New camera fun

So, these are finally some pictures that I've taken with the new camera - time will tell if I can see a difference. I'm sure that Mark would say that I'd better see a difference for the price(albeit a very good deal) we paid for it. I haven't played around or touched them up at all(well, except for the first one).

The most direct route.........

maybe not the easiest route - but the most direct :o)

**Also, after being visible right under the surface for months, his upper front teeth have decided to make their official appearance this week. Currently, he's sleeping off a little Tylenol for exessive fussiness this morning. He's clicking his teeth, too - can't say that I enjoy listening to that.

Adventures in tie-dying

The purple/yellow and the pink one(a gift - not for MTE) turned out well. The other ones? Oh, well - a nice change from white.

Gustav in our bedroom

It's been raining nonstop for over 24 hours - and will probably continue another 24 hours.

I'm certainly not comparing what we're experiencing with what those further south are - but - when I made the bed this am - I felt a squish squish when I walked around on the window side of the bed. We have a soaked carpet (and a ruined cabinet that was by the window) - it extends about 4 feet out - right now.

This makes me thankful that we rent for now - I called management for them to deal with it.

the clothes hanger

As you can see - all the elliptical is good for now really is to hang clothes on. After many weeks, many phone calls, an expensive and unsuccessful repair visit, we have found out that our beloved elliptical is basically beyond hope - a fact that would have been helpful to be informed of before we ordered the replacement part and had a repair man come out to try to fix it.
Thankfully, it has served its purpose, we now know that we both will use it often and are willing to fork over a little(or a lot) extra $$ to purchase a more durable machine. Merry Christmas to us.
Until we can figure out how to dispose of this one - this is really the only function it serves :o)

A treat for me :o)

Our friends, Steven and Summer came over for dinner last night. Steven especially enjoys Matthew - always happy to hold him and try to get him to laugh and smile.

Matthew actually fell asleep at church yesterday morning - that hasn't happened in months. We decided that since he was asleep to just let him take his nap there. Normally, we all go to Sunday School and then I take him home afterwards - he falls asleep in the car on the way home and Mark goes to the worship service. Well, we paid for it - him only getting a 45 minute nap. Matthew was particularly cranky the rest of the day. Needless to say, he wasn't in a jovial mood when Steven and Summer saw him when he got up from his evening nap. He did "lighten up" a bit - after Mark played hide-n-seek and I held him upside down.

Anyway, the treat for me was the coffee that they brought me!! They had a friend go to Seattle and bring Steven some coffee beans from the original Starbucks --- (many fond memories for me!!). Since they don't have a grinder, he gave the coffee to me :o) I'm sure I'll be giving him back half or so of the coffee after I grind it - but - it certainly did bring a big smile to my face.

Welcome Freshmen

This was our group last Saturday - 11 freshmen and 3 juniors - their leaders for the evening. We had fun. They had a mixer back on campus at 8:30 - so we didn't have to entertain them very long :o) Mark actually has 4 or 5 of these students in his classes this semester.