Rachel's news

I've been crocheting a blanket for my cousin who is due to be born in March. It took a long time but I'm finally finished. Pretty good for my first blanket, right?

And we got another gerbil finally, her name is either Marshmallow or Snow Princess or Snow Queen. At the moment we have to keep the two gerbils apart, we found out that females from different litters will often fight, so we have to keep them from being able to touch each other, but near each other so they can get used to each other. I hope mom and dad survive the process.

Love,

Rachel

Photos of Jeff

Jeff has woken up about 5 minutes ago and is giving the camera this "When's this gonna end" look.
We're trying to get Jeff to sit still, but crawls off the pillows towards me. He's crawling over a white stuffed bunny for those of you who wanted to know what that white thing under Jeff was. I have the camera and he's fascinated with the camera.

-Becca

P.S. Yes I know how to put pictures on the blog now. Dad taught me how this morning.

SAD news!!! :.(

Raisin died two days ago. We found her dead Wednesday morning, she had died during the night. Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad story. Oh well. We still have Butterscotch, and we will get another gerbil as soon as we can to keep her company. But there aren't any female gerbils for sale in Lynchburg at the moment. Bummer.

-Becca

Pretty stuff but not enough to be useful

Monday, on President's day so the kids had the day off, we had another wimpy snow fall. Kids tried to go sledding, but it didn't work well.



Becca, Rachel, and Laura (pulling Jeff). The snow would essentially disappear after one run. Too wet, made great snowballs, but lousy sledding.



Miriam and Brian thought it was cool though they're fighting off some bug so ran out of steam quickly.



Laura on our trampoline, Miriam and I catching snowflakes on our tongues, Rachel on the Potter's trampoline (near the sledding hill).

-Derek

New evidence of our insanity ...

... we got gerbils.



They're pretty cute. They evidently have no concept of personal space. I enjoyed the "don't mind me, I'm just going to use you as a body pillow." They love the wheel, and if they get going fast enough, when they trip the wheel can carry them for a full revolution. It almost seems to happen too often to be an accident, though I believe it is.



So far the leading names are "Raisin" for the black one Rachel is holding and "Butterscotch" for the brown one Becca is holding. Butterscotch seems to be the more active one, always moving, while Raisin is more content to just be held and cuddled. Interestingly, Raisin is the one who wants out more and is first out the door when it is opened. Also, she chews on the bars of the cage just after she is returned to the cage.

Fun stuff.

-Derek