A Name

[Written October 4, 2010, published November 28, 2012.]

Emma's middle name is Linda.  It comes as a hybrid of Aunt Melinda Keller and Grandma Lindy (whose full name is Lindalee).  We liked the idea of naming her after these two people because they are very mild personalities that we just love and adore and would love to have Emma grow up to be like them.  There is one thing that we did not consider that Grandpa Rich pointed out below.  I was noting that I had decided Emma is an active child.  We have been to a couple of events where the other kids her age sat there at their mother's feet and just played nicely.  Not Emma, she was off exploring and walking to and fro.  She would only sit long enough to take in a few bites of food and then she was off.  Here is Grandpa Rich's response:

"Could Emma take after Grandma Lindy?  No need to panic - YET.  The best test for GL-DNA isn't a throat swab but rather to start her cleaning toilets at age 5.  If she responds with disgust as you did, no problem.  If she asks why you only have 3 toilets in your house, you will have to explain there are 5 sinks and endless floor molding awaiting her.  Your Mom's parents had to buy a motel to keep her from running off to join the circus or joining a motorcycle gang to keep her busy.  Grandma Lindy has been able to turn her active nature into a blessing to know her.  It is a good thing because someone with your Mom's talents could have made the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and stayed there until she started slowing down at age 90.


"You and Aaron are blessed with 4 hands' full of wonderful child."


I had not considered Emma getting Grandma Lindy's spring-buttedness.

Dallas Ft Worth Vacation

We decided to take a small trip to Dallas/Ft Worth area to see some family and some sites around the Dallas area. We drove up on Friday afternoon and went to see the JFK Memorial. I confess that I wasn't well versed in the events surround the assassination so it was interesting to me. What I really wanted to see was the Conspiracy museum. That was a museum dedicated to the conspiracies surrounding the assassination and other world events. The blurb about the museum in our Texas book made it sound like a bunch of quack-pot theories and that means it would have made for a wonderful giggle or 500. It was a museum totally up my alley. Unfortunately, it was out of business... I am sure they had a conspiracy theory for that as well.

We also got to see a replica of the cabin that was the first "house" to settle Dallas. I am grateful we have advanced to not be living in a 10 by 10 foot cabin with no bathroom. We have 2000 sq ft and that seems tight at times.

We drove up to Plano to meet my cousin George and his wife Brooke and son Bentley. It was good to see him. It had been 7 years since I had last seen him. Bentley is a cute little boy.

The next day we went to the Ft Worth Stockyards. What are stockyards? I didn't know either. It is a historic/tourist area now with all things cowboy. We got to watch a staged cattle drive of some Texas Longhorns. Those things are big I tell you what. Emma wanted to ride one. She also saw a grown male get thrown from a mechanical bull. She wanted "to fall off a bull" too. So we let her sit on it and take her picture. She was disappointed we didn't let her get flung off of it. There were tons of museums. There was a cowboy museum. A trail rider hall of fame. And many more. I could see Aaron salivating at anything with the word "museum" attached to it. I have a theory (Aaron would say it is a conspiracy theory) that if they would just rename Nordstroms to Nordstroms Museum, I could get Aaron excited to go shopping with me. They also had a cattle/horse auction place. We got to watch them start to auction off trail horses. There were a whole bunch of men dressed up like they had just walked off the set of the tv show "Dallas." It was fantastic people watching.

We also went to the Children's museum with Rex, Mindy, Braxton, and Marisa. Emma spent an insane amount of time playing with a life size light bright. You know, where there is a light behind a black thing with holes in it and you stick colored pegs in it to make different designs. She was in love and would not budge to go see other stuff. Finally she moved on.

One thing that happened on the trip, was I became obsolete. Emma got hurt some how and kissed her own owie better. It was kinda funny actually. She had a sense of independence that she could take care of it herself, but she was still needing it to be kissed better.

So on the way home, John kept waking up and crying. When I got him out of the car, I found that he was sleeping on a lego in his carseat. Poor kid. So I mentioned to Aaron that he was like the Princess and the Pea except the Prince and the Lego. Aaron looked at me like I had two heads. He had never heard of the fairy tale. On the way up there was an article on NPR about Areosmith. Aaron asked me if I had listened to Areosmith when I was younger. Unless Areosmith went by John Denver at some point, I didn't listen to them ever. Further evidence that we had different childhood experiences.