The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Yes! I finally made it through The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe without any nightmares! (As a kid, I was super scared of everything that had anything to do with a witch. My fifth grade class when to see the play of the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but I closed my eyes and plugged my ears through the whole thing).

After three attempts, Joel and I finally made it to the movies last night. The movie was very good and even made me a bit teary. I recommend it to all of you to go see it.
I only have two things that I would have liked to have changed: 1) I wanted to get to know the characters more. But I guess that's what the next several books (and hopefully movies) are for. 2) I would have loved to hear what Aslan said to Edmund while they were standing on the rock. This would have been a great conversation for the world to hear about forgiveness. But overall, I still think the movie was wonderful.

(as I'm typing this, Joel is yelling at the playstation. He got a world series of poker playstation game. In the words of JR Miller, "He's out of control!")

I see sand dollars in my sleep

The Tuesday before Christmas, with the help of my friend Deb, I started painting my kitchen, living room and hallway. Before Joel and I left for Christmas on Thursday, I got the kitchen completed, and the living room mostly done, except for the touch ups on the stripes. (In the living room I painted twelve inch stripes of the same color but in satin and flat, because you know from the rest of my house that I can't just paint a room one color). I finally finished the living room today -- painting over those pencil marks for the lines was much more difficult than I envisioned. Now all that is left is the second coat in the hallway. I'll be soo.. glad when it is done. Then the upstairs will be completely painted! Oh, the color I used was called sand dollar.

Joel and I had a very relaxing time in Houston. It was so nice to see blue skies with no clouds! How I miss the sun! Olivia is absolutely wonderful! She smiles and laughs more than any other 7 month old that I know. Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted soon. By then end of our time there, she would actually reach for Joel or I to hold her, which is very exciting for me since this is only the second time I've gotten to see her. I really hate being far away from her, and of course Tony and Jennifer too.

Break Time

Ahhh.... time to relax and enjoy life.

This week I finished up pretty much all my teaching duties for 2005. That's a nice feeling.

This weekend Joel's family came over to celebrate Christmas. We had a fun time despite the fact that our drain decided to back up. Come to find out, tree roots caused the backup so we had to call a plumber who quickly fixed our problem. Now our drains work better than ever!

I hope to be better about blogging --- at least for these next few weeks.

The count down has begun!!!

I only have two more real days of work, then two days next week of exams and grading and then I'm free ... Free for three whole weeks from students!!

Ok, I love my students, but I'm ready for a break from them... I'm sure they are ready for a break from me.

But you really don't want to hear about that. What you want to hear about is how Tricia and I are sitting her on her couch watching Ruldoph and blogging on our new laptops. We look like a pair of geeky girls. Our husbands are laughing at us.

This fun new laptop is Joel's big Christmas present. It just came in the mail today. I'm taking the opportunity to use it while he is playing poker because after he's done, I'll probably never get my hands on it again. I think I should be able to open a present tonight too!