On Our Way

Thanks to generous donations from Rose & Randy Jarrell & the Savitz Family in PA(Alan, Mary Kay, Abby, & Emily), we are now up to $145 for the March of Dimes March for Babies. Thanks, guys! We're well on our way to making our goal of $200. We really appreciate everyone's support.

On the homefront, it's been business as usual. Skylar and Bart have been diligently going to school. George has been diligently going to work, although some car trouble has complicated transportation around our house this week. Hopefully, George will be able to fix his car and we will not have to rely on only one car. Isn't it funny how not too long ago, most families only had one car. Are we spoiled, or what?

Skylar is hard at work on her recital numbers in her dance classes. The recital is coming up at the end of May. She comes home on Monday and Wednesday nights sore and complaining of having her "butt worked off". I wish I could work mine off.

Bart is working on earning his yellow belt in karate. He just received another stripe on his white belt, but I think he still has a bit more work ahead of him before he will be promoted. He really is working hard, though, and we're really proud of his focus in class. He used to be the kid that raised his hand every three minutes to ask ridiculous questions or to tell the teacher that he had chicken for dinner, or something similar. Now he stands at attention without fiddling and has quite a few times been able to leave before the other students because he had the best attention stance.

Drake has just begun to say a couple of new words: "Why?" and "Oh". He doesn't use them correctly, of course, but he sounds really cute. Last Saturday, my Dad and Diane visited us. It was General Conference weekend, so we were at home pretty much the entire weekend. And it rained pretty much the entire weekend. In fact, I think it's literally been a week since we've seen the sunshine. So, Dad & Diane came over for a little visit, and Dad taught Drake the "High Five - up high, down low, too slow" game. Drake imitated him, only using baby talk, and was tickled when we all laughed at him. If you're a baby, you're an automatic celebrity.

Happily, we were able to watch most of Conference. We took the laptop into the playroom so that the children could color, read, and play during the talks, and George and I could supervise them and even fold laundry while we listened. It worked pretty well. It also worked out that the first sessions on both Saturday and Sunday coincided with Drake's naptime. Saturday night, George attended the Priesthood session. I put Drake to bed and then Bart, Skylar, and I watched Nancy Drew together. It was a cute movie, but just suspenseful enough to keep the kids jumping. They really enjoyed it, but were still a little nervous when it was time for bed. Skylar actually asked Bart to sleep in her top bunk with her, which was too funny, considering that over Spring Break when Bart was having trouble sleeping and George made her let Bart sleep with her, she had a hissy fit and started crying. Skylar is now starting to read Nancy Drew books, which is pretty neat since my mom and I both read them as girls.

We're all looking forward to another weekend that we can stay home and relax. The weather is getting nicer, so I think we're all longing to start taking walks and bike rides around the neighborhood. There's something strangely satisfying and nostalgic about walking outside near dusk. It reminds me of home, in Middlesex, when I see the barn swallows and bats swooping low. The sounds of mourning doves in the late afternoon and owls make me miss our big yard in the country. I'm really glad we chose River Bend as our new home. Even though we're in a neighborhood, which is a situation entirely new to me, there is still so much wildlife around and so much to enjoy out-of-doors. It really makes for a much easier transition than if we'd moved to a big city like Washington DC (as we contemplated). I never wanted to be or even thought of myself as a country girl, but I guess I am. There are worse things to be, right?