recent Hansen happenings

John has taken over the sun-room with a variety of Lego/Technix's pieces. He's building projects for his new book. Juliet has been helping him. All looks very interesting. He has a deadline which is drawing closer.

Juliet started work at the day-care center down the street from us. She worked there last summer and they asked her to come back. With all the rain we have had over the past couple of weeks the kids have been confined to indoors all day. Some of them have been sick so J is starting to sound like she is coming down with something.

Elisabeth is enjoying spring term at BYU. She is taking 2 Economics classes and History of the Modern Prophets. She is really enjoying the new apartment she is living in. At the moment she has not been able to find a summer job so we are "feeding her" so to speak.

School finishes for Kris and Nik at the end of next week. Good grief where has the time gone? Nik just finished his end of year exams and Kris does hers next week. She got a certificate for Math which she is thrilled about.

I've been feeling like an very old version of Sleeping Beauty. Started feeling sick last Thursday and slept through most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'm starting to function a bit better now but still feel a bit cruddy. Hopefully I'll be back to my normal "obnoxious" self in a couple of days. I don't bounce back as quickly as I used too now that I'm "over the hill" :)

It has rained almost every day for the past two weeks. We have an ongoing science experiment in the back yard i.e. a Bell jar with a ruler attached. According to that we have had somewhere between 10-12". Everything is greening up nicely but a lot of the flowers have lost their petals fairly quickly. I took a walk round the fence line this morning and the grape vines are growing nicely as are a few other mystery vines. (One of the joys of living near a nature reserve and having visiting birds.)

Another by product of the heavy rains is ants,ants, ants everywhere. They had been showing up in our bathroom which had never happened before so eventually John sprayed. Then they showed up in the sun room so I sprayed. Then they showed up in our family room - so John sprayed. Then at the weekend they showed up in the kitchen big time. We are still trying to get rid of them !!!!! While I greaty admire ants and their single minded dedication to accomplishing their assigned tasks I really don't want to share my cereal with them. John thinks there might be an ant colony in the old tree stump we are trying to burn out. They are not the same kind as those seeking temporary refuge in the house.

We are mulling over where, if anywhere, we want to go for our family vacation this year. We have to wait till after Elisabeth gets home and make sure everyone has up to date passports ... just in case we decide to wander off outside the US.

I was somewhat spoiled by the family, present wise, for Mother's Day.

I had requested an iron, which I got. John is a Black & Decker kind of guy so I now have one of their ones with a retractable cord no less. Juliet asked if I would like a family type game or something related to crafts. I was presented with "In A Pickle" which is quite fun, especially when you think outside the box. They also got me a large cutting mat. John was somewhat shocked at how expensive those things are.

A couple of what some people might consider "odd" gifts. A hot water bottle and hot/cold pads. I have a migraine disorder and my trusty hot water bottle (that I had had most of my life) sprung a leak and could not be fixed. When my head hurts I like to "boil my brain" i.e. put a hot bottle under a towel and lay my head on it. The hot/cold pad was something John thought I should try out.