Hello all you loved 'uns,

It's been long enough since we returned from our Logan Holiday that I've lost all the momentum and energy to improve everything in my life. Do you do that? I always get so inspired and motivated from the perspective and extra time that being away brings. Then I implement it for about four and a half days, dwindling quickly back into old habits and lethargy. But it's good while it lasts! On our recent return, I planned to repaint our whole house and redo the pantry! How manic and unrealistic! I got as far as picking out colors & sighing over the pathetic state of our 1890's pantry, then decided it was good enough. Plus reading books and watching movies is so much more satisfying, if not as useful. I did call some contractors about finishing our attic and engaged a landscape designer to overhaul our yard. So I'm good at getting other people to do things, I guess.

We had a great time in Utah:

• spent a good couple of weeks in Logan, doing the opera and parks and playing and watching cable tv, and attending Greg's 20th HS reunion

• did Lagoon, swearing off the Mouse Trap once and for all (Lauren's the most adventurous of us so she'll probably do it again)
• stayed with Greg's family at a great house in Deer Valley
• spent a fun few days with our friends the Whites at their place near Kamas--horse riding, four-wheeling, water-skiing, and staying up too late at night talking

The night we got back we arrived home at about midnight to a very mysterious, high-pitched noise in our house. We could hear it outside from the cab so we hurried in to investigate. It sounded like it was coming from beneath us but when we went in the basement, it was more up in the floor. We spent about a half an hour moving throughout the house, testing different locations. I lamented that our poor neighbors who share a wall with us had to live with this noise for weeks! Finally Lauren tracked it down to our luggage and, sure enough, it was. Sam's helicopter launcher (bday from Mom) had been activated and was whirring away in there. I wonder what the baggage handlers on the plane thought.

We're all getting geared up for school's start on Sept. 7. Maddy went to the school today to help her teacher from last year unpack all the boxes and get set up. We've done the clothes and school supply shopping and each has already anxiously packed their backpacks. Doesn't September make you feel like getting new pens and paper?

Sam has started keeping a tally of how many burps he's done, both per day and week...great statistician, he. So if anyone's interested in his data..... He's also (in his spare, non-burping time) anxiously awaiting Halloween and keeps saying, "MOM, it's almost SEPTEMBER, shouldn't we be thinking of costumes?" It's hard to believe, but yes, it's coming (although unfortunately for him I'm much more of a spur-of-the-moment costume mom). But he wants to be Harry Potter so I should be able to manage that.

Matt, thanks for your reading list...what a good idea. I've been pretty eclectic in my reading with some markedly beachy escape reads (very Brit chick lit). Here's the reading I'll admit to (or can remember):

• read Dad's copy of The Historian. Really enjoyable DaVinci Code-like novel with a Dracula theme.
• Kent Haruf's Plainsong. It's been out a while and received (or was nominated for?) a National Book Award. I love his sparse prose and character depth.
• I read Over Sea, Under Stone (Susan Cooper) to the kids. Didn't ever read it when I was younger but we all liked the mystery and setting. Four kids searching for the Holy Grail in Cornwall England. It's part of her Dark is Rising series & we're moving on to that one now. Anybody remember these?
• To add to Matt's books about writing: Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write...although it's hard to beat Bird by Bird and Writing Down the Bones.

Well, I've gone on long enough. How's your world? Sending love to you, A.