Happenings 12/29 - 01/04

Happy New Year to everyone -- we had a quite busy week here.

Between football and projects around the house, we stayed busy throughout the week. J.J. and I both went to work as well -- she on Monday and half of Wednesday,(I have been working during this Christmas and New Year season since I only work two days a week. I am saving up time for maternity leave and in order to take a longer vacation this summer to go see family, but it sure doesn't seem as quite a holiday/vacation season as usual. I miss that feeling since my schedule hasn't been that different. I guess I just need to be thankful that I have a job and get to stay home much of the time also.) and I on Tuesday and Friday. I was able to finish my first draft of the article I was working on, which is what I hoped to do, and also finish most of my reading that I planned for the break. This next week I will work on the syllabuses -- I don't like "syllabi" -- for my classes and get that all ready for when classes start next week. I also have to handle the several requests by students who want to get into full composition classes.

On New Year's Eve I loaded up on some supplies at Lowe's to build some shelves in the toy room and some heavy-duty hangers to hang up our strollers and bike trailer in the garage to make extra room when we don't use them. Then that evening we went to an open house-type party at the Mitchells' house, and there were several people there that had kids so it was perfect. The food was good and we had a good time visiting with friends there, and we came home at 8:30. We put the kids to bed and we went to bed also - I guess we are fuddy-duddies but it's just another day and we had a lot to do the next day. (Here I was complaining about not having much time off at New Year's and I was in bed by about 9:30 on New Year's Eve. We did have fun at our friend's house, but we didn't even have to pretend it was midnight for the girls. I guess I should enjoy that while they are too young to know the difference. I did wake up at about midnight to the loud gun shots and lights from some fireworks, but I quickly went back to sleep. Any sleep I get right now is precious. I can't stay asleep very long due to being uncomfortable, heartburn, baby kicking, etc. so early to bed just means a little more time to get in cat naps. I move from room to room throughout the night trying to find comfortable spots - I am learning from the cats.)

So on New Year's Day I started the year on the good note by going running in the morning, and it went okay even though it feels like all the running I did over the past 6 months has been erased and I'm starting from scratch. My knee hurts slightly and my muscles just seem to say "no" each time I run. But I went again on Saturday and it was better, so I am optimistic and glad I am not training for anything right away. Thursday's weather was nice, though, which was great for our projects. J.J. did some painting of a dresser and a couple of parts for a toy trunk I am going to build, (I had to get the dresser done so we have somewhere to put the baby clothes - of course, after I got everything put away, it just seemed like I filled all the space up and didn't free any. I have only pulled out some gender neutral clothes for the baby and have already filled up what space I did have. I also pulled out the bassinet and other baby stuff we will need. I feel so unprepared for this baby.) and she overdid it some and was really sore later. (My back hurt so bad, I sat down and couldn't get up. I was in tears much of the night. I took a bath, had Paul rub my back and used a vibrating pillow my parents sent me and was able to relax a little, but it took me a few days to get over it. I decided it won't be until after the baby is born that I will be crawling in the attic crawl space to put Christmas totes away.) I built some 8 foot long shelves in the toy room that work really well for holding the toys. (I really like the shelves in the toy room. It makes it look so much better than all the toys and bins sitting on the floor.) I also did some organization in the garage and things are getting better.

After working for most of the day, checking now and again on games, I watched football in the evening and night and rested. Then on Friday I worked for the morning and finished what I needed to do and then came home and watched more football and also played with the kids and did some more work around the house. The weather was nice enough to play outside for a long time, and Claire and Rachel had a great time in the warm weather. Claire thought it was summer already, and she wouldn't believe me two days later when I told her it was still winter. (I went to church and input a bunch of visiting teaching numbers into the computer - I was 4 months behind - an also revised some routes - this is a never ending process which I would like to end sometime. What a wish, huh?)

Friday night we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant with Bridget and Katey, and that was fun. Claire was able to play with Katey a lot on Friday and Saturday, which was nice because she was going back to school on Monday. I watched the Sugar Bowl on Friday night and was glad that Utah beat Alabama. It's good to see at least one team from Utah that shows up to play and win, and hopefully their wins will eventually help change the dumb BCS system.

It was a nice weekend before it gets mostly back to normal. We enjoyed the holidays, even though it felt sort of weird being home and not being with family for any part of it, but we spent time with friends and that was nice. (It was nice, but something just seemed to be missing the whole time. I miss family!!) One night a couple of the young single adults showed up at the house in the late afternoon before J.J. got back from work and I was just chatting with them and invited them to stay for dinner, and then discovered later that they had already called J.J. and asked if they could come over for dinner and to hang out. (They did call, but I didn't know that until I came home and they were there since I didn't have my cell phone on when they called and hadn't checked any messages. I don't mind them coming over though, especially since they are happy with anything to eat - even boxed mac and cheese if it so be) So we ate leftovers from Christmas, since we had so much, and it worked out great. We are enjoying our association with the YSAs, and the home evenings with them on Sunday nights are also fun and something Claire and Rachel like as well.

Well, that's it for this week.