Merry Christmas!

Wishin' I Were Stuck In Lodi Again

Update

I am now an officially licensed securities broker. Yeah me! I will be taking a much needed vacation and then will be back up and going in the old blogeroo. I am so excited about Christmas this year. I can't wait for Emily Dear to enjoy the holiday and the magic of the season. Happy days!

The near future

Not that I am that great about posting anyway, but it may get even more sporadic until December begins. I am just about to start taking courses and preparing for Series 6 and 63 licensing for a bit of an upgrade in my job. I am excited but know it will be a test of will to stay focused. Wish me luck!

Trade In

So, awhile ago, I posted about my nook and the overwhelming love I had for it. Fast forward a month and a half and you will find these feelings of love have lost their initial shine. The page turning button broke. This was a known problem but one they had supposedly fixed. Yeah, not so much. Other than that, I really had no complaints and thoroughly enjoyed the nook, but breaking after a month and a half is just  not acceptable. Luckily, even though my return date had passed, the B&N people kindly gave me a full refund without any hassle.

Since, I now have the opportunity to try the competition, I have decided to take the plunge and pre-order the new kindle (WiFi only). I will have a few weeks to try ti out and see if it lives up to the standards of the nooks other great qualities like ease of use and page turning speed and battery life. The ship date is to be Sept 8th or there abouts, so I will give my comparison review shortly thereafter.

I had toyed with the idea of an ipad as a friend has one and I really like it, BUT I am really wanting to be comfortable reading for several hours and the ipad just doesn't have the same grey screen that makes this possible. Plus, I have a computer; do I really need another one? I did some research and if it actually offered a program by which it converted my handwriting to a text document to take notes in meetings, I could see it being worthwhile but it is just not there yet. I'll save the $400 and wait until they get it a bit more functional thank you very much.

Sorry for the boring post to all non-gadget minded folks out there. I'll try to do something a bit more homey next time.

Emily can read!

Yep, we are one of those over the top parents who invested in the Your Baby Can Read program. There have been a few days this past week where I thought she might have read a word from the flash cards but tonight was a definite. When I showed her the card "tiger" she made her tiger growling noise. When I showed her "toes" she held up her toes and wiggles them. When I showed her "dog" she said dog and when I showed her tongue and mouth she showed them to me. All of these were without me actually saying the word; all I did was show it to her. Amazing little 14 month old girl!

Emmy's First Swimming Lesson and a Hike

Emily started "swimming" lessons this week. It is more like, getting in the water without freaking out lessons, but it's a step in the right direction. She is a natural water baby which is no surprise for my Pisces. By the fourth day she was already going under water without too much sputtering afterwards. Friday's lesson was cancelled due to thunderstorms, but we are excited to start back again on Monday. These are private lessons, but in all reality it is just some time with us and her somewhat isolated in the pool so we don't have to worry about everyone else getting in the way.

There is also a sweet picture of Emmy and Papa during a family hike/picnic from a few weeks ago. Boy, do we love Summer!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Can't wait!

I fell in love today with Cathedral Window Quilts. I did a bit of research and found a tutorial at Hyena in Petticoats and plan on making this some time in the fall after I have finished Joe's cardigan. I can't wait to get started. I love the beautiful and simple design of this quilt. I am thinking I want to do a full size quilt for our bed. The pops of color are so cheerful and the white makes it all so clean looking. I am constantly amazed at how many wonderful designs and ideas people have come up with to bring joy and beauty to our lives. Thank you so much to all of the creative people who strive to make beauty out of necessary items.

Birthday Pictures!

From Zero to One in Nothing Flat or Emily Meets Chocolate

Happy 1st Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday to our precious girl, Emily. We try to remember what our days were like without her, but I think they must have been quite empty and boring. She lights up everything around her with her quick smile and playful ways.

Thank you for making your momma and papa so very happy, Emily dear.

Heaven

In case you start to wonder where I have disappeared to...I just got my nook tonight...

Update

What we have here is a reverse chronological order in case you're wondering. We have Emmy enjoying a delicious bottle before her very first camping trip. It was supposed to be 2 nights but due to a lack of sleep, it ended up being only a one nighter.

We next have some amazingly adorable cupcakes made by Joe himself. Serious skills.

Finally, we have the annually Easter Egg hunt which was, as usual, hurried so that Shadow did not eat all of the hard boiled eggs before we had a chance to find them.

I have been diligently working on Joe's cardigan, my very first, and it is coming along quite nicely although I am having to guess at certain parts of the pattern. Frustrating. Also, Emmy will be having her one yer birthday soon and we are super excited about her present. I will post the details after the big day. Hope you enjoyed the pictorial!

"There are only two mantras, yum and yuck, mine is yum."

I have just discovered that one of my all time favorite authors, Tom Robbins, was born in a town very close to where I now spend my days, Blowing Rock. I was turned on to Tom by my friend, Holly, years ago and have been an avid fan ever since. If you have a soft spot for the bizarre yet optimistic adventures of very well rounded characters, this is your bag of cookies.