In no particular order

1) All are invited...none are expected. :) Mark will be turning 8 on September 28 this year. I talked with the Bishop and asked if we could have his baptism on his birthday (since it falls on a Sunday). So Mark's baptism is set for Sunday, September 28, 2008. We're excited for him. And he's excited to be baptized...which is a relief. Until a few weeks ago, he did not like the idea. The water scares him so we had Grandma Christensen and his cousin Hannah share their experiences. Now he's looking forward to it...and he's prepared.

2) For our Illinois friends (and anyone else who might care), I was called to be the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric this past Sunday. I suppose a year in Illinois wasn't enough experience. When I filled in for David Grow January 2007, they had 5 kids and we had 4. Now we have 5. The counselor who I replaced here in Virginia has 7 children. Hmmm...sign of things to come?!? I'll defer that to Karen.

3) Young bunnies have a better chance of survival when you step on them...as opposed to chopping them up with a lawn mower.

4) The hardest thing to clean up is liquid soap. Ironic, isn't it? Peter (2) went to town a few nights ago while washing his hands.

5) 13 is my favorite number. 23 is a close second...not sure why but that date has been ingrained in my head...perhaps because it was the date of my first kiss...I'll let you guess the year Mom and Dad! But 13 is by far the coolest number.

6) Oh! Did you want some background information on #3? (Karen says I'm sick and twisted) At our home in Illinois, I ran over a nest of bunnies twice. TWICE. Do you have any idea how GUILTY I felt? It was horrible. I rushed the kids inside as I picked up pieces and watched one bunny take its' last breath. My stomach still gets into knots as I think about how I separated brothers and sisters and destroyed families. Can you imagine if you were the lone survivor of such a tragedy?

So this past Saturday, I was surveying a corner of our yard that I am planning to landscape. I was innocently standing next to a tree and I hear this high pitched squeal. I felt something under my foot and backed up only to step on another bunny. I saw two bunnies scamper off while the one under my foot was paralyzed with fear. I picked it up and he squealed even louder. I noticed blood on its nose so we made a little home for it and the kids (with gloves) petted him for a while. Once we got him to stop shaking we took him and his sister (I don't really know their genders) back to their nest. We could tell they knew it was home. They burrowed themselves right back into the hole.

We watched for the mom to come back during the evening hours and saw three bunnies come out of the nest and spend some bonding time with her. I was relieved. While I don't encourage you stepping on bunnies...it's a much better option than running over them with a lawn mower.

7) I have the most blah job...but I'm not complaining. It provides for the needs of my family and allows me to serve the Lord. But on a scale of 1-10 for cool jobs, I'm struggling even to be on the bottom of the list. I was talking with some members after Stake Priesthood meeting last night...and I was amazed at the kind of jobs out there. One guy, 30...so my age, has spent the last 5 years attaching commercial satellites to old Russian missiles, sailing to the equator, and launching the satellites off the boat. How cool does that sound? Now he's getting his PhD at UVA and wants to get back into the field of Space. There are guys here who work for NASA and guys who work for the FBI and can't tell their family what their current assignment is. There's another guy who gets paid to learn (as he put it...he's a research professor at UVA). My father-in-law has worked on top-secret projects dealing with weapons systems. And me? I'm an underwriting manager. Most people don't even know what an underwriter is. And I manage them. But I'm not complaining. Life IS good.

8) I discovered a tasteless cookie tonight. If you want to avoid the recipe, let me know. I think the cocoa powder and peanut butter somehow offset each other. You can barely taste the chocolate chips that are in them. It's a tasteless cookie and I was thoroughly disappointed.

9) There's a june bug constantly hitting our window screen right now and it's freakin' me out. Why did God create june bugs? At least it's a beautiful night and we have the windows open.