It has been an extreme privilege to have my buddy Kory Pence visiting our family for almost a week now. He hasn’t complained once about the fact that we don’t have “real” room for guests and that he has to crash on the couch with no privacy and shares a bathroom with a 5 and 2-year-old.

He doesn’t even complain about the early-morning wake ups from his “adopted” nephew and niece.

This morning I captured Ezra’s “Uncle Kory Wake Up”:

I’m thankful for friends like Kory who adapt and ‘adopt’ well into the Sheets family lifestyle!

(for those wondering if you ever DID crash on our couch and are nervous that your Ezra or Ella “wake up” would be posted on the Internet for the world to see, please rest assured, I received Kory’s permission before posting this!) :)

When I was growing up, my sisters and I would get excited when whatever phone company my parents had would give us free long distance on certain holidays. I remember taking turns calling friends and family that were hours away on holidays that we otherwise wouldn’t have talked to.

It’s amazing how that has all changed within my lifetime. Now we have instant-access to almost anyone with a device that sits in our pocket all day long.

Furthermore we now can video-chat with people who have a similar setup and can put a face-with-the-voice. I love where technology has brought us.

Tonight after our Sunday evening grazing (where we open the fridge and find out what’s left), our kids had some face-time with my parents. We’re heading their way tomorrow for a district meeting and some fellowship, but when a few clicks of a mouse equal face-to-face conversation (albeit difficult to understand on occasion) to finalize some of the details about tomorrow, it was a no-brainer.

Our kids love Skype. I’m pretty sure both sets of their grandparents do, too!

This video gives just a glimpse into the often-overwhelming conversation attempts that take place in our home!

The benefit of receiving something frozen via postal delivery? Good (great!) food AND a generous amount of dry ice in the package!

Yesterday we received such a delivery and after putting the perishables in the freezer I instantly knew what should be done with the remaining dry ice – EXPERIMENTATION!

It is such a joy to watch the excitement of our 5-year-old daughter when we do experiments. I am once-again indebted to Steve Spangler for encouraging us along the way – even before he personally encouraged us! (His book is still on sale here.)

If you don’t have the benefit of receiving dry ice in the mail, you can also (apparently) pick it up at your local grocer for a cost.

Have YOU done anything cool with dry ice before? We’d love to know about it (we still have a pound or two left over – and it’s melting!) – leave a comment letting us know what else we can try!

We bought our awesome safety glasses from stevespanglerscience.com