Eggs and Corndogs Needed

Our household has recently received an infusion of two more Japanese men (exchange students, for those of you who need clarification). Both are very nice and we are happy to have them. But as is always the case, such additions to the family always result in sitcom-worthy escapades. I shall devote this post to two such events, both of them surrounding food (as they so often do).

On their first night here I asked if they liked egg salad. They both said yes (they speak very good English, so I'm sure they understood me), so I hard-boiled nine eggs. I then told them I would be making the salad the next day. But when I got home from work, all the eggs were gone. My students had eaten all nine of them for breakfast. Don't know what to make of that.

Then last night we had another over-eating incident. Since Annie and I were going to be gone attending a session at the Sacramento Temple, Annie left the boys with a note, stating that they could partake of the new box of corndogs we had placed in the freezer for them. This morning Annie checked the box to see how many they were gone. Our two students had managed to eat fourteen of them! We don't know if they had them all for dinner, or if they saved some for breakfast, but we were very impressed.

In the end, this is a financial tip. It's time to buy stock in eggs and Foster Farms corndogs.

San Cawz! San Cawz!

This sunday Julia used her ever-increasing vocabulary to embarass the family. It was during Sacrament meeting, and we were busy listening to the speaker (or doing our best with three small girls to keep corralled). Julia looked over Annie's shoulder and began calling out, "San Cawz! San Cawz!"

That's how Julia pronounces 'Santa Claus.' And she kept saying it, over and over again. "San Cawz! I see you! I see you!"

Looking behind us, we could see that there was a white-haired, white-beared man wearing a red suit. But Julia wouldn't stop. People behind us started laughing, and even the Bishop, who was sitting up front, began to smile.

I took her out of the meeting, and only came back in towards the end. As soon as I sat down, Julia looked over my shoulder, and spotted San Cawz again. "San Cawz! I see you!" She paused, then, "San Cawz night night! San Cawz tired!." Sure enough, a quick glance back revealed that San Cawz was dozing off. He was busted by a nineteen-month-old.

I Can't Get No Tracking

Have you noticed that Tracksy has been down since Friday? As of today, Tracksy is back up, but since one of their servers crashed, they lost a lot of their information. I can't login, which probably means I need to open a new account. Very lame.

But there is more bad news on the web traffic tracking front. Performancing announced today that they will no longer be offering traffic tracking. That leaves only Google Analytics still fully functional of the three services I use to track my traffic. I love Google's service, but it is always several hours behind in reporting their data.

But Performancing reports that FeedBurner has just recently begun to offer traffic tracking. Here is the link. I'll be registering today.

Oh the vagaries of free services!

Girls with Rocks

We've got time for one last post on our trip to the beach, don't we? (please, no comments on me slacking on posting here).

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Julia. I like to collect rocks on the beach, and she likes to copy me. So, here you have her displaying her two favorite beach rocks. Check out those blue eyes and sandy cheeks.

Kate got into the rock- gathering fun and picked up her own specimen. Julia wanted to show off her own finds, but Kate was much more interested in her much larger rock. I'm just surprised that no one ended up with a bruised forhead with so many young ones wielding rocks. It's the small blessings in life, my friends.

Twins in the Sand

Julia wasn't the only one fascinated by the sand. No, it captivates even three-year-olds. But we reached a new milestone as a family this year. This trip marks the first time the twin didn't eat the sand. They've outgrown it!

I don't know what synapse kicked in to stop the sand-eating behavior, but I'll take it. Clean up is so much easier, and Annie and I spend a lot less time swatting clumps of sand from their paws.

Instead, the girls have learned that putting sand in buckets is a very rewarding experience. Here is Kate smiling for the camera. She's learned to compound her joy by using the two bucket method. Very nice.

You'll notice that everyone is bundled up. It wasn' the sunniest or summeriest of days.

Genna stuck with the traditional single-bucket technique, though she did more than her share of knocking over the other kids' sand piles. That is another behavior I'm looking forward to them outgrowing.

Julia Loves to Eat Sand

We spent our New Year's Eve at the Dillon Beach house. We had a great time with the Swishers and at the beach. Of course, no post about the beach would be complete without photos of Julia eating the sand, so I decided that I might as well start there.

I've asked this before, but what causes this behavior? Is it the saltiness, or the grittiness? Is it her unwholesome desire to defy her parents as we told her to stop - to no avail? Once again, thank goodness she is cute. We all would have a harder time of it if she weren't. Permanent time-outs would be in order.

Here she goes again, continuing with the sand-eating. The shovel was her preferred method of delivery, despite the fact that she couldn't cram it into her mouth. It function more as a lollypop. She also liked having the bucket on hand, to catch any stray granules that didn't find their way into her mouth. I wish she would be so diligent while eating at the dinner table.

And last, we have her victorious smile. She is in the middle of saying 'cheese,' though I know she knows that she got to eat a lot more sand than her parents had permitted - and that is what's causing her big smile. But you have to pick your battles.