I recently heard about this thing called "blogging" and it sounded kind of fun. I started to put together my own blog and then suddenly remembered that I already had one! It's just been so long that I apparently forgot.

I took too long for a follow-up post. Had I posted this a couple of days ago then I could have said that our househould is finally pretty much free of illness. Everyone got over their colds, except for Bryce who still has some mild throat congestion.But because I waited too long now we're sick again. Jaxon is not feeling his best and actually shellacked the hardwood yesterday. No one else seems to have it yet and Jaxon has not performed an encore, so I think we're heading in the right direction.

Since my last substantial posting there have been a few newsworthy occurrences. On Wednesday night we put all the kids to bed and then headed for the TV to watch the exciting results on American Idol (more on that later). By the time we were done watching and I was headed for bed it was about 10p. I heard a beeping sound coming from the direction of the kid's rooms and thought one of them might have fallen asleep on a toy or something, but quickly discovered that Chase was still awake and playing with his Little Einsteins Blast-Off Learning Laptopâ„¢. Once I took it away he collapsed in exhaustion.

Jaxon and Mason went in to get their MMR a couple of weeks ago. That's always fun. Bryce got his 8-week shots, which he enjoyed quite a bit. I don't know what they gave him - I just told the nurse, "load him up."

Mason is talking quite a bit more these days. Our favorite words are "bear", which comes out more like "bay-uh" and "heart" where he forms his mouth like he's blowing out candles or something. He recently start saying "toast", which comes out something more like "toy-toast". He also likes to preface most of his words with "it's a..." He is pretty good at saying just about anything you tell him to. Jaxon still doesn't say a lot. He says "car" and "ball", but not much else. It's okay, though.

American Idol continues satisfy and infuriate. First, Kara DioGuardi: F. I'm not a fan. We don't need four judges, let alone one as annoying as she is. So, tip for next season: ditch Kara. On the bright side, so far the ultra-annoying contestants have been short-lived (read Tatiana). In the past it was almost as if they were fixing the votes to keep losers on for the sake of controversy. In fact, I guarantee that's what they were doing. There's no other way to explain Mikalah, Sanjaya, Danny Noriega or Clay Aiken. And I'm being nice. If you want the full list of undeserving, talentless boneheads that the judges put through then send me an e-mail. But I don't really have a strong opinion about it.

And, for my personal records, I went and donated some blood. I gave my 38th and 39th units on January 28. I noticed also that my cholesterol spikes in October and then drops dramatically over the next few months and then starts climbing around June or July. Any theories? I think it's weird.