Yea! Grandpa Jonesy!
Brannen and I are so glad that Grampa is willing to help get us out of any pickle that we seem to be in. You know - when my car gets stuck in the snow, when I lock myself out of my house, when I need a ride home from Afton, when Brannen flushes a ball down my toilet!!! What a boy!
Here's the scoop.
Brannen is in the bathtub and I'm watching him play. I decided to be ambitious while I'm sitting there, and get busy cleaning the bathroom. I just finish the toilet with a final flush - and Brannen - the new starter for the Jazz- launches a buzzer shot and SWOOSH! He makes it - despite my slow motion "NNNOOOOOOO" and desperate shot block. Yep. He's done it. He even laughed sinisterly and rubbed his hands together. What a kid.
So I quickly do what every mom does - I plunge my hand into the toilet hole to see if I can possible retrieve the ball he has thrown in. I can feel it, but no. It's not coming out. Just big enough to fit - not small enough to grab and bring back. So then I do what every good girl does - call dad (husband is at work, of course) and say HELP! DAD! HELP!
So here comes grandpa Jonesy, armed with a tool kit ready to help.
Brannen is helping too. He's finally repented of his evil ways, and rolled up his sleeves ready to help. And what a helper he was!
So, try as we might, with every idea imaginable, we can't get the darn thing out. It is a hard plastic ball, and just rolls around in there, and has nothing to wedge against - so we can't do anything. We finally decide that we have to take the WHOLE toilet up and apart. This we do. We STILL can't get the ball out. It rolls around in there - but is a bit too big to come out the other end. Jonesy ponders the problem at hand.
Much pondering later - we are still working on it. Let me take a moment to interject that grampas are great! I think there is a certain age you have to be to spend the entire morning pulling a toilet up from the floor, and laugh about it the whole time.
Jonesy -- "This is somethin' . . . . " "Crazy baby . . . ." "What a kid . . . " "Come on in and help, Brannen" "Let that kid in here - he just wants to see what is going on" "What are we going to do now . . . . " "How a bout if we . . . "
Now if the husband were working on it, it probably would have gone more like this.
Husband -- "Darn kid" "Why didn't you watch him" "This stinks" "This can't be done!" "Call a plumber already" "Get that kids outta here" "Let's just break open the toilet already!"
*Note to wonderful husband who fixes plenty of kid messes - I'm not complaining. Just being realistic! And commenting that one has to be a mellow grandpa who has lived a lot of life before you can see the humor in the situation.
So here is the crazy solution we came up with - after much thought and trial and error. Jonesy found a bag of golf balls in Kelly's tool room. They were small enough to roll around inside the toilet and fairly heavy. Jonesy put about three of them in there and bouced that thing around - jumping up and down - trying to get one of them to knock the ball out.
Naahhh. It didn't work. But it sure was funny to watch. I'll bet my dad is still tired from jumping up and down while holding a toilet!
So then, we decided to fill the entire thing up with the golf balls - so as to hold that plastic ball still and then maybe we could stick something in the ball to pull it out.
WAALAAA! It worked. After all the balls were jammed in there - we stuck a grabber screw in THE ball and pulled that sucker out. FINALLY! How brilliant we are.
There it is - the culprit. The problem.
We've done it. Mission accomplished. Many hours later.
He even put the whole thing back! What a Jonesy! Saved the day! Thanks grampa!
The silver lining: I DID just clean the toilet. I had something to blog about. : )
Love you mom!
I had a big, beautiful flower pin-wheel on my mom's grave - and was so sad when I went to see it and it was missing. We looked everywhere for it - maybe some kid thought it was beautiful. Anyway, after Brady helped me look and we couldn't find it - I was leaving and noticed that he walked back and put a big yellow flower that he picked on the pin-wheel stick. What a nice kid. He is sweet - he was trying to fix it.
Mom - do you really have to take pictures at my guitar concert? Get over it will ya?! Other kids are looking! Stop it already!
Mrs. Heiner gives some last minute guitar advice. Yep, Bekki and Jen that is Kristi Heiner herself - Brady's music teacher! You can never really leave Bedford!
I guess the answer is 7 - almost 8.
They sure do look like sisters! Don't they!
Of course, Reesie LOOOVES to get all beautiful before a performance. Make-up, hair-do --what could be better for a girlie girl!?!
Here is a picture (a bad one - sorry) of Reese's Ballet performance.
Rae tapping her toes at a dress rehersal.
The beautiful dancer.
Brady and his buddy Seth were great audience members.
The song Reese danced to for her ballet was "Stealing Cinderella" and she was so thrilled because she got chosen to have her dad dance with her on stage for the performance. It was such a beautiful dance and Kelly did great. He and Reesie looked like Fred and Ginger.
Both of the girls got to dance with Kelly in the opening number of the recital. They danced to a song called "Dancin' on Daddy's Feet". Yes it was beautiful and tear inducing!
What a cute boy! He likes it when mom lets him hold a spoon and go for it.
He likes it much better when mom is gone, Rae is tending and she lets him eat chocolate. Sisters are soooo great.
Last weekend Kelly took Rae out to Grampa's house and they really gave her horse a good workout. This is Lady - Rae's pride and joy. They are preparing to hand over the Jr. Rodeo Princess crown to the next lucky girl at the end of this month. Rae is excited to dress fancy again and ride a bit more as she shows the "newbies" just what it takes to be a rodeo girl! She will be helping the younger girls try-out for Lincoln County Royalty. What a Rae. We kinda think she's swell. 
We FINALLY had a beautiful spring day in Star Valley and I was able to mow my lawn. Now I know that most of you don't think this is something to blog about - but if you think that - you have never lived in Star Valley. We love to live here so much, but we definitely have to suffer through a few months of not-so-nice to get to the bliss that is summer.
A few daffodils are trying to poke up and prove that it is spring time.
Brannen is helping too. He's finally repented of his evil ways, and rolled up his sleeves ready to help. And what a helper he was! 
So, try as we might, with every idea imaginable, we can't get the darn thing out. It is a hard plastic ball, and just rolls around in there, and has nothing to wedge against - so we can't do anything. We finally decide that we have to take the WHOLE toilet up and apart. This we do. We STILL can't get the ball out. It rolls around in there - but is a bit too big to come out the other end. Jonesy ponders the problem at hand.
Much pondering later - we are still working on it. Let me take a moment to interject that grampas are great! I think there is a certain age you have to be to spend the entire morning pulling a toilet up from the floor, and laugh about it the whole time. 
So here is the crazy solution we came up with - after much thought and trial and error. Jonesy found a bag of golf balls in Kelly's tool room. They were small enough to roll around inside the toilet and fairly heavy. Jonesy put about three of them in there and bouced that thing around - jumping up and down - trying to get one of them to knock the ball out. 
There it is - the culprit. The problem. 
We've done it. Mission accomplished. Many hours later.
He even put the whole thing back! What a Jonesy! Saved the day! Thanks grampa!
There he stands at the back door saying - Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma ---Nana Nana! Nana Nana! Over and over. (Nana is our dog's name) He loooooves the dog. He always wants to go outside and hug on her. He loves to be outside in the sunshine (when we have some) and crawl around and throw rocks and eat grass or dirt. He has cabin fever somethin' terrrible!
He spied me! Now he's comin' for me! 
He's in attack mode! I'm being accosted by a baby! A crazy toddling baby!
Yep, he caught me. I was too slow. I've got Bran slobber on my face to prove it. He tried to eat me too - but I ran away. I'm sure he will attack again.
We have finally had a couple of sunny days! Horray! (However, as I type this, I see out my window, that it is currently snowing again - ho hum. Such is spring in Star Valley) We really enjoyed the sun - the kids have been playing outside non-stop and the snow has almost gone! Yahoo! 
They had a great time. And all the snow melted. 
Happy Easter everyone! We had such a nice weekend. The rabbit found us on Saturday morning and we had a fun time finding eggs and discovering the goodies in our baskets. Then we colored some of our own eggs - in which we did NOT involve Brannen at all. He merely posed for the picture. We then went to Grama and Grampa Fullmer's house and ate and colored some eggs there. Kelly helped Barry for the day - building- to make Grama Marge a nice room for her arrival at the end of May. Fun Fun!
Ohhh - I feel a sugar rush coming on!
Brannen LOVED to find the eggs and put them in his basket. All the kids were great to help him.
Checking out all of our loot!
See! We even caught the Easter Bunny before he left! Wow! We are amazing!!!!
