The sounds of silence

Thanks to all who left comments or emailed regarding my absence here. Lots of busy-ness and chaos (as usual) and just plain ol' not-in-the-mood-to-write-another-boring-blog-post stuff going on in the last month or so. But I will try to rectify that.

In the meantime, the rarest of rare happenings is going on right this very instant: I am the only human being in this house. Brian has the day off in preparation for a TDY to Tucson which begins tomorrow, and he has taken the 3 children for their twice-yearly teeth cleaning appointments this morning. I have folded and put away a couple of loads of laundry and have more in the wash. I am fighting the urge to be lazy and put on a movie... I will probably straighten bookshelves or something like that when I finish up here.

As far as news, here are the bullets:

• I am now the parent of a 16yo and 12yo. Emily and Noah both had birthdays at the end of last year.
  
• Emily has a small part in her school's production of Annie which will take place in early May.
  
• 1st semester grades were released recently and she had a 3.75... We are both pretty pleased with that.
• We've hired a dog trainer to help us work with the dogs. WOW. Really good stuff. We are seeing some great things, one of which is being able to eat dinner without asking Rory to stop trying to stick her nose in our plates. We are also discovering just how smart she really is, and how stubborn Campbell is.
  
• Halle got her palate expander off last week.
  
• Noah and Joel are both signing up for baseball here on base this spring. Joel's will be coach-pitch and will be his first time playing. Noah hasn't played since spring 2006.
• After almost an entire week of rain, the sun is shining today. We might make it to almost 60 degrees today.... which could be really nice if the wind isn't blowing (then it will still feel like 30 out).
  

Seems like there should be more to tell, but as usual, my sieve-like memory isn't retrieving anything else.