In the meantime...

We've been eating chocolate...


wherever it may fall.



Getting up close and personal with SuperWhy! at the public library's Festival of Reading.




Camping and hiking with friends over Memorial Day. There's Professor Jeff showing off a crawdad to all interested parties- minus his flesh and blood.






Madeline was mostly interested in how quickly they skitter away. That's my girl!

We've encountered the headquarter's of Murphy's Law here at the house. Before we left for Memorial Day camping, I noticed that the HVAC was out upstairs. A lot of electrical work had been completed that week and I just assumed a wire had gotten crossed. No go. The HVAC is being replaced this week. We've been doctoring it by draining this pan that's been filling up with condensation about every 12 hours. We can either repair it for $500 or replace it's 23 year old carcass. Thank you, Mr. President, for the $1500 tax rebate that made that decision much easier.

Now, last Friday the repairmen who were moving the gas line for the kitchen noticed leaking under the hot water heater. That left me living in fear for the weekend with only a towel as armor. At our last house, our water heater went out on us too. This is how that went down:

Scene: year 2003, Ashley heading out for a girls night.

Ashley: Bye chief, have a good night!
(opens door to the garage, sees a large waterfall that must be traversed to get to car. Notices it must be coming from the water heater at the door's right)
Ashley: (yelling to Jeff) I think the water heater is busted. Gotta go!

Luckily that unit was located in the garage on a concrete slab and simply drained straight to the street. This unit is inside our house, where it could destroy carpet and our new cabinets. We replaced it with a tankless water heater yesterday.

Did I mention that we are about 4 weeks in to a kitchen remodel and I'm six months pregnant? Oh, and it's June and already too hot???

Hi Murphy. Quit rubbing your hands together in glee.