Random, and I mean even more random things that usual.

We are in the house. And we love it. The only drawback is the boxes. And boxes. I have been busy, but do you really want to know that the movers carefully wrapped and moved some of our prized scrap wood, a crushed paper dixie cup, a couple of lego creations that despite the very careful wrapping came apart and various other precious things? It is sometimes like Christmas opening boxes and putting things away. Unfortunately, we are down to opening boxes now that we say to ourselves "Where are we going to put that? or I don't want to deal with that now, how boring." My loving hubbie did go through a few boxes marked simply "books," in order to find New Moon for me. It was very sweet and he was very lucky b/c we have quite a few of those boxes. He has a quote he tells me from his friend David Mitchell which is something about it being a good thing to move more weight in books than other stuff. It makes me feel a little better.

We are also about to have our twelfth anniversary. Our plans include exploring a new part of Tucson, eating and Harry Potter. We have been fortunate with Randal's new calling (Sunday school, 16-17 year olds) to meet a few babysitter's in the ward. I got called to be the accompanist to the ward choir, asssured that they do mostly hymns. Well, we'll see how it goes, but they do NOT do mostly hymns and the choir director was a music major in school. She even composes her own stuff. For fun. I am amazed that the singers in the choir, it seems all of them, can match the director in talent.

Parker has started Chess club and day one was "awesome." He even graciously said Peter could do it if he wanted too. (This was a big deal, b/c of the age difference and Parker likes to feel like there are just some things he does.) I guess they still need more people. But it costs money and can a Kindergartener really grasp Chess? We were just working on Checkers, and the unbelieveable sorrow that comes with losing is quite, well, unbelieveable. Parker also has scouts still and I feel very blessed that we came into a wonderfully functioning den/pack. Parker also has another loose tooth and just got a desk for his room which he is thrilled about. Who knew a desk would be exciting to a fifth grader? But he can now work without Perry, well, helping.

Peter really likes Kindergarten. He says he knows all the answers because he saw the answer book the teacher uses. He also said, on one of the first days, that there was a girl, named Emily, at his yellow table who (add some drama here) "Doesn't like cute things!" When asked to explain, he said she likes Star Wars and her favorite color is...BLUE! Like a boy! He is so funny. He also thinks Trix are the "evolvtion" of Kix cereal. It's a Pokemon thing, not a Darwin thing. And sometimes, when he is cutting things, his scissors are "out of control" and he needs a little help.

Perry has passed another hearing screen and is catching up on his speech. His evalutaion was "inconclusive" meaning that he isn't 50% behind his age group, but he is still slightly delayed. We are going to try a behavioral specialist for a month and then decide about speech therapy. The behavior stuff is to help him learn to focus, mostly on the different sounds in words, so that he learns the tiny differences in words, such as "moo" and "moon." As long as the tubes work, we think this is going to go fast and easy for him. He is enamored of Trix also, chocolate covered pretzels and trains. He has also moved on from refering to Peter as "baby." Now, Peter is Perry. And Perry is Perry. So, it gets a little confusing around here.

Randal still likes his job and the people. He did come home a little green the day he got his security clearance and FOUR HOUR BRIEFING! And now, of course, he can't tell us everything he does at work. Though I never REALLY understood what he did anyway, this new development surprisingly drives me a little crazy. It's a lot like wanting to know your Christmas presents before Christmas. My imagination has us watching 60 minutes one night, and hearing about some new, fascinating technology. At which point, I turn to him and say "I wonder how that works." And, where he would normally try to explain, he just stares at me and says NOTHING!

So that's just about everything. We still don't know if the new baby is a boy or girl. It didn't bother me for a long time. I had so much else going on. But now that things have slowed down a little, I really would like to know. It drives Parker crazy to not know and he really wants a sister. But we are all seemingly healthy and happy with a little homesickness in there for Nampa. Tucson has wonderful lightening storms, though still not a good as one I once watched in Pullman with my good friend Kristy. And we love eating breakfast on the patio, the only cool time of the day. We have beautiful mountain sunrises to watch from our backyard, and that feels a little decadent. We hope that future construction doesn't ruin that. Hope you all are well and happy also. Bye.