Down on the Farm part 2: More Pictures

I couldn't get all the pictures to load on the previous entry, so here are two more.

Down on the Farm

Last week, our family went t'calling on Beth and her husband, Don. My husband Larry works with Beth, and she and Don have a idyllic little farm in TheMiddleofNowhere, West Virginia.

I kid you not. Not EdgeofNowhere where there would be something, at least, on the edge where you can approach it from behind--but in the middle--no shortcuts. Two weeks from everywhere, it seemed like.

But it was worth the trip. On the way there, we saw herds of deer, a wild turkey, and some baby turkeys (which are called poults, by the way) by the roadside.

Beth and Don have horses and rabbits and dogs, and there were cats that Eleri was able to pick up and cart around like floppy, furry rag dolls that purred. The kids giggled and ran--and ran, and ran. And ran. Emmory tried to pick flowers, which is pretty good for an almost-seven-month-old. Ethan and Eleri fed carrots to the horses and even got to ride one of them.

Larry got into the spirit and rode a four-wheeler for the first time. Although he was going so slow that I started to call him "Hoveround," after those electric scooters some elderly people use to get around. (Seriously, I was glad he wasn't hot-dogging.)

Beth and Don's farm made us fantasize for a few hours that we had a farm like that. Until we realized that we would actually have to live on farmer's hours! To their credit, Beth and Don make it look easy. We had a fabulously wonderful and memorable time.

Enjoy the pictures, folks!

Next time, I promise to have something a little more, er, writerly. Maybe.

The Superhero Blues

We have a superhero residing at our house.

Ethan is in superhero mode almost all the time. Even the most mundane of items has an “action” aspect to it. His “action fork and spoon,” with “food-shoveling action,” helps him to acquire his energy to fight crime. (We are thankful that he considers grape tomatoes his secret energy weapon—much the same way Popeye feels about his spinach.)

The other day, he held his Rescue Heroes underwear proudly above his head and now-naked body and shouted, “Hey! I can use my underwear like a parachute!” as he jumped off the bed. Thankfully, only his pride was hurt when he didn’t loft to the floor. I’m hoping he keeps his test flights close to the ground and will never consider scaling to the roof to test his cape’s ability to give him hang-time.

Another morning around 3 AM, he strode into our bedroom wearing only his Batman mask, underwear, and a glove. “Mom, Dad—I can’t get my other glove on. Will you help me?” We held in our giggles long enough to tell him that even superheroes need to sleep. (Not to mention his parents.)

Yesterday, though, our little super guy was discouraged. “Mom, I’m sad. I don’t really have any superhero powers.” He acted as if he were confessing to a dark secret in his life.

“Oh yes, you do,” I replied.

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do,” I insisted. “You do have at least one super power. You have the power to make me smile!”

Ethan still doesn’t think that is much of a super power, but I surely do.

Indeed.

Aren't They Adorable?

For the benefit of family (who are always interested) and the benefit of friends (who sometimes are), here are a few pictures of the kiddos.

A Beautiful Gift Plucked from the Ashes

There are some wonderful Geek members on AbsoluteWrite. Everyone has stopped waiting for the database to the message boards to be returned, and the mods and techies are slowly rebuilding the site from scratch.

Some of the more tech-inclined have been haunting the internet, sifting through the ruins in Google cache to find bits here and there. They've been putting it all into a big pile, and it will still take time to sort it all out. There is a great hope that some of it will be recovered and useful, but it's like someone committed an act of arson to the forum.

Today in the chat room, I was lamenting about the loss of the first thread I started. I was pregnant with Emmory when I began it, and it was a request for help in picking a name. I got the most wonderful help, and I got the most hilarious responses from the AbsoluteWrite members. Someone had suggested to me that I print out the thread and save it for my daughter's baby book. I figured I'd get around to it sometime.

But no one ever knows when a fire will hit.

I figured it was lost for good. After all, it was just a piece of momentary amusement for everyone but me. But Tori, known as Tjwriter on the boards, is a mom, too. And she searched like a bloodhound for the pieces left on the internet. She knew what it would mean to me to have it back.

She found it all. She even remembered the name of the thread when I didn't.

I've printed off the thread, and thanks to Tori, it is now in Emmory's baby book.

I feel like she went sifting through the ashes of AbsoluteWrite to find my heirloom China plate with the roses on it.

Thank you, Tori. Bless you. Chatting with you has been a great gift--I'm glad to be getting to know you.