House and other Updates

So, I've been really busy working on getting the house ready for move in...actually moving in...and then unpacking. I've painted in total 7 rooms including the kitchen, formal living, dining, Conner & Gavin's bedroom, master bedroom, CJay's bedroom and the family room. It was a lot to do in one month, but I'm glad I spent the time before there was furniture in the house. It makes it a lot easier. I found out that I am OCD when it comes to painting. I like it done just so and no one else can do it like me. Now that is good or bad...it has to look uniform!
It's been about a month since we moved in and almost all of the boxes are unpacked and it's really starting to feel like home. I am so thankful that we were able to purchase this home. I think it's the perfect house for us and we got it for a great deal. I'm looking forward to making things better every year, without spending as much money. Yes, that's right...it's time for major savings mode again. I can't believe that Karl has finally beaten that into my brain, but it is so worth it. We were able to do all the fix-ups and necessary purchases without putting anything on credit. That was not the case for me 10 years ago so I have a personal testimony of how wonderful that feels.
I've got a couple before pics posted and if I get around to unpacking the camera I will post some after shots too. I am totally thankful to my sweet sister who's expert decorating advice has made this home come to life. I'm sure we will never again live in a place that has only white walls...even if I have to get permission from the renter to paint it!
I've found facebook in the past few months and it's been really fun. It is so neat to see people who I knew from my youth and what wonderful things they are doing with their lives. It's also another great way to keep in contact with family...so keep in contact FAMILY!! :-)
My in-laws are coming into town tonight and I am in total need of a refill. My mom and sister were here in May/June and I was really sad to see them leave. I am definitely a family person, which makes living in a state 2,000 miles away on your own difficult. We do have a lot of friends in the area who take care of us and they are a blessing.
Thanks to my wonderful husband and children. I fear I have almost worked Karl to death the past month. He told me the other night that he was glad I'm not his boss because he wouldn't be a live to see the next day. I hope I'm not THAT bad.
The boys are fighting...again. Time to break it up...

All about Gavin

There are a few things you should know before you continue to the main thrust of this anecdote. First, I am eating a piece of Key Lime pie as I write, before I dive into the woods for 4 days tomorrow. Guilt free pie tastes GREAT!

Second, Gavin has an unhealthy obsession with cars. He gets really excited to see cars and trucks on the road, and gets upset when cars are damaged on television. He was beside himself, totally upset at a trailer for Transformers when Bumblebee transformed from a car into his anthropomorphic form.

Today was Gavin's first trip to Sears, and he went crazy. I had to go pick up a filter for our shop vac, and we entered Sears in the tool department. Gavin took off like a shot, and all I saw was Conni trying to keep up, as he literally ran from the saws to the lawnmowers, touching and laughing at everything he could see.

I wish I had a camcorder, so that you could see for yourself this little redhead with a smile bigger than his face, touching and pushing and running as fast as his stubby legs could carry him from shiny tool to fascinating object. I thought I liked tools, but I was completely outclassed.

He didn't want to leave, and he loves riding in the car more than anything. I guess I should make that "he loved riding in the car more than anything". When at the door, Conni and I said, "Let's go, Gavin, to the car." he said, "No" and ran back into the tools section, all legs and arms and red hair. I swear, he was not that excited on Christmas morning.

Also, he threw a box of nails for a nail gun. The box had to weigh 5 pounds, and he had this enormous grin, which said "This place is WONDERFUL". I had to run to the end of the aisle to stop him from throwing a second box. That kid will be the death of my tool box, I just know it.

Finally sain enough to post

So, It's been like 2 months since my last post and I am feeling pretty positive about how long I've stayed on the "non-blogging" wagon. Seriously...

We had a REALLY stressful month of May waiting for the house to close. My mom came and went, my sister came and went...4 days later we finally got the keys to the house. Yeah!! (I'll let Karl timeline our home buying experience)

It's been a week and a half and we've started the transformation. Last week we started moving boxes in. This week we spent Monday night weeding the front/side yard and planting flowers. Tuesday we had the sump pump system replaced, fios installed and the new washer/dryer and fridge delivered. Tomorrow we're having drywall work done and then I can start painting! I am excited and a lot overwhelmed at the painting that needs to be done. I think it will definitely complete the house for us.

The kids are happy to be on summer vacation. It's only been 5 days and I'm ready for MY summer vacation away from them! CJay is preparing to leave for Salt Lake City on Monday for 3 1/2 weeks and I am not looking forward to him being away. I know he will have a great time though and that's what matters most. Conner is asking to take swimming lessons along with his weekly fencing lessons with Karl and CJay. Gavin is getting into everything and he's quite a bit OCD. He is the neatest little boy I've seen. I am really enjoying being home with him. I think I missed a lot of CJay and Conner's childhood when I worked.

Words of Advice: Part 1

Always question whether your actions lead to your desired results. Then question the worthiness of your desires.

I was pondering on self-correcting behavior, and if I had one piece of advice to give, that would be true for a lifetime, what would it be. Specifically, I was aiming this at my children.

Also, Mom asked me to detail our housing struggle, so you have THAT to look forward to.

Yes, I realize I ended that sentence with a preposition, which now allows me to quote Winston Churchill, when it was pointed out to him that he had done the same:

"This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."

Stop and Smell the Flowers

My sister Nat has been in town the past week for a visit. We have had SO much fun! Today we took these pictures outside our townhome. (Yes I planted them with my own two hands!)

Home Sweet Home: Part Deux

We received a ratified contract from our lender last night...it's now official!! My sister Nat and I are heading over today to discuss plans for decorating, how exciting! I won't pinch myself until I'm standing at the front door holding the keys...

A story about Amish cheese...

I don't know what it is with Amish cheese, but I swear it has a mind of it's own!!

It all started last year. We stopped in at one of our FAVORITE places in Northern Pennslyvania, The Shillig House! Where we used to live has several Amish communities in the area and the Shilligs have become good friends with a number of them. From what I've observed, most familes develop a specialty and everyone else in the community comes to you for the need you speacialze in. One particular family, which I only know as "Annie's", has a small store in their basement. Every other Thursday they receive cheese sold in large bricks/logs or any quantity you want them to cut for you. We bought a fairly large quantity, this particular visit, which is way cheaper than you'd get at the store and is awesomely good! We put it in the Shillig's fridge until we left and...you guessed it! We forgot it. I was so sad that I almost asked them to ship it to me, FedEX. :) (YW Troy) Needless to say, I'm sure they got a lot of use out of it so it softened the blow, a little.

A couple weeks ago, we decided to take another trip up to Genesee and by goodness, I was getting and bringing home my cheese this time! We went to the Amish store last Saturday, which is really cool btw, and I got about 3 lbs of Colby Jack cheese in a 1ft long log. I was so excited! We got back to the Shillig's and I put it in their fridge and told everyone to remind us to take it home. I even wrote myself a little note for packing time. Julie was cooking Easter dinner Sunday and was shredding her cheese in the food processer. I thought that was a great idea and asked if I could shred some of ours. I got it out and started shreddin'. I did half the log and put it all back in the fridge.

5 o'clock came and it was time to leave. Karl had already set the cheese bag by the door and it made it into the car...whoohoo! Unfortunately this tale doesn't have a complete happy ending so stop now if you are sqeamish. On the 6+ hour drive home Conner started in just after the first hour by saying that he felt sick and thought he might throw up. We turned off the video he was watching and had him close his eyes...it passed. Gavin hadn't slept well for his nap that day and didn't eat well at dinner just before we left. He was fast asleep through through all of Conner's drama. We had just gotten out of a state forest, Gavin woke up and within 15 minutes was throwing up all over himself and his car seat. Karl immediately pulled over and we tried our best to clean up the mess...gross! We wrapped all the soiled things in a blanket CJay brought and realized that we needed a bag...the cheese bag! CJay dumped all the cheese out and after about 20 minutes, we were on our way again. Needless to say Gavin had a couple more episodes for the duration of the drive and Karl's neat packing job was a total mess.

We got home, finally, and we unpacked the car. Karl came to me and said, "I can't find the rest of the cheese log, did you bring it in?" I hadn't and we re-checked all our bags and the car. Gone. The only thing we can come up with is that it must have rolled out of the back of the 4Runner sometime during the trip. Long story, short...we still haven't gotten home with all of our Amish cheese. We'll try again next time. At least I still have the bag I shredded, right?!

Home Sweet Home: Part 1

We put an offer in Monday morning on a house in Leesburg, VA (about 7 miles NW of Ashburn). We received a call from our agent last night and she told us that they want to work with our contract...Yipee!! We are so excited! There were 6 total offers and I seriously didn't think we'd get it.
My sister will be in town next week and hopefully she can give me some advice on decorating. More to come...

Dear Uncle Matt

CJay wrote this in church Sunday and I thought it was really cute. Matt, I can send you the original if you'd like it. I have typed it exactly how it was written...

Dear Uncle Matt,

Your one of my favorite uncles. We had to do this in church...well ty for coming to our house. It was really fun. I'm also starting viola in middle school! I also got a AWSOME new game called Pokemon Platinum! LOVE YA!!

Love, CJay

BTW Your the best!!!

How much is that toddler in the chassis rack?

As many of you know, Karl and I are professional geeks by trade. Much to my horror and surprise, a few years back his work was getting rid of some old equipment and Karl brought home this "gem" as he put it. Now, usually I don't care what kind of computer related equipment he brings into the house, but with our limited space these days...this one was hard to take in.

We've managed to incorporate it and Gavin has found another good use for it...his own personal "hiding" place. As you can see from the picture, he isn't getting much hiding done. :)

Most Exciting Trip EVER

I had to fly to NYC to discuss some ongoing litigation with a group of lawyers at the Time Warner building on Friday. To get there at 9am, I woke at 4:45, went to the airport, and waited until my flight was delayed. Then, I was moved to another plane, which sat on the runway until 10:30, because of snow in New York (check it out, it really did snow). At this point, I finished my reading material for the trip, and started contemplating an eReader, maybe a Kindle2, because being stuck on the tarmac with nothing to read really, really sucks.

The landing was okay, but I think we might have blown a tire when the pilot locked the wheels. I guess La Guardia has a short runway.

I was very grateful to see the driver at the baggage area, because we were so late. I had dutifully informed my hosts of the flight change, and I was glad to see they had changed the arrangements to meet my schedule.

I arrived at the building at 12 sharp, and initially couldn't get into the conference room because everyone was out to lunch. We plowed through a day's work in half a day, then back to the airport, after a stop at a bar in the building (yes, at that point I was pretty tempted). No further travel mishaps, and I got back to the house at 10PM. Total things seen on my trip:

2 airports
2 cars
1 building

Oh well, at least I got a key lime eclair.

Funny Things They Say

We were taking pictures the other night at dinner. (Gavin had eaten a big piece of chocolate and it was oozing out of his mouth.) After I would snap his picture he would say, "Nice". The first time he said it I thought it was an accident, then after 5 or 6 pictures I was laughing. I don't know where he picked that up, but it's pretty cute!

He's also started to express his feelings a lot more and with more than one word. We were walking outside last night to go get CJay from scouts and he said, "It scared me". I don't know what exactly scared him, but I thought it was cute anyway.

A dig on me or a dig on him??

Karl stayed home from work today to fix some plumbing on our kitchen sink. He needed to take a trip to Home Depot to get some supplies and we all decided to tag along with him (Conner, Orion, Gavin and me). We'd spent an hour in their getting the one thing we needed and 12 others we didn't. On our way out something caught Karl's eye and I heard him say, "I think I'm in love." I turned around to see what he was talking about, which was tool related, and I said, "You're in love with..." and then I stopped and looked at the brand name on the screw driver set which just happened to be Husky, but what came out of my mouth was "Hussy". He said "Yes, yes I am." We both laughed and wondered if that was a bad reflection on him or me. I only now realized that I'd read it wrong to begin with so know I feel REALLY silly!

On a side note, Karl just finished the sink and it works like a charm...no leaks. :)

My whole family is adopted

My whole family must be adopted. We have nothing in common.

We had to do some grocery shopping, and Conni hadn't decided on dinner, so I suggested that we could have some family fun time while shopping. We would go to the best grocery store in the world (Wegmans), and I told everyone they could spend $5.00 on whatever they wanted for dinner while we shopped. We would then come home and cook it. My meal (some things were already in the fridge):

• Parmesan Peppercorn baguette with a little smoked cheddar, some leftover Swiss and the last inch of a pepperoni

• Plum tomatoes with baby mozzarella, in Italian dressing

• Blood Orange Soda
  

Plus, while shopping, 1 Gorgonzola stuffed olive, and 1 blue-cheese stuffed olive, from the olive bar.

Now for the disappointing part:

Conni-Slice of cheese Pizza
CJay-Chicken Noodle soup
Conner-Salt Bagel
Gavin-Cheese Pizza

Seriously, where is the joy in that?

Per Matt's Request

I found this recipe on our Big Oven program. I couldn't find the author's name...enjoy!!


White Bean Chicken Chili

Very quick and satifying meal for cool weather. One of our family favorites. Re-heats well.

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 4
Cuisine: American
Main Ingredient: Chicken
Categories: Dinner, Chicken, American, Winter, Quick, Spicy, Soup, Main Dish

-= Ingredients =-
2 tablespoon Olive oil
1 large Onion
4 large Garlic cloves
1 tablespoon Ground Cumin
1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
1/2 teaspoon Anise seed
1/2 teaspoon ground Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Dried Red Pepper
1 pound Boneless chicken breasts
3 cans (15oz.) Cannellini Beans
1 cup Chicken broth
1 can (7oz) Diced Green Chilies
1/2 cup Whipping cream
Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Chopped fresh Cilantro

-= Instructions =-
Chop onion and garlic. Cut up chicken in to bite size pieces. Saute onions, garlic. cumin, oregano. anise seed and dried red pepper in olive oil for 5 mins. Push aside and add chicken and saute for another 5 minutes.
Add beans (with liquid), broth, chilies and cream, simmer until chicken is tender about 10 mins.

Top with cheese and cilantro.

Not Very Nice

So...I was just reading my last post and have to admit that it wasn't very Conni like. I think I was really frustrated when I wrote that, but it happens. Now you guys have seen the evil side of me. :0

Pet Peeves

So I've decided to write some of my own...

1. Organizations calling for money over the phone.

I know they can't tell how much we give to the church, but I kind of wished it would pop up with their outbound call center phone list. Then, maybe they wouldn't give me attitude when I politely say I'm not interested. Who knows...maybe we should be giving to every single person who calls for a donation so that WE can go broke and then get government assistance.

2. Let's just go with the whole housing market and all the lingo that goes with it.

We are FINALLY able to break into the housing market in Ashburn and of course we are biding on forclosures and short sale properties. We get excited when we see a house we could live with and after deciding to put in an offer we find out there are "multiple contracts" on it already. I think our first attempt there were like 6 or 7 already on the place. So who is benefiting from the market at this time??? No really, I'd like to know.

More to come...

Conni is a GREAT cook

Tonight was our ward's chili cookoff, which was a judged event. This is one of my favorite ward parties, no hokey stuff, just food and people hanging out. Not that there wasn't pressure, Conni won best mild chili last year, and this year she was hoping to repeat her success with white chicken chili. The competition is friendly, but still fairly intense. No one makes any apologies for trying to win, but everyone is pleasant about it, too.

For the setup...I got home at 5:40, we had to be at the church for CJay's Arrow of Light ceremony at 6pm. Conni was frantically trying to open cans without a can opener, Gavin having thrown away our good one, and our backup was bent and broken. The boys were trying their best to help, grating cheese and pouring the whipping cream. Conni was a whirlwind of culinary ninjitry, Iron Chef right in our kitchen. She literally poured the hot chili from the stove into the crock pot on our way out the door, grabbing cheese and cilantro on the way.

Conni threw the chili into the car, as I helped get the kids strapped in, and we were gone.

Conni and I put the cliantro and cheese in the pot just before the judging, and we were worried that the judges would know whose was whose, but it didn't seem to be a big deal. Then it was time to eat and relax, as well as taste the chili for the first time. Conni didn't even have time to sample the chili before the judging.

The event itself was good, we met some new people, and then the judges had the results. Conni took second place!

I spoke with the judges after the event, and they said that she would have won, but they each took a point or two off for not being a traditional chili! Not too shabby for a 1/2 hour effort, finished at the very last second.

Conni said that the boys were a tremendous help, and they were proud of their mom's success, too. I was disappointed, there was no chili left for me to take to work!

Arguing with the professor

If you are reading this blog, you probably know that I think I am always right, and that I will defend my point until you prove me wrong. All done in a gentle and kind way, of course.

My database management professor was up at the board explaining the procedure for database normalization. It's that good of a class. But he was saying things that didn't exactly jive with the textbook. I quietly questioned him about that during a later portion of the class, and he kind of shrugged off my question. I returned to my seat, and repeated over and over to myself "Why are you here? Just to get a grade, just to get a grade". The mantra calmed me down, until the professor asked me to step to the board and demonstrate to the rest of the class. I said "Sure, but you aren't going to like it". I proceeded to step through the normalization process, but in a different way. And when he questioned my procedure, I quoted from the book, which I had the foresight to bring up with me, and explained that I thought his method was unnecessarily torturous.

I then proceeded to show that I could get the correct answer with half the trouble. Yes, always making friends, that's me.

He demonstrated his process AGAIN. And I finally got it. His method was more difficult, but it was also more reliable. I acknowledged his database mastery quite magnanimously to the rest of the class. And then I helped him fix his car in the parking lot, so I think we are friends again.

Healthy as Horses

Just a quick note to report that we are all FINALLY healthy! Now, some of you might not think this is news worthy, but we've had quite the winter...down with the sickness. :)

Midterm Results

I just took my Database Management midterm yesterday, and I was pretty nervous. I had been taking classes that don't require midterms (English, and a programming class, all project based), and I hadn't taken a big test in a while. The test wasn't that hard, but was fairly challenging, one answer came down to a properly placed semicolon, and the professor used obscure terms rather than ones in common usage. And I CRUSHED it. All the questions, even the extra credit ones. I was done so fast the professor offered to grade it right there, and he had a note of disbelief in his voice when he told me I aced the test. So, that was a good day.

Temporal Disconnect

I had a very unusual experience lately, and I thought I would share it with you all. I was telling an Army story about a friend who dislocated his pelvis on a jump, and it took 6 months to find the problem and have his pelvis re-located (that makes it sound like his pelvis was lost). This lead to a desire to try to look him up again, as we had been fairly close. He and his wife used to invite me over for dinner and not tell me they had invited the priest, as well. We were also roommates in language school, classmates in AIT, and in the same company in the tactical battalion. Oh, and we performed together once, he singing, and me on the piano, at a formal event.

So I googled his name, which I had tried before, but this time I got a newspaper article about his death. The article was almost 3 years old. I was kind of upset, because he was one of the few guys I had tried to get in touch with. I guessed that his wife would move back to where they were from, so I did some internet magic and came up with her number. I got in touch with her, and we had a very nice chat, but it was really odd. I had only known about Josh's death for about 30 minutes, and it was raw and painful. It had been three years for her, and she had moved on and was doing fine. She had even started dating again. Here I was, expressing my condolences to someone telling me jokes, and remembering fun stuff we had done! It was heartwarming in the end, and she invited me up with my family to visit, just outside of Pittsburgh. She is REALLY interested to meet Conni, and can't believe I have kids.

Here is the article on Josh, if you are interested, or morbidly curious:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_452715.html

A Little Lesson in DC Power

This happened several weeks ago, but I have been pretty busy, and Conni is always on the laptop. In her defense, it is her laptop. On with the story...

Most of you know that I work in a lab with fairly large network equipment. Part of my testing involves power failures and recovery, as well as redundancy. On this lovely Monday morning, I was testing the power conditioning units in a chassis. All computers (including laptops, desktops, servers and network appliances) run on DC power. We don't have DC power feeds in our lab, because it is expensive, dangerous, and the line loss is pretty high over anything longer than about 30 feet. So we run AC to the rack, and have a rectifier turn the AC into DC. To give you an idea of the amount of power, the rectifier takes four (4) AC inputs, and has two DC outputs, one for each power conditioning unit in the chassis. I can picture everyone (but mostly brooke) with their eyes glazed over. On with the story!

I had to simulate a power outage, and remove the PCU from the chassis. Being a belt AND suspenders kind of guy around electricity (hi Matt!) I decided that I would not only turn off the switch in the PCU, but also disconnect the PCU from the rectifier. The smart course would have been to remove the power cord from the PCU, but I wasn't sure that the cord (DC, remember?) didn't have exposed prongs, and I didn't want to be waving live DC around in one hand while I fiddled around with the PCU with the other. So I disconnected power from the side of the rectifier which fed the PCU (which is about the size of a shoebox) and then turned off the PCU with a switch, and went to remove it from the chassis.

Now the exciting part--a very large arc as the PCU in my hand grounded itself to the chassis, about 6 inches in front of my eye. I couldn't see very well, as the spark left a fairly good-sized afterimage, so I exited the lab (in a bit of a hurry) and grabbed one of the other engineers to assist. I believe I said something like "I can't see very well, and we need to isolate power from rack 7 before we have a fire or someone gets hurt". We very carefully removed the remaining AC leads from the rectifier, which isolated the chassis entirely, and surveyed the damage. The arc had eaten a hole in the side of the chassis about the size of a dime.

In the post-mortem, we decided that the rectifier had a common bus. That means that all four AC power supplies lead to one common DC feed, which then split into two cables, one for each PCU. So my disconnecting two AC cords didn't really do anything. But, you ask, what about turning the PCU off at the switch? Surely that means there was no power to the PCU? Well, there was no power THROUGH the PCU, but there was still power to the switch. And it turns out that I brushed the hot power lead to the switch against the side of the chassis, which completed the circuit.

Something funny did happen later. My boss, his boss (a director named Scott, he reminds me of Dad) and I were discussing the event, and Scott said "Well, we aren't going to run this test anymore, let the vendors do it." My boss, Raj, said something like "After we initially qualify a chassis, there is no need to run this test again." Scott said "Didn't you hear me? We are NEVER running this test again. It isn't worth having an engineer smoking and twitching on the floor." Which still makes me kind of giggle. BTW, I stopped by the Lab Manager, and thanked him personally for ensuring the chassis were grounded to the racks, and the racks themselves grounded. Do you want to know why everything was grounded? I had picked up some stray voltage some months previously, questioned why the racks weren't grounded to spec, and stopped testing until they got fixed. True.

Sick and Tired of Being Sick

If anyone hasn't heard about our September, Karl and I ended up getting Bronchitis and the boys came down with bad colds and coughs. I swear that whole month someone in our house was sick. I thought we'd paid our dues...WRONG.

In December, Gavin got shots and his 2 year check-up. The doctor asked me about getting flu mists for both Conner and Gavin. (I've always thought they MADE you sick instead of preventing it.) I felt like a horrible mother declining the doctor's insistence that I have them administered. I eventually was brow-beat into doing it and we were off.

Along comes January 25th...I woke up very early with the stomach flu. I was out the whole day with things coming out both directions, it lasted 24 hours. I thought luck was with me because I was sick on Sunday, therefore I didn't have to miss my babysitting duties the next day...again I was WRONG.

Thursday morning came along and CJay and Karl came down with the same thing I had 4 days prior. I had to "call in" sick and kept all babies that weren't mine away.
Thursday night came and I thought we were in the clear because at least that darn flu mist was going to pay off after all because Conner and Gavin hadn't gotten sick. Think again!!!! Gavin started in at 11PM just as I was getting into bed and I was up with him most of the night.

My 4 hours of sleep ended dreadfully Friday morning when I woke up to Conner throwing up. I "called in sick" again and my babysitting duty had to accompany his mother to work that day (add guilt to the party). Mind you...Karl was still not feeling well so he couldn't help with the children and so I had 3 sickos (probably not the best word)to take care of. One bright spot was that CJay was feeling great and went to school that day.

Saturday comes and we were all beginning to feel normal. (Sigh)

Sunday came and after I attended Stake Conference I came home with a migraine that lasted until I feel asleep that night. I guess I'd had too much stress recently or something.

Monday morning I woke without a headache, which I was extremely grateful for, but I came down with a sore throat later that day.

Tuesday I still had the sore throat, but I now had started to develop a horrible stuffy nose.

Today, Wednesday, I still can't breathe and I just want to shoot myself! Okay, not really.

Btw, Karl was both an excellent nurse when I was sick and patient when he was sick. What would I do without him.

Apostle Stake Conference

Our stake conference was last weekend and it was awesome! We had a visiting apostle, Dallin H. Oaks, and he gave an amazing talk. Before conference started, Elder Oaks took 30 minutes to walk throughout the chapel to shake and make eye-contact with everyone he could. (I got to shake his hand twice, it was exciting :) I was very impressed with his kindness. I was talking with my mom about the experience last night and she mentioned that somewhere in our genealogy we are related to Elder Oaks. Sure is a small world.

Happy Much?

I was going through some old pictures and found these gems...

Another Comedian in the Family???

Well, Gavin has recently showed signs of a funny streak in his personality. We put him to bed Sunday night and he wouldn't go to sleep so Karl went up to get him. Next thing I know, he came downstairs carring a baby with no pants or diaper on. Karl said it was dark and didn't notice before he came downstairs. It wasn't the little piker's last stint either...the next morning I went in to get him up and he was standing in his crib with no pants or diaper again. I have no idea when it came off this time, but everything was wet so I spent the day washing.

I really hope this isn't a sign of his future.

January Update

We have been really busy this month so I haven't had time to post lately.

Karl started school last Tuesday at Strayer University and is working hard to stay out of danger at work. I am now tending 2 kids during the day along with cleaning, cooking and scouts. CJay is looking forward to his 11th birthday next Monday and we've been trying to get finished with his Arrow of Light and 4 other pins for Webelos. Conner has been busy getting under CJay's skin and upsetting Gavin. Gavin is now showing his age...he has entered the terrible twos with a side of happiness every now and again. As a family, we have been out looking for homes the past week and it is a very unpleasant task.

The city has been bustling with all the people in for the inauguration and I will be glad when things are back to normal again. It's been really cold here and it even snowed a little on Monday. We were so excited about the 1 inch of snow! We even got to use our 4-wheel drive in the 4Runner!