Plugging Along...

It's been awhile since I last posted and there is a good reason for it, believe it or not. I've been creating a website and getting started as a freelance writer. The website isn't ready yet and I haven't earned much (only $20 so far--just ghostwriting some web content) but I've discovered what I need to do and some resources that I think will allow me to use my English education and writing skills to earn some extra income from home. The website will be ready soon and I'll post a link here when its ready for public viewing.

Here are some photos of what we've been up to lately.

We did get a puppy. Radley is her name and she is super cute (except of course when she pees in the house--which is why she stays outside most of the day, and when she thinks Thaddeus is a littermate and mauls him lovingly yet a bit roughly) As you can see by the photo, Abe likes dogs much more than cats. Maybe because the dog was his idea?

We finally cut Thaddeus's hair for the first time. He thought it was pretty fun, which is more than I can say for the rest of my boys when haircut time comes along.

We've had some exchange students from Sillistani come stay at our house recently as you can see in the 3rd picture.

And Kensi is a great little baker. Look at those doughnuts which she made completely on her own! I helped her dip some in glaze because it needed to be done quickly but that is it. Too bad they are totally unhealthy. At least at home we could make sure we didn't use hydrogenated oil and at least they were cheaper to make than buy. They were a hit for FHE treat this week, to say the least.

The Best Sledding Hill!

We've started a new tradition...every New Year's Day we are going to go sledding on this hill by the entrance to our subdivision. We had such a blast and it is, in my opinion, the perfect sledding hill; long and steep enough to get some nice speed but not too dangerous. And the little ones got the royal treatment; my dad tied a rope to the back of the sled and let them slide down (just near the bottom on the gentler part) and then pulled them back up with the rope so they never even had to stand up. Feel free to join us next January 1st!

Our Tree of Life

So my friend Marcie posted this on her blog recently...and that gave us the idea. We have sloped walls and not many areas to hang pictures so we thought this would work great in our situation. Abe took a few hours yesterday and came up with this. I think it looks awesome!

Winter Wonderland...

The Girl...

The Boys...
The View...
(too bad the snow was so powdery we couldn't make a snowball, let alone a snow man...)

We're Having a Baby!

Gotcha! Ha! No, I'm not pregnant, but we do have a newborn around the house again. A neighbor of ours has a litter of newborn (mostly white lab) pups and is going out of town for a few days. There was a runt in the litter that wasn't nursing well and he asked if the kids would be willing to bottle feed it and see if it will make it. Of course, we all know that if she does make it, there is no way we can give back a puppy that we have bottle reared. SO, it looks like we may have a dog now too!

Sprichst du Deutsch?

Most of you know that my sister Quinn, and her family live in Germany and speak German (obviously). You may not know that I took 4 semesters of German at BYU and have been to Germany twice. Each time, I was amazed at how much my comprehension improved just by being immersed in the language and hearing it all the time. Upon returning home I vowed to spend more time studying and working on increasing my fluency. However, my stumbling block was always that I couldn't seem to get enough listening material, because it is listening to everyday language that really seems to help me. Enter, the IPOD touch. We received an Ipod touch free with our computer last year and I thought it was cool. I had a way to watch movies and listen to music. But just recently I have discovered some really cool applications and podcasts that I'm really excited about. I've started carrying my Ipod with me everywhere and while I'm driving or folding laundry or washing dishes I'll turn on a German Podcast and its like spending an hour or two in Germany everyday. Many people enjoy listening to books on tape or the audio scriptures. I'm a very visual person and I retain much more information when I read something so I don't really enjoy listening to those. However, language acquisition is an auditory activity (And while I do want to improve my ability to read and write German it is mostly the spoken language that I need to practice) so it is just the kind of practice I need. In addition, it is just the kind of mental distraction that is helping me not mind the mundane tasks of housekeeping. I find myself completely unaware that I am folding laundry or washing dishes because I'm so focused on trying to understand what I'm listening too.

Here are a few of my favorite Podcasts. The first is called "A Flavor of German" (unfortunately it doesn't look like they are making any new ones but I'm going to listen to the 10 that they have repeatedly until I've got them down) What I really like about this one is that it teaches the German idioms. For example I have learned that bis über beide Ohren verliebt means really in love. Its similar to our "head over heels in love" but it literally means "in love to over both ears". And in German, a person is yellow not green with envy and if someone is blue it means they are drunk not just feeling down. These are the kinds of phrases that I would literally understand but without the cultural context I would be confused as to the meaning.

Another one is Germanpod101. They have a ton of resources on their website (you have to pay for some) but I just subscribe to the free podcasts. I like the format of their lessons. First you listen to a short conversation, maybe 2 minutes long. Then you hear the same conversation at a slower pace. Then they slowly repeat the conversation line by line followed by the English translation and discussion of any significant new words or grammar and then you hear the entire conversation in German at normal speed. The text of the conversation also shows up on my ipod so after I've listened to it a few times I can read it as well. Very helpful.

There are also a lot of free online language courses with a lot of audio/visual learning aids like this free interactive course from Deutsche Welle.

Those are just a few of my favorites but I'm just excited because with all of the technology available now it is very easy to find online audio language materials to listen to.

Okay, this post is rambling and I doubt any of you are looking to learn German. I get excited about strange things, I know. (I've also found some cool online sources for learning Chinese that I'm having Salem work on but that's another story) So I'll stop now.

Tschuss!

Halloween!

Just a post like every other blog out there with some picks from Halloween. We did the typical celebration...school carnival, church trunk or treat, trick-or-treating, followed by gorging on junk. (I wasn't going to dress up at all but had fun faking some body piercings at the last minute. If I'd thought about it earlier I would have done more and made sure I had A LOT more black make-up on hand (-;)