A New Fascinating Way To Kill Time in Front of the Tube...

...Combine Demolition Derby.

No joke! I called Dad last night (actually I called Mom, but ended up having a fun chat with Dad since Mom was out) and he was watching RFDTV. RFD? RF? Anyway...it's channel 9409 on Dish Network. He likes to watch such riveting shows as "Big Joe's Polka Show" on this channel. But last night when I called, he was watching a show called "Little Tractors." I turned to the same channel and ended up watching the whole hour-long extravaganza with Steve and the kids. Caleb really got into it. Especially the bits where parts of the combines would fall off or when two would ram into each other head-to-head and the back ends would come off the ground six to ten feet. Very impressive.

Today I took Julie to Wal-Mart to have her 1 year pictures taken. I wanted to get a friend of ours, Liz, to take the pix since she has a knack for it, but I realized this week that I needed to get the pictures taken before her top 4 teeth erupt. Any day now. She did very well and I'm trying to get the pix off the website to post here. I'll keep trying.

I don't really have anything interesting to report. The kids got mail today from both Nana and Gigi. Audrey was very excited and ripped into hers with gusto. I'm amazed that she didn't rip anything inside, which is what usually happens when my overzealous and under-snail-mailed children get a letter.

Steve and the big 2 are in the living room right now playing Chutes & Ladders. We're letting them stay up a little later than usual since it's Friday night. Wow - Friday nights sure have a different feel than they did 20 years ago. You're probably thinking, "Duh, April," but I just realized that the excitement that came along with "Friday night" in 1987 for a thirteen-year-old girl is much different than the relief that accompanies the end of the week for a 33-year-old mom. I still get excited about Friday nights, but now it's because Steve doesn't have to get up and go to work on Saturday morning. I miss him when he's at work. I'm glad when he gets home - not because I want him to take over "kid duty," but because I missed him so darn much. We've been married twelve and a half years and he's still my best friend.

Enough sap.

I got a letter in the mail earlier this week from a publisher. Not a letter, more an information packet. Then I got another one from another publisher today. Plus an e-mail from the second publisher about taking books to the International Christian Retail Show (apparently it's big). So my attempt to push my "when I grow up" dream to the back burner hasn't worked. It's on the front burner again. Now Steve and I need to sit down and discuss if I'm going to try to get the manuscript hammered out before Feb. 28 in time for publishing for the ICRS, or if I'm going to wait. The reason for waiting would be monetary: we're headed into some expensive dental/orthodontic work for Steve this year. So we'll see. I'll keep you posted.

All for now.