Stinkin' O-H-I-O

Ohio is officially on my list of four-letter words I never want to hear again. After declaring that his work in Ohio was done, one of the new managers quit. Now he is back to square one, and will have to stay out there several more weeks (or more), til he is able to conduct more interviews, hire and train the next person. Argh, matey! I am not looking forward to it, but if I've done it for eight weeks now, what's a few more, right? Right??? I feel especially bad for the kids. They were so glad that he didn't have to go back, and now Katie is already asking when he is going to come home. That's the first thing she asked him when she was talking to him tonight. James was looking forward to starting AWANA's at our new church, and now he'll have to wait a few more weeks. Oh, well. He has a job and for that I am grateful, especially in light of current events.
In other news

• Tyler is the most crazy/determined/climbing/fearless child I have ever seen!! He gets in to everything all the time. If he is not swinging the chandalier back and forth, he is climbing on anything that will hold still for him. Jeff actually watched him climb to the TOP of the ladder, without any fear. Tyler figured out that if he could climb the ladder he could get into Jeff's toolbox. (The ladder is a little taller than Jeff, and Tyler went to the last rung before the top) I feel like I spend my day plucking him from precarious situations.
• We had our first 'art lesson' today. I volunteered to have our friends' kids over for an art lesson every week. Today was the first one and it was fun! I slapped aprons on everyone but Tyler and we went to town! I let them paint, which they were sure to tell me that Daddy wouldn't care if they got messy, but Mommy would. :) I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that is because Mommy does the laundry. ;)
  
• Katie is a chatterbox. It takes her 30-40 minutes some days to go down for a nap because she is so busy talking to herself. She does that at night too.
  
• James is currently in an All-Pirates-All-The-Time phase. I am thinking that the farmer obsession will be back shortly. After all, he has been in to farmers for the last 3 years. The funny thing is, he has no idea what pirates really do. I tried to explain but he wasn't having it. He is just content to but castles and forts for his apparently land-locked pirates. The pirates also have successful gardens, horses and livestock. Those pirates always were an industrious bunch.
  
• And lastly, its beyond me why I forgot to post these pictures of Auntie Rachel playing with her favorite niece and nephews in the tent they made. So, here they are: