As the summer months are upon us, we would like to put out a request for some help.  The kids are still young enough that certain outings would be much easier with at least a 1-to-1 ratio of adults to children.  With that in mind, we'd like to request volunteers to help us take the kids to some places where an extra hand would be helpful.  Some of the places on our list include Dutch Wonderland, Strasburg Railroad, Baltimore Aquarium, etc.  Since Daddy just started a new job (more on that below), these would have to be during the weekends that Lisa is off.  She is off every other weekend.  If you'd like to visit but cannot arrange a weekend when we're both off, coming on a weekend when Lisa is working would allow Daddy to get some work done if you want to just hang out and play with the kids here.  Just give us a call or shoot Daddy an email if you'd like to help us.

On the eating front and potty front, we haven't made much progress.  The kids still don't want to try new meats too often except for Jonathan.  But Jonathan has regressed as far as chicken nuggets.  He used to eat them and skip the french fries or tater tots, but now he eats the potatos and doesn't tough the chicken lately.  Jonathan started eating cut-up hot dogs, and lately Lydia has taken to them as well.  Anna still doesn't eat much new.  She will eat McDonalds french fries, but only picks at the ones we bake here at home.  As far as the Potty, they like to sit on the real potty with an special insert that fits them but not too much actual going in it yet.  Lydia has went one or two times, but nothing consistent yet.  Hopefully they take to it before the fall when they'll go to preschool.

Daddy finally put the girls bikes together yesterday, so hopefully they'll try them out later today for the first time.  We also go a "Fred Flintstone" style fire truck that you sit in and use your own foot-power to move around.  He like it so much at Toys-R-Us when we were looking at the bikes that we decided to buy it too.  Daddy thought the bikes would be harder to put together, but they only took about 5 or 6 steps to do.  The fire truck thing had over 30 steps!  It took WAY longer to get together than the bikes did.

Daddy was going to be layed off from his job by August.  But another more stable insurance company in York had an opening, and he managed to get in with them.  He's been there for two weeks now.  It's always tough starting new, as you want to know everything but you just can't.  You always have to re-learn how the new companies systems are put together and there is no way to speed that process up.  The new company has some good benefits.  So much so, that they were listed at the top large company in PA to work for in 2008.  The are an ESOP company, which means the employees are all owners.  After the first year, they'll start giving you stock in the company.  Only current employees can own the stock, and you cannot sell it until you leave the company.  So it is almost like another form of savings paid completely by the company.  They also have a traditional pension plan, and a 401k.  And profit sharing if they do well each year.  Even in this economic downturn, they still paid the full percentage profit sharing to employees.  So between that and the fact that they are hiring, it seems like they're doing ok in this economic downturn.  The cafeteria is interesting, as you are on the honor system for punching in to the computer screen on the wall for what you consume.  Then they'll just deduct the amount from your next paycheck.  No cash required.  They also have a free gym for employees and family members over 14 years old.  If you want to work out over lunch, they give you an additional 15 minutes to ensure you can work out, get clean up, and still have time to eat something.  Daddy has already started to take advantage of that.

Daddy is a little behind on some things, and processing the monthly pictures is one of those things.  So it may be a few days before the May pictures get posted for everyone.