Sickies, with good news!

Yeah, we've been sick here. Initially I thought the kids had developed allergies, but then it hit me too. What started out as a congested head turned into crappy throat and later a stomach issue. Bleah.
The GOOD NEWS! Ironically, the good news here is that Jake got laid off! (I know, ridiculous!) That means that he's going to have enough time to get moving on all those projects that will make our house livable, like the new sewer line and the forced air heating system! w00t!
This week he's going to take advantage of the cash-for-scrap yards, which are only open on weekdays around here. He has an unreal pile of metal to get rid of - a junky old gas stove, old rusted metal kitchen cabinets, loads of pipes from the old radiator system (thankfully he was able to sell off the radiators and oil tank), scads of other stuff that just kept piling up for months... it's so nice to think that we can get paid for making more room in the house! Yesterday he dropped three small trees and started prepping a fourth, today he's continuing the tape/mud/sand project on the upstairs drywall.
I was able to lend a hand with the yard work yesterday for a little while, but I'm under a little pressure from the Census to put in at minimum 20 hours a week. It's surprisingly hard to do - one run through my assigned block took me less than two hours. I've been told to take that extra time to make sure my forms are as neat as possible. This job could lend itself to certain abuses.
Catie went to Camporee with her Brownie troop and (predictably) had to come home early because she ran out of clean undies and pants. Her bowel condition had been improving, but apparently being away from home and using facilities that were a distance away and were buzzing with flies did not help the situation. Oh well.

Effective government and other oxymorons

God bless my cousin Jennifer! She came up for the week to watch my kids so I could go to census training - and is managing better with Catie than I usually do! And she told Daniel that he shouldn't put anything smaller than his elbow in his ear... so he tried putting his elbow in his ear!
The census training is dreadful, as anyone who has ever dealt with government programs might guess. It's not hard - in fact, the whole thing is fairly simple and easy to understand - but we are being spoon-fed the information at a painfully slow rate. It doesn't help that there are a few people that are fairly dense and incapable of reaching a logical conclusion on their own (which makes them uniquely suited to government work) and that the teacher is easily sidetracked and unable to follow a timetable. I have two more days, and I'm fighting the urge to go up, grab his teaching script and finish the training process myself! It's a good thing that this job pays well!
Catie's first communion was wonderful - she felt a little sad that she didn't have a veil like the other girls, but she pointed out that no one else had a dress that their mommies had made just for them! She took communion again on Sunday, and was just super thrilled to be a part of the mass in a way she never was before.
Jake's getting loads of the upstairs drywall finished off - so excited! If he's laid off by Monday the work will start going like it's rolling downhill.
You know what? Life is good!