Yummy!

I fear that the dog is rubbing off on Daniel.

The behavior: if it's in sight-eatin' must be right.

Here is Daniel after snacking on some dirt. On a positive note, at least the only one eating diapers in the household is still the dog.

Beautiful spring day

We spent some time outside today! The last couple of days have been nice, but we haven't been able to be out much. Daniel has decided that he can stay out and play while I'm doing things like bringing groceries in from the car, fixing lunch or running to the bathroom! I hold the door open for him and he pushes it closed, with me inside and him still outside. Then he'll tell me "bye-bye" and wave. Mr. Independence at almost 18 months old. Today I was able to spend a little time with him outside and Rachel was home after school to play as well. Above, Daniel must have gone through a drive-through to get a popsicle since he's eating it in his car.
Rachel made her specialty - mud cake with dandelions. Earlier she picked a "pretty weed" for me and gave it to me, so Daniel went around picking lots of them to give me. Who needs lawn treatment when you have kids? Rachel had her first tee-ball practice today, and she wondered many times before practice WHY we had signed up for tee-ball when she DOESN'T know how to play! I tried explaining that's why we sign up, but she still wanted me to teach her things before we went to practice. She was able to hit some of the balls when I pitched them to her and she can catch some, too. The hardest part was convincing Jack that I was not throwing the ball for him to fetch!
Practice went well. They started with a parents' meeting with one coach while the other had the girls run to the different positions on the field. Daniel decided he could do that, too, so he joined right in. Then he discovered a great treasure... lots of BALLS! It was tough to convince him that the girls needed those.
After practice, the kids and dog played outside and Mommy and Daddy had a few minutes of peace and quiet. When Brad brought Daniel in for dinner, this is what he looked like. No wonder he wasn't hungry for dinner - he's already had his fill of DIRT! I think we're going to have to start bathing him every night. Every fingernail was completely covered in dirt. Yum! Mom wanted to be sure that it was dirt because Daniel has been known to eat other gross items in the yard.

Crammed back indoors

After several days of being out of the house and free because of the nice weather, it has been a bummer being stuck back inside with the low temperatures and storms. I (Brad) mowed the yard after work on Tuesday and then it snowed around midnight. Being crammed inside can have some fun moments too.

Here Rachel is using her cookie press to make Kari's favorite sugar cookies. Rachel made the press in a pottery class at Blackford High School.

Below Daniel is helping to clean up. Whatever he managed to move around and rearrange was at least a lot of fun for him.

Public Service Annoucement

I've mentioned before that my laptop is not charging - it's been about 3 weeks since I've been able to use it. In that time, I've been checking out all possibilities for getting someone (or some company) to pay for it, besides us. The warranty ran out March 4 and it stopped working on the 10th. Grrr. One day, I happened to think about the extended warranty on Visa cards. I checked and we had this feature on the card we used to buy the laptop!! What a great thing, right? While I was talking to the customer service rep, she asked me what price I paid for it. I had the credit card statement in front of me, so I would have to figure out the price without the sales tax. Point #1: be sure to keep the receipts, even when you move! They also require a copy of the manufacture's warranty, which I think is here in this house. Brad hasn't found the receipt at the old house - I'm hoping and praying that I will. Of course, that all may be in vain because she informed me that the Visa card had to be used for the entire purchase - no cash, checks, or gift cards. Being the financially savvy consumer that I am, I had used $150 in gift cards that I had earned as a reward from a different credit card. That may void the extended warranty offered by Visa. Double Grrrr! So, Point #2 of my Public Service Announcement: When making a larger purchase, such as a laptop, don't use gift cards or cash or checks or anything else besides your card if you have an extended warranty feature. Wish I had known... I'm going to try to get them to pay my claim anyway, so we'll see. Right now the computer is somewhere in transit to be fixed by Best Buy. I took it to Staples, where I purchased it, but they no longer sell Gateway computers, so they don't service them either. This is really getting to be frustrating! I've even left out the part about talking to five different Gateway reps about this issue. I never did get a resolution from them.