Sharing a Family Pic

Just wanted to share a picture from while we were in Silverton way back in July. Yes, I'm still soooooo far behind. I have actually been pretty busy the last two months, so not much time for personal stuff. Thanks to my sister-in-law Chancie for taking some shots of us. She did a really good job!

We are plugging along. Gatlin is busy with school and soccer (I'll have to get some pictures up soon). Carsyn and I just chase after him it seems. Ronnie is still putting in long hours working on the house. We hired out the drywall portion, and they were here all last week. Talk about a filthy house -- I had a thick coat of white dust all over everything. I'm glad that part is over, and hopefully the painters will be out next week. Can't wait until the project is finished!

And a bit of sad news (especially for Gatlin). Some of you might remember his duck, Slanky. Well, we are not sure what happened, but Ron found Slanky dead (no apparent trauma) tonight. It is just a hard thing to try and explain to a kid . . . so many questions, misunderstandings, confusion. Gatlin and Slanky hadn't been too close for a while now. The duck really only wanted to hang out with his chicken friends and didn't want much to do with Gatlin, but it still upset Gatlin (and momma who had to try to explain the whole concept again this year).