Celebration

I passed my orals exam (really there should be a trillion exclamation points here)! I realize this may not mean too much to anyone else, but it is big for us. Order will be restored to our household once again! No more Campbell's soups for dinner. The apartment is clean right now, my toe nails painted, and the front of our complex has been weeded. I've even started thinking about what to make for dinner tonight, sigh. It was just nice to do these things without the thought of impending doom (aka oral exams) looming over my head.

What this really means is that I'll be able to graduate from my MA program in just a few short months. Smooth sailing from here. We went out last night for dinner to celebrate.



Little Bug is pretty excited that her mommy can spend more time with her again. That or she was just excited to get out of her restaurant highchair. She wouldn't tell us which.


Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers sent my way yesterday. Looks like they really paid off!

Best thing ever

Grabbing life's necessities; keys, cell phone and blanket, and climbing into a box over and over is the best thing according to this one year old.

Jelly Belly

What do you do on a Saturday when it's raining outside and everyone is going stir crazy? You go to the Jelly Belly factory and get a bunch of free candy! Andrew loved the 'pencil shavings' flavor he tried and the 'rotten egg' flavor he picked for me really hit the spot. Little Bug just thought we were trying to poison her when offered a tasty Jelly Belly.

Blubber

A couple weekends ago we went to see the Elephant Seals at Ano Nuevo State Park with one of Andrew's lab mates and friends. It was a great activity and we had a lot of fun going. That said, I thought it was funny to hear comments on the beauty of the elephant seals. Maybe it's just me, but beautiful doesn't come to my mind first when I see these animals. Powerful and amazing seem to fit, but beautiful is a stretch. The highlight for Little Bug was of course discovering lots of little treasures, aka rocks.

Another year gone by

Thinking back, we are slightly impressed with ourselves for getting a Christmas card out last year. Little Bug was only a month old but somehow we managed. Maybe it is just that we would rather feel impressed with ourselves for getting a card out last year than disappointed with ourselves for not doing it this year. We considered sending one later in January; maybe a Happy New Year type of card, but we all know that line of thinking was merely to help with the guilt. Sorry everyone, a blog update is all you get.

This year has been good for us. Little Bug continues to grow. At the moment her two favorite pass times are getting in and out of boxes and hording any sort of treasure she finds, such as acorns, rocks, paper bits, etc. Currently, her favorite word to say is “no.” Andrew and I are trying to teach her what “no” means but so far it is just what she says while doing something forbidden. For example, repeating “no” while climbing into the dishwasher is still unacceptable.

As for us, we are still in school. However, we are looking for this year to be the one that we finally kick this nasty going to school habit. We both started chewing more gum. Please follow up with us on this one. Everyone can use a little encouragement every now and again.

We’re excited for the upcoming year and wish you all the best!

Chicken walk

This past Thanksgiving we were able to head over to Utah and spend the week with all of Andrew's family, minus one. Little Bug had a blast following her cousin Natalie around. As a result, her eyes were opened to the concept of jumping. Ever since, Little Bug tends to walk/run around with her hands behind her back as if about to jump. One day she'll progress to step two and get some air. In any case, I finally got it caught on camera the other week while at the zoo. It just makes us smile. We call it the chicken walk.

New Years

Some years back a friend of mine and I did a San Fransisco Hang Over run across the Golden Gate on new years day. I thought it would be fun to sign Andrew and I up this year. Sadly, I don't think the run is held anymore. However, we thought it would be a fun way to start off the new year. So across the bridge we ran! Little Bug was pretty excited to be allowed out of her stroller to take some steps on the bridge and Andrew and I thought it was a great way to start the new year. We're looking forward to another good year together!

Christmas

We spent Christmas this past year with my family. It was especially fun because we were all together except for my oldest sister and her family. Christmas eve was spent doing the usual festivities: making cookies for Santa, writing Santa a note stating how good we all were for the year, eating pork chops and rice for dinner, hanging our stockings, and re-enacting the nativity scene.

Little Bug was angel #2 for the nativity. Here she is all ready. Despite the look on her face, she was pretty excited to have a sparkly thing on her head, aka halo.

See evidence below.

Andrew walking Little Bug to her part in the nativity.

And our little crew of actors! Such sweet little people.

Christmas morning...I think Little Bug is already chomping on a chocolate covered raisin. Santa must have read her letter.

Her favorite toy.

She tried with mixed success to commandeer the cooking toys from her cousin.

It really was a fun Christmas and Andrew and I are already sad we have to wait another year for it to come around again!

Let the battle continue

Running away from dad is the best