I don’t have any major changes planned for Earth Day this year. I’d love to say that we are putting in solar panels and a wind turbine, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

The most important thing that I plan on doing this year is to keep teaching Ian about the outdoors. He loves going outside. It’s fun to keep track of how many things we can find in just our yard when we go out exploring. Green grass. Blue sky. Yellow sun. Brown trees. Yellow dandelions. Purple flowers on the ground. Red flowers in a bush. Bunny rabbit. Puppy dog. Kitty cat. Squirrel. Red bird (cardinal). Brown bird (sparrow, mourning dove). Black bird (starling, robin, grackle, woodpecker). Tiny leaves (honey locust). Prickly needles (pine). Big leaves (maple).

Now we just need to make sure he doesn’t try to put everything he finds in his mouth…

Mallory and I got this washer and dryer from my grandfather’s house when we got married. I don’t have the old manuals in front of me, but I think these appliances are around 15 years old. We can’t complain, though… they worked and the price was right (free).

The pump motor went out on the washer last week, putting a bunch of water out on the kitchen floor. The service man I spoke with said it would cost almost as much to replace the part on this model than to buy a new one. That wasn’t really the answer I wanted to hear, but didn’t surprise me too much.

I had to take a few loads of clothes to the laundromat down the street over the weekend. Normally not the worst thing in the world, but the creepy guy in the corner was paying a little too much attention to me while I was folding Mallory’s clothes. It was odd.

While doing research on new models we became pretty excited about the energy and water efficiency on this combo… I actually think I’m more excited about the new washer and dryer than I really should be.

The delivery guys just left, and this is our new set… not only are they energy efficient, but they play a little song at the end of their cycles. I think I’m going to install a countertop above the set to help with folding, organization, etc.

Who am I kidding? I think I’m going to write “INSTALL LAUNDRY COUNTERTOP” on my to-do list. I’ll get to it eventually.

Mal is away for the weekend on a business trip, but we’re using Skype so she can still see her boys. Ian seemed very confused about Mommy being in the computer, but he’s starting to get the hang of it now.

Hopefully it’s not something we have to use very often for us, but I’m hoping we can use it whenever we can so Ian can see grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, mistresses, etc. The added bonus of using the computer? You can see the baby without fear of being spit-up on…

Actually, in the middle of writing this post Ian and I had a little video-chat with Nathan and Jaci up in the suburbs… here’s their dog, Chief, taking a closer look at the baby in the computer.

Are any of you already on Skype? Look us up… Mal’s screen name is malloryhaas, and I went out on a limb with stephenhaas. If you aren’t already on, it’s free… so you just need a webcam on your computer to chat. Hopefully we’ll be seeing some of you soon.

Sorry that I haven’t posted anything for more than four months… Ian keeps hogging the computer to check his Twitter feed.

Here’s a quick picture of the Haas men hunting for the perfect Christmas tree. I’m not sure if his method was spitting up on the ones he liked or didn’t like, so we just let Mal choose for us.

Ian waits on a bed while dressed in his "going home" outfit Thursday, July 16, 2009, at Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana, Ill.