DON'T THINK JAS WILL MIND

Hi Mom (AND Dad),
I just wanted to write a quick note and let you know how we love you guys. I also wanted to write and tell you Elisabeth says thanks so much for her wonderful gifts. You should see her. She's getting the 3-finger thing down, but she still has to use the other hand to fold down the pinky and thumb (It's really cute). The latest update there is pre-school. Angela and a couple friends in our ward have put together a pre-school between the three of them. They take a turn each week and all the their kids come over for a lesson and story time and then some playtime. I think it lasts about three hours. So far so good. Elisabeth has learned about "A" and "B". She gives a run down at dinner on Wednesday nights. It's great.

Jared is a tentative walker now. I even captured some of those initial steps on video. He had to come up on this walking thing by himself... and it was a ball that got him doing it. He'll stand up with his ball, chuck straight down, and then waddle over and retrieve it. I think he's realized he can bounce it better while standing, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't realize he's not holding onto anything when he walks over to retrieve it. He's also got "Mamma" down really well and yells that out anytime he needs something (Dadda not so much cause Mom jumps faster than Dad). His farmyard animal sounds are coming right along too.

Angela just called to the Relief Society presidency. She's 2nd counselor now, and right in her element. She's so excited and happy about the call and her RS president and other counselors. She had her first meeting yesterday night and came back glowing. We're gonna have to figure out some logistical challenges so we can both make our assigned meetings, but I don't think that will be too big a hassle (We'll figure something out eh?) Get this. Both Angela and the new RS president are due next Spring (Whaddaya say about coming out and visiting around then :))!

I'm doing the same ol stuff. I moved the garden around to the side of the house and smack dab into the Sun. It's like the growth process went into overdrive. Everything is growing about three times faster than in the Spring. Couple weeks backs when I started the "garden move" project it became really apparent that I hadn't chosen the initial location very well. Throughout the day I'd watch the shadows and the Spring garden plot ended up being in the shade ALMOST ALL DAY LONG! First the house and then the pine tree. Go figure. Well, it's pretty cool that my garden is mobile isn't it?

I'm still working through my compost project. I embarrass Angela every-so-often when I stop and grab somebody's grass clippings from off the side of the road. She's getting better with it though, and hey, I gotta get my resources somewhere right? I moved the worms outside now and I'm looking into a more permanent location for them. Right now they live in a big plastic storage container, but I need something bigger. I've also started feeding them the semi-composted organic stuff from my compost pile along with the table scraps from the house. They seem to be doing pretty well. I just need to find an easier way to (1) Keep the temperature constant (2) Drain the "composting tea" out their home. This "tea" stuff is supposed to be really good for the garden;. I'm dumping it on my plants already and they seem to be doing great (I think I'm going to find a lab and get it analyzed just for kicks, Then I'm gonna see how it rates against Miracle Grow). BUT, the stuff accumulates quick and it can drown my worms. Anyway, my short-term goal is to create a worm compost system that will process all organic scraps and paper products from the house AND finish the composting of all the grass clippings and other stuff I'm throwing in my compost pile REALLY REALLY quickly. That and do it without attracting flies (The flies come in swarms if I'm not careful to cover everything up).

Work is going pretty well. We're finally out of all the prepping and getting down to implementation. I'm much happier with this portion of the work because I can get out of the cubie and into the practices now. The schedule isn't really too bad either. Everybody works together on that, and I've done pretty good managing my time. Whoa, let me tell you how much I appreciate Angela when it comes to this. This kind of schedule would be IMPOSSIBLE if we didn't work together. She's really amazing.

Well, I've written a ton and need to get back to work. I love you guys sooooo much and hope everything is well with you. Please let everybody know we love em and miss em.

Love you,

Jason