Can you caption these?

That is a look of true surprise. Not bad, considering the piano was in his room for a month with out him knowing. That is true parental gift giving genius!



Another genius gift is a trampoline for a 5 year old with tons! of energy. Not any trampoline, this one plays games with you while you jump! Romney loved it. Looking at the pictures of the kids, however, I may concede it MIGHT be time for a haircut. (At least a trim.)

Merry Christmas Eve

The much loved tradition of new pajamas on Christmas Eve yielded us a "Where's Waldo" and a "Prison Inmate" look alikes. None the less, I think they both looked so cute!

'Tis the Season for Service

I stumbled across an easy way to donate a meal to a family in need today while preparing a lesson. This company will donate an entire meal to a hungry family if you click here. All you have to do is share a short story of a time you shared something. Please consider taking time out of your busy holiday preparations to help a family in need.

Master Demo Tech

Romney, Master Demo Tech, at your service. Have something to destroy, he's your man. Bill spent all of Friday tearing out the boys' bathroom and Romney was quite happy to wield a hammer and take down the tile. We are down to one bathroom and it is becoming very clear why I get my own and the boys have their own. Hopefully we will be back up and running with two bathrooms again by the end of the week.

Top 5 reasons. . .

One of my favorite comedy films of all time is "High Fidelity". The lead characters are always composing a list of their all-time top 5 ____________ (fill in the blank with album, song, artist, etc). I am doing my best to change my attitude toward winter, so I have a top 5 reasons to learn how to enjoy the snow.




Reason#5: The colors of the kids' snow clothes look really good in photographs against the white snow.
Reason #4: Sledding is fun and hard to do with out the white stuff.
Reason #3: Snowball fights are super fun when Mom is off limits!
Reason #2: It clears out the yucky air.
Reason #1: They now make white chocolate hot cocoa and it tastes best after you have been out in the wet white icy cold.

Merry Festivus

Another storm is blowing through and the world is white and silent. No auto dares to brave our hill now and our street is peaceful. We put up the tree and decorated our home tonight. The bliss of family time, uninterupted by other distractions.

What can you find?

Being at home all day, there are short, random blips of times during the day where the kids are playing and don't need anything from me and the house is tidy and I find myself with a few minutes (never sure how long) and I roam the internet. There is a site that you can find almost any kind of t-shirt, button, mug, etc that I love to roam. It is the same site where I found the 100% Romney shirt for Romney. Killing those minutes today I found shirt above. They have all kinds of random designs. I also found Romney a hoodie with the Romney coat of arms. (see below). So, when you find yourself with a few of those minutes to spare, see what stuff you can find with your name on it.

First Snow

Last night it snowed for the first time this season. I am always filled with dread at the sight of the snow. Snow always signals the end of my favorite season (fall) and the beginning of my least favorite time of year (winter). I anticipate the seemingly endless winter months filled with gray, polluted air, and cheerless days without any sight of sunshine and I just want to crawl in my bed and hibernate until spring comes (which in Utah doesn't happen until late May or early June many years). However, looking at the fresh white stuff through the eyes of my children cheers me considerably. They don't see the first snow as a foreshadowing of bad roads, bad air and bad moods, they see opportunities. Opportunities to build in new ways, with snow and ice and sticks and rocks. They see snow forts and snow men and snow ball wars. They joyfully anticipate the approaching Holiday Season, of time off from school and presents and goodies and love and family togetherness and all the magic that is Christmas. They don't feel the crush and pressure of holiday shopping, decorating and preparing. I am trying to be like my children and see opportunities. I want to focus on service and love and family and ignore the fact that I may not see the sun for months on end and I will have to scrape ice and snow off my car! While winter and I have never gotten along, perhaps I can learn from my children the joys of each season and cycle and enjoy my time in the snow.

Romney is 5

I can't believe our youngest family member is already 5 years old. We celebrated his birthday with a party today. Romney made the guest list that included pretty much everyone he knows, then his Momma whittled that list down to a more manageable number. He wanted to make stuffed animals, so build -a- bear was a logical place to do that. Romney had such a great time with his friends and loves his new bear named Poopy-pants (he is definitely a 5 year old boy).

Crazy Hair Day

Around here, those seem like everyday. I don't know how my kids sleep on their hair, but every morning is a struggle to make it lie flat. Today was a beautiful day, I didn't have to struggle, they wanted it to stand up! For school spirit week they have been enjoying things like crazy sock day, tie-die day, pj day and it culminates with crazy hair day. I think the results were hilarious this year.



From Crazy Hair Day to Crazy Week! I have had an incredibly busy week running my new business: Tara's Taxi Service. I have had quite a few customers, but all of them have been broke and I have not made a penny. In fact if you factor in gas and maintenance and vehicle wear and tear I am afraid my little endeavor is in the red! I have run more children, more places this past two weeks. From school to soccer to piano to play dates to field trips to cub scouts to birthday parties. I haven't been busy, but my kids have been! I am looking forward to slowing down and having some time to reflect how truly blessed I am to have two healthy and happy, smart kids, a busy super-man of a husband who I adore and who adores me, a beautiful home, and a car that works to run them all around in!

Before and After

The cheapskate in me has been looking at all kinds of alternative methods to pursue my new hobby. My very inexpensive camera, turned expensive, in the way of processing the film, very quickly. Luckily, the internet is ripe with information for anything under the sun and that included how to turn a "traditional" photo into a "Holga looking" shot using Photoshop. even after looking at the online tutorials, I needed a private real-life tutor and Bill and I had a blast tonight experimenting and learning. So, what do you think? Should I keep spending a fortune developing professional film to get these results? (MAYBE, getting these results is more like it.) I probably will do a bit of both "real" and "photoshop" Holga shots.

Pumpkins, Pedal Cars and experimental Photographs

The kids have no school today due to UEA weekend. Bill decided to take the day off from work, though he didn't get a free day from school and has class tonight :(. We have had some free passes to Cornbelly's Corn Maze + Pumpkin patch (it's at Thanksgiving Point) since the beginning of the month, but every weekend has been cold and wet, so this was our first chance to use them. We were expecting just the run of the mill maze and pumpkins but were treated to oh, so much more.




They had two fun pedal car tracks. One track for the bigger kids and one for smaller. They had a huge "slide mountain", with all sorts of different ways to get down. They had a giant blow-up Helamonster maze. It was pitch black inside and you had to feel your way through it. It was complete with giant blow-up Helamonster internal organs --ewwwww. They had a kid corn maze and two adult mazes, a hayride and our favorite----









a giant bouncing pillow (it was like a bounce house without being enclosed). All of us bounced around forever. We had a great time! The weather was even fantastic.













I had a photographer's assistant (Bill-he's the right price) today and so I was able to experiment with my fun jerry-rigged digital Holga lens I just picked up. The point of this lens is to highlight the middle of the frame, blurring the edges to create a vignette feel. It is crazy to try and get any focus out of, since it really is a lens from a Holga sawed off and rigged to the front of a body cap the size of my digital camera. (see example below)























I also experimented with using some pantyhose as a makeshift soft focus filter. (I had those left over from William's costume. It is something I have wanted to try for a while, but never have the hose since I refuse to wear them!) You can tell the boys are sick of me, by this point, using them as guinea pigs for photos. Hence William's cheery expression. (see example below)

Gross-eeries and someone you hope not to meet...

It is my favorite time of year again; my boys' birthdays and HALLOWEEN! (Only the greatest holiday ever!)I have a friend who posted pictures of her daughter in a gorgeous Cinderella dress (you know who you are) and I can't imagine what that is like, since my boys like things slimy, scary, or spooky-- no princesses or fairies for them. This year, they figured they would just wear the scary costumes from last year again, because they loved them so much. But then magic happened: I found the world's most perfect boy costume. It is funny, it is disgusting, it is original (to a degree, since I did find it on the internet!) Gross-eeries! It was easy enough to make, that even un-crafty me could handle it. It was a paper leaf bag with cardboard inside to hold it's shape with empty food cartons labeled "nasty nibble", "surreal cereal", "putrid punch" and "rotten eggs". It also had maggot covered sausages! I made the "sour milk" hat out of folded posterboard and the trick or treat bag from a paper grocery sack. William was so excited about this costume. He got a flyer at school about a "Monster Block Party" at the Galivan Center, and his first words to me after school were "Can we go, Mom so I can be in the costume contest?" His next were "Have you finished my costume yet?" So today, we Barbers4 joined around 300 other kids at a Monster Block Party where William WON! He won funniest costume! Go William! (Go William's Momma for making the darn thing!)




Now from funniest to freakiest. I have had this shot in mind for a solid month now, but needed some help to execute it and so I have been waiting for Bill to be around and have time to go with me to shoot it. I took it with my Holga in B&W and shot multiple shots without advancing my film, so in the Holga shot Romney should look like a ghost. But since it may be 6 months before I get that film developed, I also took my digital SLR with me so I would be able to see what I might (might being the operative word) get on the HOLGA (it also makes it easier to post to the blog :). Romney is a skeleton version of the grim reaper and he looks menacing while walking through a graveyard. (buckled in the back seat of our car, not so much)

Like I said, no princesses here.

Newsflash: Romney wins "pole"

Romney read this headline over my shoulder and handily asked "Where's my pole, then?". Ha Ha Ha

Pokemon Masters

Today we celebrated William's 9th birthday. He had wanted a Harry Potter birthday, but at the last minute (ie: about a month ago :)) he changed his mind and requested a Pokemon party. Being equally ignorant to both, it didn't matter to me. This was the most stress free party I have hosted in all my birthday party hosting years. William wanted to invite only his 3 favorite friends from school and it was pretty much a glorified play date. We made pokeball fuse bead magnets and then I bought felt and the kids all created their own Pokemon stuffed animal. It was funny to see 8-9 year old boys all sewing! I made Pokeball cupcakes and the last 15-20 minutes they spent looking at and trading Pokemon cards. William had a wonderful day and said it was his best birthday yet. Awwww... he says that every year :)!

Will you be my friend?

Romney has a special talent that the rest of us Barbers 4 don't really have, in that he can make a friend no matter where he is. William has piano lessons on Fridays and outside his teacher's apartment is a playground. The first week, Romney had gathered all the kids together and had a group of 5 of them (some as old as William) working to create a fort in the sandbox. The second week he managed to talk the kids at the playground into a game of red light, green light. This week he meet a boy who spoke only Korean, and yet they had a rousing game of tag all over the play-set. Oh, to be 4 years old and free on any inhibitions. I learn so much from my kids.

A digitial shot of a print from my 35 mm traditional film toy camera

Say what? I am going broke developing test film from the Holga, so I am cheating and bought a HOLGA lens configured to work on my digital SLR, so I can stop paying for developing. I am not sure how that will work, I will try it out tomorrow. I did get my first roll of film back (the film from this camera is NOT pricey to develop so I will not have to cheat digitally!) from my Super Sampler camera. I took a shot of the print hanging on my fridge with my digital camera, so perhaps that is cheating. Whatever! It is the only way I had to post it here. I love the effect. The blue on the bottom is a result of light leaking in to the camera and it makes it look like I have captured a rainbow. I am having too much fun for my own good. I am not sure when I will return to "serious" photography.

The Birthday that just keeps on giving...

Thanks Anne, for the Target gift card. I went and bought a frame for one of the photos I shot with my toy camera. It was a challenge to find a square frame, but I did it and now it is hanging in our front room! Happy Birthday to me!

Toy Cameras and the art of the deal

I have been having too much fun in my toy camera photography class. It is so hilarious to see what a little cheap piece of plastic junk can capture on film, and then the creative ways to process the images. I have learned a lot of new tricks I am having fun experimenting with, even though I have yet to see an actual print of a HOLGA photo I have taken during this class due to SLOW processing times. I have seen my negatives! And am waiting patiently on prints. The ironic part of this story is the camera is cheap, the processing of the film is NOT! So, I have been paying to have the film to be developed and then using a light table to pick which prints are worth paying for.


Another great thing I have learned in this class is about the COOLEST store in Salt Lake-- (remember IKEA is technically in Draper!) It is called NPS and they sell everything. And by everything I mean EVERYTHING you can think of. Food, Film, Halloween Tattoos, Versace Jeans, Steel Pipe, Boogie Boards, are all but a small sampling of the goods we saw. Today I found a LOMO Super sampler camera (shown above) which I googled and found available cheapest for $47.90, and I bought it today at $17.00!!! Those of you who know me will know that is the part I am most excited about. Plus, it takes the funkiest photos-- see examples above and below.

R is for Romney. . .

Romney is truly enjoying preschool this year. I guess his Momma found him a great teacher after all! He caught a bug that was going around the class and brought it home to Bill and I. He had to miss a few days of school and he was NOT happy about that. He was mostly worried about missing his "All about me" presentation time. The kids each got to make a poster with info about them and then present it to the class. We have only ever seen Romney give a primary talk or scripture in public, and never seen him stand in front of a group and talk off the cuff. It was a hilarious, and eye opening experience.

He picked out his outfit with great care this morning-- his 100% Romney shirt and packed his backpack full of POKEMON stuffed toys and grabbed his poster and was ready to go. I didn't know if he would shy up when in front of the class, but that so didn't happen. He described all his Pokemon in detail and then said "But now let's get back to me" and then described all the things he had on his poster. He wanted the poster to be in the shape of an R and he picked out all the photos and told me what to write underneath them to caption them. He was a man in charge, one who really liked to talk about himself! It took all I had not to burst out laughing my head off. Whose child is this? Not shy Bill and Tara's surely.

Jump for Joy

A friend of mine told me about an AMERICA AT HOME photo contest where you enter photos of your daily life. It looked like a great excuse to pull out my camera before my class and start shooting. Romney was MORE than happy to comply to my request that he jump on my bed. We both had a great afternoon together, me following him around with my camera, him posing and playing. The photo I entered is the one I posted. I think it is so much fun I may try again tomorrow. I have some shooting ideas. Mostly, I just needed to feel inspired enough to stop the daily routine enough to pull out the old camera.

The Capital

That is the title of William's state fair award winning photo. We had a happy surprise today when I went to go pick up William's state fair entries. When we went to the fair to see if he had won last week, there were no ribbons next to his photos, so we assumed he had not won anything. As his mom, I was feeling a little disappointed for him, but his atttitude about entering and not winning was so wonderful. He was excited people were seeing his photos and that he had tried. I was so proud of him handeling his disappointed feelings by turning them into positives.



But when I walked in to pick up the photos now that the fair is done, I was surprised to see a 3rd place ribbon by one. I spoke to the lady who was helping me gather them up and she double checked and sure enough William had taken 3rd place and won $8. William is still in school and does not know yet. He is going to go nuts with excitement. I framed the photo for him and have it waiting with his check as his big surprise. The second photo is the other William entry. It is actually my favorite of the two because I think it is so creative. It is self-portrait. No, really. He took a picuture of the shirt he was wearing that day to get the skull. I think it is genius and that the result was amazing. But then again, I'm a bit biased.

What the Heck Kinda Dog is that?

Performance ART, state fair style. The boys did not quite know why a dog that looked like this and was bigger than they were was barking at them and following them around. Do you acknowledge such a creature or is it best to ignore it and walk away? If you ignore it, does it then do more annoying things to get your attention or leave you alone? If you pay attention to it will it think you like it and keep "performing" for you? These are the pitfalls of performance art.

Sunrise, Sunset...

Am I really old enough to have a 3rd grader? Is my baby really starting preschool? These are the very surreal questions I have been asking myself (and anyone else who will listen!) this week. William will no longer allow me to take first day of school photos, luckily a friend captured his first 3rd grade circle time with his 3 best buddies. He looks tired! He woke up super early the first day because he was so excited. He seems to have a wonderful group of kids in his class this year, and I am excited to co-op with them.



Romney will let me take his photo still and this is his first day of school EVER photo. He was so super stoked to go to school with William. Today was his first full day of class. He loved it! He did great and I am sure I was more nervous about it than he was. He was sure happy to see me again when I came to pick him up. That was nice, too. Then we joined William in the lunch room to eat lunch together. Romney was on cloud 9 and William was fantastic about humoring Romney and treating him like a big kid.

Long Weekend Shenanigans

Happy Labor Day. This post marks the end of the first week of school for William and Romney's first day. It also marks the beginning of the grind that is the school year. Romney will have his first full day of preschool (full=3 1/2 hours) tomorrow, and I also co-op for William's class tomorrow. We are also in charge of snack for William's class tomorrow. Cub Scouts will start again full time on Wednesday (after the slacker Wolf Leaders--that's us---took a month off to recover from Cub Camp!) That means I should really get to planning something to do and buying what we need to do it. Thursday is soccer practice for both kids, and Friday is Piano lessons, Saturday is Soccer games (plural this year) and Sunday is our day off (I mean, of rest). This is pretty much what every week will look like for our family if you add in co-oping for Romney every other week and my class I start in the middle of the month and Bill going back for his Master's in October. Phew, I am exhausted already just writing about it.

Today is our last long holiday weekend until November (which seems like a million years away!) and we needed it to get charged up for the months to come. We decided to hike up to Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It is a relatively easy 3/4 mile each way hike up to a waterfall that flows through a donut shaped rock. It was a very popular family destination and was crowded, but we still had a great time. Romney hiked both up and down on his own and was so proud of his rock climbing abilities. William said it was the "greatest hike of my life". If you haven't done that hike yet, it was a fun, easy way to spend the afternoon.

I guess this is the end of summer. But I don't mind! I love the fall. The leaves change to beautiful, photogenic colors and the weather goes from 'insanely hot' to 'just about perfect' for a few weeks anyway! It also means birthdays for our boys, and everyone know how I feel about those. William (still in 'Harry Potter' mode) wants a Potter birthday, and Romney (still in his 'William is the coolest human on the planet' mode) wants what William wants. I guess I better get some Harry Potter Cliff Notes (Do they make those? They really should for parents who don't wish to spend the hours reading the 700+ pages of the 7 books!) so I can plan some parties.

My very own kewpie doll

Boy, is he going to be so embarrased one day by this photo, but it was irresistable.




See the
resemblance?


Me too!

The green, green grass

Green grass means one thing in our house, and it isn't that we finally got the sprinkler set-up right for the lawn. It means soccer. This lasts, for our boys, at least 8 months out of the year. When the green grass is replaced by a lawn covered in leaves and then snow, the soccer moves indoors until the green grass returns in the spring. Only in the deepest heat of the summer does it take a break. With September on the way, that means our break is ending and the soccer is again beginning. Bill has signed up to coach Romney's team, and when they couldn't find a coach for William's, Bill stepped up again to co-coach that age group as well. This means soccer 4 x a week with no reprieve! Then if you add in REAL soccer home games, and the many (and I do mean many) games shown on the Spanish speaking channels that get DVR'ed this equals HOURS upon HOURS of Soccer.

By no means am I complaining, I actually enjoy soccer more than any other sport. I love that the boys get excercise and a chance to learn how to be good sports. I love that it includes some great Daddy time. I also enjoy the many friends we make each season. I met one of my very best friends at William's soccer practice years ago.




William's new 3rd grade teacher said at the first parent meeting that she is really into the phases of the moon and will incorporate that passion into much of the learning this year. She wants the kids to think about what is going on for them during each moon cycle. William is in his "Harry Potter" moon. I have been in my "being contacted by people I haven't heard from in forever! moon" but I think our whole family is entering our "Soccer moon."

How old am I?

You know you are old when you forget how old you are, and you have to break out your rusty math skills, fingers and year of your birth to figure it out! Bill and I both celebrated birthdays this week. Bill's was Sunday and mine is today. Bill's was mellow. His big present was a trip to see a soccer game in L.A. with his brother David, and sister, Anne. So, Sunday was pretty low key. The boys and I made breakfast in bed for him, got ready for church, after church we grilled his favorite dinner, did presents, and watched a GUY flick. It was relaxing. Mine looked similar, minus the going to church, grilling, and GUY movie. I received many beautiful flowers, one set even being planed in our yard for us by a friend.





Bill bought me a new camera, a HOLGA toy camera. Literally, a carnvial toy camera. It is as low-tech as you can get! I had a blast taking a walk around downtown with my boys today, 3 of us had cameras in hand, and me experimenting with a plastic toy! The effects can be stunning from the plastic lens and b&w film, so I will be interested to see what happens when I have the first roll developed. I am even thinking of signing up for a class at the University on the HOLGA. I'll decide after I see what comes out from my first roll of film.

Utah we love thee. .

Thanks for the memories of our fantastic summer, you wonderful state!

Down in the Boondocks

1960's Song or where we were today, Day #6, and final day of our backyard vacation? We headed South (again) to Sandy to Boondocks family fun center where the boys were impressed by Bill and I's grand-finale idea! It was $12 dollar wrist band day. The boys all got to play miniture golf, bumper boats, go-karts, laser-tag, and video games to their hearts content (or their feet gave out from standing in lines!). We started out with Bumper Boats at 11:00 a.m. William loved squirting strangers and especially Daddy and Romney. Romney was just so stoked Bill let him steer the boat! After the good soaking, we headed inside where the boys discovered that all the video games were free, no tokens needed and almost had mini-strokes from the excitement! They played for about an hour and then we took off for lunch. The boys were once again impressed that we could leave and then COME BACK on the same wristband! After lunch, I let Romney play in their Kiddie Cove (giant McDonald's like playset) while Bill and William chased each other in the Laser Tag rooms. At that point, I left my boys to their own devices and headed to my hair appointment. (My ears were grateful for the break from the noisy arcade!)



While I was gone, they hit the go-kart tracks and played more games. William was so happy he was tall enough to drive his own car! I came back all trimmed and straightened and picked up 3 VERY tired, happy boys. It was a very happy end to a very fun week. I know I feel rested just from having Bill around so much. It was great having some time together as a family experiencing wonderful things that turn into cherished memories. If that is the point of a vacation, we succeeded, even while coming home to our own beds every night!

CTR Superstar and Marvelous Work and a Wonderwoman

I know the photo is really, truly awful! But how many times will my kids get a chance to pose with a Mormon Superhero? One, I say-- so up it goes. Yesterday was Day #5 of our in-town vacation, and we did several new things. We saw a movie in the Dollar Theater. My kids have never done that with us before. We saw Meet the Robinsons. It was fine. Cute message. Boys dug it! Then we drove south to the Living Planet Aquarium preview exhibit. First of all, they aren't kidding, it is really barely a preview exhibit. It is tiny. And it was the only thing I haven't been able to find discount tickets for this whole week! It cost as much as the zoo, but took 30 minutes to see and do everything! Brief highlights from the aquarium were: the Octopus, the Stingray "petting zoo" and the giftshop.



After the aquarium, where Bill meet us, we went to Ikea for dinner and some grown-up time, while the kids were in the playland. It is sad that our dates are all at Ikea right now! They'll watch our kids for us because they want us to buy stuff.

Then we raced back north to see a play at the Off Broadway Theatre called CTR SUPERSTAR. It was quite funny! A nice parody of Utah Culture. Not disrespectful, just hilarious. We all loved it! Superheros CTR superstar, and Marvelous Work and a Wonderwoman battle evil doers Paul Igamy, Jack Mormon, and Ethyl Alcohol. Joe Mormon and Holly Homemaker from the Deseret Morning news transform into the aforementioned super heros. My favorite part of the play came before the opening curtain. They call everyone celebrating a birthday up to sing to them. One person walked up, and I whispered to Bill, "hey babe, it's Pat from SNL." It was PAT --clothes, hair, voice and all! They asked his/her name and he/she answered "PAT". I almost fell off my seat laughing! Of course it was a silent, bite your lip kind of a laugh but I couldn't believe my ears.



Well, I leave you with one last AWFUL photo
docu-
mentation of our day.
I think we are winding down!
Tuesday will be our very last official "vacation" day.

Beavis and Butthead

Day 4 of vacation in our backyard and we headed to the place Beavis and Butthead retired, Bear Lake. We did not know that is where all the Beavis' and Buttheads' hang out when we decided it would make a nice Sunday drive. Bill has been bugging me to go up there with him since he has never been. I went at the ripe old age of 9 and remember NOTHING other than thinking I was less than impressed and that the water was FREEZING! We didn't head into the water today, but we did observe many visiting others who were on their way to the water. It was a lot of shirtless, beer drinking middle age men and their families. The poor town is really run down and we did not hang out for long. We stopped on the beach to put out a blanket, read a story and looked at the clouds, we let the boys run the batteries of their remote control cars out, and then hopped back in for the ride down. Here are the highlights from the drive: we saw some truly beautiful country side. The water was amazingly clear and blue and gorgeous. It was green and cool and spectacular at the top of a mountain range we crossed between Huntsville and Woodruff. We had fun listening to William's new CDs from last night and it was very nice to have so much time uninterupted by other distractions to talk to each other. We stopped at a Monastary in Huntsville and talked to the kids about things other's believe and about respecting differences. That was a great opportunity to talk tolerance. We had a very nice day together, but may not need a visit to Bear Lake again any time soon.