Congratulations to Bill and Kris and Lisanne and Nick!!!!!! They welcomed another addition to the household yesterday, a baby boy currently named Baby X. Hopefully all will now have a smooth adjustment process.

I'll leave work early today. My boss if real flexible that way, and so we'll be able to hit the road early. We'll be on the road by the time the kids' naptime, so they can sleep while we drive. Although, John tends not to nap as long when he's in the car. Have no idea how Hanna will do as she hasn't been on a long drive like this before. We should get to the farm then in the early evening, enough time to get the kids settled, etc... Not sure what we'll do for their beds. Might put a mattress in a closet for John. Then, I'll be in Sioux City for a couple days and will return Sunday evening. Rhonda will take me over there though and come pick me up so she can have the van for the kids.

So, will be off the air here till at least next Monday. Enjoy the holiday weekend, the last gasp of a dying summer. Waaaah. Winter begins on Tuesday. My it gets dark early these days.

Mom, sorry we missed you last night. It was such a gorgeous evening, we decided to take the kids over to the lake, as we probably won't have too many more evenings like that. I had my cell phone on for the drive home, and I was hoping you'd maybe call back during their snack time. Well, we'll have to see about coming down to meet you on your return.

Hope all goes well there with Kris today! Good luck!

Tomorrow we'll head the wagons south for Iowa. Hopefully the kids (especially Hanna) will do well on the drive.

Yesterday John watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (or part of it anyway) for the first time! He liked it! He talks about the dwarves and Sneezy!

Had a good time golfing yesterday. It was a bit hot, but there was cloud cover for much of the time, so wasn't too bad. I did rather well, considering it's only my second time out this year, and only went a time or two last year. We went nine holes, I had one par, a six, a seven and the rest bogies. Had two one-putts, including a long one. I hit some nice long straight three-woods. My driver still slices every time though. So, overall I'll take it.

Norm the farmer, our good neighbor right behind us, brought over a pail full of goodies from his garden last night. From time to time they'll come over to our pation door with goodies. He brought tomatoes and corn. They have a huge garden, but then, they have a huge lot. Their back yard goes the length of our backyard and our neighbor's backyard.

Last night just ended up playing out front with the kids. I brought out our little soccer ball had the kids had fun throwing it down the hill to me. Then, they wanted some milk so I went and got their sippy cups and we were out by the front door, and I started throwing the ball up on the roof and letting it roll back down, and John thought it was just hilarious. He laughed and laughed.

Later we went inside and tried a game. Rhonda had gotten a Hi-Ho-Cherry-o game from a rummage sale. I remember playing that at Grandpa and Grandma Schultz's house when I was a wee lad. John did pretty good, he kept wanting to spill his cherry bucket, and for the most part liked spinning the spinner, and waited his turn. Hanna of course just wanted to play with the cherries. But it was fun.

John woke up in the night kinda crying. Don't know what was bothering him. I went in there, and his feet were hanging out the crib, and I wondered if he was trying to turn over and his feet were caught, so I got him back in the crib, but he woke up again later, crying, so Rhonda went and held him for a bit.

This morning Rhonda brought Hanna down before I left, and somehow we got to talking about doggies, and we said to Hanna "doggnnn", as that's how she says doggie. And then John chimed in and said "dogggnnn" with a grin on his face. Ha.

Yes, it got a little hot and humid yesterday, but it felt good. This morning is cloudy, looks like rain is threatening. My work group here is going golfing this afternoon, so hopefully the rain will be done by then. A forecast I heard said rain for the morning, and sun appearing in the afternoon, so we might escape the showers. We went golfing once before, at a course just a few minutes from where I work. We did only nine holes that time, and will again today. It's a good course for this sort of thing, not too long, no water, not terribly difficult.

Rhonda got a salmon for supper last night, and I threw it on the grill. I put some olive oil on it, and some of that steak salt-and-pepper mix Mom got me from Mannheim Steamroller some time ago. It lasts awhile! Boy did that ever turn out good though. Must have been fairly fresh, but was so yummy. And the kids gobbled it up too. Also had some fresh corn on the cob, and that was about as sweet as corn can get. Mmm. Had some cucumber-tomato salad too, all in all a good late summer meal.

After supper I took the kids over to bumpy slide park for awhile, and then came back home for a treat. I roasted some marshmallows for the kids over the grill. They liked those! I don't know if they've ever had those before. As long as I had the grill on, I put some hot dogs on for their snack. John was a bit restless after putting him to bed, he wanted us to come in and visit him a couple times. Neither he nor Hanna do that very often though.

Turning into another hot, humid day. But it feels great. Remember what the weather is like from October to May? Ok then, no complaining. We went to the first service this morning (Pastor is gone on his yearly vacation at this time of year, so today was the yearly Paula Dunn (music) Dan Clausen (preaching) service. Always enjoyable when they come.

Then, we packed up the van and headed over to the lake. Fun as always. Was starting to get busy when we left. There was some sort of church service at the shelter when we arrived, that was just ending, but then they were eating or something, so didn't really head down to the water en masse. But others were slowly arriving. It's a perfect day for the lake.

Hanna fell asleep on the way home, she was already tuckered out. But we had a lunch of pancakes and sausage, and Hanna has her second wind. But it will be their naptime soon, and I'll go out on the patio and read the paper, maybe listen to the golf tourney.

Won't have too many more weekends like this. Next weekend we're heading down to Iowa, and I'll go on to Sioux City for the ASL tourney. I haven't played since the Winnipeg tourney last fall!

Boy, napped longer than I planned to. Put the kids down, I was a bit tired, so went for a snooze, and ended up sleeping an hour and a half. John just got up. He's still in slow mode, but will wind up soon.

Earlier Rhonda went to Walmart with Hanna, so I walked over to London Park while John pedaled his trike. He had fun, he pedaled around the basketball court, and got himself dirty playing in the dirt.

It's warm today, but not as hot and humid as it's been. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and humid. I'll probably go fill the pool soon and let the kids go for a swim.

Twins lost a close game last night, but had two runner thrown out at the plate. They have got to be the worst baserunning team in the league. And with a runner on third and one out, Gardenhire pulled hot hitting Rivas for the bum Denny Hocking. Ugh. Hocking hit it to the first baseman who threw Guzman out at the plate. With their shaky pitching, I just don't see the Twins winning this division.

So I go in to get John up this morning, and he had done his "Everybody overboard!" routine. He had tossed everything, the stuffed animals, blanket and pillow onto the floor. But, in a new twist, he had no clothes on! His jammies, along with the diaper, were on the floor too. Well, that's something new. I've never seen him get himself completely undressed before.

Rhonda got him some books at a rummage sale, part of a series with one book for every letter in the alphabet, and each letter is an animal in this town, and each animal has some trait that the book is about, like the Worrying Walrus, etc... In the book with the lazy Goose, the next door neighbor is a Rabbit who was playing loud music in his garded on a record player (the books are from the 70s). The illustration points out the loud music by having straight lines coming out of the record player to symbolize the loud music, and for some reason, that just fascinated John. He always wants to get that book and turn to that page and look at the "loud music." Funny. And last night, I was reading the Dr Seuss ABC book, and for the letter P, that letter is on a page by itself, written in a large size with squiggly lines all around it, and John saw that and said "loud music", as the lines sort of looked like the picture in the goose book. Ha.

Hanna was giggly this morning. She usually is once she's woken up a bit. When I'm pulling her shirt on, she likes to the peekaboo thing, and just laughs and laughs.

Had a good deacon meeting last night, started at 7, got home around 10.

Another sticky evening last night, so we took the kids over the lake again. Not too many people there, mostly people for some kids birthday party at the big shelter. It being so warm and humid, the water was just perfect. Although, it really cools off fast when the sun starts going down. Hanna didn't really want to go in the water, she was more interested in the waterworks thing. John spent a lot of time in the water. At one time he was jumping up and falling back to make a splash, and kinda tipped over and couldn't really stand back up and was kinda scared again, and he said "scare you" but he stayed out there and wanted to keep playing.

When they were done swimming, they played on the playground, although a couple other boys were there with some trucks and toy boats, driving them around on the sand, so John just wanted to go play with their toys.

I have my first deacon meeting tonight. Will see how that goes. I told the cell group that I didn't think I could continue as leader this year, as it's hard to Rhonda to come to, since we don't have any consistent reliable babysitter. I didn't want to just keep going by myself.

Poor John. Last night was kinda hot and sticky, so we went over to the lake. Although, it was starting to cool off so we thought we'd just let the kids play on the playground most of the time. Well, when we got there it was sprinkling, and was dark off to the SE, and windy, didn't look good. We got out of the car, went over to the playground, and we weren't there more than a minute when the skies opened up. We dashed back to the car. John was upset because he wanted to play, and we had just got there! So, we went over to Macdonalds instead and he had fun crawling around there.

As we were driving back, we had gotten just a few miles from the lake, and we were out of the rain. It didn't end up raining at our house till early this morning. Much needed rain though. We've been in kind of a drought here.

While driving around, Hanna was "singing". She was just aaaahhhhhh-ing away.

Hanna is getting very good at giving hugs and kisses! She'll give a good solid hug. It took John a long time to give a firm hug.

Last night the kids were a little antsy, they seem to be that way after being at Sue's house, like they had fun there but are glad to be home again. John seemed a bit off, so I thought I'd do something with just the two of us. I should do that more anyway with both of them. So, I took Hanna in the house so Rhonda could watch her. (Hanna is not one to be fooled. She came right back downstairs and looked out the door and saw us going and wailed.)

I was going to take John for a little ride, I was going to walk and let John ride his trike on the street. We went up around the corner on Jenkins and as we went John kept saying over and over "Go to London Park?" I hadn't intended to go that far, but he seemed so eager, so we kept going and John pedaled his trike all the way to London Park and back again! That's the first time he had done that! He's growing up, sniff.

Hanna is too smart for her own good. She was starting to get wound up, as she does when she's tired. It was bedtime and I was playing with them on the floor in the living room. Rhonda came out and said to Hanna "Guess what time it is?" And Hanna said "nnoooo". Ha, she knew what Rhonda was talking about and wanted to keep playing!

Supposed to be another hot, steamy day here. Looks like it might rain here any minute, but should be a sauna later. So, we'll probably end up dashing over to the lake tonight.

Another warm day yesterday. I like being warm. Had the kids out in the pool after their nap. The new neighbor girl was, so we invited her to jump in the pool too, and all three had a good time.

As I was changing John's diaper I was doing a popping sound with my lips, and John said "stop Daddy, that's not funny". Ha. I think Rhonda has been saying that to Hanna when she runs off when she's called and thinks it's a game.

Boy, the summer is fast coming to a close. Waaaaaah. It is very noticeable how much earlier it gets dark out. Waaaaaaaaaah. The freeways haven't been too bad lately, but soon all that school traffic will be back in September and the commute will be a drag again. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Went to the first service this morning. Jew For Jesus presented songs and drama. That was very good. I like that klezmer-esque music. I've heard klezmer music from a group called Kroke, (Yiddish for Krakow) from Poland. I'd like to get some of their CDs.

After church, on the way out, we grabbed a donut for the kids. They liked that. Then, we went over to Lions Park. We were the only ones there at first.

Then, back home for a good lunch of eggs, hash browns, sausage and toast and watermelon. Mmmm. Right now Rhonda is reading stories to them, and it will be time for their nap. Me too. Although that time is the only time I have for myself, so I'll probably read the paper and watch the PGA tourney.

Another beautiful hot summer day here. Was already warm by morning, so we took the kids over to the lake, got there about 10:30 am. They had lots of fun splashing around. The water was just perfect. Sun nice and hot. A bit too hot for the sand by the playground. Hanna was walking on it and it kinda burned her feet and she cried. John was out in the water a lot. We took them both around on their new floaty toys.

Then, we headed home and stopped at a little vegetable stand someone had set up in the parking lot of that gas station on Lexington. We got some tomatoes, cucumbers and onions for a good price. At home I fired up the grill and we had hamburgers and hot dogs, with some slices of our fresh tomatoes and onions on the burgers. Mmmm. The kids gobbled up a lot of fruit, too.

So, just got them down for their nap. Their tuckered out. I got some stuff to finish up for my writing group meeting tonight. I told John he could go to the car wash with me when he wakes up. He won't forget! I gotta take the grass to the dump, too.

Lately John has been working on the art of giving something else to Hanna if she has something he wants. He'll bring something up to her and say "Hanna, you can have this" and then take what she has. Usually she'll take what John gives her and get distracted with that. Ha.

Should be another warm one today, with temps getting to the mid-90s, and a bit of humidity too. Last night was pleasant, so we took the kids to the lake again. Rhonda had got a couple of floaty things at rummage sales yesterday, so we let them play with those. One is just a little blow up dolphin that slips around the waist. The other one they sit in, and it floats. They had fun with those. John is finding his sea legs again. He spent a lot more time in the water last night. He's still a bit wary about venturing too far out, but he loved having me help him jump out of the (shallow) water and fall back and sit down with a splash. Later when we were over at the playground, the sun was going down, it was quiet, and a whole bunch of Canadian geese flew right over our heads on their way to landing in the lake. We could hear the soft beating of their wings. Both John and Hanna watched intently as they flew over.

Hanna continues to imitate John in saying "Oh, man!", like Swiper on the Dora program. She claps her hands like John does instead of snapping her fingers, but she can say "oh nan!" now! She used to say something like "oh ann".

With John, when we put him in the swing at the playground, we usually say "ready set GOOO" when we start him off. Hanna is finally starting to say the GO now too. Except hers sounds more like DOOOOOOHH.

She sees my picture on my id for work and she says "Dadddnnnn". She puts an -nnnn sound at the end of a lot of words.

I finished up a new story last night which I'll hand out to the group at our meeting tomorrow. I wanted to get it done and out of my head so I can now go back to working on The Circle.

A couple nights ago we were getting John to bed. I was holding him, and often he'll like to have his blanket tucked around him when I hold him, so he had that, and he wanted to get down and sing Teddy Bear Teddy Bear. So he did, and when we came to the line where you say "Teddy Bear Teddy Bear reach up high" and you put your arms up in the air, John tucked the blanket under his chin and held it there while he put his arms in the air. Ha.

We usually play John's music during supper, and one song was the On Top Of Spaghetti, and when the guy sings "and then my poor meatball was nothing but mush", he kinda cries, and John always thinks that's funny, and we kinda pretend to cry along, and last night when I did that, John played along and said "that's ok, daddy"!

It was another lovely evening, so we packed up the kids and went over to the lake for a bit. The water was nice and warm, although rather mucky along the shore. Don't know if boats or the wind stirred things up. The kids had lots of fun. Hanna got a bit cold after awhile, and was shivering and wanted out, so Rhonda got her dressed. John has discovered the rinse-off shower, and so loves to have us push the buttons. (They're a bit tough for him to push by himself.) So he wants us to alternate, push the top one (shower), push the bottom one (for the feet), etc...

Then, we went over to the playground area, and they had fun together. They've really been playing well and having fun together lately. John would go down a slide first, and wait part way down, and then Hanna would come down after him and run into him, and they both thought that was great fun.

From time to time John will let out a playful scream, a little "AHHH!". And Hanna, being the imitator she is, has taken to screaming too lately. But she lets loose with these ear-shattering shrieks. She's got a good set of lungs.

Took the kids to golf ball park last night. Some beautiful evenings lately, which should continue through the weekend.

Went over and talked to the new neighbors for the first time last night. Rhonda had gone over there before.

Hanna has learned how to blow kisses, and she does it very well. She still kinda mashes her hand up against her mouth, but then she moves her hand away and does a perfect blow! John still kinda keeps his hand right near his mouth when he blows a kiss.

Watched a couple of the Hope and Crosby road movies lately, Road to Morocco and Road to Bali. Light, fun little movies. I liken them to good summer theater productions.

Hanna got a haircut last night. She looks rather cute! She had her bangs cut, as they were getting in her eyes, and the rest was kinda shaped around her face. Makes her look a bit older.

Last night I was in John's room with him, and I bumped against a stack of books on the dresser and knocked them onto the floor. I said "oops", and John said "Daddy, you made a mess. Go in timeout." Ha!

Should get rather warm here by the weekend. So, I'm sure we'll head off to the lake at some point.

For Labor Day weekend, we'll be heading down to the farm in Iowa. I'll go onto Sioux City for the ASL tourney. We'll probably leave Thursday after I get off work, and I'll try to sneak out a bit early. Rhonda will probably have to take me to Sioux City and drop me off so she has the van for the kids.

We didn't have anybody in nursery last night, so we just let the kids play and watch Thomas for awhile, and then were heading out the door at quarter to 7 when some people came by who were out walking with their kids. They didn't realize we were there, so we said we'd watch their kids for the rest of the service. They brought 3 kids and we stayed for another half hour or so.

After that we went to Lions Park on Hanson Blvd. The kids had fun. It has a big playground area. Rhonda got to talking to a lady there, turns out she and her husband and two sons are from Iran. They've been here about 2 years. They knew where Astrakhan is. Rhonda told them about Nassim, etc... She seemed like a very nice person.

This morning Rhonda had taken the sheets of our bed, and John was bouncing on the mattress. When I came out of the bathroom, he grabbed the phone by the bed and started talking, like "hello, etc.." when he put the phone back he said "talking to Grandma!"

Another pleasant weekend here, though we might get some rain today. Saturday was beautiful. We took the kids to bumpy slide park, after they talked to Grandma for a bit. John just chattered away. After their nap, we went to the lake. The water was just perfect. John played with the water toy, so I had Hanna. We sat in the water and played with the sand and our sand toys. Later John loved playing with the rinse spigot. Then they played on the playground equipment for a bit.

Went to church this morning. Another week of the August praise festival. This week was a young man with a great singing voice.

The kids are sleeping, though it took John awhile to get to sleep. He's had some fits this weekend. Don't know what is bothering him. When it's time to stop playing with something, or something like that, he's just cried and cried.

This morning Rhonda was singing the ABC song with Hanna, and Rhonda said "W, X, Y and..." and Hanna said 'zzzzzz'. Then we could tell she was singing the "now I know my ABCs" part! She's saying more words, if not terribly clearly yet. She'll point at pictures around the house and say "John"!

For some reason, when I have a Twins game on, John always perks up when he hears the trumpet playing that little "Charge!" ditty. He'll hear it and immediately take notice and he'll say to me "trumpet!"

Just about ready to leave for the day. Everyone else has left early. There's one guy here, but he'll leave soon too. Been another busy but productive week.

Should be fairly warm this weekend. So, will likely end up at the lake at some point. Rhonda got a new plastic pool, that kind with the hard shell (i.e. not a blowup kind.) We got it out last night and filled it up. The kids had fun splashing in it and going down the slide. Rhonda had told Sue about the pools, which were only $5 somewhere, so Sue went and got one, and they were filling it when I got there this morning.

Both John and Hanna were sound asleep when I went to get them this morning at quarter to 8. Hanna was especially tired last night, and John didn't get to sleep till later. He wanted to be held more than usual. We went in there a couple of times. Maybe being at Sue's house so much this week has affected them a bit.

It's our night in the nursery Sunday night. August is always the special praise events. I think Sunday night is kinda of a dinner theater thing put on by people in the church. Not sure how much business we'll get. It's always a chore finding workers for the nursery. Sounds like Labor Day will be a problem. I don't understand why people can't do one service a month.

The tents and all that are up at the golf course, ready for the Senior PGA event which started today.

Well, time to go enjoy the weekend!

Rhonda went and got her hair done last night, and went to Walmart, so I took the kids outside and let them run through the lawn sprinklers. They like that. Although, here's a quiz. When the sprinklers first came on, one of the children ran right into the water, stood and let the water sprinkle on them, etc... , and one of the children kinda of hesitatingly walked up to the water, stuck out their hand, let a little bit of cold water sprinkle on them, and then ran back out of the reach of the water. OK, which of those was the boy, and which was the girl?

After awhile, we went down to the street and splashed around in the water running down the gutter. Hanna sat down and splashed her hands in it, and John had fun riding his trike through the water.

I dropped John off at Sue's house this morning. Rhonda has a meeting later today, and she'll drop Hanna off there when she goes. I buckled up before starting the car again today, and when the car didn't beep, John said "dinging". Yeah, something was missing that usually happened!

Hanna can be very clingy when she comes home from Sue's house. Seems like she wants to be held and paid attention to even more than when she's been home all day.

The Senior PGA golf tourney starts tomorrow, so the golf course has been a hive of activity all week. Traffic can be fun around there too at rush hour, what with all the construction on Radission south of 109th. That intersection at 105th, which is a stop sign, can be a bear. Traffic can back up a *long* ways on Radisson.

When I get in the car to take the kids to Sue's house, I'll usually start the car, and then buckle up. So, the car will beep a few times because the seat belt wasn't buckled at the instant the car started. Once in awhile, I'll buckle up first before starting the car, and then the car won't beep. But, John notices there was a change in the routine! He'll usually say something like "beeping". Ha, he doesn't miss anything.

I took the kids to London Park last night. There were some older kids there playing hide-and-seek around the playground equipment. John just loves to play with other kids to he joined in playing too. He'd over to the cart behind my bike and bury his head in the plastic covering and count, and then say ready or not here I come, and then kinda run around after the kids. I don't know if the other kids ever realized John was playing too!

In getting the kids ready for the park, I was putting John's socks on him, and all by herself, Hanna went into the laundry room and dug John's shoes out of the box! She is so sharp.

The play running at the Guthrie Theater all this month is Pride and Prejudice. I'd really like to see that. I'll have to see if we find a babysitter for the kids and try and go. There's another play in October at the Theater in the Round I really want to go to. It's Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard, my favorite playwright.

Last night did one of my favorite things, I went shopping for clothes. Actually, got some pretty good deals. Kohls was practically giving stuff away, 80% off on a lot of things. I got 5 or 6 pairs of pants, about 9 shirts and a pair of shorts all for about $110. Some of the pants and shirts were $5, or even $3. It was all summery inventory, so I suppose they were trying to get rid of it to make room for fall stuff. That's one thing about this area though. You'll see sales like this, whereas in Minot I don't remember seeing sales with this much stuff discounted to that extent.

We had dropped John off at Bible School before going to Kohls. The VBS is at the church where he had Bible Academy. However, it must have been a little overwhelming for him. Rhonda said there were something like 15 kids in his group, and he may have been expecting it to be like Bible Academy, but in any case, I guess he started crying after awhile. They took him to the nursery, where he did fine. Rhonda said they tried again, and he was ok for awhile, but then cried again. So, poor little guy. Probably too much strange stimulation. So, don't know if we'll try him again tonight.

history nugget of the day:

A 13th-century religious scholar visiting the abbey church at Kells, Ireland gazed in astonishment at the 680 parchment pages of an intricately decorated manuscript of the four Gospels, declaring, "You might believe it was the work of an angel, not of a man." Over the hundreds of years since its discovery, the Book of Kells has elicited many such expressions of awe.


Long considered a masterpiece of Western art, the Book of Kells contains St. Jerome's Latin text of the Gospels in an exquisite ornamental calligraphy, known as majuscule. It is the supreme representation of the labors of Irish monks to preserve sacred texts, Greek and Roman classics, and other works of the West's religious, literary, and folk heritage.

No one knows for certain when or where the Book of Kells was made, though many scholars believe it was the work of monks at the abbey founded by St. Columba on Iona, an island off Scotland's western coast. If so, it was likely made just before AD 807, when Iona was attacked and destroyed by Vikings. The surviving monks fled back to Ireland, taking refuge in the abbey at Kells. The first reference to the famed manuscript in Ireland comes in 1006 in the Annals of Ulster, which report: "The great Gospel of Columcille (Columba), the chief relic of the Western world was stolen from the abbey church at Kells." The manuscript was eventually found and returned, minus only its cover, which was studded with gold and jewels.

A Swiss facsimile publisher has produced a limited edition of 1,480 copies of the Book of Kells, with perfectly matching wormholes and uneven page cuts. Experts have deemed the copies virtually indistinguishable from the original, which is on display in the University Library of Trinity College, Dublin, where it has resided since 1661.

A pleasant, busy weekend with the kids. A bit cooler than usual, sometimes cloudy and rainy, sometimes sunny but temps in the 70s. Took the kids to the park, to the bacon and egg play place. John loved it there. He liked jumping off a bacon strip over to me sitting on the bench. Hanna saw that and of course wanted to try that too. So she would climb up on the lowest part of the bacon (about 2 inches off the ground), I'd hold out my arms, and she'd "jump" to me. She'd go about an inch, and was still three feet away from me, but she tried!

While we were there at the mall, Rhonda saw a pet shop, and it had puppies in the window, so Rhonda took Hanna by, as she loves animals so much, and Hanna was just delighted! Practically jumped out of Rhonda's arms to get at them. She's gonna be a vet or something like that.

I had the little plastic tee ball set out too yesterday, and boy, Hanna can really whack that thing! It was funny, I was first letting John swing, and we were futzing with the bat, getting him to hold it right and whatnot, and the whole time Hanna was busily picking up the ball and getting it on the tee. She just loves being involved in what everyone else is doing. But when Hanna hit, she has a great swing, connects with the ball. She's a natural!

I let John ride his trike down to the street a couple times. He likes going up the hill and rolling back down, and riding around in the street. I of course stay down there with him in case cars come, but sometime soon I'll see if he can ride his trike all the way to the park.

We went to the library on Saturday, and got some new books, and a Winnie-the-Pooh video (the Blustery Day). John just laughs when he watches it. He thinks it's funny when Tigger bounces all over, or when Pooh and Piglet are sliding around Owl's house. When John is tickled about something, he'll often laugh and say "it's funny".

In church yesterday, a couple did a little drama presentation called the Psalm King, about the life of David. That was just excellent. Lots of humor, well-acted. When David was with the Philisitines, and pretending to be insane, that was hilarious the way the guy portrayed that. It was my first Sunday as deacon, so I had to help serve communion.

I got some baby bananas at the store yesterday. I've never seen those in the store before. They're little bananas, about the size of a thumb. They're harder to peel, and a bit darker in color, but taste good. The kids gobbled them up. We had stopped by after church to get one of our Sunday traditions, one of those roasted, ready-to-serve chickens. mmmmm.

I was at work till about 9:30 last night. Just pushing to get our part of this big project done. The kids were asleep by the time I got home, so missed them. John didn't sleep yesterday during his nap, so I guess he was pretty tired by the time it was bedtime, and went willingly.

When I dropped the kids off at Sue's house this morning, Hanna reached out to Sue all by herself this morning! First time! So, I'd say she was starting to feel more comfortable there.

It's a bit cooler today, in the mid 70s. Wow, it's August already. The summers are just too short here.

Here's a link to an article in the Strib about that famous painting of George Washington coming to the art museum here for a time...

click here!