once there was a snowman tall tall tall

it had been snowing most of the morning. by 11:oo am the ground was covered with several inches. i had been doing laundry and cleaning the "laoffice". (that's my laundry room - office for those who need translation). i stepped outside to place the now unused phone books into the recycle bin and said to myself, "this is perfect snowman making snow"! upon coming back into the house i decided i needed a break and called my sister ann marie in california. laying on the couch, with my feet wrapped in a blanket to get warm, having gone outside barefoot of course, i asked ann marie how her day was going. before she had time to answer i heard a small knock on the side door. i looked and saw no one. "hmmm. i wonder who knocked?" the knock came again. this time i saw a small head appear at the bottom of the window. "parker?" i quickly opened the door and parker, dressed in full snow gear somewhat urgently said, "gummy needs you." i looked around for cori and didn't see her. "where is gummy, buddy?" "she's at her house. but she needs you" he said. by this time i was getting a bit concerned. why hadn't cori just called me. my home phone wasn't busy, because i was talking to ann marie on the cell phone. i told ann marie, "it's parker. he says cori needs me. i wonder if she's ok? she didn't call." i decided to press parker for more information. "parker, is gummy ok? where is she exactly?" i pictured cori laying on the kitchen floor in some allergic trance or something. a bit impatient now he said, "she's at her house. we need help ... making a snowman." at this point i gave a big sigh of relief, told ann marie that everything was ok, but that i needed to go because cori and parker needed help making a snowman. after giving parker a pat on his head, i told him to go back down and tell gummy i was coming and then went to put on some snow clothes of my own. by the time i arrived, cori had already completed the bottom third of the man. this was going to be one big snowman! it had snowed more than i thought because this very large ball was sitting in her yard and very little of the surrounding snow was missing. she had started at the bottom of the driveway and decided to push the gigantic ball up hill!!!! her arms are a bit sore tonight to say the least! together we rolled the middle section right next to the bottom ball. hmmm. how were we going to get it up on top of that other ball? parker said he could help. we tried lifting. it didn't budge. parker stepped back and looked at me a bit discouraged. i suggested that maybe gummy and i try to lift it. he agreed. unfortunately, the ball still did not budge. cori said " let's build a ramp or find something to roll it up on." we decided to look for something rather than build a ramp. we ended up using a "mixer" stand from her performing equipment. even with a ramp we could not move the ball. "hey" i said "there's caleb, shoveling my walk and driveway" (a wonderful act of service the horne boys do for this decrepit old lady), "let's get him to help". we call out to caleb, telling him we need help and he cheerfully comes down to join us. with his added strength we or should i say he, almost effortlessly rolls the belly ball into place. parker cheers. we then make a head, which is small enough for me to lift on myself. gummy lifts parker up to place the "carrot" nose in place. we plug in the eyes, mouth and pipe. wrap a red scarf, because red is best of course, around his rather fat neck and place a red and white stripped hat upon his head. gummy finds great tree limps for his arms and voila!

parker is sure everyone will think he is made of vanilla ice cream. great way to spend the morning! thanks parker and cori. (and, don't you think parker looks a bit like paddington bear?)

p.s. there is a sign as you go out our side door, "fat snowmen last longer!"