My house is not clean today.

And I don't care. For anyone who comes over and thinks my house is always clean, here is proof against that. This is what it looked like at 6 pm, after being inside all day long with colds. Ben has been writing papers for the last two weeks, and I am waaaaiiiting for him to be done so we can have a little break before classes start up again. 

In the living room, the girls were hosting their own musical, singing something about being princesses, trapped in the highest tower of a castle, and then jumping off the back of the couch. I hope their characters weren't committing suicide. Gordon's next to the DVD player, hoping he can get away with watching, "Enstein Farm!" again. 

 Jilly in her get-up. 

 Now the princess is playing tee-ball. Gordon drug a lot of stuff out of this closet. 

 My room. You will notice the desk is clean. I did get all the paperwork filed/recycled today. 

 What you cannot see is white rice from one of those microwaveable rice packs strewn across the floor and on my rug. Courtesy of Gordon and a pair of kid scissors. There's also a half-eaten apple in the picture from Evelyn. 

And the kid room looks like this, and much worse, on a daily basis. Creative play takes a lot of time and a lot of mess. These two know something about that. 

Notice I do not include the kitchen. No way. 

Other honorable mentions as of late: We got our computers up and running. Now our 8 month old printer is dying. We lost the camera (my fault), then found it a few weeks later. We camped last weekend, before said camera was found. Camping was fun, except for the whole sleeping part. There are a few kinks to work out there. My fourth child arrived in the form of a piano. I love it. I'm going to be brave and start teaching piano lessons to beginners. We are not freaking out about possible radiation exposure. I am getting nervous about earthquakes though. All in all, I can't complain too much. Life is good. 

"But can you play the pie-anna?!" -Yosemite Sam

WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS MUSHY CONTENT: READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

Shaunie is awesome, there's no question about it.  I know it, you all know it, that's why we love her.  Try to think of something negative to say about Shaunie, it's impossible.  She's an incredible mom (3 out of 3 children prefer Mommy to Daddy) a loving spouse, and an influence for good in whatever capacity she interacts with others.  It's so cool and such a blessing to be be married to someone I admire and love so much (Love you Sweets!).  She's supported me in this long endeavor to pursue a PhD (will the madness end already?) and when I found an exercise that I really loved, she fully supported my purchase of a rather expensive road bike and the corresponding tight, lyrca outfits (it is my golden calf and it is beautiful, but the rider needs to lose that spare tire).  For a while I've been encouraging Shaunie to find something to spoil herself with (not that she needs my permission or anything).  That Caribbean vacation will have to wait until we can sort out the logistics, but there was another thing that she's been mulling over for some time that was doable.  Shaunie did her homework, found a good deal, and violà, here is The Shaunielle with her new digital piano (notice that big smile on her face).  It sounds great, it looks great, and it looks even better with my lovely wife sitting in front of it tickling the ivories.  I love you Shaunie, thank you for everything!

Gordon's favorite song

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. We're having our share of computer issues.

Earlier this week, I was folding laundry in my room and Gordon was perched on top of my cedar chest, where he can gaze out the window and watch the world go by. His favorite thing to watch though, is the garbage man. He loves those men and their truck so much he sang them a song.

"Happa birday a garbge man, happa birday a garbge man, happa birday aaa garbge man....happa birday a garbge man!"

I wish the garbage men could have heard him. It was so cute. If only I had gotten a picture, or better, a movie of it. Sometimes I wish I could download stuff like that out of my brain and onto the computer. Wouldn't that be awesome?