Swensen Sentral

Today officially felt like the first day of summer. Hot, muggy, sticky, and hot. I've been waiting so long for winter to be over and summer to finally arrive and well, I think I like Spring and Fall the best. Today was a quick reminder of the inescapable sticky heat (technically called humidity but I think sticky is more descriptive) here in New England. I am reminded of the many days ahead of me where I can enjoy 15 dry minutes after getting out of the shower before the sticky sweat sets in, as well as standing in front of the a/c unit, contemplating whether or not turning it up is worth the increased electricity bill. Since the a/c is not currently situated in our window, I didn't have a choice today (this is one of our budgeting tips, don't offer yourself the choice to spend money). How do we get through it? Lots of popsicles and lots of swimming.

Chase brought me a one dollar bill today and said, "Look mama, a ticket! I found some tickets!" I think he was somehow equating them to Red Sox tickets or something. I can't remember the last ticket he had but it must have come from somewhere. Silly kid.

The first week of May, my sister flew out to watch the kids while Rick and I went on another all-expense paid company trip to Florida. I know what you're all thinking, "another trip?" Well, we just want you to know that we did something in each of your names so you would feel a part of the experience.....lounged on the beach, lounged on the beach and....oh yeah, lounged on the beach ;) Dinner on the harbor (unfortunately it's too dark to see the pretty harbor in the background). My favorite thing to do, lounge on the beach..... .....and collect seashells. Even though you can't see them, we saw dolphins swimming about 50 yrds out. It was so neat!

Our computer has been broken for a while and Rick is trying to fix it, and in the process he had to delete all our pictures and document files from the computer (he saved them elsewhere of course). But because of this, I haven't been able to post any pics for a while and will not be able to until he fixes it. With that said, I can tell you a cute little story about Amelie. Tonight we had family home evening and we started with a prayer. As usual I said "ok, it's time to fold your arms for prayer" looking directly at Chase. He didn't obey immediately (can you believe it?) and so Rick and I proceeded for the next 10 seconds to try to get his attention and get him to fold his arms. In the meantime I glanced over at Amelie and she was standing there like a little angel, with her arms folded, watching us. She's NEVER folded her arms for a prayer before and we haven't even tried teaching her yet, so we were amazed that she actually did it for the first ti...