Since returning from Hawai'i in September, life became a bit more hectic and my work - home life balance has been off.  Work picked up, well that is an understatement, my workload doubled when I came back from vacation.  I also began acupuncture weekly to get my back pain under control.  And to tip the scale, Cooper became seriously ill right before Halloween.  I tried to keep posting but gave up at some point, I'm sorry if you have checked in on a regular basis to see no updates.  Cooper is doing better, my workload is being reduced so now I'm trying to get this blog back up and running.

 Today Carl worked on planting our garden.  We are hoping the weird weather is over--we have had hail twice in the past couple of weeks and one morning it was 28 degrees when we woke up at 6am and was 80 later in the day. Whew!

 While Carl was busy in the garden, Elena played in her "house" and  jumped from the top of the slide.  Sometimes I wish she was a bit more cautious.  Yesterday at a birthday party, a parent said she loved her adventurous spirit and hoped it would rub off on her son.  Maybe the these friends can meet in the middle and learn from each other.

Elena loved playing with the water and she even asked for a bigger "pool."