The Kratz Colloquy: August 2009

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The travel goes ever on and on

Back from our summer of travel ... with just a little travel left!
Pictures to follow ASAP ... here are the trips:
Los Angeles, California, in mid-May for Cassie's law school grad
Sugar Land, Texas, for three weeks in June/early July for Em's basketball camp, Kate's birthday and lots of family-type hanging out and fun! My mom and Z came back with me and stayed a couple weeks, and at the end of THAT visit my dad came, too. They left July 20.
End of July-early August: South Dakota and Iowa for Greg's folks' 50th wedding anniversary celebration, family reunion, trip to Brookings to see the Weirds and trip to Iowa to admire Aunt Lisa's keen new house! WHEW!
Still upcoming ... the Johnsons and the Thomases arrive tomorrow night (Wednesday, Aug. 12) for a week of fun followed by the Young-Johnson reunion in Altamont, followed by possibly more family visiting.
And then the travel will be over for a while ... and then MAYBE we can all draw a breath!

Good news!

Jan. 8: Happy 29th birthday to our beloved Zach! We love you very much!
Jan. 7: Caught up at last! Yes, it's likely only temporary, but for the first time since the summer, we are back to blog-posting in something resembling real time! There's a ton of new stuff here, and we hope you enjoy it!
Happy New Year, and Happy Emma! Em is on a roll recently: won Reflections contest at the school and district level, cast as Cat in the Hat for "Seussical: The Musical," sings "Ave Maria" on super-short notice at her piano recital, turns 12 and enters Young Women! You go, girl!
Oct. 30: Fabulous Halloween-ish quote by Emily Dickinson: One need not be a chamber to be haunted; One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing Material place.
Oct. 25: At loooooooong last, there are TONS of new posts, going all the way back to late May of this year. I'm finally caught up, though it's almost time to load more pics onto the computer from our camera. Anyway, take some time and check it out!
Quote of the Week, Oct. 22: So Greg and I are watching "Above and Beyonce," a real show that's just Beyonce videos, and Max is with us. He's pretty enthralled with the videos, and Greg says to him, "Do you like that lady?" And Max says, "She can shake it!"

READ THIS!

Emma: Oh, boy. Where to start? We'll just list a few authors: Mary Downing Hahn, Margaret Peterson Haddix, F.E. Higgins, J. Scott Savage, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien ...
Grace: Really enjoyed "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo and continues to love poring over our collection of "Calvin and Hobbes" books by Bill Watterson (in Stac's opinion, the finest comic strip published in my lifetime)
Kate: The Fancy Nancy series (most recent: "Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas," about a grandiose young girl who wants everything to be ornate (that's a fancy word for fancy)
Max: recently discovered the classics, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and asks for them daily. Also loves the Max and Ruby books by Rosemary Wells and really believes he's Max the bunny!
Greg: Doesn't have time for much reading (besides scriptures) lately, but is dipping into his Christmas book, "Bacon, A Love Story: A Salty Survey of Everybody's Favorite Meat" by Heather Lauer
Stac: Sue Grafton's new book, "U is for Undertow" (she just keeps getting better, a tremendous feat); "Mistress of the Art of Death" by Ariana Franklin, "The Magician's Elephant" by Kate DiCamillo, "We are the Ship," by Kadir Nelson

Guess the TRUE meaning!

Here are a few things Max has said. Guess what they really mean!
Rotten, dee-doh, Nurfey, rink, milk, Boking, beburger, thee-wee, chuh-chow, Acosacose
Figured any of them out? Answers are as follows:
Rotten: his name for frogs. It comes from an Arthur episode in which a frog calls Arthur "rotten" in a croaky voice.
Dee-doh: Thank you. Sadly, he stopped saying this just in the last few weeks, but not before he got all the rest of us saying it, sometimes to people who don't know what we're talking about.
Nurfey: The nursery at church, which he alternately loves and hates. Of course, now that he's graduated to the regular children's classes it's suddenly his favorite place in the world.
Rink, and/or milk: his words for all drinks. It's useful for pretending we feed him nourishing food for him to ask for milk when he really means a big fat soda!
Boking: Burger King. And beburger is his way of asking for a cheeseburger. This item neatly shatters the illusion of feeding him nourishing food that I referred to in the previous item.
Thee-wee: This refers to his favorite pre-bedtime ritual: watching TV while snuggling with Mommy and Daddy in our bed. I admit, we like it quite a bit, too!
Chuh-chow: Lightning McQueen, star of one of Max's favorite movies, "Cars." It's the noise Lightning makes when he flashes his lightning stickers, and Max says it when he wants to watch the movie or when he plays with his many "Cars" toys.
And, finally, acosacose: This is his super-speed way of saying, "Of course! Of course!" We have no idea how or where he picked this one up, but we're loving it while it lasts.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The travel goes ever on and on

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Good news!

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Guess the TRUE meaning!

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