A Smorgasbord of Stuff:

Nora's birthday is coming, (she'll be THREE on Friday!) and unlike last year when she was pretty much oblivious, the past few weeks have been filled with discussions about her birthday, and her practicing singing the birthday song.

Sometimes it comes out "Happy Birthday to YOU!"

Other times it comes out "Happy New Year to YOU!"

She's picked out her birthday cake design, and here it is...I'm making it, mostly from scratch, and we'll see how it turns out.

If I bomb, I'll order from Safeway or Costco like I did in the previous years...


This week has been super busy.


In nursing school news, I'm still an alternate for the program at the college I applied to, and I've moved up a bit...I went to orientation today and it was really tough to just sit there among 48 people who are IN (one of whom I know cheated on an exam) and not be official.

But afterwards I talked to a few gals who were alternates last year, and it helped to hear that some of them waited even two years to get in for personal reasons. Yes, you fill your life in, and it will come...

I will attend the first week of classes and then I should know something by the end of the month. We will see.

We had some nice weather last week so I finished painting the house. I worked hard after our vacation to get the south side of the garage, which was CLEARLY neglected for AGES to get some boards replaced and get the rest of the house painted. It looks so much better. I can't wait for the next sunny day to take "after" pictures since I have a lot of "before" pictures from when we bought the house.

I like to shop for good quotes now and then. Winston Churchill is a good Brit with all the good fortitude that any American should covet and aspire to.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill