the adventures are growing...
cassie has now pooped in the bathtub 3, THREE times in the last month. wyatt is on patrol now when we get in the tub and this evening it was a good thing. i'm reading the paper, sitting next to the tub when i hear him say, "oh yeah! cassie's poopin'!" i look over and sure enough, there's globs of poop in the tub under her naked tush. this time was more stinky than gross, so i'm thankful for that. tom and i clean them off, i clean the tub and tom heads off to a meeting while the kids play together. while i'm doing the dishes from dinner i let the toys soak in the sanitized tub with some soap, hoping to salvage our last remaining bath toys. but as i'm rinsing the pan in the kitchen i hear some laughter and then wyatt's broken exclamation, "cassie..." but he trails off and as i rush down the hall i hear a panicked cry from cass. there she is, laying on her back in her pajamas in the tub filled with about two inches of soapy water. awesome. as if cleaning the tub of poop wasn't enough adventure for the evening now i have a fully clothed sudsy daughter. i tell wyatt to "go to your room" (as i was saying it i thought, i can't believe i'm saying this. i guess it was a minor punishment for misleading his little sister to think that playing in the bathroom was alright) and strip her down. she is not thrilled about the impromptu bath in the kitchen sink but i have to make sure there's no soap in her eyes or hair before i put her to bed, as a sort of punishment for climbing in the tub. i think it was more of a relief for her; she no longer had to make decisions on what was smart and what was fun.

is this how it will always be, the two of them together but cassie always pushing the envelope a little more than wyatt? i'm hoping his level-headedness will even out her thrill-seeking. and vice-versa.

and in other bathroom news, i asked wyatt to help me out when i was using the bathroom tonight. all i needed was a few squares of t.p. since tom didn't replace the back-up roll and i used the remaining toilet paper to clean the smears of poop off the tub. this is what i got:

but in cute and clean news, here's wyatt with his arranged-marriage wife, mira jane mcinnes. we're hoping jack and stephanie will stick with the verbal contract we made while mira was still in the womb because this girl came out cuter than any newborn has a right to be. i mean, c'mon, when they're that little they aren't the most attractive creatures. but she was, and is, the cutest little redhead we know. wyatt even talked about stephanie tonight, and asked about "that guy." i can only assume he meant jack. tonight after we prayed for pop wyatt asked me if he could see a pancreas. it took five minutes for me to figure out what he was saying, since it orignally sounded like "pan-is-sus" but i finally figured it out. this is what i plan on showing him. i think it would be more helpful if it was animated, but we'll take what we can get.

we're keeping pop in our prayers, trusting that the surgeon will be guided by Divine hands and that at least half of mike's pancreas will be cancer free and healthy. we're believing that the heart attack last summer was a gift from God to lead the doctors to this problem and that it will be all His glory when pop is able to retire healthy and happy. we love you, pop!

the harvest is coming. these are the first of many 'sweet 100's', aka cherry tomatoes. tom and i enjoyed them, short lived as it was. i'm believing there will be a bountiful crop this summer.

the peppers are another story. my neighbor karen told me when they grew peppers it took longer for them to show up, more of a fall food. i'm encouraged by this news because i go out every day and see my tomatoes and cucumbers growing at warp speed and then the peppers do nothing. even the zucchini are producing more flowers and i think i have two actually growing. she said once the zucchini with those giant leaves start growing they'll really take off.

there's something invigorating about growing food. it puts you in touch with the Lord's design, because i'm not really doing anything. if it doesn't rain every couple of days (which it usually does) then i water them myself. i've fertilized them with 'fish poop' and weeded out the unwanted. other than that God makes the sun shine at the right times and makes the soil healthy. the bugs haven't even been a big trouble, i just spray a little soapy water on the leaves and it seems to keeps them away for a while. i spot a few spiders and ladybugs in the garden and thank God that he's bringing these guys around.

whenever i go out there and see something growing bigger or getting redder i get a little thrill. it's like when wyatt started singing "twinkle twinkle" or cassie started saying "please." it makes me feel like i'm doing something right. and then i get to eat the accomplishment, which is really what i want to do with my kids, but there's a word for that: cannibalism. so i'll slice up my cucumbers and tomatoes and watch the kids run around, instead. it's a good compromise.

wyatt and cass had a hard time posing for their photo shoot, but you get the picture...haha. the boots are too big for cass, and the camo shoes are getting too small for wyatt, but the shirts fit just right. thanks maasen, you rock! hahaha, i am so punny.
i like to think this could run as an advertisement. pretty cassidy and pensive wyatt.