Technology

This is an oldie but goody. This is Amanda and I on our trip to China to pick up Jenna. I actually am trying out some new free software - Picasa - which has an automatic link to the blog site. It is pretty slick.

Of course, if you are going to try it, be prepared for a long initial investment. When it starts up it will scan your computer and pull in all the existing pictures on your computer. That process is pretty fast, but, if you are like me, it'll take you forever to just go through and look at all of the pictures... ahhh... it brings back so many memories.

Anyway, you may see a few more oldie but goodies from me... 

Oyasumi Nasai

It's getting close to bed time... actually, Amanda is on her way to bed. I thought I'd write to say hello. I know that if you are reading this you are looking for pictures. Well, one of my ambitions is to organize our picture collection. In the process of that, I'll be posting some pics. I think we need to get back to taking some pictures. Since China we haven't taken many, which isn't good.

All the kids have been taking swimming lessons, which they love. They have an absolute blast there. Connor was hilarious tonight. The boys are practicing their strokes so they are learning to kick and use their arms together. Connnor would push off from the wall and do his strokes fine. But, when returning to the wall, he'd only do one arm... the other arm would just sort of lay limp at his side. We were all cracking up because we couldn't figure out why he did it.

The girls are doing really well, also. At the start of this session Jenna wouldn't let go of the teacher, not on her life. Several times she almost ripped the instructor's swimsuit off she was clinging so tight. Now, however, she can float on one of the noodles and kick herself all around the pool by herself.

I have been doing some flying, learning how to fly 1863C - Dad's Cessna 170. Our friend, Rich Young, has been taking me up and giving me some tail dragger instruction. I'm having fun but I think I'm a bit of a slow study. "Dude, you gotta flare" can be heard from Rich during our landings as he grabs the controls.

We have a couple more weekends in town but I am itching to go somewhere. I think we'll try a weekend up at Big Lake soon or maybe just a day trip down to the Kenai... who knows, just SOMEWHERE!

Stay tuned for pictures...

Catching up

Let me give a little recap of life...
- Carli seems to continue to do very well with the transition to her new life here. When she first came she wasn't the most balanced walker. However, now she is running quite a bit and her gross motor skills are improving
- Jenna had a difficult time with the transition, much more so than we expected. There was one week where she spent most of the time crying. She is doing much better now
- Carli and Jenna are true sisters. They love each other, but they get into some great arguments, also. Carli loves to make Jenna laugh. But then, like at breakfasts, they'll start arguing over something and it'll just keep escalating until they're both yelling... it is funny and not so funny both at the same time
- Connor and Andrew keep plugging away, slow and steady. They are doing really well at swimming lessons and love doing it
- Amanda and I? Well, having 4 kids has been a bigger challenge than we expected. We're coping, but we are also trying to make some changes. We've scaled back some of our responsibilities, Amanda isn't going to school this summer, we're trying to have more unstructured time with the kids, and we've lined up some babysitting so we can go out on dates!

That's the update for now... stay tuned.