Spring is in the air.....

Ah, the sounds of spring...! The snow is FINALLY melting, and although the weather is still unpredictable, there are at least glimpses of spring and warm weather. The Kallage clan is managing to make it through, with all the flu's going around and all. Oh my goodness. If you get the swollen throat, fevers, sores inside your mouth flu, you need to get on an antibiotic. I don't usually recommend these, since we don't really take much medicine. But, this thing won't go away without them.

Moving on....

Althea turns four!!! Wow! We're having a birthday barbeque on Sunday for her with some friends. She's so excited. I can't believe we have a four year old!! She is doing just great. She got a puzzle of the United States from her Auntie Jeanne for her birthday and she's already memorizing the states!!! I'm telling you, she's gonna have Rich's 6th grade 150 countries quiz down by the time she's in second grade!! Just crazy.

William is getting so BIG. He has his top and bottom two front teeth and is chewing on everything. Not to mention climbing on everything too! He's mastered the stairs up and down. It's alot of fun.

Rich is gearing up for another show at the Panida Theater in Sandpoint in May. The last one was so great. I imagine this one to be just as amazing. I attached an article about his band from our Sunday paper on the last posting. If you go to the article there is a link to a Youtube posting of part of the show. It's pretty cool, they wrote that song themselves! I think the show is going to be May 28th. Definately a must see!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvwpss2lYSE

That's about it for right now. We're planning on planting a vegetable/fruit farm here in a few weeks! That's quite exciting for us! Funny.

Oh Spring, Oh Spring....Where are you????

I'm going to use green since I could really use some of it in many ways!!! Green grass would be nice, the paper stuff too, but who couldn't use some of that?! Well, it's almost here.

I thought I would announce that today I turn 30 years old! That sounds so crazy to me. It's not too bad, just makes me feel a bit older and that there is so much I would like to accomplish and the clock is ticking. I got tickets to the Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge for Memorial day weekend! Yeah!

The Kallage clan has almost made it through an amazing Idaho winter! Yeah! I'm telling you, for what we have experienced this winter we are probably prepared for winter in the Yukon, but don't let Rich know I said this as he would love to hear me say that! We have endured feet, many feet of snow and low, low temperatures. It's always an adventure with us, never boredome! I think a great part of the lake and even the river froze over! That's pretty impressive!

Moving on, Althea is learning to read. It is so amazing, not to mention impressive. She's got the sounds of all the alphabet down, and is putting them all together, even starting to recogize some words when she sees them. She's really getting so big. She's an excellent snowshoer, and we're working on the skiing part. She's tried her skiis a few times this winter. We haven't quite tried the ice skates yet!

William is crawling everywhere, and pulling himself up on the couch and the stool. He can hold himself up for a little bit. He's got his two bottom teeth in and working on some more, so sleep is a little lacking for me a bit of the time. He's trying to keep up the gabbing with Althea. He's got the Ma, Ma, Ma's and at night it's the Da, Da, Da's. We've even got a few "Heys" too!

Rich was featured on the front page of the Bonner Daily Bee a few weeks ago. One of his band classes was on the front page. It's really so great. The article was fantastic coverage for him and the program he put together for the charter school. Spring break will be here in a few weeks and the kids a the school are all a bit anxious to say the least. Everybody has cabin fever!

http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/articles/2008/02/18/news/news01.txt

Hope all is well with all of our friends and family. We love you!!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!

Greeting Everyone!

Well, we are just about to leave for L.A. for five days and we are very excited. This will be the first time Rich's grandparents get to see "little" Willliam. He's not the least bit small. The 90th percentile for weight in his age group. He's already topping 18 lbs. To give some perspective, our friends son (who does not seem small at all) is almost a year old and is 19 lbs! He's moving and trying to crawl. He's doing a fantastic job of sitting up on his own. He seems to be just a bit melower (is that a word?) than Althea. Althea is great, just jabbing up a storm. I've had to explain to her on many occasion (and some of you out there will laugh!) that I just don't know everything, and that we have to look up answers some times. Unfortunately, I'm not the book of answers as toddlers expect you to be. But it's all fun! Will is such an eater, he's working on trying to feed himself!

We are looking forward to the break. We moved about six miles down the road and I think it was the hardest move yet!! But, we are getting things put together finally. The last couple of weeks have been a bit hectic, but who's weeks are not!!

We hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Althea really wants to play soccer! She found Rich's old shin guards and bounced around the house for a while!! She really wants a pair of " the really long socks, you know up to here!" pointing to her thighs! Oh, and you have to have a team shirt too, maybe one with the number "5" on it!

School starts tomorrow! Oh joy!!! William is enormous! The 75th percentile for his age in weight! He's trying his hardest to talk, probably be just like his big sister, chatty Cathy!!! Resembles their grandfather!!! Cox, that is!!! He might disagree, but we all know the truth, it runs generations deep!

I thought everyone would enjoy this photo of Althea!! It's a little blury, but she's "trying to pump some milk for William", apparently I needed some help!

Anyways, it's starting to cool down a bit here and there. Cool weather is always welcome! Oh I have to tell everyone that if you have the chance, visit the northern Cascades. They are amazing! Hope all is well with everyone.

If you happen to have a chance, check out a video called Iraq For Sale, or the website, http://www.iraqforsale.com/. I thought this was pretty interesting. If you agree, please write to your senators and representatives to stop these corporations from taking advantage of our government and misusing our tax money. They need to be held accountable and it appears that it's going to have to take a nation of people to stand up and stop these abuses, since certain people in higher places won't stand up for what is right.

Regards, Miranda

Summer's almost over....

Greetings all! Well we had a great time in Portland last week. The traveling and everything went very smoothly. I'm so excited, both Althea and Will did so well. We are counting down the last days until school starts again. Oh, good times. We are all doing really well. William is getting so big, and Althea seems like she's turning 30 some days!!! I guess this is payback for my smarty pants attitude when I was younger! Ha! There's not much to add this week. We are going to be out a few days next week. We're heading over the northern Cascades to Seattle for two or three days. I'm excited to see that part of Washington, should be nice. Hope all is well with everyone out there. Take care.

Hello. Rich here. Here are some more pictures of my 35 pound turkey and her funky artwork. The one that is hard to see is actually a sailboat, and I'm proud/sad to report that her artistic abilities have officially outpaced those of her paternal predecessor. Also, there are some nature pictures from some locations here in ID to create some soulful ambience as you ponder the mysteries of human consciousness, or enjoy some starchy comfort food, or whatever it is you like to do as you comsume pictures of my family like so much cheesecake. Now you know why Miranda does all of the writing. Hope all is well with all our friends and family who read this. Summer's almost over up here, so if you haven't yet, get your flab up here and enjoy one of America's truly great towns and some marginally alright folks as well. Love, Rich.

Another male Kallage to harass the next generation!

Greetings from northern Idaho! Well, I am posting at last for all you who have been so patient with me. We finally have the long awaited little guy at home and we are all doing very well. As for the details...

William Elliott Kallage was born at 7:19 p.m. on June 23rd, 2007. He was 21 inches long, 7 lbs

3 oz. What a beaut! I was in labor for about two days, because of being induced. It was a great time hanging out waiting for this little guy to come on out, but after some long talks, he agreed and here he is!

Althea loves, LOVES her little brother, and has nothing but hugs and kisses for him!

Anyways, here are some shots, and I will post more very soon.

Hope everyone out there is well. We love you.