let's take a break from all the rambling with some pictures

remember you can click on any of these pics to see full size image

Sawyer had his 15 month check-up last Friday.
Turns out he had a lot of fluid in his ears and they looked a bit red. The Dr. said he probably either had had an ear infection or was about to develop one, so she sent us out to get him antibiotics. Poor kid... wish I would have known his ears were bothering him. I had a feeling it was more than his teeth keeping him from sleeping, but he never gave me any real reason to do anything about it. His grumpy days are still pretty darn good.

She only gave him two of the four shots he was due, because of his ears. Here he's playing with his band-aids before his bath. First he just wanted them off, but then he decided they needed repositioning.










He didn't really put on any weight or any height. I wasn't really surprised about the weight... he's cut back so drastically on his eating starting with cutting all those molars at once right after his birthday. And then just when his appetite was picking up again last month, that's when he got sick. If he had his way, he would live on just crackers and fruit at this point. He refuses to eat pretty much everything else. Even all his old fail safe favorites are a no-go.

Here's a rare shot of a happy eater these days...







I just love those blue eyes!







Sawyer has a new favorite word. Woo-Hoo!
Yes, that's the word, not just my excitement over his astounding vocabulary. Well, maybe it's not even a real word, I guess it's more of a sound really. But it's pretty cute.
I was giving him his bath and he was playing Bathketball in the tub and I had the camera out and was trying to snap some pictures of him. Everytime he would put the ball through the hoop, I would cheer or make some silly noise to get him to smile big for me.

He started copying me and it turned into a full-on Woo-Hoo! fest.

Then that's all he would do the whole rest of the bath. I soon realized that in all the pictures I was snapping after that, his lips were pursed making the little "oh" mouth saying "Woo-hoo!". I couldn't get him to smile anymore because he was just on constant repeat: "woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo".
Funny kid!

woo-hoo!

*Sorry about the difference in color in some of these shots. You'll have to excuse my playing with the flash and lighting in the bathroom.

**Don't think just because here are a dozen pictures of Sawyer, I favor this child over my other... the other child will just simply not sit for pictures anymore. And when she does, which is rare, she just makes silly scary faces and after about 3 minutes she says, okay mom that's enough pictures... put the camera away!
How I wish she would just "sit pretty" for once!

sitting alone on a friday night...

ahhh, reminds me of the good old single days. haha!

Just sitting here watching the boob tube.
I found My Best Friend's Wedding on TBS. Love that movie.
Best part: Julia and what's-his-name on the tour boat.

someday, when I'm awfully low,

I will feel a glow

just thinking of you...

and the way you look tonight

Love that song

Anyway.

Ryan wanted to clean up the kitchen for me and do all the dishes before he left this afternoon.
I told him not to. That I just wanted us all to hang out, that he could just play with the kids, just relax with us before he was gone for four days, and that I could take care of it later.

Now I'm sitting here avoiding that mess in the kitchen. It's bad. I don't know how it gets so bad so quickly, but I'm regretting turning down Ryan's offer to get rid of it for me. Not that I'd wish it on him. I just wish that dishes would clean themselves.

*********

So I guess I should elaborate for some of you where exactly it is that my husband took off to for the weekend.
He has an interview in back home in Beaverton on Monday.
Interview?!?, you say. Maybe I should back up a little.

First let me apologize to any of our friends or family to whom this is new news. Not so exciting to spread bad news, if you know what I mean, so I'm sorry if you were left out of the loop.
A few weeks ago, you may have heard that Pfizer was "restructuring" and ended up cutting about 10,000 jobs; 2400 or so of them here in Michigan. That does include Ryan's job and in fact, his whole lab.
He got the news while the kids and I were gone, while we were in Oregon. Not good. We were just getting settled here after picking up and moving across the country, and were set to be here for at least two years, and most likely longer, before having to make any more decisions in that area of our life. It was such a relief for Ryan to finally have a great job with all these great benefits and to finally be able to have our house and not have to worry about any more of these job or moving decisions that we've dealt with our whole marriage.
Anyway. So it was kind of a shock to say the least. And it was hard that we were apart while he got that news and we had to process it all and figure out what our options were and it wasn't so easy to communicate or be there for each other over the phone and three time zones apart. The good news was that it wasn't an immediate thing... nobody's going anywhere until at least May and probably into the summer. But that still leaves us with a lot of unknowns. Like what the heck are we going to do?
I, for one, didn't want to talk about it much while I was gone both because I was tired of thinking about it and I was tired of trying to answer questions that I had no idea how to answer. What will we do? Will we move back home? Stay? Who knows.

And that's kind of where we still sit now. We love our house and Savannah's school and the few friends we've made and were looking forward to getting more settled here. So Ryan's applied for a couple of other random positions at the part of Pfizer that will remain in Kalamazoo. But there aren't a lot of other options here for him.

There's a possibility he can go to a different Pfizer site- St. Louis is pretty much the only place we're considering. Which in our minds is the easiest solution (after staying put) because of the simple fact that everything would be taken care of. They are offering a nice bonus to any of the employees that move to another facility, plus the great relocation they provide is awesome. We wouldn't have to worry about selling our house or packing or anything. And we already have friends in the St. Louis area.

So back to the interview in Beaverton. It's for a position with ZRT Laboratories, which is a hormone testing facility. I'd have to let Ryan fill you in on the details because obviously I don't have a clue what I'm talking about when it comes to that stuff, but it sounds like a very good opportunity. But we have no clue if they would be able to pay enough for us to move back and be able to afford a home in that area. They seem very excited about Ryan and so who knows...
It would be nice to be back in the area. It's just so depressing to look at house prices there!

Also on the radar (and for those of you who know our history -when has it not been?) is a Shimadzu Field Service postion. They are in desperate need of someone in the Seattle/Tacoma area right now and they've talked Ryan into a interview slated for next week already. Pros and cons for this one: pros- great job, great job security, work from home, company provides car, gas, car insurance, phone, internet and anything else related to his home office, and they also provide a great relocation package. We'd be looking to live in the Tacoma/Olympia area, which would be just over two hours or so from "home". Cons- Ryan would be traveling a lot, not thrilled about moving to Washington (it just seems so gloomy up there to me all the time. I mean, yeah, Portland's known for it's rainyness -is that a word?-, but it's just always so gray and gloomy up in Seattle. Portland gets actually more rainfall per year, but Seattle has more cloudy gray days. Don't know if I'm okay with that.), and that area is almost as expensive as where we would be looking in the Portland area.
Anyway, that interview is set for Thursday. So he gets home from Portland late on Monday and then flies back to California early Thursday. Fun, fun.
Paul (Ryan's "in" with the company and who he'd be working under) says the interview is just a formality, (it should be- how many times has he been through these interviews with them?!) and it's basically up to Ryan whether he's got the job or not.

So we may have a couple of big decisions to make coming up sooner than we thought.
Please keep us in your prayers regarding all of this. I just hate not knowing where God wants us and having to make decisions like this. I just pray it'll be spelled out for us, that He really just obviously points to which job Ryan should take (and when) in the next six months. I feel like the past 10 months have really stretched us in our faith and in trying make sure we're making decisions inline with the Lord's will. I hate to say that I feel really drained from that. I feel like complete faith and a real desire to be open and honest to God's will, while it can be so full of peace and joy and anticipation of the good things to come, it can also take a lot out of you (especially without close friends and a church family to share prayer and encouragement with). And I'm afraid that we haven't found the end of that road yet.
I feel so selfish saying this, but it'd be nice to see a little fruit of that faith before having to start all over again, you know?

And I also hate saying this outloud (well, type outloud), but you know how when you think you just can't be stretched any more, that your faith isn't strong enough, that you are so clueless as to what the heck is really going on... that that's when the Lord says oh yes you can- I'm going to show you how you CAN continue to lean on ME.
Um, yeah.
Kinda scary.
In a good way I guess.

So.
That's what's up with us, and what Ryan's up to this weekend.
Thoughts, anyone?
Comments? *read: easy answers for us?*

the worst day of the whole year

That's what Savannah said to me shortly after we left the airport today.

In a very dramatic voice, "Mom, this is the worst day of the whole year."

"The worst day? Of the whole year? Why is that, honey?"
I'm thinking she's upset about missing her daddy for another four days; we had just dropped him off at the airport and she'd been dreading him leaving all day. So I'm prepared for the umpteenth pep talk of the day... you can talk to him on the phone, he'll be back after three more days, etc.
But no...

In just as dramatic of a voice, "It's the worst day because it's not Valentine's Day yet."


Silly me.

My Husband Gives Me Gas

I mean as in gasoline. Or petrol, as some like to call it.
Although he has plenty of that other gas to spread around too...

For any or all of you who are not within the immediate vicinity of the state of Oregon, you may or may not know that within that state you will find no self-service gas stations. It is, in fact, illegal to pump your own gas, even into a gas can or other container (with the exception of motorcyclists... go figure?). Oregon and New Jersey are the only two states to ban self-serve stations.
So growing up and becoming a driver, I had the pleasure of full-service fill-ups; never had to pump my own gas and rarely even had to get out of the car.
Now being as close to the Washington border as we were, and the many road trips my friends and I took up to Seattle, Canada, down to California, and even venturing eastward once in awhile with the family for a much longer car trip, most everybody has at one time or another had the *priveledge* to self-serve. Most everyone except moi. For some reason, I just never have. Not that I couldn't or wouldn't, I just never did. I always had a parent or a friend or a boyfriend or a husband who did it instead.
And I never really thought about it. Until my husband noticed this, and started kind of making fun of me... that I had never had to and probably never would, and maybe he'd have to "teach" me how (like I'm an idiot), just in case I got stranded across the border. Of our state.
So then it kind of became a running joke. We'd drive up to Seattle and Ryan would ask me if I would stop and get gas and then answer for me that nevermind- he wouldn't want to ruin my streak.

And then we MOVED OUT OF OREGON.
Whatever are you going to do? is what Ryan wanted to know... 30 years of never touching a gas nozzle down the drain.
He was quite worried about it. So on our final plane trip out here it was decided. I was going to live in the state of Michigan and see how long I could go without pumping my own gas.
So far I have made it 8 months and 26 days.
And it has not been easy, let me tell you. (Well, I guess it has been easy for me... since I don't ever have to get out and do it.)
Not too long after we first moved here, I took the Jetta to make a quick run to the grocery store late one night. Noticing the gas light had come on, I thought I would be nice and put gas in the car while I was out so that Ryan didn't have to worry about it early the next morning on his way to work. I actually pulled into the gas station, up to the pump, and turned off the car before I realized, what am I doing-- this would break my streak! So I left without getting gas. And went home and told Ryan how funny that was. Only he didn't think it was so funny.
Sometimes though, I think Ryan is more into this game, or goal, or streak, or roll, or whatever you want to call it, than I am. It's like if I fail, it means he failed. HAHA! He fills our car up whenever it's anywhere near being low. He will sometimes go out just to put gas in the 4runner at night if he knows I don't have enough to get SJ to school and back the next day.
Oh, and don't think that I haven't dragged other people into this pointless game as well. Sure, Nic and I drove my car for our Chicago trip last fall, but who do you think actually got out and filled the gas tank? And when I took my parents to the airport at the end of their last visit, and had to stop for gas on the way out of town, if you had to choose between myself in the driver's seat and my dad in the passenger seat, which one of us do you think payed and which one pumped?

Speaking of airports, this is the one that trumps them all.
I took Ryan to the airport for his trip today. (sidenote: I always take him myself, whenever I can. Unless it is pretty much impossible, no matter if it's a 20 min drive or over an hour, I have to take him myself. There's just something about taking him there and saying goodbye that I have to do. It's like some farewell obsession I have or something. I don't know, it's like if anything ever happened, and I hadn't been there to say good bye at the last possible moment, I would always regret it. I know, it's weird.)
Anyway, the airport is sixty-some miles away, so it's quite difficult for me to take Ryan to the airport, go home, do any driving I have to do in town while he's away, and then go back to Detroit to get him however many days later, on just one tank of gas. (It's been close before!)
Well, this fact didn't even cross my mind this afternoon on the way out there. We were running a little bit late and still, just before we got to the airport exit, he pulls off the highway and into a gas station. Where he proceeds to fill up my gas tank at that very last chance, so that I don't have to pump my own gas while he's gone. (hopefully). Keeping my streak alive!
Awwww... isn't that sweet?

So there you have my story for the day on why I have the best husband in the world, and why I appreciate him so.
He gives me gas.

behind the scenes

I just had to add that Ryan was cracking me up last night with his "reenactment" of his little fender bender.

First he had just wanted to grab a couple of Sawyer's cars to show me what happened. But then he got all into it, and before I knew it, he was outside, dressed like this, getting shovel-fulls of snow to "set up the scene of the accident". He was like a little kid playing with the cars (look at that grin on his face), "crashing" them into the snow and each other. And then when I suggested we take pictures to illustrate the story on the blog, that made it even more serious! Too funny.
p.s.
Yes, the big truck was a true element of the story. A semi had come around that same curve sliding toward them in that kind of you-know what's-going-to-happen-next-slow motion. They all quickly moved themselves out of the way and were prepared to watch all their vehicles get really crunched. Thankfully, it ended up missing all the cars by just a few feet.

So I was a little late to work yesterday...

So here is what happened...

I, along with two other cars, slipped on some ice when trying to stop for a red light and found ourselves stuck in the snow along the side of the road. I ended up pretty much facing the wrong direction, but luckly we were all able to avoid each other. So I was stuck but I was probably going to be able to get myself out. I was putting on my boots to go out and survey the scene and see if the other two cars needed any help when...

...here comes a red jeep cherokee....

...slipping on the same ice...

...and right when I got my second boot on...

...ouch...

...and then here comes a big truck...watch out!!!

Whoa, that was close.
(The other two cars left after that close call)

The lady that hit me called the police, who came and took the accident report,
and her husband, who was able to pull me out...

...and then I went to work, just in time for break,
and had some coffee.
(See yesterday's post for a picture of the aftermath)

our day in pictures

click on any of the following to see the picture full size

Yes, you're in the right spot...

If you're looking for us Morrisons in Michigan, that is.

Thought I'd go for a new look around here and change it up a little. I know it's pretty simple, but I didn't really have the time to get all creative with it, so you get what you get.

Haven't had much to say lately... not much going on around here.
We've been snowed in; not really because of the snow, but because of the cold. They cancelled school here yesterday because it's just so freezing cold out there (minus twenty-something with the windchill). It's warmed up a little today (I think it feels like right around zero today) and I'm getting a little stir crazy, cooped up in the house with the kids, but it's just too much work to get everyone bundled up to go out and do what... walk around Target for awhile? I have nothing I need to do around town and nowhere fun to go.

Savannah missed her first day of school due to illness today because she's had a fever and a real bad cough the last couple of days. She's pretty much lost her voice. So we've mostly just been vegged out in front of the tv today. Fun, fun.

Let's see, what else...
Sawyer's back to not sleeping ever.
Waking up at all hours of the night, taking one way-too-short-nap every day, acting obviously tired and cranky all the time. Not sure what his deal is. I'm thinking maybe he's cutting more teeth, and I hope it's not something more, like an ear infection. He goes in for his 15 mo. check-up this Friday, so we'll see if there's some other reason for this insomnia.



A couple of SJ quotes for you:

I rearranged the living room furniture, yesterday...
"Mom, why are you moving all the FUN-CHAIRS all around?"

Bedtime prayers last night...
"Don't forget to pray for Porter since he left his shoes at our house last night. We need to pray that he can come back and get them."


Well, if I think of any other breaking news or find anything else of any entertainment value around here, I'll be back. In the meantime, I'm off to release Sawyer from his crib and his non-nap, put another movie on for SJ, and maybe figure out what we're having for dinner tonight.

stuck in a rut

I'm at a loss for what to make for dinner today.
It's just hard to get excited about meals around here when lately Savannah won't eat 75% of what I make, Sawyer is allergic to half the foods on this earth, and on top of that he has acquired a newfound pickyness as well.
I've only found very few dishes that all four of us will actually eat, and at the moment I can think of exactly none.

I'm just feeling tired of the same old stuff, you know? And normally I'm always up for new recipes, but I'm not really motivated to find anything new today. I was in this mood yesterday and it ended up being a breakfast for dinner day. Don't think I could get away with that again.

Any ideas???

Snow Day

We had an indoor snow day here this morning. It's just a little bit too chilly to play outside (the forecasted high for this weekend is about 10 degrees. Yes, I said the high.), so we brought the snow inside.










Savannah thought it was so cool, and Sawyer... well, he didn't really know what to think. He just kept sticking his hands in and saying "ahhh...". He was a little more into it when he figured out how to throw it. Yeah, that's fun indoors.





I couldn't convince either one of the kids to keep thier snow mittens on, and I don't know how they could stand it, that stuff was cold! I had mine on, that's for sure. I could barely make one snowball without them before my hands were hurting.





We made some snow castles, snowballs, and of course a snowman. And predictably, Sawyer smashed them all as soon as they were made. Luckily, Savannah was having enough fun, she didn't care too much.


















After it looked like Sawyer's hands were so frozen they were about to snap right off, I put up the tub of snow and we scooped a little out and made Snow Ice Cream. Kind of fun, kind of yummy, just something different for a special day...

Snow Ice Cream
Ingredients:

3 cups loose clean snow
1/2 cup milk or cream
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients till a creamy
consistency and eat immediately.
Add more sugar and vanilla extract to taste.
We used peppermint extract instead of vanilla!
You could experiment with whatever flavorings you want.
Yummy!

Home Sweet Home

We left Portland like this... 55 degrees, sunny, and beautiful...

















And came home to this... 20 degrees, sunny and about 6" of snow...










It's nice to be home!
We still have yet to finish unpacking, but it's nice to be back in our own beds and our own house and of course, with Ryan.
I'm thinking about heading outside to shovel the driveway before it gets even more packed down, since Ryan never got around to it while we were gone and quite a bit more snow fell the day we got home. But take a look at that driveway... it's a long one! Not sure if I'm up for that today.
I'll update more when I get a chance maybe this evening or tomorrow.
And I'll add my P.A.D.s that are overdue over here. I have been taking pictures, I just haven't had a chance to post!
Just so nice to be getting back to normal!

So Ready....

to head home!!!
I'm ready... to be done living out of suitcases, ...to be done being a guest in a different house every day, ...to be done with crazy run-around schedules, ...to be done sharing a bedroom with my baby, ...to have this dreaded plane trip overwith already, ...to not have to miss Ryan anymore, ...to not have to listen to Savannah saying (more and more sadly each day) that "I just miss my Daddy so much", ...to get back to no traffic and no more than a 10 minute drive to anywhere in town, ... for all of us to get some real rest and get back to "normal".

But I will definitely miss... all of our great friends, ...all of our family, ...seeing the kid's faces light up when we see Grammas and Grampas and Aunts and Uncles that we don't get to see all the time (it's fun to see Sawyer actually recognize these people now and be happy to see them each time we return to a house; since he's so young he doesn't remember anyone from before), ...the gorgeous weather we've been having here, ...the gorgeous views and landscape of the Portland area, ...our "home church", ...the feeling of being home.

I've found myself feeling a little jealous of Ryan's time alone at home. What I wouldn't give to have a few days home by myself! No kids, no spouse, no one else to clean up after. Doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Time to myself to get things accomplished (and to just do nothing also!)
Yeah, I would love a few days to myself like that.
But only a few.
I would imagine 17 days is way too many!

*************

We've of course had a busy last couple of days around here...
On Saturday we just hung out at my mom's, the kids took a nice walk in the sunshine to the park with Gramma and Grampa and the dog, and then we got packed up and headed back to Ryan's mom's house for the last few nights of our trip.

This morning we went to River West again, and then after church we headed straight over to Ryan's Grandpa Morrison's house to visit with him for a bit. Dave, Janet and Donnie (plus a couple of Donnie's friends) brought a great lunch of Buster's Barbecue over and we also met Grandpa's new friend Ellie. It was a nice visit and the kids had a lot of fun playing silly games with their Grampa. And Sawyer loved his Great Grandpa... he would just snuggle up on his lap and stare up at him. When we were saying our goodbye's, he gave him a great hug... and then another and another and another and he kept going back for more, laughing all the while. It was so sweet!

We then returned to Ryan's mom's to get Sawyer a much needed nap (that actually never happened, that little insomniac stinker) and to meet up with Jenn so Savannah could go swimming with her Aunt. They had a blast at the pool and even relaxed a bit in the hot tub. By the time they got home, Savannah was so wiped out she barely ate any dinner, got her jammies on and was asleep I think in record time!

*************

So tomorrow's agenda is just hanging out with the gang here. Jenn and Greg are going to come over bright and early and we're hoping to all spend a good chunk of the morning out at a park or something fun outside. Then after lunch when Sawyer goes down for a nap and Greg has to get to work, I think Jenn and Debbie are going to take Savannah out to a movie. She'll love that! And I, of course, will be busy trying to get things cleaned up and organized and packed up for the trip back.
Oh, it will be so good to be home!!!

On Friday

we had our super-crazy busy day.

In the AM, we jumped into the car early to drive down to Wilsonville and meet the Nelsons at one of our all-time favorite kid spots, Toney Baloney's. We tried to get there early to beat the crowd, but there were already a MOPs group and another play group there meeting for the morning. That place is so popular... I can't believe they haven't opened more of them around the area by now.

Anyway, we met Rita and Ben and Julia there and it was so good to get the short chance to visit with them. I can't believe how big Julia has gotten and how tall Ben is! Savannah was so excited to go to the coffeehouse and to play with Ben there, that I think she even forgot we had to miss swim night with him last week.

Here are just a couple of shots of the kids sitting down for a quick snacktime.

And on a little bench out front of Toney Baloney's... with the

bright sun in their eyes, so they all covered them up.

After that place got too crazy full, we got out of there and took a walk around the block and then said our good byes.

We headed back to my mom's for a quick naptime, and then Savannah and I went to pick Sydney up from her preschool so the girls could play for the afternoon.

Again, it is amazing what a difference 8 months makes. Savannah and Sydney have always gotten along well, but now they're like big girls just playing together doing their own thing... I didn't even hear a peep out of them, they just went back to the play room and we didn't see them again until dinnertime. They played babies and colored and danced and they just had such a good time together. It's so fun to watch them grow up together!

Sydney was so proud to show off her new shirt! Savannah got it for her since she's going to be a big sister soon, and now they match! They both thought it was pretty cool they were "twins"!

More silly smiles!!!

And dancing away!

That evening, Heidi and Gabe and Trish and Darron came over for dinner and games. We played a few rounds of Fluxx, which just might be my new favorite.

The most entertaining part of the evening was when Gabe decided to teach Savannah how to "wheelbarrow". It was hilarious. Heidi and Gabe even got down and showed her how to do it. Gabe was the wheelbarrow. Savannah thought that was pretty funny!

Well, I don't know how long it took... she tried over and over and over again (most of the time she just colapsed because she was laughing so hard), but she finally got it! And she was quite proud of herself. Thanks Uncle Gabe!

On Wednesday and Thursday

We were hoping to reschedule some time with the Nelson family that we missed because of the snow and Sawyer's flu, but it didn't work out for Wednesday.

So we just had another laid-back day hanging out at the house.

In the afternoon the kids and I headed down to Tualatin and went to one of our favorite parks before going over to Annie's for dinner. I made her break her New Year's resolution of no fast food and take me to Burgerville for dinner. It was always our favorite and I was having withdrawls seeing the Burgervilles around town and not having had any for the past 8 months! I even splurged and had one of their awesome milkshakes. (Burgerville is a chain only in the northwest and all their food is made with fresh, seasonal and natural northwest ingredients.) Yummy!!!

We put the kids to bed, and Annie had some girls (just us, Julie, Sarah and Michelle) get together that evening to do some scrapbooking and we had fun just catching up.

The kids and I spent the night since Thursday morning was Mom's group and we would have been back over there anywhere. So we enjoyed a little Mom's group that morning and afterward Lindsie came over to visit just for a bit one more time before we left again, and we just hung out all day (eating way too many donuts) and enjoyed girl time together.


Cade and Savannah had a great (and rather long) day playing together. I just can't get over how well they get along now. They were even playing with the littler boys a bit (although Sawyer was still mostly shunned from the "big kids" play). But when the little ones would wander into Cade's bedroom, Savannah and Cade would jump up on Cade's loft bed and start being silly saying, "the bed monsters are coming! the bed monsters are coming!" The two of them referred to Callum and Sawyer as bed monsters for the whole two days. It was pretty cute.




Do these two look like bed monsters to you???

Then later Thursday evening after saying goodbye to Annie and the boys, we ran over to Ryan's dad's house for a visit. Savannah and Sawyer made themselves right at home with the couple of toys they have around and even though they were so tired, we stayed just long enough for a quick dinner and spent a nice time chatting with Grampa Dave and Janet and Uncle Donnie.