2 books down!

I'm finished with 2 books already! I needed to finish books I'd gotten from the library first. Now I can get a book that maybe isn't quite fluff.

52 Books in 52 Weeks

Someone on the Welltrained Mind Forums posted an idea to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Average of a book a week. I thought I'd try. Below are the rules if you are interested in the challenge as well.

1. Read an average of a book a week - 52 books in 52 weeks
2. Re-reading a book counts--as long as you first read it before 2009
3. School related books don't count (unless you want them to)
4. You can start reading on 1-1-09 at 00:00:01AM

I have a list on the side of my blog to keep track of the books I've read. I'll list title and author. But I won't try to link the book to Amazon or anything. Sorry.

Someone came up with an idea last year that was 8-8-8 or 8 books in 8 different genres in 2008. But that didn't work for me. So I'm hoping this goes much better!

Kids big present this year

I gave the kids 14 clues to try and put it together. The clues were all over the house. I did make some rather obscure and tried to throw them off the "scent". It worked - they had no idea until clue #14. Can you guess what their gift is?

1. On the Wii - It's something we all have to share.

2. On the dryer - We have to get a dog sitter.

3. On the piano - We will be flying.

4. On the fireplace - It will last 8 days.

5. In the linen closet - Pack your swimsuit, our hotel is in the tropics.

6. In the office - It's gonna be tight - all in one room.

7. In the pantry - But don't worry. There's lots of space all day long.

8. Near the DVDs - We will leave in 26 days!

9. In the coat closet - Our days will start early and end late.

10. On the china cabinet - We can watch the fireworks on the beach.

11. On my stereo - We will visit old friends and make new ones.

12. By the front door - We can visit Tom and Becky.

13. In the garage - We can visit Alice and Mary.

14. In Dad's pocket - for us this is the gimme clue if they didn't know it by now - We don't go to have fun. We go to spend lots and lots of money.

Did you guess? K had an idea and then got thrown off by a few clues. She knew we were going somewhere and she didn't care where! At one point dh said that he thought he knew where we were going but now he wasn't so sure.

Let me explain a few clues in case you are lost.
5. Hotel in the tropics - not really but the setting is tropical. We are staying at the Polynesian.
9. Start early, end late - the kids don't really have bedtimes there.
10. You cans ee the fireworks on the beach at the hotel. They pipe in the music. This is important as K is sensitive to noise.
11. Old friends and new - when you know where we are going it makes sense.
12. Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher
13. Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins.
14. This is what dh says all the time we are there.

Give up? Or do you know? We are taking the kids to Disney World!

Merry Christmas 2008!

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
– Luke 2:11 (KJV)

This year feels like it has flown by! And with the economy in the state that it’s in, it almost can’t end soon enough… Yet, there’s still much to be thankful for!

Here at Casa K, the kids are growing like weeds. K is now taller than C, and H’s not far behind. M is a fairly distant third, but then, he’s only eight. I’m still the tallest, but I don’t imagine that’ll last long.

K’s just turned 14, and is in 8th grade this year. H’s 11, and in 5th grade. M is 8, and in 3rd. C is homeschooling all three, and all still seem to be enjoying the process. C and the kids participate in the SEEK homeschool co‐op at Colonial once a week, to break things up a bit. The kids are all in music lessons, as well (K on guitar; H and M on piano), and are sounding pretty good, if you ask me. Of course, I’m biased. And if that weren’t enough, all three are taking tennis lessons now, too. Oh, and playing soccer. And football. And basketball. Some of them. Whew.

In our copious spare time, we do quite a bit of volunteer work. C is still active in the children’s ministry at church, and also in the sports ministry at Colonial Baptist. She’s been a soccer coach there for a number of years, and plans to continue in that capacity. I still run sound and play the trumpet at church. In addition, I play guitar for the kids in the Cubbies program at Colonial’s Awana program. K and H volunteer there as well, as regular leaders. Volunteering at Colonial is becoming a family affair!

On a professional level, I’m still at Cisco. In August, I crossed the nine year mark.

On the fun side, we took two big family vacations this year. We spent a week in Williamsburg, mostly at Busch Gardens. It was cold (really cold), but it made for short lines… In the summer, we took a week‐long trip to Hatteras with our friends the Rs. We shared a rental home, and generally had a blast. C and the kids then spent another week with C’s folks, without me, right as fall was kicking in, for the annual Camp NaPa (Nana/Papa).

Well, those are the highlights… We hope you and yours have had a great year! Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

With love,
The K Clan

(Written by dh, simply copied here)

(I think that's the right picture way up there!)

Another injury

I go through 37 years without stitches and now in 13 months, I get 6! Last year it was the dogs fault. This year it's mine.

I was cutting bread. I thought I could get one more slice. I did, but I also just about sliced off some pinkie finger as well. There is a nice 1/2 moon shape on my finger pad. DH came home and took me took my doctor, no ER this year. She cleaned it and then decided it needed stitches - 3 to be exact. When I go in to have the stitches removed, she will see if all the skin is ok. At this point she thinks I'll lose about 25% of what I cut. She'll remove that next week when she removes th stitches. Joy.

So right now, my pinkie finger is about 3 times it's normal size due to the bandage she put on it. I'm supposed to leave the bandage on for 3 days and then put a different bandage on it - really just a new one, but it doesn't need to be so big.

Calendar troubles

DD2 just asked me, "Are you going to put (ds)'s birthday party on the calendar?"

"Yeah, I guess I need to do that."

"It would be pretty bad for (ds) to miss his own birthday party."

Much laughter. "Can you imagine? All these boys show up and (ds) isn't there!"

More laughter ensues...

BTW, his party is on the calendar now.

Family Funny

While traveling from church to lunch today, I was relating a stoy to dh about a friend:

"So they got in a police car from A to B, new police car B to C, and so on until they got home."

Silence.

DS age 8: "How many letters did they get to?"

Rolling laughter from the rest of us, a little bit of laughter from ds.

DD age 14: "I don't think he gets it, but he's still laughing."

More laughter from all. Silence.

DS, 8: "I don't get it."

Rolling laughter again. DH starts to explain that A and B are not specific places.

DS, 8: "Ok, but what letter did they get to?"

We explained again, in more length this time. Dh: "Do you understand?"

DS: "Yes"

Me: "Are you sure? Do you really understand?"

DS: "How could I not understand with all that explanation?"