This is my youngest sister, Amy, and her new husband T.J. I believe I recall that the T in T.J. stands for Thurman...how about that? We had a blast getting to know him and he's awesome! They were engaged at the time and couldn't be kept apart nearly the whole time. They're now happily residing in the Salt Lake Valley. Oh, and the cute kid with them is our little Brahm, who loved T.J. and kept calling him daddy. We think he thought Rick was forever gone after 2 weeks of not seeing him.

...a moment of silence please...

It has been a fine Labor Day thus far. We have accomplished a few things around the house. I was able to golf this morning. We played with the kids. All in all a great time. I am grateful for these days when we are able to spend time so liberally with one another. We are truly fortunate to have so many resources and so much time with one another.

No excuses, just get back on the horse...

In the interest of decency I will forgo any effusive apologies. Instead I will act as if the last 7 months were filled with pleasant and entertaining blogs with appropritate comments from all participating parties. Wow how nice it has been to use this forum to stay connected :) . Things are well here in Michigan. The days are cooling and we are even feeling the nip of fall in the air each morning. Fall is my favorite time of year here in the midwest. I look forward to the cooling days and nights. I eagerly anticipate frosty morinings and crackling leaves. We will have many more leaves to rake this year than we have since we moved here. But raking leaves is a small price to pay for majestic autumn evenings and refreshing frosty mornings.

Well, you can't say that I blog way too much. It is cold and snowy here. For the first time in several months we got a good snowfall. I say that with some reservation because in Michigan the snowfalls are rarely good. Our street does not usually get plowed, in fact most of the streets in Lansing are still snow covered even 24 hours after the snow has stopped. The city wants us to believe that they couldn't possibly afford to plow the roads and provide all the other fantastic services to us. We will be content with that excuse when we see the fantastic services. Our family is great. Our boys are truly fabulous. Kara and I have officially been married for eight years today. A significant milestone to be sure. We are both delighted with the way our family is working right now and are very excited about the near future. Much to be done and a great team to do it with. I am grateful for the blessings I have in my little family here and my larger family out there. We love you all and are grateful for your support and love.

We had a bit of sun today. Its been overcast for about a month now. Seriously overcast for a month. You get used to grey skies living in Michigan, but sunny days make you realize what you are missing. I think we are all a bit happier and more enthusiastic today due to the sunshine. Life is screaming by in Michigan. McKay and Emerson are doing well in school (taught by the lovely Kara). McKay read an 80 page book by himself yesterday. We were all stoked. Emerson is a big help around the house and is quick to smile and joke with everyone he meets. Brahm is our glowing boy. His presence is enough to make anyone smile (owing partially to his huge dimples). Yessir, life is sweet and extra sweet on sunny days.

...Ready to Break the Ice!

So, I'm folding laundry today and I have some mp3's queued up to listen to while I'm working. One of the songs is "Break the Ice" off of the Rad soundtrack. McKay is instantly in love with it and has to play it over and over and over again. I don't mind for the first 20 minutes or so but after that I'm ready for a little variety, but McKay is convinced that "Break the Ice" is absolutely the finest song in the entire world and will not hear of letting the mp3's flow in a less redundant fashion. Well we listened for a while and McKay was inspired to practice his swordplay. Now McKay is usually very vigorous in his showmanship, but with the song on his abilities increased exponentially until he was a whir of dancing blades and dancing feet. Not too many other people could have been so graceful and menacing at the same time with a sword from the dollar store. I chalk it up to good training (He is, of course, entirely self taught) and the inspiration of good music. That song used to make me want to race my bike around the world. It is good to know that a new generation will appropriate it and be similarly inspired. Don't worry, Emerson is in on the fun too, as he was running from McKay this afternoon he said "you can't break the Ice Inside of me!"