Marcus and the Tooth Fairy

Dear Dallan, June 28th 2009

Well we have passed the summer solstice and the days are officially getting shorter. But it still is not dark until after 10:00. You may or may not have noticed the change in the length of the days as close as you are to the equator, but I’ll tell you what the birds singing good morning songs right outside my bedroom window at 5 minutes to 4:00am are a mean thing to do to a pregnant woman who has a hard time sleeping in the first place! I will be very grateful for the days when the sun don’t come up until eight!
Marcus has officially passed out of babyhood. Yes, I know he is six and a half , but this week he lost his first tooth. And then the next day lost another one. The tooth fairy of course botched up a visit the first night. And we had to think up a good story about how Marcus, who had slept on the couch, was not in HIS bed and so the Tooth fairy could not find him, and so would find him when he was asleep in the right bed. The Two dollars that appeared beneath Marcus pillow the second night was awesome in his opinion and he hoped that maybe the tooth fairy might have accidentally left his tooth and he could fool the said fairy into another visit. Always thinking it through those kids. Marcus was quite horrified when I told him about my first tooth losing experience and how my Dad had helped me get my first tooth out and Dad pulled out the wrong one! Jon managed to pull out the right ones on the right days and thus earned a gold star. But I think Marcus will steer clear of Grandpa helping him get any teeth out after I related my story. (Don’t worry Dad I don’t hold it against you, it just makes for a really great story. And the wrong tooth was lose anyway.)
The weather in true Idaho form changed just like that! We have had Sun all week. Although on Friday the south end of Pocatello got pounded with 2 inches of rain and hail. We just got some clouds over here in Chubbuck. I guess that is one of the reasons Pocatello is rated in the top 10 for the most extreme weather. The sun has done wonders for the gardens. My Tomatoes plants, remember I have like 30 of them, really jumped this week and the first rows of corn we planted are now taller than my knee. And the rows we planted later are all pushing up. We have watermelon plants coming up and the cucumbers that had to be replanted are making their appearances as well. We even have Zucchini! (lock your doors at church, It is zucchini season) We have been nibbling at the peas. Now those are yummy! The best is of course the radishes. On Saturday I decided that we would harvest all of the radishes and replant that bed in spices and herbs like dill and basil. So I had all of the kids go out with me and instructed them to start pulling up radishes, and Stiles pulled one up, that no joke, was as big as a softball! For a second I thought maybe we had planted a turnip! All of the other radishes were close in size to a quarter but this one was ginormous! If it was closer to the fair we would have entered it for the biggest radish. But instead we are planning to cut it up and put a little ranch salad dressing on it, and eating it!
Hunter is trying to kill himself I swear! First he knocked the dresser on himself which you heard about last week and then this week I had to do the Heimlich on him. Actually it was one of those, “I know that the Lord was looking out for my family moments” I needed to start dinner and usually that meant that I would have gone down stairs and stood in my pantry and stared at the shelves wondering what I should fix and then I probably would have changed the laundry and poked my head into Stiles room to check and make sure that indeed he did not put away his clean clothes again, but just dumped them in a pile behind the door. Well I just felt like I needed to NOT go downstairs, that I just needed to stay in the kitchen and continue to clean up. And I just stayed there, and stayed there, and stayed there, and the kitchen was getting quite clean. And then I heard Hunter gag and sputter. He was in the living room and had put two nuts, the kind that screw onto bolts, into his mouth. Well of course he was laying down on his back and the one got caught behind the other one and fell back into his throat. I ran over, he wasn’t blue or anything but I knew that he needed help immediately. And since I am a mom I picked him up and carried him over into my kitchen so that he would not throw up all over my carpet. Once I had him safely over the linoleum and I was sure that now a barfing mess would be not so bad, I proceeded to give his stomach a shove. I could hear the bolts dislodge, and then I hit him on the back to get them to rattle out of his mouth and onto the floor. He did not throw up, by the way, but I did have to wipe up a bunch of saliva off of my kitchen floor, and was glad that it was not a bunch of drool in my carpet. Later I realized my blessing in delaying making dinner. If I had gone downstairs, I would not have known that he was in trouble. Truly the Lord has a work for that little guy of mine to do.
William will turn the ripe old age of 1 on Friday. We are looking forward to cake and ice cream and perhaps a BBQ dinner followed by a whole day of festivities the following day. I think the city has even planned some fireworks for the occasion. I know they shot some off last year when he was born. I honestly don’t know how they got the celebration together so fast!
Jon has been busy breaking our horse Mac this week and Mac has put on a pretty good rodeo some days, but for the most part he is a pretty calm gentle horse and is learning very fast.
Stiles has been helping milk the goats with Jon in the morning and getting quite good at it. Jon is starting to take Marcus out as well so that he can learn, but so far Marcus hasn’t quite figured it out yet.
Erica has almost grown all of her hair back that Stiles cut off last summer. I don’t think anybody besides myself could tell that last year she was sporting a very ugly mullet. But it is a delight to have a daughter with hair again. Even if she has some very strong ideas of how her hair should be. Two weeks ago she refused to let me do her hair for church and did it all by herself. She attended church with a headband, 4 different barrettes and her hair in a clip pulled back into something that looked like a pony tail. I was in agony but I still sat by her, and she was as pleased as punch with her “beautiful” hairdo.
The church is true. President Monson is our prophet today. Prayer is a wonderful blessing from our father in heaven. Work hard, the field is growing white.

Lots of love. Monica and her pack of wild monkeys!