just so ya know...

I've got our Christmas pics posted over at the other site.

And, we'll be out of town for the next couple of weeks to visit family (yea!), so posting will be spotty. But, I hope to keep it up a little bit, so check back in every now and again, will ya?

Wordless Wednesday: Who needs presents.....we got boxes!

Dollhouse:

Robot:

changes

I should be doing something like, oh, I don't know, maybe researching what dessert to make for Christmas....instead I'm playing with my blog design. Unfortunately, I'm just not crazy about it the way it is, so don't get used to it. I'll come back after the New Year and fiddle. (Thanks, Carrie, about the tip.)

Yikes!

Holy cow!! You mean tomorrow's Christmas Eve?!? I don't even know what desserts to make! It really snuck up on me this year.

9 years

That is the amount of time I've been married to my sweet husband. I had plans to post a picture of the two of us together here. However, after trying in vain to find one of just us, I'm, obviously, not going to. I think we need one, don't you? Even if it's the one where someone's arm is stretched out and you both look a little pasty 'cause the lighting's a little weird 'cause the camera's too close. You know those? Hopefully, you'll be seeing one here pretty soon.

Nine years. I've known him for 12. He's my best friend and can always make me laugh. I love that he's a great dad to our kids and that he is sensitive to me. So, happy anniversary to us! We actually remembered it this year! (Both of us usually forget, isn't that pathetic?)

It was a cold, dark night

And we were up at 4:30am so Adam could catch his plane!

There is snow and ice on the ground, a howling wind rattling our walls, a breeze blowing through the cracks under the windows, and we have to get out to go to church--yuck!

Back to my opening line, Adam is currently on a plane somewhere between here and North Carolina. Why, you ask? Why, it's his first in-person interview, of course!

He'll get there around lunch time today and have interviews all day tomorrow at the school. How very exciting! He almost didn't make it, though. At 11 last night, the airline called to say they had canceled the flight, due to weather. Well, better before the flight than during, I always say. But they were able to schedule him for an earlier flight at 8:30. However, it had to go out of JFK instead of LaGuardia. Now, if you know anything about the airports here, you'll know that LaGuardia is an infinitely better airport to go out of for us, JFK being significantly further away and much harder to get to. Fortunately, even at 11:30pm, Adam was able to schedule a shuttle to pick him up at the door at 5:15am the next morning.

So, if you think about it, please pray for us in this time of job searching.

Unlooked for

Having lived in the suburbian Midwest my entire life, I had always lived in a house, a single-family unit I think they call them. I had a yard with a chain-link fence, a neighborhood with people I basically knew. I moved from one neighborhood to the next, essentially living the same. My neighbors were familiar faces, but not people I shared a lot with because I simply did not know them deeply. This was my fault. I did not take the time or the effort to get to know them. To be honest, it just wasn't important to me.

Then I moved to Seoul, Korea. One of the biggest cities in the world, and certainly the biggest I had ever lived in. We lived in an apartment...also a new experience for me. I hated it. I felt more isolated then ever from people I knew (granted, those people I knew and could communicate with were few). I just assumed that this was apartment living. That everybody went their own way, never talking to their neighbors, similar to suburban-life, yet worse because you really did see those people all the time on the elevator, at the mailbox, and around the neighborhood.

We now live on Manhattan, where everyone lives in an apartment building. And you know what? I love it! It took some getting used to. I wasn't exactly ready for impromptu get togethers, outings in the neighborhood with friends, and quick jogs to the grocery store (literally). Not that these things aren't enjoyable, I just wasn't prepared for it. But, I really do love it! In the past, my friends and I would plan times to get together with our kids. It would be scheduled according to the kids' naps, our various routines and such. We would then map out a time and all meet at someones house.

In the past week, I have met with friends each and everyday, sometimes for half an hour, sometimes for a couple, sometimes with one friend and her kids and other times with all 4 moms and a menagerie of kids, and nothing has been planned. It just happens. And we have so much fun together! This blessing has been the most unlooked for, but certainly the most impacting in my life here.

I still miss my yard, and will hopefully have that again someday. But I hope God has changed my heart permanently to be a more involved person, someone who cares about her neighbors and wants to have deep, meaningful relationships with the people right next door.

It's not that things haven't been happening.

I get an hour to myself in the evening, and I think, "I should post about today." But all I want to do is check my email, visit my few favorite blogs, get off the computer and grab my Agatha Cristie book.

So, here's some happenings in bullet format.

• This is the last full week of classes (happy dance expected to follow)
• Owen's going dry at night (more happy dances)
• Lot's and lot's of Christmas crafts (pictures may come on the other site if I can get my camera to work)
• Cold!!!!!!!!!
• Tree cut and put up, decorated
• Christmas presents bought and hidden
• Christmas cards stuffed, addresses, awaiting stamps
  
• Realization that, actually, not a lot has been happening, just a lot of life going on.

So, I'm now asking myself, what is indeed making us so busy, and why am I posting this?

By the way, I don't have an answer. Do you?

Wordless Wednesday--Flashback, Then and Now

2006

2007

This should thrill the little boys out there

Fox news is my homepage. I don't know why, but it always has been and I'm too lazy to change it. I never read anything on it because they usually focus on sensational stuff, which just annoys me. But today, they suprised me. Not only did they catch my eye, but something not related to death and destruction was featured. Well, it is related in a way, but, well, just click here to see something pretty cool.

Yawn

I have learned a lot about sleep deprivation over the past 6 years and 2 months (that's how old my oldest is, by the way). Some of it was learned first hand, and some from books. Some from other sleepy moms, and some from doctors and other health professionals. It is a wicked little fact of life for almost all parents, moms and dads alike, unless you are one of the elite with an arsenal of nannies at your disposal. Oh, that isn't you? Then keep reading. You'll get a kick.

This morning I dragged myself out of bed when the kids woke up, got everyone breakfast, dressed and busy doing something not destructive. Finally, it was time for my own breakfast and a much needed cup of Joe. (This had actually been made as soon as I first walked into the kitchen. I do have my priorities, even if I don't partake when it's ready, at least it's made and ready when I finally am.) Unfortunately, sleep deprivation chose this moment to attack: I poured myself a nice bowl of coffee/granola. Man! What a waste of yummy cereal. Not to mention that much-needed cup of coffee. Oh well....yawn.

See what's new From the Stovetop!