Grandpa Ray and the Orange

I made a comment on Facebook yesterday about how badly I wanted a chocolate orange...I'll send out my address if you want to send me one or a box of chocolate orange sticks. :) Anyway, I haven't seen any in the stores yet and love that chocolate/orange flavor. That sparked a conversation between Brett, Andrea and myself how the love of this candy flavor might be a Schulthies thing. I told them it was because of Grandpa Ray and asked if they had heard of Grandpa eating the orange peels. If they had heard it they couldn't remember...so here it is according to the best of my memory ( which is admittedly sketchy these days) of what my mom remembers. I thought it would be fun to see how many cousins love this candy too so I decided to put it on the blog as well.

This is how the story goes according to my memory from what I remember from my mom. When Grandpa was a child during the Depression he saw that another boy had an orange. He asked the other boy if he could have the orange peels when he ate his orange. He gave them to Grandpa and it had been a really long time since he had had anything like that so he ate the peels. My mom thinks he must have really been craving some vitamins! She also thinks that is about the same time that Grandpa's family butchered a hog for Christmas and he and his brother got to use the pig stomach for a ball. They also got a red wagon and it was a fun Christmas.

My mom said that no matter what the circumstance that every Christmas Grandpa always would buy a box or bag of oranges for Christmas and that was his contribution to the day. Every year his mother, Grandma Schulthies to my mom, would send a box for Christmas. It always held the same things. A quilt made from Grandma Evelyn's scrap pile. When Grandma Schulthies would visit in the summer she would always take the scraps back to make the quilt. My mom said that she would also bring a phone book from the salt lake area so that they could use it for toilet paper. But back to the box...it held a quilt, candied orange slices for the kids, a box of Sweet's chocolate covered orange jelly sticks for Grandpa Ray, some of that old fashioned holiday candy (my mom has a name for it but I can't remember what it is) a small toy for each kid, nuts, and candy from their Mercer cousins. I might be missing something, but I think that is it. My mom says that Grandpa just LOVED those orange sticks.

It all makes sense now, doesn't it! Our parents probably all grew up watching Grandpa eat his box of sticks and wanting some! So now our parents all do the same thing. Isn't it interesting to be connected together by a love of a candy that our Grandfather loved? I know my mom has to buy several boxes of those candies because they never last long! My mom still makes sure to buy a box of oranges for Christmas, nuts and candy. All because they are what she had as a child. Micah always think I am nuts because I like to buy nuts and candy for Christmas too.

My mom also said that she remembers every time that they visited Uncle Rendell (Grandpa's brother) he would always have those candied orange slices too. She also says that Grandma Schulthies was always so good to Grandpa because Grandpa had been so good to his parents. I think we were born into a family that has a strong heritage. How fortunate we all are!

I know that love of family was important to our Grandparents...all three grandparents. Not too many people have the opportunity to have such a fantastic family. My mom has always told me how important that was. Recently many of my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins have been especially loving to my parents and I don't have the words for my gratitude, but I am grateful! I feel especially blessed to have such a wonderful extended family!

Conversations with the Boys

I have been meaning to post these funny comments from the boys.

One day during breakfast Porter was sitting quietly when out of nowhere he said, "Actually Plankton is a pickle."

Okay.

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Harmon whispering to Porter when they were looking for a treat:

I know where she hides them.

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My OB is a very good doctor. He is also a large man. Two weeks ago Micah came with me for the first time. As the Dr and his nurse entered the room Porter said to Micah:
"See Dad...he's fatter than you!"

And yesterday while we were waiting again, Harmon was with us (everyone has sick kids around here and I would rather take kids with me to the Dr than get sick) for the first time. Again, Porter was filling Harmon in on the Dr.

"Harmon, this Dr is just really fat. He has really big legs and a really big belly."

Fortunately the Dr had not come into the room yet and we had a little visit about not commenting on people's size.

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A little explanation to my favorite boy conversation so far. Micah is being deployed to Afghanistan for a year next spring. Prior to the actual deployment he has a lot of pre-deployment training and will gone A LOT! Fortunately he will be home for the birth of the baby. There was some question of that for awhile. Anyway we are trying to prepare for this baby, Micah being gone and packing up our house for yet another move. I will be moving close to my parents while he is gone. We have been talking about where we should go while Micah is away. This is how our conversation at the dinner table went:

Me: Where should we live while Daddy is in Afghanistan?
Porter: We should just go live where ever he is going to be.
Me: I explained that it wouldn't be safe for families to go there because they had real bad guys that would be there.
Harmon: Real bad guys like Pirates?

A little laugh from me and then "Yes, kind of like Pirates."

Harmon digested this for about 2 seconds, looked at Micah and then said,

"Dad...you better take your machete."

A Girl?!?

Ella is a very busy girl. I am her mother, so I am slightly biased, but I also think she is a very determined, very bright little girl...who can throw a mean temper tantrum. But I digress. I had to share these three little busy girl tidbits. And wonder....where does this come from?

First...we were all sitting in the computer/piano room when in strolls Ella with a nearly full and open package of chocolate chips that she had conveniently snuck from the pantry. I suspect one of her brothers left it within reach. Oh the tantrum that ensued when we removed said bag. Isn't it a bit early to be so attached to chocolate?

Second...we cut the boys hair tonight which meant that I had tiny bits of hair all over me. ITCHY!! Ella was filthy from dinner, so I took her to my bathroom while Micah supervised the boys' bath. This is actually a two part befuddlement. I put her in the bathtub with me and put in some greenish blue bath mineral stuff. The water was beautiful and here is this sweet little girl sitting next to me when suddenly she starts passing gas. A LOT of gas. My first thought? This is like bathing with Shrek. I quickly gave my legs a quick pass with a not so sharp razor. Better to do it while I could actually reach my legs than to risk falling over to get around this pregnant belly. I put the razor up high, got out of the tub, turned around and little Missy was attempting to shave her legs. *sigh* Again...a bit early, right?

Third, lastly and most shocking to me...yesterday I was sewing on her Halloween costume. She sat on my lap messing with every conceivable nob and pin, driving me nuts in the process. I sent her to get some toys from the boys room. She was gone about 2 minutes and I thought to myself...perhaps it was a prompting...what is she doing? I tipped my head back to look down the hallway. There she was, with my flat iron half plugged into the socket. One hand had a fist full of hair the other was angling the flat iron up to her forehead. Fortunately it doesn't turn on automatically. How do they figure these things out?

I think this girl just might be a girl and I have to admit I am a little frightened! :0)

Warm September Weather Fun

This September has been quite nice and warm. Warmer than it was in July. We are enjoying the warm afternoons. The kids love to play outside with the neighbors, but since school has started we have been busy busy busy. Here are a couple of pictures from some free time outside.


Okay, this one is different. It is Porter's first day of preschool. He has really surprised me with his enthusiasm for preschool. He would love to go everyday and can't wait for Harmon to get home from school in the afternoon. He also makes me laugh because after he has been at preschool for a few hours he comes home and often goes into his room and just plays quietly for about an hour. Decompression begins early I guess. LOL!

Ella was in love with these goggles. Although she wouldn't keep them on but for only a few seconds, then she'd take them off, hand them to me and insist that I put them on again.

Brothers and buddies...most days.

Harmon and Porter were wrestling on the front lawn. Ella always tries to make her getaway when she gets into the front yard. Down the street or over to the playground.

I wanted to water the plants one day. Ella INSISTED upon helping me. She loves to play in the water. I think the water was mostly saturated into this one area. I could not get the hose away from her so I figured I should just hope that the water would seep around and get to everything.


She would water the plants, then take a drink, water, drink, water, drink.

Watering the air.


And herself.


This smile cracked me up. She was so pleased with herself.


And I just liked this picture. I liked the little water ring on the sidewalk from the droplet coming off her fingers. Cute cute!

Pumpkins

No picture this time, just a funny story. I am sitting here on the couch checking email while Micah cleans up the kitchen from dinner. We have had a busy tiring day and I am kind of delaying the bedtime routine. I just told him I would come and help him soon. His response to me? "You've got me until 7 o'clock. *pause* I'm like a pumpkin." That made me laugh. Micah always says funny things to make me laugh...it is one of his endearing qualities.

Why is that funny? Football game comes on at 7. Even funnier...I knew exactly what he was talking about. It's good to be married to someone I like.