Insanity

From home... 

Gloria: Even Knut will agree with me! Knut, does Thor get all the rest of the chocolate?
Knut: No.
Gloria: Who does?
Knut: Everyone.  
(Sylvia stares at him in dumbfounded shock)
Knut: Haven't you ever heard of deception?  

Rosemary: Oh, no; what do I do? I've gotta look like a blind monkey at the beach!  

Playing Risk...
Papa: Hey, hey hey! Why don't you go through there? Look! You could take over all that!
Knut: How much is it worth?
Papa: a lot!
Knut:It's worth five. That's worth...four.
Papa: See?
Knut: But you have it!  

Knut: Flouch!  

Grandma: So, Knut, what are you going to make?
Knut: Beret pie.
Grandma: Ah, something new and different!
Knut: So? It could be beret pie with extra chocolate! Something new and different! 0=) 

Knut: We should start a new family tradition! Sing "Nearer, My God, to Thee" at every birthday. 

Sylvia: *shivering* Cecily, will you PLEASE stop taking all the warm air out of the room??
Cecily: I can't.
Sylvia *grabs new space heater and plugs it in* ...I love my father. =)
(After a minute...)
Sylvia: Oh! ...It would probably help if I turned it on...  

Papa: I didn't match my choir; I didn't match my family...but I matched myself and I looked snazzy.  

Papa (reading aloud the Christmas letter draft): Leif always manages to do everything so much cuter than everyone else...
Knut: Except for falling into the pond.
Cecily: No, you should have seen his face when he was looking up out of the water; he was adorable! I almost couldn't pick him up; I was laughing so hard!
Knut: So he almost died because he was so cute.  

From Florida...

Camryn: (mimicking Leif) "What do you want to do?" "Guys. I want to do guys."  

Camryn: As I'm stabbing a monkey's face...  

Camryn: Hey Sloan! Do you ever speak to your socks?

Camryn: But...I am crocheting something!
Sylvia: Yeah; whether it's a coaster or a volcano is indeterminate, but...
Camryn: But I feel accomplished, so I'm happy!  

During a championship pinochle tournament in which $5 bills were the grand prizes for A) getting the most points total over 15 hands, B) getting the most double pinochles, and C) successfully shooting the moon the most times: 

Ethan: C'mon, Knut; it's only a game. ...And five bucks. DON'T MESS THIS UP!!!

Knut: So Ethan, our entire goal here is to win five bucks.  

Ethan: Knut, please don't mess this up; I really like money.  

Ethan: Well, why didn't you pass me that?? If I'd needed the ten, I'd be SO mad at you!
Knut: Well, I passed you the queen and the jack of diamonds so we'd have a chance of double pinochle. And get five bucks.
Ethan: Sweet! I'll take five bucks over a rope!  

Knut: I concur.
Sylvia: With what?
Knut: Whatever he wasn't saying.  

Sylvia: How'd I get to this crazy table anyhow??
Knut: You lost.
Sylvia: ...You shush.  

Knut: You say anything and we will punch your face in with a toaster!  

Knut: I make a motion we shoot the moon!
Papa: I make a motion you shoot each other!
Ethan: Good; then it can ricochet off my brain and hit the moon.  

Ethan: Did you lose?
Camryn: No!!! ...We just didn't win.  

Ethan: Nothin' passes by me! Especially five bucks!  

Papa: Shooting the moon takes a little more aim than shooting your foot.
Ethan: Well, I'm pretty good at shooting my foot, so...

(Yeah; Ethan's mercenary.)

Papa takes photobombing to a whole new level...

Studio C trains us how to photobomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMmwjKrcANQ

However, one thing that Melvin does not teach us how to do is to photobomb a picture while taking it.

Our brilliant father has discovered a way to do so:

Insanity of Many Kinds

I really need to persuade one of my siblings to take over blogging...the only problem is that most of them are busy, too. Maybe I need a different strategy than persuasion...Ideas?


Anyway, even if I can't get them to contribute directly, I can still write down the crazy things they say and put them up! (evil grin)

Mom: I think it's someone's day to sweep, and I think her name is Cecily. 

Cecily: I changed my name to Emergency. 

Mom: Emergency? 

Cecily: You know those "emergency exit only" doors? Those are for me. 

Knut: Hey, how come I'm the last person to get ice cream, when I was the first one in line? 

Sylvia: Because you are amazing and kind. 

Papa: Hey, didn't I teach you to be assertive? 

Knut: Yeah. I didn't listen. I got Bjorn an ice cream cone instead. 

Sylvia: Knut, I'm sure there will be a great big ice cream cone waiting for you in heaven. 

Papa: Unless I die first. 

Knut: ....Note to self: Do NOT get rid of Papa! 

Papa: Yeah, they'll be experiencing a shortage after I get there... "heaven's out of ice cream; Josh arrived!" 

Knut: You guys ate all the food! How dare you? 

Sylvia: ...Innocent expression? 

Knut: Condescending look at your innocent expression! 

Sylvia: Glareth! ....Angelic expression as I point out the large number of cupcakes remaining! Stalking out of the room. 

Papa: This meeting has now come to order! Cease throwing people at the wall. 

(Sylvia comes upstairs and glares at Knut as she goes by.) 

Knut: What?? What did I do?? 

Sylvia: Nothing; you just looked like you needed a glare. 

(Knut bursts out laughing helplessly) 

Knut: Oh, no, he's not having any trouble! 

Sylvia: I think you've been propagated. (...I'm not sure what I meant to say, but that wasn't it!)

Cecily: (in a baby voice) I said something funny one time.... 

(Thor and Sylvia burst out laughing) 

Cecily: Was that funny? 

(a little later) 

Cecily: Now the problem is, I can't remember what that funny thing was! 

Thor: Quack. 

Cecily: Double quack. 

Thor: Triple quack. 

Cecily: Quadruple quack. 

Sylvia: Leif, rubber bands are not tasty! 

Knut: He's like, "How do you know? I'm the one eating it!"

Sylvia: I am very suspicious of you...especially with that face! 

Cecily: Well, I don't have any others! *puts a red shirt over her head* Are you suspicious of me now? 

Sylvia: Definitely. 

Cecily: *looks tragicalized and puts on sunglasses...over the shirt* 

Sylvia: See? You got your little "homeschool-mom-thing" in. 

Mom: Yes; this was a very educational field trip. We learned all about the rain shadow...

Cecily: And how it can affect your socks! 

Mom: Yes, and how global warming made it snow a lot last summer. 

Rosemary: I'm eating your nerves. 

Sylvia: No; you're eating YOUR NERDS. There's a difference between your nerds and my nerves. 

Rosemary: No, I'm eating your nerves. They're purple. 

Cecily: I feel bald. 

And on another note...WHO'S READY FOR NANOWRIMO??  11 days until November 1st...those of us crazy enough to attempt it this year are already beginning to show signs of diminishing sanity.



You know NaNoWriMo is approaching…

…When you begin stocking up on  ____ (sugary/healthy snack of your choice) and ____ (caffeinated beverage of your choice), and don't forget the cool mugs!

…When your desktop backgrounds are changed to inspirational (or just plain funny) writing quotes

(No, I'm not a Whovian. But his expression is perfect. :P)

…When you begin finding story inspirations in the most mundane details of life

…When your characters have already started to drive you crazy

…When the “warning: novelist at work” signs begin to appear on your walls/desk

…When you’re scrambling to work ahead on school and everything else you have going on, so you can free up your schedule for the month

…When you're trying to eliminate adverbs even from your college papers so you don't overuse them in your novel

(For the OYANers/OYANists out there...)

…When you’ve begun to creep people out even more than usual, but all you do is grin and continue talking to your characters

…When your friends heave a sigh of resignation as they notice you disappearing into your own little crazy world of writing, and prepare for you to emerge exhausted, emotionally drained, and triumphant at the end of November

…When your Internet search history is even more disturbing than usual

…When you’re already being pestered by people wanting to know what the novel will be about, and demanding to be allowed to read it “when it’s done”

…When you carefully organize your room so that you can instantly find your baby name books, old notebooks, dictionaries/thesauri, mechanical pencils and gel pens, and above all, your current outline and idea notebooks

…When you start scribbling in your notebook during walks

…When you’re beginning to act like your MC (i.e. creating and learning her code/shorthand, writing short stories supposedly written by her to help develop "her" writing voice, etc.) 

Any more to add, NaNoers? Who's excited for November 1st???

Vacation, pt. 5 (Mountains Again)

Part 1 

Part 2 

Part 3

Part 4 

Part 4.2 

We took another day trip to the mountains today...we couldn't stand to leave those chipmunks alone without one more visit. ;) 

They were quite hungry this time...

This one kept begging from Cecily and pawing at the bag of sunflower seeds when she wasn't fast enough for him. 

Gloria kept a stash of seeds in her pockets, but no matter how many she put in, they kept disappearing rapidly. 

Thor kept managing to get two to eat out of his hand at the same time.

*Note: the chipmunk on the right is named Bombur.

Cecily even managed to feed three at one time! 

After that, we went to the ranger station/lookout point.

And after that we went and took the waterfall hike again. However, Papa was rather tired, so he remained in the vehicle to "watch the little ones." (Code for "take a nap and eat all the cookies.")

 

 

 

After doing the "regular hike," we decided to go back to the van by another route that several of us vaguely remembered from a couple years ago. The only problem: the only one who really KNEW the way was Papa, who was back in the van eating all the cookies.

We set out, full of hope and confidence, thinking we could find the way by following the river. 

It was a lovely hike...

Then we came to this. We remembered climbing up a rock wall last time, and we could see a level-ish place beyond the trees which we thought might be the road. So...up we climbed. (What's shown in the picture is approximately one-third of the entire climb.)

We got to the level place which we had thought might be the road, and...it wasn't a road.


From here on, let us hear the words of Knut:













We did survive...and Papa actually left us one of the cookies! :D

Vacation, pt. 3

Part 1 

Part 2 

We'll keep this (very delayed) post short and sweet. 

On Saturday, we split up for our "adventures" since several people emphatically did NOT want to go shooting, and others emphatically did NOT want to go to the doll museum. 

The crowd that did want to go shooting

Bjorn at the doll museum

Part 4 
Part 4.2 

Vacation, pt. 4.2 (Crazy videos from the mountains)

Part 4

To fully comprehend the next video, it would help to see this one first:
Studio C: Driver's Ed

Part 5

Vacation, pt. 4 (Mountains)

(Yes; this is part 4. No, part 3 has not yet been posted. I'm still missing pictures taken by Papa. Yes, I can do basic math.) 
Part 1
Part 2

On Monday we took a day trip to the Beartooth Mountains. Since we have less-than-fond memories of our last camping trip up in the mountains (having their tent collapse in the rain and then half-freezing all night long didn't seem to add to Grandpa's and Grandma's enthusiasm for some reason...), we decided not to camp this year; just take a couple day trips up to our favorite spots. ;)

Our first stop is always at the lookout point to feed the chipmunks.

Leif trying to find a chipmunk

Rosemary eating the food we were feeding the chipmunks... 

We stopped at several other places, including this big snowbank and "rock climbing tower"... 

Lastly, we went on our favorite hike: by this waterfall. 

As seen from the road...

Up close

True to form, we forgot the baby backpack, so little Leify got to ride strapped to my back with two towels and an extra sweatshirt. He very wisely went to sleep for the latter part of the hike, not wanting to watch his--as he thought--approaching demise as his bearer, Cecily, and Thor decided to take the treacherous way of hopping stones on the river instead of taking the "easy path" beside it. Dangerous=more fun. *nodnod*

Still, we all arrived back safe and sound, albeit slightly wet from rain and the spray from the waterfall, and with plenty of pictures of the breathtaking majesty of the Rockies. Surely the hymn How Great Thou Art must have been written up there...

(If the slideshow doesn't show up, click here: https://plus.google.com/photos/116772516238014574903/albums/6044191483028599153) 

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze,
Then sings my soul, my Savior, God to Thee,
How great Thou art; how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior, God to Thee,
How great Thou art; how great Thou art!


(If the slideshow doesn't show up, click here: https://plus.google.com/photos/116772516238014574903/albums/6044192750679978417)

Part 4.2
Part 5

Vacation, pt. 2

Part 1 

Once in Montana, what do we do but take advantage of the lack of sales tax to buy Papa and Knut new computers! Papa's computer has been quite popular with the crowd of "youngsters" who enjoy the Youcam... 

Papa seems to think that there's something wrong with this picture...

Grandpa set up a badminton net in the backyard, and it has seen much usage. Even Leif has tried his hand at it...though he hasn't managed to hit the birdie OVER the net yet... ;)

Knut and I played two games...both of which I won. ^_^  This may or may not be the first time since we were six and three, respectively, that I have beaten him at a game of skill and coordination...but we won't go into that.

Of course, then Thor beat me 10-0...but we won't go into that either!


Bjorn fell asleep with his play false teeth in his mouth the other night, to the great entertainment of everyone else, and of Bjorn himself when he woke up the next morning.

 Then Leify got hold of the false teeth and started playing with them...

There have, of course, been plenty of games of Squeak, Pinochle, Coffee Talk, and the rest...

Bjorn, Thor, Gloria, and Cecily playing Squeak with Aunt Paige, who came to visit for a couple days.

We took a trip to the Montana Museum in Billings, at which we saw a knife collection to rival Colt Smith's! (For those of you who saw the Drama Club performance. ;))

This must have been Colt's collection from a little while after the play happened, because he'd gained 5 knives, bringing his total up to 121. 

Besides all that, we've been enjoying the time to relax and recuperate from our crazy, insane, and hectic summer...a blessing which is very much appreciated and enjoyed. :)

To be continued...

Part 3 

Part 4
Part 5