Still painting, and other stuff

We went painting three times this week. Work continues slowly. This image is stitched together (not very well) from two pictures. What I really need is a wide-angle lens.

Sylvia was diagnosed with breast cancer. Scary. She is tired but optimistic, and she has lots of people praying for her. I'm thinking I should try to get as much painting done as possible while Doug is still available to help out.



Kate is eight months old today! How time flies. She is getting so big. She just recently started putting weight on her legs when we hold her up (she's an odd child--I know most babies love to stand, but she just hasn't been interested), and she's also developed a serious aversion to being laid back in the bathtub. She loves sitting up and playing in the water, but if we try to get her to lie back so we can wash her--hoo boy! Maybe she's decided lying down is for little babies. She's making more and more sounds, and she told off Doug in baby language when he took away the nectarine slice she was sucking on at the ward picnic yesterday.

It looks like we're moving! We've been thinking for a while that we should try to get into a two-bedroom apartment, and I especially wanted one with a washer and dryer. We looked at one earlier this week, put in an application, and everything's looking good. The apartment is currently being rented by a family in our ward at church, so we got to see the place in good detail, and stand in the living room and try to imagine where we'll put everything. It's 1,000 square feet, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms (nice if we have company), a huge closet in the master bedroom, a washer and dryer, and a cute little lawn outside with a picturesque rock wall. (That'll be a great place to take pictures. Oooh.) We're going to Ohio in mid-September, so we'll probably do the moving once we get back. The rent is considerably higher than what we're paying now, but Doug will be teaching four classes this next quarter, instead of his usual three, and that should be enough to make up the difference. We feel fortunate and blessed to have the resources to do this.

I finally finshed reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (I'm reading very slowly these days). On the whole I liked it better than the last one. There sure was a lot of kissing going on. Don't they have any school rules about that sort of thing?