5:30 a.m.

Yikes! I just realized it's been 2 weeks since I've posted. Work is to blame; usually I get a little down time to catch up my blogging but we just finished a full moon and it's been otherwise crazy, so to speak. But that's another story, and I'm posting those elsewhere.

So, 5:30 a.m. That's what time Elijah was in my face this morning asking if it was a good time to go fishing. I didnt feel it was, so I told him to wait. He did. Until 5:45. That was pretty good, for him. You can imagine how the rest of the morning went. I did finally get him out there at around 9 :30. I'm at work now and the last email I got from Brian, at about 9 PM, said that Elijah was out there on his little folding chair all day, waiting for the big 'un.

This week was ana's big theater debut. She attended theater camp at rocori high school and it was fabulous. It is run by a traveling troupe (Prairie Fire Children's Theater) and this year they were really good. The play was Jack and the Beanstalk and it was a musical adaptation. Our girl was cast as Treble Clef, a key member of the Orchestranians. The Orchestranians were, I think, guardians of a level of air somewhere between earth and the top of the beanstalk. Her entrance to the stage was funny and impressed me with it's perfect casting of her. She entered stage left with her arms crossed and held high and her nose in the air (she was directed to "show her boogers"). She marched resolutely across to the other side of the stage alone, turned on her heel, and went back across to the other side, turned on her heel again, and another Orchestranian joined her--and followed behind her making faces and mocking her character. Ana kept a straight face, for the most part--except those dimples gave her away. You could see through to the other side of her face. The perfection in the casting is that Ana is rather reserved and is also quite used (and impervious) to being trailed by smaller, irritating, beings. She had a significant number of lines and didn't blow a single one. As a matter of fact she knew the whole play by heart and was annoyed by others flubbing theirs!

I attended the Saturday production and took two hours from work and ran to cold spring. It would have been nice to be off the whole evening but I'm not at a point where I can make such demands. It was great to be allowed to take off as I was, given that this is health care (mental, to boot) and not library science or some other such tame thing. Grandma came from Wisconsin for the Saturday performance as well, and Brian and Elijah were there too. Joanie and James went to the Friday show. So anyway during the play there was this giant who ran through the audience looking for a human to eat. Elijah went from Grandma's house to mine in one swift movement. Hmmm......................a little nervous, are we? Which reminds me, this morning I had to flick a bug off his tacklebox before he could fish.

Ben spent Friday afternoon at his friend Henry's house playing with "Turdy", Henry's turtle. According to Henry's mom, he is not the most original with names, if you can't tell. They had a good time, as usual.

Wils is doing good. He asked if he could ride bike to Grandma's house. I just hope he doesn't set out some day in actual pursuit of that. He will be four in less than two months! That's hard to digest. He is one I would keep little forever. The rest of them i would say probably not (except maybe Ben--he was a wonderful baby and seems to get sneaky as he gets older).

Zac is definately not invited to stay a baby forever but he seems bent on it. He did finally get a 3rd tooth and the 4th is on the verge of arrival also. I wonder what excuse he'll come up with for being a crab once that one is in? Brian has that kid so spoiled. He is, of course, still very funny. He is a good one for making faces and is very dramatic. When he doesnt get his way he will lay on his face. Reminds of Lij as a baby that way. Lij would very carefully arrange himself on the floor to have his "tantrums" (if they could be called that). He certainly didn't want to injure himself! Unfortunately for him he felt there was much in his little life to protest so he spent a lot of time carefully arranging himself on the floor.

Well, I better get back to the millieu. We have a 56 year old guy who thinks I'm his mommy.