Did you know...(a post playing catch-up)

...that we no longer own Volkswagen Beetle? JaDee sold the one we got when we moved up here.  He needs something more reliable to get to work in and without heat, it wasn't a great choice for the winter.  This is the first time in at least 12 years we haven't had a semi-working Beetle on or off blocks in our driveway.

I can't say I am sad.

... Carter got to go to Fairbanks for the State competition of Project Citizen.  Teams of four present and debate the merits of various social policy/issues.  Carter's team debated the need for bus passes for the underprivileged and homeless. They won the titles Most United and Best Performance. The funny thing about this is that Carter went with this team as the alternate during Regionals when one of the original members got sick.  The whole team was made up of all girls until Carter went with them.  Needless to say the girls were a little miffed that he, a boy, got to join their team.  Their teammate didn't come back after Regionals so they were really upset that Carter got to go on the big fun trip to Fairbanks for State. After his scores of 9s and 10s and the award for best performance, he turned to one of the girls and said, "Aren't you glad I am on your team now?" I think the judges would have thought twice about the Most United award if they had known the back story behind how the team got formed.  Although, maybe it means they really pulled it together when it counted.

I have to say I am proud.

... Ethan turned 10 today.  And after a few comments on Facebook referring to this being Ethan's Golden Birthday I googled it and found out that turning the same age as your birth DATE can actually be a big deal.  So never one to miss an opportunity to give myself guilt for missing a milestone I had never heard of- I found some cool things to make it truly a Golden Birthday for Ethan.

Ethan with his Gold Lemon cake, a bottle of Gold flakes, a GOLD (bronze) commemorative Alaska 2011 coin, Gold Nugget caramel candy, and $10 of Gold President coins.  (Franklin Pierce...heard of him? Me either. Another thing I didn't know until today)

I would have to say I have driven out any signs of guilt :)

...This Sunday we will become parents again...to the 4 legged kind again that is... My good friend Jayci is moving and for the next 6 months she can't have her sweet dog Buckwheat, with her. So we are baby-sitting Buckwheat until her husband comes back for some more training in Alaska in November.  We had Buckwheat over for a trial run to see if he would get a long with the other members of our menagerie.  Buckwheat has a reputation for being A) terrified of cats. And B) dumber than a mud fence.  Turns out he growled at my cats and they will get along fine since they are bigger than he is and he isn't dumb at all. In fact he just plays dumb to get what he wants. The best was when he came up to me when I was laying on the couch watching TV. My arm was draped down the front of the couch and little Buckwheat placed both his front paws on my arm, looked me straight in the eye, raised his little doggie eyebrows and started shivering.  "Awww," I said. "He must be cold." JaDee sat straight up and said, "No he's not. He is trying to get you to pick him up on the couch." JaDee was right.  I saw Buckwheat pull out the old "I'm cold and pitiful," routine a couple of times on the kids to get them to play with him too.

Buckwheat under the kitchen table. He only weighs 9 pounds and is a Mini Schnauzer/Yorki mix.

I'd say there are going to be some Buckwheat stories this summer!

...JaDee has discovered Spanish music from his 1990 - 1992 mission to Argentina on his new iPhone.  I tell you, watching that boy try to figure out this nifty gadget is like watching your grandmother program her VCR.  He is always asking me how to do something on it.  He had no idea how to check facebook unless it came to him from an email and he followed the link.  Silly boy.

I think I'll show him where the earphone jack is next.

... And finally, did you notice that Picker and Puker haven't been featured on the blog lately? That is because they haven't been riding with us for almost 2 months now.  The carpool situation changed on their end and they are helping someone else they know with rides to school so we haven't seen them in a while.

I have to tell ya, it has been pretty quiet on the way to school!