Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

It's been awhile since I sat down and wrote. Let's have some bullet points, OK? We just got back from buying a new Tempur-Pedic bed and it is beyond awesome. The mattress we currently have is nice, but it is getting up there, age-wise. Mattresses must age like dogs or something. Anyway, I was having a lot of lower back pain every morning. We tried flipping it and rotating it and every other thing we could think of to extend its life just a little longer, to no avail. I am telling you, the first time I lay down on the Tempur-Pedic, I literally felt stress leaving my body...no joke. Tension in my shoulders, etc. They are going to deliver it sometime today and then our pretty dang nice (but elderly) mattress is moving to Annika's room, where it will replace the mattress I bought in 1993 for $300. Yay for our guests! You may have to sleep under the pink canopy but at least the bed will be nicer! This past week was insanely busy for me, but in a good way. At no point did I feel ...

Last walk of summer vacation William walked about half of the 1.5 miles My handsome men-folk Random iPhone pic of LEYTE GULF from earlier this week Go ahead, admire the amazingly snug parking job--this is how the girls were housed during the hurricane last weekend. The view from outside...there's almost no room between Annika and the wall of the garage. I guess it really is a 2-car garage...IF you want to climb out the passenger side of your car. Back to today: Annika lost her second tooth. God, it was horrible, hanging on by a thread, sort of twisted and sticking out all Buckwheat. Hans and I agreed it was so gross that we couldn't possibly allow her to start school tomorrow, so we had her work on it all day and sure enough--out it popped, post-walk. I'm glad we didn't have to resort to pliers...