Marriage Survey

Tonight I interviewed Ian, Grace, and Emma with a survey I got from online that asked kids questions about marriage. The answers the three cousins gave were so funny...I had to post them.

Here goes. (I wrote down exactly what they said...)

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
(1) You first like hang out with them a little bit and like see how they are. If you know if you like them or not then you'll know. And then you'll get married and then you'll live happily ever after.
- Ian
(2) You figure out if they're nice or not and if you like them and how they are and if they're going to change on you or anything. And then you get married.
- Grace
3) I'm not doing it.
- Emma
WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
(1) I'm not doing it.
- Emma

(2) Ummm (giggles)....about 20 something.
- Grace,

3) Uh, like 28, 29, or 30.
- Ian

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
1) Ummmm, they're hanging out face to face.
- Grace

2) They're holding hands and kissing.
-Ian
3) They have rings.
- Emma
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
(1) Uh....cuz we're all family.
- Emma
2) Ummm, they're both light sleepers. When you touch them and they're sleeping they wake up. They both brush their teeth every morning. They both share the same bed. Do all people do that when they get married?
-Grace
3) Uh, they both are funny and cute and nice and they treat me good.
--Ian
WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
(1) They share their food and they talk about theirselves
- Ian
(2) They get their food with a fork and shove it in the other person's mouth. And then they eat dessert and then after that they drive back and talk about how they like each other. And that's about it.
- Grace
3) They would share food.
-Emma
WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?
(1) I would just like start over. Like, "No no no, wait!"
-Ian
2) Umm, I would just say, "No, stop talking! I don't like you anymore! Please...go away!"
Grace
3) I would do nothing. Just walk away.
Emma
WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
(1) Uh, right now. (Plants one on her mom.)
- Emma
(2) When you're the age. About when you start dating. (Ian inserts..."Well....I'm dating, so I'm in luck.")
- Grace
(3) When you really like them and they like you back. But only on the cheek or something. Maybe on the forehead. It's not OK until teenager age to kiss on the lips.

- Ian
IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
(1) I'm not doing it.
- Emma
2) Married, so you could get babies. And you get an anniversary day!
-Grace
3) Married, because you have someone to spend time with you when you're all lonely.
-Ian
HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
(1) You would have no babies! Sweet little babies! And you'd never have an anniversary day. That stuff would not get invented if people don't get married. Life couldn't run and get more people if you didn't have getting married! That's how it goes!
- Grace
2) It would be different because that you would have no one to enjoy your life with and you wouldn't even be there!

-Ian
3) I'm not sure.
-Emma

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
(1) You have to be kind to that person always and you have to respect what they say and you have to propose nicely and carry them all the way to the limo.
- Ian
2) Silence.
-Emma
3) You would be with someone when they wanted to, and when you had work and they wanted to be with you really bad...CHANGE YOUR SCHEDULE. Always love them and do stuff what they want. And that's about it!

-Grace

The Great Meatball Caper and the Missing Tooth

Two plates of meatballs mysteriously disappeared from the table after dinner last night. I had asked Emma and Grace to please rinse their plates and put them into the dishwasher when they were through eating. The girls didn't like their meatballs, so they left the table (and their meatballs) and ran back to play with cousin Ian.

So.....

Who ate the meatballs?

I checked (and photographed) each dog.

Marty did not eat the meatballs.

Sophie did not eat the meatballs.

Acer did not eat the meatballs.

Guess who ate the meatballs!

Poor, sad, greedy little grub pig Olivia ate ALL of the meatballs. I haven't seen a pug in a more pained and depressed state since Sophie at all of my Christmas chocolate and wound up at the emergency vet. ($$$$) Olivia, who usually follows us from room to room, sulked lethargically under Emma's desk and looked like she wanted to DIE. She threw up numerous times, and we gave her some water which she barely had the energy to drink! She rested her little chin on the water bowl. Later, we lost Olivia again and found her under Grace's bed; she was overcome with misery.

Emma was devastated that she allowed one of her animal friends to suffer, and she also knew I was very upset at the whole thing. She wrote me the sweetest note (To "MoMo"- for some reason she always spells "Mama" wrong) about how sorry she was and how she hoped I would get "unmad" at her.

As if missing meatballs didn't provide enough drama, Miss Gracie lost one of her bottom teeth and then dropped it while playing with it on her bed. The tooth was nowhere to be found! Grace was very concerned that the tooth fairy would not leave her $$$$ if she didn't have the tooth, so she wrote the toothfairy a very concerned letter. :) (Click on either of the girls' letters to make it bigger so that you can read it.)

What can I say? Even though it's summer and we should be relaxed and carefree, there is NEVER a dull moment around here.

A Cousin and Brother Summer

The highlight of our summer so far was Matthew's arrival. My stepson and his family moved to Ohio two years ago, and needless to say, we were long overdue for a visit. The girls were esctatic to see their brother, and they haven't stopped following him around, hanging from his arms, hugging him, asking him questions, and making him watch them dance/read/sing/play/eat/etc.

Matthew is an absolute joy. He has grown up a lot, likes to talk and tell stories, and is very sweet to his sisters and cousins who are competing for his attention. It's going to be very difficult to send him home in a couple of weeks!

We're trying to squeeze as much California fun in as we can before Matthew leaves. We spent Monday-Friday camping right on the beach in Carlsbad. Danielle's family, my family, and my mom all had trailers there, and we had ALL the cousins.

The ages:

Emma and Grace 7, Ian 10, Kelly 11, Megan 13, Harley 15, Matt 17

They were all so adorable. We body boarded all week, roasted smores and brown bears by the campfire, played silly games, rode bikes, ate LOTS of junk and candy, observed the dead sea life that washed up (one sea lion that was torn up and one giant sea turtle with everything intact but the head, which was a skull.) We saw dolphins playing in the waves right in front of us, and used bottles and bottles of sunscreen (and got burned anyway!) The week went by too fast.

Tomorrow, Jeff is taking Matt and Harley to the Van's Warped Tour in Ventura for Matt's graduation present. Matt has a meet and greet with Angels and Airwaves. :) He's very excited. He'll stay the night with Harley in Santa Clarita, and then his Bishop Grandparents (Jeff's mom and Tom) will pick up Harley, Matt, and Kelly for a week in Bishop. They'll camp in June Lake for a couple of the days they're there.

He'll return to Harley's, then back here, then to San Diego to visit his old high school friends, then back here for a couple of days, and then on the plane home. I know I'm going to have two devasted little girls when their big brother leaves. I wish so much that a country didn't divide us! I know Matt's mom is missing him from her end as well. It must be both wonderful AND difficult to have so many people love you so much! Jeff is in 7th Heaven with all of his kids, and I know he's very proud of what a sweet young man Matthew has become (quite unlike the 15 year old Matt from two years ago...) :)

OK...I'm off to make an assembly line of sandwiches. I have NO IDEA how people feed 5 kids. (Plus tonight I'll have two more cousins added to the mix when Megan and Ian come over.) I can't believe how much food we've gone through in just a week! I adore every crazy second of it, though. I think I'm meant for a house full of cousins.

Celebration of Life- PMS

My dad sent the following email and it just CRACKED ME UP. I've added pictures of PMS Kitty, and I am not changing Dad's spelling or grammar.
(By the way, we named the kitty PMS when she transformed from a normal cat to a bipolar attack kitty who will attack at any random moment.)


Dad's Email:

Hi everybody, Well if you didn't here by now our 20 plus year old cat died! So I've decided we should have a celebration of life at the grave site soon. Well maybe everyone should just toast her in your own way privately. She was the only animal I brought home from the famous UTC pet store. Antoinette told me one cold day in February 1988 to bring home a cute little "Sweet Kitty"! Well I thought I did, until she ate my hand one day, hence the name PMS. You could pet, stroke and scratch, listen to her purr then from nowhere she would attack your hand, face, arm in fact she would bite . If you walked to close to her enclosed bed a paw would find you and draw blood sometimes. Yes even guests were warned about getting to close. People would tell me "what the %^*#@ that damn cat just bit me"! The Pugs stayed their distance and even Otties Dalmatian would walk around her. Before her first heat we had her fixed but she went through a false pregnancy and her belly dropped and never returned up. So when she walked she waddled, hence another name "Alien kitty". I once painted a car in my shop in Bishop and forgot she lived in there , when I was finished she meowed and staggered out side totally intoxicated. Her last days she became deaf and would scream meow at us. Well the garage is now clean of all the hair, no more missed cat box stories, the non stop meowing has stopped and we can now stop buying band aids. Funny though I still look for her when I go out to the garage. She was a good pet, I know where's the Kleenex? Later Neil