Took some great photos of the kids playing with their cousins on Friday. During the early part of the day before the rain came, they had a blast running and playing on the slip and slide. Good fun in the sun -- good they got it in when they could before the gray skies returned for much of the weekend. Unfortunately I can't post any of those photos....I left my camera out in Palmer. I'm praying to get it back soon so I don't miss out on the first day of school photos.

Other news:
Greg's home! He safely maneuvered through 13 villages in 5 days in the YKHC region of Western Alaska. Glad to have him home. He came home with special shells and rocks from the Bering Sea for the kids, plus a carved whale tooth and carved walrus tooth from a native village -- one for each child. Christopher is now gung ho to get to a bead store to make a manly necklace out of his. So good to have him home safely.

We hosted the Salts for dinner on Saturday. They are visiting on vacation -- I used to run down the street to their house to play with their kids on sunny summer afternoons. We had a nice visit and caught up on the lives of all those Salts kids I used to pal around with.

Volunteered at the Soup Kitchen today and kept busy as usual. Cate is really getting into helping mode lately. Christopher's been good at cutting pastries and wrapping snacks for some time, but Cate was really wanting to help today for the first time. Other times, she mostly just watches and stays out of trouble. Very cool.

The first workman is here today to start the kitchen remodel. We have half the kitchen "stuff" (mixing bowls, cuisinarts, etc plus most of the canned foods) housed on bakers carts in the living room. He has the dining room area roped off with plastic and has begun the exploration into that wall to see if there are any issues that would thwart our plans. Tomorrow they'll start on building out the new room for the washer/dryer. They won't start tearing apart the rest of the kitchen until they finish the washer/dryer, which will give me some extra time to use the kitchen. It's exciting but it's going to be a lot of work.

You know the story about the Israelites, being led out Egypt and slavery by God? And then they get out in the desert and start complaining about that they really wish they could have better food and drink in the desert, and gee God, why couldn't you have done a better job of delivering us better? My goal during the kitchen remodel is to be grateful for where I've come from (the old house) and thankful for what I have (a new house that will eventually have a gorgeous kitchen) and not be too whiny. I know it isn't reasonable to be that way all the time -- it's not going to be easy. But really, we're so fortunate that I will be trying to focus on that rather than the insanity of the process.