Merry Christmas

Hello Friends,

I hope you had a safe and happy Christmas full of family, friends, good food, a special gift or two, and time to reflect and worship Jesus.

It's been 6 months since I've written, and I feel like I have a lot to catch up on.

After our only functioning computer finally bit the dust, I decided that keeping a blog up to date with no internet and no computer was just too much to do.  So I took a break. But thanks to new news item #5 and being allowed to use my in-laws' internet, I'm now writing again!  So here's what's been happening in my life in the past 6 months:

#1- WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!  After casually house-shopping for a few months, then really house shopping for a few months, and making offers on 3 different houses, we bought one.  And we love it.  It's old, built in the 1920's, and it's a charmer.  It's full of sweet quirks, thick wood trim, a claw-foot tub, plaster walls, and love.  Lots of love.  I'll write about it more soon, with pictures and news on the updates we're doing.

#2- We became Uncle Dan and Aunt Karyn.  We welcomed our nephew Max to the world this summer and he's a fat, sweet, smiley, and much-loved addition to our family.

#3- We're expecting another little niece or nephew in April.  True to my sister's excitment-loving personality, she and her husband are not going to find out whether their sweet baby is going to be a sweet baby boy or a sweet baby girl.  I've been telling her that the baby is a little red-headed girl and her name will be Karyn, but she doesn't seem so sure.

#4- 2 dear friends have gotten married since I last wrote, and 2 more have gotten engaged.  I love being able to help with wedding planning. A summer wedding in Ohio, a fall wedding in Tennessee, a spring wedding in Ohio, and a summer wedding in Tennessee.  And all these weddings are a constant reminder of how beautiful my friends are- sweet, beautiful, godly women marrying handsome, kind, godly men.

#5- I have a computer! Wohoooo! Do you hear me screaming in my excitement? For Christmas, the hubs and my wonderful in-laws joined forces to buy me a used (but runs-like-it's-brand-new) MacBook Pro.  I can now write, listen to music, edit pictures, and feel cool from my very own home.  In a month or two, we'll get internet at home so we can catch up with the rest of the western world.  Or at least the rest of our little Cleveland suburb.

Well, in the words of Porky the Pig, abeeb-apupa-beea-ba-that's-all-folks.

I'm glad to be back.