We are still here!

Psymuhn...pre haircut

Post haircut

Hi Friends!

My apologies. Our blog has been sorely neglected for the past month. I promise you two things:

1. We have a bunch of good reasons for that.

2. The neglect ends today.

As far as the reasons go, I will elaborate on that as soon as I know what's going on around here. We are in for some big changes. We appreciate your prayers. Just ask God to tell us what we should do next. We are game for whatever He has up His sleeve! (does God even have sleeves? Hmmm... I'm sure he would if he lived in Duluth.)

To begin our update, in the last month:

Mike has been working more hours at St. Luke's in the pharmacy. He adores his job. I think he likes being the OR pharmacist best, except on days where Drs. Boylan and Hampton add big heart surgeries on late in the day. (That means he has to make up all these crazy specialized IV drug combos.) His job in the OR pharmacy is kind of like being a solo guy in a take-out restaurant for narcotics and antibiotics. You name it, he'll make it for you. And always with a smile. And no fries with that.

Julia has been very busy lately. We just spend a weekend at Lutheran Island Camp together, her first Camp experience. She adored the sheep song. She also spent a week with her grandparents while mommy and papa flew to another state for a few days. (more details to come) At home, she has been napping less (ugh) and getting very very cunning. Her latest love is playing with her dad's Iphone. One day, he downloaded some games on it to keep her busy. Now every time he is home, she begs him for his phone and then hides behind the couch and plays with it. I am so glad I don't have games on my phone. She is also learning how to use our computer. Neither Mike nor I taught her how to do this, but she can turn it on and open many, many, MANY applications and *USE* them! She likes "microsoft paint" the best. She also gets on the internet and has searched for things on Yahoo. The best part? She loves the "control panel" icon and has changed the settings on our computer. I had to disable the "tty" setting on the computer's phone today. I didn't even know our computer had a phone in it, much less equipped for the deaf....

Mary is growing and changing every day. She can walk, but only proceeds to do so when she HAS to. She much prefers toddling while holding onto the walls. She can say mama, papa, puppy, more, kiss, Dan, woof, no, and Ja (aka 'julia'). Her favorite activities are eating fruit (and filling her diaper with it), playing with Julia, and stealing her mom's purse so she can empty EVERYTHING out onto the living room floor. Excellent.

Psymuhn has undergone some major changes. He is now eating Pro Plan dog food (it was on sale at Petco). He is also sporting a new look! A few weeks ago, Mike took the girls to the lake to see Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Dave. I stayed home to clean up some loose ends, and I attempted to brush the dog. His long, thick fur was matted down and he was shedding clumps of hair the size of our neighbor's maltese. So, I took him to Petco to get him shaved. The grooming lady who was working that day informed me that his breed is not meant to be shaved. She directed me to the brush aisle and handed me some $35 "undercoat blade" thing that looked like a medieval torture device. I laughed, and the Psymuhn and I went next door to shopKo. For less than the price of the Blade of Torture, we bought a nice shaver with twelve attachments. I got home, put Psymuhn in the kiddie pool, and proceeded to spend two hours shaving him down to 1/2" of fur. He didn't even object to the shaving, except for his head. I was unable to shave his head at all because the shaver vibrated on his skull and scared the crap out of him. Annie called me when we were shaving, and so I wasn't paying attention to what he looked like. It was just talk, shave, talk, shave, shave, talk.....When we were done, I looked up and began to cry with laughter at the creature I had just created. That just didn't matter, though. From the look on his face, Psymuhn was full of delight. He was transformed into a puppy again. He ran all around the yard, bounding with glee at his new found freedom from Hair Everywhere. I hosed him down and he dried off in five minutes! He looks like a scrawny lab/dalmatian thing with a big hairy head. And boy does he feel good. (see pics above)

As for me, I will give you a thorough update soon. I look forward to taking advantage of my first amendment rights with this blog... ;) So stay tuned. And as soon as I find the camera, I'll post some pictures for you so you remember what we look like. Ha!