Downstairs

Right now, it is hot outside.  Just for the afternoon, and there are plenty of cool spaces to retreat to, but it means that our downstairs is getting more use.  There are blocks to build cities and weapons and vehicles, there are movies to watch while curled up on the couch with a blanket, and a punching bag to attack.  But outside, well, there are puppies outside.  :)  Puppies like this one:

and this one:

So, every morning, while it is still cool, I hear yips from puppies and kids outside in the back yard.  We still have all 7; at least until next Saturday.  They are growing up too quickly :( and will soon be leaving us for their new families.  In the meantime, we get to play with them, just to get them used to people ;).

One of the puppies has had an eye infection.  We have to administer eye drops 3 times a day, and he's such a calm thing, he lays in my arms and holds still while I squeeze the drops into his eye.  The infection is almost gone, thank goodness! 

So far, we have names for all the puppies.  Most of the names reflect their markings: One-stripe, Two-stripe, Angel Wings, Goose-goose, Hammer Butt, and Heart Head.  One of the males is Buffness (because he is still obviously the biggest puppy), even though he has a mark on his rear end that looks like a pistol.  Anyway, we're trying not to be too upset that we cannot keep them all.  *sigh* 

Gratitude List:
* I have a wreath on my door.  A $1 willow form from the dollar store, plus 2 fat quarters of red material and some left-over yarn, and I have a nice looking wreath!  Bonus is that I didn't have to spend much money on it- just an hour of my time. (and no, it isn't centered in the picture.  I fixed that afterwards)

* Audible books :) and the opportunity to listen to all sorts of books while I am working out or cleaning or knitting. 
* Kids who are old enough to clean up after themselves, and who don't whine (much) about it when they're reminded by their mother.
* Having a delicious dinner last night of crawdads, grilled chicken, and lots of fresh corn on the cob.  I love summertime!
* That my husband is a good cook, and that he cooks frequently.
* Enough craft supplies to keep my children busy for at least a year.
* A clothes washer, so I don't have to scrub them by hand.
* That I can actually keep indoor plants alive (sort of).  If I see them every day, I will eventually remember to water them ;)
* I have a wonderful husband, and three beautiful strong children, and they are all healthy.
* knitting supplies and a knitting community to keep me inspired.
* page kits for scrapbooking.  I finished 4 pages yesterday!
* Kind friends and family, who offer love and support.
* I am so blessed in my life.
* God is good.

Two things

Well, actually, there are four things :) but two *groups* of things, so that's how I came to the "two things" title. 

Thing(s) one:

I have started these socks several times. (it's okay if you don't see socks up there.  I do, and that's all that matters right now)  First, there was an attempt to cast on two socks onto two circular needles.  That failed miserably.  Then there was a cuff-down attempt at one sock on one circular needle.  I accidentally pulled my (size 2mm) needles OUT of the sock, which resulted in another fail.  Third came the toe-up socks knit one on each circular, but consecutively.  I had one sock completed, and the other sock finished up to the rib cuff, when I decided that the fit was wrong, and I could fix that if I frogged *both* socks, and *started again*.  No, I am not insane.  (and no, I have not been professionally assessed.  It's purely a personal observation here.) 

Soooo, this time I am knitting two socks toe-up on two circular needles.  Success #1: casting on both socks correctly, and remembering what kind of cast-on to use, and how many stitches I decided I wanted to begin with, *and* how I wanted to increase to make the socks less "wicked witch of the north's shoes" -looking at the toes.  Success #2: I accidentally pulled 1/2 of one of the socks off my (size 2mm) needles.  But, I was able to thread the needle back through all 29 stitches, and continued my knitting without saying *one*single*curse*word* out loud.  Hah! (and no, I'm not telling you what I was thinking at the time, although the immediate oral ingestion of chocolate was quite helpful.)

Thing(s) two:

These pictures have been on my scrapbooking table for 2 weeks now.  I couldn't think of what I wanted to do with them, aside from sticking them onto paper with adhesive, that is...  So they sat, and mocked me, and I avoided that craft room for *days* just so I wouldn't feel the pain of my design defeat.  But today, well, today was different.  I remembered that I had saved some stickers from another Easter page I did back before I moved to Utah.  (that would make these stickers at *least* 7 years old, BTW)  And, after I found them again, I remembered some paper that I *thought* might coordinate, also in my stash, along with some matching ribbons.  One hour later, I had a decent (IMO) LO done, and the mocking had ceased.  I even added journaling :)

So, while yesterday was a long and grumpy day, and nobody but me is to blame for that, today has been a sunny, productive, and quite satisfying day.  And it's only 3:30pm.  Things can only get better  

...I hope


Gratitude List:
* I have a huge amount of crafting supplies, and an entire (if quite small) room to store them in.
* Puppies are all healthy, and surviving the neighborhood children fine.  (even the puppy who was dropped on the cement, and landed on her head.)
* The garbageman came today.  (we had a *lot* of stuff for him, and he took it all, bless his heart!)
* The three (or sometimes four) weeks that we have really hot weather makes the A/C unit extremely popular right now.
* I told Morgen I'd pay her to clean up after the puppies, and she did.  She washed out the plastic insert for their kennel (covered in puppy poo), picked up more puppy poo from their day-time enclosure, and gave all seven of them *baths* (okay, that may have been a little above and beyond what I was expecting).  *And* she was cheerful about it!
* The local library, which allows us to come every single week and check out books for *free*.  (plus, they have A/C.)
* Today, I did something that will *stay* done.  Unlike the laundry, and the dishes, and the vacuuming...
* Prayer.  It works.
* God is good.

Family Fun

Friday we met up with Jared's brother Nate and his family, along with Jared's parents, and went out to eat.  We went swimming after dinner, which the kids all loved!  I think they must be part fish :)

Then we had ice cream cake and celebrated Morgen's birthday (a little bit late). 

Here's my favorite picture from their Uintah backpacking trip:

They ended up leaving a day early, even though the fishing was pretty good.  There were too many mosquitoes, and not enough DEET spray to scare the nasty bloodsuckers away. 

Gratitude List:
* Family who will make time to visit with us at the last minute :)
* Kids who like to play with their much younger cousins.
* good food
* portable knitting projects
* Everyone is reasonably healthy and happy, and admits that they had a good time.
* Puppies! 

* Faith in God and His plan for me.
* Good music :)

More crafty goodness

When we returned from our San Francisco trip, I discovered that the internet was not functioning.  Fortunately, I can check emails from my phone, but reading blogs and posting things to my blog and/or craft groups is not something I enjoy doing from my phone.  So, Monday last week the repairman came and replaced the modem.  Success!  and I was reconnected to my online community.  I uploaded all my photos, and posted to my blog, and knit and scrapbooked some projects. (I haven't stopped scrapbooking.  I did spend almost a year working only on cards, and picked up working on my LOs again in May.)  Anyway, I took pics of my recently completed LOs to post, and the internet was down again.  Obviously, it is working once more, thanks to a Saturday visit by the repairman.  And now, the proof of my scrapbooking efforts:


These are 3 LOs I completed before my SF trip.  :)

Pictures of Morgen with her lizard, Perky.

Pictures of us sledding/tubing down a nearby hill.

Pictures of us doing family things.

I have also been knitting, though :).  I started this hat:

on Saturday.  We had planned to be at a family reunion all day, but Hyrum threw up right as we were serving breakfast (he'd only had orange juice, so not a completely disgusting mess), and I ended up leaving Morgen with my in-laws and taking Hyrum home.  And, being completely bored, I decided to try to knit a baby hat for the baby shower I was attending Saturday evening.  I had to take several breaks (internet repairman coming, laundry for the upcoming hike into the Uintahs, etc), but I managed to almost complete the hat.  I had a few decreasing rows left, and I needed to weave in the yarn ends once I finished the knitting.  But, it was time to go to the shower, so I packed it up (along with the "real" gift I'd purchased for my friend's baby), and headed over to Salt Lake City.  Normally the drive is about an hour.  I gave myself an hour and 15 minutes, and thought I could finish up the hat after I arrived, and tuck it into the gift bag.  Sadly, I ran into a HUGE traffic delay.  As in, it took me 70 minutes to travel 15 miles.  I have seen traffic like this before.  I was in California.  This sort of thing NEVER happens to me here!  (except that it obviously did on Saturday)  Fortunately, I had my knitting, so I finished the hat while I was waiting in the car, and was only an hour late to the shower.  See, there was something good about the delay :)


Then, today I decided to rearrange my small stash of yarn.  I wanted to get a better idea of what kinds/how much I have, and I knew I had a few partial balls left over from projects.  This is what I'm working on now:

It's a stash-busting scarf, made on ridiculously big needles (size 15 american, or 10mm), with two strands of DK-weight yarn.  I have no idea who will be receiving this gorgeous work, but I'm sure they will be thrilled and humbled when it is presented to them. 


Gratitude List:
* Jared made dinner today :)
* fresh chard from my in-laws' garden
* a great (if shorter than I expected) visit w/family at the family reunion Saturday.
* Walker had an excellent experience at Scout Camp this year.
* My internet is working again!
* A new podcast about knitting ( Sticks & String ).
* Knitting to do when traffic delays prevent me from reaching my destination as planned.
* Scripture stories that inspire me to be a better person.
* Lovely weather today :)
* Cute puppies, and cute kids that wrap them up in old dishtowels "just in case" they get cold.
* My family.
* My friends, and the opportunity to visit with a few of them last night.
* God is good.
* I am blessed.

Summertime continued...

***back from karate, and temporarily ignoring both the huge pile of laundry and the adorable puppies***
When I knew we were spending 2 weeks in San Francisco, I did some (okay, a LOT) of research, and ended up buying a CityPass for myself and each of the kids.  Total was about $180, and we switched out the tour of the Bay to a tour of Alcatraz Island.  (It's a listed alternative, but we had to pick up the passes from Alcatraz Tours.)  Anyway, this gave us tickets to 5 different attractions, with some of them being choices between two or more different venues, like the tour of the Bay OR the tour of Alcatraz.  We didn't care for the Aquarium on the Bay- too small, and not a lot of things to see.  We also skipped the Museum of Modern Art.  I wanted to go, but nobody else was interested.  From experience :) I know that trying to enjoy anything with reluctant children is impossible, and very often painful, and so I removed that from my "List of Things to See."  Overall, though, the 3 attractions we enjoyed (Tour of Alcatraz Island, California Exploratorium, and California Academy of Science) were more than worth the price we paid (total admission price for an adult= $67).  Plus, the free week of bus/cable car rides was a nice perk!  

Now, back to the pictures :)

As you can see, I am having difficulty posting vertical pics again.  Happens every time Blogger or Picasa updates, so bear with me :)  I'll try to stick to horizontals for this post, but needed to have one pic from the Exploratorium, and this was the best of the pics I had.  Huge warehouse, full of hands-on activities for all ages.  Seriously, all ages- adults without kids (normal ones, not just the creepy pedophile-looking ones that seem to haunt all children's attractions here in the USA), teenagers, toddlers, and of course family groups.  We spent over 4 hours in that building, and STILL didn't make it to all the exhibits.  The only complaint I have is that the food they sell is expensive, and while I understand that organic free-range chicken is worth more money, I wasn't sure it was worth that much more.  So we left when the kids were more interested in eating than in staying to play.  This was an awesome place.  It was well-run, and interesting, and EVERYTHING was hands-on.  (plus they had a fiber section, with real people weaving, spinning, and fluffing fleece.  That totally made my day!)  I don't know if I would ever get tired of visiting the Exploratorium, as long as I could bring my own lunch :).

This is China Beach.  Behind the kids, you can sort of see the pilings of the Golden Gate Bridge through the fog.  Beautiful, slightly chilly, day at the beach.  We had this entire cove to ourselves :) which made for lots of screaming and chasing of siblings.  Everybody had what they most wanted here.  Walker had plenty of space to build a huge sand/rock castle, and chase his brother and sister around.  Morgen found some crabs, and built them a crab house.  Hyrum got to run and play and found several long sticks he used as swords, and as rather long pencils to write things in the sand.  And me?  Well, I got to see my kids having a wonderful time, and I also got to knit, peacefully, for a few hours.  Bonus: the parking was free :). 

No pictures of this next event, but a lovely family from the church we attended while in CA invited us over for dinner after the service.  We didn't know them, and they didn't know us, but it was a delicious dinner, and we had a lot to talk about.  My kids played nicely with theirs, and it was much better than hanging around our hotel room and watching the TV.  There are nice people everywhere, it seems!

Jared was able to come with us to the California Academy of Sciences.  Again, a wonderful place, although their exhibits lean more to "look and learn" than "interact and learn."  This pic was the funniest (to me) part of our experience there:

 That is my husband's head, and yes, that is a butterfly perched on top of his hat.  It stayed there through several levels, and we finally managed to remove it (gently, of course!) when we took the hat off Jared's head so Hyrum could get a better view of the butterfly.  It didn't like the downward movement of the hat, I guess. 

That pretty much sums up our SF trip.  Lots of riding the BART, and walking around SF, and beaches, and swimming at the hotel pool.  We had an exciting surprise waiting for us when we got home, too!  Our dog had her puppies, a bit early, (and the neighbor who was feeding her did let us know when they arrived) and they were waiting in the garage with their mom when we got home. 

Kachina had 7 beautiful, healthy puppies.  4 females (2 liver/white, 2 orange/white) and 3 males (all orange/white).  She is doing well, if a bit ragged from the constant feeding and cleaning her pups require.  The puppies are growing too fast :) and as you can see, are well-fed and content.  They are currently the star attraction for my kids, all of whom can be found petting and holding their favorites when they should really be cleaning up their rooms.   

Moving on...  Here are some of the things I've been knitting on this summer.  There are several dishcloths, mostly the waffle-weave pattern. 

That's because 1-I have the pattern memorized, and 2-dishcloths travel easily.  I am also working on this blanket:

I have entered the "black hole" stage of knitting (see the YarnHarlot's explanation for this very technical knitting term) with this project.  Actually, I'm debating whether I should pretend that I actually meant to make a beautiful, if rather rectangular, shawl.  Then I could cast off and call it finished.  :)  But I haven't quite used up all the skeins I bought for this project, and (amazingly enough) the yarn is still available for purchase (although I may have jinxed myself by typing that just now), which more or less means that I feel obligated to continue knitting.  Even though, no matter how many times I measure it, it is still as big as it was two skeins ago.  Like I said, black hole.

Now, this week has been much more quiet than normal, as my oldest son is at scout camp until Saturday.  In order to attend, he had to get a physical, and the results of that are: 63.5 inches, 106 pounds; completely healthy, quite tall for his age, and a bit under the ideal weight for his height.  I am not quite sure how my cute little 8-pound baby got to be so big, so quickly.  But I am grateful that he is clever and independent, and not afraid of hard work or new experiences. 

Gratitude List:
* 3 healthy, happy, intelligent children.
* 7 healthy puppies and a healthy mother
* Jared is working at his base this month, so no traveling for him, or us.
* Next week is the back-packing trip in the Uintah Mountains, and all the kids are old enough to go! 
* Morgen and Hyrum have played several games (without me suggesting any of them), and they are playing ther one right now, nicely, and having a wonderful time. :)
* We have gorgeous weather today- hot during the day, but cool in the morning, evening, and all night long.
* I tried 2 new knitting patterns for dishcloths, and they both worked out like they were supposed to.
* I've gotten a lot of scrapbooking in this summer, and I think I found my groove :) again.
* Audiobooks for long drives with my children.
* Good music, and interesting podcasts, and an ipod to store them.
* Wonderful friends and neighbors, and a loving and supportive family.
* A husband who has a great job, and who loves and supports me and our family.
* Enough food to eat, clothing to wear, and a house to shelter our family.
* God is good. 
* I am blessed.

Summertime is...

Well, I've made it almost a month without killing or selling any of my children :)  We spent two weeks in San Francisco, courtesy of Jared's work.  He was acting as back-up to another scientist on a military unit based in Northern California, so he had to ... WORK ... while we were there.  And I could write an entire essay on all the fun things we did, but I'll limit myself to pictures.  You can thank me later.

We spent time at different beaches- this was at Half-Moon Bay. Each of my kids decided they were too cold, and then buried themselves in the sand to get warm. Then they complained all the way back to the motel that they were itchy. Wow, that's a big surprise :)

We also spent a day hanging with my SIL, who was in California the same week we were. :)  We went to the Aquarium (awfully small for the large admission fee), then wandered around the city and found a neat little Japanese stationery/toy store.  I may or may not have bought several of these kits there:

They're addicting! And the kits come with instructions, mostly written in Japanese, with lots of pictures and arrows (good for the non-Japanese-speaking customers).  They are also a great distraction for long car trips (say, from San Francisco to Salt Lake City), and you can make 3-D things with them.

This is our family on a hike we took through Coyote Hills.  Notice that Walker is almost as tall as I am.  He really is, too.  *sigh* I have exactly 1/4" of height on him, but I'm betting that will not last out the summer.  Darn it.  I really thought that, given my height and Jared's, my children would stay shorter than I am for quite a while.  I am doomed to disappointment in this area, it seems.

***interrupted to take kids to karate :) but I'll finish up in the next post...

Oh dear

Well, the last day of school is tomorrow (gulp), and I am excited to have the summer to spend w/my kids!  But, and this is pretty big, I am also worried about keeping them out of mischief.  You know, the endless whine of "I'm bored," really means "I need a job!"  So I am compiling a list of jobs for my kids to do.  We have a couple of trips planned this summer- one to visit my in-laws, and one to San Francisco.  That one will be cool, if I can just figure out what sorts of things we should be looking to do there.  I've already ruled out the nude beach...

Our dog is definitely pregnant.  She's beginning to waddle, poor thing, and mostly she wants to sleep in her kennel all day.  I am sympathetic, because I remember that feeling.  Her puppies are due the end of June, and the whole family is excited to see them already.

I finished my socks.  Well, I completely finished one, and finished the other one to the leg.  Then I looked at my finished sock, and while I was proud that I finished it, I didn't really like how it looked or fit.  So I frogged it :) and I'm starting it over again!  Jared shook his head when I told him about that.  But I did learn a lot from the experience, so even though I have no socks to show for it, the time wasn't wasted. 

Gratitude List:
* I am so glad I only had one child at a time, and that I won't be getting pregnant again (barring Divine intervention, that is).
* Puppies.  They're adorable, once they stop pooping on each other!
* Summer is finally sort of here.  It is still in the 50's in the morning, evening, and all night, but temperatures during the day hit 80 degrees this week!
* swimsuits that are comfortable and flattering, at the same time.
* IKEA- I love to walk around inside that store, and I almost always see somebody I know there.  No, it isn't in my neighborhood at all, so it does require a special trip.  But that brings up my next "thankful for" item:
* Driving in my car by myself.  I am in control of the radio, and I can roll the windows down if I want to.
* Computers, the internet, and my iPhone.
* My husband.
* Kids who can cook.
* My family is awesome :)
* Good friends and neighbors. 
* God.  I can feel His presence in my life, and I am so grateful for that.

Whew!

Well, we made it through soccer season without anybody going insane [that would be me].  However, I have to say that I don't enjoy being that busy.  It wasn't so bad last fall, when the fields were near each other but on different sides of the complex.  That was a 5-minute walk, or a 2-minute run, to get from one game to the next.  But this year, the games were at different locations- about a 5 minute drive away from each other, but I had to add another 7 minutes for getting out of the parking lot at one place, and back into the parking lot at the other place.  Anyway, with karate going on Monday and Wednesday, and soccer on Monday [practice], Tuesday [game], Friday [practice], and Saturday [game], plus piano lessons on Saturday, I think I'm burned out on kids' activities for a while.  We're going to keep going to karate- we have optional classes on Tues/Thurs that I want my kids to participate in, both for the exercise and because they teach different techniques and styles on those days.  But I'm not doing soccer again.  Not this way, anyway. 

We have had such beautiful weather the last few days- it's always cool in the mornings [that would be the result of less humidity in the air to hold the heat, plus being up so high above sea level], but it warms up quickly and we usually get a light, cool breeze in the afternoons.  It's just perfect for walking around outside!  Today is looking cloudy, and while I appreciate the water, I wish we could schedule that for the night-time, and enjoy our sunshine all day long :)

Still knitting- I have 2 socks on needles right now, and I'm feeling pretty good about what I've done so far.  This is my first pair, and it has definitely been a challenge.  I'm using small needles [2.5mm] and light-weight yarn, which means I have about 11 stitches per inch of knitting.  That's a pretty small gauge, and compared with the chunky yarn I use for hats [that knits up about 3 1/2 stitches per inch], it's rather slow progress.  I am seeing visible progress, though, so I'm enjoying it.

I found "Bones" on Netflix the other night.  I enjoy it :) but I sure wish I could show it to my kids.  They love mysteries, and puzzles, and would like this show, I'm sure.  I'm just not comfortable with the bodies in situ, before the bones are cleaned.  Seeing all the burned, dismembered, and otherwise mutilated bodies is sometimes too much for me, and I have to listen to the audio instead of watching the show during that point.  LOL, we're working our way through the BBC's "Miss Marple" series instead.

Gratitude List:
* Rain [even if it is inconveniently timed] so my plants can drink.
* Gorgeous bulbs that are blooming in my kitchen window, and reminding me that springtime is here, even if it is snowy just up the hill.
* Movies to watch in my basement while I finish tying a quilt.
* Figuring out a new knitting recipe [for those socks] and having challenges enough to keep me interested without frustrating me to the point of quitting :)
* Finding a new TV show I like to watch.
* I'm still enjoying my iphone.
* Putting on a pair of pants, and realizing that I've lost an inch around my waist.  Hooray for exercise!
* Having Jared here for a whole week :)
* My new vacuum really sucks LOL, which is a good thing in vacuums.
* I have a dryer, so I don't have to drape my wet laundry all over my house to dry it.
* I have plenty of food [probably too much of that], clothes to keep me warm, cars that work, and we are all healthy.
* God is good, and I am blessed. 

Serendipity

Surprises, in general, are not my favorite thing.  I am a planner, a list-maker, and a researcher-of-vacation-spots.  I deal much better with things when I feel like I know what to expect- not that anybody can fully prepare for anything.  Anyway, there are very few things I consider a "good" surprise, and one of them happened yesterday!

My sister lives in Iowa, near Iowa City, and she called me and wanted to know if she could stop by and visit us for a few hours.  She was unexpectedly in town, and I was thrilled to be able to see her and her kids :)

We cleared our family schedule, which meant we missed a few planned events, but nothing earth-shattering.  We got to play frisbee, Cooties [well, that was more of a Cooties war than an actual game], and Sorry! and used the air hockey table to host an air hockey tournament.  We topped it off with brownies and ice cream, and wished that they could stay longer.  [IMO, wishing the visit could last longer is the mark of a good visit]

Those sort of surprises I love.  :)

Gratitude List:
* leftover brownies for breakfast!
* A beautiful, sunny day today.
* Jared is in town this week, which means I get to see him every single night.  That's a good thing.
* Free iPhone apps.  Even if most of them are used to tempt you into buying the "full version" app, I love trying them out.
* I found a flattering swimsuit for our summer trip to San Francisco.  The "hunting for the suit" was frustrating, which made it so much more rewarding when I finally succeeded.  AND, it was on sale.
* Seeing my sister, and her kids, and watching my kids play with their cousins.
* Making progress on my UFO list.  The tree skirt is all pieced, and only needs to be quilted before I sew the binding on it.
* Dandelions.  I know they spread like, well, weeds, but they are so bright and cheerful they make me smile anyway.
* A new vacuum with suction that works.
* Laundry directly from the dryer, still warm and soft.
* Netflix instant play option- except that I dither for 30 minutes before I find something I want to watch!
* God is good.
* I am blessed.

iphone

you phone, we all phone from our cell phones!  Okay, not the best rhyme [rather lame, actually], but I do have a new phone!  Same phone number [thank goodness], but different provider- AT&T- and, it is an iPhone!  So much fun to play with...

So, I was paying for wireless back-up of all my phone information.  However, when I signed up for it, Sprint only required that I be signed into my sprint account online to access the information.  After my phone died, I tried to access that back-up information online, and discovered that Sprint now required an additional password to access my wireless back-up.  Since I didn't choose the password, Sprint assigned one to me.  However, they never sent me any information about the password.  When I tried to reset the password online, the computer program sent the new password to my PHONE. [yes, that would be the one that is dead and never coming back to life].  Well, I thought if I called I might have better luck.  Hah.  Nope.  There was no person with the power to reset my password and send that info anywhere except my phone.  Not even the email address, or the other phone line on the account, was an acceptable option.  AARGH!

Long story short, after 5 hours on the phone with Sprint, I decided I would rather rot than give them any more of my money.  So I have a new iPhone [so fun!!!] and the same phone number.  My phone is sad and lonely, however, without all the contact information for my friends :(  Which means, if you would be so kind as to call me or email me with your phone numbers, I would be forever grateful!  And I am also being slightly more prepared this time, and backing that information up myself in 2 different places besides my phone.  Thank you.

Gratitude List:
* that I have a new phone
* we are all healthy and reasonably happy
* Jared is home this week!
* sort of spring weather again- no snow, and dandelions galore on our lawn
* I am so blessed in my life.
* God