Ella loves to line up crayons. She will sit for half an hour or more lining up t

Ella loves to line up crayons. She will sit for half an hour or more lining up things (usually crayons) and to end. This particular creation was first a house, and then became a crayon factory. (Why yes, we have been watching Mr. Rogers lately.) Surely this is a sign of Ella's deep genius, which will make it into her biography in later years.

I'm sure her super powers will start manifesting themselves soon.

Tonight Julia said 'I'll get us started tonight' and took off reading. I'm not

Tonight, Julia said "I'll get us started tonight" and took off reading. I'm not sure where she figures out how to read "astonished" or "iniquities". But I guess I don't know how she learned to read in the first place. She just seems to have figured it out. She's not all that good at sounding out words - she just knows them all, even if she doesn't know what the word means.

Ella, on the other hand, only knows a handful of letters. I guess you have to pay attention to second children, too. Ooops.

Its Guster up there. Trust me. Ben Folds Five is next. Then BNL. Its pretty muc

Its Guster up there. Trust me. Ben Folds Five is next. Then BNL. Its pretty much a rockin' party in Lansing tonight.

hopefully we can afford to pay the babysitter when we finally get home tonight.

New Focus Needed?

Thanks to a recent survey, I am now better acquainted with my audience demographics on this blog.  It looks like I've managed to very selectively target people who are: female, married, LDS, have 2.3 kids and are, um, 29 years old.  With this in mind, I'm looking at a new, three-fold focus for my blog:

1. Mommy Daddy Blogging!

2. CRAFTS!  Painted wooden things! Vinyl lettering!  And {lots} {|more|} prettiness in *general*!

3. Shooting myself in the head, because I've been subjected to my own blog.

On second thought, lets turn to the always exciting topic of the weather.  96% humidity on my run this morning and . . . no, let's not talk about the weather, because it's lame.

I guess it looks like I'm still in the market for my own little niche in the blogosphere.  Its nice to be home after a month in UT.  Since I saw a majority of my adoring public while there, you know the basic details.  The wedding was lovely, and I think my sister did a good job of picking someone to marry.  The driving (two 13+ hour days each way) was long, but went as well as could be expected.  And, as an added bonus, ever since we've been home, the girls have been sleeping in until like 8:30!  It probably won't last, but its helped all of us catch up on some sleep.

I don't really think the picture will do it justice but the pool is looking goo

I don't really think the picture will do it justice, but the pool is looking good. If only it felt as good as it looks. The water is still cold, to say the least. It seems strange to actually be rooting for warmer weather just to heat up the pool.

In other news, google reader is officially gone now, so I'm curious to see if blogs take a further hit as a result. So, you should all leave a comment so we know that you're still here.

Who says driving through Iowa isn't fun? We just passed the worlds largest truck

Who says driving through Iowa isn't fun? We just passed the worlds largest truck stop. We are about 450 miles in to our 800 mile first leg of the journey. All is well so far. I'm in a plastic car right now, so I'll have to ask all of my devoted readers (who are of course reading this mere moments after I write it) to knock on wood for me.

So far we've done just over 7 hours of driving and only 26 minutes of stopping. Perhaps we should look into becoming professional long haul truckers.

The pool is finally ready for swimming! Today we learned to work the pump and v

The pool is finally ready for swimming! Today we learned to work the pump and vacuum and even what the giant hook attachment is for. (pulling people out of the pool) And after all that hard work, we're going on vacation tomorrow. We have an awesome friend who is taking care of the pool for us while we're gone in exchange for free swimming rights. Hopefully it warms up enough for them to enjoy it.

Quick poll: does all of this fit in the trunk of a Honda Civic? We will find out

Quick poll: does all of this fit in the trunk of a Honda Civic? We will find out soon. If not, we may have to wear the same 2 outfits the whole time we are in Utah. I already threatened to wear my swimming suit to the wedding. Oh, that reminds me: gotta add my suit to the pile.

Filling up the pool. Ignore all these leaves that are still in there and be gl

Filling up the pool. Ignore all these leaves that are still in there, and be glad that you can't see all the dead worms on the bottom. The next issue to work on is the fact that the highs for the next couple of days are supposed to be in the 60s. Maybe by July the water will warm up!

Death to blogs

Remember when blogs were a thing?  Do you feel old now?

The other day Julia showed me a picture she drew.  In the last year she's gone from scribbling to actually drawing with a purpose and an attempt at conveying an actual scene.  It's been nice to see that she isn't doomed to cubism, and the particular picture I'm thinking of is a nice one of me and I don't remember what else.  Pretty much the only thing I do remember is that my hair and my beard were all grey.  I tried to ask her why she would choose that particular color, but she didn't want to answer.

For the record, there are some pesky grey hairs on my head (which I have been known to yank out if they catch me in a bad mood), but there's no way anyone would notice without seriously invading my personal space.

Anyway, for those who haven't been aware, Google is killing Google Reader in about a month.  I've used Google Reader for years, and it's always worked well enough, though it never really impressed me.  It kills me that Google own blogger/blogspot, and in order to view private blogs, I have to log in with my Google credentials, AND YET, they can't make Google Reader do that seamlessly.  I think they missed the boat there, big time.

Blogs have certainly been in decline for a few years now.  This blog is a nice example.  I suppose we blame facebook, twitter and all those hip new products, as well as our continually shortening attention span.  When Google Reader goes down, will anyone still notice when blogs are updated?  Particularly with many personal blogs being updated much less lately, do people still check them manually?

In our preparation for the Reader-pocolypse, we're trying out Feedly (feedly.com) to keep track of our various blogs.  The transfer of all your favorite blogs from Google to Feedly is extremely quick and easy.  Beyond that, I don't think I have any more comments.  If you have comments, however, you should leave them. (Though probably not on this post, as it's been quite boring.  Pick other posts.  Pick better posts.)  And while you're at it, go and put something on your blog, too.  Maybe I'll comment.  And comments make everyone feel good.