watch out pinterest

So everyone said I should get on pinterest and I did.  I will admit it is really cool, although I was a bit confused at how it worked at first.  (I blame that on my own ineptitude, not on pinterest.  I'm sure it couldn't be any more userfriendly..)  Anyhoo - I enjoyed getting on there, but didn't get 'hooked' like everyone said I would.  I found a few cute ideas, started a few pinboards, and even followed a few people.  I'm sure if I spent a little time and found more people to follow (like all my amazingly creative friends and relatives) I would find a bunch more cool stuff.

But here's the thing... I found a site I like even better.  When I am on pinterest the only things I really look at are house-related.  I am admittedly not crafty, and the only kind of projects I can even attempt are 'built' items, such as new furniture or trim or something.  I am definitely no professional in that area either, but that is all I'm really interested in attempting.  I keep saying I'm going to learn how to sew, and maybe someday I will, but for now I maintain my non-sewer status with pride.  I can stitch together a mean straight seam on plain cotton fabric.  That's all I can do.  So if you want me to fix a rip on a seam of your pants, or if you want me to sew a basic square pillow cover, I've got it covered.  Anything else and you'd better find someone else.  Enough of this rambling, I forgot where I was going with this ?

Oh yeah- my new favorite site is http://www.houzz.com/.  All it has is pictures of houses.  And I mean a LOT of pictures.  You can select whichever part of a house you want to view on the left side of the page.  I clicked on entrys because I'm trying to find a solution for our always-messy front entry.  There were over 5,000 photos to view in that category alone.  And all the photos are from professional builders, architects, and designers.  Not that I have anything against DIYers, as I fall in that category myself, but there is a difference.  Seeing some of these photos makes me want to have 49 doors to my house so I can have that many different entryways.  They are gorgeous (although some are a bit over the top for me - think white marble, chrystal chandeliers, etc.). 
Here are a few examples of cool photos I found:

contemporary entry design by seattle interior designer Shuffle Interiors

traditional entry design by san diego architect Dorothy Howard AIA, Architect

So I'm not bagging pinterest - I'm sure I'll continue to get on there and find cool ideas, but for anybody out there who likes house-related projects, or is looking for ideas for a remodel or something, you've got to check out houzz.com.  It's free to browse, and you can sign up for an account easily (and still free) if you want to save photos in your own idea books to come back to later.  And for all of you crafters who keep making Pinterest stuff, when you finish something cool bring it on over to my house.  Because every craft I have ever attempted looks like crap.  (and most aren't even finished...)

In business

So we thought we'd have a lot of extra eggs with our chickens and the boys have been excited to make some money from them.   Unfortunately, we have realized that our family eats a LOT of eggs, so there haven't been too many extras.  We buy them from the boys at 25cents each and the deal is they have to pay for the feed and they can keep any extra. 
Yesterday my grandma called and said that if we had any extras she would take a half dozen of them, but only if she could pay for them.  We fixed up a little carton full and Ethan went up to deliver.  After their exchange he told her, "On the way up here I told those chickens they better get to work because now we have a customer!"  So if she is paying the same amount we are for eggs, what are we, chopped liver?  Maybe the chickens will lay more knowing that they have an actual 'customer' now, who knows?  More omlets for me :)

Speaking of Ethan and Grandma, he asked me today on the way to school about how retired people get money.  We talked about savings, then he asked what happened to their stuff (specifically his great-grandma's) when they die.  I told him how a will works and that usually people split their stuff up between their kids.  He asked who would get Grandma Jerry's house and I told him I don't know.  Then he thought for a moment and said, "Do you think she'd let me have the fishy crackers when she dies?"  Anyone who knows my grandma knows that she will outlive the expiration of any box of goldfish crackers, but I love how Ethan's always thinking ahead (and with his stomach).

thrifty me

I am so excited, we just finished painting our basement.  It is in the (long) process of being finished.  Along with the main floor, which of course is not completely finished either.  But, we're still working on that...
Anyway, I knew we were going to have to spend some money on paint because we had a lot of area to cover and it was brand new drywall, so it was going to soak it up.  We had a few buckets with a little bit of primer and old ceiling paint left from upstairs, so we thought if we just mixed that together with the 49 billion other half cans of paint we had sitting around downstairs, it might be enough to prime the first coat, then we would have to buy 4 or 5 5-gallon buckets of paint after that. 
Well,  when we mixed it all together (blues, greens, tans, off-white, the white ceiling paint, and even a quart of red) I realized that I loved the color it made.  Go figure - all my cast-off colors (I had a really hard time coming up with just the right shades upstairs) combined make the perfect color of putty/tan.  Only problem was it was a bit too dark since we wanted to spray the ceiling the same color (no cutting in all the wall edges for me this time around.  We have a sprayer and I was going to use it to the full extent!)  So we ended up buying three big buckets of primer (which is about 1/3 the price of paint) and only 2 buckets of pure white satin enamel at Lowes.  Total cost only about $360.  Then we came home and sprayed the primer and self-mixed our color concoction with all our left-over paint and the 10 gallons of white.  Turns it out matches the color I wanted (our main color upstairs) almost perfectly.  We got the whole thing done in 2 days and I am SO glad to have that step done!
Now I can take down the plastic, clean up the floors and hopefully not have any more dust/spray mess making its way upstairs.  Even if we don't get the floors and cabinets finished downstairs yet, at least I won't have the MESS (well, not that mess at least).
Here is a photo of our beautiful, bland, tan walls

Also, here is a sneak peak at Shannon's new nursery.  Kristi and I spent a few days out in Dallas helping her paint and pick out fabrics.  Now I just have to sew the bedding in time to send it back before the baby is born.  All I can say is, I really hope the ultrasound is right and they are having a girl, otherwise their boy might be messed up!  That's a lot of pink.

Like father like son

Sharon, this post is for you!

So today when Brandon came home from work, he dumped these on my counter:

He then asked me how much milk we go through in a month and told me he could order 50 or more cans of this if I wanted.  Does this remind you of Papa George and the ketchup?  Ever since we have been married I have heard the story of the 17 bottles of ketchup brought home because they were a good deal.  Well, Brandon is also a deal-finder and I usually just let him do it.  But 50 tubs of powdered milk?

(In his defense, it didn't quite come out of the blue.  We had some friends tell us that this brand of powdered milk is better than regular milk.  Not quite believing that story, I bought one can and made some up to try it for myself.  I think it's ok.  Definitely better than regular powdered milk.  I would drink it if I couldn't get regular milk and would bake with it no problem.  Well Brandon loves it.  LOVES it.  He makes some every night so we have a fresh, cold pitcher of milk for the next morning.  He offers some to everyone who comes to our house.  And apparently he has a hook-up at the Walmart that can order for him in bulk.  Oy!)

If your name is not Sharon you are not allowed to harass Brandon about this post.  I have been scolded for teasing him online.  He doesn't read the blog often and doesn't really appreciate my on-line harassment, especially since he usually gets caught unaware when people make comments to him about something I've posted and he has no idea what they are talking about or how they know that particular deep dark secret :)  I supposed I'll have to email him a link to this post!

Bored already

So I don't get to hang out with girls all that much, but I am lucky that I get to serve with the Young women in our church.  A few weeks ago I got to participate in a walk across town to the temple - 12.6 miles!  It was a lot of fun and a great experience for me, even though I grumbled when I got up that morning at 5 am.  Here is a shot of a few of the girls I went with (I'm sure they would hate me posting this, as it was taken at about 6 am as they were getting ready to leave and not wearing makeup and such :)  Anyway, I am lucky to spend time with these cute girls and all the others that put up with my lessons each Sunday and my old lady point of view!

Here are the boys all ready to walk to school on the first day.  Needless to say, Ryan was THRILLED to  have his whole family walk with him to the first day of 8th grade.  We tried  not to embarass him too much, but we just couldn't help ourselves.  He tried to ditch us when we got near the school, but for old folks we are pretty fast when we want to be (and when it comes to harassing our teenager)!  Don't they look cute!  (and doesn't that newly-coated driveway look fabulous!?)

Jake's first soccer game

Well, I know I've already mentioned Jake's soccer first experience so I don't want to go on and on about my kids.  Oh wait - that's all I ever talk about anymore!  I don't think I ever have conversations that don't involve talking about my kids these days... some day maybe I'll get a hobby :)

Any hoo.... One quick story about Jake.  This photo was taken during halftime of his first game.  The coach called the boys over to give them a pep talk when Jake plopped down in the center of the circle and loudly announced, "I'm bored!"  His coach, bless him, just laughed and told him to start playing harder and he wouldn't be bored anymore.  That poor guy (the coach, I mean)!

Looks like his pep-talk worked, though, because right after halftime Jake scored a goal.  I was trying to video-tape and ended up hitting the wrong button and getting a photo right as he kicked it in.  Lucky thing I'm a dunce with my camera - I never get these shots when I am trying!

BTW, Just in case you're dying to know the outcome, Jake's team lost by a score of something like 4 to 8.  However, right after the game Jake came up to me and said, "Mom, we totally won!  They only scored 1 goal and we scored like 10!" I think we won't burst that bubble just yet...he'll learn to count better eventually on his own.

The boys have now all started soccer. By far the most entertaining this year will be Jake: not much soccer, but a lot of drama. Here are a few photos from his first practice. He cried once, but another boy cried twice, so at least he is not the biggest cry-baby on the team. Actually, he cried again at the second practice, so maybe he is. The first time he cried because he got hit in the head (not very hard at all) by a soccer ball. The second day he cried because he got out-voted on the team name. The other boys liked "Dragons" and Jake wanted "Lightning Bolts." As I said, a lot of drama, and not much soccer. I think I am already regretting signing him up this year.

Side note, today at soccer he told me, "Mom, I finally like the name Dragons now!"  So... that's improvement, right?

Here we are squeezing in a little bit of last-minute summer fun:

• The Fair   (Ethan touched a live alligator that was just sitting out.  It was cool, but really?  Who brings a live alligator to the fair?  And who ties a bandana around its neck?  I felt like we were in an episode of "The Waterboy."
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  The Park   (A few rides, and Imax show, and check out the view from the top of the ferris wheel!  BTW, it's been a long time since I was on a ferris wheel, and they are really scary! 
• Now we are ready for SCHOOL to start!!!  I am they are so excited to go back.  Time to work on all those projects I have not worked on all summer.... :)  I will keep you posted if I actually finish any of them.  The only thing I finished so far was spreading asphalt sealer all over our driveway.  33 5-gallon buckets and 1 pair of crocs later, and my toes still have black that won't come off them.  Here's hoping that job doesn't need to be done again any time soon!

Liar, liar... and getting old quick

I expect to hear how old I am from my teenager, but lately Jake has been worse than even Ryan!  I think the reason its worse coming from Jake is because you think a four-year-old doesn't say things just to harass you.  Well, most four-year-olds don't, anyway.  Just a few days ago, he was looking at the front of a book and asked me, completely straightfaced,  "Mom, when you were little did they have these kinds of carts?"  I look over at the picture he is referring to, and it is a covered wagon!  What?!  I explained that even when his great-grandma was little most people had cars.  Not sure this concept held, though, because just today in the car we had this conversation:
J:  Mom, when Ethan is 13 how old will I be?  (This is after we have gone through several other age scenarios... don't know why he got on this kick)
M:  You will be 9.
J:  And who old will Ryan be?
M:  Ryan will be 18.  That means he will be moving out and going to college!
J (with a look of alarm on his face):  But then who will take care of me?
M:  Dad and I will take care of you, and I'm sure Ethan will help too.
J:  Yeah, Ethan can take care of me.  Because by then you and dad might already be DEAD!
M:  Dead?  We won't be dead in 4 years!  We aren't that old!
J:  Well, you're pretty old.  And dad is REALLY old!

It's bad enough that he makes me feel old because I have a hard time keeping up with him anymore.  Now he has to say it, and I'm not sure if he is sincere or if he is just pulling my chain.  Most 4-year-olds are incapable of coming up with these types of things to say just to get a reaction, but I wouldn't put it past Jake.  He is really devious.

And speaking of devious, he has turned into a liar.  He lies about things all the time, and it's always to get out of trouble.  For example, just the other day he got several (like 5 or 6) pieces of lunch meat out of the fridge and started munching on them.  He had them all wadded up in his hand and I almost got mad at him, but decided at least he was eating something healthy for a snack so I let it slide.  Well, he wanted to help me make cookies and I told him after he was done eating and had washed his hands he could.  Then he says, "Just a sec.  I have to go potty," and goes running down the hall to the bathroom. 
When he comes back 3 seconds later I ask, "Jake, you didn't go potty, did you?" 
Jake:  "Yes I did."
Me:  "Where did your lunch meat go?"
Jake:  "I ate it."
Me:  "Are you sure you're telling the truth?"
Jake:  "Um, yes."
Me:  "Did you just go in the bathroom and throw your lunch meat in the garbage can?"
Jake:  "How did you know?"

No remorse, nothing.  I know he is only 4, but I am starting to wonder if maybe I am raising a serial liar.  If he becomes a con artist or thief as an adult, all fingers will point my way and they will say I should've seen in coming.  Or maybe he is just 4.  I'm not sure yet if I should be alarmed.  Well, I know I should be alarmed about a lot of things that go on in this house, but I'll wait to judge Jake's honesty until I am sure he knows the difference between a lie and the truth.  I hate this age for that reason -- you can't really punish them too harshly for lying, because you can't be sure they really understand that they lied.  I'm pretty sure Jake understands, though :)

I swear if I wasn't old already, Jake may send me over the edge pretty quick.  Maybe he knows something I don't with all this old lady talk!

My love/hate relationship with summer

School is almost here... hallelujah! I love my kids, but by the end of summer, it is TIME. I am sick of them and they are sick of me - enough said. What I really need is a schedule, not so much to get rid of my kids (although a little peace and quiet will be nice too). Somehow in the summer we end up completely disregarding normal and going to bed/eating/cleaning at horrible times if at all (we always eat and sleep eventually, just not the cleaning part). Plus, though I love Brandon's spontaneity, when the kids are out for the summer and he has three days off in the middle of the week we end up just dropping things and going to do something else. While this is fun most of the time, you know the saying about too much of a good thing... I need a PLAN! I need a SCHEDULE! We need to STICK WITH THAT PLAN! It is really sad that the anal retentive part of me just can't take too much spontaneous fun. I need some boring, structured days in there so I can truly appreciate the fun ones :)

Enough of my crazed ramblings ... since we did have fun this summer, I probably should document it :) The great thing about this summer is that we haven't even gone anywhere but still managed to get nothing productive done. A few pictures I found (which I haven't been good about either)

Boating with Grandpa, Grandma, Lindsey, and Max - the boys had fun on the tube, and we even managed to talk Grandma into going for a ride!
We also went out with Kage and Kennedy once (when they came to stay for a week, which was SO much fun!) and had Kage and Ethan no less than 8 feet in the air. Wish I had a picture of that because the look on Ethan's face said it all. I'm surprised he didn't pee his pants (well, since he was in a lake maybe he did and we didn't notice). Before you think we are crazy boat drivers, we were going really slow but they managed to hit a wave just right and bam - they were airborn. Luckily they landed it well :) We also went rafting a few times - Brandon took Ryan down Hells Canyon and had a great time (I'll see if I can get the video of their huge rapid to load - it looked awesome!) and we went down our local river a few times. The last of these it was so shallow we had to push ourselves over rocks most of the way. Fun but tiring! Here is a picture of Brandon paddling in a deeper spot that last time down the river (notice the rocks right below the surface?
Now you can see why it was mostly pushing, not so much paddling).

We also rode a bike trail with just Brandon, Jake, myself, and Curt (ditched the big boys). Jake was a trooper and didn't complain (much).
Notice the cool tag-along bike he used? I'm brushing up on my Vanna White skills in case I lose my job. Oh, and can I just say that even though I wore the special padded-diaper shorts, my butt hurt for DAYS after this. I've decided I don't care how stupid I look, I am buying one of those super padded old lady bicycle seats to put on my hand-me-down mountain bike. At my age, it's all about comfort :)
And here is the chipmunk that Jake thought was "so cute!" until it bit him. Then he had nothing good to say about it ("I Hate that Chipmunk! He is NOT cute!") Luckily it didn't draw blood so I don't think it could transmit rabies. Not that I'd be able to tell with Jake anyway.

Jake modeling hairclips for me (my attempt at craftiness, thanks to my friend Amy). Good thing he's a boy, I'm not sure he would've made such a cute girl.


We also had a baptism this summer...Ethan is 8 years old now! Crazy to me that he is so big. This really deserves its own post, so when I find the pictures I will do just that. Can I just say it was fun having family come and visit for the occasion and I'm really proud of what a great kid Ethan is turning out to be!

A few great quotes from this summer:
Jake: "Dude, I totally JUGGED that!" (a glass of milk that he 'chugged'). I like Jugged better anyway.
Ethan, after his baptism: "I am almost speechless!" It would take more than that to render Ethan speechless.

Last but not least, here is what I see on a regular basis, this time in front of the cabinet that holds marshmallows. Love those dusty footprints!

testes...testes

anyone else see this episode of Beevis and Butthead?  I am just 'testing' my ability to publish a post, since I have been having problems for the last week.

Yeah!! It worked.  I knew a little B&B humor would do the trick...  Solves most of the problems in my life :)

Playing catch-up

This part of blogging is obnoxious. Since I haven't been in the mood, I haven't properly documented many parts of our life lately. Not that any of you care, but in 20 or 30 years I may be sad that I forgot to write down the 10 gazillion funny things that were said and done these past few months. (Well, the boys are funny but not THAT funny. Jake just likes gazillions these days. If asked how many of anything he wants, he answers something like, "100 million gazillion!")

So...

THE CHICKENS

They are large.
They are feathery.
They are not as creepy as I remember from my own childhood.
They live outside (because chickens in your basement start to stink in a HURRY!)
They still don't lay eggs yet.
One or two might be roosters - we are still not sure.
They are all still alive!
They are the easiest pets we could ever have!

Overall, if they ever produce eggs I will be able to say that I love having chickens. If they don't, they will be our 10 most expensive chicken dinners ever (already gone through 3 large bags of feed).

BIRTHDAYS
Birthdays came and went this year. We celebrated, we ate cake, they got presents. All the boys are now one year older. The end.






BRACES

Ethan is now the only 2nd grader in his school to have braces. He has had them for a few months now and is really doing well with them. He has to wear headgear every night, and he almost never complains about it. In fact, at first he wanted to wear it to school to show it off. (I didn't let him. It's one thing to let him be himself. Wearing headgear to school voluntarily crosses the line. It's like putting a giant sign that says, "beat me up" on his back.)

He will have the braces for about a year, at which time they will have hopefully widened his palete (sp?) and corrected his overbite, in addition to straightening his top front teeth. In a few years when all his permanent teeth come in, they say he will need a second round. I am thinking if they are reasonably good by then, we may just call it a day and move on to saving for Jake's braces. By then Ryan might actually get his braces off, or his teeth will have rotted out of his head by then. I have my suspicions about which will happen first, but we'll see.


YARD PROJECTS
I have given up. My dreams have been squashed right out. Between Brandon and the deer, I realize that I cannot make my yard look the way I want it to (I have a vision of a park in my head... so maybe it IS a bit unreasonable). Anyway, I have decided to consolidate my efforts to certain areas and just mow the rest down. I have also decided to quit buying plants for the deer to eat (although they really seem to like most of my choices.)

On the plus side, we have a garden again this year. I am excited to eat fresh produce in a month or two. We have already harvested about 20 gazillion cups of rhubarb. If there is anybody out there (that lives near me) that would like some fresh rhubarb, let me know! I still have some in the freezer from last year that we didn't get to. Ryan already has this batch washed and cut into cubes. All yours if you want it. And speaking of rhubarb, check out the berry-rhubarb pie I made. All by myself! (Used Grandma Jerry's recipe and it was delish!) If you promise to take some rhubarb I will give you the recipe for free.

HOUSE PROJECTS
We decided to finish our basement. We hung a few sheets of sheetrock. We bought some lumber and framed up two walls. That was a month ago and nothing else has been done since. The end.

Oh, and I did do a little work on Ryan's room. Although it is not completely finished, I did complete the bed for his room. I wanted him to have a couch/bed so he could sit up there with his friends and play video games, etc. Kind of a manly version of a daybed. I thought of just buying a futon (would've been way easier), but he would never make it or put it back up into couch position, so I know it would always just look like a mess. This photo was taken right after I finished putting the bed up, before Ryan had even gotten home from school. I am pretty sure the bed will never be made this neatly ever again. Ever.


SOCCER

Spring soccer ended. I have no pictures to show for it. I gave up trying to take sports pictures about a year ago. there are many reasons....which I won't go into. Anyway, Ryan tried out for the select team with his coach from last year and made it. We are very proud, and now we will be starting up soccer again in a few weeks. Ethan is also signed up for next year. In his last game this spring he scored a goal and blocked two as goalie! (This has never been done before ) Of course Brandon and I were both working so we missed it :( In the fall, Jake will also be playing soccer. I'm really not sure how that is going to go. Or how I am going to get three boys to different games and/or practices. I think I was a little crazy when I signed them up. Probably up past my bedtime messing around on the computer. I really should know better.

OTHER STUFF
One day while babysitting a friend of Jake's they disappeared from outside. I went inside after a few minutes of their absence to see what they were up to. turns out they were hungry. Jake had two frying pans on the stove. He had a 1 1/2 dozen egg container on the shelf, ripped open. Every single egg was out of the container and sitting loose on the countertop. When I asked what they were doing, he said, "Me and her were hungry so we decided to make some eggs!" There are so many things about this situation that could have gone terribly wrong... let's just say that NONE of the 18 eggs had been cracked or dropped yet, and the burners were not on yet. I'm sure it was only a matter of time.

(This is him in trouble, after I had picked up part of the mess. Then I realized that because it wasn't a disaster, it was actually kind of funny. I wish I would've gotten a picture of what it looked like when I walked in. Notice he even got out the Pam so they wouldn't stick, and some pepper for seasoning!)


THE SMOLDER
If you haven't yet seen Tangled, the new Disney cartoon, you should. It is out on video. When we watched it, my boys laughed at several parts. One in particular has stuck with us: the smolder scene. Here it is in case you forgot or haven't seen it yet:

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip_0CFKTO9E

Anyway, all my boys think they can do 'the smolder.' Have a look, and you'll know that I do not have to worry about girls knocking down our door anytime soon!

Oh, and here are a few different versions by Ethan and Jake - each equally disturbing.



And I just thought this picture was cute:

We have new neighbors! We love having Mae, Rachael, and Jordan live next door. The boys especially just think Mae is the cutest thing ever. She seems to like them too, although if I were her I'd keep a healthy distance, especially from Jake!

Science Fair

First place! Let me brag for a moment about my cute Ethan. He was really excited about the school science fair and worked really hard on his project. A blue, construction paper first place ribbon was his prize, and he was thrilled! Yeah for science fair ribbons and poster board!

P-Hoe-Nix

Did anyone else ever see that commercial for some airline where they person mispronounced Phoenix? I always think of it that way now...

So we went there. To Phoenix, I mean. About a month ago. And I am just posting about it now because I finally took all the photos off my camera and realized I hadn't documented our trip at all.

In a nutshell, it was fun, relaxing, entertaining, and above all, WARM! Blessed sunshine and temps in the 70's and 80's a few days. Ahhhhh. Then we had to come back home and along with cold weather, we all got sick. Well I didn't, thank goodness, but the kids all did and Ryan missed so much school that he couldn't play basketball. Bummer for him but he took it pretty well. Nothing ruffles that kid. Anyway, at least we avoided being sick on our trip, at least for the most part. MUCH better than last year's trip!

Had a blast staying with Jaimee and Jon. Loved their new house and neighborhood. Almost convinced we should move there, but not quite. Loved seeing cousins. All those cute little ones at Jaimee's house and Max too. SO cute!

all tired out :





don't know why 'A-la-la' and the boys are sideways. thought I fixed that.

While I think Jake liked seeing his cousins, he definitely did not like being replaced as the baby. At one point he said to Max (under his breath, but thank goodness Dad has super hearing/lip reading abilities):

"Max, you're NOT awesome! You're stupid! I hate you!"

When asked what he had just said, Jake replied, "I said, I love you, Mom!"

Nice try, dude!

We had fun in Page, too. We got to hang out with Grandpa, Grandma, Lindsey, Paul, and Max. Took a really cool hike to "the Wave," which I totally recommend if you have 4wd and don't have to take 4 kids along with you. (It's 6 miles there and back - but I have to say the kids were pretty awesome! Makes for quite a workout carrying one piggyback halfway, too!)

boys with the Hiwatha bone they found. it is a made-up creature that has made hiking so much better for our family. it drops candy on the trail for kids to find... if they don't whine.

And we got a dusting of snow-argh!- while in northern AZ. Were'nt we trying to get away from this?


We were sad to leave, but unfortunately we cannot afford to sustain a permanent state of vacation (not yet, anyway. We have been waiting for Publishers Clearinghouse to make that dream a reality. Any day now...).


Thanks again to all our grandparents/cousins/aunts/uncles/friends who made our trip so much FUN!>