December Mishmash

Darik's football has ended and we are enjoying seeing him around much more often. We'll take 50 hours over 80 hours any day. On his nights off he goes to night school, Elder's Quorum, or plays basketball with the EQ or my brothers. He is happy to have Jon back in town so they can ball it up more often.    

The update for what has been happening at home: Rachel got a full-time job at farm bureau and I am babysitting their 10-month old, Kendra. And wowza, I haven't had a baby in my house for 4 years! She crawls, cruises, and almost walks - so I have this mobile destructo machine waiting and ready. We have had to make some babyproof adjustments, though gratefully she has left the tree and presents alone. Also J&R don't have a 2nd car, and he goes to work @ 6 and she needs to be there by 730 - so guess who wakes up at 630 and hauls her 4 year old around town before dawn (!!!) to pick up the baby and bring her mama to work? Yep, me. Quite an adjustment since Ellie & I used to sleep in and cuddle until 8. Needless to say I'm tired by the time james picks her up at 330. She is a lot of fun though, lots of smiles and laughs. 

On another note our 99 Sonata went into the shop AGAIN. We fixed it up but have decided it's about time to say goodbye. D&I always said we'd drive a car into the ground but we would draw the line in the sand when repairs got to be almost as much as it was worth. It runs again . . but . . . we're probably in the used car market and might be making the trip down to utah to run around the valley and find a good deal. Anyways. That means room in the budget needs to be made . . . we are looking at cutting Ellie's preschool and dance class out (both luxuries) seeing that she already reads and we can pick up dance again when she starts kindergarten. That means more playdates -- like with our neighbor's granddaughter Maddy, in the picture above. If I'm not working I think I can handle that just fine.

I already have Christmas all shopped for . . . I just need to get my neighbor snack/gifts ready and then we should be ready. I am enjoying christmas this year much more than in the past. I used to be quite a scrooge with all the stress and drama of it all. But when your kid is 4 it makes everything more magical. If we knew the car thing was going to happen we wouldn't have bought so many wii games for Christmas (sshhh!). Oh well.  

Speaking of Christmas here is my early Christmas present. A droolworthy MacBook. It's superfaster than my seven-year-old desktop. Oh and did you see my one gray hair? Yeah, fun right? Bring it on, I say, let's see if I can go gray gracefully? I may be eating my words later in my 30s! Also Christmas party was fun again - here's Ellie with her Santa pic - for those of you who went to Highland . . . I thought it was funny that during our Nativity I leaned over to Darik and whispered, "I never thought that Ric Long would ever be the Joseph at my Christmas party . . . but??!"


p.s. Christian moved in with his mother over thanksgiving and Christina will next week. I am trying to set up a visit via their mom after school gets out. I'll update more on that if anything ever happens . . .  


p.p.s. we have decided it's time for me to start applying for grad school - I can start part-time in the summer and full-time in the fall. and I have decided to major in MBA-accounting to get my CPA. Although PoliSci & Econ were tempting, I settled for something that I will still enjoy but will maybe be more useful. We decided HF probably didn't send us a baby at the start so I could get my Bachelor's . . . maybe he's doing the same thing with the masters?? Since school is free??? Who knows :-)