A Week with Jane

I've spent the last week with a new best friend. I admit I'm obsessed. Her companionship has made all the mundane tasks of my day perfectly pleasant and even enjoyable. Thank you Jane Austen for keeping me entertained as I fold laundry, wash dishes, shovel snow, run on the treadmill and even shop. The free audiobooks on my new Android phone are amazing. In the last 10 days or so I've finished Pride and Prejudice,  Persuassion, and Emma--all while productively completing my routine tasks. This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

(So far I've listened to Libervox readers Elizabeth Klatt and Karen Savage. I highly recommend both!)

Proud but Scared!

Morgan's gymnastics meet season has begun. She's a great little gymnast and a delight to watch--although as a parent it's pretty scary to see your little girl flying through the air and landing on a 3" wide beam. We're proud of her and all the long hours and dedication she puts into the sport she loves. Here are a few photos and videos from her first meets of the season.

BTW - Morgan doesn't like any of these pictures. She claims they make her look bad because her toes aren't pointed enough, knees aren't straight enough, yada yada yada. I think they are beautiful, so I'm posting them whether she likes it or not (someday she'll thank me).

Merry Christmas 2010

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

10:30 PM 12/24/2010

12:00 AM 12/25/20108:30 AM 12/25/2010 And now we relax and play!

Wish List

This week Ethan asked Santa for an Xbox 360 with Kinect. I gave him a head's up that Santa wasn't going to bring an Xbox this year, but maybe he'd bring some new games for the wii. Ethan decided if Santa couldn't produce, maybe someone else could. As he was saying his prayers before bed he made his final plea, "please bless that I'll get an Xbox 360 for Christmas".

Ethan is Front Page News

Making gingerbread houses in Ethan's kindergarten class was front page news this week (clearly, our sleepy little suburbian town doesn't have a lot of news to report :-). Needless to say, Ethan was delighted to see his name and his cute mug in the paper. Gotta love those milk carton and graham cracker gingerbread houses.

It's Become Comical

I'm not usually one to dwell on the occasional lemons in life, and I especially don't care to keep an ongoing chronicle of such things. But, recently we've had such an onslaught of broken stuff, it really has become downright comical. Forgive me as I make a list of the things that have broken in the past ten days:

1. My Car - $1500 repair to pass emissions, ouch! ...and it still needs brakes.
2. DVR - Just quit recording, total hard drive failure. New one arrives tomorrow.
3. Telephone - After 1-1/2 hours with tech support we have dial tone again.
4. Treadmill - Mat started jerking. New $140 part on its way--let's hope it works.
5. Garbage Disposer - It's making weird noises and frequently needs to be reset.
6. Dryer - Sensor isn't working--dried one load all night long.

Brent's just happy that his finicky lights above the kitchen island are working well!

Thankfully our bodies are healthy and for that we are very grateful!