7 Quick Takes about the Lone Ranger, Tally Marks, and Construction Workers with a Sense of Humor

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

— 1 —

For her piano lesson this week, my daughter is working on a piece adapted from the William Tell Overture. For the layperson, it's also the theme song from The Lone Ranger. She's so excited about it that she wants to practice (read: pound it out on the piano as loud as she can) all the time.

That translates to me waking up at 6:30 in the morning to this:





I have to admit, it's a pretty epic way start the day.

— 2 —

My baby is a prodigious spitter-upper. After apparently having observed him last week, a kindly woman at church approached me this Sunday with a stack of burp cloths and a sympathetic look, saying "I'm finished with these and you obviously need them."

This is a regular occurrence at our house.
If you hear the "splat," you didn't get out of the way fast enough.

Of course it's not GERD or anything because then there would be something we could do about it. And then maybe I could do something crazy like wear the same pair of clothes all day.

— 3 —

A conversation about my 1st grader's math curriculum at school this week went like this:

Phillip: "Why the emphasis on tally marks? When do you ever use tally marks?"

Me: "I use tally marks sometimes—"

Phillip: "Like when? When you go to jail?"

— 4 —

My two oldest children are voracious readers. They attempt to read while brushing their teeth. They will sneak books under the dinner table or their desks at school in effort to get more reading time.

One has even, after repeated reminders to put down the book while in motion, fallen down the stairs in a tragic reading-while-walking incident.

Books are usually scattered throughout the house, and my kids are fond of grabbing the closest random object to use as a bookmark when they jump up to do something else. So I regularly come across scenes like this one:

A book within a book.

It can pound nails, hold your place in a book... what can't it do?

Things get interesting in this house, I tell you.

— 5 —

We received a letter in the mail about an "educational exploration program" whereby my 5th grader could spend a summer abroad in Australia. It used words like "tuition" and referred to my child as a potential "student ambassador," so I can only imagine that the cost of this would be roughly one bazillion dollars.

For a 10-year-old.

According to the mailer, this trip would allow our child to "gain a competitive edge, make a difference, and see the world."

"And develop a sense of entitlement," Phillip added as he tossed it in the recycling bin.

Maybe we aren't exactly the demographic they're looking for.

— 6 —

My dentist's office calls the day before my appointment to make sure that I will, in fact, be there at 4:30 tomorrow. I don't mind the reminder, things have been known to slip my mind before.

But since I wasn't home when they called, they left a message asking that I call them back to confirm.

How does it make sense that it becomes my responsibility to do this? I already told them I was coming. When I made the appointment in the first place, that was me saying I would be there!

— 7 —

I took my baby to the hospital to get a spinal MRI. Since 7-month-olds aren't very good at holding completely still inside a whirring, clacking machine for 45 minutes, they had to put him to sleep. If there is one combination that makes me nervous, it's babies + anesthesia.

Praying and fasting for him beforehand, as well as having Phillip give him a priesthood blessing the night before, helped lessen my anxiety about it. But as I was pacing the hallways in the hospital, I came across a wing that was being renovated and this sight helped me feel better, too:

Someone wrote under this construction chute:
"Don't feed the elephant."

My son did really well. I've had an MRI before and even though I like to think of myself as a pretty level-headed person who doesn't get claustrophobia, I came pretty close to pressing the freak-out button (not what they actually call it) a few times. Maybe I should have requested that they put me out first, too.

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