Category: General News

Dec. 27: Ahhh, December in Texas.  It’s a nice day out today. Temperature in the mid-sixties, a little breeze, the air smells green and sweet.  I can smell the breeze because I have the windows open.
Unlike my husband and son, who have been outdoors a lot this week, I have surprised myself by only venturing out a couple times.  “How ridiculous!” I think.  Why would I, who love a beautiful day, plant myself on a sofa for days at a time.  Who knows, but I have certainly enjoying “slugging it.”  I’ve knitting a bunch, ripped out everything I knitted because I forgot to reduce a few stitches for the armholes of Andrew’s sweater, and tried with only mild success to get my newly upgraded website gallery working fully.
It’s been a very relaxing and quite restorative vacation, despite my lack of motivation to enjoy the out-of-doors.  We head back home tomorrow morning, and I’m then looking forward to four days of vacation at home before returning to work on Jan. 2.  Maretta has a wedding shower on Saturday, and I’m looking forward to getting together with my family for a “Christmas” get-together on Dec. 30.  The fun just keeps on coming!

Dec. 25: Christmas Day greetings to all my friends and family who may be checking up on the website!  We’ve enjoyed a really nice morning together so far.  Ben and Mark have spent the early afternoon playing with their toy helicopters and cars.  Melanie is working on some wooden puzzles.  Bryan’s trying out some new music on new headphones, and I just finished setting up a web camera I got for Bryan’s parent’s so we can try doing video calls over the internet.
LuAnn put Andrew down for his nap, and he is now peacefully sleeping.  My family is home in Wisconsin at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  Sounded like they had a full house, with all my dad’s siblings and my cousin Abe and his family in attendance.  Grandma is at the nursing home/rehab center, so I’m sure it’s a different feeling Christmas in Monroe without any grandparents in at home.
We had a breakfast of pulla this morning…a cardamom bread rolled with almond and raspberry filling and shaped like a wreath.  Then for lunch, we enjoyed chili made by Melanie.  Since I burned my tongue by eating it too soon, I needed Blue Bell ice cream afterwards:)
Ben and Melanie are still in town until tomorrow night, and we’re still here until Friday, so there’s a feeling of lazy relaxation.  It’s nice to still be in your jammies at 3 pm on Christmas Day:)
Lots of photos from our morning are in the gallery.

Dec. 24: Andrew is napping for the first time in the past three days.  He really needed it!  This morning, he was in pretty rare form, and I think he threw about 8 tantrums over the course of a few hours.
After sobbing in Mark’s library for a while because I had handed him the wrong book (a wrong that just could not be righted in his mind), he suddenly stopped crying, came out, and said, “I was very sad.  I’m sorry.  I feel better now.”  This morning, he woke early and came around to cuddle with me in bed for about 20 minutes.  Then he climbed over me, and woke Bryan by saying, “Daddy, it’s Christmas Day!!”  When corrected, he wasn’t that phased, and happily shouted, “It’s Christmas Eve!”
We’ve barely talked at all about Santa or what happens on Christmas.  Last night, though, I read him The Night Before Christmas.  He was absolutely enthralled.  It didn’t take any more than one reading of that story for him to grasp the idea that Santa comes down the chimney and brings presents.  My tiny tot’s eyes were definitely all aglow:)
Today we’re doing lots of food preparation, puzzle assembly, and napping.  For our Christmas eve dinner tonight, we’re looking forward to pork tenderloin, rolls, other-things-I’m-sure, and pie.  Andrew’s looking forward to leaving cookies out for Santa.
I have finally updoaded some pictures to the gallery too…

Dec. 23:  I got my Christmas cards out quite a bit later than normal this year (doing the Babler family cards earlier this month slowed me down! ) I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas celebration this year.  My 2007 Christmas letter is below…

December 2007
Dear friends,

It’s been quite a year!
In June, Andrew celebrated his second birthday with nearly his entire immediate family in attendance.  He’s beautiful and charming and stretches us each and every day.  Identifying letters and animals keep him endlessly amused.  His sweet little voice warms our hearts, and his determination keeps us on our toes.

In June we also learned that we’re expecting a new addition to our family.  My belly has expanded to huge proportions, and the “little sister” as we call her is expected to make her appearance in early February.  I’ve been having fun finding the cutest little girl clothes!

Life since July has taken some really difficult turns.  We had all so hoped that my mom would continue to beat the odds, but that just wasn’t how life played out.  I’m still trying to adjust to the idea that she is gone.  I don’t imagine anyone is ever ready to say goodbye to their mommy.

After losing Mom in August, we had a couple additional partings coming our way.  Bryan’s grandpa, Dandy, and my grandpa (my dad’s dad) both passed away in October. We miss them both – especially during these holiday times of family togetherness – but we also celebrate their lives well-lived.  What a rich heritage of families and work and values they leave behind!

We’ve experienced the richness of life’s arch this year.  Beginnings and endings.  We’re thankful for the wonderful and strong circle of friends and family who have gathered close around us this year.  I feel so grateful for the strength and love of the people who support us.

Life keeps moving, and our work lives have experienced some changes this year as well.  In September, Bryan found a new job.  For the last few years, he has worked for Widen Enterprise in the field of “digital asset management” (helping companies store and access photos of their products).  In his new job, he is a software engineer with a small microbiology company called OpGen that is working to develop technologies to help diagnose diseases by looking at the genetic makeup of bacteria.  While he misses his past co-workers, I’ve think the change has been a good one.  Bryan has been energized by his work and has been learning and stepping up to some exciting challenges.

I’ve been at Gathering Waters Conservancy for four years now, and I just love my work.  However, over the last months, I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching, and I’ve decided that when the new baby comes along that I’m going to stop working and stay home with her and Andrew.  I’m nervous about stepping away from a field that I care about so much, but I’m also excited  about the opportunity to spend a lot of time with our little ones.

I hope all is well in your lives, and I want to offer my sincere thanks for all the caring we have received this year.  I feel really lucky.  On behalf of Bryan, Andrew, and myself, Merry Christmas, and best wishes for a new year that holds many wonderful surprises!

Dec. 23: We are happily settled in at Bryan’s parent’s house in
Texas. We flew down on Friday, and Andrew did a really great job.  It was his first flight in his own seat, and he was so excited about seeing Granny Lu and Grandad in TEXAS.  It’s neat to see him getting to a point where he remembers things and can hold onto a thought for a longer period of time.  Here in College Station, the sun in shining, and the last couple days have seen temperatures in the 60s or even 70s.  Lovely.
I’m getting to wear some of the nice summer maternity shirts that people lent me, and Andrew had had ample opportunities for backyard play.  Yesterday, LuAnn and Melanie and I left Andrew with the guys and we took the afternoon for some girls time out.  Did a little last-minute shopping and had a fun time being together.
It feels really good to be “on vacation” after the last month of fun (but very busy) activity.  I’m relishing the feeling of switching gears from the go-go-go of holiday parties and Christmas preparation to a lower-key, just hanging out kind of lifestyle.  We had a family poker night last night, which is always a lot of fun.  Plus with “Christmas Edition Poker,” all players ended the night with a gift card.  Fun surprises at
Christmas time:)
It’s hard to believe we still have two days until Christmas.  The way the holiday fell this year means that we get to see Ben and Melanie for much longer than normal.  They drove down from Dallas on Friday night, and they don’t need to leave until Wednesday, so our time together is quite extended.  It’s a great treat:)
Andrew is enjoying putting puzzles together with his Granny Lu this morning.  He’s so excited to be here:)  Hope all your Christmas preparations are fun!
~Althea

Dec. 20: I’m up early this morning.  I think it’s a combo of being excited about Joe coming home today and having that pre-trip adrenalin that always gets me excited and my mind working in overdrive.   I think that having the living room light work Andrew up, because although it’s only 5:50, he just joined me in the living room.
His train that is set up in our living room just traveled, “over the bridge and over the dam. berries for jam!”  Now he’s on to puzzles.

Bryan and I opened some of our Christmas presents to each other last night.
I got him all sorts of practical (read somewhat boring) warm things like socks and a hat and gloves.  I am currently using the new computer gadget that he got for me…a much-needed external hard drive.  Our laptop’s memory is nearly maxed out, so I have been in near-dire need of more computer storage space!  I’m currently backing up all 75 GB of pictures and video.  It’ll also be a relief to have all of it stored in a second space in case of disaster:)

Our December has been a fun and busy month!  Last weekend, I traveled to Washington DC to spend the weekend with my good friends from high school, Heather, Anne, and Kacy.
We had a lovely time being together and catching up and eating lots of good food.  Bryan was my hero , and (for the third time this fall) watched Andrew solo for the weekend so I could go have fun and reconnect with friends.

We drove down to Janesville last night to visit Mum and to take her out to see the Christmas lights.  For some reason, it was a foggy night, but the snow was beautiful, and the lit-up houses twinkled.  Mum seemed to be doing pretty well, which is always nice to see.

My dad is celebrating a big birthday this year, but with all that is going on with his mom’s broken hip, it’s been a really busy time for him.  We’re planning on getting together for dinner this evening at our house.  Aunt Julie and Uncle Kevin might be joining us too!

I have felt like between travels and all the fun parties we’ve been gallivanting to this month that I’m barely able to get to all the holiday preparations that call to me.  So last night after getting back from Janesville, Bryan and I buckled down.  He wrapped presents while I finished up Christmas cards.  At this point, I think I’m content with either being done with some holiday prep or just not doing it before we leave for Texas.  Feels good to be able to set my lists aside!  Oh, except Michael’s present.  I still need to get Michael his present.
hmmm

That’s the update for now!

~Althea

Dec. 7: There are shavings of chocolate all over my face and protruding belly.
Andrew went down for his nap, and I found myself feeling a) pretty worn out and b) in definite need of some chocolate.  So I checked my stashes.

• Chocolate chips – nope.
• Chocolate ice cream – out.
• Bag of peanut M&M’s left over from Halloween – nada.

Feeling a bit panicky, I started digging in my baking drawer.  Nuts, almond paste, sweetened condensed milk.  Then, ah-ha!  Baker’s bittersweet chocolate.  That should be edible.  It’s old enough that it had a slightly whitish waxy look, but biting into it, it gave me the coca fix that I was craving.
Some set of internal chemicals have been happily set to rights, and I can now enjoy the next hour (?) of Andrew’s nap in a blissful, chocolat-ified state.

Dec. 5: It is just beautiful outside this morning.  Snow is piled on on every corner.  The sky is bright blue, the air is crisp, and the slow is pure white.  Makes me want to walk around with my camera and take some photos as the sun was coming up.
The world feels festive and December-y.
After putting something like 20 hours into upgrading the gallery component of my website, it’s still not working consistently.  So I think I’m going to take a break and send Christmas cards and bake Christmas treats.   I did attempt to make fudge last night.  Let’s just say the brown mass that I can barely cut through isn’t quite fudge.
But it still tastes alright:)
Happy winter!

1 am update: I’ve installed Gallery2 and migrated all the photos.  I even got it mostly working with Mambo.  But there remain some pretty serious problems.  However, as it is 1 am, I need to stop.  Andrew has gotten out of bed in a falling/sleepwalking way tonight.  Very odd.
Nov. 30: Andrew is currently not taking a nap.  He’s in his bed, banging on the wall occasionally.  hmmm
While he is not-napping, I thought that I would try to work on the website upgrade I have planned.  One unexpected issue is that downloading my huge-beyond-belief gallery is taking over an hour.  So I tried messing with my website templates while I waited.  The Christmas one I am using is somewhat horrible, but I think I like the seasonal-ness enough to use it.
If you end up having problems viewing photos in the next couple days, it’s probably because of the work I’m doing.  Hope you’re having a good day!
~Althea

Nov. 24: Ahhh, a quiet day to take a deep breath and look back on the last week.  Our Thanksgiving turned out pretty well.  I was kind of expecting it to be “not-bad” if all went well, but I would actually say that it was a pretty nice day.  It’s been hard to approach the holidays with Mom being gone.  Michael and I planned out Joe came home from Bowdoin on Tuesday night.  It was his first time back home since September.  Joe, Michael, Becky, and Lisa came over on Wednesday, and we made pies and prepped items so everything was ready to go for Thursday morning.
Maretta and Kyle drove in through the snow on Wednesday night.  On Sunday morning, Maretta watched Andrew while Bryan drove to Janesville to get Mum and I wrapped up most of the rest of the meal.  We headed to Terry’s house around
11:30 where we used his multiple ovens and warming ovens to get the meal ready for a 1:15 dinner.
Pictures of the day are in the gallery.

We had a group of fourteen for our Thanksgiving meal: Terry, Tom, Terry’s neighbor, Connie Maxwell, Nancy Thurow, Mum, Dad, Bryan, Andrew, myself, Michael, Lisa, Maretta, Kyle, and Joe.  Our menu was smoked turkey from Greensburg, Texas, spanikopita made by Lisa, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green beans, pink salad, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and Grandma’s turkey (sugar) cookies.

After dinner, Andrew went down for his nap really nicely, Dad did a massive dish-cleaning job, and we all attempted to digest.  Dad headed to Monroe in the evening to take a Thanksgiving supper to Grandma and uncle Gary.  The boys (Bryan, Michael, Joe, and Kyle) broke out the poker set, and they had fun playing together well into the evening.

On Friday morning, we gathered together again for a day-trip to Chicago.  Eleven of us made the trip: Terry, Connie, Bryan, Andrew, myself, Michael, Lisa, Maretta, Kyle, Joe, and Becky.  We drove down to The historic Women’s Athletic Club in downtown Chicago. The reason we were crazy enough to brave a trip to Chicago on Black Friday?  Ron of Japan shrimp sauce.  Mom ate a Ron of Japan while she was pregnant with each of us kids.  I ate there when I was pregnant with Andrew, and so a trip was required to ensure the quality of this little one on-the-way.

After a really nice lunch at Connie’s club, some of us braved the incredible crowds to venture onto North Michigan to see the decorations and, er, experience the chaos.  A little bit was more than enough, but it’s not often that I have the opportunity to shop in Chicago.  So we spent a few hours poking around.  Then at 5 we rejoined the rest of our group at the club and moved on to Ron of Japan.  Andrew did a great job all day despite his lack of a nap, and we made it all the way home, even though we almost ran out of gas in the last half-mile.

Overall, it was a full, fun day.  I wish my health had been better.  Bryan was sick on Sunday-Wednesday, and I got sick Tuesday-today.  Just a normal, winter sore throat, stuffy nose and cough thing.  Hopefully I didn’t infect everyone I cooked for on Thanksgiving!

Hope your holiday was a good one!
~Althea