Wendy & Justin

Hello Lindgren fam!

I hope you're all doing well. I'm really looking forward to seeing a lot of you in Boise in May. What fun!! Life is great here in Georgia. Justin is still enjoying his company and is traveling to India next week. What a great opportunity to see the world on someone else's budget! Emilie is in 3rd grade and just started soccer season, but so far, all four of her practices have been rained out. But with our recent drought, we can't find room to complain about the beautiful rain. Elisabeth is in1st grade. She comes home everyday and puts together some book or project and gets anyone she can to play school with her. For a s much as she likes to play school, she says school is boring. Alexander is in Pre-K, and has a fun time. But he's missed a few days from being sick, so it's hard for him to get back into the routine. Alexander started soccer last Saturday and it's perfect for him. Benjamin is 7 months now. I take him to the YMCA childcare while I work out some days, and today, the lady there asked if I ever put him down, since he fusses when he's not held. I thought about it for a moment and realized I don't. I've created a little monster! I wear him most of the day in my sling and he's as happy as can be.

Our kids are really into Webkinz right now. For those that haven't heard of them, they're stuffed animals with a code that you enter onto a website, and then you take care of them on the website and earn money and food for them. They've been having a great time, and I get to use it as leverage for disciplining! We finally had to write a contract agreement about Webkinz time on the computer, only on certain days, getting off when the timer rings, etc.

I'm getting ready for our annual visiting teaching workshop. We're doing Wizard of Oz theme stuff. I'm in charge of decorations and food. Food planning I can handle, but doing the decorations is never fun for me, since it takes a lot of work and is thrown away afterwards. I'm keeping it simple.

In case any of you check out blogs or have your own blog, I just started a blog at: http://bittersweetbilge.blogspot.com/ I'm still exploring blogs and learning all about them, but it's been fun to keep in touch with friends and family that have blogs. Ryan and Cheyney have a great blog at http://cheyneyandryan.blogspot.com/ Speaking of them. We drove up to Raleigh a few weeks ago and visited them. What a great time! We loved exploring Raleigh with them, and mainly liked just hanging out and talking and playing games. Cheyney did a cool treasure hunt and crafts with my kids, and for some reason, my kids got really into their fitness center at their apartment complex, and Ryan and Cheyney took them down there each night to run on the treadmills. We also walked around their beautiful lake and fed the fish and seagulls, which scared Emilie to death. Poor little girl!

So for you gamers, have you played Ticket to Ride? Jeff and Jenny gave us Ticket to Ride Europe for Christmas, and we've been having a great time playing it each weekend. We like it a lot more than the American Ticket to Ride. My mom got Grandma the Ticket to Ride Germany and they've had a couple of matches. Our other favorite game lately is RAGE, which is kind of like a group Rook game, that you play in rounds like Phase 10.

My mom is coming out for a week in April and we're going to see the aquarium and go out to eat and shop lots--looking forward to it! Well, the kids are almost home from school so I'd better go. Looking forward to reading your entries. Thanks for keeping up with the Lingo, Aunt Jennifer. You do a great job!

Love, Wendy and family