I spoke to my mom on Skype the other day and a lightbulb went off. Why couldn't I use Skype and my out of town relatives and friends as virtual babysitters?

First of all let me say that Kyle, our oldest, is almost 14 and has been babysitting for us for a while now, so we don't have toddlers or infants or anything. (That would be wrong — child and family services might even be called in this instance.) There is a time though when having Kyle babysit, isn't really like babysitting at all. They all just yell and fight and call us on our cell phones every 10 minutes until we get home.

So, for times like these I think I may set my computer up in one room of the house and call my mom, my sister, my friend Maxine or my in-laws on Skype. It would require my children to sit in the same room the whole time we are gone, but it would allow the "babysitter" to keep an eye on them, yell at them if necessary and send us updates via MMS.

Let's take this a step further.  Maybe I don't even have to work outside the home. I can start my very own virtual babysitting service. People can call my Skype number and I can watch their kids from the comfort of my own home without having to actually do much.

Isn't technology amazing?????

Well my Dell laptop is dying a slow death. First the battery started to lose charge (it only stays good for about 30 minutes) and now the charger is doing weird things, like buzzing at me and not working. So now I have a dead laptop and no way to charge it unless I want to pony up $60 for a new charger. I know that I will have to eventually, seeing as how I have a ton of stuff on my computer. Fortunately I really don't need any of it right now. Jon and I are getting new laptops for the new semester - MacBooks. We are so excited to change over to Mac. Hopefully we will really like them, they are not cheap.

Just an update for everyone: Moira turns 8 this Saturday and she will be baptized at the end of the month on the 23rd here in Moscow. She is very excited. Grandma and Grandpa Humphreys are coming and we are going to show them how good a time you can have in Hippyville. Then right after that Jon and I start school- so don't expect too much of our blogs for awhile. Today we are taking Maggie to see Prince Caspian at the dollar theater in Pullman. Then we will have to endure weeks of her retelling the story to us, even though she has already read it. Oh well, at least I get popcorn.