disconnected

Last week I was unable to connect with the internet. It was not some type of fun experiment. Reed inadvertently changed a firewall setting so that everything was percieved as a threat and the computer wouldn't even let me connect. It took a few days to get it resolved because the server still worked and Reed was unaffected on his laptop. I am not sure what spurred him to action-my pathetic moping because I could not look up trivial things, or his lack of access to napster. Without the internet I seemed to have more time to get to tasks that I had been putting off. At the same time I spent more time looking up recipes and doing homework the old fashioned way.

One of the last things I looked at before my world wide web went dark was the ill effects of sleep deprivation. I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish for the new year. Much of that has been condensed to a simple "get 8 hours of sleep per night." Turns out it is harder than I had anticipated. I have given up on clean up fairies coming to tuck me in at 10pm with the promise they will finish my domestic chores for the day, so I have to figure out some other way. I am open for suggestions.

So for presidents day yesterday I took my kids, plus 2 cousins (Tess and Brynn) to the Phoenix Zoo. It was a beautiful day and the zoo was full to the brim with patrons. I was going to take lots of pictures, but the batteries in my camera died. So the memories are all in my head. Here are a few:
Heidi at the petting zoo being so excited and then screaming when a goat started walking toward her. We sat on a bench to watch from a safe distance and one came up and tried to nibble the straps to my backpack-while she cried. She eventually calmed down.
Asking Tanner what animals he saw at the zoo "sharks and walruses" (we don't have those at the zoo.)
Watching Tess and Molly get so excited to dig in the dirt at the childrens farm just to have the other boy at the table announce that there are worms in the dirt (it was a composting exhibit). They gave each other a funny look, slowly put down their shovels and walked away.
Trying to convince Brynn and Zoe that they were not too tired to walk and they need to get out of the wagon (tough to pull with 4 kids, but easier to keep track of heads).
We went to the McDonalds drive through on the way home for lunch (in lieu of a carosel ride). When we arrived home Tanner woke up and screamed "I want to go inside!" Fortunately he was amenable to a picnic instead.