Deep Thoughts by Charlie Wolthuis

"Mom, where does jam come from?"

"This jam comes from raspberries from Grandma's garden."

"Mom, where do raspberries come from?"

A little more impatiently, "From plants."

"Plants come from seeds. Did Jesus invent seeds?"

"Yeah, he invented a few things."

Safety Guy

Mark is safe. Mark is very safe. I tend to be a little more relaxed when it comes to things like crossing the street, water, seatbelts... Maybe it is because Mark grew up on the East Coast and in a bigger city. They had to be safe. I on the other hand grew up in Idaho. I was driving trucks, tractors, and motorcycles (not dirt bikes), by the time I was ten. We are a little more laid back here in the West. All of our kids inherited Mark's tendency towards safety, which is not a bad thing, most of the time.

Our kids are at the family cabin in Utah this week. On Monday night I talked to Mark's mom and she told me about their cabin adventures. Apparently, Charlie had a chance to go down the river on a tube, but he insisted he couldn't do it without a life jacket. Understandable. Charlie is not that great of a swimmer. After the river fun they decided to go down to the zip-line the neighbors put in. A real zip-line. Jack went by himself. Henry went with his uncle. Charlie thought about going, but insisted he must have a parachute.

Derbying

Mark, I mean, Jack, won the stake pinewood derby today. I don't think that many people showed up, but Mark made it his life's work to get someone there, so they would actually hold the thing. He wanted to test out the "modifications" he had made so he would know how to plan for next year, as Jack placed in the top 10 in our ward, but apparently that is not quite good enough. Since we do not own our own track, although I would not be suprised if that is in our future, the only way to test these changes was to enter the stake pinewood derby. They had had little interest, so Mark made calls, e-mailed, and recruited anyone that would take 2 hours out of their Saturday to enter. All his effort was worth it, Jack's car won, but more importantly set a new track record. With tomorrow as a day of rest, I am sure we will begin the engineering process for next year on Monday.

RIP

We went to the cemetery today to visit my dad's grave. As we were walking throught the cemetery the boys were pointing out gravestones they liked and names that were the same as theirs. As we were standing around talking to my mom and my grandparents Henry piped up, "I want to be buried in a creepy graveyard, not a cemetery." Okay, I thought. "I also want to have a white gravestone that looks old and I want it to say RIP in big letters."

Way to plan ahead, I will let your wife know.

Presidential Hair

My kids have been bugging Mark to cut their hair for a couple of weeks. If their hair starts to get at all what they think is "long," they start to worry they are going to look like a girl. Their hair could be an inch and a half long and they freak out, "I am going to look like a girl! Cut it!!!" Girl is a bad word in our house.

The other day Charlie and I were in the kitchen together. He looked up at me and out of the blue said, "I need a haircut." I thought he was going to make a comment about looking like a girl, but that was not on his mind that day. "If I don't get these things cut off (he pointed to his sideburns) I am going to look like Abraham Lincoln."

Jack the Trainer

As usual, I was complaining about my weight (I would always like to lose some). I was talking about how I exercise, but nothing seems to change. Jack volunteered, "I could be your personal trainer." I looked at him and wanted to laugh so badly, but he I could see he wasn't quite finished. "But, I can tell you that it isn't going to be easy," he said. "I watch the Biggest Loser."

Rotten Brains

Henry and Charlie have been home sick ALL week! Needless to say they have been playing a lot of video games. I told them to come upstairs so we could go to Redbox and get a movie. Charlie said, "Do you want us to stop playing our video games because if we keep playing we will rot our brains out?" When I asked Charlie where he heard that he said Jack told him. Jack is the last person I would take rotten brain advice from.

"Yeah, you have been playing too many this week," I said.

Henry grumbled, not thinking I could hear, "So we're going to watch a movie instead, like that isn't going to rot our brains out."

Charlie put his hand up on his forehead (they have had fevers, so he continously checks his head) and said, "I think my brain is already rotten."