Morrisseys: August 2006

Yesterday, Shannon was musing about how cruel the stepmother was to Cinderella:

"She made Cinderella do ALL the chores. And that's not right. It's like the stepmother is the pot, and Cinderella is the kettle. The pot calls the kettle "black." But really they are the same."

Moving into our new house has been and continues to be tasking. However, it is going very well. We signed a contract on our old house last Saturday. That's a relief!

We have had more than a few moments of levity in the process. A great break this week was visiting the Schans and Groffs in Ocean City, NJ. We didn't want to get our camera sandy, so there are no pics. But you can find some at the Schans blog. (There should be a link to the right.)

Speaking of which, I will put my friend Aaron Scnurbusch's blog there, too. If you have a blog, let me know.

I do have a few pics from the move. The kids loved discovering all the "new" toys we brought down from the attic. Shannon decided to join Christopher on one.

We kicked all the kids out while we were packing and they turned to sidewalk chalk for entertainment. Shannon started a drawing of our house. After several more joined her, we soon had the entire neigborhood drawn on about 100 feet of sidewalk in front of our house.

Leslie really gets into projects with all her might. I knew it was time to take a break, though, when I discovered this box in our family room.

I was dropping off my car at the garage for some work. Aaron could see the mechanics working on cars. I asked him if he would like to be a mechanic some day.

"No, Daddy. That sounds like too much work for me."

I asked, "What kind of a job could you do that wouldn't be very much work."

"A dentist."

I (Leslie) was pondering our wide array of packing boxes yesterday. Maybe the variety is due to the sources.

From Water Street Rescue Mission I procured some standard-issue egg boxes, and some a bit more exotic, like Smirnoff Vodka. From our friend who runs a farmer toy warehouse, "scale models" from Macau. (I didn't know they know what tractors LOOK like in Macau...) And from Cornerstone, what else? "Disposable Underpads."

I wanted to share these with you...

Today my parents called and wondered what the kids were doing.
"Well," I said, "Aaron is playing UNO with an imaginary friend named Mooch. Shannon has dress-up shoes on, a blanket on her head (long hair) and a headband to hold it on (her crown). She is walking around being a queen. And Christopher is eating. Pretty typical I guess."

Later Shannon remarked how she couldn't wait to get to heaven to ask the tough questions. "Then we can find out what animal ate the baby birds in our nest outside, and we can find out how God makes hair stay on our head without scotch tape."

-from Leslie

Leslie was encouraging Aaron and Shannon to make friends at their new schools in a few weeks. The responses illustrate the difference between our two oldest:

Shannon: "I want to bring my friends home with me in the car. But there's only one seat and a million friends at my school!"

Aaron: "I guess, but only with kids who don't have snot in their nose, because some of them do."

We went to Grachur Club this weekend for the third and final time this year. There are so many good things to say about Grachur club. It forces us to relax and get away from computers and phones. We get great family time, eating, sleeping and swimming together. The people are wonderful.

Speaking of wonderful people, the Johnsons joined us this year. Keith was my best man and vice versa. They also have a 2-year-old adopted child from China. Her name is Julia. Isn't she beautiful? (We're considering an arranged marriage.)

Despite my (mildly) torn rotator cuff, I managed to pull out an old hand-crank drill from the tool shed and repair a broken swing. Actually, I replaced it with a new trapeze bar. Here is Caroline Johnson demonstrating how it works.

And I couldn't resist showing off this picture of Shannon, our little Swan Princess.

Captain Groff finally wet the sides of his boat this year! He took us out to Blue Marsh Lake to enjoy some skiing, swimming and excellent sweet bologna sandwiches.

Leslie went knee-boarding and jumped over the wake backwards, twice! She fell both times but it was really cool. And Doug got up on one ski for the first time ever. It lasted about 6 seconds.

We stopped at the public beach to use the facilities. After wading around in the water for awhile we spotted some signs posted everywhere. I went up to read one. It said something like "No swimming. Extremely High Bacteria Levels." It will be a good test of our immune system I guess.

Are you familiar with Reader's Digest's "Life in these United States?" Well, here are some "Life at the Morrisseys" quotes:

I overheard Shannon and her friend Emily in some pretend play. Shannon said, "Do you want to wear high heels?"
Emily replied, "No, my mom doesn't usually let me wear high heels."
"Oh," Shannon answered, "Then we can take them back to the Dollar Store."

And another day, we received a package from a friend with some older, family-friendly movies in it. Doug put one in for Aaron and Shannon. While they were watching, one of Aaron's friends came to the door asking if he could play. Aaron asked Doug if it was OK, and Doug said, "Aren't you watching the movie?"
"Well, it's actually not very good. It's kind of Amish."

Here are some more pictures of our cuties having fun.