It's a new year!

And with that new year comes lots of new changes... well... not really LOTS, but some.

For instance. Andrew and I are now ranchers. According to my brother, you can't be a farmer if you don't have milk cows, yet you have animals from the bovine family. So... we're ranchers. We have two bovines. They're not cows, since they won't ever grow up to give milk, and they're not bulls, since they won't ever grow up to be that either... but technically, they're baby bulls, so... we just call them Hank and Ferdinand.

Hank Jr. is the older of the two, he's a solid brown color, and he likes to follow us around. He loves food and has no idea that in a year and a half, he will BE the food.

Ferdinand the Bull, or Ferdy for short, is a little taller than Hank, and is learning to like food. He had a few rough days when we first got him, and we were a little worried that he wouldn't survive, but he holds his own and, like Hank, follows me around whenever I am out in the pasture. He's like a big dog that could do some serious damage if he kicked you in the wrong spot. His one really distinguishing feature is that he has a heart shaped patch of white on his forehead. He also has a few white stripes in his tan hide, but that heart shape... He also has no idea that he too will be the food.

Other news? Margaret has a tooth, and is working on her second, she's learning to walk around the furniture, and loves to hold on to our hands. She has discovered blowing kisses (that one the other day), waves at Andrew on the phone when I say, "say hi to daddy!", waves with her entire body when she's excited that someone's waving at her, and she loves to clap. She's gotten really good at raspberries, and has been known to wait for her mouth to be full of food before spitting some really good ones. She's a fun little kid, and I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be 1 year old on the first yet.

Savannah is 5 and testing her boundaries. Some days it's a good thing, other days it's a real test of patience. She loves Head Start and the learning that she gets there; and I love the break that I get when she's there. She loves Margaret and sometimes it's difficult to get her to leave Margaret alone, but I have my suspicions that Margaret will be able to fend for herself really well when she gets a bit older.

And the biggest news of the new year... On New Years Eve, we signed papers leasing our home in Oregon to potential buyers. After 8 months, we finally had a miracle. The new leasers move in on February 1, and we're hoping that they'll be able to purchase the house soon.

Aside from that, we love our home, we love each other, and we're looking forward to an exciting new year!

I'll post pictures when I can find the cable for my camera that charges the battery. Sorry...
Linda