Sniffle, snuffle, cough, cough...that is what we've been hearing in our house for a couple days. Morgan just has the sniffles and they don't seem too bad for her. Alex has a regular cold I think and while he's not miserable he isn't quite himself. It mostly affects his sleeping. We are just having him take it easy until he feels better. All of us seem to be dragging a bit but we aren't sure if it a case of winter duldrums, situation blahs, coming down with something...or a combination of all of these.

We are in the middle of dishwasher drama. We received a call on Tuesday that our dishwasher would be delivered on Wednesday between 8a-12p. So we called the warranty company to let them know so they could have someone out to install it. They told us they couldn't schedule anyone until after the dishwasher was delivered so to call them once we had it. Ugh. So 8:30am Wednesday the dishwasher was delivered to us and the big ole box was put in our living room. We called the home warranty company and they said they would get back with us to let us know who would be coming out & when. Well, when they called us back it was to let us know that Sears (who came out for the original service call) doesn't do installations and they have no contractors in our area so they will send us a check for $70 and we will have to get someone to install it ourselves. Egads!! What a load of crap...did they not know this when they covered us? When we called for the service call? Why give us the option of them picking the dishwasher & having it delivered & installed if they didn't have someone to install it? Thankfully my brother happened to call to tell me he was coming over Saturday to help us check for water damage from the leak. I told him what was going on and that we had the dishwasher in the living room and he came right over and helped us remove the old one, check for water damage (minimal & easily taken care of) and started installing the new one. We needed 2 things to complete the installation and he explained everything for us. He had to go to work but we all felt confident we could finish up. No problem...Corey had to work late but finally got to Lowe's to get the 2 things we needed and he & I went to work. Well...one piece isn't quite doing what it should and it is leaking...or spraying water if we turn the water on....and we can't get it to stop. Soooo....until my brother has time in his busy schedule to come help we are on hold with the dishwasher. Sounds like no big deal and in the grand scheme of things it isn't...but in the meantime the hot water is turned off in the kitchen. If we turn it on then water sprays everywhere from the dishwasher water line. This makes hand washing the dishes even MORE fun!! You either have to heat up water in the microwave or get it from the bathroom to make dish water. Wheee....are we all having fun yet?? LOL! We plan on using the $70 to pay my brother for all his help. It was very nice of him to drive over here (45'ish mins) and work on our kitchen for an hour and then head off to work. I'm so lucky to have such a sweet brother!

After all that complaining I will relate a sweet, funny kid thing. You've seen the commercials and heard parents say "No matter how much money you spend on toys it is always the big box that something came in that is the most fun". This still holds true. The kids are having a blast with the dishwasher box. Morgan cut a door, Corey cut them a window and they've decorated the outside to be their clubhouse. It is in the middle of the living room and they have both spent a lot of time inside it. They even used some extra cardboard panels as walls for a patio/deck. LOL! At one point yesterday Alex was inside the box, eating lunch & watching tv out the window of the clubhouse.

Morgan wrote a story for the AKC magazine story contest. It had to be about any registered breed. I'll have to put a link to it so people can read it. I think she would like that. Her triops are doing good and have really grown. They are getting big...well, for triops they are big. At some point yesterday or last night we lost one though so we are down to 3. She's moving along in math & is doing good. She made dinner all by herself last night. It was the meal she had picked and she did good. It was a big salad with chicken pieces. It was yummy.

I am working on planning a February trip to Jacksonville with my mom to see my grandmother. Due to how rough the last trip was (Aug, right after we moved up here) I refuse to go with her and both kids. The number of stops, the close quarters,etc....I'd have to put them all in trunk in order to make the drive. So we are trying to work around Corey's pager schedule so Alex can stay home with Daddy and just the girls take the trip. It isn't much fun for a 5.5 yo little boy at a nursing home anyway.