Quote of the Day

While at Education Week, Nathan, Doug and I went to the Cannon Center to eat lunch. We walked down the path and as the Cannon Center came into view - which has been completely rebuilt while Nathan was gone - Nathan said, "This is NOT how I left it."

Quote of the Day

Mark: Who wants to mow the lawn for me?
Nate: We have to mow the lawn? I thought we had Mexicans who do that.

Rob & Jenny's New Blog

Just so's everyone's aware, Jenny has finally created that blog she's been promising! We've got a few posts up for anyone who care to go check it out. The address is gardnersabroad.blogspot.com.

How to eat a popsicle

Brought to you by Jason with assistance by Katie, Lizzie, and Grace.

First, choose your favorite color - matching to shirt color is nice, but not necessary

Next, you must perfect the technique, as brilliantly demonstrated by Jason:

Lick the popsicle

Make a funny face

And repeat

Try to keep your hair out of the popsicle. Hair is pretty, but not very tasty

Remember, the technique! Always lick the popsicle, never bite - it's cold!

When all else fails, make a mess!

A sunny afternoon at the park

Last week sometime Doug made a tennis ball cannon. Which of course meant that we had to test it out. So off we all went to the park to watch Doug. Unfortunately, the cannon was a bust, but we had fun anyway.

Here are the steps to creating the perfect "tennis ball cannon explosion - minus the explosion" experience:

Set up the cannon using any and all materials available at your disposal

Enter flammable liquid

Aim away from people and trees

Try to keep little fingers out of the way

Ask for help when try, try again doesn't work

When (I mean if...) the cannon doesn't launch the next best thing to do is to launch a volleyball at your nephew to release any frustrations

If throwing isn't your thing, try kicking

Make sure the nephew is alright

Then let him dance out the hurt

While Mom and Dad are away, the kids will play!

When you come home, you might find something missing. Yesterday Mark and I took Oreo to the pound. He hadn't been doing well for a long time. Mom and Dad finally decided that it was time to put him down. So they told Mark that once they were gone on their trip that he could take care of Oreo for them. I highly doubt that it would have gotten done if left up to Mom - she would have cried too many tears :) Rachel called the pound to find out if they would take him and what we needed to give to them. The pound said that they needed Oreo's medical records and owner consent. Mark went to the vet to get the records, but we didn't have any proof that the owner, Mom, wanted him put down. So we devised a plan to trick the pound. I went to the pound with Mark and pretended that I was the one that called. When they asked if the owner had given us consent we said yes and told them to call the house to confirm. Rachel answered the phone and told the pound that she was Mom and that she gave consent. It worked out perfectly.

So Oreo is gone from the house and, by now, most likely gone for good. Sorry to any that wanted to say goodbye to him, but I'm sure that you'll get over it soon :) When we got home from the pound, Mark went and happily cleaned the backyard for the last time. I called the carpet cleaners and they are coming tomorrow to clean the front/family/play rooms, the stairs, and the couches in the front/family rooms. Right now the boys are in the process of reorganizing the books from all the upstairs rooms. We needed to move the bookcases anyways for the big rearranging of the house project that we are doing while Mom and Dad are gone. Once they're done with that, we'll empty all the rooms that are being cleaned and try to move furniture to their new rooms. I'm sensing that this project of rearranging the house is going to take a while and that we are going to be sore and tired come next week. Wish us luck!

Time In Cally

Just wanted to send a little note to all the Gardners we were able to spend time with in CA recently in between our moves.

We really, really enjoyed our time with all of you, and to be honest it was really hard for us to leave. Lizzy has been great about all this, but I know she misses you all, especially her bosom buddy/kindred spirit, Shelley. Last night after I put her to bed I could hear her talking about or to "Shelley". It was sweet, and kind of sad, since it will be some time before they meet up again. We'll definitely have to do a video conference soon.

To mom and dad Gardner, thanks a million for your hospitality to us. Saying goodbye to both of you at the airport was hard...both Rob and I held back a few tears that came out after we parted company. Thank you for being so loving and great with our kids, they adore you both, as do we.

To the rest of the Gardners, thanks for being such wonderful aunts and uncles, my kids are so lucky to have you. Leaving all of you was tougher than we thought it would be, even if it didn't show.

BTW Doug, I never got to say goodbye to you before you went to scout camp, what up with that? Guess you better come visit if you don't want to be on my B list!

We're thinking of you all, and missing you. We are so grateful for the time we spent with you in CA. Thank you for the memories.

We love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jenny =)