When will I ever learn that it's easier to blog consistently than to try to play catch-up all the time? Never, that's when.

So, here's what's happened in the past month or so.

First, Bryce hit a milestone about two or three weeks ago when he got two of his bottom teeth. He was so excited about this that he wet his pants. Literally. Within the past week or so he has become skilled at sitting up on his own. He can officially remain upright for as long as he chooses. He has been an incredibly good baby. He rarely fusses and has a great temperament. He's happy to play by himself or with others as the moment dictates. With the craziness of our household this has definitely been a great blessing.

As June turned into July I had the privilege of driving a gigantic Penske truck most of the way across the United States. It was loaded with heavy stuff like food storage, so the trip was full of excruciating uphill battles and some terrific white-knuckle downhills. The trip started in Bloomington, IL and we travelled through Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and on into beautiful Reno. It freaked me out when we got to Wyoming because I didn't realize we had ever left Illinois. The event was a caravan with my brother-in-law, who was driving an identical moving truck, but with an obviously lighter load (but with a car hitched to the back).

The trip actually wasn't too bad. I counted roadkill to keep the drive spicy. If you were following me on Twitter then you already know what I saw, but in case you missed it here's the final tally:

• 1 antelope
• 1 coyote
• 1 wild turkey
• 1 disembodied raccoon tail
• 1 (maybe 2) cats
• 2 fawns
• 2 skunks
• 3 foxes
• 4 birds
• 5 possums
• 6 rabbits
• 12 deer
• 21 prairie dogs
• 27 raccoons
• 92 wild cards (mystery meat)

In housework news, I spent quite a bit of time cleaning out the garage now that we have some sweet overhead storage areas. Except that the storage isn't that sweet and it isn't that cleaned-out yet. It's still much better than it was and we have much more space to maneuver in the garage.

We also had some fun a few nights ago when we smelled a delicious burning smell - something like a burning tire. After traipsing about the house and thinking that my computer was catching fire, we finally discovered that the smell was coming from our washing machine. We were certain that the machine was spinning it's final load and would soon go the way of all the earth. It would be a more interesting story except that it has worked fine ever since. We're not sure if it has one foot in the grave or just got a bad load or something.

None of this is stuff you care about. I'm just documenting it for my own future reading.

More blogging come up soon...