This week

Parker started his Senior year internship, called a walkabout.  

On Monday he got lost driving home during the 40+ minute drive.  On Tuesday he picked a scab and came home COVERED in blood.  On Wednesday he texted to say he was coming home early.  I was panicked that he had offended his mentor and something was wrong.  Nothing was wrong, the guy just needed to go home for something.  On Friday he met with the other senior walkabout students in a class called walkabout seminar, but I like to call it the talkabout-walkabout.  

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A few minutes into watching Home Alone, Parker says, "you know this guy is like 40 now?!"

Me and Greg, "yeah, we've know who he is cause he's close to our age."

A few minutes later, Me to Greg, "So Mackle Culkin was is in [name of TV show], it was really funny."

Parker had never heard the name of the actor in Home Alone, "What's a 'Mackleculkin'?"

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Me, like 30 years ago, "Women are like 1/2 the world, there should be a woman as president"

Person I was talking to, "NO!  That would mean the wrong things are happening in our country!"

Me, stunned into silence.  

Me this week, SO SO happy that we are at least a little closer to a woman as president, and I hope whoever it was that I was talking to 30 years ago is ok. 

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Me to Greg, "when you go for a haircut, please drag Parker along, don't give him a choice."

Later, Greg to Parker, "I'm going for a haircut..." (trying to figure out what to say to make him go with him)

Parker, "Oh, do you want a ride?" (trying to get out of the haircut he knows is coming)

The lady didn't have time for him until next week, he's lucky for now... 

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Parker, while watching a TV show that had people speaking Spanish, "Oh, my gosh, that's so weird.  I understand what they are saying...."

Hoy es Ragnarok

Each morning on the way to Seminary Parker and Greg practice speaking Spanish.

Greg: Como Estas?
Parker: Asi Asi
Greg: Porque estas desanimado?
Parker: Hoy es Ragnarok por mi cabello.
Greg: ja ja ja ja ja Que pasa?  No te gusta ser guapo?
Parker: Si, me gusta.  Soy guapo con cabello largo.
Greg: Incorrecto.  Que tienes en contra de la guapadura.


Greg: How are you?
Parker: So so.
Greg: Why are you discouraged?
Parker: Today is Ragnarok for my hair.
Greg: Ha ha ha ha Why? You don't like being handsome?
Parker: I do like it.  I am handsome with long hair.
Greg: Wrong. What do you have against handsomeness?  (I think I made that word up)

Before And After / Preperations

Parker is now 14 and ready for a High Adventure camp out with his Boy Scout troop.  Greg and Parker have done TONS of preparation!  

One thing we did to prepare: hair cut!
Parker begged to put it off until the last day possible...

 Here he is before (with his loved-Kelly mug, thanks Sonya!)

 During...

After!  

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Another preparation: food! 

They looked up recipes, shopped and then assembled all their food they will eat for a week of hiking in the woods.
One day they tried them all out.  They boiled water on their tiny camp stove and re-hydrated the food in the thick, plastic bags and chowed-down.  

We also made some fire starters, that was fun to experiment.

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More preparation: packing...
 

 

 




 All packed up and ready to go.  Boots courtesy of Greg's dad and my dad!

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 Another preparation: Greg's weight-loss.
I'm so proud of his hard work! 

Here he is in Dec. 2016

And here he is 30+ pounds lighter in May 2017.  

He's so much happier that he plans to keep going.  We'll let you know how it goes!  

(if you want to know what he did, it's pretty simple to explain, but it could be difficult to pull off: for 6 days a week he ate no grains, sugar, dairy, or fruit.   But he ate all the meats, veggies (including tomatoes and cucumbers), beans, nuts, and seeds that he wanted.  Then one day out of the week he ate whatever he wanted.  There were other rules, but I don't remember them all)

And they are off!!!

Curler Head

Occasionally we put curlers in Mimi's hair and she enjoys the results.

 Just after the curlers came out she wanted to see what her hair looked like without relaxing it at all. 

Here she is on her way to school... it was practically flat when she came home.  Stick straight hair strikes again! 

Hair cuts and table rehab

This is by far the longest Parker's hair has grown.  We headed to the hair-cut-store to get a trim. 

I think I expected something more dramatic, but the hair-cutter didn't seem ready to cut all his hair off, just trimmed it a bit.  And Parker was happy to keep some length the time around. 

 Yoda's hair was pretty long too...

 

 Ahh... so much better :) 

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A few years ago I bought this sweet table on Craig's list.  It looked absolutely perfect except this ugly top.   For years I planned to strip/stain/restore the top, but I did nothing at all. 

Then one night I got a little curious...a few episodes of Friends later, along with soap, water and a scrub brush I have this fantastic table!!!  It's a laminate top rather then a wood finish.  No strip/stain/restore required!  Now it's right by the front door along with the awesome chair. 

Pretzels

After a recent hair cut...

Me, "you're hair looks great!"
Mimi, "Yeah, but it looks a little normal..."
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Yoda, "My pretzel is a guy!  He has no head."  He was laughing pretty hard. 

Some Old Quotes

 

Me:"Look there's some hydrangeas"
Parker telling a joke:"Why was the plant so thirsty?
Me:"I don't know, why was the plant so thirsty?"
Parker:"Because it was de-hydrangead!"  (as in dehydrated) ha! 
__________

When Parker saw the Lincoln Monument last summer...
"This is a big place at Lincoln Monument!"

__________


When Mimi rode on the roller coaster called Crazy Mouse, it was really fast. 
"It was a triple B!  For BAD!"
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All the things that Mimi said to the person washing and cutting her hair...

Mimi: "This is a great way to wash hair", "Are those craft scissors?", "How much longer?" 
Hair dresser: "like 5 minutes"
Mimi: "1-2-3-4-5, that long?" , "Why do I have sit up high?"
Hair dresser: "Because you are shorter"
Mimi: "So that's why you have push up chairs to push up the whole body?
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Yoda:"Once upon a day, there was a bridge and it fell down.  The end."

Hair Cuts

If you have a second, please take me poll, just curious who's out there--don't worry, it's anonymous:)

 Mimi before

 Yoda Before

 Yoda during

 Parker waiting

And after

Yoda's Haircut

I've tried to keep his hair trimmed, but he fights too much.  So it was time for a real cut and we headed to the 'hair-cut-store'.  Mimi decided to wear her shirt that matches Yoda's, so she was in the BEFORE shot (also pictured is Finn McMissile from Cars2). 

I thought he would fight it, but he was much more cooperative for a stranger.  Or course the video helped, but I also tried the exact same video at home and it never worked for me. 

Here the stylist was telling me this is the only sad part of her job, cutting off baby locks.  

AFTER 

She kept some of the length and I love it.  

Here he is on a normal day. He's saying CHEESE. 

And just to keep it fun, here's Parker at 2 years, 2 months, just like Yoda is right now.  I kept his hair trimmed much more, and didn't go to a 'hair-cut-store' until he was like 5 or 6 years old = he didn't fight a hair cut. 

And here's Mimi at the same age too.  I kept her hair trimmed too, only just in the back.  In this photo she's also saying CHEESE! Isn't it crazy how different their hair is?