brain.

"When the Spirit of the Lord moves upon my heart, I will dance like David danced..."

I can't remember the name of said song, but there is a catchy little chorus that goes, "I will daa-a-aaaaance, I will daa-a-aaance, I will dance like David danced..."

I seem to remember singing that song in some church production somewhere along the line, dressed up in Bible costumes and over-entusiastically vigorously shaking a tambourine.

So I'm belting this song out as we're headed out on our just-home-from-vacation errands and Judah finally pipes in. "Who's David?"

I explained about King David in the Bible, but I'm pretty sure it muddies the waters of his understanding that he has a cousin on each side with that same name, and was probably puzzling over why I would be singing such a song about either of them, lol.

:: :: :: ::

SOOOoooo, we began our Frump-Style vacation with a two-day drive to Washington State.

It's a long trek, but we usually stop off to visit Jeff's nephew's family at the halfway point and stay the night there before heading out early the next morning. Judah had a blast playing with his cousin's daughters, two of which are older and one younger than himself.

For the most part, those long hours in the car go by pretty quickly, especially with all the humorous banter that seems to come about in our good-natured anticipation of our arrival.

Everyone except Judah, that is.

He did pretty well for a kid his age, but every time we stopped for food or fuel, off would come the harness straps of his carseat, the truck door would burst open and Judah would do this



Every. Single. Time. For like 15 minutes straight.

Run, Forrest...Run!

This next photo is a traditional shot taken on all our trips up the coast, which came about only because it happens that we nearly always stop off in the rinky dink big bustling metropolis of Yreka for gas on our trips to Washington.

We've got pictures at this locale in snow, rain and sunshine and at various stages in the kids lives.



This was a gorgeous archway of brilliant red trumpet vine (or tube roses, I can't remember which) outside a darling little restaurant in Yreka.




I have serious trumpet-vine envy. Mine lone plant didn't survive past the first hot-spell of the summer. In fact, it never even made it into the ground where it might have had a fighting chance. Died on the vine. *ahem* Perhaps I should water every day during extreme summer temperatures.

Sadly, those were all the pictures that turned out of the actual drive there. I was remiss in not taking more.

Especially of the roadsigns of deer, fish and bear that we spotted along the way.

As we always did with big brother when he was little (in an effort to make the time pass more quickly), we told him that for every deer he spotted, he'd get a buck. (Aren't we clever?)

We also did this with fish, hoping that he'd spot the big giant salmon outside of some sportsman's club.

Bears were so rare we opted to give him $5 apiece, pretty certain he'd never spot one. In all our trips up and back, we've never once seen a bear.

Little sharp-eyes spotted several deer, some real in meadows along the roadside, and some on signs. Then he spotted a sign with a fish on it. Then, as we went through the Siskyous pass, there was a sign with a mother bear and her cub. "BEARS!" he said gleefully.

When all was said and done, we were out about $20 for spending money on the way there.

Nevertheless, the kids were getting antsy. By the time we rolled into FrumpGram's place they were ready to rush full bore into all things 'Washington'.

Boating on the Puget Sound with Grandpa R was just one of the highlights...even if they were feeling a bit travel-weary setting out.





The smell of the salty air and beautiful views like this one seemed to chirk them up a bit.
That's the Seattle Skyline in the background, and the cold blue waters of the Puget Sound.



They began to sit up and take notice.



Grandpa R even offered to let Jericho steer drive. Little brother was crazy jealous.

Jericho was living the dream.



And things went along swimmingly until he accidentally kneed a lever and opened the boat up to full-speed, nearly toppling Grandpa R (who was checking a fishing line) from the boat.

"Doh!"

During this ordeal, poor little Judah had been hanging on for dear life...but didn't seem to mind one bit.



However, even a rambunctious kid like Judah can only take so much travel in one day, be it by truck or by boat, and finally succumbed to the lulling motion of the boat rocking upon the waves.





And that was the end of our 1st day in Washington.