Sad Day

Last thursday was a sad day at our house for Parker and Londyn. I arrived home from work and Parker was tearfully telling the next-door-neighbors that he couldn't play with them because our rabbit Sparky had just died. He was bawling. I inquired as to why he was over at the neighbors and if there was something we could do to help Sparky. Was he really dead or just near death? Well, we went back to the cage and sure enough Sparky was gone... cold and stiff. Parker was distraught. Sharee and I had repeately warned Londyn and Parker to make sure he had enough to eat and drink, but I think Sparky starved to death. It was a sad thing.

Parker and Londyn wanted to bury him in the yard. Our yard is tiny and the only spot not covered by grass is the garden and we didn't think it would be good to rototill him up in the spring, so Sharee suggested Parker get a shoebox and prep a coffin for the little guy and have the garbage man take him and bury him in the dump. Parker proceeded to write a special note to the garbage man asking him to carry Sparky in the front so he wouldn't get squished in the back. His note said "Special Rabbit" please carry in the front of the truck. "Very Memorable." (keep in mind this is the poor animal the starved to death).
Well, the garbage man wouldn't take it because of the note. So it sat in the garage for a week and ended up going in the back of the truck anyay.

The sad thing was the poor rabbit died and the kids felt bad. You should have been here for it though.

Parker's car: The pinewood herbie:
4th place 2008 Pack 87.

I love pink!

Well after INTENSE pressure from my sister, who has just become a blogger, I have decided to take back our blog. I had a bit of fun with it today, when I should have been getting other stuff done. Oh well it is cute now. Rob may not like it all that much, but he is used to me getting my way. I think I may be better with posting to it now that I have moved things around and can navigate through the site better. Hope you all like it. More posts to come.

I have lost most of your phone numbers

In my rush to get home last week, I neglected to securely zip a pocket of my backpack. This is the result. While this phone wasn't the latest and greatest item, it did have iTunes and some fun features including fairly loud speakers. I'm trying to rebuild my phone book, so call me if you have my number and I'll add you back in... good excuse to see what's going on.

More snow

The last post was pretty lame with barely enough snow to amount to anything. It melted off and we got about 8 inches one Sunday morning. We shoveled the driveway snow into one pile in the front yard and more video below... As it turns out, we forgot about the superbowl and had fun without it. The neighbors came over and tried it out. Since our area is mostly flat, it was fun for a week or so to sled.

SnowJumps... back yard fun

So I have this video we made of sledding in our flat back yard with less than an inch of snow. I hope to have it posted soon. It is too big and taking too long to download... I don't know what format and what tool is best to reduce the file size and still maintain some measure of quality... anyone?

I figured I'd just cut 90% and put something up rather than be accused of all talk and no action.

Here it is:

4x

So today was a landmark day. Parker finished the "Mad Minute" 4x multiplication sheet (50 problems in 2.5 minutes with better than 70% correct. We raced a few times and he really didn't want to do it, but did it anyway. I'm pretty proud of him for it. He did one sheet and I did two. I finished and he didn't the first try. The second try, he did one and I did three. He almost finished it the second time. The third time I did 4 sheets and only made it through half of the last one. He finished while I was half way through the third sheet (30 seconds left). The fourth time was a gut check: Parker vs. the clock and he finished it with 100% and 1 second remaining. He's the man. He's here with me as I type this. Good luck with your math everyone. Parker is "Getting it" now.