On my first week of vacation from my new job at US Bank. I started there this January 2nd and it has been going really well. Eight to five is fitting well on me.

Just watched "Stranger than Fiction" with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman. It was a good time. I'm a minor fan of Emma and she does a great job. I'm not sure if someone else could have done the main character better but Will was fine.

Last weekend we went to the Wapsi. Lots of mosquitoes. Next year a few weeks later should be better. We shot the .22 at matches and did fairly well at picking them off. The fishing wasn't so hot for us but our neighbor caught a striped bass that the kids had fun playing with. We had stir fry chicken and spaghetti for suppers along with Elena's 7-layer bars. We had a good time with Timm, Aaron and Jen. I'm not sure how outdoorsy everyone was but we all seemed to have a good time at the camp.

This week on my vacation Elena scheduled for me an appointment with the dentist and the doctor. Everything checked out OK but I did get a tetanus shot. The nurse was awesome at giving shots but the juice in the thing is making my arm sore.

Olivia has been having a great time in pre-school. She goes three times a week. The school has a large play area for the kids and a fence-divided playground so the different ages don't mix. Today the teachers said that she was very interactive by talking and laughing with the other kids. Something that she hasn't been doing.

Zach has loads of fun pointing out the moon up in the sky to everyone on a continual basis. His language is getting much better over the past month. He goes to school once a week and to a speech specialist once a week. I'm not exactly sure how much those are helping but it gives him a different teacher besides his parents and Olivia.

Maddie is getting to be a great crawler but still likes to be carried around quite a bit. She has six teeth and really likes to eat cherrio-s.