I've not been doing too well with my posting these days. I'm too busy. Work is going to keep me tied up for the next 6 to 8 weeks. I'm not complaining, it's great to have work, but I am not getting as much time with the kids this summer as I had hoped.

Big Joker has had some digestive problems that the doctor wants to make sure are not cardiac, so he did a stress test earlier this week. It was non-conclusive, so he did a chemical test today (nuclear medicine as they call it). It went OK, but the cardiologist still needs to look it over.

The van would not start this morning when I was taking Nesterino over to Oropher's. It's the battery. Sears is having a sale through tomorrow, so I'm planning to get over there early.

We went to the pool this evening with the kids and ate dinner down there. I had Big Joker retrieve Subway sandwiches on his way home. The Little Miss is getting better and better with her swimming. She still is not swimming a very long way, but is keeping her head in the water and using her limbs better. Nesterino loves the pool and gets very tickled if he can splash you.

I really need a break. Big Joker has told me to take a night or weekend. I tried two nights this week and failed. Monday night the playgroup moms went out to dinner, but it was a no go for me... Deacon's meeting for Big Joker. Oropher said we would go out Tuesday night. I need some new clothes (ones without forumla stains from two kids), and the Munchkin and Nana were going to go as well. Big Joker got stuck at work and did not get home until almost 9:00pm :-( Oropher and I are going to try again next week, but I am not too hopeful. The playgroup Moms are taking a weekend trip in August, but I can't go because it's the one weekend a year where Big Joker is required to work. We'll see if I can run away screaming yet!

Am I the only person on the planet who does not know what this is? Do my flist know? (No googling here). Big Joker was explaing the meaning of this word to the Little Miss this evening. I thought someone had pulled his leg as a child, and thought that it was made up.

United Airlines broke this guy's $3500 Taylor guitar. He went rounds with them, and they would not give him anything for their negligence. He told them that he was going to write 3 songs with videos and publish them. This is song #1. It's pretty funny. He posted it Monday, and already he has United's attention.

We had a good time in Virginia for the 4th. I keep promising pictures, but I don't have time to do much with them these days. We went to the Salem Fair on Saturday with the Little Miss and Nesterino. The LM had a great time. There were not a lot of rides for Nesterino (being 15 months, it's not like we could pack him away on the roller coaster by himself). There were two huge Farris wheels there that we all rode as a family. Nesterino looked worried on both rides. I seemed to get stuck taking the Little Miss on rides where the seats and leg room were not designed for anyone over 48" tall. Nesterino loved the petting zoo. He kept saying "Kee!" at all the animals (his version of kitty). When we got to a emu; however, he did say "bird." His inflection at the end of each word he utters sounds like a question. Pretty funny.

Our big thing is that the Little Miss and I rode a camel together. It was a first for both. The LM has come a long way, because last year, there is no way that she would have ridden a camel. She also rode a pony at the fair.

The weather was great, and there was a nice breeze blowing, so it was not too hot. In the evenings at Mom's it was chilly enough that several of our group were wearing jackets (not Warnerharmer though, if it's above 40 ° I'm good!)

It seems that no matter how we slice it, it takes us 9 hours to get to Mom's with the kids. Hope everyone had a happy 4th!

Well, that will never happen at this rate. I worked today at my customer's site. I'm still working this evening. The in-laws are visitng. Big Joker is being ordained as a deacon tomorrow. The kids are fighting over the grandparents laps (pictures later).

Fence: Sitting in boxes in back of Big Joker's truck.

Big Joker's Truck: Hit from behind by little old lady after leaving work to pick up said fence.

Telephone: Ringing off hook with calls about Big Joker's accident.

Deacon Joker: Passed muster with session, will be ordained on the 28th.

More Fun for Big Joker: Jury duty today. Seated at 5:00. Must go back tomorrow.

Warnerharmer's Chipped tooth: Fixed yesterday. Didn't need crown (Yay)!

Disaster Recovery Test: Moved to week after next. Warnerharmer still has plenty to do.

Little Miss: Science camp this week.

Nesterino: Being watched by Oropher, so Warnerharmer can work.

Dinner Tonight: Whatever they are having at church.

And Even More Fun for Big Joker: He's scheduled to cleanup after the church dinner tonight.

The Joker Household: Looks like a tornado came through here (and that's being generous :-(

This Weekend: Little Miss has a birthday party to attend, and we have my pastor's retirement party.

Retirement Party:

• Warnerharmer is playing in the orchestra and singing in the choir.
  
• Big Joker: Watching kids during orchestra practice, doing setup after.
  
• Little Miss and Nesterino: Hope we have someone to watch them during the service
  
• Food: I don't know what to take!
  

I've not had much time to post lately :-( I hope to soon get around to putting up our trip pictures and writing a little about the adventures of traveling with small children. I may wait until Nesterino's 18 before I travel with them alone again!

I'm planning to take the kids on a trip, and it seems like I'm getting hit from all sides. The worst has actually been our pool. I am in charge of the Website, and this year we are using a service that is geared toward community pools. This seemed like a great idea to me, as the one I originally did for them needed more features than I would have time to add in this lifetime. This new site was supposed to be more user friendly and less work, but I'm still getting slammed :-(

For good news, Big Joker has cleared enough of the pile of wood chips, so I can get the van in the garage now. In better news, a friend of mine from church who had some very serious back surgery today is doing well (she was under 11 hours. We're still praying for her.

Fortunately, I have great friends! Oropher watched Nesterino, so I could work this morning. The Little Miss spent time with her friend, Sam. Nana surprised me with a call in the morning offering to come over and watch the kids. Needless to say, I did not turn her down. I was able to finally get my fence ordered. This time, I went to Lowes. Nana had a $25 off coupon, and I greatly appreciate the handsome young Latino Lowes employee getting his manager to honor the 10% off of fencing coupon I had from Home Depot. I saved over $100 with both coupons. The fence will be arriving in two weeks.

Now to make my scrapbook page for my departing pastor I'm wishing arizonakelly were here to help me. I'm horrible at doing things like this. Oh, and laundry, packing, yikes!

Ah Spring. That time of the year when the sun shines, the birds chirp, and I have about 40 huge azaleas to prune. I've been working at them when I can. I did not touch them last year, as I'd just give birth to Nesterino. I'm paying for it this year. We have English Ivy on the bank above the azaleas, and I'm dealing with that as well. The bank is so steep, that I usually end up on my butt several times while working out there.

I tried twice to order our fence this week. There is one from Home Depot and one from Lowes that I like. Home Depot has the best price, so I've tried ordering it there. I went to two different stores, and they were unable to answer my questions well enough for me to be confident that I could order what I needed. Even looking on the Internet, we have not found answers to our questions. I finally heard back from the 1st Home Depot, so now I know what I need. Since we are so close to the weekend, we are waiting on the sale papers for the weekend, plus Nana has a coupon for Lowes, so we may get the fence from them. We are getting a while vinyl picket fence.

For my new recipe kick, last night we had baked penne pasta with turkey sausage, mushrooms, diceed tomatoes, onion, wine and garlic. It turned out pretty well. Nesterino loved it and had two big helpings. I think he's going to be our little garbage disposal. The LM picked at her meal, of course. Big Joker is at a church workday this morning.

The other day, I discovered some unexpected pictures on my new camera that I had gotten for Mother's Day. The Little Miss had "borrowed" it and had snapped about 200 photos. This is a slideshow of her finest work.

I have not had much time to post these days, so here's the Cliff notes update:

Warnerharmer: Kids, work, housework... repeat.
Big Joker/Darth Vader: Doing better with breathing machine. Still waking up Warnerharmer some.
Little Miss: Making us nuts! She's really pushing the boundaries.
Nesterino: Has another toof! Likes eating Lucy hair. Waking up before 6:00am :-(
Lucy: Hair is looking thinner...
Pile of wood chips: 1/2 size, but still in driveway. Warnerharmer still cannot park van in garage.
Fence: Have tried to order it twice (from Home Depot) without success. Considering Lowes.

We have a friend who is going to help us install a fence across the front of our house, so we can enclose our yard. It's about 25 feet from the corner of our house to the fence next door. Much research is ensuing. Home Depot and Lowes don't have a very good selection, but most other fencing outfits want to install it and not just sell the fence.

Yesterday was the last day of class for the LM. They had a party, which I attended. Today was the LM's last swimming lesson. The LM's swimming teacher was instructing the class on water safety today. She asked them, "What do you say if you are in trouble in the water and need help?" The Little Miss answered, "Please?" She may drown, but at least she will be polite about it!

This video is 1/2 an hour. I know the grandparents do want to see it. When they stand up, the LM is all the way to the right in front.

Your results:
You are Beverly Crusher

Beverly Crusher 75% Will Riker 65% Uhura 65% Chekov 60% Deanna Troi 60% Geordi LaForge 55% Mr. Scott 55% Spock 52% Worf 50% Jean-Luc Picard 50% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 50% James T. Kirk (Captain) 40% Mr. Sulu 25% Data 24% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 0%

A good physician and a caring parent. You are devoted to your children and to your occupation.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

This has been quite a week so far. Sunday evening, I got to go and watch Oropher and the Munchkin dance, along with Barnhobbit and her mom. I hope to post videos shortly.

Monday morning, I could not get this crowd out the door to get the LM to school and Nesterino to Oropher's. Lucy had barfed everywhere downstairs, and the LM kept finding new spots (after stepping in them). I opened the door the head outside, and the Little Miss complained that it was too cold. She was right, and I had not dressed Nesterino appropriately. I ran back in, put him in a warmer outfit and grabbed a sweater for the LM. As we were headed to the van, which is still parked outside because of the HUGE pile of wood chips in our driveway, the LM slipped an fell in the driveway on the wet chips (it had just rained) and got completely soaked. Back inside with everyone to get the LM some new clothes. Fortunately, Oropher had given her two pairs of ballet tights, as it was ballet day, and she has to wear those to school. We finally made it to school.

I had a conference with the LM's teacher that afternoon. She is doing very well. The only concern that the teacher had was that sometimes it is very hard to get the Little Misses attention. We see this at home as well. I do pay attention to things like this as the LM could possibly have inherited my poor hearing. As I was talking to Big Joker that evening, I had problems getting his attention 3 times. Maybe this is hereditary from his side?

Tuesday evening, we had the LM's ballet recital. It went very well. We left Nesterino at Sam's house for her mom to watch and then to Sam to the recital with us. As soon as we have it on line, I'll post a link.

Wednesday evening, when Big Joker got home, he found dinner 1/2 started, Nesterino screaming in the Jolly Jumper, the LM relegated to the living room, and me on the phone, handling a crisis with my customer.

This morning the LM had a swimming lesson, and this afternoon, I co-hosted playgroup with another mom. Since it was a pretty day, we got to hold it at a park. Thank heavens for that. My house is a mess and not ready for company at all!

Nesterino has 3 teeth now (one top one appeared yesterday). 13 months old and 3 teeth. He's using them too. He eats like a horse. I can hardly eat my own dinner and keep up with cutting his food up for him.

Last night was the talent show at church. The Little Miss did very well. Nana displayed some of the costumes she has made, and after she sang, the LM wore the beautiful costume Nana made for her. Nana also made the dress she wore in the performance. Here's the video:

Big Joker ordered a load of pine mulch for us. A fellow we have used to remove trees said he would gladly bring a load over then next time he was in our area. (They have to pay to dispose of it, plus it saves them gas if they are close by). The pile of wood chips is now sitting in our driveway. Holy cow! It's huge. We have some serious shoveling in our future. We have so much, we've already told our community pool president that they are welcome to take some for the pool. While I was standing in my driveway, gawking in amazement over the impressive mound, one of my neighbors came by and ribbed me about it. Did I mention that the pile is big?

I got my Mother's Day present from Big Joker today. A Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS. I have been envying rin69's lately, especially her video capabilities.

Gratuitous Nesterino picture:


The LM telling Big Joker why she wants a camera:


Nesterino walking (I stopped it right before the LM knocked him over as she walked by):

Saturday, we surprised the Little Miss with a trip to Chattanooga to see Thomas the Tank Engine. It stormed all the way up, but it lightened considerably after we got up there and stopped completely an hour after that. The event was hosted by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, which is just outside of Chattanooga, not too far from the airport. They had a car made to look like Thomas, and we to a 25 minute train ride on it (another engine at the other end of the train actually did the pulling). They had a petting zoo, music, and other things for the kids to do. I'd like to do this again when Nesterino is older.

Wearing the new rain jacket Nana got for her:








They were also running a steam engine that day. The Little Miss did not like it. Note her in the foreground covering her ears. Nesterino did not like it either. After the train passed, his little nearly bald head was covered with ash.