Teancom's Fingers

March 2007

Our little buddy has been sucking on his fingers since he was 2 days old.  Rob wasn't a fan of that, but you can't control little ones!  So he sucked on those fingers and was SO happy.  I think sucking on his fingers (while also rubbing his ears - it had to include the ear rub!) was his favorite thing to do in the whole world.  Fortunately he is also a very amiable child who aims to please.  So we slowly weaned him off those trusty fingers.  He couldn't do it in public places.  Then only in his bed.  Then only in his bed AND at bedtime.  He was not happy with all these changes, but his inability to break rules kept him on the straight and narrow.  He never once cheated.

Aug. 2007

This habit of his has had some negative consequences for him, though.  For many years, his hands have become painfully dry during the winters.  I realized pretty quickly that it was because he sucks on his fingers for half the night.  We bought stronger and stronger lotion for him, but alas, nothing helped much.  His fingers still cracked and bled everyday for months.  This last year, his hands became scarred.  If you looked close, you could still see the discoloration through the Fall months!

March 2008

So when it started getting colder and drier in late November-ish, Tank started complaining about his hands.  I had a little talk with him and explained that the only way to stop the pain was to stop sucking on his fingers.  He listened and then we dropped it.  Those fingers are his friends in a way that I don't understand.  I don't want to force him to stop:  There are lots of things that aren't the best for me that I don't want to give up.

Jan. 2009

So imagine my shock and surprise when just a few weeks ago, during a long and boring car ride, I suggested that Tank could suck on his fingers if he was bored, and he said to me, "No."  That boy has NEVER turned down an opportunity to suck on those delicious fingers.  I asked him why and he said, "I don't want to."  Later on, I asked to look at his hands (staying on top of lotion application has been a winter ritual for years), and they looked great.  I told him so and he said, "It's because I stopped sucking my fingers, Mom."

Aug. 2009 - he'd been stung by a bee

WHAT?!

I was amazed and so, so proud.  He was able to see the long-term benefits, decide that it was worth it to stop a nearly 8 year long habit, and then he did it!  Do you know how hard that is to do?!  And he just quietly, happily, did it.  All on his own.

Those are the best parenting moments:  When your kids do all the work, and you get to just celebrate with them.  Happy day!

May 2010

FYI:  If you're in need of great lotion, try out Burt's Bees Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Creme.  Great stuff!

Christmas!

The tree went up, and happily Rob found the PERFECT spot for it.  Finally.  It only took us 9 years of living in the same exact house to figure it out.

We didn't get a good picture of it, but you can kind of see it in this one taken Christmas morning:

It's in front of the archway.  When Rob suggested that spot, I was skeptical.  Take away the beautiful archway that we just uncovered?  No way!  But it was GENIUS.  Every morning I got to walk out of my bedroom and immediately see a Christmas tree.  What?!  I loved it.

Some Christmas picture love:

That's the old wheelbarrow that Rob got from his Grandma when he was like 6.  I know a guy, and he re-did it.  This is what it used to look like:

Isn't that amazing?!  I LOVE the results.

New pajamas!  The kids are getting so old.  Miciah and Elijah opted to pick their own this year.

Miciah made this marble course for the boys.  It's SO cool.

And while these aren't formal pictures of Before and After house projects (trust me, there will be those - probably after all the home projects are done (are they ever done) come March-ish), doesn't the new carpet look great?!  We paid extra for the top quality pad and super crazy soft carpet that I would like to sleep on.  Worth it.  Our house is small enough that re-carpeting the whole thing really wasn't much of an expense.  One more reason to love a tiny house.

I'm super excited that this is the last year of the Santa Claus thing.  I mean, we'll always have Santa in our lives, but not like this, with the kids thinking Santa is maybe a real person.  I'm happy to be done with it.  I wasn't raised with Santa, so I think it's a strange tradition that's slightly condescending and deceptive.  I've learned to love the Santa that Rob has chosen to give our kids.  I've come to think that Santa Claus is a gift.  I should write about it, actually, because it's been an interesting journey, learning to love Santa Claus.  I even dreamt about him.  Anyways.  ...  That is my Christmas gift to myself next year:  Being done with Santa Claus.

A funny Christmas story:
Elijah really wanted this game called Lazer Maze.  We told the kids to not expect too much above and beyond our homemade gifts, but that they would likely get one or two things, so they needed to choose carefully.  Also, I told them it needed to be some sort of educational type toy.  Cause we're nerds like that.  Elijah picked out Lazer Maze.

It was out of stock everywhere we looked, on-line and off, not to be back in stock until March (birthday gift?).  At one of the websites where it was miraculously still available, it was selling for almost $100!  That's crazy talk.  It's a $20 game.  So we had to tell him on Christmas morning what happened, why he didn't get the one game he wanted, and how we would get it for him when it was available.  He was a little sad, but understanding.

The funny part is what follows:  We skyped with Rob's parents on Christmas afternoon.  Rob's sister was there, visiting from Utah, and she had picked out a single gift for each of her kids.  Each of the kids showed us what they got, and when it was the 11-year-old boy's turn, he said, "I got this weird game called Lazer Maze."  We just started laughing.  Chiara had found the last game available at an educational toy store, and bought it on a whim.  Ha!

Sometimes life is like that, right?

CHRISTMAS BREAK!

Woo hoo!  Christmas break!

We all need it.  I finally feel like we're getting our real lives back, and I feel calmer.  Life is feeling awesome again instead of just ... blah.  That's been how life has felt for weeks:  blah, blah, blah.  This is how my brain interprets stress, I guess, because as you will see, things haven't all been blah-ish around here.  Most of it's been pretty great!

The House

The home projects WORE US OUT.  When we were finished with them all, I thought we'd be like, "It's over, now let's move on to the next thing!"  Instead, we realized how freakin' exhausted we were and we slept and watched TV for weeks.  (Also I got a crummy cold and that didn't help at all.  Lots of sleeping going on.)

But I'll post pictures soon cause the house looks GREAT!  Now that I'm not so tired, I'm really happy with our house and how it turned out.  Next, the basement.  But we're not doing any of that.  (Says a silent prayer of gratitude.)

The Car

Bought a car the day after Turkey Day.  We like the car, but we don't like spending lots of money, so that threw me off for a few days.  We bought a 2014 Subaru Outback with a few thousand miles on it.  We've already put another thousand on it.

If you'd like to know what it looks like, you can Google Image Search it.  It's Cobalt Gray.  Just a dark gray color.  The car is not anything AMAZING.  It looks like every other small SUV/crossover on the market

It does have heated seats, though.  That's pretty amazing.

The Concerts

So many concerts!  Rob's brother and sister came down and we all performed a Christmas program for the ward.  I got to sing the alto part, and I got to perform a song in ASL!  It was awesome.  Then this week was crammed full of music:  piano recital, choir concert, and orchestra concert.  I like music, and I even like Christmas music (when it's December.  Seriously), but I'm kinda Christmas concert-ed out.  I'm opting out of singing with the Ward Choir during our church service Christmas thing and Rob was like, "But you'll miss it!"  I said, "I think you've grossly overestimated how much I like to sing."  Ha!

I would like to mention that we had some awesome friends show up and support us by singing some Christmas songs.  That's real friendship:  Showing up to a piano recital that doesn't involve your own children.  You guys are my heroes!

Work

My work changed policies and asked for a bunch of paperwork, all to be completed NOW!  I missed the deadline.  Like 3 weeks in a row.  One day I was at the office, and I was so stressed that I thought I might cry if one more thing happened, and explained in a panicky voice that I didn't have it all done, and I wouldn't for a while.  But patience pays off, cause it's all done!  I'm happy about that.

Though this was funny:  I needed a local background check, so I went and did that.  When I finally looked at the paper, all the information was correct except for my gender.  Umm, ... whatever.

Christmas

Next week is Christmas!  We haven't put up our tree yet (I know, I know) because I couldn't handle it.  Our house was out of place for a good 2 months, and when we finally put it back together, I ordered that the tree wasn't to be put up until much, much later.  We are borrowing a tiny porch Christmas tree, which is doing it for me but not for the kids.  So within the next few days, the Christmas tree will be up and the kids will be thrilled.

We're doing a homemade Christmas this year, so everyone decided months ago what they wanted to make, and we're all spent a good amount of time on it all.  It adds another layer of Christmas excitement.  I'm just as excited to see what everyone made as I am to give out what I made!  Hurray for creativity!!!


Life is good.

Hi, guys!

Things are a little torn up around here.  The house is nearly put back together, but it seems like the closer we get to that finish line, the more torn up the house gets!  I guess that's how home projects go.

And then there's this:

(Do you like the scribble marks on the license plate?  I'm a photoshop genius!)

Important part:  Rob is fine and the person he ran into is fine, too.  She drove away in her car at the end of all the hubbub, so that's great.  On top of that, Rob was alone, which means we weren't all in the car.  It would have been horrible to have the kids all experience that.  It was on a Sunday, so I was able to go and pick him up, no problem.  Plus, I had been having this feeling that the car was going to be in an accident for a while now (though I try to ignore those kinds of things, because why worry about a future you can't control), so I'd already been thinking things like, "I hope it doesn't happen while I'm driving down the freeway."  "I hope I'm not on my way to a job and then they have to scramble to find an interpreter."  Etc.  I ended up just feeling relieved that it went down the way it did.  There's definitely a lot to be grateful for.

What happened:  Rob didn't see the red light until it was too late.  He slammed on his brakes and slid into a car crossing the intersection.  That car spun around 180 degrees so that her car and our car ended up facing each other.  Rob said she was pretty freaked out, but they were both physically uninjured.  Rob says that the insurance people don't like it when you admit fault, but Rob was like, "Umm, I ran a red light.  It was my fault."  The cop seemed to appreciate Rob's honesty: no investigation necessary before writing out the ticket.

The car may or may not be totalled.  We'll find out in the next few days.  Right now we've got the van that just keeps on going (395,000 miles and counting), and a car rental that we can pick up if/when we need it.  If the Corolla's totalled, we were planning on purchasing a car before summer anyway.  So, this really doesn't feel like the end of the world.  It just is what it is.  Definitely not worth getting stressed about.

Know what's more stressful?  All my furniture shoved into the middle of my living room, like it's one big jigsaw puzzle.  Kinda tired of that.  :)

Thanksgiving is next week and we're excited to be hosting for the first year ever.  I feel like we have reached an Adulthood Milestone.  Congratulations to us!  We're finally all grown up.

Hope you're all doing well!

A few silly stories, courtesy Teancom

Teancom is about the cutest kid ever.  Unfortunately, he knows it.  If I tell Elijah that he's "the cutest," Teancom will stop me and say, "No, Mom.  I'M the cutest."  Why is that, I ask.  "Because I'm the smallest."  Dang it!  Can't fight against that kind of logic.

Here are two funny Teancom happenings.

Danger!

Teancom was forced to stay home from school for 2 days because he got suspended.  Just kidding!  He threw up at school, but felt fine.  The school has a 24-hour sick policy:  Your kid can't attend school until he's been symptom-free for 24 hours.  So for nearly two full days, Tank got to sit on the couch, read books, and watch cartoons.  Little man was in heaven.

By the end of day 2, Tank was squirrelly.  He got pretty upset when he saw the stack of homework awaiting him.  He got through two pages before throwing a colossal fit.  "I can't do it!"  "I don't know what to write!"  Uh huh.  Feeling real sorry for ya, little one.  Also, maybe you should have eaten something for dinner, eh?

Anyways, I had to go pick up the other two kids from piano, and pitching-a-fit Tank had to come along for the ride.  He screamed at me the whole time, though he's too obedient to actually make things difficult.  Hence, it was just hilarious.  (After Miciah, they're all amateurs.)  This is what the car ride was like:

"Turn around!"

"Don't go this way!"

"I want to go home!"

"Turn the car around!"

I was ignoring him until we got to the street that the piano teacher lives on.  And then he pulled out this brilliant line:  "No!  Don't go this way!  It's DANGEROUS!"

Ha ha!  Good thinking, kid!  ...  Don't worry.  I'll be extra special careful.  Just for you.

(By the end of the night, he and I had both crashed by 8:45.  Lovely, lovely night.)

It's an Arctic Bird.  That's good enough.

We went to see Ender's Game in the theater.  It was fine, the kids liked it, that's not the point.  This story happened during the previews and commercials.  

An ad for Coca-Cola came on.  A puffin was trying to open a bottle of Coca-Cola and having a hard go of it.  A daddy polar bear who was sitting with his family nearby saw this poor struggling bird and gave him a tip:  Try opening it with your beak.  The grateful bird opened the bottle, and they all chuckled about it before enjoying their Coca-Colas together as a happy group.

At the end of this ad Rob said, "I don't think that's very believable."  

I kept it going.  "What, you don't think it's believable that a family of polar bears all shared a Coca-Cola with a penguin?"

Rob and I were giggling when Teancom, who was sitting on Rob's lap, interjected, "No!  A PUFFIN!  Not a penguin!"

I died laughing.  Of all the things that I said that were offensively unbelievable, it was that I said it was a penguin and not a puffin?!  Not that polar bears don't drink Coca-Colas.  Not that arctic animals probably don't sit around in campfire-esq get togethers.  Those things are okay.  But dang it, I better get my arctic birds straight!

Teancom loves animals.

The End

All That Was

I feel like I should have written something really important on here this month.  We had enough happen, but I didn't really feel like writing about any of it.  Mainly because every piece of down time that I have feels like it should be used elsewhere.  We have home projects coming out our ears, I'm taking an on-line BYU course that needs to be finished by an approaching deadline, and then there are all the normal things to do.  But so you don't miss out on my entire (exciting) life, here's a sum-up for October:

1 - Miciah Turned 12!

Miciah loves those zebra pajamas.

I feel like I should write something profound about this experience, but profundity escapes me.

I put Miciah's youth activities for church into my iPhone calendar.  Paying attention to church announcements that relate to "youth and parents of youth" is strange enough (that's always been someone else), but putting in 2020 as the "end repeat" for Miciah's Young Women's activities?  That's crazy talk!  2020.  That year isn't even real.

2 - Primary Program at Church
As always, this program was a pleasure, but this year it was especially fun because it was the last year all 3 of our kids will participate.  Miciah turned 12 a week and a half before the program, but was coaxed into participating by a lovely Primary leader who made Miciah feel special and important by giving her the Narrator role.

Afterwards Miciah said she was nervous.  I told her that public speaking gets easier the more you do it.  She said, "I know!  That's why I agreed to be the narrator!"  That's my girl.  Slowly conquering fears.  Woo hoo, Miciah!

She also earned an award at church for 4 years of activities focused on personal growth.  The Bishop told Rob and me congrats after giving Miciah the award, and I said, "We had nothing to do with that.  Miciah is a self-motivated person.  She did it all herself."  Miciah's a great kid.

And our other kids were cute in the program, too.  :)

3 - Fort Lauderdale, FL
For a while now I've been saying to Rob, "I need you to take me somewhere.  Anywhere."  He travels all over the place, and I've been feeling the need to just get up and go.  So when he said that he was staying in a resort spa, right on the beach, and would I like to go with him, the answer was YES!  Yes, I do.

View from the hotel room

It was fun.  Rob and I, we're not much into drinking and partying, so it was pretty tame for us.  We hung out in the hotel room watching the ocean.  We walked along the beach.  We ate at yummy restaurants, including a Greek place that served AMAZING hummus and lamb chops.  We walked through the nearby State Park and saw more spiders than we could count (creepy*).  We toured the historic Bonnet House and saw more orchids than we could count.  We went to church on Sunday.  Just kinda normal-ish stuff, but it was nice to spend time with just Rob doing something different.

This guy was as big as Rob's hand

Yellow orchid house.  I need me one!  Except I'd keep other plants, too.  All kinds.

I did decide that after this trip, I can be done with Florida.  You'd think that I love the place, for as often as I've been there in the last several years.  But really, there are about 49 other states that I'd rather visit before I take a trip down to Florida again.

(*Short aside about those spiders.  At first, we found one, and I was like, "Let's take a picture!"  I love spiders and I think they're fascinating and beautiful creatures.  Then we saw another.  And another.  And another.  And then we realized they were EVERYWHERE.  There were webs within webs.  Webs attached to webs attached to webs.  They were strung across huge spaces, up high, down low, all over the place.  In one small garden area maybe 20x30 feet, we estimated there were literally hundreds of them.  It was like something out of a nightmare.  Not that my nightmares typically include spiders, but after this experience, they might.  We were glad the kids weren't with us, because we nearly freaked out, and we're level-headed adults.  Both of us by the end were ready to get out of there.)

4 - Cuddles Takes a Field Trip
Miciah's science teacher, Mr. Ryan, is TERRIFIED of snakes.  The other teachers tease him about it and do things like put fake snakes in the fridge next to his lunch, just to hear him scream.  I think that's hilarious.  Miciah loves Mr. Ryan and she tells me stories almost every day about all the funny things he says.  She came home one day and told me about his pet lizard.  I then suggested that we could bring in our adorable snake and the class could watch him eat.  Miciah thought that was a great idea.  Since this seemed science-related, I told Miciah to ask Mr. Ryan if that would be okay.  Mr. Ryan freaked out just at the thought of a snake being in his classroom, but he agreed to it if another teacher, Mrs. Stokes, would keep Cuddles in her room.

So Rob brought the snake in at the start of the day, so all the classes could at least see him.  Miciah and the teachers had fun with him.  With Mrs. Stokes' blessing, Miciah brought Cuddles to another class, wearing him around her neck, all casual, like this was something she does every day.  The whole class gasped in shock, as expected, and then this other teacher kinda flipped out.  "Miciah, what are you doing?"  "Uh, bringing my snake to class?"  "No, really.  What are you DOing?"  Miciah smiled, the class laughed, and the teacher's voice kept rising in alarm.  Shortly after, Mrs. Stokes entered the room laughing her head off.  "You should have seen your face!"  Ah, middle school is fun.

We came in at the end of the school day and Mr. Ryan's and Mrs. Stokes' classes got to see Cuddles eat a few mice.  The Principal even came in to watch.  My favorite part was when I brought the snake around for everyone to touch, before we started feeding time.  The kids were generally a little timid, but the adults were jumpy!  I always get a kick out of that, since I know how gentle Cuddles really is.  And I have to hand it to Mr. Ryan, he stayed in the classroom and watched Cuddles eat.  For someone who flinches at the mention of a snake, I thought that was remarkably brave of him.

5 - Balance seems achievable
Things seem to be evening out lately.  Rob travels some, and we make it work on the home front.  I work some, and they manage without me.  All the kids seem happy and healthy.  They seem to be doing well in school.  They have friends, and they are good friends with each other.

I no longer feel so torn up, like I'd been feeling for a while.  Things seem good, like this is how things are supposed to be.  I like work, and I like that it doesn't consume me.  I like being home with the kids most evenings, and talking to them and playing with them and getting to know them better.  I like taking classes towards my bachelors, but I like taking it slowly.

Things seem do-able.  Balance seems like it's out there for us, and we're not too far off!

6 - Stuffed Bell Peppers
The great part about having a garden is you have to figure out new ways to use the same old foods.  For instance, I am in love with bell peppers, so we planted 5 plants this year.  In previous years we planted a few less plants and got next to nothing.  This is because apparently rabbits love to eat young bell pepper plants.  This year we planted more AND put a little mesh fence around the garden and viola!  Way freakin' too many bell peppers for me to single-handedly eat with ranch dip.

The upshot is we found this amazing recipe, and the kids love it.

The last harvest of peppers, right before the first frost

Try it.  (Oh, and if you do try it, make extra of that sauce.  It's the best part.)

7 - Miciah, again
This post is kinda mostly about Miciah, and I feel like I could write a lot more about her.  She has really been stepping up and taking charge of her life and her schedule.  For example, she connected with our library branch's newly hired teen librarian, and she's been attending all the events there.  This means that once or twice a week Miciah is attending a free library function.  Miciah loves it, the librarian loves it, and I love it!  The librarian just so happens to be a lovely person whom I know: she's also a sign language interpreter! It's a small world, eh?

One of the events Miciah attends is Sign Language Club for an hour a week.  I told Miciah that every time she goes to the library, she has to sign at least one sentence to the librarian.  It's fun for the both of them, and fun for me to help think of sentences for her.

Another event she attended was a one-time event.  Teen Fear Factor.  Miciah got further than she thought she would in the competition.  She ate some really random stuff, but nothing too disgusting.  She was out when she nearly puked after drinking some coconut drink something or other.  It was like a clear liquid with coconut chunks suspended throughout it.  The winner ate dried worms and bugs and stuff.  Eww.  Miciah's sentence that day was I DON'T-WANT EAT GROSS FOOD.  (That's how ASL is written, FYI.  It's called gloss.  You write down the signs in all caps.  It ends up sounding like broken English, mostly because ASL doesn't have 'to be' or a lot of those smaller words that we think are necessary for meaning, but really aren't.  Like that ASL sentence I wrote:  I DON'T-WANT EAT GROSS FOOD.  Did you have any trouble understanding it without the 'to' in there?  No.  You didn't.)

I really like that Miciah has found a place outside of school and church where she feels comfortable, and I like that this adult is a wonderful person who is great with kids and just so happens to know sign language!  Awesome, awesome awesome.

(I would like to mention that my favorite sentence that I've taught to the kids is one that I taught Tank the other day:  I WILL KILL YOU.  Something about watching a cute little boy sign that with a smile on his face is freakin' adorable.  Rob was thrilled that I taught him such an uplifting sentence.  I just giggled.  (Tank is actually pretty good at sign language, and he remembers stuff.  He'll sign to me when I'm on the phone, and he's usually spot on.  Miciah has taken to signing random sentences everywhere she goes.  And Elijah.  Elijah just makes up signs, pretending they mean something, and this really, really crawls under my skin.  Sign or don't sign, but don't make crap up.  It's a language, kid!  If you wanna use it, learn the words!))

...  And that's life here!

Life Decisions - Should I Stay or Should I Go?

After falling in love with the Upper Peninsula, I started trying to figure out how we could include some U.P. goodness in our future.  Rob thought I was crazy because I say about every 10 minutes, "We could move to Florida / New York City / South Dakota / China / Maine / (fill in the blank - anywhere except the Southwest, which doesn't interest me in the slightest)."  This time, though, I super, duper mean it.  The U.P. was magic and I want a piece of it.  My wandering heart found a home.

Rob said that he was uninterested in the idea of a summer/vacation home.  He said, and I quote, "It's all or nothing."  "Fine," I replied, "Let's go for all.  Let's move up there."  Rob was pretty shocked to hear me say that, since the U.P. gets something like 120 inches of snow, and I don't love winter as a general rule.  It's cold, and I don't do cold very well.

But the obstacles to living in the U.P. aren't small.  I spent weeks trying to figure out a workaround, but in reality, there isn't one.  I came to that conclusion on my own, without Rob needing to talk me down.  I broadened my search to include other parts of Michigan, but the more we talked and dreamed and thought, the more it just still didn't make a lot of sense.  As the reality of this started to sink in, Rob said, "I know you really wanted to move up there, but, ..."  I cut him off.  "I'm sorry.  You forget how this came about!  I said I was interested in having the U.P. in my future in some way.  YOU'RE the one that said a vacation home or spending SOME of our time up there was unacceptable.  YOU said all or nothing.  You forced my hand."  Rob smiled and knew he'd been beat.

We then went through the list of other options:  Move somewhere else.  Move to another part of Cincinnati.  Move to the same area of Cincinnati, just a bigger house.  Build our own home.  Etc., etc.  Since Rob is not tied to any particular place with his job, and since our income is in a nice range now, the options are almost endless.  But the closer we got to saying, "Alright, let's make a change," the more we just weren't sure why we should.  Our kids don't care - they like what they already have.  And honestly, so do Rob and I.

So, the emotional uprooting is over, and that feels nice.  We're staying put.

Last week we cemented the deal with a pinkie swear and a hefty home project purchase.  Part of the obstacle to moving is that the house needs some work.  Currently our neighbor is fixing the roof.  We've purchased new carpet (though it won't be installed until Thanksgiving week).  We tore the wood paneling off the boys' room's walls, and we're putting it back together.  (Apparently the Secret Passageway was our gateway drug into home improvement projects.)  And the kicker, decided on last week:  Water-proofing our basement.  We have mold problems, occasional water through the foundation when it rains, humidity issues, and a wall that is cracked and bowing in the middle so badly that it looks like it could cave in at any moment.  We didn't know any of those things about the basement when we bought the house - the cracked wall was hid by wood paneling.  In fact, we were unaware that the house was a fixer-upper at all.  We were first time home buyers, and the market was different back then.

Anyways.  That's that.  After the basement is dry, we'll go ahead and remodel it, finish it up (rather, we'll most like pay someone else to do it).  It'll increase our living space, give Miciah a real bedroom, and Rob an office.  So a year from now it'll all be finished and we'll be enjoying the fruits of all those tens of thousands of dollars.

...  And then I'll start planning my summers in the U.P.  ...