The vices of Priska and Shem Shadrach

“But I like to be dirty!” Priska protests to her bath. You’d think she’d appreciate the fact that she gets far fewer baths in a month than any of her cousins do in a week. But alas, each rare sighting of a bathtub is met with loud protests.

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When Shem gets really crabby, I mean REALLY crabby, such that even the hens or the neighbors dog cannot pull him out of his bad mood, there is one last-ditch option for bringing a smile to his face. The Toilet. He loves to watch the toilet do it’s work.

Shem is eagerly awaiting the day when he will have a legitimate excuse to slink past Mom and Dad and sneak into that special room where big people keep that object of utmost fascination. It is big pool where grownups sit and squirt some kind of water. After squirting water, they somehow put brown logs at the bottom of the pool that resemble sausages—just the right size for his chubby little patties to grab in a fast swipe. And after that, grown-up pull a string that triggers the most wonderful event of all. A fast, noisy waterfall comes up out of nowhere. It geisers up magnificently, and if you are lucky enough to lean in close, you might get a little splash. It makes the logs go away, though, which is really too bad. Oh well, of there are no more logs, at least he can still play in the water at the bottom of the pool. He can play, that is, until Mom seems him and makes a big loud noise and carries him off to the living room. The living room—blah. Who wants to play with boring old dry toys.

(Pictures forthcoming....not of the toilet)

ah.... thats better.. surely she will relax dancing with the Zelapski older brother.. that is zhenya behind Senor Zelapski..
the Di gang hanging out flanked by jill's mom and zhen.... and Glenn, Jill and and an and and casey and Leslie (and leslie's wig her hair is quite short and like josephs coat, not real medevial) you should have seen glenn in it.. now somewhere i have a shot of the bride and groom.. and pics of the gang at paddy but i've gotta leave for camp and so..... check bk next week for the next exciting installment.....

Bill as trumpeter at Erin's wedding! announcing the arrival of important personages. That is Michael Julian with a tool that would cleave your skull if he dropped it on you! And this is mom and Krystal, who is part of the Dan Smith family.. i think that i'm aunt louise ..






Bill and Krystal dancing. She loves to dance and asked me if it was o. k. if she danced with him..

and Tirzah was a beautiful bride's maid floating thru the soggy sylvan glade.... lets look for a less stressed pic....

all around the table as usual..
and having annie was the icing on the cake!

at the Protiva's.. moe and jess and tirzah and "Wind"
the 'boyfolk'eating lunch. small isaac has an elaborate treehouse in the bk ground, you can just see the bottom of its many features
Moe is climbing the ladder on the slide with the icecream making bycycle in the bk ground (and the poppies, decendents of One Step Farm poppies.)

this is the only one that needs explanation .. we went to lane springs.. B side.. and there had been lots of flooding so there was this nice sand pile and the kids, large and small, had bury themselves. Moe wanted her dolly buried too. that is dana on the left and zhenya. tiz at top.

New Blog

Hey everyone--who might be reading this. Aram now has a new blog--araminkenya.blogspot.com Some of it might be "not of general interest" meaning the kinds of things that Aram and his Dad or professors rant about from time to time. But some of it will be interesting as well, insha'allah. I'll try to update about every week.

Today

Today is Monday.

Zafaran was up every hour last night----except for the hour that she didn't sleep at all. First thing in the morning she found an opened beer in the living room and turned it over on herself. At the same moment, Jeremy began throwing up on the couch.

Moravia peed on the floor. Zafaran pulled a big toy down onto her foot.

M. spilled her juice on the coffee table. Z tried to splash in it.

M. peed on the floor again. Z tried to crawl in it, so I put her on the potty, and she peed and pooped. I put both girls in the bathtub, and M.peed in the tub. I laid Z. down for a nap, and sat down to read M. some stories. I woke up awhile later to find that M. had quietly (and naked) gone to sleep as well.

Moravia got up and ate, spilled her chicken on the floor. Spilled juice and turned over the not-empty potty. Peed on the floor.

We found a dead bird in a bucket of water in the backyard.

Jeremy threw up some more. On the couch cover.

M. found some spray cleaner (?) and sprayed it on Z's face.

It is 2:30 in the afternoon.