Anna's New Car

After nearly fifteen years with her 1998 Nissan Altima--a darn good car, she was--yesterday Anna and I went to CarMax in Roswell, and she bought a new (albeit used) car: A 2012 Nissan Leaf:

So far, we love it, though it has been less than twenty-four hours since we drove it off the lot. It does have a range of only about eighty miles, though, so it won't be our family vacation car. When it comes time for me to get a new car in a couple of years, a Leaf won't even be an option for me.

(In case you're wondering, you don't actually bring the giant yellow bow home with you. It's just for a photo opportunity, then they take it off the car and put it back in a locker somewhere. I was rather relieved by that fact.)

First Day of School

Today is the girls' first day of school! Elyse is very excited to start first grade, and Jessica is...well, Jessica is accepting of, perhaps reservedly excited about, the fact that she's starting fourth grade. Elyse is in Mrs. Enciso's class, and Jessica is in Ms. Elser's class.

Here's what they looked like just before we left this morning:

One of the things we did last week to make the last few days of summer break special was go to Stone Mountain Park so the girls could play in the water at the Grist Mill:

Feeding the Crows

The crows I feed in our backyard are very cautious.

I threw out half a bag of old Tostitos for them about ten minutes ago. One of the crows has been perched on top of a pine tree just on the other side of our fence, gazing down at the Tostitos and scanning the area, for about five minutes now, but hasn't yet descended into the yard to eat. I haven't even heard him caw out to his family that he's found food.

I think the problem might be that it's rainy and sort of dark outside, and since we have our kitchen light on, he can see through the sliding glass doors to the table and watch me and Jessica and Elyse as we drink our chocolate milk (and coffee, in my case) and eat our muffins and plan (I'm sure he believes) his capture.

Or maybe he thinks if he waits long enough, I'll throw out some salsa or queso to go with the Tostitos.

Post 400: Ten Years

This is the four-hundredth post I've created for the Planet Burdett blog. It has actually be a little over ten years since I started blogging, but it was ten years ago today--August 5, 2006--that Anna and I revealed to the world that we were going to have a baby!

We didn't know yet whether it would be a boy or a girl--in fact, quite a few people were convinced it would be a boy--or anything about the challenges to come (the placenta previa condition, the trips to the ER, the early delivery via C-section and Jessica's first six days of life spent in the NICU), but we were so excited to become parents. (Scared, too--but mostly excited).

All the cliches about how fast it goes by are true. But I am so grateful I get to go through it with my beautiful wife and wonderful kids. I am truly blessed.