Eulogy for my Grandmama

A week and a half ago now, my dad's mom passed away. We've been close to her our whole lives, and I am hard-pressed to recall childhood memories in which she did not play a significant role. Normally I hate and am terrified of public speaking, but I so passionately wanted to say something in Grandmama's honor that I wasn't even scared a bit. A couple of my family members have asked for a copy, so I figured I'd post it here on this much-neglected blog. 

Just a little bit more. That was billionaire John D. Rockefeller's reply when someone asked him how much money would be enough. When Grandmama finished her time here on earth last week, my mind went to Rockefeller's words. Just a little bit more. Isn't that what we always want?

I have two kids, a two year old son named Brody and a 3 month old baby girl named Lila. For the first year of his life, Brody got to have lots of visits with his great grandmama. He's a little rascal and doesn't want to slow down or sit still for anyone. But he loved to sit with his Grandmama and hold her hand, and he called her "Grandmama" just like I did. I'm so thankful to have seen my son captivated by his great grandma just as I was. But I wanted just a little bit more. I wanted Brody to be old enough to carry memories of her into his adulthood. I especially wanted to introduce Lila to Grandmama. That would be enough, I think. But then after that I know I'd want just a little bit more. I'd want to see Lila and her cousin Pippa sitting down to one of Grandmama's famous tea parties just like I did as a little girl, or maybe sitting in bed listening to her read Horton Hears a Who. 

Everyone who knows Grandmama Margaret knows what a cook she was. Growing up, we enjoyed many a Sunday dinner over at Grandmama and Papa's house. Green beans, macaroni pie, potato rolls (I always had 4 or so), and of course roast beef were always on the menu. We ate well at Grandmama's house. With every season, there were new foods to look forward to: ham biscuits, fried chicken, roast turkey and brown rice, and our favorite savory cheese cookies. Maybe it was just because she made it, but somehow everything Grandmama cooked was better. Her spaghetti was better, her roast potatoes were better, her green beans were better, her scrambled eggs were better. I even remember as a little kid wondering how Grandmama could spread butter on bread better than anyone else. When I did it, the bread would rip but when Grandmama did it, it spread right on like silk. If only I could have just a little bit more.

Grandmama spent many days of my childhood in the kitchen with me, letting me help her beat egg whites to make meringue cookies, or stir icing on the stove to the perfect consistency. But somehow after all those times, I STILL can't make things quite like her. Anyone who knew Grandmama knows it's really hard to help her do anything--she just cheerfully does it herself, no matter how much you offer. I realized that after all those years of letting me "help," really, I was just licking the spoon. If I could have just a little more time, I would MAKE her let me do it. I would pay attention to every detail so that my children could taste Grandmama's greatest hits.

So while the time with her is gone for now, I'm grateful that God will give us not just a little bit more time together, but eternity. Plenty of time for cooking and baking. Plenty of time for tea parties and stories not just with her great-grandchildren, but with THEIR great-grandchildren too! Thanks be to God not only for giving life, but for giving it abundantly. For giving us gifts we can't get enough of, so that we always want just a little bit more. And then for giving us the promise of eternity and fellowship forevermore.

Since we are about to move....

....I thought I would finally get around to putting up a few pics of our place for the friends that have asked me. It was like 8 or 9 months ago when people were asking, so you/they probably do not even care any more, but here we go. :) And then in a month or so, I'll do it all over again. 

First off, here is the dining room.

The chairs are a work in progress, obviously. We am actually sanding them and painting them a light seaglass blue/green this week (much lighter than the color on those two chairs). We'll see how they turn out--one of my third trimester goals is to finish all my unfinished projects that have been sitting around for the past YEAR.

You can't tell, but the table is also a WIP. Right now it is dark gray, but hopefully in the next couple weeks it will be white.

My sis-in-law observed about the map my worst fear about it--she was like, "your dining room looks like a homeschool schoolroom!!" Thanks, Rachel!! haha! I wondered if it might look that way! We really liked the idea of having a map with pins showing where we've been individually and together, and I got this one for free at the Hope Center. But it is a bit too laminated and colorful and classroom like, so I just gave it to an actual schoolteacher friend today. Hopefully it will enjoy its new home.

This is my vintage radio from my friend Lish--I'd loved it in her house for years, and am very excited that it is mine now!!

To show some flow, here is the entry into the kitchen from the dining room.

There are a lot of pics of the bedroom, because it has a lot of my favorite little spots. 

I have a problem with cheap antique chairs--this one was 5 bucks and the old curtain panel and picnic basket on it make it one of my favorite spots.

If only I had straightened the comforter and bedskirt. oh, well. :) We used a Target giftcard from one of Brody's baby showers to get the duvet set (don't tell him! :) ). It was so nice to update our old comforter--which I still love, and is in our guest room, but was just always too small for a queen bed.

We snagged the bedside table from my sister's Goodwill pile last year, and it is in the queue for the whitewashing in the next couple weeks too. 

I know there have been a million pics of the bedroom, BUT I just love the bird on the wall, so I had to get a pic of that! 

End of the hall. Might be my absolute fav spot in the house.

Living room.

Bathroom

Succulent and fake plant--the only kinds of plants I'm having any luck with so far.

Guest room. After living with our TV in the middle of the living room for 3 years in VA Beach, we were sick of staring at it. So we put it on a rolling cart, and at least now it's not in the thick of things. I'd really love to get a cute media cabinet or something to hide it one of these days. We're definitely keeping our eyes peeled!

Brody's room--this room might need the most work of ANY. The rug is Brody's first decorating pick, which he fell in love with at Costco, and I thought it would be great for helping him play independently in his room. Like when I wanted him to play on it, I would roll it out, and then put it away at the end. As it turns out, 1) I never put it away, and 2) he's really good about playing independently anyway. We can give the rug credit, but I suspect I might be able to pick something more boring to a little kid and he would still like his toys. :)

Love the map from the National Gallery of Scotland's bookstore. Another thing on the to-do list is Ellis building a frame for it. Also painting the dresser. 

The most challenging thing on our sanding/painting list is Brody's crib. He still doesn't climb out of it, so we haven't tried moving him to a twin bed yet. We'll probably get around to it sometime between when we move at the end of August and when the baby comes the end of October. We'll see--one of these days! I started a gallery wall over Brody's bed one day, but never finished it. Couldn't decide what to put in the frames. Indecision is the worst!!

Anyway, so there's a little peek of what things look like, and what we love and what we're wanting to do! 

Ellis roasting coffee

Ellis has gotten into roasting his own coffee lately. It's great--it's cheap--like $6 a pound and YUMMY. 

He orders it from a company called Sweet Maria's

starts out super light or "green"

after being roasted

2 years old

Cannot believe this is happening, but Brody turned TWO on Monday!! This birthday is so much different than his first birthday--last year on June 9, 10, and 11 I felt acutely tuned in to what we were doing "a year ago today." It was almost like the whole thing was in slow-mo.

But THIS year felt like a regular birthday. Like when Emily turned 13 in April, I didn't think about the day my mom had her, about the fact that Julie and I were sleeping over at a sweet old lady's  house 13 years before, or getting to spend the night at the hospital with Mom after she had Emily. Likewise, this year for Brody's 2nd birthday, it didn't register to me to commemorate what the actual labor and birth day had been like.

When we celebrate someone's birthday, we generally think about THEM and not their parents. Last year, I remember thinking a lot about Ellis and me and how the year before had been for US. It was a lot about our memories. THIS year felt like a normal brithday--like it was about Brody. It was less reflective and commemorative, and more about a fun day for Brody. Isn't it funny how birthdays evolve?

It's funny--I kind of missed how fresh everything was in my mind last year (but yet, once I think about it, the details are are still there and still magical). BUT it was so fun this year to see Brody actually enjoy elements of his birthday--like BALLOONS (or "byews" as he calls them) and cupcakes and gifts!

Now for some pics:

Here he is holding Tigger, the Eiferts' brand new kitty! He loves dogs, but kittens are even better, cause they can't knock him over!

I saw this idea on Pinterest to fill a kid's room with balloons so they wake up in a sea of balloons. His room is pretty big, so I thought even all 45 balloons I had would look pretty wimpy in his whole room, so we just dumped them all in his crib when he woke up! He went to town and is still scattering "Happy Birthday" balloons around the house 3 days later!

Finally, here he is blowing out the candle on the cake Aunt Emily made for him! We're excited to have a pool party for him in the next couple weeks! Growing up, I always wished I was born in the summer so I could have my friends for pool parties, so I'm so glad Brody will get that! 

beyond small talk

Recently, I got to see one of my really good friends whom I hadn't seen in a while. We sat down to talk at a coffee shop in Tacoma, and she asked me, "What has God been teaching you lately?" That is the most refreshing question EVER to me. Nothing kills a phone conversation with a friend faster than "What have you been doing lately?" or "So what's new?"

I hate it when conversations start like that, because first of all, I usually have no idea what I've been DOING--I almost always have to stop and think for 30 seconds to think of what we did the past weekend! Also, a lot of times, what I've been DOING is not that interesting--nor does it necessarily help the other person RELATE to me. Honestly, an answer to a question like that would go like, "well, the weather's started getting nicer, so Brody and I have been going to the park a lot lately." Or even, to get INTERESTING, "Ellis and I just bought a canoe." I'm very thankful for our canoe, and I know that friends love to hear about that stuff, but sometimes it's hard for the conversation to GO from there, cause there's nothing to say "ME TOO" about. I totally recognize that there is a place for those sorts of conversations, and not every discussion has to be at the level of "what's God been teaching you lately?" I'm just saying that I think a lot us would have a lot more significant and challenging relationships if we asked each other these sorts of questions more often. 

I love C.S. Lewis' description of the birth of his lifelong friendship with Arthur Greaves. I don't remember if this was in the Four Loves, or in some of his letters, but the gist is he walked into Arthur's house and saw a collection of Norse mythology, and he said they made eye contact, and it was like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one!" One of the girls in my Bible study recently made the observation that in addition to being connected by shared interests, when we share our struggles, temptations, challenges, goals, and triumphs with each other can create that same sort of reaction.

It's scary to share the temptations that we deal with, because honestly, sometimes I'm scared that I am the only one that ever has the temptations I have, and that if I mention it, people will KNOW I am the worst sinner out there! I'll think, "I'm sure no one else struggles with jealousy over such a petty thing, and then if they know, they'll know my weakness and judge me." But often when we make ourselves vulnerable and out of humility are willing to share things to help others, we discover others that relate to the very things we thought no one else dealt with. And suddenly, there are others to help and share what helped them. 

I mean, I know ultimately the answer to what to do with sin boils down to "Confess and repent." But SOMETIMES that is easier said than done, or we confess with our minds, but it takes a LONG TIME to internalize something in our hearts. Sometimes we just need to hear something in a different way than we've thought of it, or hear an example in a different context, like when the Prophet Nathan confronted David about Bathsheba. Often hearing someone else share a Bible verse, or a quote, or a story can be what we need to just change our perspective a tiny bit and make something STICK. Also, it's incredible how often if you say something to someone, they'll have been thinking about the SAME THING and you both can add to each other's thoughts! God gave us one another to bear each other's burdens, and so a lot of times, when we do the scary thing and let someone see that we're not perfect (or ADMIT it, cause they prolly already know!), we can receive the nourishment that we don't even know how badly we need. 

what we look like now

Man oh man! Looking over my pitiful number of photos from the last month, I'm realizing one of the biggest benefits of actually blogging is that it keeps me snapping pics! It's kinda like with Facebook statuses. During the times in my life where I've actually put up FB statuses, it makes me keenly aware in my everyday life of what would be a good status. "Ooh I gotta go post on

Facebook that I just saw 2 squirrels collide!" Definitely kinda retarded, BUT the cool thing is that it keeps me NOTICING!!!

Likewise, when I am blogging regularly(ish), thinking "oh, I could blog about this" makes me get out the camera, and stop to APPRECIATE what has been done around the house, or what our family's gotten the opportunity to do. It's so easy to get caught up in "cool, this is done, now what's next" and not stop to appreciate and rest in work or reflect on the blessings God

's brought. After God created the world, He stopped and took a Sabbath. So here's to real and metaphorical Sabbaths!

NOW, on to a bit of catch-up.

Here is Brody the Boy. It's so fun to see what a total BOY he is now. He burps and farts--and then LAUGHS at himself. We are 100% POSITIVE he does it on purpose sometimes!!! His idea of fun with toys is seeing how hard he can throw them--at the gym kidcare, I always know Brody's at the toy bucket when I see legos and MyLittlePonys flying through the air. He is completely OBSESSED with balls. They are his all-time favorite toy, and whenever we walk by anything that remotely looks like a ball, he starts yelling, "BALL! BALL! BALL!"

Interestingly, despite what the above photo seems to indicate, he is terrified of messes. Anytime he spills a couple drops of milk on the floor, he points to the puddle and makes distraught noises. Or if there is a wrinkle in a rug, he obsessively tries to fix it. He also loves to clean things up. I like this trait!!

Another fun thing is his (limited) repertoire of animal noises. Basically it seems to be domestic furry animal say "woofwoof!" and wild furry animals say "RAAAWR!" He's also working on "hooohooo" and "meow."

My friend Kathryn took some pics of us for Christmas cards (just ordered them last night!), so here are a couple updated family pics! I didn't put in the one we are using, so that way it can be a little bit of a surprise or something. :P

I was also going to include our wonderful Thanksgiving in Eugene, Oregon, but I think I will save that for another time--Ellis needs to take the computer to work!

Brody at 15 Months

When I was pregnant with Brody, I was (sort of) keeping a journal and thinking if he turned out to be a girl, he would read and reread my thoughts about him and treasure his baby journal, yada yada yada. Good thing God gave me a BOY who will NOT care, because I think a girl would be very disappointed in me. So hopefully by the time I have a girl, I will have upped my game.

In an attempt to work on it, here is a 15.5 month update on what is going on with the Bear, which is what he probably thinks his name is.

(the only recentish pic on the computer right now)

Biggest milestone recently: WALKING, woohoo! As seen in the previous post, Brody was inspired to work hard over Labor Day weekend, and now walks everywhere! He also loves to walk backward--and he totally thinks he's cool when he does it.

Also, he loves to feed himself, which means he NEVER re-wears the same outfits two days in a row anymore, or even PJs. And his favorite food just happens to be yogurt, so it's REALLY messy! This morning I gave him oatmeal, thinking it was a better choice since it was more substantial and wouldn't slide right off the spoon onto him. BUT he decided it was substantial enough to be a finger food. He also really cracked me up with his toast this morning: he broke it in pieces, sucked all the jam off, and then stacked his toast pieces in his empty oatmeal bowl and stuck the spoon straight up in it like a flag. That MUST be the Eifert in him cause there's no way a Littlejohn baby would clean up after himself!

He loves to read books and sing to himself--we love listening to him in his carseat! And I think the ball has now replaced the play piano as his favorite toy. He still loves music and especially rap though!

This is SUCH a fun stage, cause he is becoming an interactive little KID now. It's so fun to see him COMMUNICATE!!! Here are his words that I can think of:

Mama and Dada--do those even count? :)

Yogurt

Uh oh

Hi

Thank you

Up--his favorite!

All done

Juice

Bottle

and then Light--it's not perfectly consistent, but it's a Littlejohn tradition, so it's exciting!

He's turning out to be super social--he LOVES going to the gym KidCare with me and playing with all the kids! And nothing beats Logos volleyball games, where he gets to bask in the attention of junior high girls!

Lastly, here is a breakdown of his top 3 favorite people at 15 months:

1) Aunt Emily--no contest

2) Dad

3) Mom

At least I'm in the top 3! :)

Brodster on the Move

The Pudster has a reputation of not performing for the camera, but Labor Day weekend, he decided to show off his brand new skills to the fam! We had to bribe him with footballs and soccer balls, but here's Brody walking!

Dirty Dash

A couple weeks ago, some friends and I did the funnest race ever!! (and Ami, if you read this, don't worry, I do know that I shouldn't say "funnest") It was called the Dirty Dash, a 10k in Spokane. The 10k is already my FAVORITE distance (with all my vast experience of a 10k and a 5k, haha) because I love that it's long enough to feel like an accomplishment, but short enough to just run and get on with your day.

But anyway, not only was this a 10k, it was a "mud run," so our run was filled with mud pits and obstacles like haybales and walls that we either had to scale or army crawl underneath through mud. They also had a beer chug event during the race!

Here is out team at the beginning: Dan, Doug, Rach, Christa, and me

A couple of the mud pits. Our feet got SO heavy from all the mud in our shoes--we got to wash our shoes out in a river and my feet felt so light and fancy free.

The best mud pit of ALL was right at the finish line. We dove in and got completely covered!

Too bad the "showers" were just a trickle!

Mom and Brody came and picked me up after the race to shop in Spokane (Ellis and Dad were backpacking), so the Arby's bathroom became my shower until I got a real one that night. Even after washing my hair 6 times I STILL had mud in it--it was awesome!

Here we are after our mudbath--cannot WAIT to do it next year!

Brody hits Fort Wayne

I totally need to put up pics, too, I know. But for some reason posting videos takes it out of me--cause they take SOOOO long to load. There's actually one more video from the Chicago/Fort Wayne trip, in Chicago, but it REALLY takes forever to load. So I'll just include it in the next Brody post, which should be soon, cause he's been doing so much fun stuff lately!

What a boy.

This next one was at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, which was the BEST zoo I have ever been to. Too bad there aren't ducks here in Moscow, cause Brode LOVES them. He also was way into the fish--we were in the aquarium for like half an hour. My fav part of this video is Brody's sound effects, haha.

Living room thoughts

I'm so excited to have scored some nice neutral furniture finally! In VA Beach, it was kinda tough to work around the blue plaid couch, the brown and blue zigzag loveseat, and the ashy carpet.

But HERE we have wood laminate, a beige leather couch we bought from my sis for $40 and a cream chair and ottoman, which were $5 for the pair. We also have a big maroon leather chair of my parents, which I am hoping to replace with something smaller and lighter, as it blocks a bigger chunk of the window than I would like.

The other day, on Pinterest (the site that's been keeping me away from blogging!), my friend Lish pinned the most amazing cheap rug from Urban Outfitters:



Right away it went on my birthday list! I was thinking it'd be awesome to have this rug and then some throw pillows with a fun ikat like this:

Obviously, that's not exactly the right one, but I'm kinda on an Ikat kick, so I'm searching high and low for the perfect fabric!

SADLY my birthday is still a month away, and Urban Outfitters is down to only the Black and White zigzag! :(

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the blue (or the gray, either one!) will reappear! And if not, maybe I'll just make one myself using this Ikea rug painting tutorial!

(Pinterest images: rug and fabric)

Talking to Little Kids

I just read this adorable article over at A Cup of Jo (one of my fav blogs!) a week or so ago, and have been thinking about it ever since. It's about talking to little girls (or kids in general!) about ideas and books to really get to know them and make them feel listened to! As someone who TOTALLY falls into complimenting little kids on their hairbows and ties and dimples all the time, I loved this advice for an alternative to small talk. So cute.

Here's the article (and one of the cute pics she had with it:




This Saturday, Toby and I were riding the bus downtown, when a six-year-old girl sat down next to us. She was wearing a white dress and sparkly red flats, and her blonde hair was twisted into a braid. My first instinct was to compliment her hairstyle, but I stopped myself...

I had just read the GREAT article How to Talk to Little Girls by Lisa Bloom, which encourages adults to ask little girls about ideas and books, instead of complimenting their looks. "Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything," says Bloom. "I always bite my tongue when I meet little girls, restraining myself from my first impulse, which is to tell them how darn cute/ pretty/ beautiful/ well-dressed/ well-manicured/ well-coiffed they are...It's our culture's standard talking-to-little-girls icebreaker, isn't it?"

(It's true! It's really easy and almost instinctive to compliment a little girl's appearance, don't you think?)

"Clothes or hair or bodies...it's surprising how hard it is to stay away from those topics with little girls, but I'm stubborn," Bloom writes. "Try this the next time you meet a little girl [ask her what she's reading]. She may be surprised and unsure at first, because few ask her about her mind, but be patient and stick with it...Model for her what a thinking woman says and does."

So, instead of telling the girl on the bus how much I liked her hair, I went ahead and asked her what books she liked. She told me that her mom was reading The Little House in the Prairie to her at night, and that they read one chapter per night, unless it was a long chapter, in which case they read half. We talked about books for five bus stops (that's a long time in midtown traffic!) and then I asked her what she had for breakfast. "Pancakes," she said. I told her that I loved pancakes with lemon and sugar, and her mom looked up and said, "That's how I ate them growing up in Germany." And then the little girl told me how she had gone on an airplane (!) to Germany earlier that summer and how she had seen a fox during her trip and how her grandparents took to her swimming and to the movies, where you could eat pizza in your seats.

I was thrilled by our conversation! (Although Toby fell asleep:) It was so much more interesting than braids.

Lisa Bloom's advice to have real conversations with little girls (and boys!) is wonderful. (Think: "Have you been swimming this summer?" "Do you like animals?" "Do you know any jokes?") Changing the conversation topic is such a seemingly small thing, but it can make a profound difference, don't you think?

What's your take? Do you instinctively compliment little girls' looks, too? What else do you talk about with little girls? Do you remember having smart conversations with adults when you were little? Do you have any young girls in your life to at the moment, or do you have a daughter? Will you take Lisa Bloom's pledge, too? (Think how amazing it would be if we all did this from now on!) Do you think it's important or not that big of a deal? I'm curious to hear your thoughts... xoxo

New place!!

After a summer of living in my parents' basement (aka bachelor pad--there were 4 guys living there all year last year, and Ellis and I burned candles all summer to fight off the guy smell), Ellis, Brody, and I finally moved into a new apartment!!

It's actually the basement apartment of a house, so it's more like a duplex, and we are PUMPED!! Also, did I mention we have great neighbors? My old roomie Amy is living upstairs with her hubby, so we're excited to share a house with them! Here's a tour of the space on move-in day.


The living room/kitchen. Nice big living room with two huge windows, plus a window in the kitchen. Even though this is a basement apartment, it has WAY more light than our apartment at the Village in Virginia. The kitchen is probably the "weakest" part of the place--it's technically a bar in a basement. It has a sink and a stove, but limited cabinet space and the fridge is in the dining room, haha. BUT we LOVE the kitchen being open with the living room, and the bar and bar stools, not to mention the awesome brick wine cellar.

One of the things I'm MOST excited for--a FIREPLACE. I DREAMED of a fireplace in VA Beach--it was on my apartment wish list for our next place, so CHECK. This is EXACTLY what we need for LONG COLD Moscow winters. I know this is a lot of all caps, but it's just way exciting!!

Here's the dining room--it's not the best shot--I'll get a better one when it's all furnished and the fridge is moved into the pantry or into the kitchen.

LAUNDRY ROOM! For the FIRST TIME in our marriage, I will not be hauling laundry baskets to the Village laundry building whenever I need to wash a load! I know all our fellow Regenters understand!

Our bedroom--again, more light than our bedroom in VA Beach.

Brody's room
THIRD bedroom!! So please, come stay! We even have an extra bed of my parents' too, so no air mattress. a real bed!
Huge bathroom. Honestly I don't know why the bathroom is this big, haha, but better too much room than not enough. And yes, there's so much room that Brody's potty chair will totally be out.


The other MOST AWESOME thing about this place, besides the fireplace--a HUGE yard! and it has a fence--so I can just let Brody roam around in the dirt and not worry about cars! Plus, great for parties!

Also I forgot to add, that the rent is $300 less than our in Virginia Beach! We were so blessed to find this place! And this is one super great thing about Moscow over VA Beach! We may not have Target or TJ Maxx :( , but the rent is great here! :)

So there you go! I'll definitely put up pics of the progress as it comes along!

new Bear videos

I'm pretty much the worst video poster in the world. But it's half Brody's fault because he is not a performer--as soon as I get the camera out, anything cool he was doing immediately stops. I'm guessing he's gonna be like his daddy--I don't think Ellis ever posed for a picture until we got together and we would take pictures and I would be like, "why aren't you smiling? this is a terrible picture!" Now you would never know--now he even smiled for his driver's license!

But anyway, I think until Brody learns that it is just a common courtesy to perform for the camera, that everybody will just have to be content with footage of him just hanging out. :)

Brody LOVES music and dancing, and my dad's favorite thing this summer has been playing old songs for him like the Beegees and the Rolling Stones and then watching the Brode dance.

Dancing and bouncing with aunts and uncles.

Summer wine love

Mmmm, nothing better on a beach vacation than AMAZING wine!!!


TOTALLY obsessed with this Kyra Chenin Blanc, from Moses Lake, WA. I am a total lightweight, but I could POUND a bottle of this wine because it is THAT GOOD. We just may end up ordering a whole case of them at Christmas and giving them out like Scrooge on Christmas Day!! Thanks, Dad E, for introducing us and for sending us one for the beach!!! :D