Day 312: A Tale of Two Boys

No, I'm not calling Hillary Clinton a boy, and this blog post will not be about the election.  I just hope everyone did exercise their right to vote though.  No, the title has to do with the household project we did today, namely, try on pants and see what we needed for Keturah and Justin.  They hated the chore, but now we have a better idea of what they actually have, just in time for Christmas shopping! Actually they have just enough pants IF they would wear the jeans they have.  They love to live in their sweatpants and gympants.  So, new rule tomorrow is that they are required to wear jeans after breakfast until after supper every day forever.  It may like a silly thing, and I can understand why jeans aren't as comfortable, but think of it as getting them ready for the real world where you can't show up to work in gympants or sweatpants.  We aren't the type of people you'll see at Wal-mart in our pj pants.  Nope.  And no leggings either for Keturah unless she has a shirt that covers her rear properly.  No holes or rips either.  Them's the rules over here.  Oh, and I prefer no jeans at church, but I've gotten lax about that since we are going Saturday night and I'm pretty sure I wore jeans in the winter months on PEI.  I'm all about that first or best impression while in public.

ANYWAY, the tale is of two very different boys, one named Benaiah, and the other named Justin.  Or Mr. Husky and Mr. Slim.  Or Mr. Messy and Mr. Neat.  Or Mr. Push the Boundaries and Mr. Peacekeeper.  They are like night and day but they get along so well.  Justin is literally 1/2 the size of Benaiah, although I think Justin should be hitting a growth spurt soon.  So, we pulled out the size 10 pants (yeah!) but unfortunately, Benaiah was a solid "husky" by age 11 and Justin isn't.  Thus, the pants aren't going to fit right.  I somewhere saved some "slims" from a hand me down bag, but they might be a bigger size.  Again, we have "enough," especially in jeans, but I'd like Justin to have the gympants he likes, too.

Justin wearing Benaiah's old husky 10's.

Justin handprints on top ,Benaiah's handprint on bottom, both done recently.

Justin's footprints on the left, Benaiah's footprint on the right.  Yes, Justin has skinny feet and Benaiah has fat, wide feet.  So different.

Let's see, we also got a proper day's worth of schooling in, although it was interrupted by voting and going to the library.  We only had to wait in line for 35 minutes, and that was at 10:45am, but I consider that a win.  Some still had to wait 1 hr and 40 minutes!  Crazy!  I'm glad people were out to vote though.  And while standing in line, I got to tell the story again of how when I was Keturah's age, our family would stand outside in the frigid cold holding signs for our parents who were running for school board at 6 am.  And one of the years that George Bush Sr. was running, his wife Barbara made a stop at our polling place, and I got to meet her!  I'm not sure if that was 1988 or 1992.  I'm thinking '88.  And in 1996 I brushed up against lots of Republican primary candidates.  The advantage of living in NH, where they vote right at midnight on Election Day at Dixville Notch.  "First in the Nation" as they call it.  Fun times!

Voting sticker!

Then supper, baths, clean up, etc.  Full day, but fruitful.

Cheesecake for breakfast!

Finally, I'm in a country that understands that grits are white! 

Just playing by himself wile the others do the same.  Keturah was playing Barbies and Justin was reading.

It's been awhile since this track was up on a door post, but Abishai loved getting the cars up as high as he could to let them fall down.

I haven't picked up this crytogram book in 8 months, but how appropriate is this quote! "The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself - always changing, infinite in the variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity." - Jimmy Carter

Buttons!!

Interesting artwork at the library from a group that makes cloth dolls.  They were based on essentials to life like water, fire, air, etc.

My big cloth doll (wearing sweatpants and sporting an "I voted" sticker) picking out books to read.

Daddy was hanging out with Benaiah at Grandpa's house tonight, but Abishai needed some Daddy tonight.  So we factimed him!  And Abishai couldn't stop laughing hysterically when Daddy would show him funny faces or up close views like this one.  Abishai really enjoys spending time with his Daddy, even across the airwaves.

Here's the picture that wouldn't load yesterday.  Abishai eating a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie from Grandma.  Oh those eyes and those cheeks!  Cuteness overload!