As Far As It Is Translated Correctly

The funny of the week – one of my favorite yet: I was doing Sharing Time at church, and Morgan volunteered to read the scripture for me. It was the one in Genesis about Isaac and Abraham going into the wilderness to make the sacrifice. Morgan’s teacher was letting her read off of her little palm-pilot thing, which has the scriptures on it. In the middle of her reading she stopped, so I, not really paying attention to where she was at, was frantically trying to find the spot, assuming that she needed help with a word. Then I hear her teacher lean over and whisper to her “ass.” Morgan looks around for a second with big eyes and then says “ass,” and then continued on with her reading. Later when we got home she was telling me about the cool thing that Sister Walker had (the palm-pilot) and how she wanted one for Christmas. Then after a beat she said, “but I don’t know why Sister Walker’s had the 'A-word' on it.” I couldn’t contain my laughter.

‘Tis the Season

What a crazy, busy time of the year. I’m hoping to finish wrapping up (hardy-har) the loose ends so that we might have at least a week to enjoy the peace and purpose of the season.

The quick updates:

We had a fun visit with the Wards. The guys went hunting every day and Amy and I . . . well, actually, I am not really sure what we did most days, but whatever filled our time, I enjoyed it immensely. We did the “Black Friday” after Thanksgiving Day sales. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed them quite as much, and I am quite certain I have never shopped that long. We left at 5:00 am and got home just before 9:00 pm, if I remember correctly. The time between noon and when we got home was the two of us (and Taylor) wandering around in a glazed-over daze. It was strangely nice. I can only compare it to a runner’s high, back in my Cross Country days. Maybe that is how people become shopaholics.

The only drawback to the visit is that after they left, SD seemed more lonely and remote than before. As soon as I am sure we’re staying put here for a while I’m going to start offering incentives to friends and family to encourage some relocation in this direction. Considering the size of our ward I think it might be possible to get some backing from the church. However, in light of our ward budget, I am pretty sure this support wouldn’t be of the financial nature!

On the home front, Daniel and I did an exhausting push to get the rooms painted and the trim stained, varnished, and hung so that our carpet could be put in this week. It was a success and the rooms are usable now, but so far we’ve been too tired and had too many outside obligations to move anything into them. It’s kind of a sad irony actually; as they are sitting there virtually empty after all this rush to have them ready. Maybe by Christmas, or New Years, or . . . .

Lactose Free Contagable Gratitude

Not too much going on around here. We are anxiously awaiting our Thanksgiving visitors from ID. It sounds like the weather is changing so I am hoping for clear roads and smooth travels for them, in spite of the forecasts.

Our bedrooms are now taped. Texture will be done tomorrow. However, the Wards will also be here tomorrow, so it will, unfortunately, be less than ideal sleeping accommodations. The only reason that this is so distressing is because if I would have just left it alone in the first place there would be more options than there are now, but because I decided to really put the push on finishing the rooms we're left in a quandry. Oh, well, I'll appreciate it come Christmas and all will be in order, at least I hope so. . . .

Quotes of the week

Morgan’s: “If Emily was my mom I’d be grateful, then I could eat candy all day.”

Emily: While making her hands into a bowl shape with a beseeching look. “Cereal, please. I made a bowl” and after a thoughtful pause she clarified with, “but no milk.”

Rylee: In response to Taylor’s allergic rash from amoxicillin: “Is that contagable?” ( I think she just coined a new phrase for our household!)

Under Construction

This week we’ve been under the gun. Not the gun that Daniel is wishing for, however. We have two unfinished bedrooms in the basement that we need to get finished (ASAP), as our little family of six just won’t fit into two bedrooms anymore (the girls have actually been sleeping in one of the unfinished ones, but enough is enough). In calling around to get quotes for having the tape/texture done I was able to get the guy who did the rest of the house. I, of course, was thrilled about this because I want the house to look consistent throughout for resale. The only drawback was that he was going to be in town in less than a week from when I talked to him and we still needed to finish framing in a closet, running the electrical outlets, and hang sheet rock.

Well, needless to say, Daniel has been working all day at work and then coming home and slaving in the rooms. We (He really – I’ve only played the role of Vanna White; doing menial tasks, smiling encouragingly, and prancing around in scanty formal wear - oh, well not actually the last, but perhaps that would have made Daniel a little bit more positive about the whole project!) have got it all done except for some sheetrock in the closets. I even have the carpet ordered and ready to be installed next Tuesday so it will be in place for our Thanksgiving visitors. So what are the chances, but Saturday we find out that the tape/texture guy got called up for JURY DUTY this week so will not come until after he is done with it. ARRRRGHGHGHGHGH!!!! I suggested that he spout some strongly inflammatory views during the Jury selection so that he gets dismissed. I believe this was already his intention – so at least we are on the same page there.

Oh, well, I guess the rooms will still get finished sooner or later. I was just hoping we would have a nice place for the Wards to stay when they come. (Note to Wards: Now that I have put it on the internet that you are coming there is no backing out, since if it’s on the Web it’s fact.) Hopefully it won’t matter because most of our time should be spent doing something fun (shopping, eating, and playing games?) and the guys will probably be out hunting, so who needs lots of rooms anyway?

Trick-or-Treat

We had a fun Halloween this year. We didn't make it to all the fun events, but were able to take the girls trick-or-treating. They got a pretty impressive haul and had lots of fun with their "buddies." Rylee was a vampire/witch/snake from Harry Potter. She created this all on her own and enjoyed, for the first time ever, being particularly gory. The pictures are probably too small to see the "blood" running out the corners of her mouth. Morgan pulled off a great Mummy. She really played it up. Emily was a princess, but it got too cold so we put her coat underneath her costume. She then became a "Portly Princess." Daniel thought we should paint her face green and she could be Fiona from Shrek. I thought he was pretty clever! Daniel and I dressed up as tired, grouchy parents. I think we were pretty convincing.

One-of-a-Kind Designs

What is THIS?

Truth be told, I am not sure either. Morgan's job was to clean my bathroom. When I came in after she was done to check it (about 2 hours later!!! She finds ways to entertain herself in any room), the bathroom was moderately clean and she had engineered this little contraption. When I asked her about it she had a lengthy explanation that included hoping to find a little pad of paper and wanting to figure out how to attach it nearby so it would be "handy." I refrained from bringing to her attention the "handy" roll of little papers near the toilet. She keeps us laughing.

Off With Your Hair

I went through the big change and am loving it. I have to post the before and after pictures for the interested parties that have requested it. Most of you have seen me with short hair, so it is not too shocking. However, I've gotten some funny comments here in SD, as it has been growing long since we have been here. Going outside in the wind is the only drawback to the cut. I don't have any neck insulation now. Thank goodness for my fun scarves that I got in NY!

Disclaimer

As you have noticed, we figured out how to put music on our Blog. This led us to the realization that we may need separate blogs, due to some discrepancies in taste. I must admit, it was an enlightening experience for a plethora of reasons, the most obvious being that we have not updated our taste in music since our early college (aka. single ) days. Furthermore, we have no genre, as is obvious from the random selection - Johny Cash to Veggie Tales?

It was also an informative experience for me just to see that side of Daniel. For a man who cannot carry a tune (this is not Kari being mean here, he's very familiar and open with the fact!) he sure gets excited about music. All types of music. Music that was popular when we were in high school, middle school, and well, quite frankly, music that perhaps should not have been popular at all.

Therefore, my disclaimer is this, Daniel chose most of the music on this blog with Kari editing out some of the more annoying ones. I will admit I threw in four or five of the songs, and mine really had no more rhyme, reason, or taste than Daniel's choices. Quite frankly you will probably not be able to differentiate, which means that we're both really quite "Pop Culture" illiterate. I did put my foot down at his selection of "We Built this City on Rock and Roll" and a couple more choice songs. He's also insisted on "One Hot Mama" for our #1 song, which is sweet and flattering. But just between you and me, I think he's really hoping I'll get the, not so subtle, underlying message every time I check my blog. Wish him luck!

On the Move

This week it has been fun to see all the growth and changes in the girls. Sometimes it seems like things roll along just the same all the time, then all of the sudden you notice that they are growing up. Rylee and Morgan have been so good and helpful lately. We had Monday off of school for Columbus Day (it is actually Native American Day in South Dakota, which, seriously, how P.C. are we going to have to get?), so the girls and I went to the Kirby Science Museum in Sioux Falls, followed by some serious bargain shopping (I realize that is kind of an oxymoron). Amazingly enough, we were gone for almost 12 hours and we had only one minor meltdown by Emily. I think that is nearly miraculous. Furthermore, today Daniel and I were even able to get in a couple hour nap and the big girls took care of both little girls the whole time (I was sure we would be left alone for 15 min max when laying down). I’m feeling optimistic about having a little more freedom, in the next couple of years anyhow.

Some of the kid’s funnies for the week:

Rylee, while sitting talking with dad and sisters stated, “Dad, Mom actually knew something.” It’s sad when this becomes news worth sharing with the family.

Morgan, in response to me saying she could count scripture reading toward the 200 minute Pizza Hut Book it program. “Yea, but I’d rather read something fun. . . errmm . . . more interestinger, like a fun Junie B. Jones book or a book about Egypt or something.” (*Author’s note – if you get past the part that the parents have obviously not taught their children a love for the scriptures, who ever thought to rank a Junie B. Jones book and a book about Egypt in the same category?)

Emily, when walking into the kitchen after I had washed dishes and scrubbed the floors for the first time in – well, you don’t really need to know that part: “Wow, Mom! It’s ashly tleen” which can be translated into “actually clean.” Later that day she was playing with a penny and pretending to pull it out of her ear or her belly button. You know the trick. Well, word to the wise, don’t turn around when a two year old is being a magician. I never realized I had money coming out my . . . .

Taylor is starting to try to get around. If I can figure out how to get a little video attached you can see where she’s at. She also learned to wave this week. It is so sweet, and her big smiles show us how proud she is of herself.

Wet Floor

I know I already posted one today, but I inadvertently came across this picture. This occured one day,or rather one of the many days, that I was feeling particularly unappreciated by my family (as in, “I really don’t get paid enough to do the things that I do around here!”) I came home to find a big puddle of water on our kitchen linoleum and this sign lying in it.

Clever, Morgan! I mean, seriously, all the effort to make a sign to warn people about the spill might as well be appreciated. It’s not like it would have been faster to just clean up the mess, right? You gotta love 'em.

Labors o' Love

I had to share the pictures of my labors over the weekend.

Lets just say 45 jars of applesauce (24 of which were done last week, not over the weekend), 13 jars of apple pie filling, and 14 jars of canned tomatoes, all done solo. (Hand on the forehead, and laborious “woe is me” sigh goes here). I left it all out on the counter for when Daniel got home, sure that he would be awed with my labors of love. Apparently it wasn’t that impressive because I didn’t hear him singing accolades. However, that may be in part due to the fact that by the time he got home you could no longer see the canning jars for the stacks of both clean and dirty dishes, dirty dish towels and, for fear of life, he probably had to watch where he was placing his feet on the area formerly known as our kitchen floor. Emily and Taylor were equally impressed, as you can see by Taylor’s enthusiastically supportive expression.

I think the only one who really appreciated my canning was Rylee because she got an early release day from school so she could (don’t pass this on to the good mothers of the world – or Social Services or the South Dakota Dept. of Education for that matter) take Emily downstairs and watch TV for a few hours so I could get something done uninterrupted. Hey, a woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do!

Improper Influences

I just cleaned the bugs out of my teeth, so I could communicate without embarrassment. This fast internet is such a rush. I am currently talking on the phone, (sorry to multitask during our conversation Amy) and blogging at the same time. Isn’t that cool? I know it is probably not a novelty to the rest of you, but wow, it’s a whole new world!

So, the here’s the latest. Rylee and Morgan did an “Extreme Mommy Makeover” (their words, not mine) on me this last weekend. Rylee did my hair, changed my earrings to some big dangly ones (she told me I look like my cousin Emma with the earrings in – so sorry Emma, I am sure she didn’t mean it!), and they both fought over doing the makeup. Morgan did the eyebrows with eye shadow, then proceeded to stand back and say, “Wow, that really make your eyebrows stand out. Just like a boy peacock who wants to get married.” Now that’s not a compliment a person earns every day! It was some makeover, I tell you.

After looking at the “painted woman” in the mirror, I concluded that I must be a poor influence on the girls when we have too much time on our own without Daniel around. Last time it was just us girls we visited Wall Drug on our way back from our big summer trip. I had the girls pose with some of the funny statues they have there, one of which was a very immodestly dressed barmaid type lady. I told the girls to look shocked and try to cover her up to make her more modest. As you can see from the results they apparently ended up fondling her while gazing intently at all her exposed skin. I got “the look” from Daniel, as you can guess, when he saw the pictures.

He, on the other hand, works all the long hours, both day and night, for so little appreciation from home. This was made obvious through a conversation we had this week. The Papa Murphy’s here does a Tuesday special, which I, being in a rush and exhausted, decided to get this week. When I came out with just a pizza the girls started complaining about us not getting breadsticks or cookie dough. I proceeded to lecture them about being grateful for what they are getting and how we don’t have money to waste on all the extras, and so on. Then I hear Rylee turn to Morgan and say, “Yea, Morgan, Dad’s not doing so well right now.” Poor man, at least he has Emily as his own personal cheerleader to make him feel loved and appreciated when he comes home and who loves to “Kiss da window” (blow kisses out the window as he drives away) when he leaves. Everyone needs an uninhibited admirer. We all really do love our “man of the house!”

Sleepless Nights On Order . . .

Just thought I would make an official announcement. We are adding another little addition to the household. It should keep us occupied and up all night. It is a little more expensive than I am comfortable with, but we decided to move up in the world. Yep, were getting DSL, so no more dial-up. Now I will now have no excuses for not updating this blog. By the end of this week we’ll be up and running. I’ll see if it takes less than three hours to upload my “Total Mommy Make-over” pictures (Just for anticipation – Morgan made a direct comparison between me and a boy peacock, direct quote coming this week!). If there is no marked improvement I will see if People PC will take me back.

That is actually a funny story in itself. My sister had People PC dial-up internet and decided to go to DSL so she called to cancel and they kept offering her the service at a lower and lower price (down to $1.99 for 6 months or something outlandishly low), and then she had to lose her temper to get them to just cancel her. So, of course, my thought is, why am I paying so much, dealing with only one dial-up number, and feeling lucky to get speeds above 50 Kbps and still paying full price for it? So I called and explained the problems, knowing that when they offer the service to me at a lower price I would “decide” to take it for a couple of months at least. Only, go figure, they said, “you’re right, there is only one access number for your address,” and proceeded to then and there cancel my account and reimburse me my payment.

I had to do some pretty fast back tracking just to ensure that I had internet for the rest of the month while I looked for something else; thus the current upgrade. Ah, well, it’s typical enough for my life I should have expected it. So, here’s to modernization and zippy fast speed (or as our new internet calls it “VROOM internet, feel the wind in your hair and the bugs in your teeth.” Yummy!).

Look, Mom, No Hands . . .

So I had an epiphany moment today. I was trying to do something, one of the many daily, mundane, no-big-deal things that I do all the time, yet I could feel my temper rising and my frustration mounting. Of course this all became evident when one of the girls asked me a question and I barked back at them that I couldn’t listen right then because I was busy. The very small sane portion of my brain then piped in “What, you can’t listen and work at the same time?” I proceeded to put whichever baby was in arms at the moment down and, in spite of the crying (not mine, I might add), I felt a little bit better. I then and there realized that the world is just a whole lot easier to manage when you are doing things with two hands instead of one. Now, I know this seems fairly obvious, yet with a toddler and a baby sometimes a person can no longer see the obvious.

This further led me to consider something that I had stated long ago, which is that every time a woman gives birth she should also sprout and extra set of arms. I know it sounds strange, but think of the practicality of the system. A pair of arms per child, and the original pair as a spare to get everything else done. Then when you go to the grocery store and, hypothetically speaking of course, two of your kids are screaming and the other two are playing tag around the cart the old woman who passes you would no longer say, “Wow, you really have your hands full.” You would have enough hands to engage each one of the little beasties, so you could smile at her and say, “Oh, I see you had four as well.” Darwin didn’t put a limit on the evolutionary timeline did he?

Rylee's Haircut

This one is for my mom, who has been so diligent in checking to see if Rylee's new haircut has been posted. It's not the best picture of the haircut, it was taken at the end of a very humid day, which, as we all know, means absolute destruction for hair with any curling tendencies. Nevertheless, the girl is still as cute as can be!

Blue and Gold

The girls are starting fall soccer this week. We went to their orientation meeting and they were given their jerseys. They told us that the kids should wear the blue side for home games and the yellow for away games. That seemed fairly easy to remember, since it was just how I was feeling after getting back from our long vacation; home is blue, away is gold.

However, I expressed these sentiments to my SD friend Amy and the resulting conversation led me to believe that I had better work on considering SD home. So here goes my change of attitude (okay, all of you AF folks know that I would be considering SD my SECOND home, because I already planted my roots there in Idaho!). Therefore, for the remainder of the blog I'll attempt to keep my positive, gold attitude (although the blue might occasionally offer a more thorough explanation from within the boundaries of the brackets).

A brief synopsis of the last months, for the few who are dying to know (I know, I flatter myself that there are even that many!). We had a wonderful, whirlwind trip to ID, OR, and WA. In the process we got to visit Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Newport, OR, and pretty much all of Montana, which if you’ve seen one part of it, I think you’ve seen it all. The kids were great travelers (with the exception of the various random bodily eruptions throughout the drive, as a result of an atypical stomach flu); the “beast” was not. Sorry, Emily, you’ve earned all rights and privileges to the name. We loved seeing friends and family again. When we were looking through our pictures from the trip Rylee said “I just can’t STAND looking at them, I want to be there.” I think we all realized how far away we really live when it took us the three very, very, very long days to get home.

Now we’re jumping back into reality, with school biting us on the toes. Morgan goes back to school on Thursday. We’ve decided to home school Rylee this year. Yikes!.?!..! Need I say more? Oh, yeah, I’m supposed to be looking for the gold. . . I guess that’s next week’s blog. :}

Sensible in SD

Add another “morganism” to the lot. Yesterday we went on a walk around the neighborhood. A guy that was working in his yard stopped us and asked if we knew anything about baby bunnies because he accidentally stepped on one while doing yard work and didn’t know what to do with it. Long story short the girls wanted to take it home, I said we should wait and see if it finds its nest. On the walk home I was explaining to the girls that our house is more dangerous for the bunny than where it was because we have three animals who would love to eat that little bunny. I explained that, besides this, baby bunnies usually die if they aren’t with their mom. Morgan later came up to me and said, “I know mom, we can try to keep the baby bunny, but if it dies we can just feed it to the cat.” Now there’s a pragmatic thinker.

Just “Rosie”

I have recently had a couple of what we call “Morganisms,” the funny things that Morgan’s little mind comes up with which pop out her mouth. She frequently makes us laugh because she has such clear observations and clever plays on the English language. In the past we’ve gotten things like when I express surprise at something, or say that I didn’t know something her very matter of fact response was “Well, now you learned something.”

Today’s was funnier in person I am sure, but it was cute to listen to. Emily got Roseolla, (which I apparently have no idea how to spell and am too lazy to look up right now) so she is running a high fever and has an upset stomach. She had already thrown up and I had taken the bowl away to wash, and was currently nursing the baby when she started calling out that she had to puke again. I hollered to Morgan to show her how to puke in the toilet, since I couldn’t get another puke bowl for a minute. These were her instructions. In a very teacherly tone she said, “Emily, you pick up both of these seats like this, then you lean over, put your head in and puke.” Can’t beat that for clarity!

Her other is one of those “proud mother” moments (read in the sarcasm here) as we were testing the girl’s recognition of the general authorities of the church. Daniel covered up the name and just showed the picture of Thomas S. Monson and asked the girls who he was. They both hemmed and hawed for a moment and then Morgan hollered out, “I know, it’s Marvin B. Kimball.” Good try Morgan – two prophets and an apostle in one shot. Too bad none of them matched the picture.

Subsisting in South Dakota

I’ve recently been informed on many fronts that the piano on this blog is getting a little bit boring and we need to update. I guess life has been a little bit busy lately. We are trying to get our yard in, which is an endless project. We just put in planter boxes for our garden and a hedge along the back of the yard. I was able to get a bunch of perennial starts from the seeds that Amy, Kristie and I gathered from my ID garden. We’ll see how everything survives while we’re away on our summer adventure.

The kids started their summer vacation with a bang since their “Grandma Cow” (this is not referring to any of her personal physical attributes or odors, rather, it is a reference to the cows that they had on their farm from when Rylee was a toddler and met, at minimum, about 5 grandparents in a matter of weeks. She gave each a nickname since some of the greats and grands had the same last names, therefore we ended up with G&G Cow, G&G No David – later shortened to David, G&G Cheese – no idea how that came about, and G&G Zeba. None of the names are terribly flattering, but they stuck!) So with Grandma Cow we were able to see more of SD than we have since we moved here. We went to the Zoo and saw some water falls and went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead. (Gwen, you can pass along to Emily W. that it is worth the drive when her kids are a bit older.) The kids had a great time there. They got to make ropes, corncob dolls, and drive a team of horses to the school where they participated in a small class. Then they went on lots of pony rides. We hit it before the busy season, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was very fun. One more reason for somebody to come visit us. Anyone. Anyone! Anyone? Well, keep it in mind.

I’ve attached the picture of our home in SD. I told you all we moved into a brand new house. Did I forget to mention that it was made out of sod? It’s right in my price range though. It costed (in the 1800’s) about $2.50 to build. Now that is a mortgage I can handle!

Dreams Really Do Come True

As most of you who know me well may recall, I have wanted a piano for our little, or more currently not-so-little, family for years. Unfortunately, the desire has been held strongly in check by my over-riding compulsive cheapness. Well, sometimes it pays off to put off! Ladies and Gentlemen, Kari has purchased a piano! The best part is that I got one that I didn't even have to endure the expected suffering from post-purchase regret for many sleepless nights afterwards. (Well, lets be realistic here, I always have post purchase regrets, thus my many $2.00 or less returns and my "black-list record" at Walmart, but that's a whole other blog). I found a "vintage" - yes, that does mean old in any other context - piano that plays with character, if not perfect consistency, and all of this for only $75.00. Seriously, though, it was tuned today and it sounds pretty decent, if I do say so myself. Plus, as a free bonus, it was in great condition, with nary a scratch on it (until we had the elders quorum move it, so now there are a couple significant ones) and the wood matches that of my house. Miracles never cease!

How Sweet It Is . . .

Taylor is getting to the sweet stage where she will smile in response to others - especially her mother! :) So I thought I would share some of her sweet smiles. She gave her first laugh-out-loud belly laugh today. I think I'm getting old and sentimental or am just extremely hormonal, with a strong additive of sleep deprivation, but it was so sweet it made me tear-up. Fortunately for me I am getting to be very familiar with looking foolish in front of others, since the piano tuner guy was here watching the whole exchange. Oh well, if your going to be sappy in front of someone, it might as well be the "piano man" right?

"I Solemnly Swear I am Up to No Good!"

Emily is obviously our hot topic this week, as she is all about being an independent two year old. After being home with her most of the day on Saturday Daniel stated, “She is into everything today.” Morgan’s most recent line when she has something to tell a person is “I’m sorry to say, but . . .” That’s what came to mind when Daniel said this, of course. I’m sorry to say, but she’s like this most other days as well. Regardless, Saturday ended with her having been in her big sister’s jewelry, mom’s chap stick, and Taylor’s Desitin. I was suitably impressed, however, that the Desitin did go on the appropriate spot on the bunny’s bum. However, I was less impressed with the quantity on the carpet and the wall. We’ll see how well it washes out!

Sunday brought a new caper, of course. Today it was lipstick, as depicted in the picture. The funniest thing about it was when she saw her own face in the mirror. She was as proud as could be just moments before, but when we got in the bathroom she was open-mouth, horrified. She looked as if she would cry – I think she thought the “baby” in the mirror was bleeding from a nasty neck wound – and she would probably have proceeded with her melt down, but I couldn’t help laughing out loud at her expression. Now she’s cleaned up and in bed, we’ll look for a solution for getting lip stick out of her church clothes tomorrow. So for now, the line from Harry Potter comes to mind, “mischief managed!”

Too Much Independence?

Daniel is concerned that the girls are encouraged toward a little too much independence at too young of an age. From the time they are two they are able to get themselves dressed (if we are going in public I do some editing of the outfits and hair) and are fairly capable of getting themselves some food to eat and, within reason, something to drink.

He felt that it was a little sad when Morgan was making herself peanut butter and jelly sandwichs at two - but really, I would have gotten around to feeding her eventually I just forget to keep a schedule when working on other projects. :) Well, we seem to have a repeat with Emily. I heard her scooting her chair around the kitchen and went in and she had all of the required paraphernalia for pb&j's out. She wouldn't accept help so I let her go for it. I was so impressed with her first creation I thought I'd share it. Not too bad for a girl who's just barely two!

Kari Progresses into the Computer Age

We are up and running in South Dakota. The Blog is on, with intent to keep updated at least weekly, (is that possible - as I don't even check my e-mail that often?) so we can keep in touch with all of our distant friends and family!

Now I just need some instruction on how to add pictures and make my page as cute as you Idaho gals do!