You Must Pay the Rent -- 3 versions

O Dad!

 Happy Birthday!

Earthquakes, Caterpillars, Hurricanes, Job Interviews . . . Oh My

Hello All!  Just a little Askren update before the hurricane hits tomorrow.  We've had a very exciting week this week.  First we adopted a caterpillar.  "Stripes" came in on a bouquet of flowers I purchased at our favorite apple orchard last week.  I first noticed the teeny-tiny caterpillar on Sunday.  Since then he has devoured all the milkweed I could find (all those flowers and he'll only eat milkweed) and, probably, quadrupled in size.  We're hoping that he has had enough to eat and will choose a spot to pupate soon!

Then, on Tuesday, we were shocked to feel an earthquake rocking our house (and work).  I was so surprised I couldn't grasp that it actually was an honest-to-goodness earthquake until it was practically over.  I never felt anything so scary, even in Alaska.  It felt like our house was tipping over.  (They say that this has to do with the solid nature of the bedrock on the East coast -- all the waves keep going strong furthur than they would out west.)  Being in an area where you never expect an earthquake may have made it worse as well, and having a very panicked 4-yr-old didn't help.  Nothing even fell off the walls, however, so, except for being a bit shaken up (ha ha), we were fine.

I did spend the next two days explaining plate tectonics to Rose, who has reached the "why" stage with a vengeance.  Also atmosphere and weather and astronomy -- Rose and Sam both got it into their heads (or more accurately, Rose got it into both of their heads) that "outer space" might be damaged by the earthquake.  This led to many questions about why we can't see outer space . . . and why the sky is blue . . . and why it is black at night . . . and why can't we see planets . . . and what is the sky . . .

After things calmed down from the earthquake, we focused our attention on Jay, who has decided to put out job feelers again and had his first interview this week.  It sounds like an interesting job.  His face-to-face interview was this morning and he was invited back for a technical interview . . . so I guess will see about that.  The job is in center-city Philadelphia.  He can take the train in from Newark (in fact the train station is in the same building as this company) but it would be a long commute (over an hour each way).  We may consider moving closer to Philly, or into the city itself . . . Of course that is all "counting chickens . . ." anyway.

Our excitement over the interview has been overshadowed somewhat by the fact that there is a large hurricane headed our way.  (Who gets a hurricane and an earthquake in the same week?)  It doesn't look like we will get hurricane force winds in Bear (at this point) but tropical storm winds and tons of rain are likely.  Luckily we have no (large) trees in our immediate neighborhood and we are not in the flood plain, so we should be good.  I always felt so safe tucked in that little red house during the bad Chignik storms, but here we are tall, exposed and, because we live in a row of townhouses, kind-of in a wind tunnel.  But we've got water and batteries and lanterns and flashlights.  We've stocked up on non-perishables and I guess, if we have to, we can break out the wheat storage.  I do worry that our phones won't work for a while.  They are getting "old" and don't hold their charges well.  We don't have a landline so if power goes out for a while we may be out-of-touch.  Rose is very nervous.  I've discovered this week that she is amazingly good at hearing every word that comes out of my mouth, provided those words were not actually directed at her.  She has heard Jay and I talking about getting prepared and about insurance and things (USAA sent a nice note to let us know we were in the path of the hurricane and that their adjusters would be here promptly after the storm) and from the very little we have said in her hearing, she has become worried that our roof will come off and that we should have a boat.

Oh well.  In happier news, I have completed my pattern for my genealogy dolls (the dolls I made for Jake's kids used pre-made doll bodies, but I thought if I wanted to sell the dolls I ought to make them from scratch).  I've applied to sell them at a local holiday fair and I'm hoping to find other venues soon.  I'll include a picture in this post.

"True"

I'll end this here.  Hopefully we have lots of good things to tell you in the near future -- and the means to do so.

Keep us in your prayers!

Dad and I followed Jacob's lead and took the boys to Pioneer park yesterday. I just wanted to post a couple of pictures. Where animals were concerned Caleb took the lead. He was ready to chase, pet or ride without hesitation. Nat and Felix were not so sure. I finally got them all on the horse but the older two were not going to have anything to do with riding the horse until Caleb did and then they decided they were brave enough.

Promised pictures

Another bit of work done by Jacob

Hey, team.  If you go to LDS.org right now, there is another video that I edited.  On the home page, if you go down to the third feature, called Proclamation on the Family, there is an article with a video that I put together.