How about a bunch of pictures?

Ok, time for a happier post. We've been keeping busy. Not a lot of stuff we "have" to do, but always plenty going on.

Matthew has been interested in karate for just ages, but Mark was resistant to put him in lessons, since although Mark had a black belt (in something I can't pronounce), he's not a big Taekwondo enthusiast, which is pretty much all that's available around here. Finally accepting the fact that teaching Matthew himself just wasn't working out schedule-wise, he caved. The kids have 3 out of their 4 weeks of the trial program finished, and it's going really well. Kaylee has fun, but is mostly more interested in dancing around and posing for the mirror than listening to her instructors. LOL Matthew's doing great, loves it, and has been working very hard. He's just a bit impatient to earn his stripes and his next belt. Mark's been working a bit with him at home on correcting his technique and working on the little things they don't really get to address in class, which is pretty full with all the summer students. We're planning on letting Matthew continue at least through the summer, and then deciding if we want to try to juggle it during the school year. The classes are 5 days a week, so it's a lot to work in. You don't have to go every day, but as far as I know, there's no price break for taking less classes.

Here are a few pics taken here at home before their first day of class:




(Matthew looks thrilled to be getting a hug from his sister. LOL)


And here are some shots from a typical day here where the kids ask me to take their picture. It starts off with Kaylee just being silly...



And then Matthew starts in on what he does best lately -- deliberately torturing Kaylee...

(He obviously enjoys it. :-p )

And then drama queen Kaylee goes into her fake tortured cry/whine (I've been hearing waaaaaaaay too much of that lately)...


And then she loses her game face and starts laughing while still trying to cry...


And then it's back to silliness...




Just a typical morning in the Jensen house. ;)

And just for freaky-ness, here's a pic I got when Kaylee decided to duck as I was taking a picture...

Look at the numbers on, or rather "off" the clock! Very bizarre!

What else is going on?

As for me, I've been designing my little fingers to the bone. The kit I'm working on keeps growing, and I'm trying to decide at what point to cut it off and call it done. LOL

Our kitchen faucet has been acting up for months, so yesterday Mark got a new catridge for it. The old one was definitely broken, but that is apparently only part of the problem. It seems that the handle lever is broken as well. It's an older faucet, and after looking online, we have a feeling we may not be able to get a replacement part and will have to replace the whole faucet. Fun, fun, fun.

And when I went to start the dishwasher right before I went to bed last night (at 2a.m.), it started making this ominous air-in-the-pipes type banging noise. So I thought maybe Mark had turned the dishwasher water valve off while messing with the faucet. So I turned the valve knob the other way. Still the noise. So I put the knob back, noticing that as I turned it, it was spraying a little bit of water out around the knob. I got it to the spot where I thought it wasn't leaking, left a note for Mark to read in the morning (he, very sensibly, had been asleep for hours), and went to bed. Mark got up this morning to find a big puddle all over the kitchen floor.

So now the entire contents of my under-the-sink cabinets are spread out on the kitchen floor while that dries out. Mark put the knob back to the full open position, and there's a small tray under the knob to see if it's still leaking. We were able to run the dishwasher, and it worked fine, but it still made that awful noise every time it filled. Even more fun, fun, fun. :-b

There's more I could ramble on about, but that's probably enough for now. Happy Monday, everyone! :D