Vote for Keats!

The rescue society in Louisville, Ky., from which we adopted Keats is competing again in the $300,000 Animal Rescue Site Challenge.

Go to this link to vote for Golden Retriever Rescue in Louisville, KY. Click the vote button and then you will be prompted to type in the name of an animal whose picture you see.

You can do it once a day, and the contest runs through March 20. GRRAND is in 4th place right now, and last year they won $1,000!

I'll also try to put a gadget on the blog so that every day you visit Screamin John you can vote!

Thanks! Go Keats!

Another Pointer Post

Sorry for the lack of posting these days. I think I am being punished by the Universe for always saying "Everyone gets the same amount of time, you have time for what you make time for."

Anyway, if you are dying for some kid pictures, please visit Grandpaparazzi's posts of Christopher and John!

Thanks, Pa!!

So soon

Just an FYI, we turned in John's forms yesterday at the elementary school and he is officially registered for 5K! I can hardly believe it!

Helper Christopher

Not to neglect my other helper... Christopher already tries to put dishes in and get dishes out of the dishwasher. However, at this point, he is usually doing the opposite of what the rest of us are doing.
Also, this morning he helped me take dry clothes out of the dryer into a basket (sort of) and then he started the dryer for me (pushed the button). He was so excited when the dryer started to go after he pushed the button!

Helper John

Today I sent John down the street to Henry's house to drop off a cookie mix for Miss Becky. It was awesome. I helped him get across the street and then watched him go to their house. Then he came trotting back and I helped him cross the street again. Can't wait until he can cross the street on his own (basically when he's tall enough to be seen by all the tall SUV's in the neighborhood, so about 5 years?).

It was great! I'm so thankful I have such a helpful 4-and-a-half-year-old!

Happy British New Year

Because the kids are usually in bed by 8pm, I came up with the idea of celebrating New Year's eve on British time, which is five hours ahead of us. So we counted down to 7pm. We also arranged to Skype with Jessica and so we got to cheer the New Year in with an actual Brit (or dual American-Brit) as well! It worked great!
We had dinner with James's family, then played for a little bit, then it was time for "midnight." We counted down with the computer clock and Jessica in the kitchen and used our mini band instruments as noisemakers. Then we went outside to light sparklers and throw poppers on the ground.



We came back inside for some culinary fireworks of Kerri flipping crepes while the kids ate purple cows (grape soda-ice cream smoothies).


The results were yummy and impressive!

Judging by the noise level, everyone had a great time!

Oh, I just had a great idea! Next year, we'll celebrate on British time again, and have a pub dinner! Awesome. I am so smart. S-M-R-T. I mean S-M-A-R-T.

One Christmas pic

Here are John and cousin Katie working on her awesome workbench from Santa. We found out that Katie is going to be a cardiologist-LPGA champion, as well as a carpenter. Christopher privately asked me why we haven't started his college applications yet... I had no answer.