Still haven't replaced the oven. Poor Emily. All she ever wants is for me to make muffins. Soon. I'm sifting through the Recycler ads daily. It'll get taken care of. I promise. It's not as if we don't have a stove.

I played plumber this weekend. The hot water outflow in the kitchen had become impossible, so instead of doing the dishes on Saturday, I took out my trusty tools and took the sink apart. Lots of minerals blocking the way. Got it back together and bonked my elbow pretty hard so I didn't do the dishes after all. Always looking for an excuse, you know. Then Sunday I did the same in the main bathroom. Wow. What a difference. Now when you come to my house you can wash your hands with warm water!

Gonna head to the charter school today to FINALLY pick up the Oak Meadow curriculum for Em. We're excited to get homeschool rolling with more than a couple of books and some printouts. Perhaps we'll hit the beach too. The likeleyhood of me getting lost is staggering. But what's life without a risk or two. We'll see. It's pretty foggy so far this morning.

Only one month 'til Christmas. Just messin' with ya.

Well, it's certainly not raining anymore. 95 yesterday. I'd say it's about 90 today.

Wow. I've been busy. We just celebrated Emily's 7th birthday. Slumber party. Five extra girls in the house. Yes, I'm crazy.

The oven broke. Just stopped baking. I baked the birthday cake, then when Martin went to bake his amazing homemade pizzas the oven just didn't work anymore. I guess we got our $100 worth out of our used oven.

We went on a field trip to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. Wow. I strongly recommend it. We all really enjoyed ourselves. My sister Melissa is jealous that I got to pet a stingray.

I'm pretty sure that nothing will slow down until next year. I've got fundraisers going at the preschool and Thanksgiving coming up then the madness that is December. It's really hard to accept that there will be an evergreen tree in my living room in just a couple of weeks when it's this hot out. Can't take the Kansas out of the girl.

And speaking of Kansas, boy are we happy that KU Basketball is rolling. Looks like a great team this year. Nick really had his head in the game this week. Should be a fun season. But I won't be having any babies during the tourney this year.

I should get moving. Playdate in Burbank this afternoon. Must pack snacks. My kids won't eat them, but I'll look like the bad mom if I don't bring them.

My two eldest children are playing outside, barefoot, digging in the mud and muck, and it's raining. They're blissfully happy. My youngest is napping. I'm enjoying a bowl of Cheesy Chicken Corn Chowder (say it five times fast). It never tastes the same as the last time I made it, but it's always so very good. I think we'll top our lunch off with some hot cocoa. It's just that kind of day. It's gray outside, but not cold. I'm loving it. Tomorrow the sun will be back, but I'm going to enjoy every bit of rain we get. It seems the kids realize that it could be awhile until the next rain and are savoring it as well.

Martin is helping a friend this afternoon, so it's a quiet day. I might take them over to Lakeshore for a craft. Or I might enlist their help in sorting laundry. Just a nice slow day.

Big kids are inside now and baby is awake so I must resume my duties. . .

Still enjoying the steamer. Today Martin steamed chicken breasts then hard "steam" cooked some eggs. It all was quite lovely.

We've started walking at the Rose Bowl again. Emily is doing quite well. The first day she whined most of the way, continually asking, "how much longer?", but today she boogied. Jogged quite a bit of the way and had a good time. Isaac is getting into it more now, hopping out of the stroller to catch up with Em. Wiped him out and he took a big nap. Didn't affect bedtime too much. We'll go again on Saturday.

I work at preschool tomorrow so I should go to bed or watch Survivor. Hmmm. Choices, choices. . .

On September 21 I was offered a $25 amazon.com gift certificate if I let AT&T send me my long distance bill on the internet instead of snail mail. Okay, that's a big no-brainer. So on September 23 I got the email with my certificate code and decided to go shopping. Now, at the time, I didn't have much capital to work with, so I was hoping to stay really close to the certificate amount. I naturally am drawn to the clearance and sale section of the kitchen and housewares department, so that's where I headed. Found a major bargain on a $59.99 Zojirushi rice & vegetable steamer for $16.99. Wow. That's my kinda deal. So off to find somthing in the $8 - $10 range. Found a Microplane zester/grater for $8.49. I'd wanted one since my days at Williams-Sonoma. Shipping you ask? Free "super saver" shipping with orders over $25! So for $.48 I ordered my booty and anxiously awaited its arrival. Checked back a week later to see what the status was and both items were scheduled for shipping around Halloween. Hmm. Whatever, it's free. So the 31st comes and goes and I decide to contact them. I'm pretty sure they don't like giving things away for 48 cents. But they ship them anyway. So today my big amazon box arrives. It's my steamer (the grater shipped usps today). Michael, you're right. I have needed a rice steamer. Glad I finally made the investment.

Blogger just ate my blog. Just gone. Said witty things. Finally blogged. And then it was gone. I guess we should fork out the bucks for the premium service. Well, maybe not today.

Things have been going on. . .I just haven't been blogging. Hang in there. I'll come back. (this is all for Mom, since I think she's the only one out there reading -- I love you Mom!) Let's see. . .

Audrey got teeth one & two on Monday. All in all it was pretty uneventful. I'm thinking that the other two kids gave us a bit more grief about the whole tooth thing. Perhaps she'll pay us back later. Perhaps I just ignored her teething woes because she's the third child, and quite frankly I don't have the time to be overly sympathetic. But really, she is such a mellow kid. She really rolls with it.

Speaking of rolling with it . . . tonight was Halloween (I'm the only one in my family who celebrates it -- let's not get into that right now). Emily was a giant white bunny (again), Isaac was Bob the Builder (again) and Audrey was a pink, perhaps fairy princess, perhaps pink winged bug of some sort, but definitely cute. She even kept the crown of flowers on her head all night. Let me drag her about South Pasadena while the two big kids collected booty and just talked and charmed other parents. And while the others were ravaging their booty, Audrey happily chewed on a mini-carton of Dots. If she would sleep through the night, she'd be the ideal child.

The time change came and went with little hullabaloo here at the Diggs house. Of course, this was the "easy" time change. Audrey woke a couple of mornings a bit early for my tastes, but it wasn't terrible. The sun was up after all, and I'm back on coffee. 1/3 caf. Yes, I am a whimp, but my baby appreciates it.

And homeschooling is still going very well. Em is really thriving and Isaac is kind of working his way into some of the activities. We're all enjoying ourselves and Emily is really going places. She's very excited about math. Martin & I are learning what times of the day she functions best, and realizing how difficult it must be for teachers in a traditional school. With 20+ students at different levels I don't know how they do it.

And lastly, Martin likes mayonaise. Make fun of him next time you see him.