Update

I thought it best to get up early and update the world since it's been a while and the due date is approaching fast.
We'll start with Alisabeth - after a seven week break home with daddy she is back in preschool and excited as ever. Friends are still there, although most of them are in kindergarten (as I was informed by one yesterday morning). Still she has plenty to keep her entertained. They're working on shapes and colors as well as letters. The only real challenge is tracing her letters because Alisabeth doesn't like to trace them. She'd rather write words.
We tried to get the schools around here to test her into kindergarten because she's matured a lot this summer but they wouldn't even consider it. They say she has to be in kindergarten before they'll do any sort of placement tests. . . whatever, we're not worried, I just hope she doesn't lose the love of learning.
School with daddy focused a lot on math because that's the subject she was really interested in, so she can count by twos and threes and she can do multiples as well (up to three). She also learned counting by tens and by fives (although fives is still a bit of a struggle and she needs reminders occasionally). We're delighted that she's excelling so much. Now when we play Yahtzee together she'll add up her dice scores for us in her head and then proudly call them out. It's pretty darn amazing.
She's also so excited to be a big sister. To help count down we've been picking a present a week for the last 9 weeks. She gets one and then she chooses one for baby Kryton. So far he's received a puzzle he won't be able to do for many months, butt paste, and some squeaky toys and books that can be taken into the bath.Alisabeth, on the other hand, has gotten some sun catchers to paint, a sand art kit, puzzles, coloring books, a yo-yo, games and still has more to come. (We generally chose crafty items so that we're "forced" to do them with her, that way she gets her time with us and gets to do fun art projects).

Baby Kryton is doing well too. He's growing like a lump on a log, literally, and eating me out of house and home. He wants to be big. I can tell because in the last week or so my appetite has increased dramatically. So I'm trying to accommodate him and trying to select things that aren't going to make us both blow up :)
Also in the last two weeks I've begun retaining water. I can't get the swelling in my legs and feet to go down no matter what I've tried, but yesterday I received the advice to try lime or lemon water so that's my next step and we'll see how it works. For my sake I hope it does :)
Kryton is measuring perfectly so far, no changes to his due date. I've had tons of false contractions though so we'll see if he doesn't decide to come early.

Jason is ramping up the new semester with style. He surprised himself yesterday by being ahead in several of his classes and was able to just sit back and listen. In another he's already got a good group together and they've helped each other already on the first project the teacher assigned.
Also on the up and up he received an email from the college about internships opening up with the city of Rexburg (where he goes to school anyway). He applied by email. The manager emailed him and the rest of the applicants back, told them they had at least 3 positions and that they were going to do a giant orientation, meanwhile he wanted them to give answers to five short questions and send in their resumes.
Apparently Jason was one of the first to answer because almost immediately he got a reply from the man asking for more details. The manager, Kelvin, is from AZ (the Mesa area) and seemed really excited to hear about Jason's experiences. He went down Jason's resume asking specific questions about items he's listed including which teachers he had taken certain classes from and about his service with the food bank of the church. It was pretty neat. I also answered one of the questions for him, it said: "Tell me one thing about you that will help me to know you before I meet you." After several rather dull responses from Jason I gave him one and he used that instead (by dull I mean a 'boring' description of himself). I said "Please give my husband a job because he always needs a project and my house has been overhauled twice this summer."
Kelvin liked the comment, and even read it in front of the group when they did the mass orientation. Jason has an interview scheduled today at 4:30. We're excited to see if he can get the job because a) experience and b) he needs the internship for school and so far we had been struggling to find anything in the area.
So overall things are looking up for him, even though it means a little less time with him we're all really excited for the opportunity.

And I am going strong as well. Audit season (the pile-up of school district audits at least) is slowly winding down. I was in charge of three audits and I tried my best to keep on top of everything. As a result Judy said that I really helped reduce her stress level and she feels pretty good about where we are. The other in-charge, Ryan, and I have worked together a lot to understand and improve our auditing. We were able to cut out a little unnecessary work and tried to streamline everything else. In some instances it worked, in others it failed miserably but I think we've both learned an incredible amount and I know I'll be better next year.
I also saw one of the business managers at the store yesterday. Ryan was in charge of hers and she asked why I hadn't been there. I pointed to my oversized belly as my excuse but promised I would be part of the team next year. She seemed mollified but said she had missed me and wanted me to let her know when the baby arrived. It was nice to feel wanted :)

 I've finished writing another book and it's been read and approved for story-line by a handful of friends. Now I just need one of my english major friends to actually finish the english editing and then I think I'm going to turn it in to a publisher again and see what happens. I could also self-publish it through Amazon, apparently, but I'm not that confident yet :)
And as for the CPA. . . yeah, well I still have the hardest one done, but I keep sliding right underneath the pass/fail line on the rest so I'm still studying and trying. I started a competition with Ryan so we're both going to try to be done with it by the end of tax season next year. We'll see how that goes. We're both at roughly the same level (study-wise) so it's doable, it's just a matter of finding the time to study.


We've been showered by friends and help and it's been wonderful. We've also been showered by blessings. Our garden is still growing, if the frost doesn't hit too soon, and our hens are finally laying eggs. The eggs are adorably tiny, but they're good. Only two a day so far, but we're thinking we might be missing the other two because for a little while we were getting three. . . so where the other two girls are laying I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out sometimes soon. :(
Our home is wonderful, still. We're actually getting ready to replace the stairs. When the man originally came and gave us the estimate he said he was so backed up he wouldn't be able to come until late October, but now he's scheduled for the 28th of September so hold on a little longer Kryton :)
The replacement of the stairs is in response to two things, one we removed the carpet and noted that two or three steps were split. The splits are along the length, so they aren't going to cause too much of a problem yet but they sure cause a lot of squeaking, and they're likely to cause issues later. Secondly the steps are narrow and all of us have fallen down them at least once (Only once for me, more than that for the other two) plus a few guests have had issues, so we're going to widen the step base and shorten the height. This will push them out a few feet, but we have the room to spare so we may as well use it.
Jason's going to do the demolition with his friends to save money there and he's also going to purchase the supplies according to the guy's list because apparently he charges an extra fee if he has to do that himself (that part bothers me because it wasn't in the quote, but Jason already agreed so I can't argue with him). Besides I'm trying really hard not to argue with anyone because I know most of my irritation is probably due to hormones rather than rational issues :)
It should be a blast!

Well, you're as up to date as I can get you. Thanks!