For those of you who think my children are musically inclined:

Christian was just blowing in the recorder while playing the piano with his butt.

Make of that what you will.

A few random notes...

I saw Moira with baby Brody while Christian ran around with Joe playing with a lawnmower... I am now wondering how much of that nurturing attitude is nature, and how much is nurture - I mean, she's only 3 1/2... is it nature? Is it the times she's been given baby dolls by people? On the reports they'd send home weekly from school, they'd usually say "Moira loved playing with the dolls and dress up." And then there's Christian, who loves trucks - he's only two. Is it possible that these two children have already been steered into the standard one for our society?

Cross your fingers, we may have a buyer for the house.

I got the van cleaned out today - woohoo! - and in the heat out here, that's no small feat. Now I just have to unload everything that's in the back of the van that doesn't need to be. (Quite a bit.)

Tomorrow is the orientation for Moira's school; I can't wait to see who her new teacher is, and where her classroom is - evidently Martha rearranged the school somewhat. I know she's been running Kaye ragged, I'm hoping that once school has actually started it won't be quite as crazy for her.

I'm going to now go see if I can find the episode of Good Eats that talks about potroasts; he evidently doesn't use crock pots and it doesn't take all day. This kinda blows my idea of throwing stuff in a crockpot in the morning and dinner's ready at dinnertime - not that I still can't do that, of course.

Okay, back to work (on all the little things around here)

Okay, probably anybody who even know of the existence of this family-related blog has already gotten email, but just in case...

Pictures of the kids available here. You can order your own prints and everything, since asking me for copies of that cute one you saw just isn't going to happen yet.

Quick note - at dinner last night, Moira's laugh sounded JUST like Uncle Noah's.

The brains in the family I've married into...

Noah, who scored pretty impressively high on the first test (I forget what it's called) went and took the linguist test, and BLEW THEIR DOORS OFF. Woohoo! Recruiter said he's never seen anybody score that high in all the years he's been working there. So Noah can pretty much write his own ticket. Boot camp starting in December (yay, avoid the heat) and he'll probably choose to be stationed in the Japan area (that being his area of preference). After the recent nuttiness with Kim Jong Il, I'm sure it won't be difficult to get a posting over there, particularly as a linguist.

So J & I are really excited for him. We've all got to throw him a party before he goes, don't you think?

Coolest Kid EVER.

Justin put Moira to bed earlier - she just came out and asked Justin to turn on the music in there "so she could dance by herself."

So he turns on the music, and leaves her be - we peeked in later, and there she is, in the middle of her bedroom, wearing one of my nightshirts, dancing around in circles. It was so adorable I almost cried.

Oh, btw - Megan, I just now got your voicemail - that phone number has now been disconnected, and don't worry, I didn't feel like I was being ignored. You've got two kids and are moving and working, I know how busy you are. ;)

Does life ever slow down?

Talked to the bank today. Have been refunded another $1500+, and the branch manager was very conciliatory and empathetic. Bought me a coke, gave me some ibruprofen from the med kit... {wry smile} Also wrote me a letter (and made many copies) that I can send to the mortgage company and our creditors in an attempt to mollify them somewhat.

Phone call from J's dad; possible health issues with him... P's dad is in the hospital with a possible heart attack... power out at the old house when I tried to work today, stupid storm, and I got soaked...

ARGH

all in all, a day of mixed good, bad, and life-as-usual news.

I want a vacation.