Hello again

Things that have been happening recently:

• We thought we might get to move to the apartment above us, which meant an oven (!) and a dishwasher, among other perks. But it didn’t work out. So we’re redoing part of the Bwun’s room to make way for jr.
• The Bwun loves to talk and say new words. He also is currently obsessed with airplanes.
• School started again for the Romgi, and it seems (so far) like he’s enjoying classes this semester. I like that his schedule is a little more open and I get a few extra naps during the week.
• There’s a house near us that has a really amazing yard, with a garden and a little fish pond. I went on a walk with the Bwun last week and we stopped to see the fish. While we were there, a mangy-looking cat came and started drinking water off the plants. The Bwun and I went on another walk today, past the fish pond, and he kept asking where the cat was.
• I realized that I don’t actually enjoy doing anything. I mean, aside from spending time with the Romgi and the Bwun. Don’t most people have a hobby (or two)? I’m tired of reading for the moment, so I spent a while harassing the Romgi until he came up with something for me to do. It turns out I do like carving stamps out of soft linoleum. Here are some poor-quality pictures of the old and new stamps I’ve done. Please pretend it’s cool, because I am a little bit having fun.

Old: bird

Old: mouse

Old: crocodile

New: ladybug

New: giant anteater

New: fox

New: owl

Surviving

Hello, all…we are still alive here.

Did you know that driving 2,000+ miles in 36 hours – with colds and a toddler – is actually not fun?

I learned that recently.

But, now we’re all back happily at home, and home never felt so good. There are extra rooms for when I want to sleep in the morning and the Romgi wants to be awake doing stuff. The Bwun has more toys than he knows what to do with. Our kitchen may not have an oven, but it does have more than 4 plastic plates and a cheap Walmart pots-and-pans set. And the bathroom is equipped with not only two vanities but a jetted tub that you can actually soak in and a shower that does more than just drool on you. (The water pressure in our Greensboro shower was ridiculously weak sauce.)

We have had a few unexpected and unpleasant events since we got back: it turns out that all of our car’s brake pads were…well…non-existent, and that’s a costly problem to repair. Also, the poor Romgi has had a killer toothache for several days; it’s gotten so bad that we decided to pay out-of-pocket to get it checked this morning. Looks like it will probably need a root canal, so now we have the fun task of figuring out how to get him the expensive dental care he needs between now and when our new student loans come through at the end of the month. We definitely can’t put the root canal off that long – I think the Romgi is suffering enough that he’ll pull his own tooth out in the next week or so. No fun!

In other news, jr is doing well, and we’re down to just over 3 months before she comes along to really throw a wrench in our lives. (But it will be great. We will adore her.) The Bwun likes to ask to see Baby, and today he generously tried to share his food by pushing bread onto my belly button. Nice thought, right?

Discovery

One thing I like about WordPress is that it gives me all sorts of statistics. From the fact that I keep an Excel spreadsheet of the books I’ve read, you probably know that I like having statistics. Among the many things WordPress tells me is the number of search engine terms that bring people to my blog.

Not surprisingly, most searches are for books – occasionally I get a search for something specific to me, like “bwun,” but these are rare. The #1 search engine term that leads people to my site is…

“diary of a wimpy kid”

…with 960 incoming readers (temporary though they surely are).

To give you an idea how many hits that is, the next most common term is “fablehaven,” with 360 links. From there it drops down to 184 for “the mysterious benedict society” and 183 for “diary of a wimpy kid rodrick rules.”

I can’t ever decide if I feel useful, for writing something that people were searching for information about, or irritated, because it turns out they were usually just looking for an image of the book cover. Oh well.

Welcome, either way. Enjoy your (brief) stay.