Well, Addy and I had the opportunity to go CAMPING over the long weekend, and i wanted to let everyone know how it went. Camping with little kids is so fun, as just about everything is new and exciting. We swam, played in the dirt (a lot) and just enjoyed the great out doors. Here is some of the pictures where my child was NOT crying.

This is a picture of my little camper. She never did enjoy the camp fire, but she stayed still long enough for me to snap this picture. I did just by the pink chair for this trip, and she was going to use it!

Not sure what to think here, but she's kinda willing to play ball.

Great tip for those with kids. When they're misbehaving, just dump some of your water onto the ground to create a puddle, hand them some rocks, and let them have their fun!

Mommy didn't go on this trip, and Addy missed her. After crying for 15 minutes in the car, we called Becca and let her talk to Addy. This is how Addy responded, just listening to her voice. Addy had fallen asleep in minutes. She NEVER falls asleep in the car.

Addy likes dirt so much, she decided to kiss it. I seem to remember my first kiss also felt somewhat similar.

Addy playing with her baby cousin.

Ah the dirt. This is where the real fun happened.

Look how fun it is to just play. Remember those days?

She loved the water faucet. Almost as much as playing in the dirt. Always so proud of herself getting her own drink.

The devotion to picking up this rock is evident in her expression, unfortunately the rock never moved. She was sorely disappointed, but that didn't stop her from trying other larger rocks.

Just walking around, looking for stuff to put in a bucket.

Pine cones, it has been found, are lighter, and easier to place into buckets.

I'm not sure what happened to all the pine cones. I'm sure i'll find them in the car later.

Yes, it's been a while

Dear All My Friends and Family, Those of you who blog, keep it up. I love reading about what is going on in your lives. I freely acknowledge that I am terrible about blogging, but it is something I aspire to be better at. Two friends in particular who are great about blogging (Ruth and Jon), you are my heroes! Keep up the good work. Perhaps the reason why I don't blog as much is because I find all of your lives much more interesting than mine. Don't get me wrong--I love my life. I am really, really enjoying this life, particularly now that I am no longer constantly nauseated. :) Our second little girl is due in October, and we are excited about that. Other than that, Brent and I have a fairly predictable routine, although we are trying to change that up so we actually have social activities. I'll try and keep you posted about our little adventures. Fortunately, Addy saves the day. Here are some pictures of our darling little girl. This is 100% Addy's pose, I swear. I thought it was so cute that I had to snap a picture. Brent loved it so much that this is the picture we gave him for Father's Day. Addy loves balls. I can't emphasize that enough. She LOVES them. The bigger the better, usually. She found this ball at Wal-Mart and carried it around the whole store. Brent could not pry it out of her hands without the floodgates starting, so he chose to buy the ball for her. She was thrilled. :) Brent snuck in to take a picture of the girl cuddled up to her favorite monkey. I strongly advised against it because I didn't want the flash to wake her up. Fortunately, he did not listen to me and we got this gem of a picture. Another photo of the much-beloved monkey. Addy really loves this--this was a stuffed animal she picked out herself for her Christmas present. She liked the other varities of animals available, but wouldn't put the monkey down so we HAD to get it for her. Take a wild guess as to which parent snapped this picture. :) Yes, Brent again. I'm grateful for his foresight as I probably just would have taken the cereal away. I got the baby girl all ready for church and then left for a meeting. Addy found our "food storage" shelf and helped herself to Lucky Charms. Brent snapped a lot of pictures of her greedily stuffing the cereal in her mouth. I can't blame her--Lucky Charms are my favorite junk cereal as well. Addy is learning how to feed herself! And she's excited to do it. In this picture you can see that I gave her two spoons as she doesn't care whether the spoon is in her left or right hand. We love our girl!

New Post...into 2012 we go

As is often the case with writing in Diary's or other things, blogs sometimes get pushed off to the side in the name of laziness. That is precisely what's happened to us.

The other problem, as most of you already know, when you have a child, they occupy so much of your time that you have little energy or substance for another blog. "What did you do today?", "well, woke up, went to work, came home, tried to entertain a grumpy (or happy, this is the word that can change) child, and went to bed. Pretty much the same as i did every day last week, and the week before.

Yesterday was Leap Day! What did i do? Well, woke up, went to work, came home, babysat the child, and went and got my oil changed. Got tired, and went to bed.

However, I keep reading on the news how it's possible this year that well hit $5 a gallon gas. Can you imagine? If it hits that point, it will cost me 92.50 to fill up my 4-door, 4-cylinder car (NOTE, it ISN'T a truck or suv). Wow, a hundred bucks to fill up a mid-sized car. I don't even know what to do with that.

So, upon pondering this scenario, i decided to do some math. When i was in high-school i worked at the local Wal Mart. I made 6.75 an hour. My car held 10 gallons, if i was running no fumes. At that rate, it would cost me 1 hour 45 minutes to fill the tank, and cost me 11.50. Yup, ELEVEN FIFTY. Man, that was sweet.

Today, many people are making in the $9 rate for similar work. Today, gas was 3.29 a gallon. To fill that same tank, would require $32.90 (don't you love easy math?) At $9 an hour, it would require 3 hours and 35 minutes of work to pay for the SAME tank of gas. That is TWICE as long. TWICE! So, your average person is having to work twice as long to pay for the same tank of gas.

Now, obviously if gas went up to $5 we would be looking at an even worse scenario. But this begs the question, is it time that we move from this trap of ever higher rates and buy something like a VOLT or the LEAF (electric cars) and never look back, or is the technology not ripe yet for the masses to adopt?

All I know is i have 2 18 gallon gas tanks that need filling this weekend. I will be parting with $120, IF gas doesn't go up any higher.