Mom, Can I have Cake For Breakfast?

Kid: Please?

Me: NO

Kid: All I had was applesauce.

Me: That's your fault. The house is full of food. Drink a smoothie.

Kid: I had applesauce. I'll be OK, for about an hour. Then I'll be starving. Can I have cake?
Me: Drink the smoothie, NOW.

Kid: Grumble, grumble, grumble. I told you to get me chocolate donuts.

Laugh Today if You'll Laugh about it Tomorrow...

Now this is some good advice. This is good advice that I need after a 5 minute trip to the grocery to pick up my husband's birthday cake. How hard can it be to dash into a store, grab a cake, some ice cream and tonic water and dash back out? How hard is that when you have two 12 year old's in tow to carry the load?



Oh my, Oh my. Plenty difficult.



Kid: I want these chocolate donuts.

Me: No

Kid: I get hungry at school because I don't have chocolate donuts for breakfast.

Me: You get hungry because you won't eat anything but applesauce for breakfast.

Kid: Cereal is boring and its hard to fix.

Me: Are you kidding me? No donuts.



Thirty seconds pass...



Kid: I want this crab dip.

Me: No, you don't need crab dip. You'll ruin dinner.

Kid: You never let me get what I want you like that other kid better.

Me: Right now, perhaps, because he's quiet. I'll buy you the crab dip the next time people come for dinner.

Kid: You hate me.



Thirty seconds pass...



Kid: I need Little Debbie Snak Cakes.

Me: No.



This continued in a variety of formats and themes the entire time we were in the store. I waited until the car to blow my gasket.



Me: YOU TWO ARE HORRIBLE AND AWFUL INGRATES WHEN YOU ARE IN THE GROCERY STORE. YOU WERE BETTER IN THE STORE WHEN YOU WERE TWO. Of course I never took you to stores and NOW I KNOW WHY. STOP ACTING LIKE URCHINS!



Kid: Geez Mom.



Two minutes pass... pulling into the driveway...



Me: Please get out and get the mail.
Kid: Only if HE (gesturing at the other kid) gets my stuff and brings it in.
Me: Are you joking? You have a book and a toothbrush from the dentist. Carry it! NOW!
Kid: What? I have to carry my jacket, a book, a toothbrush and the mail? YOU HATE ME.



Do I? Too busy laughing to think about it, actually.

An Update on Dear Henry

Isn't Blogville a wonderful community? Sparky over yonder at Red Bird Acres has some interesting ways of finding information on long dead folks. With her help we have been able to find the Van Hellen family who sleepily occupies the corner of Section A in the Fort Meigs Cemetery (from my last post).

However, Henry is not revealing himself as of yet.

The snapshot above is the Wood County 1860 Census record, thanks to Sparky. This record shows nearly every Van Hellen family member in Section A. However, Henry is in Section D, which is what I find so bothersome. Hopefully we can go back to 1850 and find some evidence of dear Henry. Maybe this is his family.

Sparky also found some information on some other Van Hellen's from another part of Ohio, but no lead on our Henry, dead at 10, sliding into the ravine. He is pretty quiet over there.

By way of history, Perrysburg, in Wood County Ohio, was probably a little messy in 1852. You see, we managed to settle ourselves along the Maumee River in the 1790's or so, but did so amidst the Black Swamp. (Remind me some time to tell you about the town of Orleans. If there was ever a haven for mosquito's those settlers found it in Orleans!) But I digress, there were plenty of diseases to go around in the 19th Century. A few years after the demise of our Henry, in July 1854 there was a mighty cholera epidemic that wiped out nearly 300 residents in Perrysburg and the surrounding area.

A last creepy oddity to share- the Van Hellen's were also in Lucas County (Where Toledo is located). There was another Henry Van Hellen who donated some of his land on what would have been the edge of Toledo, on the other side of the river, about 10 miles away from here. This land became the Park United Church of Christ, where my father in law attended church as a boy. My husband's uncle was also married in the church. A Van Hellen coincidence? I'm feeling creeped out just typing it.

I'll share more about Henry as we find it. I feel like Nancy Drew, but without the pencil skirt.

Would You Like to Meet Henry?

There he lies, dead a 10, 1852 according to cemetery records. But, they have his age wrong. Plain as day, isn't it?

I can't figure out why he's all by himself over by the ravine and amongst others buried 40 years later.

I finally found the other Van Hellens. Turns out I had been walking by them and never knew it. Here they are....

It's quite a distance away, and I think the two white stones the right of the obelisk might be Henry's parents- John and Mary. I am making this very wild leap because on the obelisk is a fellow named Samuel VanHellen who died at age 32 and he would have been within a year or two of Henry's age. Samuel is on the obelisk and its says "Son of John and Mary."



What's weird is that the cemetery records note more than one Henry. I can only find our Henry and there is no other Henry with these VanHellen's in Section A. Something is amiss....



At least Spring is finally making an appearance.