We're All Over The Place.

I love this picture of Brian and Nora...I have titled it "There's a haircut in somebody's future...but not yet!"

All right. Well, you know you're WAY behind on blogging when your mother-in-law e-mails to make sure you're alive and ok...

It's been over a week, maybe two now...I don't even know anymore!

Busy busy busy around here...

In less than a week I had two midterms, one in Psychology (got 49/50) and my Anatomy & Physiology class (90/100). And of course a couple of quizzes and lots of other stuff.

Then Nora, Brian and I ALL got the same horrific snotty cold from hell.

We're not over it, but we're over it enough to move on with life. As I've said a few times this week between DayQuil & NyQuil doses for myself: At least it's not Swine Flu.

Nora's a busy girl. We've been working on talking...her sounds get more varied every day, and the other day I would have sworn she said "ALL DONE!" at the end of a meal.

She laughs and has a great time over everything, and despite her nasty cold, still saw the zoo today with me, and has had a lot of fun learning to draw with crayons and markers and sidewalk chalk too. And she's learning to play new instruments with Daddy. This past week or two she's learned to actually blow into the recorder!


Friday night was The Pizza Night Thing (PNT) at Jeff & Judy's house, where Nora got a little extra time (and nice weather) to run around the yard and check out the horses too...and of course spend some time with her lovely cousins (Miriam's in this picture with her). She ADORES Hannah and Miriam and remembers them so well that when I tell her that's where we're going, she stops complaining about the ride in the car!



She also has learned the value of doling out hugs and kisses. When I say "Give Bestema some love..." Nora says "OH!" and goes cheek-to-cheek and hugs her Bestema.


This weekend we got a lot of "administrative" stuff done around here, like moving our iTunes library (and backing it up), which really shouldn't have taken forever...but it did.

Brian bolted the last of the furniture to the walls after yet another story of a toddler climbing a dresser and it nearly falling on top of him.

So while I took Nora to the zoo (I seriously said "Show the elephant some LOVE!" and she went "OHHHHHHHHH" to the elephant for this picture above), Brian not only handled the last of the topple-proofing, but he vented the bath vents properly out of the attic...they were both improperly attached upstairs.

We've had a little good weather too these past couple of weeks, where I've put up the tent for her to play in (and later bought something more expendable and permanent at Goodwill for a "Fort" for Nora).

And finally, Nora and I participated in the March of Dimes "March for Babies", which my friend Patti does every year as a tribute to her son Cannon.


Patti and I bonded quickly over the fact that she lost a son in similar circumstances as I lost Jacob.



She's a wonderful person with two sons who are both pre-approved for Nora to go out with later in life. We don't want to actually ARRANGE the marriage, because you know, that would be sorta counter to our otherwise staunch view of equality for women.

So there you have it...the past two weeks, despite runny noses and big boxes of lotion Kleenex, have been busy!