Wow!

Something I stumbled upon in my daily travels around the internet.

Unemployment rates by county in the US.

Anyone want to move to Nebraska?

What We've Been Up To

Here are some pictures of what we've been doing this summer.


Platte State Park in April.


Colin was very happy to be back in the woods.


And in the trees. This was the first tree he's climbed since he fell. I was so nervous and didn't know what to do, so I took tons of pictures. If anyone wants a million pictures of Colin in a tree, I've got them. Seriously, you could make a flip book.




This was at a city park near our apartments.


For Maryanna and Tim, this is what the "no swimming" area looked like before all the storms/rain. Notice the reeds are not above people's heads!


At the races. I promise this picture is candid. I'm thinking of sending it to a modeling agency. :)


Warming up.


Our pool.


I have my own parking space at the grocery store!


4th of July fireworks. I have never in my life seen a place quite like Nebraska for fireworks. They are allowed in town so people were shooting off everything from bottle rockets to the big mortars. There was a gun smoke haze in the air for days! (People were also shooting them off for days.) We went to Seward for their big fireworks display, because apparently it's amazing. The tiny town of 6,000 ends up with around 40,000 people for their 4th of July celebration. Unfortunately it was rained out, so we just hung around and watched the people in the neighborhoods shoot off stuff. It was as good as most fireworks shows I've seen. I can't imagine what the professional one would have looked like.


Colin make fire. Colin cook meat. :)

Platte State Park in July.


The puzzle we've been working on for months is FINALLY done! Even though Maryanna broke it. :) (Just kidding Maryanna. Colin did the same thing. Then Maggie, too. I never broke it, but did somehow manage to loose a bunch of pieces under the couch for awhile.)

We're Back!!

I'm sure many of you noticed our somewhat abrupt absence. As things would have it, it seems as though someone (something) hacked into our joint email account, the one we use to run this blog. Google noticed a problem and shut down our account. After a bit of confusion, we managed to get it back and everything should hopefully be back to normal. And hopefully no one will get anymore Viagra emails.

So catching up! Colin's schedule has changed and he is now on a team without anyone else from our training class. He likes the new team, though. So it's all good. He's now working 4 days a week, which means a longer day, but 3 days at home which is awesome! He's really, really enjoying teaching robotics at LPS. Summer school is taking a 2 week break and all Colin can say is, "I guess, at least I don't have to get up at 7am." I'm embracing life as a housewife again. :) I've been researching baby products day and night. Safety, price, ecological ramifications, length of use, etc., etc., etc.! My precious Gunter (the laptop I've had for 5 years) has finally gotten to the point where we can no longer afford to fix him, which has been a somewhat traumatic experience for me. (Traumatic may be a bit of an exaggeration.) Through Colin's ability to "work" the Radio Shack system, we now have a new laptop. I grudgingly admit that it is better than Gunter.

We've been enjoying the summer by spending a decent amount of time at the pool. We've also gone hiking & grilling a few times at one of the local state parks. We even made it out to the thoroughbred race once. And in baby news, we find out if it is a boy or girl on Thursday!! Many people think that you can tell boy or girl based on how the bump looks. So what do you guys think? Boy or girl? (24 weeks)