Together Again

From Stuff That Happened: 2010 version

If I were to ask you what the ugliest car on the road was, what would you choose? Here, let’s do a poll:

I picked a random coworker (a female) and without hesitation she replied, “The Cube.”

I have to agree.

So for Rochelle’s trip down to Mississippi, we reserved a compact four-door car, but little did we know the place we were renting from didn’t actually have any cars to rent. They are a little Avis satellite location nestled into the corner of a Sears Auto Center store. They get their cars from… elsewhere. So, we show up and the lady at the counter suddenly realizes that she had no idea what vehicle she could give us. She called up her… other location and asked what they had in the compact four-door category. Nothing. Guess what Rochelle got to drive down to Mississippi? That’s right, the ugliest darn car on the road.

The funniest part about this is that we had just seen a Cube on the road a couple days earlier and both of us had commented unanimously that it is the ugliest car on the road. I hope Rochelle enjoyed showing it off to her family.

Funny thing is, the interior is just as ugly, gaudy and annoying as the exterior. I wish I didn’t know that, but I do.

While Rochelle and the kids were gone I had some time to myself, which usually drives me mad. Since I was finishing up a Network + class the first few days of their trip, I took the opportunity to play with our wireless router since I’d have time to get it working again before it affected anyone but me. It needed a few adjustments, but I had long since forgotten the administrator password. For a fun read about how I figured it all out and got it tuned up, you’ll have to check my personal blog. Funny thing about the whole experience is that I don’t understand a lick of Swedish.

Books We are Reading

Brian

I just managed to get my Network+ Certification, which involved lots of boring text to read. I’m preparing to take another big, required test for work (two, actually, but one doesn’t require any knowledge), so all recreational reading activities are on hold.

Rochelle

Rochelle is busy retelling her life story to a close friend on the phone, so I’m not going to bother asking what she’s reading right now. Last I saw she was reading something on her nook, meaning she must have finally finished that Anne series of books. I do know that, since I have been working twelve hour shifts lately and haven’t been able to read to Micah for a while, she has started reading that “Series of Unfortunate Events” book to Micah (the first one, obviously – or at least, I hope).

Next month I’ll cover more of what she’s read that’s interesting. For a moment I thought she was going to be done, but she just launched into another long episode that is going to last longer than I want to be awake. I’m glad she has people to talk to, because if she were talking to me (which would be welcome most of the time) I’d never get this done.

How the Kids Are

Micah

From Stuff That Happened: 2010 version

And now, for Micah’s segment:

There’s so much to write!

Sophie, Mom and I drove to Mississippi. So while Sophie was reading a book, I played my Didj (1). We finally came to Mississippi. It was a BLAST!!! My mom’s cousin Sarah played spy with me. Do you know why we played spy? Because my almost-aunt Emily (2) was putting on extra makeup (3). If you really know me call me S. A. M. (3) I got to touch clay mixed with sand. We went to a baby shower, and a birthday. We went to Ruby Tuesdays. We saw my two cousins. Grandma came with us! (4) We went home. Have a good summer, folks!

1. The Didj is a little handheld game system made by Leapfrog.
2. Almost-aunt because Rochelle’s mother has plans to marry Emily’s father.
3. I don’t get it either.
4. Rochelle’s mother accompanied them back home to Maryland, then she took a military hop flight back to Mississippi (she’s in the Army National Guard).

Lately I’ve been at work every time he’s written these things and he’s gone to bed before I could review them with him. Our next lesson is going to be on overusing the exclamation point and paragraph formation.

Sophie

From Stuff That Happened: 2010 version

A few days before Rochelle and the kids went to Mississippi for the weekend, Sophie was supposed to be taking a nap one afternoon when it was discovered that she had stripped herself of all clothing, removed her diaper, and relieved her bladder on the carpet, creating a fun little puddle to stomp around in and poke at. I thought it was funny, Rochelle did not. The best part was, when I went to get the little girl dressed, I couldn’t find the clothes she had removed from her body. She was on the ground waiting for me to dress her and I asked her where her clothes were. She pointed to the closet and said, “Right there.” Indeed they were put away rather neatly inside her closet, packed into a drawer of her dresser. I was impressed. So was Rochelle.

More recently Sophie has become even more cute. She will now randomly announce, “I have a superpower.” When asked what the superpower is, she responds, “good.” She also tenderly puts her baby down for a nap. She tucks the doll into her big girl bed, turns on the CD player for the baby, and puts up the gate in the doorway so the baby can’t get out (well, she leans the gate in place, but does an excellent job). I’m telling you, every moment I spend away from this little girl is a moment I could have been witnessing something cuter than anything anyone else has ever seen.

She is also beginning to take more of an interest in potty training. She will now request a diaper change at the proper time (after doing her business, unfortunately). Sometimes she even asks to go on the toilet. If we don’t get to her the very instant she wants to go, she removes all of her clothes (not just her pants and diaper), climbs up on the toilet, and does her thing. Unfortunately she only does it for number one, not the other one. She did, however, hand Rochelle a nice, full, stinky diaper full of number two the other day. Luckily none of the poo strayed from the diaper.

Until Later

Last month was interesting. Micah, Rochelle and I all survived an awful 48 hour stomach bug that made us throw up like a cement truck laying the foundation for a new Super Wal-Mart. It was no fun. So, we shared it with our good friend on the day before her birthday (sorry about that again). Sophie somehow managed to dodge that illness, thankfully.

Tomorrow we’re going back to the pool. I’ll try to remember to take more photos this month. You’ll notice that this month all of the photos come from Rochelle’s album. A big thanks to her for doing something interesting enough to photograph, otherwise I wouldn’t have had any good photos for you.

Have a wonderful Summer month, enjoy life, and we’ll see you next month. Not physically, unfortunately, but we’ll see you nonetheless. On here, the blog. Just making sure. Alright, later.