Oh, Look! A Squirrel!

Amazingly, I have a hard time remembering what has happened in the four weeks between blog posts. And then I get … Oh, look! A squirrel…

My distraction this time is the statistics of who views this blog. My intended audience is family and friends who want to see my adorable children grow through pictures while showcasing my incredible writing talent. (Man, I just crack myself up!)

Knowing that our blog is on a Google-owned platform, I figured they had to have analytics. It seems that of the more than 700 page views, most were from those in the US. Not a surprise. What is a surprise is that 22 people were in Russia, nine were in Germany, eight were in Latvia, et cetera. I guess what’s terrifying is that Russia and Germany are two of the leading countries for illicit internet activity—in other words, a lot of people there steal online identities, passwords, plant bad software. You get the picture.

Of our viewers, three-fourths used Internet Explorer. I didn’t realize people still used that. Only seven percent used Firefox which is how I browse. One person even used their BlackBerry 8700. Thirteen percent use Mac. One person used their iPhone. There’s a lot of information there…should you be afraid of Big Brother? Probably.

Anyway, back to my original line of thought. I do remember what we’ve done the last few weeks mainly because it involves lots of sickness. During Christmas I “caught” three different ailments. I usually get sick when I finally slow down. However, what we’re dealing with now is Megan’s sickness. For the last week, she’s thrown up once a day. She doesn’t act sick, although she hasn’t been eating as well as usual. We finally took her to the doctor. We’re hoping it’s only a temporary stomach ailment made worse by dairy and greasy foods. We’re avoiding those for a few weeks and hoping for a good report.

This month also means our family celebrates three birthdays: mine, Megan’s and Emily’s. The older I get, the more I like my birthday. It’s a day to take a personal national holiday and do what I want to, which I enjoy! And it gives me a chance to be the center of attention for a little while.

For work, I’ve picked up a few new gigs. One of them is posting tweets on Twitter for two different companies. I’ve been doing one for over a year now and I just picked up a second account. I don’t know if there’s money in Twitter for businesses, but there is for me! It’s fun and I learn a lot—I keep up with current events and find a lot of resources that people post links to. Recently, I’ve viewed a 3D human body on yahoo, watched a video on how marketing portrays women and its impact on society, and kept up with all of the various playoffs! Go Seahawks!

I also began working as executive secretary to the local chapter of Dollars for Scholars. Still learning the ropes. Spring will be crazy as their application deadline for scholarships is April 1.

As for my kids, it’s fascinating still to watch them. Kindergarten is a good age. Lauren invited all of her classmates to my birthday party…

Megan has two big phrases right now: “Mom, hear me!”when she wants attention and acknowledgement, and “Knock it off!” Hm. Wonder where she got that one.

Annika is quite the reader in second grade. One of my favorite times is when I go to her school and spend some time volunteering with her classmates and Lauren’s mates with reading. I get a great reception from the two girls—something to do with being out of context, I think.

Emily is still a little peanut—wearing 3T as she moves into her fourth birthday. I think she’ll be the one with the quotable quotes soon. Stay posted.

Christmas program at church

Annika's a sheep for the church program

Enjoying our tea at the Chubb House--ironically, they called it a tea, but only served coffee and cider!

 Lauren with the gingerbread house Dan helped her make at school.

Our car in one of our many snowstorms...

Emily and Megan's program at school/daycare for Christmas. Meg sporting the antlers...

Following is a series--I got a new point-and-shoot camera for Christmas. 

Emily steals it. These are her works...

 

Just a nice shot of Em

 The cousins and friend at a playdate at Aunt Becky's house. They were doing this on their own. Their uncle just happened by and snapped the shot on his phone.