STACY

We had a few requests for pictures of Stacy. Some friends of ours haven't seen her for a while and want to see how she is looking during her pregnancy.

These photos were taken on Mothers day. Stacy and the bishop's wife were the only two women with corsages at church. Stacy's corsage was much prettier. I am the BEST husband.
The dress hides the true grandeur of the belly, but I promise, it's in there. And it's gotten bigger.

With as much 'fun' as we have had with this pregnancy, Stacy is actually doing very well. Just like in school, she gets perfect scores on all of her tests and is the perfect Dr.'s pet. Something to do with bringing an apple to the appointments.

Sunday Dinner

I remember having waffles for Sunday dinner sometimes growing up. This treat wasn't very often because cooking waffles for seven hungry kids was a challenge I'm sure my parents weren't up to every weekend. Even more rare than waffles for dinner was the addition of a slice of ice cream on top of the last waffle or pancake.

Alayna really liked her dinner!!

Since changing to a gluten free diet we have found that waffles are a great food to have around. We cook a double batch of waffles almost weekly and freeze the excess to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Alayna the rest of the week. I'll admit that I really like eating a waffle sandwich myself. Those crevices really hold the jelly.

Last Sunday I decided to teach Alayna about the joys of eating a bit of ice cream on top of a waffle. There is just something so tasty when the icecream melts into a hot waffle.

There is a waffle under all of that, I promise. This particular waffle is topped with Chocolate Trinity ice cream. It's an indulgent chocolate ice cream with a ribbon of chocolate fudge and chocolate cups filled with chocolate truffle. On top of the ice cream is whipped cream and on top of that is a butterscotch caramel topping. The only thing missing is a cherry, and pralines, and . . .

Why Alayna IS Sleeping Beauty

For her third birthday (belated, because Stacy's pregnancy kept us home bound for a while) Great Grandpa and Grandma Onines gave Alayna a real Disney princess crown. This gift was, and still is, a HIT. It comes with a magic wand. Using the primary colors, Alayna can change the color on the wand and presses a button that transmits a signal to the crown. The wand and crown flash white with a chime and changes the color of her crown jewel to match the wand. Each color is assigned a Princess; Snow White red, Sleeping Beauty pink, Jasmin purple, Cinderella blue, Ariel green, Belle yellow, and princess orange.

Alayna plays "Sleeping Beauty" with her best friend, Alex. She lays down, with a flower in her hands, and pretends to sleep. Alex gives her a kiss on the check and she wakes up. This is one of the reasons he invited his princess to see the castle with him for his third birthday.Alayna likes to run up to one of us and grab our hands saying, "I am Sleeping Beauty, dance with me." She will proceed to dance and sing the song from Sleeping Beauty's dance with her Prince with modified lyrics:

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream.
I know you, believe in your eyes is a miracle, a dream.

And repeat, again and again.

Plecia americana/nearctica (Lovebugs)

Twice a year, residents of Florida are treated to the Love Bug season. In the spring we are invaded by P. americana, and in the fall by the P. nearctica variety. From all the old timers I've been able to talk to (I think I know four native Floridians), this is the worst Love Bug season yet.

Normally, the love bugs are quiet little larvae found in marshy bogs eating and decomposing what ever bits and pieces they come across. But when they mature and grow wings, they start to think of things amorous. The love bugs must find each other rather offensive because their mating habits are such that they face away from each other. I have only seen a couple of love bugs that are not attached to another. When they are stuck together, as seen in the picture above, the larger bug is the female and the smaller is the male. They fly in this formation, at the whim of the female, up to 400 meters in the air, but are primarily found along the roads and on automobile grilles.

This is a stock photo that really doesn't do justice to the amount of insect devastation that can occur on a simple drive through town. Love bugs have been known to clog radiators to the point of failure and completely obscuring vision through the windshield.

Because the little buggers are acidic, if left on the car paint too long, they will etch the finish. This means that my delivery drivers spend a good deal of this time of year cleaning their vans. There are a lot of old wives tales that deal with how to clean these pests from your vehicle. One of my employees soaks beach towels in hot water and lays them on his van, rotating them each hour for four hours before he scrubs them off. So far, I've been successful in driving fast through the rain to knock off the big lumps and the occasional gas station car wash to finish 'em off.

These pesky nuisances land on the playground equipment that Alayna plays on and get smashed as exhuberent children slide down the slides, adding love bug juice to the dirt and grime on their clothes. Luckily, love bugs are do not poke, bite, or sting. They are fairly benign, unlike the caterpillars.

Letters

We have a tray of salt that Alayna and Stacy play in. The game is based on the Montessori idea that a child can learn letters thru a more tactile experience. Except Alayna prefers to draw circles. Taking advantage of this predisposition, Stacy began to choose letters that involved a circle beginning with O. Stacy drew the letter and then help Alayna draw her own in the salt. Next they added different lines to O to make other letters, like P and Q. Then some lower case a, b, c and d. Next, Alayna wanted to do an e. Stacy explained it was a c with a - through it. This time, before Stacy could finish her e Alayna drew her own E!


And what letter does one do after E went so well? F, of course. Alayna's is on the right.


After a couple of practices, this is Alayna's T.


And, after a demonstration I in the middle, Alayna had to fit her I in on the right, before the salt was wiped.

Also of note, Alayna is not saying "cheese" for each picture, but the letter she just wrote.

Human Sling Shot

A couple of years ago at one of Stacy's company parties, the festvities were concluded with Stacy's introduction to the human sling shot. At an undisclosed location, in a canyon in Springville, Stacy was willingly tied to a bungee suspended between two telephone poles and shot into the sky. I honestly feel this was the result of spending the whole afternoon at a work party that did not include a drop of alcohol. Crazy Mormons looking for cheap thrills.

I saw this video on the internet and showed it to Stacy. While this is not a video of her, this is a video of what she did and where she did it. This video is currently on the top 100 list at video.google.com. Stacy still claims that she had fun doing this, but I don't think she would ever do it again.

What the video doesn't show is how close to the canyon wall the victim gets. Or how close to the trees. Or the creek. Stacy had much better form reminiscent of Superman.

The "Bird Dress"

Anyone that has talked to Alayna on the phone has heard mention of her bird dress. The description usually continues like this:

"It's blue, with a big bird, he's a flamingo and he's pink, with a flower in his mouth-beak, and it has yellow flowers and white 'cocoa-dots."

And finally, a picture taken today of Alayna, in her bird dress.

Birthday Cake

This blog is a little late, but I just had to brag up the gluten free birthday cake Stacy made for me. Not only did it look like a normal fluffy, yummy cake, it tasted great too. So many of the gluten free foods are "alright" tasting, but this cake was great. The recipe also makes good cupcakes. Alayna got to help build this cake and had a blast. She was so excited about it she almost couldn't wait for dinner time. The cake didn't last long. Leftovers were quickly demolished.

Duck, Duck, Duck. . . .

GOOSE!

Thought we could share a bit of our neighborhood with you. Stacy and Alayna go on walks around the big lake in the middle of the neighborhood almost every morning. The ducks and geese are very friendly to the point of taking bread right out of your hand, whether you are holding bread or not. But they look good from a distance.

Friday Night Backyard Adventure

Friday was quite an eventful day. Stacy started things off with a bang by having shortness of breath and some little contractions. This happened a couple of times with Alayna and Stacy's Dr. made her check in to the hospital for observation and prescribed some muscle relaxants. So we were not in a panic for this trip to the hospital, and I was glad for an excuse to leave work early. The new variable this time is that Stacy has very low blood pressure. So a muscle relaxant would only make her more faint than she already is. Luckily all is well with Stacy and Cavell, no drugs were administered, and Stacy was told to eat a diet higher in salt. Who would have thought?

When we returned home it was time to fulfill a promise I made to Alayna and myself. We set up the tent and had a Daddy/Daughter campout in the backyard. Of course we didn't get a single picture taken of this adventure.

Since we were "roughing" it, we ate bbq bratwurst and oven baked tater tots in the tent while we watched The Incredibles on the laptop with virtual surround sound. The movie was over at about 10pm and Dad and Daughter promptly fell asleep. I woke up repeatedly expecting Alayna to be cold or scared by strange sounds. She slept like a baby until 7am when she woke up and stated, "It's light outside".

We did get some pictures of Friday night, but they had nothing to do with the tent, dinner, or watching the movie. I noticed that my arch nemesis the Southern Black Racer had left me a gift in the form of a skin shed. He is getting huge. I think he is taunting me now.

Click on the above photo to zoom in and see the snake skin. I drew a line highlighting the length of the skin. Below is the skin against a piece of cardboard. It's nearly 5' long.

The next three photos are of a poisonous Coral snake Stacy spotted in the backyard while we were setting up our backyard adventure. He is small, maybe about 18" long. He is very brightly colored. I stepped on his head and held him to the ground while Stacy retrieved the shovel from the shed. Stacy took a little longer to get the shovel than I expected and this little varmint started climbing his tail up my leg. I was afraid to lose control of his head so I just stood there with a poisonous snake trying to wrap itself around my ankles. Kind of icky.

According to what I have read about the Coral Snake it is nocturnal and rarely seen. This is the second snake I have dispatched in my own yard during daylight hours. Maybe I'll think twice about the next backyard campout.

Another threat to the safety of my little kingdom has been vanquished. Thor named his hammer Mjolnir meaning Crusher or Destroyer. Maybe I should name my mighty shovel?