Shhhh . . .

 I am writing from the top floor of the Holiday Inn in downtown Duluth, looking up the hill not at the lake.  Oh well, it's dark.  Jesse took Axel to the pool because he was bouncing off the walls.  We haven't had supper yet, which is a long and uninteresting story so I won't tell it, but there's a pizza on the way.  And all my little boys are sleeping.  They're such good sleepers.  I hate to brag, but I am pretty proud of what good nighttime habits they have.  Axel is like a practice kid - maybe these three will turn out really good!

Axel's quote of the week, from a few hours ago in the car on the way here, from the backseat:  "Watch out for that idiot!"  He got that from me.  Whoops.

We have come to Duluth for Axel, who has truthfully been somewhat neglected the last few weeks with me being at class and all of us busy.  This weekend and last, Thomas the Tank Engine is coming to Duluth and people can take a ride and have their picture taken and play games, etc.  Axel loves trains and especially Thomas, so we can't wait to see the look on his face when Thomas pulls in to the Depot.  We haven't told him what we're doing here - he's really excited just to chase seagulls down in Canal Park.  That's good, too, I guess.

In a couple weeks our babies will be 6 months old.  Holy crap (Ax gets that from me, too).  I'm eager to see how much they have grown, because we seem to have gone from 3 month to 9 month clothes in not much time.  Mags is falling behind, in my opinion, so when we return to see the good-looking EN&T guy we'll have to talk more seriously about that surgery.  I think he would be gaining a lot faster without this issue.  Rex, the superstar, has successfully rolled from his tummy to his back many times, so he wins that race.  Eero is getting tall.  I don't know how tall he is, but I feel like he is going to be a big huge kid.  Also, he sucks his thumb.

This week I finished my summer classes - thank God.  On Wednesday the professor, reflecting on his first time teaching this particular course, noted maybe the workload should be decreased when they cram a 14-week class into a five week period.  Good idea.  I read four books, wrote five papers, and completed an online portfolio, and that was just for one of my two classes.  Yes, I did have a strong cocktail that night, but just one, as Jesse was off leading his first meeting as Kerkhoven fire chief and someone had to watch the kids.  That is my place in life now, Someone has To Watch The Kids.

On Sunday, as most people from this area did, I'm sure, we had a Kirby vacuum salesman at our house.  Junior (first clue) had an exciting new product and would just take a few minutes of my time to show it to me before he headed back to Omaha.  I thought he was talking about the container of dashboard wipes he had just handed me, so I agreed.  He meant a vacuum and carpet cleaner, and then a large black man emerged from his vehicle and carried it in the house.  The big grunt left Junior at our house, who proceeded to occupy the entire living room and our time for the next two hours - telling us he was working on winning a 3D TV so he really needed us to buy a vacuum (why would I care if you have a 3D TV? - maybe I'm saving my money for one and don't need a $1000 vacuum), and asking us the most inane questions: What kind of floor do you want, a clean one or a dirty one? We drone on in unison, "Clean one."  Do you want your vacuum to get up just some of the dirt or all of it?  "All of it."  What do you want your vacuum to do for you?  Me:  Pick up the big chunks.  That was the beginning of the end for Junior.  He took our vacuum apart to show us how inefficient it was, and then couldn't get it back together.  Oh, I see how it is, I said.  You break our vacuum so we have to buy a new one.  Then he was kind of snappy and defensive, and when we told him we would not like to buy a vacuum, he said he didn't care because he'd take this vacuum and sell it to one of our neighbors and they would have a clean house and we wouldn't.  Good luck, we said.  Our neighbors are his [Jesse's] parents.  Have a good trip back to Omaha, doofus.  It was a nice vacuum, but I was annoyed that he was there on Sunday afternoon.  We decided he thought he would have no trouble selling a vacuum when he drove up to the big house with an Escalade out front.  Think again.

Next week I turn 31.  Pizza's here.

This picture just makes me happy.