A Plea from Emery

Hello, World . . .

Could somebody please

Find my sister

A good orthodontist???

Pestilence

The Victim

"They have four blondes and two brunettes,"

Said one louse to another.

"You'll place forty nits on one,

And I'll plant one on their mother."

They schemed and plotted, and then they trotted

To the Matthews' house next morn.

And this is how the pestilence

Of Sunday past was born.

Then creepy, crawly (by gosh, by golly),

The lice infested the head of Raleigh!

She stood before the lengthy mirror

As Mom combed through her hair.

"You have a bug upon your head.

Oh no! There's more, I swear!"

One, two, three, and four.

Not one less, and not one more.

Then off to the CVS Pharmacy,

Dionne's shining prince did trod.

To break the Sabbath with pesticide

For hair. (It's rather odd.)

Scrub and suds. Investigate

The Hair for further nits.

(Without a magnifying glass

We were quite beyond our wits.)

From half past two 'til half past six

Under light of lamp,

Dallas picked through Raleigh's hair.

Oh, isn't he a champ??

Each girl with long blonde hair (plus Dal)

Was subsequently checked.

ONE nit was found in mother's hair,

Oh, what-the . . . ? What-the-heck?

"That was a 'louse-y' day," we said,

To the lifeless, dirty lice.

What a way to spend our day!

(But the family time was nice.)

The letter going 'round third grade

To warn us of the chance

Of catching a school-wide pestilence

Received no second glance.

But when we saw the indication

In poor Miss Raleigh's hair,

The recollection of the letter

Did make us stop and stare.

"Could they really come invade our space?"

We ponder each new day.

Just clean and clean and fumigate

And hope they'll stay away!

The Ar-TISTE (French Accent)

It was a regular, rainy day, and Miss Kensington-Pie was hard at work making tiny drawings on pieces of scrap paper by the window. She was also playing with a tiny matchbox car.

So I drew her two tiny pictures of a prince and a princess, folded them at the waist, and put them in the car as passengers.

A few minutes later, I saw this:

Her own version of my princess. (Don't get confused - hers is on the left!) I cut it out for her. And then when she was finished playing with it, I kept it! Can you believe this girl?!

She's our little artist!

Doing Homework Upside-Down So My Baby Sister Can See

Miss Grouchy Pants

Some days I equate a clean house with feeling appreciated. "I have spent my day making the house shine, and when all of you people keep it that way, I feel like you care," I say subconsciously to myself. So when evening rolled around, and my shining cottage had turned into the county dump, I was a little . . . er . . . grouchy.

I had tempting thoughts like, "If I stopped doing what I do, maybe they'd APPRECIATE ME MORE around this place," and, "If I just act mad, they'll jump up and start cleaning up clutter!" I tried both for a few minutes, and neither worked. Darn my girly emotions sometimes!!

The worst mess was in the girls' (a.k.a. Raleigh and Madeline's) closet. There were mini-mountains of papers. Some were folded, some were crumpled, and some lay strewn about the floor, seeping out the door. Yuck! I told myself that I would not touch their stinkin' mess.

Yet in the morning when I walked past the ruins that used to be their bedroom, I decided to at least go in there and get everything off of the floor. Which I did. And then I proceeded to the closet with a trash bag (because let's face it - most of their treasures are really trash, and the best time to purge is when they are at school and know nothing about it.)

Here is just a fraction of what I, Miss Grouchy Pants, found:

Dear Raleigh,

If we make up our own club, we should make a art club. We should let anyone come in.

Love, Madeline

Dear Madeline,

I hope you feel better. Here are some suggestions if you don't feel well.

1. Read the Friend

2. Read the scriptures.

3. Sing songs out of your hymn book.

I know one of them will work.

Love, Raleigh

Dear Raleigh,

I love how you are so nice to me.

Love, Madeline

(Sharing Barbies)

A note to Kensington from Raleigh:

Hello, How are you today? Would you like a glass of milk?

I love you, Raleigh. You are so fun to play with. I love how you teach me how to build LEGO houses. Have a good day!

Love, Madeline

Madeline and Dallas,

Don't forget gymnastics starts on Monday!

(from Raleigh, who wants to teach gymnastics to anyone who will take lessons from someone who has never had a lesson)

Raleigh made a gymnastics class schedule for the family. You can see what days we are scheduled for and what we'll be learning.

Dear Madeline,

We love you and hope you get your chores done.

Mom, Dad, Raleigh, Choobs

(Raleigh)

Please come to our play this coming Saturday at the Matthews' house. Refreshments afterwards. The play is called Peace Out on Pie.

(Raleigh)

Dear Raleigh,

I hope you have a good day at church.

(Madeline)

After sifting through the "garbage," Miss Grouchy Pants became Miss Emotional and Miss Repentant Pants, and now their treasures are in safe-keeping, right where they belong.

P.S.- If anyone wants to know what to get these girls for Christmas, a ream of paper will do.

OktoberFest

We've had such a great October! New job, fun times with family and friends, and more adjustment with our new little baby. Here she is, dressed up with us at a Halloween party we went to. (You might not be able to find her; she's incognito. But here's a hint: she's a "Super Baby." I couldn't find our newborn-size bear costume, so I rigged this costume up before we left. Not bad . . . .)

The rest of us are b-o-r-i-n-g because we wore last year's costumes! But hey, they still fit us, and I wasn't about to make six new costumes this year after just giving birth.

Making WITCHES BREW! It had real gross stuff in it, and it smoked!

Raleigh, spreading some witchiness, wearing her new (fake) glasses.

Madeline and Co. with their loot.

North Georgia in the Fall is absolutely THE BEST! It's similar to being in the mountains with all of the hills and trees and changing colors. Our church had a Trunk 'R Treat at a Christmas Tree Farm owned by someone in our Stake. It was the perfect setting, the perfect temperature (with just the right amount of "crisp"-ness in the air), and it smelled like chili!! (Because we had a Chili Cookoff for dinner. And I am happy to report that I am the proud new owner of a golden pumpkin because my chili placed high honors as being the "Most Unique." Ha ha ha! It really was good, actually - a White Chicken Chili with Tomato Garnish.)

Here are some little witches who were haunting the party:

Choo Choo and Madeline

Don't be scared to come to our trunk! These scary ladies give out candy if you knock on the door of the makeshift haunted house! We made this house last year and recycled it again this year, too. We put Christmas tree lights behind the window-cutouts to make the whole thing glow, and the girls take turns sitting behind the door to hand out candy. They like this part more than going around to get candy - I think we have a tradition on our hands!

The hayride.

Madeline takes a turn.

Now notice the difference between the next two pictures . . .

I had to tell two certain witches to stand up like normal and quit posing. Can you guess which ones they were?

C'mon, guess. These are our "theatrical ones."

Now this next picture is really scary, so be careful. This was taken under the ghost in Butch's front yard on Halloween Eve. There are a couple boys missing in this picture (Dallas and Dade.) We always have a fun time with those Purd's!!

And here's my favorite picture of October:

Childhood is just magical, isn't it?

Pictures to come of Dade and Emerson in their Halloween costumes . . . the cutest cousins in Peachtree City!!