Goodbye Faithful Honda Accord

Good news - we sold the Honda Accord today. (It's a 1989 model.)
That's one more item on our moving checklist that we have completed.
We sold it to an African man who needed a car for his sister, who has
been in the U.S. for nine months and needed a vehicle to get to
school. Fortunately, his friend is a good mechanic who can do some
maintenace on the various oil leaks in the engine. They were very
happy to get it. And the neighbors will probably be happy that the
Honda is no longer parked in the street under the telephone lines
where the pigeons congregate and caked the car in bird poop.

Panda Bear

As we were getting ready to go to Grace's friend Tovah's house last
night, I told Grace that Tovah and her parents had moved to a new
house. "Have you see it before?" she asked. I said no. "Maybe they
have a yard that is shaped like a panda bear!" she said. She thought
for a moment. "Maybe it has colors like a panda bear, too."

Work Party and Yard Sale

Yesterday we had a work party and yard sale. It started as normal, with Grace waking up to Holden expressing his unhappy opinion about waking up hungry.

We finally gave up on that terrible structure on the back porch. We decided the house would be improved more by simply removing it than putting work in to making the structure look nicer.

We moved massive amounts of sod. Here's Jaime helping out. (He initially didn't want to help - "I'd like to help, but I don't like work" were his words.)

Here's a picture of Katie and Milt shortly before Milt worked himself to complete exhaustion.

Grace was entertained all day by playing with her friend, Peri.

Here's Eric posing in front of his truck. There's 1,400 pounds of sod in that truck.

Meanwhile, Aimee kept the yard sale moving forward... slowly. We didn't get as much business as we hoped at the yard sale - but we did get rid of a few things.

Sitting on the couch with babies

Dad sitting with his baby, Holden; his daughter sitting with her baby, Keaton.

Happy Baby

Here is Holden in one of his ever-increasing moments of happiness. He's smiling at the antics of his big sister.

Yard Work Day

Michele, Nelson's sister-in-law, came over to help hold baby Holden so we could get some yard work done around the house and prepare for next weekend's garage sale.

Adoption

Tonight's Simpsons rerun was about adoption. Grace wanted to know what adoption was. We explained to her how some children, because of financial or other reasons, didn't have mommies and daddies. And then other parents would come and adopt those lucky little babies. Those babies would become their children. You could almost see the light bulb of illumination flash in Grace's head - and she said, the Universe having revealed one of its nagging little mysteries, "Is that what happened to me?"

April 2007

You can look at the photo album for April 2007. You can also click on the new pictures below.

With Tuppence for Paper and Strings

You can have your own set of wings! With your fist holding tight... to the strings of your kite.

Grace has been begging to the fly her new kite for the last several days (in between Easter Egg hunts she gets bored). Today it was windy enough to fly the kite at the local park. Grace ran in circles shrieking and laughing at the kite.

Holden at 2 1/2 months.

Here's a recent photo of Holden, taken last week. He is a very even-tempered baby, and is going to be a little quieter than Grace. He is still very much attached to his Mother and doesn't like to be away from her during the evenings.

Baptism

Holden was baptized on Easter Sunday by Pastor Jami. Our friends Anne and Amy sponsored Holden. Grace got a front row stool to stand on and watch the proceedings.

The Great Easter Egg Hunt Marathon

Grace got to participate in three separate Easter Egg Hunts. All you could hear when the kids were looking for eggs was Grace narrating the entire event at the top of her voice. "An egg! Another egg! Look, an egg!"

New pathway

Over the last two years, since we installed our new porch and new front door, the path between the sidewalk and the steps turned into a mud trail, which didn't add to the house's aesthetic appeal, unless you were a deer. With the help of Nelson's parents, we put in a new broken concrete path.

Talking About Kidney Stones

I had a kidney stone that lasted six days. On Thursday, 10 days ago, I went to the hospital with extreme pain in my stomach and back and extreme dehydration. They said I had a kidney stone and gave me pain medication and injected me with fluids. The stone passed into my bladder last Tuesday, but I still feel a little sore today. That was the most painful thing I have ever felt. Aimee believes I was going through "sympathy pains" for giving birth to Holden two months ago.

Today we went out to eat at Snappy Dragon. Grace came in and sat down at the table and said to the couple beside us, "My Daddy peed out his kidney stone." I acklowledged this as truth, and thanked Grace for sharing with our neighbors. The man said that this sounded like news worth celebrating with a dinner out.