New Car

Wow! It's been a while. I'm not sure if anyone will even read this anymore, but here goes. I've just been crazy busy. I'm usually gone from the house from about 7am to between 4:30 and 5. This is obviously a huge change for me in the last 9 years or so. It's taken a little adjusting and we're still not quite there.

Anyway, we've had Stuart's car for probably about 5 years now and it was having a few problems. It was a 1998 Mazda 626. So we figured it was about time to get another car instead of fixing his. We had been meaning to go down to CarMax for the last few weekends, but have been really busy. So last Monday, I left school early and we went without the kids. We picked a car we liked and bought it! I know it seems somewhat impulsive, but we had been looking online for about a month. We got it home and thought about it and drove it, etc. and decided to take advantage of CarMax's 5-day return policy. So on Friday (when we were all off) we took it back. Seemed simple enough at the time. Unfortunately what was simple for CarMax wasn't as easy for our Credit Union where we had our loan.

So after going to CarMax where we returned the car and picked out another one, then to the credit union and back to CarMax (totalling about 3 hours) we went back home with no car. The CU needed to have more verification of the funds being returned by CarMax before we could close that loan and open a new one! What a pain!! But, I'm glad we did it because today we went by picked up our check and then got our new (to us) car all in about 30 minutes!

It's a 2008 Nissan Altima with only 17,000 miles. It's lovely. And we're very sure this time that we're keeping it!

Snow Day

Here are our pictures from our snow day!! Logan hadn't been feeling too well, so I tried to keep him from doing too much outside. We just got back from the doctor and he has an outer ear infection. I'm also glad to say that the doctor said it was fine that I let him go play, so I don' t feel guilty.

We did throw some snowballs, but they were hard to make since the snow was so powdery.

We played twice before the snow started to melt. It was wonderful snow as I'm sure a lot of you found out. So fluffy and soft! The kids had a blast just throwing it around and feeling it rain down on them.

Trampoline snowman! The snow up here was awesome!! So clean and soft since it wasn't all mixed up with the grass or slushy like on the porch.

Then we came in and warmed up by the fire with hot cocoa!

While Ellie was playing with a friend, Logan and I built this snowman. The snow was still very loose and powdery, so it was not the easiest thing to do. We didn't finish decorating him until just a little while ago though. He fell apart shortly after this pic was taken.

It was a great snow day. I'm glad it is nice and warm and sunny now too! I've had enough cold for a while. Hope you all had great snow days too!

The book- Water for Elephants

So I wanted to read the book before the movie comes out in April. Luckily for me, the book's been out long enough and there's not that much press for the movie yet that I was able to find it relatively easily at the library. Which was good for me since I got it and was finished with it the next day. It was really good! And I liked being able to picture the actors who are playing the characters while I read rather than making them up myself.

As for my "review", 4 stars!! Definitely worth your time!!


Before I could find Water for Elephants to read, I came across Sara Gruen's latest book Ape House. It's about a scientist who works with Bonobo Apes. I had recently heard about these apes on Oprah. They are amazing and can communicate with humans through American Sign Language and lexicons on a large board or computer. It's unbelievable. The author did a ton of research on them for the book so it's really very educational as well as entertaining. I really enjoyed it.
Although I have to admit, I would probably have liked it better being able to picture Rob Pattinson in the lead male role like I did in Water for Elephants!! Ha!

Saturday night with the kids

Grace and Carter are over to spend the night tonight. So far the big thing is Wii of course. We got some new games and another remote for Christmas and they're having a great time playing.

As you can see they're paying close attention to what's happening on the screen.

Logan was punished from playing Wii today, so it's been hard for him to sit back and just watch them having fun. As a result he's been acting crazy to get attention. He was jumping around and wanted me to take his picture. It's hard with my cheap little camera since it takes a second after you push the button for the actual picture to take.

When I looked at the pictures guess what I saw? My sweet little boy? No... Demon Logan, complete with red eyes!!
Think again, it's see-through Ghost Logan. Guess that's what happens when you have a cheap camera! It is a cool effect though!

My other little guitar hero

Logan has gotten really good at guitar hero in the last 2 weeks. Yesterday he got 99% on the easy settting on "Love Gun", I think. I was laughing when I looked over and saw him playing like this...

He looks so casual. He also likes to do "guitar moves" while he plays like bending his knees and doing little kicks, etc. Sooo funny!! I need to take a little video.

Water for Elephants

I didn't start out as a fan of Robert Pattinson. I always loved Edward. But somehow the 2 have morphed for me and I really like him now too! I wish he would do a movie where he uses his natural English accent though. I like the accent and I get distracted knowing he's altering it in all these movies where he's "American".

I just saw a preview for his new movie Water for Elephants (also with Reece Witherspoon). It looks great! And he looks great in it. Not so white. Really clean-cut with short hair. Me like. It takes place in the 30's and I liked the look of the men back then. The clothes, hair, etc.

What's really funny is that his name in the movie is Jacob!

It comes out on April 15. Who wants to go with me?

Frank

I'm getting a little worried about my old basset hound, Frank. He turned 13 in October and his health has been declining for a while. The last 2 weeks or so though, he's been acting very strange. He wanders around the house a lot and just seems confused. Can dogs get Alzheimer's? On top of all that he's deaf and has a hard time getting around. He falls down sometimes especially on the tile. What to do?

I think another trip to the vet is in order. But what will happen? The last time we went I was worried about the same thing and that was over a year ago. Maybe they can help him without it being too big a deal? He's just so annoying. He wakes us up a LOT at night now. It's getting to be a problem. I know we're suffering, but is he? Hard to say. Dogs don't complain a lot. He's got to be suffering some though. Uuugghhh!

Aren't they cute laying on the rug like that? You'd think I'd posed them. But they did it on their own! Look at that lovely, fat cat, Jack! He's magnificent! Too bad he likes to poop on the garage floor. We got him a new litter box hoping that will help. We'll see...

I'll keep you posted on Frank. I think a trip to the vet is imminent.