Well you californians, this is the week to be thankful for where you live. Yesterday Lexington got pelted with ice and this morning it was one big ice rink out there. I was supposed to go to a study with Hannah where they test her memory and I get 5 bucks. Can't beat that. don't worry they don't poke or prod her, they just show her some pictures and stuff. :) But the roads are too crazy. We were watching cars trying to get out of our street and they were going everywhere. Ryan waited until about 10:30am to venture out. I guess Cincinnati got hit pretty hard with snow too.

So since I have this afternoon to get some work done now, just thought I'd write a little update. This weekend was a nice relaxing one. Friday was guys night with our group, so they played poker at the Ward's house. My friend Heather and new friend Amanda came over with their little ones and we hung out and ate chocolate fondue. Amanda's little girl, Avery, is 2 weeks younger than Hannah and boy is she a cutie! Saturday was productive, I got some laundry done and started trying to organize my office. Ryan put together our night stands and bathroom cabinet. Oh wait that was actually on Sunday that we did that, because we were stuck inside because of the ice. I'm not sure what we did Saturday day, but we did go to church and class and learned how to save for Hannah's college. We usually go out after class to eat with everyone, but since I taught about budgeting last week, we were convicted on our eating out spending. We have already spent what we had allocated for Febuary and it's not even the end of January yet. Usually we just take the money from some other category, but we decided we are not going to eat out until the end of Febuary. It's sad, but that is going to be so hard. Not only is it fun to go out to eat, but that means I have to cook more too. but it will be a good lesson for us.

Hannah is doing great. We moved her to a 4 hour schedule and everything has seemed to click now. She has been napping so good and has been so happy. Just in the past 3 weeks, she has laughed, rolled over once, started grabbing and looking at her toys, and now she has found her feet and is always grabbing them. It's kind of funny how excited we get on the simplest little things, but it's fascinating to see her mind develop and how it works. Nothing will be as funny as all of us over christmas watching dad burp hannah and all cheering when she finally did. it was just a funny scene that still makes me laugh thinking about it.

People have been slacking on the blog updates, me included. Especially you Ryan, you need to pick up the pace! I need some distractions from work.

Welp I have 15 minutes before Hannah is up. Better get some lunch. Great job Mary and Tracey on the race. That is just so awesome. It was great seeing the pictures. Thanks for sending them Trace. And I hope you hear good news on your job Matt, but if not then God has something better in store anyway. But I know you already know that. :)

Happy freakin birthday sweetie!!!! I'm sorry you weren't feeling good on your birthday, but we will make up for it sometime soon! Happy Monday all. First off I have to say that being sick sucks and I hope I don't have to be sick for a long time. It's now going on over 2 weeks for us and we are still not recuperated completely. What started off as a sucky flu turned into bronchitis for me and a sinus infection for Hannah. and probably bronchitis for ry, but he hasn't gone to the doctor yet. But at least we are on antibiotics which should hopefully wipe it out. Each day is getting a little better at least. Hannah no longer has caked on snot all over her face anymore in the mornings, so that's good for both of us. i kind of wish i would have taken a picture, because it was so sad yet so funny to see her still smiling with all that over her. as i had mentioned to a couple of folks i really struggled with being mad at God for a few days because of this, because i prayed and prayed that hannah wouldn't get it and now she's been sick for almost 2 weeks. i kept thinking there was no reason why she needed to get sick and that God had the power to make sure it didn't happen. But then I finally realized that God is God and He has his reasons for somtimes intervening and sometimes not. We unfortunately live in a yucky world where sometimes yucky things happen and unfortunately man has brought it on ourselves because we have misused the wonderful gift of freewill. so i'm at peace again and i'm sorry God for doubting you.

ok i'm done whining now. this weekend was really relaxing since we are under quarantine by our friends and can't see anyone. we did get out of the house on friday night since our whole house was filled with smoke. apparently ryan learned that there is a switch on the fireplace where you can use the outside air to fuel the fire as opposed to the inside air so it won't suck all the heat from the house. well ryan also learned that you don't set it to that until after the fire is going. he started the fire and this huge flame burst from the fireplace and then all of sudden smoke just started filling the place. i was in the middle of feeding hannah on the couch and then all of sudden the smoke detectors went off. and i guess the new safety thing in houses is for all the smoke detectors to be connected so when one goes off they all go off. i needed to move hannah to another room to get away from the smoke but everyroom had a detector and it was the most obnoxious sound. so i had to go into the guest room closet and shut the door to finish feeding hannah. it was kind of a funny picture afterwards thinking about it, but not at the time.

other than that we vegged and watched football and at night we would pull the sofa bed out and watch movies. since we got so many good ones for christmas we decided not to even go out and rent any so we watched clueless one night and shawshank redemption the other. yesterday was ry's birthday and since we weren't feeling 100% yet he didn't want to waste a night out, so we had cheese fondue and chocolate fondue for dessert. it was quite yummy. we watched the people's choice awards last night. did anyone else see them? is Jim Carey a christian? i thought i had heard that he became one. his speech was funny. i couldn't tell if he was making fun of christians or using his humor to get God's name out there. for those who didn't see it, he accepted the award for Bruce Almighty and at one point said "i'm excited to hear that all of hollywood has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior." but then later on as he was talking to some of the "people" who voted for the award, he said in somewhat of a humorous tone, yet somewhat serious, "God has loved me through you people for years". anyhoo, just thought it was interesting, yet pretty cool if he is a christian.

i've actually been getting some work done which is good for me. so far this month i have worked about 5 hours! which is more than i worked in all of december which totalled .75 hours. pretty sad i know. ryan's parents are coming this weekend. i'm looking forward to that because it's always nice to see mom and dad and it will get us motivated to finally get this place in order.

i have to share a quote that made me laugh, even though it was not a funny situation. it was from my wonderful sister-in-law tracey...as i was chatting with her this weekend she was telling me about her poopy run where her knee started hurting and then she was getting a migraine on her way home. that part completely stinks, but what kept making me chuckle this weekend was remembering her saying, "mmm, why doesn't that dog have a head?"

well time to get some work done. good luck with your job hunting this week matt and with your training tracey. i said a prayer for both of you.

peace!

Happy birthday Matt! Enjoy your day!

Just getting caught up on blogs while my 2 sickies are sleeping. Ryan and I (along with Matt) got an after Christmas present and came down with an ugly case of the flu bug. And poor Matt had allergies on top of that. I can't remember the last time I have gotten the flu and when I have it's only been a 24 hour thing. But no the first year we have a child we get the doozy...the week long one. What makes me kick myself is that since Ryan's parents didn't get sick too (thankfully!), that means that a little ole flu shot could have prevented this. But by the time I thought about us getting one, they were already in shortage. But oh well, can't dwell on that now. I'm feeling much better today. But Ryan is still feeling poopy. We did everything we could to keep Hannah from getting it, but she managed to catch a little bit of it. We took her to the ER on New Year's eve, because she had a fever, but fortunately it is only a bad cold and no the flu. It has been so sad watching her go thru this. She doesn't have any energy to cry in pain so she just gives these little whimpers every now and then. It's so awful! But today her fever is down a bit, so hopefully it will be over soon and we'll be back to our happy healthy family.

I do not know what we would have done without you Tracey, Mom and Dad! I can't even begin to tell you how much it meant for you guys to take care of us and especially Hannah. It was the worst feeling to not have the energy to play with your daughter or put her to bed. But it made it easier knowing she was in great hands with her Nonni and Aunt Tracey. I did enjoy watching you 2 with her. And I learned a thing or 2 as well! So I will be indebted to you for a long time!!

I enjoyed reading your year end reviews and I think I am inspired to write one myself. I don't like when I let a whole year go by and then I think "what did I do last year." this way I can get it into writing and enjoy the memories again.

i'll work on that and then post it sometime this week.

well i hear the little one stirring. hope everyone's 2004 is the best year yet!