Camping...in our house

For those of you who don't check the weather box on the right of this blog very often...if you scroll down on it, you'll notice that our sunrise is 5:52am and our sunset is 8:21pm.

Now, the day Steve lost his job, we turned off our thermostat. We chopped and stacked a bunch of wood last fall, and we decided we should be more diligent about using that resource. We had also JUST paid a chimney sweep to come and clean and inspect our chimney, so we could be confident we weren't taking any undue risks of chimney fires, etc.

Now with that background...you may begin to understand the title of this post. When we wake up in the morning our house is in the mid-50's. Steve gets up and starts a fire, and the kids eat breakfast in their sweatshirts and jackets. After we've had warm showers and baths and the fire is going, then we're all comfortable and happy.

Steve likes to sleep with the window open. Well, for about the past week, we've been awakened (quite early, I might add - note the sunrise time above), by chirping birds. They have very specific calls that they repeat, and repeat, and REPEAT! It's amazing. This is the best kind of camping I can think of. Camping with the comforts of a warm shower, clean towels and clothes, comfortable bed, plenty of space and a full-size kitchen! How bad can life be?

Happy Anniversary to us!

12 amazing years. I can't imagine anyone else who could make my life more complete. I love you, Steve.

Recall Notice

I know I've recommended Zenni Optical TONS of times in the past year...and I'm sad to report that they have NOT delivered my glasses that I ordered 3 weeks ago. They have lots of poor feedback online about not delivering, and I'm going to dispute the charge on my credit card if my glasses don't appear in the next day or so. I'm very sad to report this news...I was really looking forward to transition lenses for the first time in my LIFE. Grrrrr. So - buyer beware. Don't shop there.

A Winner!

Here's a photo of Kenneth with his car and his trophy from the pine wood derby.

A Ream

Have you ever kept track of how long it takes you to go through a ream of paper? It took me 1 1/2 days. That's right...500 pages, baby. We're rocking.

Happy Easter

I hope you are all having a good Easter Weekend. We have already had one baseball game (tonight) and we have one more tomorrow, as well as a soccer game, and Easter egg hunt, a baptism and a church party. What a fun day!

Kenneth's baseball team won last Saturday by a clear margin (I think it was 13-1), and they won tonight by 1 run (3-2). It was a close game, and it was fun to see both teams make some fielding plays. Yay! Kenneth had 2 hits last week, 1 today, and one strike out today. He is doing great and enjoying being on an "undefeated" team. :) It's been a while since he's been on a winning team.

Caitlin and Daniel provided the comic relief for the game when at one point someone yelled - "Toddlers in the outfield" and Steve & I were mortified to see the 2 of them walking across the field trying to get to the playground on the other side. Then, later, after retrieving them, I see a parent gasp - looking in my direction - so I look at Caitlin who has her tights and underwear around her knees. Geesh. Who raised those kids, anyway? We've had that problem several times at pre-school, but it was a touch more embarrassing at the baseball field.

Kenneth got to go hang with his buddies again tonight (a Friday night tradition for him), and the rest of us watched Herbie:Fully Loaded (it was on TV). What fun!

Great News...and not so great news

Well, the great news is that the Layton 5 will soon be the Layton 6! That's right...another baby on the way. We've seen the heart beat and I can't wait to see or hear it again. I'm exhausted and feeling marginal, but that's a good thing...right? The baby is due November 14th.

The not so great news is that Steve is no longer employed. That's right. He's a victim of the economy....bummer. We've had a week for it to sink in.

So....if you know anybody who needs a really hard-working, bright, experienced hardware engineer...you know where to find him!!!

The weather was lovely today (HOT if you ask Steve....I say...'where is your perspective, honey...really?'). It's supposed to be good again tomorrow, then cold again Wednesday. We shut off our thermostat a week ago and we've relied on our wood stove this week, but we didn't need a fire today. One day last week it was 51 degrees in our house when we woke up....brrrrr. Thank heavens for all the wood we split and stacked last fall. We've got plenty of fuel, but I think Steve's getting tired of starting fires with relatively wet wood. I know I've gotten frustrated more than once. Luckily, Steve is better at it than I am and we eventually end up warming up the house.

We enjoyed General Conference this weekend, and I'll leave you with the quote that stands out in my mind. It is from our prophet, Thomas S. Monson.

The future is as bright as your faith.