I'm finishing up with week 2 of my class - still lovin' it. I had gotten full credit for everything so far, but I did miss a question on the quiz I just took tonight (each question is worth a half a point), so the pressure has been relieved. As I explained to Jeff, it's one of the reasons I didn't really enjoy school. While this may sound cocky, I don't mean it to be, so don't take it that way...you see, I did so well in school, I was always just waiting for the plane to crash. Since I know I'm...

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I'm assuming that everyone is as busy as we are, either working or enjoying the summer sun and warmth...either that or the west coast has finally broken off and fallen into the ocean. If that were the case, however, I'm sure we would have heard about that - even if we never watch the news. We haven't been especially busy with anyting out of the norm, just the regular flow of every day life, but that keeps us hopping in and of itself. We went down to Dean and Kathy's on the 4th and spent a nice...

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Kadie has a baby brother on her mind lately (we have clarified this a few times and her preference is definitely for a boy). A few days ago, Kadie asked us, out of the blue, when we were going to bring a baby home. Yesterday, at church, she told someone that she was going to have a baby soon - which, of course, prompted a questioning look my way. When I smiled and shook my head, the lady chuckled and told Kadie,"Good luck with that." I don't know what has prompted this most recent bout of baby...

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We actually got a good helping of snow yesterday. Unfortunately, it was pretty much a 1 for 1 mix of snow and rain, so it was pretty wet and heavy and made the commute home a bear. They're calling for more to come some time on Saturday. I decided, on Wednesday, to stay home today to relax a little (make use of Monday being a holiday - four day weekend and all) and clean the house for the jewelry party I'm supposed to host tomorrow but, when Jeff got Kadie up this morning for me to get her ready...

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Christmas was good. Kadie woke up entirely too early, but she didn't start tearing into packages until we were all downstairs (which still happened faster than I had planned). After ripping into a package, she would inspect the goods and then hand them to me to open while she very tidily picked up all the paper scraps and put them in the garbage … don't know where that came from, but it was nice to not have to declare my living room a disaster zone. After everything was opened, we sat down for...

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We've been busy, busy, busy here. I'm getting over a very nasty cold that, thankfully, did not turn into much else. Also, very thankfully, it hasn't spread to Jeff or Kadie. Both Jeff and I are racing against deadlines at work but I got good news yesterday...my company is allowing us to have the 24th off as a paid holiday! Yea! I'm looking forward to a couple of days off (besides the 24th, 25th and 1st, I'm taking the 31st off as well) and a week or so of quieter days in the office (with most...

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Busy time of the year, huh, guys? I hope your production goes well this weekend, Lisa. Even with some longer nights coming up, I guess it's good that the job allows for making up sick time. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving as I don't have to do any work. We just drive down to Dean's and enjoy a full spread. He doesn't even really allow for donated dishes, so it's completely work-free (unless you count the endless running around I do, keeping track of Kadie and what she's terrorizing within...

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Last Sunday, my current church held a baptism service. I have now learned their stance on baptism - they don't view it as a requirement for salvation but see it as something that God has asked them to do and, in doing it, they are obeying Him. I'm not sure if that's a"step beyond" the Baptist view of doing it for a show of faith or if that's just another way of saying the same thing. Either way, it was still nice to see so many step forward. They had about 25 or 30 people who had planned on...

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To all the fathers out there...we hope you had a nice day"off" yesterday. Jeff didn't get one as we were finishing up Kadie's play area, but we're taking Wednesday off to wander around town and/or the mall, get some breakfast and lunch and a movie. It'll be like an extended day date as we are unable to have dates during the evening or weekend hours.As I just mentioned, Kadie now has a beautiful play area out back. We put timber down around the swing set that Jeff and his dad put up last summer...

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Nothing much going on over here. Just more of the same. I'm halfway finished with painting Kadie's bookshelves. They take so long because you have to wait for each section to dry before you try painting the next and these are stackable cube-type shelves, so there's a lot of little sections. I also have to constantly dig cat hair out of the paint. I should just give in and plaster the cat onto a shelf and paint her down. It'd make for one bumpy shelf, but the cat hair issue would be gone...

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I took a sick day yesterday (though I really needed it today) to paint Kadie's room. We got her Disney pink and it's not as bad as it sounds. It's actually a very light pink and looks very nice against the white baseboards and soon-to-be painted white bookshelves. I had taped off the ceiling so that I wouldn't have to worry about that but, as I was pulling off the painter's tape, chunks of ceiling paint came with it (I hate contractor-grade flat paint) so I spent another 2 or 3 hours painting...

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Bah, humbug alert! I'm thinking"out loud" and it's late, and I'm tired and it's gonna show...Though we had a nice Christmas (interspersed with cat vomiting episodes), it still just didn't seem"right" - you know? Something was off, but I can't really put my finger on it. I'd hate to think that the holiday that I once loved and treasured above all others has lost it's shine due to the pessimism of age and"wisdom." I just remember it being so much more...well, more. It was fun to watch Kadie...

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I haven't been able to read the posts for a couple of days so I had some catching up to do. As it's 0630 on Friday morning and I have a looooooong day ahead of me, it's good to start it off with a smile.Tonight is deployment night. Hopefully, if all goes well, we'll be out of here by 12 or 1 am. We've been known to stay until 5 or 6 before, but we're trying out something new that will, hopefully, save us some time. I elected to come in early (versus starting my day at 4 pm) so that I could make...

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