The List

I've been asked multiple times if there's any help we need or anything anyone can do for us. Our needs are pretty minimal right now, but I'm going to toss out a few concrete suggestions for things that would help, if anyone is interested:

1. I'm going to need to learn how to do some of the more traditionally "manly" chores around the house, stuff like learning how to relight the pilot in the water heater if it goes out again, how to change the air filter in the furnace, etc. Just some basic home maintenance kind of stuff. I got married at 21, so I never had to learn and I feel so helpless. If you are handy (and PATIENT!) I'd love to get some lessons.

2. There is a big green overstuffed chair sitting in my garage that J.J. was supposed to be taking to the Goodwill. If someone who has a truck, van, SUV, etc. would want to get this out of my hair, I'd appreciate it. It's blocking access to the breaker box in the garage, and if something trips, I'm going to have enough trouble without wading over the chair. Even if you can think of a nonprofit group that would want to pick it up from the curb and could call to arrange that, that would be awesome too. It's just a little beyond me right now to plan that far ahead.

3. Don't underestimate how awesome cards/emails/letters are at this point. I've been reading them all out loud to J.J. and it really helps to raise both of our spirits. If you want to email, feel free to use my personal email, erinrobertson at sbcglobal dot net (use the appropriate punctuation--I just don't really need my address getting spammed anymore right now by any web-crawling bots). I've heard that Blogger makes it kind of hard to comment unless you already have a profile set up, but if you have one and want to leave a comment on one of the blog posts, that works too.

4. Our kids will be home this weekend. Playdates are about to become a godsend. Give me a call to set one up.

5. Once the kids are home, I'll get to polish off my rusty cooking skills. J.J. loves to cook and I can probably count on both hands the number of meals I've made since we got married. If you have quick, easy recipes, I'm very much interested.

I think that's about it for now. If I think of more, I'll let you know. And thanks, everyone for being so persistent!