I'm not sure this mountain God gave us could get much better. The kids have mentioned missing the Blob (our swimming pool, of sorts, from last year), but I think they've got way more than any kid could ever ask for already. They've got a great mountain to run around on, a pond, a trampoline, and now a play fort and swing set. Not to mention great weather in which to enjoy it all! And it's soooooo great to be out of town. Since living here we have experienced snakes, lizards, frogs, bunnies, caterpillars, butterflies and who knows what all else--all in our very own yard! I'm certain this is what God intended for childhood to be like and I'm sooooo thankful that He's made it possible for our kids to enjoy the great outdoors a little bit--all right here on our little plot of land. :-)

We worked on the fort throughout most of the day today. We got to the end and found that we were one little nut shy of being able to finish up. Wouldn't you know it. One dumb 12 cent nut. James went to the hardware store and we were able to get the final swing up and going. :-) By far the most difficult part of this task is making sure that everything is level and square. It's not as easy as one might think. At least if that one is me! Ha! Still, it's kind of fun to take a pile of boards and hardware and turn it into something. Feels good, you know?!

We ran out to Edgewood tonight and went to DJ's Doghouse for dinner. Much nicer than the name would imply. It's a super clean diner kind of place; black and white tile floor, chrome chairs with pads and Coca-Cola stuff here and there. I read an interesting article about Brett Farve in Sports Illustrated. (They had magazines sitting around the diner.) I didn't know he was retiring (I'm so out of the loop!) and enjoyed reading about him. I've always kind of liked him, although he seems to be rather melancholy. Sort of deep and pessimistic and sad. Sometimes he seems downright gloomy. He was a great quarterback... but totally lacks the lovableness and pep that John Elway always had. But then, I'm probably biased. :-) Remember how we cried when we watched Elway give his retirement speech, Mom?! Ha! Bawled like a couple of babies. ~sigh~ He was like part of the family, you know? ;-)

Afterwards we went to Wal-Mart to have some pictures printed off. I forgot to mention that the other day when we went to Wal-Mart we bought four boxes full of spiral notebooks. I think it was 120 of them total. I know that sounds a little overboard, but you have no idea how quickly my kids burn through those things! And with the school sales going on now they were only 5 cents apiece! What were we to do?! We checked today just out of curiosty--they are, indeed, sold out. :-)

Katie has been her usual emotional self lately. I've been thinking of when she was a toddler and sooooo expressive and jolly and crazy and klutzy. She's still all of those things, but she's also a very sore loser along with all the rest. (Can't imagine WHERE she got that from... Ha!) It's amazing how self-centered humans are--especially those with a temperament such as Kate's--and the years it takes to learn the hard lessons in life and readjust their outlook on life and learn to cope with things without falling to pieces. If things don't go Katie's way, she is usually in tears in moments. If the boys ever win at anything--a game, a race, or any other contest--she CRIES. Drives me crazy! Even if she's won 4 times in a row, if she loses once it's the end of the world and who cares that she won before. Now she's a LOSER and it's TERRIBLE. ~sigh~ I've had lots of talks with her about it and done my best to deal with the poor attitude in other ways, but I can't tell that we're making any headway! Ha! I was looking at her tonight though and remembering the 2 year old she used to be and how dramatic she was, even back then. I love that kid! She does make me laugh and still brings lots of joy to our household. :-)

Joe has been great the past few days. I can't think of what all he's done, but I know I've laughed at him a lot. He's got some chintzy walkie-talkies that he's been playing with lately. I was ironing the other day and he gave one of them to me and wanted me to talk to him over it while he was in the other room. They barely work at all, though. You hear loud static all the time, then when he pushes his button and talks I just hear a bunch of jibberish. I knew he'd hear the same thing when I talked back to him so I didn't figure it would matter if I said anything sensible or not. So I just did my Swedish Chef impersonation when it was my turn to talk. "Shlorned a beened-a-borned a mark et a moo, mork, mork, mork." Or I would sing the "Bippity Boppety Boo" song. Every little bit Joe would show up in the room flailing his arms around yelling, "I can't understand a word you're saying!!!" I even made out that that's what he was saying once over the walkie-talkie. I pulled out my best Chinese accent then. "Ah, dat's because you have Kawasaki walkie-talkie!" It didn't take too long for him to give up and go play with something else. :-)

Sam. Hhmmm. I can't think of anything specific he's done the past day or two. I've probably just blocked it all out! Ha! I'm sure there will be something really funny or really bad--or both--that he'll do soon for me to blog about.

Well, I'm going to either go do some reading or work on Sunday School stuff. I've got song service, Sunday School and WMB service this Sunday. Lots to do! G'night!

~Bec~