My kitty. Photo by me.

I finished the 'rough draft' of my website on Monday. Mom, Dad, and I are continuing to fine-tune everything, but it is now up and running. If you would like to see the fruits of our labors, click here. Have fun looking around. If you are interested in any of the products we have available in our online store, feel free to place an order. I happen to know first hand about the snappy shipping we provide over here. I'm part of the shipping department! =)

A Word About The Weather

This has been an unusually moist and cool spring, but I am really enjoying it! Knowing that the heats of summer are just around the corner helps me to remember to enjoy the 50ish temperatures we have now.

“I think when I grow up,” Jodi began, lazily stretching out on her bed after supper one evening. “I’m going to be an actress or something like that.”
“Really.” Victoria made a feeble attempt to sound interested before returning to her much more interesting book.
“Yes.” Jodi continued, ignoring the fact that Vic wasn’t listening. “I think that’d be a lot more interesting than what we do now.” Victoria did not respond.
“All we do now is work. We work in the garden all summer and in the house all winter. How boring!”
“I think you’d find that the rest of the kids our age are a whole lot more bored than we are.” Jacob said, opening the door of the girls’ bedroom and following three of the dogs in.
“I know.” Jodi heaved a sigh. “But I think I’d like to try do nothing for just a little while, anyhow.”
“Are you kidding?” Victoria looked up, forgetting her novel for a moment. “Whenever we have more than an hour of time off you always end up on my bed complaining that you have absolutely nothing to do.”
“I know.” Jodi replied. “That’s because we don’t have anything to do on our free time until we get our new swimming pool. When are we getting that, anyway?”
“Beautiful subject change.” Jacob commented, sprawling on the floor and tousling the dogs.
“Thank you. It’s a necessary skill. When are we getting the pool, Vic?”
Victoria shrugged.
“Sometime this month, I guess.”
“But it’s already May!” Jodi protested. “I have a feeling it’s going to be August by the time the pool is actually set up and functioning.”
“I know.” Peter appeared in the doorway, struggling to hold onto Jem and one of the cats at the same time. With a sigh of relief, he quickly dumped his load onto Vicky’s bed and collapsed onto the floor beside Jacob. “I want to go swimming too. Jacob, lets go for a ride tonight and get some ice cream and the pool.”
“We can’t do that.” Jacob answered. “I’ve got to finish building my new rabbit cages tonight.”
“Boring.” Peter complained. “How come you never do anything interesting?”
“I do. Just not the kind of stuff you find interesting.”
“Hi guys.” Robert came into the room, shepherding Jewel and the rest of the dogs in with him.
“It’s getting crowded in here.” Jodi commented, getting up to open a few windows, as the small room began to get warm. Two cats came streaking in as she spoke, with the resident prize-fighter tom cat ‘Dingy’ right behind them.
“Another cat fight.” Victoria complained, throwing a pillow at the screeching cats who had retreated under her bed. “We really shouldn’t keep so many in the house.”
“I like cats.” Jodi defended. “Besides, if we have five dogs in the house why can’t we have four cats?”
“I think everybody is in here now.” Jacob said, looking around at the dogs busy sleeping, chasing each other, and fighting, the cats chasing each other around the room, and his four siblings spread out in the sixteen by sixteen bedroom.
“I can’t breathe!” Victoria said. “This room was not built for five kids, five dogs, and four cats. Let's all go outside or something.”

Accordingly the company moved out onto the front porch. The cats departed for the barn and several of the dogs ran under the porch and began the never-ending game of attempting to dig up the elusive rabbit who lived peacefully under it.
“What a lazy evening.” Jodi said happily. “I haven’t had to do anything all night since the dishes.”
“This really is nice.” Victoria agreed. “After planting corn all day, I’m pretty much ready for anything not involving long periods of standing and physical exertion.”
“I know just the game for you!” Peter broke in excitedly. “Let’s play football!”
“No, no!” Victoria exclaimed, as everybody else agreed to a game.
“Oh, come play, Vic. The worse thing you can do is break your neck.” Jodi comforted her, as the group moved to the lawn. A football was produced, and soon it was a free-for-all in the front yard.
“Move, move!” Jodi yelled as her poorly-thrown ball went spiraling towards the boys.
“My ball!” Peter screamed, diving for it and hitting the ground with a thud. Rob, thinking Peter had it, scrambled on top of him while Jacob grabbed the ball and headed for the other end of the yard. Victoria made an attempt to tackle him, but didn’t succeed in doing much more than tripping him. Both girls were on him in a minute and Jacob had to give up the ball because he couldn’t stop laughing long enough to struggle free.
Despite Victoria’s initial protests, it was not she that nearly broke her neck, but Jodi. A fierce pile-up of all five with Jodi on the bottom kept her in pain for a few days.
“Oh well.” Jodi told her sister as they sat in their bedroom several days later. “I told you I wanted to be an actress, and I’ve had a great opportunity to practice these last three days, walking around acting like my neck wasn’t snapped into three pieces.”

A Joke From Jennifer

Last week I got an e-mail from my oldest sister Jennifer. She enclosed the following joke:

"The kids were discussing 'halves' as I was cutting up sandwiches for lunch. I took the opportunity for a little math lesson since the topic had come up.
I said, "What's half of a whole?"
Joshua said, "A half."
"Good," I replied, "And what's half of a half?"
Joshua said, "A quarter."
Then I said, "Do you know what half of a quarter is?"
Joshua thought for a moment and then said, "A slice of pizza!"