We haven't been on here much lately, updating and such. I thought I'd recap what we've been up to:

The kids - Colby's set to start kindergarten in the fall. Her name was drawn from the hat at the lottery, which allows her entrance into the Remington Traditional School, which is a part of the Pattonville school district where we live. We're excited about that. Colby also started taking piano lessons at the beginning of March. So far, it seems quite easy for her. Steady practice has seen her progress nicely through her first book, and she's really enjoying it.
Peyton will have one more year of pre-school before she heads off to Remington (siblings get automatic entry into the school). She's a pistol, and as funny as ever.

Last night, Kelsey and I were sitting at the table having a snack when we heard Colby ask from down the hall, "Aunt Kelsey, why are you staying with us?"

Kelsey answered, "So I can find a new place to live."

Colby responded, "Oh, OK...because it's kind of our house."

Last Friday (Aug. 11) I ordered an off-air antenna from Antennas Direct. I ordered a DB4 antenna, the 18" J-Mount, and 100 feet of RG6 coaxial cable.

They only offered FedEx shipping, which I don't prefer because it seems to be so much more expensive than all of the other alternatives. But that's fine. I had called and asked, since they're located in Eureka, MO (about 35 miles from our house), if they had a warehouse somewhere that I could just go and pick up the items after I ordered them. The lady that I spoke with told me that, no, they don't do that, but they do sometimes have returned items in their office that I could come look at and purchase for a discount. Since their return policy on those items was "No Returns," I decided against going that route.

Don't forget to show appreciation to your local systems administrator tomorrow (July 28th). They do lots of work at night so you can work during the day. There's a great list of nice things you can do to show your appreciation, as well as a photo gallery, over at SysAdminDay.com.

Last night we had a rare moment of family prayer at the girls' bedtime. We usually put them to bed separately, and I pray with Colby and Cat prays with Peyton. But for some reason, we all ended up in Colby's room. All three girls were on the bed, and I sat in the rocking chair next to it.

I asked Colby what she wanted to pray about. She didn't feel like it just then, but Peyton piped up, "AhhhPway." (Translates to "I want to pray").

"You do?" I asked. "Great! Say 'Dear Jesus, thank you for today.'"

"Da du mumbles po today."

"Thank you for mommy and daddy."

"Da du mumbles some more po mommy daddy!"

We headed to the brand spankin' new Busch Stadium this afternoon with our friends John and Carrie and their baby Allie from Chicago to see the Cubs/Cards game. It was a beautiful day, with the temperature topping out at about 78 degrees, or so.

We sat in the wheelchair seats in section 345, which was just great. The usher got out folding chairs for us (the thick plastic white ones you can buy at Sam's) and we sat there with TONS of leg room, and the ability to arrange our chairs as we pleased.

Section 345 sits on the first base (South) side of the field, just ahead of home plate. We were also shaded all afternoon by the overhang from the upper deck which was great! There was also a breeze all afternoon that kept us cool and relaxed.

Our fabulous new Dell 42" Plasma TV arrived last Friday, and was installed Saturday morning on our bedroom wall. We watched a couple of movies and I played lots of video games, but I couldn't wait for two more weeks for the satellite guy to come instal our HD receiver, so I went out and bought an off-air antenna.

First, I bought a Jensen model which was No Good. It freaked out every time we moved in the bedroom and the image on the screen would pixelate and go dark, and we'd see the error on the screen: Weak Signal.

So I took it back to Best Buy and got a different one, made by Terk (a subsidiary of Audiovox, I believe). This one works Great! We have to turn it a bit to get stable reception on some of the channels, but it pulls in everything local (UPN doesn't have a digital broadcast, so it looks about like you'd expect from cheesy old rabbit ears).

A couple of nights ago while I was getting Colby to bed, she pointed to her chest and said, "Jesus lives in my heart."

Naturally, I was thrilled when she said that to me. I asked her about Jesus and if she know that she could have him in her heart. She said she did. But for some reason, I didn't ask her if she wanted to ask him to come in that night. A missed opportunity, to be sure.

Last night when it was time for us to pray, I asked her if she wanted to ask Jesus to come into her heart. She said she did.

I said to her, "You'll need to pray yourself, though. I can't do it for you." Most nights - well, all of them except for one or two ever - Colby doesn't want to pray herself, and prefers that I just do it.

As promised previously, I now present to you "I Hate Nature", in which I present to you in pictures and prose the reason that trees are evil.

A few weeks ago on a Saturday morning, I went out into the back yard with a rake and began to collect the leaves into piles. I freely confess that I absolutely hate yard work. I would rather be doing any number of unpleasant things than mowing, raking, trimming, etc. I hate it.

I just took this politics test over ad OKCupid. I'm actually surprised by my results: