Random Accounts of Kidspeak

Kate painting her DQ Dilly Bar on Malifecent and Sleeping Beauty

Last night we were getting ready to go for a quick walk and I told Kate we needed to all get our shoes on before we could go. We all went in different directions. Then, Kate comes to me with her shoes on and she hands me a pair of mine and she says, "Here's your shooooos, momma. I bwaht (brought) them just in case."

First thing this morning, I open the door and Kate goes into some out-of-the-blue line of questioning about Toy Story 2 characters, which she's only seen twice.

Kate: Is Buzz here?

Me: Buzz? What do you mean? Buzz Lightyear?

Kate: No, not Buzz Yight-year, Buzz is Woody's friend. Is he here?

Me: No

Kate: We have to get ready for Woody and Buzz they're my very best fwend (friend). What's the girl's name?

Me: Calamity Jane

Kate: Oh, Yeah, Can-uhn-ee Jane. I want to play with her, too.

Later on I caught her repeating, "Run like the wind bullseye"

Some of Kate's other Best Fwends: Horton, Turtle, and Puppy-Puppy

Then we were cleaning up in the basement after playing in the playroom and while we were walking upstairs, I noticed Kate was crawling up the stairs on all fours. She was looking down at her hands and suddenly said, "I don't have paws. Just fingers. Just fingers and poe-nails (toe nails) and feet."

Mid-Week Respite

Scott's work is a little slow right now so Scott forwarded his business calls to his cell phone and gave his employees the day off while we went for 4-wheeler rides at the cabin.

I don't have to tell anyone that fall is in full swing. We captured several pictures and here are a few from Windy Ridge, otherwise known as "the lookout."


Kate in her "cabin shirt". I had to call it that so that she'd put it on. She has an abhorence to long sleeves (I think she caught it from her Grandma Mayfield).

Loves for Daddy--lucky guy. He is always getting the "loves". That's okay, I know who Kate wants when she skins her knees or has a bad dream.

Too bad we didn't bring a photographer for this backdrop. We could've had our Christmas photos captured and out of the way. Anyone good at photoshop? :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUPPY!

Puppy has been in the family since before Christmas 2006 and it was high time he had a decent birthday celebration. Here's the cake and song.

And today, while I went back and forth from the car to the house putting the groceries away we had a cute exchange:

Me: Hey Kate, are you doing okay in there?

Kate: Yes-sir-ee Momma! Because I have a starburst in my mouth. Look!

The "yes-sir-ee" made me giggle.

Till We Meet Again...

Adene Ruth Houtz 1929-2008

Sunday night, while Scott was gone fishing, Scott's Grandma died in her sleep. She was only 79. The thing I remember most about Grandma Houtz is how she used simple traditions to show her love and unite her family. Every Sunday she made a special dessert and her children and grandchildren came to visit. Holidays were her specialty. Every holiday had a rhythm that never skipped a beat.

If Scott and I showed up to visit unannounced, both Grandma and Grandpa dropped everything they were doing and sat in the living room and listened patiently to all the new things in our lives. Selflessly, they rarely shared the details of their aging aches and pains unless we pulled it out of them.

Grandma always made me feel like I was one of her very own grandchildren, and I was. She knew about me. She went to every special event I invited her to. Her presence was enough of a present but she gave those, too. The day I knew she was my Grandma, just the same as Scott's, was my first Christmas Eve as Scott's wife. We gathered with the whole Houtz family to celebrate. I looked up on the mantle and saw a stocking with my name on it. I can't tell you how much that meant to me. They could have just given one stocking for each married couple but I had a stocking all my own. In a way, I felt like that stocking was always there with my name printed on it, waiting for my arrival into the family.

I know I will feel a great whole in the family with Grandma gone. God be with you, Grandma, till we meet again.

Gone Fishing

Daddy has only been gone since this afternoon and we miss him already. He's gone fishing in Montana with his two brothers, his father and some work associations.

I can't help but wonder what I will do without him for three and a half days. The rhythm of life is so interrupted without him. I think of all the women who send their men out on regular business trips or for deployment to Iraq or wherever the brave are sent. Women are widowed, divorced, and alone all over. I can't help but be extra grateful that Scott comes home to us everyday and seems to enjoy our small, little lives together.

I realize I don't talk a lot about Scott. I think I leave him out so much because he is so constant. I talk about new things so much. That's why Kate is my biggest topic--she's a new little person everyday. But Scott is as steady as a beating drum. He works hard, everyday. He never complains about it. He's just SO "just right", a perfect fit. And "so 'just right'" has a tendency to get "so boring" to listen to with any kind of frequency. I wouldn't change a thing about Scott. Even his semi-reckless driving adds something fun to life that I couldn't do without. And the insane way that he is so tidy and particular about little details. He can't sleep with the closet doors open, things like that. Come to think of it, I can't even think about the long list of idiosyncrasies I noticed when we were first married because they are so normal to me now after eight years together. Weird. I wonder if other wives get so used to their spouse's unique, but quirky ways that they don't notice them anymore--or maybe even grow to adore those quirks???

Everyone Has a Feminine Side

My niece, Samantha (15) takes the school bus home from high school everyday and the bus drops her off in front of my house. Last week, I also picked up my nephew, James (9), from elementary school while my sister was at an appointment. I felt like a grown up for once. I had older children in my home and I felt, for a minute, what it might be like if they were all mine.

After my heart stopped racing at the idea of being a mother of three, I turned around to find them playing dress up together.

Don't you think James looks especially good as Princess Aurora? I guess this is what happens when you have five girl cousins on one side of the family. Kate says James is a "ballerina girl."

And Kate as Alice in Wonderland. If I ask Kate who she is dressed up as, she says, "Dizzey-land Girl" (Disneyland Girl).

House Tag

My sister-in-law, Kristi, did this house tag and I thought it would be a great way to humiliate myself. The rule was, to take pics as the house is--no cleaning up first.


1. Your Sink: To be honest, I forgot to take a picture of the sink in the morning when I ran around the house taking pictures so I took this picture after doing the lunch dishes. I cheated. But it was clean. I maybe had the tortilla pan in the sink from the night before but that's all, I promise.

2. Your Toilet

3. The Outside of Your Fridge

3. The Inside of Your Fridge: Talk about Economy ketchup! I can't keep enough ketchup in the house. If you'll notice, We have two mondo-sized Heinz bottles in here. Scott is the ketchup king and Kate is his queen.

4. The Inside of Your Closet: I go through phases. Sometimes all the hangers and clothes are color-coded and organized by type. This is all the other times when I'm just happy the clothes are clean and off the floor.

5. Your Laundry Room: Hey, at least it's spacious.

6. What Your Kids are Doing Right Now: Cute little thing, happily playing underneath my desk while I check emails and read a couple blogs.

7. Favorite Room: not because of the way it looks exactly, although I love the headboard and side tables my father-in-law made and the curtains and bedspread my mom gave me for Christmas--I love this room the most because it's my "living" room.

8. The Messiest Room: The Office (notice Kristi's blog still on the computer as I had just finished reading her tag).

9. Self Portrait: This one is a doozy! Kate woke up early and I was checking my email--one thing lead to another and at 7:00 am, I found myself blogging. I know, it was a weak moment, what can I say. The second I read Kristi's blog, I got up and took pics. So here I am--in all my glory--the Julie that only Scott sees is now public.

So, now it's your turn to take pictures of your house. Don't clean, just get up right now and do it. I promise the sink was my only omission to the rules.