Friends!

Ellie and I have been looking at nurseries in our neighborhood, so that Ellie can make some friends. I've just gone in a couple and let Ellie play for a little bit; both times she did not want to leave! In the first one I put her down, she walked right over to some kids and started playing, and she didn't look back at me once. I could have left her and she wouldn't have cared! Thankfully they are extremely cheap here, no more than $100 a month, so hopefully we'll find a good one that Ellie can go to a couple of hours a day. She will love it!

The Thompsons came over today and played cards with Jason and I. It was so good to hang out with them! Ellie always talks about them ("nra" and "Alec") so she was excited to see them too. We played spades (which Jason and I won in a close race to the finish) and golf, which Kendra dominated.

I attempted my first baking trial, and it turned out well. Our gas oven only has two settings, heat on top or heat on bottom. You can't designate what temperature you want, so I was pretty skeptical about baking with it. But, I made some (healthy) oatmeal/date/banana cookies that tasted really good. They were so good that I doubled the recipe today to snack on while we played cards, and they are already gone! We have been eating a lot of dates here, since they are plentiful and not too expensive. They are one of Ellie's favorite snacks.

I will try to post more often; I have received hints to do so, or else people think something happened to us :) It's just hard to think of what to write when we don't really do too much!