One Appendix Too Many

On Monday evening Anarosa started complaining of a stomach ache. I didn't think much of it because all the kids have been sick with the flu, so I told her to go lay down and I would check on her in a bit. She started throwing up and her stomach wouldn't feel any better. At about 9:00 I got worried and called Kaiser. They told me to get her to the nearest emergency room right away. I called Mark and he had to leave his shift at work to come home and let me run her to the emergency room. Once we got there, it took us 6 hours, (they had forty admissions that shift), but we finally got a diagnosis of appendicitis. Luckily we got her there before it ruptured and they were able to do surgery at about 8 am Tuesday morning.
The surgery went great. She came out of the anesthetic without any problems. I felt bad for her, she was really tired from being up all night in the ER before they did the surgery so when she came out of the anesthetic she kept asking what had happened to her (she didn't really understand that she was going to have surgery) But she was up and walking in a couple of hours! She just came home this morning, and we are all happy to have her back! (especailly me, because I've been sleeping in chairs next to her bed for two nights!! and I am ready for my own bed.)

Some Confusion about Tithing

So Jacob's birthday is coming up and he got a card in the mail with money in it! He was really excited about it. Dad mentioned that he could pay tithing now that he had his own money. He looked a little confused so Mark followed up with a simple explanation that we give 10% of our money to Heavenly Father. Jacob accepted that and without further ado started throwing one of his dollar bills into the air! Finally in exasperation he looked up and said "Heavenly Father, you're gonna have to come down here and get it"

Halloween!!

So we had a great Halloween! Anarosa was a bat, Alana was a bride and Jacob was superman. (I was realy proud of Anarosa's costume, since we made that one ourselves!)

The girls had class parties and a parade at school (I got to go this year Yeah!!)

We carved pumpkins:

We went to the ward "Trunk or Treat" Party, and we loved having the McMullens, Uncle Steve, Auntie Sarah, Cousins Eli and Josh and Grandma Candi and Grandpa Wayne all come too!!!

We went to Sulpher Creek for their unhaunted house (sorry no pictures) Sulfer Creek is a nature park that does a halloween carnival with an "unhaunted house" where characters introduce native animals and let the kids pet them and ask questions ect... It's really cute and the kids get a piece of candy at the end.

And last but not least we went trick or treating!!!

And here is all the loot!

Mean mom that I am, I always make them combine candy at the end of the night, so we can't argue over whose is whose. But I really think we came away with a MASSIVE amount of candy. Especialy considering we only trick or treated one street!
And we only had one kid throw up in the car on the way home, so all in all it was pretty successful!

Happy Halloweeen Everone!

Hold the Pickles Please!

Quotes of the Day:

(while driving home from Hollister)
Jacob: "I really want a massage when we get home"
Dad: "You want what????
Jacob: "A massage, they are reallllly good"
Dad: "Really?"
Jacob: "Yeah, but I don't want the pickles"
Dad: "Umm Okay"
Jacob: "You know the ones they put on your eyes at the end"
Explanation: apparently his little friend in Hollister had been trying to explain the spa to him. It sounded good to him, he just didn't want the pickles!! (um...cucumbers from the facial I'm guessing????)

While Getting Ready for School:
Mom: "Alana go brush your teeth, I can smell your breath from over here!!"
Alana: "What? You're going to take away my only defence from bullies???"
note: she is currently in the process of recruiting a first grade "army" to take on all the third graders at school, so I'm pretty sure she doesn't have much of a problem with bullies.

While watching an ad for disney princess on ice:
Jacob: "Mom can we go see that? Pleeeeeeeeease?"
Mom: "well maybe"
Jacob: "There's going to be a lot of princesses there and I'm thinking maybe not all of them will have a prince yet"

The Plauges of Egypt

Warning: This may be a bit of a whine:

Okay, let me start off by saying, everyone is healthy and relitively happy (barring a few left over sniffles) but if I had known that Mark's new calling would call down the plauges of Egypt I might have thought twice about it.

So last week the sqealing sound the car was making was definately the brakes. (I kept trying to think that it was something else....you know something less expensive than the brakes....but it's not). Then the hard drive on the computer completely crashed.......and we can't get a new one until the end of the month because Windows is upgrading it's operating system and Best Buy won't even sell us one that will be outdated in two weeks. hmph.

This week it rained a little and everytime that happens we get ants. They come in the house and look around for a few days and then leave. I hate ants.
Next we find that yes, we do indeed have ferrel cats living under our house and they have had kittens! I do not like ferrel cats. (I know that makes me a bad person, but cats belong in houses with people who love them, not wild and under my house)
Since we have ferrel cats.....you guessed it, we now have fleas. I REALY hate fleas.
Now, the irony is not lost on me, as soon as we found the cats, I noticed that something had chewed threw our 3-day emergency packs and you guessed it we have mice!!! (Don't tell Mark he's got a phobia of mice......which is not good for me because now I have to deal with mice).
And just because God has a great sense of humor, I woke up at 4 am in the morning the night before last to hear obnoxious noises coming from the ceiling. Now my sisters can testify that I am TOTALLY rational at 4am. So I was convinced that whatever was rooting around and scratching on the roof or thereabouts was going to claw through the ceiling and land on the baby and that would be the end of the baby. So I made Mark get dressed and go up on the roof to scare whatever it was away and that's how we found out that we have Raccoons nesting in our attic!

Seriously??????

So, now we have a "wildlife removal specialist" scheduled to come today at 1:30 to see what he can do about removing our wildlife.
I've decided I'm the mama and I just brought another baby into my nest, and all those other little mamas with all their little babies are just going to have to get OUT and FIND THEIR OWN NESTS!!!!!!!!

7 HOURS!!

WOO HOOOOO!!!!!!! I know that NOBODY is as excited about this as I am but the baby just slept seven whole hours last night!!!!

Way Too Much Fun w/ Sticky Notes

So this is how I found baby Jay when I came back from switching the laundry..........

Lots of News!

Okay, let me see if I can cover everthing:

This past Sunday, Mark's dad came to visit from Nebraska. He rode the train, which is a forty-four hour ride! He said it is definately the way to travel if you have the time! The kids had a blast playing with Papa. They even took him to the Grandparent's day pancake breakfast! And he came to see Jacob get his name and blessing in church on Sunday!

Mark was also sustained as the bishop of our ward this Sunday, so it was a busy day! We've known about the new calling for about two weeks and last week at stake conference they announced a new calling for the former bishop so it was a long week with lots of questions, but we survived. In sacrament meeting when the stake president asked Mark to stand and be sustained as the new bishop, Jacob was sitting in the pew directly behind Mark and as soon as he stood up, Jacob grabbed the back of Mark's suit coat and hissed "Daddy sit down! Sit down right now." I couldn't help laughing.

The night before he was called, Mark took each of the kids aside and let them know what was happening the next day. Their resonses were pretty funny:

Anarosa: "Great that means you'll be at meetings a lot right? That means the yelling in our house will go down by fifty percent!"

Alana: "That's just crazy"

Jacob: "Oh No! That means you're going to sit up in front......And you'll be watching me the WHOLE TIME!

Then the very next day, we got a call from Anarosa's former elementary school. They finally had a spot for her!! Yay! So, we worked everything out with both principals and she went back for one last day on Tuesday and started back at her old school this morning. She was soooo excited to go back to her old school. She missed all her school friends and especially her best friend. It was nice to drop her off at school and see all her old class mates run up and hug her.

Well those are the updates for the moment!

Three Weeks Old

Yesterday, Jay officially turned three weeks old!!

Anarosa's first day!

Okay, so this technically was not taken on her first day of school. It was taken on her second full day of school. But Monday was a holiday this week, and we didn't get the call confirming her spot in the new elementary school until mid-morning on Tuesday. So we dropped everything and went to get her signed up. They let her start mid-day, since we had had so much trouble, and they wanted her to start as soon as she could. She had a little bit of a breakdown on the way, but once she was settled in her class it was fine! When I came to pick her up, she said that she had had the best day ever! I was sooo relieved that everthing had gone well.

She actually has two teachers (they are job sharing). I met both of them briefly the two days that I dropped her off (one teaches Monday & Tuesday, and the other Wednesday and Thursday and they alternate Fridays). They both seemed very nice. I went to back to school night tonight and they said that she is making friends and participating in class and seems to be doing great! She is still hoping to be able to transfer back to her old school at the end of the semester, so we'll see how that goes!!

First Real Bath

So this was our first real bath. He did really well. Jacob was estatic that he got to help!

Brand New Belly Button!!

Yeah! We finally have a brand new belly button! Now we can have a real bath...

First Day of School......Sort of....

Last Tuesday was the first day of school for the girls. Alana was starting first grade and Anarosa is in third. We have them transferred to the next district over, which is a bit of a hassel every year, but we got all of our paperwork in and got them signed up and registered the week before. They both got their class assigments and were excited to get started.

Then we got a call the night before the first day of school. The principal called to say that Anarosa;s spot was given to a resident who had registered at the last minute. We were totally at a loss as to what to do! Alana started school the next day (and she did great! She knew the teacher and about 1/3 of the class was in her kindergarten class last year) but Anarosa couldn't go. She took it pretty well, but she's been out of school for the first week. We're 95% sure that we've got a spot for her at the next closest elementary school, but we're waiting to get the final okay.

Needless to say it's been quite nerve wracking to me! I felt sooo bad for her, sitting at home with her new back pack and school supplies, while all her friends were starting school. I also felt bad for Alana, we usually make a big deal out of the first day of school and take them out to lunch to celebrate. But it was hard to make a big deal for one child and not have Anarosa feel left out because she wasn't starting school yet.

The upside is that Alana didn't have any trouble this year, I think it helped that she knew her teacher (Anarosa had her for first grade as well) and she knew a lot of the other little girls in her class (they all got to sit together at the same table).

So hopefully tomorrow, I'll be able to report that Anarosa has a spot in school, and that everthing went great for her as well!!

The Logistics of 4

So I am officially the mother of FOUR kiddos now. Which, I am finding requires a new level of expertise.
I took the kids back to school clothes shopping last Monday. (by myself) So, we all bundled into the minivan and drove to Target. The first obstacle was getting our stroller into the car, but once I managed to wrestle it in, we got on our way. The first few minutes went fine. I was pushing the stroller and Anarosa was pushing the shopping cart. We managed to find a couple of outfits for both of our school girls. At that point little Mr. Jay decided that he was STARVING and wanted to eat NOW. Of cource Jacob decides that he has to go to the bathroom at the exact same time, and no he absolutely cannot wait. So off we go with a cart a stroller, a screaming baby and a dancing four year old to go find the bathroom.
Okay, so we get that over with and Jay absolultely does not want the bottle. (Since it's been sitting in the diaper bag for over an hour, I'm going to trust his judgement on that.) So we have enough clothes to cover us for the first part of school, although we haven't tried any of them on, so now we rush through the shoe department and try to get something that will fit everyone. Much to Anarosa's disappointment they did not have "furry boots" in her size. (Aparently it is impossible to go to third grade without furry boots). But we got tennis shoes for everone, in sizes that I'm pretty sure will fit.
So now we're running late to get back to the apartments so that Mark can start his maintence work, and no one has had lunch (Jay's still crying). And it's time to get in the check out line. Now we begin the realy fun game of let's ask mom for anything/everything. Mom can I have......? The answer is always no. I'm just trying to find the shortest check out line, and find my ATM card and hold fussing Jay and make sure that Anarosa doesn't run into anyone with the cart, and I don't have time to look at everything you happen to see on the way. NO!!! (seriously why would you WANT an electronic poker game?) So we finally get checked out and as I'm paying Alana walks up with a small hand held fan with candy in the bottom of it. No... Ten seconds later, umm, Mom......I think it's stuck in my hair. What??? Yes, indeed the fan and the candy are firmly affixed to my six-year-old's head. So now the check out lady is trying very hard not to laugh, because I have officially become THAT LADY. (you know the one who is holding the fussy baby pushing a cart, pulling a stroller and leading the child with a fan stuck to her head to the customer service desk to find a pair of scissors to cut the fan out with!)

Baby Jay!!

Hi Everyone, Sorry I've been absent from the blogging scene this summer, I was just miserable pregnant and then overwelmed with new baby, but I think I'm back in business now.

So to catch anyone interested up:

Short Version:

4th baby

Jay Collins Oakman

(yes we meant to spell Collins w/ an "s")

August 19th 2:23 pm

10 lbs 5 oz

20 inches long

Long Verson:

I went to see the doctor on Monday the 17th (a week after my due date) and we decided that it was time to induce. So, we started calling labor and delivery the next morning at 5am to see if they had room for me. Of course they didn't so we had to keep calling back every two hours to see if we could come in yet. Finally at about 12:00 they called and said that we could come in after lunch. Since we were already eating lunch out with the kids I immediately scarfed down half my lunch, told they kids that had about thirty seconds to eat, because I was DONE being pregnant and I did NOT want them to give my spot away! So, we dropped the kids off at home with my sister Sarah and off to the hospital we went.

It took a while to get in and settled so they didn't start the induction until about 3:00 in the afternoon. They usually start you off on a low dose of petocin and then up the dose every half hour. But somewhere after the first few doses they got really busy and kept missing the half hour mark, so then they would up it by more. We were anxious to get going because my sister was flying back to Utah the next morning at 11:00. And so we really wanted the baby to be born before then. One so Sarah could see him, but also so that Mark could drive Sarah to the airport and take over watching the other kidos. Because of that I put off getting an epidural, because I didn't want to slow things down. As the afternoon evening progressed, the contractions started to get stronger, but nothing very exciting. By this time we had come up with a plan B for the kids. Sarah stayed with them overnight, and our friend Liz drove up from Hollister in the morning to watch them while Mark drove Sarah to the airport, and then Liz took them to Hollister for the night (THANKS!!! You were a life-saver). Once we got that all figured out I felt better about getting that epidural!!

That Epidural: I have had epidurals with all of my deliveries so this would be my fourth (so I know what they should feel like). When they were finally able to come in and do it (they had an emergency c-section across the hall so that pre-empted me). The anesthesiologist came in and did mine. But it hurt, and it only numbed part of my right leg and one spot on the side of my belly. Everytime I told them it didn't feel right, they would have me roll to the other side, and wait a while, or they would increase the medicine in the epidural which only numbed the two spots that were already numb even more. They kept saying they would be back in five minutes to check on me, and then no one would come for an hour or two. Mark had to leave during all this to get Sarah to the airport so I was alone. In retrospect I just needed to be more assertive and insist that they get someone else to re-insert the epidural since this one was obviously a partial block, but I just wasnt' able to. To top everything off, the monitor on my belly that was supposed to monitor my contractsions kept coming off, so they finally gave up trying to re-adjust it. By the time the shift changed, I was just beside myself, they had upped the petocin again so I has having hard contractions with about fifteen seconds in between each one, the epidural wasn't working, and I was not having fun! I finally insisted that I wanted to see the doctor in charge of the shift, and they sent in the new anesthesiologist, He came in and took one look at me and said "We can fix this" Which is exactly what I needed to hear (didn't care if he was lying just wanted to hear it). He re-did my epidural, the new nurse came in and she just sat with me for about twenty minutes to make sure that everything went okay, and that the monitor was picking up all the contractions, and within about three minutes of the new epidural, I wasn't feeling the contractions at all.

Once the new epidural was in things went much more smoothly. Little Jay was born, just before 2:30 that afternoon. The delivery went realy well. He was 10 lbs 5 oz which supprised all of us! (my other kidos were all over 8 lbs but we weren't expecting him to be so big!!) He was 20 inches long. We stayed in the hospital until the next afternoon. (I can't sleep in hospitals and would much rather be in my own bed).

Recovery was good, I was up and about the next day and back to almost normal in about a week.

It's been two weeks now, and I won't be running a marathon anytime soon, but everyhing is pretty much back to normal.

Jay is doing great, he just went in for his two week check up. He isn't quite back up to his birth weight, but he's only off by a few onces and they aren't worried about it. He's doing everything he's supposed to be doing at two weeks old, which is great!!

Thanks for all the support and love!!!

Life in the Express Lane

So I got home from work today. Spent an hour in the apartment office and then realized that I didn’t have spaghetti noodles for dinner tonight (rather essential for making spaghetti) So, I grabbed my purse and drove quickly to Safeway to pick up noodles for dinner.
Since I only needed a few things I didn’t bother to grab a cart, on my way through the produce section I grab a cantaloupe melon and a loaf of garlic bread to round out dinner, except that the cantaloupe is buy one get one free. Well, I don’t really need another cantaloupe but the last time I tried to get away with out my “free” produce item, they held up the whole line for five minutes while they found someone to run and get me a second container of moldy strawberries, much to the chagrin of the other customers behind me in line. And I certainly didn’t want to put us all through that again, so I just took the extra cantaloupe!
Now please keep in mind that I am eight months pregnant and I’m at the point where it’s uncomfortable to walk around, let alone carrying two cantaloupes, spaghetti noodles, and garlic bread. So, I head to the nearest express lane and gratefully drop my groceries onto the belt. That’s when I realize, that the lady in front of me has about two week’s worth of groceries in her cart!! (fifteen items or less……but who am I to judge) But it’s really not worth picking up all my groceries and getting into another line so I decide to wait it out – besides it would be rude of me to haul all of my stuff away, especially since I’m pretty sure I can’t do it without letting out a semi-exasperated sigh. So, I stay in the line and patiently wait for the checker to finish with the lady ahead of me.
Once he finishes scanning the items, he begins to bag them all (all the baggers work the non-express isles). Then she requests that he tie the plastic bags up (so they’re easier to carry), which he does. Then she can’t find her discount card, so he asks for her phone number to punch into the computer. Okay, now she needs to pay. So she rummages around in her purse for a while and pulls out her check book (good, she found it now we will get going!). She writes her check out while the checker finishes putting all the grocery bags in her cart. Then he asks for the check. She insists that she already gave it to him. He looks a little confused and starts looking around the check out area for the check. He doesn’t think she gave it to him. She insists that she did, they go back and forth for a while and then decide to untie all the grocery bags to look for the check!!! After searching through the bags she finally finds the check……..IN HER CHECKBOOK! Okay, NOW we can get going!!! But wait for it…. She needs her ID in order to pay with a check. Does she have an ID….no, of course not she shops here all the time WHY would she need an ID??? So off we go to find the manager, who thankfully, recognizes said customer and decides to authorize her check without the ID. Great!! Now, the little computer thingy needs her phone number. She insists that it is on the check. Only it’s not, so we go back and forth again about the phone number (one would assume that she knew her phone number, since she gave it to the checker earlier to get her discount….but I digress) The checker finally decides just to write “no phone” on the check. Now we finally have paid for the groceries!!! Woo Hoo! We can go now right??? Well, at our Safeway they always ask if you would like help out to your car, and you guessed it, as a matter of fact, she would like help out to her car! So now we have to find and extra courtesy clerk to help her out....

Just thought I would mention again what lane it was…… THE EXPRESS LANE.

the First Day of Summer

Okay technically it's not the first day of summer, but Friday was a right of passage. The apartment pool opens on Memorial Day, but Friday was the first day I took the kids down to the "big pool." After all it was a balmy 65 degrees outside, and they have been waiting a whole year. So we all trooped down to the pool (which was empty....go figure) and they had a blast! Of course we did have to obey the time-honored rule "When Alana's lips turn blue, everyone has to get out of the pool"

For all the Hannah Montana Fans out there!

Back to School Night

So yesterday was back to school night. Mark took the night off of work but had to go to a stake meeting, so I took the girls to their school. (Mark took Jacob with him to his meeting - which turned out to be a life-saver since Alana was soooo excited she was literally bouncing off the walls).

Both classrooms were really nice. And both of the girl's teachers said they were doing great!!



Anarosa has been studying life cycles in her classroom and we finally got to see the tadpoles and lady bugs, and quail eggs that they have been observing.



In Alana's classroom they had writing samples up on the walls and I noticed some of the parents giggling as they read through them. (that should have been my first clue) When we got up to that part of the classroom I saw that the kids each had a baby picture at the top of their page, and then they were supposed to write a before/after phrase on their papers (when I was a baby I....Now I......) Here's a picture of Alana's:

Just in case you can't read it:

When I was little I used to dig in the gargage for chicken bones.

Now I don't like chicken

Nice..... (so that's what the other parents were enjoying)

Hate to admit it, but she's right, once Alana learned to crawl we had to keep the kitchen garbage can on top of the counter (especially when we had chicken!)

Memorial Day Program

Last Friday was Anarosa and Alana's Memorial Day program at school. They had been practicing their songs for weeks! I took the day off to come. The kids had done crafts and decorated the whole courtyard outside the school it was really great!

Anarosa sang "God Bless the USA" with all of the second grade classes. They did fantastic of course!!

They had the kindergarten kids almost last on the program (really???) So they had been sitting in the sun for over an hour listening to the other kids sing and talk and the band/orchestra perform, so we were a little worried when the first walked up and Alana was in the front row and not looking too happy.......

The kindergarteners were supposed to sing "It's a Grand Old Flag" and do little dance motions that went along with the words. And about half-way through the song Ms. Alana decides that if she has to be up there singing, she might as well make it worth while. So she really starts to ham it up! She had the whole audiece laughing at her exagerated dancing....

It was cute, in the car on the way home she said: "Mom, did you hear all the people laughing??" (yes) "They weren't laughing to be mean, they were laughing 'cause I was FUNNY!"

Anarosa's Baptism

Well, I can hardly believe that Anarosa turned 8 years old!! Last Saturday was her birthday and her baptism.

We started the day early with a 10 am baptism. We had a lot of family and a lot of people from the ward. Everything went really well. Anarosa had hand picked who she wanted to give talks and prayers and play the piano several weeks ago, which was really nice, since everyone who participated was special to her.

After her baptism, everyone came to our house for lunch and a birthday party. We had a pinata for the kids, even though it had been raining earlier, (we ended up doing it under the car port). We had cake and food and tons of people came. Thankfully I had Sunday and then that Monday was a holiday from work, so I had some time to put the house together again!

We're so proud of you Anarosa!!

of lunch ladies and life

So Anarosa has been helping to serve the lunch in the cafeteria (everyone in the class gets a turn for two weeks). She has fun because her best friend in the class is doing it with her.
She came home yesterday and related that the lunch lady was getting frustrated because she didn't know the right way to wipe off the lunch tables (she was supposed to wipe all the food into a little pile and then throw it in the garbage) Apparently the lunch lady made a comment something like:
"Don't you know how to wipe off a table the right way, don't you help your mom do it at home."
Anarosa (in her innocient little voice) replied:
"In our house we keep our food on our plates"

I thought that was exactly the right thing to say to the grumpy lunch lady.
(good thing the lunch lady can't actually see our table after we've all "kept our food on our plates" though!)

Sent to the Principal's Office

So I'm sitting at work Friday morning when I have the following conversation with Jacob on Mark's cell phone:

Jacob: (in his most tattle-telling voice) "Mom, Alana got sent to the PRINCIPAL's OFFICE cause she threw up her hotcakes onto her SHOES!"

Mom: "Oh, my!"

Jacob: "yes, so now we have to go back to school and pick her up from the PRINCIPAL's Office!!"


Of course I felt bad because she had said that her stomach hurt that morning, but in my defence she also told me that her arm and her leg and her elbow hurt. (I just figured this was her way of not getting dressed and ready for school) Oh, well, guess I'm out of the running for mother of the year.

The good news is she didn't get sick after that. Just a one time thing I guess.

Catch Up

I'm trying to think of a really good excuse for why I haven't kept up with my blog. I haven't come up with a clever one, so I'll just try to catch you up.

Our big news is that we are having another baby!! I'm due August 19th, and we're very excited! (Okay, I will be very excited when I'm done with the feeling sick and being tired part) Everything is going great, with the exception that I'm not getting morning sickness, I'm getting evening sickness. This works out great for work (since I work full-time) but not so great for housework. (So, if you pop by my house unannounced this is why I'm talking to you on the front porch!) Also not so great for blogging, since I used to do that in the evening too!

The kids are all really excited. Jacob keeps talking to my belly trying to convince the baby to be a boy. He keeps promising to share his superhero toys if it will only be a boy. (I'm not sure if bribery will help at this point - but I supposed it can't hurt!) Alana of course has decided she wants a girl so that she can dress her up as a princess!

In other news, last week when the kids picked me up for lunch (Friday is the girl's early release day from school so we all eat lunch together). As soon as I got in the car, I was informed that Alana was running for president! (well, really this was just a matter of time, and honestly I always imagined that with her it would be more of a military coup) She was running for president of her BEDROOM! and Jacob was running against her! This worked out well for Anarosa, who being the only other occupant of the room was the only consituant allowed to vote. A fact not lost on her since she declared very loudly that she wouldn't vote for anyone who didn't have a campain poster and a speach! So the rest of the afternoon they spent preparing their posters and their speaches (lots of campain promises that were just too funny) They got so into that they they compltely forgot to have the election! So we never did find out who won.....

Well, that's the news so far...