Well, down with technology! Just kidding. Actually, it seems like technology lately is saying "down with Claysons!" At least, it feels like it. One of our external hard drives crashed the other day, taking with it all our pictures since January, all the music on my iTunes (about 3/4 of which we do have backed up elsewhere) and all our Quicken data for the past two years. Among other things. I realize this could have been a much bigger tragedy, but...it feels big to us. It looks to be pretty expensive to retrieve the data because of the problem--we were quoted prices of at least $500. So, the data will rest on the bad hard drive for awhile until we either
a) decide we can live without it
b) randomly have an extra $500
3) lose our minds by listening to the backyardigans theme music for 20 hours without stopping and have no need of the data anymore.
After we lost our data I tried to take more pictures this week, but the boys wouldn't hold still very well. I've only got blurry action shots, as seen below.
I don't think anything else happened this week. Joel went to Texas over the weekend, leaving his nice working car with us so that we can be taunted by the specter of a two-car life again. As I write this he is asleep in our basement bedroom/storage area. Apparently he picked up a bug on the airplane there or something, because he woke up this morning not himself. I feel for the kid, but quite frankly I would feel for us more if he manages to spread it to any of us. We're keeping him quarantined.
Well, that's all I've got. Enjoy my video of the boys being cute-heads.
Janine

So Much Yard Work, So Little Time

The boys, as usual, are charming and handsome. Maybe not as much today as Reid managed to blow out his diaper, and succeeded in getting pooh on various upper portions of the crib. It wasn't pretty. I've posted a couple of pics of the boys, but none related to the pooh incident.

I've been working to try and get the yard presentable and twin ready for weeks now. One of the to do items was to get a window well cover for our off size window well. I ended up building one (fortunately I had great help), so I am going to brag and post pics of it. Actually, there isn't much to tell. As I said, the window well is off size and I couldn't buy a cover to fit. So, I came up with an idea, and a guy in my ward (who has a metal shop) helped me get the design built tacked during one night. Then he had one of his guys finish all the welds we'd tacked, which was nice because my welding wouldn't have come out as pretty.

Gage being a messy goof.














Reid likes to drip his bottle all over.














Our odd sized window well.














Robo-window well cover, designed to be climb resistant, baseball resistant, dog resistant, and prisonesque (not a real word). It may not be pretty, but at least the boys won't fall through the window.

Week in Review

I had a whole list of things I wanted to blog about yesterday afternoon, but most of them have fled my head. Oh well. I had a nice Mother's Day; Nick did about eight loads of laundry over Saturday and Sunday, which was a nice surprise and unexpected gift. Plus, he bought me Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Host, which I have finished and really enjoyed, btw. He also "let" me pick up a small grill pan at Ikea, and that was exciting too.


On the downside, Reid is not sleeping well. Signs point to teething, but who knows? I just hope it passes.


I have been watching Masterpiece on PBS lots lately. They dropped the "theater" from their name, so I figured now I can be under 70 and still enjoy it. I have embraced my geekiness. Anyway, they are in the middle of a mini-series called Cranford which is based on a book by Elizabeth Gaskell. It has been really, really enjoyable. I don't know when/if they'll replay it, and the last segment is next Sunday, but it has been great.


The Host was a great book, although very, very different from her other books. I would recommend it to either gender though, which is something I couldn't really say of the Twilight series.


I think that's all. We finished mailing out the invitations for MB's wedding the other day...it is a long story how we ended up with them, but it wasn't such a terrible thing. She did most the work before she left. I have to admit a sense of satisfaction at seeing them go out though; I designed them for her, and the whole process was a bit of a pain. But, now they are done and look nice! I'll post the reply card here so you can see.



We didn't take very many pictures this week. I'll just post these two: the boys being monkeys and Reid sleeping with Nick.
Everyone have a great week!

Gage's Week to Steal the Show

Often Reid steals the show because he demands/commands a lot of attention. However, this week Gage has taken lead of things.

Gage wielding duel pacifiers yet again.














Gage won a sleep battle, but is losing the war. Amazingly, he did not go to sleep for several hours after this episode.


Gage has finally learned to fold his arms when it is prayer time; he even one-upped Reid with a little mumbled "prayer" of his own.


More of Gage being a goof.