blogging....

Sorry about the hiatus... It's not that I've intentionally stopped blogging, but over the past week or so, I found a new hobby...... FACEBOOK. Oh, man am I addicted. Seriously addicted. As in, 3 am addicted. Now if only I can find a supprt group! I'm having a blast reconnecting with old friends -- some from high school, some from college and there's still others I hope to find.



So facebook -- You know I had to have an opinion on this right?!?!? LOL. Before I got started I thought that facebook was disingenuous. Seriously, if you haven't considered someone "important" enough to keep in your life over the past decade or more, why contact them now? It just didn't make sense to me. I really didn't get it. But now... I GET IT!



At first, my only facebook "friends" were a handfull of neighbors and Katie Faber who I went to high school with. Her and her hubby (who graduated with and is friends with Matt) live here in town, and we've hung out with them since they moved back to Iowa. Anyway, she had a treasure trove of classmates in her profile. It snowballed from there, and I've been in contact with so many people I haven't seen (or thought of) in years. Then, I started to find old college roommates and sorority sisters. Oh, my goodness. All I can say is thank goodness for instant messaging! I can't get enough. I have reconnected with so many amazing, funny, smart, interesting women that I was blessed to have in my life during our college years. So many memories have come flooding back. So many are yet to be remembered. And I'm loving every moment. I will say this... it's sad that at one point in our lives we spent every waking moment together, sharing every aspect of our lives together, and then somehow we wake up 10 years later married, with kids and jobs and real life, and somewhere along the way, we've temporarily lost contact. I will say this... it won't happen again.



Another thing about facebook that totally shocked me. While some people look fairly similar, there are sooo many people who have aged so poorly. Shocking actually. I can't help but to wonder when someone sees my picture if they think the same thing about me. I know I've put on weight, but really, do I look THAT different? I certainly hope not.....



Oh, what else.......



Katherine got her "report card" for gymnastics on Thursday and overall she's doing really well. She's one of the top two girls in her class and really excelling, BUT get this.... They test a million different skills, everything from strength stuff to actual skills on bars, beam, floor and vault. Each skill could be graded 4 different ways (i) mastered; (ii) needs to increase consistency; (iii) needs to improve form; or (iv) needs serious work. Katherine has almost all skills mastered, but one really shocked me. She did 39 sit-ups in 60 seconds, and literally has a "4 pack" when you look at her belly, and was told on her report card that she needs to increase her abdominal strength. There were several skills that her coach put as mastered that I wouldn't have been shocked if she put them in the "increase consistency" or "improve form" category. For example, a back walkover -- when she kicks over, her legs aren't in a perfect 180 degree split and on occasion she slips on the way down. But her abdominal muscles? I'd honestly put her up almost any kid in the city. The girl's got serious abs! Anyway, I thought it was a little harsh for a 5 year old.....

We are in home improvement mode right now. Over the past week we've changed out all of our lighting fixtures on the first floor, and hired someone to change out the one in the two story entry. The only one we have left to do is put up the one in my scrapbook room which hopefully won't take long. Matt also changed out all of our drawer pulls and is waiting for the new door knobs to come in. We also took down our super-duper ugly hanging blinds on the deck door and replaced it with a new curtain rod and sheer. Then, we decided that the two-story entry could use a fresh coat of paint (and also be darkened up a touch), so I hired a painter and he came on Sunday and got the job done. The verdict is still out on the paint color, but I think I'm really going to like it. We've been changing a ton!

One funny story for you... Matt has a lot of good qualities, but "handyman" certainly isn't one of them. Let's just say that Matt and drywall aren't good friends, and watching him do any type of electrical work is just PAINFUL. Seriously. Anyway... while he was changing out the light fixture over the sink I decided to go and plug both drains. I've been down this road before and instinctly knew how bad this little project could go. Thankfully I was thinking because about 5 minutes into the project and several cuss words and muttering under his breath later he drops a bunch of stuff into the sink. He starts ranting about what idiots the makers of the lighting fixtures are and all of a sudden yells, "GODDAMMIT"!

Without missing a beat, Caleb immediately fires back, "Dad, we don't say DAMMIT in this house"! Katherine, from across the room yells, "Well, we certainly don't say GOD either!!". Maybe you had to be there, but at the time it was pretty funny!