A Pleasant Spring Break

This week has been spring break for us. It sort of slipped up on me with all the snow we've had, but I'm not complaining about getting the week off. We didn't go anywhere. We just stayed around here and took care of a lot of those little chores we can never seem to find the time to do when school and ball are going strong.

TOOTHLESS. Back at Christmas I reported that Nate lost a front tooth prompting a visit from the Tooth Fairy the same night Santa Claus was due to come. Recently the front tooth next to that one has begun to wiggle.

All was going well with this until Tuesday when Vicki and the kids went to Sam's to do some shopping. When they finished and were returning to the van, Nate was looking down and not paying attention to where he was walking. That's when Nate walked right into a pole in the parking lot and then Vicki heard things hitting the ground that should not. The collision broke off the top of the tooth that has been growing in since Christmas. It also loosened the other tooth so much Vicki was able to pull it right out.

Nate made a trip to the dentist. The adult tooth was broken so badly they could not cement it back on so they opted to let the neighboring tooth grow in, giving the broken tooth time to see if the root was damaged, before capping it off. When that tooth has grown in they'll have something to go by for size.

I asked Nate why he wasn't looking where he was going. He said it was bright outside. Nate has always been sensitive to light, but Tuesday was an overcast day. The Tooth Fairy did come to visit Nate, but only for the baby tooth that come out.

THE GREAT TREASURE HUNT. Back in 2008 I wrote that our house was celebrating 100 years. I think I wrote at that time that Mr. Oley Simmons was the man who had this house built. One of the stories that has been handed down to us about Mr. Oley was that he would hide his money somewhere in the house and that no one has ever found the hiding spot.

I don't doubt Mr. Oley hid money in the house. It wasn't too easy to get to a bank at that time. Being a farmer and living during the Great Depression he probably didn't have a whole lot of money to hide. We've never found it.

The thing that is strange is that a lot of doors in the house show evidence of having hook and eye locks on the inside of the door. In most doorways you can see holes in the woodwork where the hook or eye was once screwed in. The closet door in our bedroom actually has an eye still screwed in to the door jam on the inside (meaning you'd have to be in the closet to hook the door shut). And strangest of all, one of the attic doors still has a hook and eye on the inside of the attic.

Occasionally our conversation will turn to strange things about the house and Vicki or I will laughingly mention something about Mr. Oley. The other day something came up and one of us made a joke about his hidden money. Well, that was all the boys needed to hear. They have questioned me about hidden money and have been speculating as to where it could be hidden, pointing out some of the most preposterous places to look. So, now we're looking everywhere for Mr. Oley's long lost treasure.

BUDDING COOK. Jenna has given up her dream to have her own bakery, but she's still cooking. She's made cookies and cakes over spring break. It's all been wonderful, but it sure hasn't helped me to stay true to my New Year's resolution.

Joe

Spring Is around the Corner

The last couple of weeks have been fairly quiet around here, relatively speaking. This is simply because we are between ball seasons. The weather has been typical of any March, it's really warm for a few days and then the temperature drops and we even seen hints of snow on a cloudy day. We've also had a lot of rain (enough to make our septic system back up like it did last year). While winter is not going down without a fight we are starting to see hints of spring. I've been noticing new buds on the trees and frogs chirping in the woods.

OFF TO THE RACES. Last week was the culmination of lots of work on pinewood cars. On Monday (the 28th) the boys participated in the Pinewood Derby at Scouts. Their cars raced well but didn't place in the top ten. I think they had a good time at the race in spite of their cars' performance.

That Wednesday was the Awana Grand Prix at church. This was a busy time as we are more involved in running this race. We had some 60 or so kids participate that night. And then last Saturday we had the Robertson County RA race with around 100 kids racing.

BASEBALL PRACTICE. Even though we are between ball seasons Ben is going to baseball practice two nights a week. He's hoping to play in the infield this year, and for the last couple of practices his coach has played him at first base so it looks promising. His first game is in three weeks so it will be interesting to see what happens.

STRANGE INGREDIENTS. Lana Osborne loves her goats. She has a small herd of fainting goats and has begun to make lye soap with goat milk. She markets her goat soap locally (you can find it at Thomas Drugs and area hair dressers). A few weeks ago Jenna went with Mom and Aunt Mar for Aunt Mar's hair appointment where she saw Mrs. Lana's soap. She picked up a bar and was reading the ingredients when she discovered one ingredient is monkey farts (as a joke - only on the tropical rainforest scented soap). When Jenna showed it to Aunt Mar she said, with a gleam in her eye, "I sure wouldn't want to use it as shampoo!"

Nate took the monkey farts a bit more seriously and he's been trying to figure out how you get those to put them in soap.

IT'S A FEMALE THING. Vicki and Jenna went to a baby shower today. At one point Jenna said, "Hey Mom, why don't men come to things like this?" Vicki explained the men really don't like to come and ohh and ahh over wedding and baby gifts like women do to which Jenna replied, "Well, I don't either." Of course, if there were power tools involved I might be more inclined to go to one.

Joe