Sasha

So Sasha has changed during the last few months. To help you understand what I mean, I will start with the beginning of the school year. He absolutely refused to do a homework assignment. There were two reasons he wouldn't do it. First he had to get up in front of the class and second the subject was himself. Once he found out he could just give his speech to his teacher, he went in the next day to complete the assignment.

Then, last fall Tania and I noticed him doing something that he would never have done a year ago. We had someone looking at our house so we went to dinner at Subway. Sasha and I finished before Tania so he threw away our garbage including all of the napkins. Tania needed a napkin after that and suprise of all suprises, Sasha actually went up and asked for a napkin from one of the employees. Anyone who knows how shy Sasha is will understand why Tania and I were surprised.

Just last week he had another assignment where he had to get up in front of the class. When we asked him how it went, he said he aced it. He also is getting extra credit because he volunteered to give the first presentation. I think I about fell off my chair when I found that out.

On a different note. It is very easy to scare Sasha. While in Arkansas at Christmas time, my mom rented a house for us to use. So one night when David was driving the kids to the house, he asked the kids if they had heard the axe murderer at night. (He had our niece and nephew with him and thought he would scare them.) Everyone kind of laughed at his comments. Once they got to the house Tania, Sasha and our niece went downstairs to watch TV. Matthew in his great maturity, snuck around to the back of the house and made some noises. Well Sasha got up to look out the back door and Matthew jumped up infront of the door. Apparently, Sasha jumped really high and screamed really loud.

Then the other day David and I came home while Sasha was vacuuming. He had absolutely no idea that we had come into the house so I poked him and said "boo". Once again he jumped and screamed. It was so perfect. Sasha is always trying to scare us. So we have now gotten even with him.

Our domestic kids

It has been really nice having our domestic kids home from college during the Christmas season. It has been so nice to have some really good help around the house. Both kids have been very good about volunteering to help cook meals, bake goodies and clean. Matthew thoroughly enjoyed making cheesecake and chocolate pie at my parents house. He also made dinner last night. Katelyn has been more than willing to make treats. She has also taken out the garbage when it was full.

I'm not sure that the kid taking care of our animals while we were in Arkansas really appreciated taking care of all their animals though. We all ready had both of our labs, but Matthew and Katelyn also brought home a rabbit, 3 frogs and yes a snake.

The rabbit is cute but I don't want it staying in my house for long. And I really don't want the snake in my house. Below are pictures of the rabbit.

More House

Footings for our covered patio.

Our roofers are very anxious to get going. Our framer had to hold them up for a little while so that he could finish some nailing on the roof and they all most didn't let him.