Catching up

 Isn't it typical - I finally get the blog all caught up, after weeks of feeling behind because I was sick. And then our laptop dies.

Yep, our dear Toshiba bit the dust at the ripe old age of 4 1/2. Not bad for a $400 computer. Ironically, we had backed up everything and ordered a new Dell a week ago, the night before it crashed itself to death.

While we wait for our new one to arrive, I'm borrowing Melly's laptop to try to catch up here on the blog.

The week before the computer died, we got ready Tuesday morning with no running water, as the water main that runs between our house and our neighbors' houses burst.

This flooded out the back yard and several rooms of our rear neighbor's house.

While the water was off and the workers were rerouting the main, they hit the gas line, so we also were without gas much of the day (though we could sure smell it in the air). Luckily it's not cold here during the day, and no one was hurt.

The work took several days, and it was a bit exciting to have it all going on right in front of our house.

The next weekend was Remembrance Day/Veterans Day, and Cora had Monday off from school.

With the longer weekend, Cora proposed having Violet spend the night in her room, with the girls sharing the trundle. Violet was very excited about this plan, too. She brought lots of animals, blankies and her pillow.

Listening to the girls giggling and talking  together was a lot of fun for me and Stace. An hour later, Cora was asleep, as she had been up early for school.

Violet took a while longer to drop off to sleep. There was too much fun to be had in Cora's room: books to read, stickers to cover her shirt with, CDs to try out. Since she sleeps in a crib normally, being free was, um, freeing.

We let them sleep in Cora's room Friday and Sunday nights, and both nights went about the same. Here's how we found Violet on Monday morning, crashed out on Cora's bed after we finally got her to sleep about 10:30 p.m.

 Also over the weekend, Stace and the girls put in the winter garden. This was one of the first times Stace really encouraged Violet to participate, and here, she's watering the new peas. They also planted lettuce, cauliflower and carrots.