So Craig flew to Jacksonville this morning to start the new job. We were lucky enough to sell the house quickly. Here are some pictures of the lovely new landscaping and the new kitchen handles that Craig put on the ugly kitchen cabinets..... (He insists it is what sold the house!) We busted our behinds and got everything finished in two weeks, which was no small job considering the amount of holes in the walls from the electrical updates... But we did it!







Then we headed off for a few days of skiing. We skied the first day in 75 degree weather. Then Friday brought a spring snow storm of 8 inches of nice powder to Blue Mountain. We practically had the place to ourselves and the skiing was awesome!





If I can ever figure out how to do it, I will post the rather amusing video of my husband trying to video Katie in the terrain park. As he is videoing, you can see the blue line indicating a jump come into view and then you realize that he did not realize he was going over a jump with the video camera still rolling! :) Needless to say, he doesn't end up on his feet!

So the girls head out to Grandma & Grandpa's on Wednesday. (I have been told to use my time to find a few homes with pools that they can then pick from when they get to Jacksonville. They hate looking at houses and I think it is all too fresh in the memory!)

Craig flies back on Wednesday night and we head to the Kreilings on Thursday or Friday to meet the newest addition. Then by Friday or Saturday, we should be settling into our apartment with the dogs. Hopefully it will only be a short stay and we will find a home quickly!

Look who has a new member of the family...



It's a she, and she is nameless as of today. Some names we are entertaining include Lucy, Maggie, Sukie, Susie, Duchess - the list goes on. Apparently all members of the household must agree so it might be a few days before she has a name.

She came home yesterday (Tuesday, 3/13) and is busy learning the ropes. As you can imagine, there have already been accidents, and I don't think Walter was happy being up at 4am today to take the puppy out, but she's a cutie! Here are some more pictures.

Joey was pleased to host his Book 1 completion piano recital on Sunday, March 11 at noon. This is a BIG DEAL for Suzuki piano students. He memorized 18+ songs for the recital and played them all beautifully. He hosted several families for the recital and all enjoyed yummy, picked-out-by-Joey munchies afterwards.

Joey at the grand piano playing at his recital -










And Joey receiving his award for completing Book 1 -










And Joey with his piano teacher, Miss Jennifer -


CONGRATULATIONS, JOEY!

How many of you did a Flat Stanley project when you were in school? Do you remember the story of the boy who was flatten (but not hurt) and then sent around the world to visit relatives and new places? Well, it's a second grade project and Joey is happy to report that his Flat Stanley (they call it "Flat Joey") is cruising around the Pacific with Nana & Grandpa Z. He just finished his Australia visit and is now headed to Bali. Here is Flat Joey on his way to Nana & GPaZ's, and Flat Joey waiting to be placed in his travel home at Nana & GPaZ's. Notice the resemblence to Joey? *wink* More pictures when FJ returns home (in April).

For those of you in this deep freeze, here are some pictures to warm you up! We took a trip to Jacksonville last week end to see the area and get the girls excited about moving.

One of the advantages of homeschooling is that we can go skiing when no one else can! :) The girls have been hanging out in the "terrain park". It is usually pretty quiet until about 4pm when the kids start to arrive.... Here is a picture of it from the regular slope that Mom skies down while they mess around in there..... They are the pink and purple blobs at the bottom. (If you click on the pictures, you can see much better.)




Here are some pictures of them on the jumps. The delay on a digital camera makes it really hard to get a good shot!





There is also a "family terrain park" area where you can learn to do the rails and other terrain park stuff. The girls had been wanting to try the ledge thingy, so I finally let them....