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Its been raining since about 10 here. I've decided that I wouldn't at all mind a day off to sit on my front porch and watch the rain. I love rainy days. The last rainy day I had to spend at home, I spent sleeping in, then driving to Statesboro (because thats what we do when it rains.) I watched the rain hit the pavement back behind the building today for a few minutes. I've decided that its very relaxing just to watch rain in puddles. I think I new that when I was little but growing up makes you forget things like rain in puddles and days off in the summertime. I didn't forget that, I'm just in denial over no summer vacation. Some things about being grown up just stink!

The weekend was a very busy one. We did get something done but it was on Friday evening. My mom and Anna came up Friday afternoon and we put them to work. I got the neighbor's paint sprayer and got a good coat on the entire inside of the fence that is paintable by sprayer. Then it rained Saturday morning and most of Saturday. We did what it seems we do every time it rains... we went to Statesboro. We visited at the house for a while and then my mom and dad, Jenny and I headed over to the Strickland ranch for a engagement shindig for Jenny Barnes and KP. So, as always follows a trip to Statesboro, the girls were up most of the night wanting to be fed and not sleep. Jenny didn't sleep much and I stayed in that semi-sleep mode that I hate so much.

Sunday, we went to FPCP for morning service but needed a crash-type nap afterward. We headed home, ate spaghetti and crashed. We woke up and walked our adopted dog, Cotton, and then picked wild blueberries. Pay attention because this is hard to follow... we found wild blueberry trees on our walk and picked about 2 cups. The only thing that makes blueberries better is when they are free. That led to talk of cobbler, since we had enough blueberries. Cobbler led to talk of homemade icecream. All this talk before we decided what we were going to eat for dinner. So, we made homemade cobbler and vanilla ice cream last night. Good stuff.

Emma was smiling up a storm last night. Thought that pretty much everyone would appreciate this picture!!  

We had a very busy weekend. I got off work a little early to start painting our (very long) fence. We didn't get started painting until around 6:30 or 7. We had to wait a little while on our neighbor to get home but it was worth the 80 bucks we saved this weekend by borrowing a professional non-compressed air sprayer. We got all but one section of the fence painted on the outside. We ended up not painting with the sprayer around the house for fear we would end up having a speckled house. We decided that our next fence would be painted before it was assembled. It looks great though even though it has only been painted on the outside. Next weekend will be very similar.

Oh, since we were painting all weekend, we also were watching the weather channel. Actually, we were mocking the weather channel. Thursday, they said that it wasn't going to rain until Saturday at 4pm. Friday, they said that it was going to be clear all day Saturday. Saturday morning, we woke up to rain. The weather channel said it was going to rain all day. It cleared up at 10am. I sprayed the second coat before the storm cell showed up around 3PM. Weather Channel is useless!! I can watch the radar and be a better forcaster. C'mon, what is the deal? That reflects badly on your advertisers.

After it started raining, we made sure all the stuff was put away and went an hour east to Statesboro for a church picnic. Everyone wanted hold the twins. I helped my dad clean up afterwards. We loaded about 6-8 folding tables into the back of his truck and left to take them to the church - about half of a mile down the road. As we went from the gravel lot to the asphalt, 4 tables were raptured from the rear of the truck. They weren't
"taken up" though until after we turned around for them.

We hung around at the house for a while before heading home. Church was great as usual. We went to lunch with the Fender's and got a tour of their house which is being constructed in Pooler. Then we headed back to the church. Jenny and the girls took naps. I watched some of General Assembly with John (the pastor) and read a little on the Quran - the "peaceful" book that the media portrays it - yeah, that isn't what I got from the book. A review can be found here. Great book, but the stuff surrounding the Muslim faith discussed is NOT for the faint of heart. Mohammed was one evil guy. Makes Osama look like a wimp.

In other news, I was the recipient of some pretty cool father's day gifts. "Kate and Emma" gave me a car charger for the ipod, a grill brush and scraper (the burgers must have been a bit crusty), a father's day themed book by Dobson, and some Emeril's essence so I don't have to make it anymore!!

Have a good week. I'll try to find some camera time.

Emma's head still has a bit of growing to fit newborn size, but she is still pretty cute in hers... 

We are sporting cute hats this morning. Its exciting that Kate's head is big enough to fit a normal newborn hat!! 

There is always a cuter picture that you find. So far, Kate is our poser. 

This picture of Emma was taken while she was in her backpack carrier thingy. She and I fixed the gate in the backyard while mom fixed dinner (and took her picture). 

My dad holding Kate at E&K's baptism. 

Kate loves sleeping but only if it involves laying on one of our chests. 

This is what was left of Kate's smile from last night after I got through clicking the shutter. Its still sort of a smile! 

My little sister Caroline has started working at Maui Smoothies and made her the "smoothie of the week" board. 

Emma and Kate are doing very well! Emma is either looking at me or the ceiling fan. The ceiling fan is currently her favorite friend. 

The girls got their first shots yesterday. So today everyone is very sleepy and feeling kinda lousy. We know Kate feels bad when she doesn't wake up 30 minutes before its time to eat and try to convince you to feed her early. I guess we all have days that we just want to sleep and be left alone... Everything went great at the appointment however. Kate now weighs 8 lbs even and Emma was 6 lbs 11 ozs. The doctor said that so far he sees no developmental delays or any other problems.
In terms of life around the house - the girls are starting to sleep about 6 hours at night. They are also starting to spend more time awake during the day. They seem so alert though they are not playing with anything yet they just sit there and stare at us and other objects (sometimes the wall for no apparent reason - there must be something we don't see...)
We have lots of new pictures... I would post them but I don't know how so I'll try to sweetly nag James to get them up so you all can see.

I love long weekends. I went on a business trip to Baltimore last Wednesday. The company had a table at a trade show and I was asked to man it Thursday. I ended up manning it a good portion of Wednesday, too. It was a quick trip. Wednesday night, I went with one of our vendors to the Wharf Rat and had a Guinness. Wonderful stuff. Only thing that would have made it better would have been a nice cigar. Unfortunately, that is one of the things insurers ask about. So, I'm stuck with Guinness. That isn't something that disqualifies you... yet.

Worked the show Thursday and then headed back to SC that evening. I had a somewhat lengthy layover in Charlotte so I hung out for a while. Some guy passing through (he probably had a long layover too) stopped at the piano they have set up (I guess for the piano bar that never hires anyone to play). The guy had quite a repertoire of hymns. I hadn't heard some of them, which probably means he doesn't play for his local Prezy church.

I took Friday off. With 45 hours in by Thursday, I thought I had a good enough reason for it. Friday was good. We slept in a little bit before Jenny's mom showed up. We actually went out Friday night and hit Outback Steakhouse on the island. Not quite the ambience of Dosido's but a free Bloomin' Onion trumps ambience anytime.

Got tons of pictures to get up. Good ones too. I just have to find time!!