Ever heard of a “boom mic”?

Every movie, commercial, media event you ever watched employed someone to hold one. The person holding said mic would be fired if you ever caught sight of the microphone or the “boom operator”…so if you have never heard of this contraption, don’t worry. They are meant to go unnoticed.

Boom operators are usually of this variety…

Even though I yoinked these photos from the world wide web, having been on a few sets I speak from experience: The beautiful people tend to be IN FRONT of the camera and the lesser mortals BEHIND the camera.

But every now and again

the laws of the universe are challenged

&

the BABES

are

behind the camera

firmly gripping

the

BOOM MIC!

I rest my case!

Yo, Brynn – you gotta send me a picture of you with the boom mic! So that I can make this collection COMPLETE, yo!

Peace out.

(yo)

BTW, While I am on the topic I would like to add that  I love my sisters A LOT! Including the ones who are not holding boom mics but are currently holding tiny wee babes, named Gabe.

Of

Life without dad.

Jan is on the other side of the world.

We miss him.

During the last trip he took, the girls and I sent him this photo of us. We discovered photo booth and took a billion pictures of ourselves.

The black and white photos were taken at the beginning of his trip.

Here we are a few days later, in bed

No longer smiling I resemble a zombie!

Here is how it works at our house:

I have all the dates for Jan’s out of town travels on my calendar. I acknowledge I am a wimp. I know that there are women who are perpetually without their menfolk, but I have gotten used to having my man around and I dread when he goes away. You see, I am not very nice when he is gone – dang it! I am just a tired, beat up, pathetic figure.

So you can imagine how I felt last week when, out of the blue, Jan got an email saying that he was needed in Asia.

BOO! HISS! is what my heart said, but I smiled and my mouth said, “You gotta do what you gotta do.”

Today I came downstairs from putting this person down for a nap

On my computer I found a million N E W photos of Millie – which she had taken while I was putting Clara to bed. Here is a sampling of what was waiting for me on my screen –

The question is this:

WHO WILL WIN?

Me

or

them?

currently they are beating me 2:1, we had pizza for dinner and sometimes I just have to sit down and whimper

Come home soon, Mr. Dawson

b/c

“you help me so much”.

Here we are, early morning – bubble gum popping!

(This was on only four hours of sleep the night before — I was dying to find an activity that would allow me to be horizontal!)

EXTREME SPORT, Dawson style is UPSIDE DOWN bubble gum popping.

(photos courtesy of Millie Dawson)

As a mother I would be lost without

bubble baths!

Alas, not that I have taken one in YEARS

but my daughters

take

**at least**

one

a

day.

I am grateful for

a tub

water

bubbles

&

the HOURS of enjoyment that ensue!

Currently my mom is at my sister’s house caring for her and her family. You see, baby Gabe just made his earthly debut and they all need a little “grandma action”. New babies and grandmas just go together so nicely. Like peanut butter and jelly! Fred Astaire and Ginger! Milk and cookies!

Apparently Grandma was having a long talk with Khali in which they were plotting a dream trip when Khali and Millie will be old enough to travel alone to Grandma’s for a sleepover, just the three of them!

Grandma asked Khali, “If you could go anywhere in the whole world, where would you go?”

Khali thought long and hard and then said,

“DUNKIN’ DOUGHNUTS!”

Right then and there Grandma and Khali started truly plotting — to make her dream come true (grandma admitted to me that she too was very excited to get a doughnut).

When we heard about their plan to go to DD today before Khali had to be at school – we decided we would go too! To Dunkin’ Doughnuts, that is…

T’was marvelous!

(mmmm! doesn’t this tempt you to go there yourself? Nothing like a “gut bomb” covered in pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles first thing in the morning, says I)

(I’m currently on a diet — no really! I am! I just pretended to eat that…I bit, but “I didn’t inhale” – I swear!)

We love you Khali and Grandma and hope your doughnuts tasted as good as ours!

Here’s to you and here’s to the mighty

(photos courtesy of Jan’s iphone)

The other day Millie called out to me,

“Mom! You’ll never find me!”

I just love how Millie’s little “side kick” must also get in on the action!

I am so glad you are here, safe and sound, and I must say I adore you already.

Your dark hair, and crinkly forehead — are so dang cute to me!

Your mom is my hero.

Your dad ain’t half bad neither.

And your sibs are going to love you to tiny bits and pieces!

Can’t wait to get my hands on you,

Baby Gabe!

My mom has this crazy spoon – it is over 10 years old, dark wood, and has only half of a bowl.

She loves her spoon.

It is like the Velveteen Rabbit of spoons. It is the most used and the most beloved of all the spoons in my mom’s kitchen. All the other spoons must be jealous.

The other night I was in my kitchen cooking and thinking of my mom and her spoon. I don’t know why — but as I thought of this spoon I got really emotional. Do you ever make yourself cry just thinking about what it would be like to loose your mom? I do this every so often, try to imagine my life without her, and I make myself hysterical (even now as I type this I am getting tearful).

I thought,”If that spoon is still around when mom dies, I am going to ask for it.”

(as I wiped tears from my eyes)

“I will take it home and cherish it.”

Then, as I was stirring some batter,

GUESS WHAT?

The spoon I was using BROKE

& now I have a spoon

JUST LIKE MOM’S!

How random is that?

Random enough to blog about, says I!

FYI:

The girls have already discovered it and put it to good use!

are not just “please” and “thank you”.

Around our house I know magic is about to happen when Jan says,

“The light is really beautiful. I’m going to grab the camera.”

When the light was right last week he took these…

Crazy to think that one of the very first posts I did for this blog was last year at this time.

Coming full circle, a year later, and another lovely Easter Sunday was had…

But in order to make it all possible there was VERY MUCH:

For the first time ever, in the history of the Dawson family, we decorated eggs –

The whole DYE situation made me **really** nervous so I had Millie strip down to her skivvies AND wear an apron. A wee bit over the top perhaps, but I never claimed that I was anything less than nuts in the “care of children’s clothing” department.

We were able to keep Clara out of our hair for a short time whilst she chowed down on a vanilla yogurt.

I love how she turned her bib around, she looks like a baby super hero!

We took these lovely pastel eggs and then decoupaged these flowers (that I cut out of a paper napkin) onto them.

It turns out this is actually a great way to do eggs with kids, because they can REALLY help out.

Would you agree that when they are placed on a pale blue feather, lit perfectly and a captured with a fancy camera lens that they are pretty good looking?!

I feel kind of proud of our little eggs.

But decorating eggs was just the beginning!

We also filled the house with spring flowers, and may I just say that God always knows what he is doing, but without fail his gorgeous spring FLOWERS just get me! I look at them and think, “Truly, we are loved by the Being that created these for us!”

SO PERFECT!

LOVE STREAMS OFF OF THEM!!

As ever, the meal always dominates our Easter preparations and proceedings!

On the menu was – Chicken Tarragon, which I had to start at 6:30 AM to make sure the chicken would be ready, two beautiful salads and fresh asparagus provided by the sisters-in-law, and the best dessert that I currently know how to make:

CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE

hummana, hummana, hummana! This is only the second time I have blogged about this very fine dessert. I tell you what, sometimes at night I lie in bed thinking about this and my mouth starts to water. (Come over I’ll make one for you and one for me! Always looking for an excuse to make these puppies!!)

There were no “bonnets” but I must say, I thought everyone looked beautiful!

(The boots were Millie’s choice!)

Cam “rocking it” in Dan Dan’s “kelly green” jacket (complete with Palm Springs lapel pin)

I “suggested” Cam take one or two photos without the jacket…

For the last session of conference we crammed ourselves into the smallest room in our house, and believe it or not it was quite cozy and rather enjoyable.

I feel that I must re-visit this final session, because we got a little stir-crazy and rather talkative there in those few waning moments of General Conference.

All in all it was a WONDERFUL* day.

* Although currently I am feeling rather miffed because my computer has been an absolute TURD while I have been putting this post together and if it had a bottom I would SPANK IT, HARD!

I have a bunch more photos I could share (of the girls at 6:00 AM searching for Easter goodies for example) and tender feelings of love and appreciation for my Savior, who is the whole reason for our gathering to celebrate, that I would like to share…

But I am done for tonight.

To borrow a quote,

“I know it is not right to say, but I dislike Belnap Jackson and my ruddy computer very much.”