scary things

Janny is sitting on my lap, Clara is napping, and Jill is at a baby shower. For the second time this weekend, I'm the sole tall person in the home. Yesterday, Jill took a personal day to run some errands and enjoy some relaxation. I partly understand why she needed it.

As per usual around here, things moved along smoothly. Until Clara helped me fix a flat tire on my collecting-dust-race bike. I got it pumped up to 90 psi, and she started to roll the wheel around the family room (of course I'm allowed to do bike repair in the house). BANG!!!!! I didn't make absolutely certain that the tire seated on the rim, and it blew. Clara sreamed, cried, bear-hugged my legs, and called for mama. She remained uphappy for some time. I was also bummed because that was a $9 tube.

Clara has had a few scary incidents lately:

1. at zoo, goose snaps at her hand

2. getting ready to leave uncle matt's house, a massive st bernard ambled to the door wanting to lick everybody. no leash, no owner in sight. Friendly. Clara not buying it.

3. tumbling head over heels down grandpa and grandma's stairs. i caught her three steps from the bottom.

We're starting gardening at a small scale this year due to the kids, so we only have a couple tomato plants, basil, and some growing black rasberry plants. I try to keep things growing, which is a challenge lately considering it's been murderously hot. We were 1 day away from picking our first tomato when I saw it laying on the ground half eaten. Squirrels! They are also knocking off the green ones. I now throw stuff at them.

I managed to squeeze in a bike ride last night from 9:30 to 10:30p. It was still hot. i enjoyed not really feeling how fast I was going -- just rode harder until I got the faintest sensation of pain. I'm no Cadel Evans.

I think that Janny can roll over now, but I've only observed the evidence without seeing the action.

family reunion in Nashville

Last, last weekend was the White family reunion, and for the first time ever, it was held in Nashville, TN. From our house, the drive takes about 6.5 hours not counting necessary stops due to small people. Impressively, we took only 4.5 stops (once for gas while the girls slept) on the round trip. Somehow, we have kids that don't mind travel and sleep well at night.

Though Clara does travel well, even she can't just stare out the window watching mile after mile of corn fields pass by. So we let her play with the camera. I deleted about 80 photos of her eyeball from too close up (looking through the lens instead of the finder. Oh well, at least she knows how to turn it on and how to push the picture taking button). Here is one of her better self portraits.

We had a crew of 23 people (I think) hanging out at grandma and grandpa's house. Pretty good representation given that most of the family lives in MI. We took a trip to the zoo on Friday, but spent most of the remaining time playing games indoors. It was hot.

Jill and Christina and kids take a break from the cool air conditioning to hang out on the porch like in the old timey south.
Matt's ministry (Ultimate Goal) is allowed to use a repurposed building for indoor soccer. A local church bought out an abandoned strip mall but is not yet able to fill the whole place. So they offered to let UG use it for a nominal fee. Since we're all in good with UG, the family got to try it out. We played some basketball and wiffle ball in the huge room.
Grandparents' house is within walking distance J Percy Priest Reservoir.
The Smith family portrait, from our small camera.

happy 4th

Fereshteh volunteered to watch the girls on Saturday morning, so Jill and I rode our bikes without kids seats or trailer. Jill dusted off the Gunnar, and I rode the trusty blue trek. To date, we've been having fantastically pleasant summer weather, but Sat was HOT (heat index 102, ouch). Did that phase us in the least? Hah! We rode to Mahomet with a short visit to Lake of the Woods. Lunch was at Hen House (philly cheese was pretty good (keep in mind everything tastes good after a scorching ride)).

Did I mention it was hot? We were away from home from about 10:30 am to 2:45 pm. We heard that Clara was sometimes difficult to handle (I, for one, don't believe this at all. She is our perfect angel child). Fereshteh has offered to watch the girls again.
On Sunday after church, we picnicked in Champaign with friends Jarrod and Jessie.
Clara and Janny wore matching dresses to church and the picnic.
I don't know when the following captured event happened. That doesn't look like my smiling, bouncing baby girl. Probably someone at 707 Cafe pinched her or something.
This morning, co-worker Ivan and I rode with the Prairie Cycle club. Their plan was to ride around C-U, but Ivan and I turned back at Lake of the Woods to take a slightly shorter way home. Ivan was on his brand spanking new Felt. Thankfully I don't have a problem with covetousness, so I was happy on my Look. I will try to get my right pedal to stop squeaking before the next ride.

No softball this week because of America's birthday. Happy birthday USA!