.::Cute little Kitty::.

OK I'm back! I've had a lot of school stuff going on that's been keeping me from doing much fun blogging, but something happened a few weeks ago that I've been meaning to post here, so here you go.
There was a nice warmish day a few weeks ago--(maybe a month or two ago, I don't know.) It was so nice we all went on a walk together to combat the cabin fever.. The three of us people and our humongous hairy monster of a Sultan dog.

See? He's big.
So we were walking along the path at the park, and a lady with a really tiny little wimpy dog came walking from the other direction. She got up next to us and Max said,
"Oh look! It's a cat!" He was very delighted to see a cat being walked in the park on a leash.

It was funny to have to explain to him that it was actually a dog. He was slightly confused. And how could he not be, with the manliness of Sultan being his definition of DOG?

See, he's manly and huge. Look out all you cats on leashes, we're coming to get you.

As soon as everyone gets untangled, that is...

::ARGENTINA?!?::

Murphy is going to Buenos Aires, Argentina on his church mission!! (For those of you that may be unfamiliar with our church missions please see the end of this post)
He leaves in June. We're so proud of him and excited for him! The best part is that I should be in Utah when he leaves. I'm so glad about that.
I don't know anything about Argentina really, and certainly nothing about Buenos Aires, so I thought I'd turn to flickr to try to get an idea for what he could expect to see. Here are a few of my favorite images, courtesy of different flickrites.
visit this photo's site for more info here. Gorgeous, isn't it?
The colors of some of the buildings are so beautiful!
This was only one of the many--to see some more vivid shots look here or here. I love it!!
The countryside looks gorgeous.

This photo's page is here.

It appears that people tend to break into spontaneous tangos in the street.
A lot.
There's loads of cool architecture such as this bridge:
Wow! And for more click here.
Well Murphy, all I can say is take your camera with you! It looks like a beautiful place.

**Our church sends willing young 19 year old men (and women who are 21) on a two year mission where they proselytize and teach. They try to find people to join the church and serve and teach existing members. They're sent all over the world. It's a wonderful program, both for the church and for the missionaries. If you have more questions don't hesitate to ask about it.

Congratulations Elder Randle!!

.:.:Might Actually Happen:.:.

Kris and I went yesterday and paid $100 bucks for the privilege of graduating from UMKC.
Well I guess the money was actually for the privilege of being able to wear goofy outfits and walk across some stage somewhere.
I now am a proud owner of a graduation outfit, color: drab. Couldn't they come up with a better color for us business people? I think it's rude.
Kris only gets to rent his "regalia".
So it was brought home to me after we walked out of the school's bookstore, cap and gown in hand, that we might actually for real graduate. It might actually happen. And I'm sorry, but that's blowing my mind a little bit.
It's totally insane.
Now I just have to try to concentrate for long enough on my school work to get it done, so I actually can graduate!!

Yesterday was a really beautiful day out here, and today's shaping up to possibly be nicer. It's so nice to have a break from the winter weather. Just the idea of spring brings so much optimism with it, at least to me. There's light in the house and everything smells better.
And although I'm not a fan of having to wake up an hour earlier, and I'm still trying to adjust to it, having more light has been so nice! I feel like I'm actually alive during the daytime for the first time in months.
So yesterday I walked by a little flower shop that had tulips for sale, and couldn't resist. I went in and got myself a bunch. I have to share them with you because they're so incredibly pretty.

They make me happy. Happy wednesday to everybody. Happy March. We're all going to make it.
Oh, and my youngest brother Murphy is going to be opening his mission call tonight, I'm so excited to see where he's going to be headed! I'll keep you posted.

::Sicky::

As you know, poor little Max has been sick for the last few days. He's started to feel better on saturday and sunday, but now seems to have had some sort of relapse. It's sad! He hasn't been this sick for a while.
I have mixed feelings about him being sick. Of course I don't want him to feel ill and terrible and to be hurt, but man when he's sick with a fever or something he is SO snuggly. I love that he just lets me hang onto him. It's pretty relaxing. Well, it would be if he wasn't so hot that he burned my lap after sitting on it for 10 minutes.
The first day he was sick, thursday, he was like that. Just really cuddly, tired and sweet. He even said he needed his bed in the afternoon and went straight to sleep when I put him in it.
You may remember this picture from a few days ago. I'm putting it back up here because I think it's so adorable.

Poor little cute snoozer. The best part about this picture is that you can't smell him. OK, that was probably too much information, but it's true, he was a little stinky.
Here he is thursday morning, resting in his chair.

Here he is taking a much protested "nap" on his bed.

yes, he's on his bed, AND in a tent. That's another story for another day.
Anyway, when we got sick when we were little my mom would often make "sick eggs" for us to eat. Ok, it sounds gross now that I'm writing the name down, but it's supposed to mean eggs for when you're sick, not gross eggs.
They consisted of a couple of warm hard boiled eggs sliced up with a little bit of butter and salt and pepper mixed in. To a sick little one it was like heaven.
So I made Max some sick eggs. He appreciated them quite a bit. He was an instant fan.

Have somebody you love make these for you the next time you're sick. I tell you, they're like magic.
So Friday morning we thought he was doing better, although he still wasn't 100% himself by any means.
Max was lying on the couch when Kris left for school. About two minutes after Kris walked out of the door he puked all over everything. Nice timing, huh?
So he earned himself a bath, which took care of the stinkiness I alluded to earlier.
After that he thought he was back to normal, but when I came into the room and found him lying on the floor on top of his sock monkey blanket I knew better.

Here he is trying to pretend he's not the palest thing that ever walked the face of the earth. He didn't fool me. Notice the towel on the couch, strategically placed to catch anything nasty. The couch cushions had to spend some time airing out...yick.

After the cute sweet snuggly sick stage comes the horrible cranky cranky whiny sick stage. This is where he thinks he's well enough to do stuff, but everything he does either hurts him or makes him mad and frustrated. This stage makes up for all the pleasantness in the first stage and is what keeps me from wishing he was sick more often!
Here are some examples of this from sunday:





See what I mean? It's no fun for anybody. This was even after he'd taken a nap.
Today we thought he was feeling better and so he went to school, but when I went to pick him up he was all warm and feverish and looking smushed. So he's doing a little bit more recuperation. Wish us luck getting him better. I know we can do it.
We'll have more happy photos to post here before you know it.

.:.:Strange:.:.

Look at what I was handed this morning when I walked into my first church meeting.

Do you see what I see there?
Why yes, it IS my brother looking out at me from this flyer. Sorry but that is so weird. I almost didn't look at it after I got it, and was about to put it into my bag when I somehow spied Cammon grinning at me from it.
Maybe my inattention can be blamed on the fact that I had to get up today at 5:30 to make it to a ward council meeting. And do keep in mind that with daylight savings that was actually more like 4:30!!
Just in case there's somebody out there that can't pick him out:

Has anybody else gotten this? Does Cammon have any idea he's being handed out all over the country--oh wait maybe all over the world?

I personally think it would've been better like this:

But nobody asked me. Unfortunately.

Mom, you're good to say I'm good!

Mom, you’re good to say I’m good!
Ever since I can remember my dad has always been keen to correct my mom’s unfortunate “Utah” grammar. Well, today I was doing a little reading on the internet and stumbled across some information my mom could have used a long time ago.
According to Grammar Girl at grammar.quickanddirtytips.com it is perfectly acceptable respond “I’m good,” to the question “how are you?” In fact, it might be more appropriate to say “I’m good” rather than “I’m well.”
Since you’re not likely to want to read the whole article I’ll give you the gist of it right here. The classic argument goes: well is an adverb, while good is an adjective. Adverbs modify verbs and adjectives modify nouns. Since am (to be) is a verb it would seem that it must be modified with an adverb and could not be correctly modified with an adjective.

Grammar Girl points out that there are different kinds of verbs: action verbs and linking verbs. Action verbs are words like run, jump, walk, talk, etc. Adverbs modify these verbs. Here’s an example: Sultan runs well, or Max jumps well. Linking verbs on the other hand, are used to link other words together. Examples of these are seem, to be, look, etc.
The difficult part is that some verbs can be both action verbs and linking verbs. Grammer Girl uses the example of feel. In the sentence He feels bad, feel is acting as a linking verb. (she says that you can replace the verb with to be you can see if it’s a linking verb) In the sentence He feels badly, feel is acting as a action verb.

Now here’s the kicker. Adjectives are commonly and correctly used after linking verbs. In such a case the adjective is referred to as a predicate adjective which refers back to the noun before the linking verb. In the sentence He feels bad, bad is the predicate adjective referring back to describe He.

Using this information on grammar we can see that it is grammatically correct to say “I am good.”

Another confusing point is that well can be both an adverb and a predicate adjective. Grammar Girl says that historically, well is used as a predicate adjective to refer to one’s health. For example if you’re asking about how Max is--he’s been sick for the past few days--it would be appropriate to say “he is well” Conversely, it wouldn’t be as appropriate for me to say “he is good” in this instance.

The lesson I take from this is that when referring to health, well is most appropriate and when referring to general state of being the best choice would actually be good. So Mom, all I can say is that next time someone give you a hard time for saying "I’m good", tell them that Grammar Girl has your back--at all times.

And yes, Max has been quite ill. We hope that he gets WELL soon.

::Friends?::

In this picture they certainly look like friends, don't they?
In reality between boy and dog there's a pretty healthy case of what I like to call sibling rivalry.
Max will sometimes get upset if Sultan comes in his room when we're reading bedtime stories.
He's also had a really hard time forgetting the few times that Sultan has "borrowed" some of his food, like the last time he put his cheeseburger down. That hasn't gone over well.
Max likes to boss Sultan. In fact he loves to boss Sultan. He issues commands, sometimes in german or russian as well as english. But no matter the language it does no good. Sultan completely ignores him. Basically that's how Sultan deals with Max. The few times Max actually tries to play with Sultan he's ignored (probably because he "plays" by bopping Sultan with stuff, and annoying him as much as possible)
I did get Max to help me brush Sultan the other day, but it took some work to get him to be gentle. It's really funny. I don't know why they're that way with each other. I really expect them to like each other.
I'm thinking that when Max gets a little older their relationship will change. I guess we'll see.
It was funny last night, Sultan went on a ride in the car with us. When we got home instead of running up to the porch as he's been trained he took off down the street and Kris had to go get him. Max was very upset, and took a lot of relish in commanding Sultan to go into the basement for "time out." He told me later it was bad Sultan ran away because he could get lost. I'm just glad he remembers one thing I've told him.
He probably only remembers that because on Sunday after sacrament meeting and unbeknownst to me went up to the stand to do something mischievous. As a result of this I was running around the church for about 10 minutes trying to find him and of course ultimately ended up freaking out. I had all the ladies in the ward looking for him.
I was very glad to find him, but rather ANNOYED to have been put in that situation--and of course embarrassed that I had told everyone about it.
Oh well. So anyway, do you think that Max and Sultan will ever be friends?

.:.:Tennis:.:.

I've been swamped with work and school and so haven't gotten to post as often or as much as I'd like. Sad yes, but oh well.
This is important though, so I made time for it.
Max got tennis lessons for his birthday from Kris's parents. He LOVES them. He was so excited the first week of the lessons that he could hardly stand it. The court is indoor and it's set up so that parents can sit outside in a hall area and watch what's going on through some windows. It's so funny to watch the little kids in the class. The class is for 3 and 4 yr olds I think. I'll have to take some video next time to post because it's pretty much impossible to describe in words how funny it is to watch a little kid try to hit a big tennis ball of a tee, but miss it and spin himself around instead.

Max is doing really well in class. He seems to follow directions pretty well, he can throw the ball and sometimes even catch.

I think though, that the best thing he's bringing to the table is his enthusiasm. He can hardly hold it in. He's leaping and jumping in joy all over the court.
Who would've thought the guy would like tennis? It's so funny.

I think I'll try to get him into some other sports this summer. It would be funny if he ended up being a sporty kind of guy since neither Kris nor I ever were, but it would be great!

Here he is with his teacher. What a patient lady to teach a bunch of squirrely kids how to play tennis!
Kris and I are taking a class right now as well--beginning adult tennis, and it's surprisingly difficult! There are all sort of crazy hand positions and stuff like that to learn. We're enjoying it. Hopefully we can get to the point that we can play with each other a bit. And if Max could play that would only make it more fun!
We're proud of him--what a big boy!

::Calamari or Katamari??::

Here's Max eating a piece of Calamari at a restaurant this evening. I think maybe he only ate it because he thought it was Katamari.
Later when Kris and I were talking about how Calamari was spelled Max insisted that I was saying it wrong and it was KATamari.
I'm just surprised he ate it at all.