I believe it has come to my attention that dad (ed) is slowing down at work and has more time to stare at the computer. Meanwhile all of us young families are freakin' out with the beginning of a new school year. Likely, the reason why the blog has nearly come to a halt. Today is Sunday and I am home with Alexa who is sick with a Temp near 102. Yesterday with Alexa being under the weather and unable to participate in the many activities usually involved on a Saturday, I was tasked with managing Brinley and finding time to shop for some new clothes. I have been on the Atkins diet since May. I took a blood test and well, sometimes heredity stinks and I am creeping toward diabetes. The good side affect is that I have lost about 20 lbs. Therfore, the need for new clothes. So, to entertain and enlighten my father of the typical school year Saturday... In the AM took brinley to her soccer game, which ended around 11:15 (brinleys team walloped the opponent 8-2, but we really don't keep score...do we?), then off to get the haircut, and finally another 20 minute drive to Nordstrom rack for some pants that hopefully will fit for a while. Just for Cindi I bought a new pair of shoes. However, they hurt my feet so they may go back? I still had Brinley with me and she needed some shoes for PE class at school, so we headed next door to Famous Footwear, while I was waitng for the cuffs to be sewn on my new pants. Brinley picked out some dark brown Sketchers with baby blue stripes and hearts. By the time we finished shopping, it was 2 o'clock and we had one hour to stop at Mc Donald's (the caesar with grilled chicken is an Atkins friendly choice). Ran to the Mecca of all stores Wal-Mart to purchase the Birthday gift for the party we would be late for. Yes, it was at 3 and 20 minutes away. Of course as we are making our way through the weekend crowds and B-lining it for the Toy section, I run into an old friend and his family from the last ward we lived in. My personal desire was to have a seat and catch up on life, but alas Barbi and her assortment of accessories was waiting. Brandi had given me a $10 limit so we looked hard. Knowing that the little girl (Georgia) probably sleeps on the floor because of all the toys and dolls in her room, I convinced Brinley that the appropriate gift was the Barbi beach cruiser car which would allow Barbi to be transported somewhere so that Georgia would have a place to sleep at night. B said "ok" and we ran to the gift wrap aisle for a big pink bag for the big pink car and then ran to the 1000 item or less check out stand only to discover that I had left my wallet in the car. The nice old lady at WM said she would watch B while I RAN! to my car. Transaction complete and off we go to another mall and the Colorado Bear (similiar to the Build-a Bear) for just over an hour. Now I was very anxious at this point because BYU was playing UCLA and I had forgot to set the TIVO. Brandi was actually able to do that for me after a frantic call. I returned home at 5pm with a quick confirmation that TIVO was doing his job on the game, I went outside to use the last 2 hours of daylight to do a little work on the playhouse. I had just enough time to trim the ends off of the asphalt shingles. Then microwave some left over chicken, put the girls to bed and then sit down to watch BYU get handed a nice loss by the referees whom surely must have been paid handsomely to let UCLA steal the game. The Coug's put up a valiant fight in the 2nd half, but alas, the referrees called a blown forward pass a fumble giving the ball back to UCLA when BYU, down only 3 points, was well within Field Goal range and would likely have tied if not taken the lead. Now, the day was over. I will throw in some pictures for the old folks to oogle at, just to complete this lengthy, mundane and ho-hum chronicle of a day in the life at the Colorado Ginn home. Which I am sure has left some thinking..."well, now I can live another day..." and the rest thinking "please someone give me back the last 5 - 1o minutes of my life to pursue more worthy objectives." Have a wonderful day! Lots of love, nathan