Hello?

Anyone still there?

I have about 10 minutes before I need to move on to the next item on my to-do list for this crazy Sabbath morning...so here I am!

Quickly bringing you up to speed...we are pretty much settled into our new home. All the boxes are unpacked, furniture in its place, etc. Still have pictures to hang on the walls, and a garage to organize...but I figure we'll get that all in place right about the time we move! We are LOVING our new place...LOVING it! Miles and I spent Friday night getting our "school" room set up since we are starting school on Monday, and it is sooooo awesome to have a school room! We have a corner for reading, and word charts hung on the walls, and a place to display art work, etc. It is just awesome!

Ellie is growing insanely fast! She is cruising all over the place...climbing stairs...cruising along furniture, walls, etc.! She is a baby on the move! She is even starting to put her babbles together to get out "mamamamamama" and "dadadadadada" and she almost always says the right string of babbles to the right person! :-) Our frustration with her lack of interest in eating was alleviated when Nana (who visited with Papa last week) discovered that all Ellie wants is big people food! Go figure! She isn't interested in mashed up peas...she wants the real thing...and eats them just fine! :-) So, we have moved on to finger foods, completely skipping over everything else...sigh...

Emma and Maddie are gearing up for school to start, and sad that Daddy isn't going to be home to snuggle with in the morning. Miles has had the last 6 weeks off, and the girls have LOVED having Daddy home...it's going to be an adjustment for us all!

Miles starts his Master's program tomorrow. He is all excitement, stress, nervous, overwhelmed...just a ball of nerves. Deep breath...because ready or not here it comes! He ran a 10K yesterday...even though he hasn't done ANY working out for the last 6 weeks...he completed the run in 53 mins...makes me sick! :-)

I am looking forward to starting up school with the girls, settling back into a routine...I am a little concerned with how I am going to keep up with the whole "cleaning" thing...one of the nice things about our much smaller house, was that it didn't take too long to clean. With this move I easily tripled my square footage...not that I am complaining! :-)

Quick story:

In the van, on the way to Wal-Mart to pick up some needed school supplies (we are going to be building a model of the Nile River...sounds awesome, huh?!) and Miles and I are discussing politics, or the degradation of society...or is that the same thing? Anyway, from the back seat Maddie asks,

MADDIE: Mom, do aliens have brains?
MOM: Well, Maddie, as no one has ever "caught" an alien to check to see, then we really don't know whether they do or they don't.
MADDIE: Well, Gonzo doesn't have a brain, and he is an alien, so I think that aliens don't have brains.

Once you bring Muppets into a conversation, there really is no comeback! :-)

OK...I am off to pack up our church bagSSSSS, and marshall the troops for Sunday readiness!

We love and miss you all!