Tonight we all sat down to watch a ridiculously stupid movie that was cartoon-ish in it’s absurdity. In one scene a woman is in her car lighting a cigarette when another car crashes into her car’s rear. The airbag deploys, causing a fire and a small explosion, and in the next scene we see the woman covered in soot and her hair plastered back. This is when Katherine yells out in an exaggerated manner, “Now THAT is why you shouldn’t smoke!”

Little A has a few funny phases that he is constantly saying. Touch his head and he yells, “Ow, my brain!” Make him do anything unpleasant and he yells, “It burns, it burns! Help, it burns!” This is of course a favorite when we are in public causing everyone to stop and stare wondering what the hell we are doing to the poor child. Most of the time we find it rather humorous because it is just so absurd. We say, “A, we have to shut off the TV now.” He replies, “It burns, it burns, help, it burns!” Today we took all the kids to the Rock and Mineral show for rockhounders. Yes, we took all six kids out to a show voluntarily. Insane? Possibly. The show was great and the kids all got great rocks to take home. They all got a geode and some chose to have it cut open, they mined for all kinds of neat gems, and enjoyed looking at the amazing and colorful creations of nature. We needed to take everyone to the restroom and in the hallway outside of the restroom A decided to do some yelling including “it burns” and “Ow, my arm.” We attracted quite a crowd and some just couldn’t stop staring. Gary looked right at our spectators and said, “it doesn’t burn anymore!” I wanted to explain to everyone that he is okay, he is yelling these things because it attracts attention so please stop giving it to him, but that would have attracted even more attention, so we just left.
Yesterday while taking pizza out of the oven I burned the heck out of my arm. I was in excruciating pain and sent Gary out into the neighborhood in search of relief. He came back with lavender oil and aloe with instruction to apply the oil first, then the aloe, then put ice back on. To my surprise it offered immediate relief and by the time I went to bed I was able to do so with out the ice pack. When I woke up this morning a quarter sized section of my skin sloshed of causing more pain, but it was generally okay if I didn’t touch it. Fast forward to this afternoon. Shortly after leaving the rock show due to A’s outburst we are walking into another store. I have Matthew on my hip and with my other hand I am holding onto A. I literally have my hands full. At this point Matthew starts to rub my burn mark. I am again in excruciating pain, and the only thing I can get out is, “AHHH, my burn! My burn!” Gary does nothing to help me. He just looks at me quizzically. I yell again, “Help, help, my burn!” Finally Matthew catches on and stops rubbing just as Gary realizes that I was actually asking for help because I was in pain. He said he first thought that I was trying to be funny, but I wasn’t smiling. I looked completely serious, and he was beginning to think that I had actually cracked under the pressure of having all these kids. I thought that was just about the funniest thing I had ever heard, so before long, still in the parking lot with all six kids the two of us were roaring with laughter, and attracting just as much attention as Mr. A with his outburst earlier. The laughter was so wonderful. What a circus our family is. I love it!