It’s 9:06 a.m. according to my computer (which may or may not be right).  I don’t have a lot to tell anyone at this hour.  I got up just after 8:00 and exercised on my new treadmill.  Boy is that a fun toy!  Of course it’s in the basement right now, and I’d like to find a place upstairs to put it, but it works just fine where it is.  The only drawback to the basement is that Eric can’t do any woodworking stuff because it’s down there. 

I have no idea what I’ll be doing for the rest of the day.  I do need to exchange one blouse I got from my mom because it’s from New York & Co, and their shirts are too low-cut for me most of the time.  The blouse is way cute, but it’s as small as they come and the first button falls right below the top of my bra (and I don’t think anyone wants to see the little bow or rosette of my bra…except Eric, of course!).

We’re hosting a New Years party for our small group this weekend, so I suppose I could clean today.  We’ll see if that happens, though, since I also have all day tomorrow! 

Wow…what a week.  We got back from the farm last night, so I’ve spent today trying to clean up my house and sort out Christmas gifts and such.  It looks like we won’t have to exchange very much, so that’s really good!  Of course, Eric’s grandma gave us a Thomas Kincade nightlight which I have no use for, but I suppose I’ll just hide that in my guest bedroom (aka “the ugly room”). 

On Tuesday afternoon, we drove up to Amish country and went to a couple of bulk stores and a place that makes world-famous cheese.  I LOVE Pearl Valley cheese… I could eat it every day and never much get tired of it.  And the milk from Hogue Farms goes there, so they get a producer’s discount.  We didn’t ask for the discount, but we still got 4 types of cheese and some summer sausage for $12.  Yummy!

I don’t know what we’ll do for the rest of today.  I think we’re going to get Chinese food for dinner tonight.  As Eric says…the cheap stuff where you spend $10 and get 2 meals worth of food instead of the fancy stuff where you get half a meal for $20!  Of course, he likes both, but tonight he’s in the mood for the cheap kind, I guess.

My grad school application is complete now, so I guess I just have to wait until February or so to hear back from them.  I’m not sure what sort of response I’ll get from them.  I can’t imagine that I won’t be offered anything at all, but I’m still hoping I’ll get straight into the Ph.D. program, rather than have to do another M.A.  We’ll see, though, I guess.

Eric did not have to work today, so he turned off his alarm and his
light (which turns on automatically at 5:30), so we got to sleep in
today!  It was so nice!

I watched National Treasure this morning…one of my favorite
movies!  I think today sometime Eric and I are going to see
Narnia.  I’ve been waiting to see it, but our schedules have been
so full, we haven’t had time!  It’s crazy!

I also have to clean up my house from Karen’s party last night. 
She wasn’t surprised in the end…my dumb brother had Kelly call her,
so she figured it out for sure (she said she’d been suspecting it
anyway).  Still hearing Kelly talk on the phone with her was one
of the funniest things I’ve heard in a while.  That little girl is
quite a trip (Kelly, I mean)!

Today is Eric’s last day of work for the week.  He is very excited
about that, especially because he caught a cold this week.  I
suppose that means I might catch it just in time for Christmas…it
would figure!

I really need to clean up my house today, especially my kitchen! 
Why is it that thirty seconds after you finish cleaning a room, it’s
messy again?  I suppose it’s the problem of actually living in
your house…is it worse with kids?

Our party went well last night.  We played charades, which was interesting because a number of the group had never played before.  
That was crazy since the youngest members of the group are teenagers
and one of the adults had never played either!  But they picked it
up quickly, so next time we play it’ll go much smoother…

We are doing some drama for our Christmas morning service.  Our
church does a Ladies Christmas Tea every December (imagine a gym full
of round tables that look like JoAnn Fabrics exploded on top of them),
and we were the entertainment this year.  Anyway, the pastor’s
wife (who organized the Tea) just thought it was great, so Pastor asked
if we could do part of it (the spiritual part…go figure) for
Christmas morning.  Like we could say no…

Well…I have some errands to run and stuff to get done today, so I
think this is all for now.  Don’t worry, Trisha, I’ll probably
check again later!

So it’s 6:15 on Wednesday night, and I am wasting time before I go to a Christmas party for my drama group at church.  It should be fun, but hey…my presence almost guaranees fun!

I went to Battelle (where Eric works) to bring his contribution for their Christmas luncheon, and I got to stay and eat, too.  It was quite a spread!  I made green bean casserole and there’s plenty left for Eric to enjoy all by himself…he really likes it.  He’s actually watching me type this…I think Xanga is a new thing for him. 

Tomorrow, I, too, intend to clean and do laundry to prepare for the weekend.  At least I have all day and all day Friday and all day Saturday.  I guess I don’t really have to rush, then, do I?  Oh well!

Wow!  Trisha gave me 4 comments!  I may have to write three or four times a day now!

So…look at me writing again so soon!  I guess I never realized how much fun it is to get comments!   Alan, I’ll try not to get too far ahead of you!

Last night, Eric and I went to the Steven Curtis Chapman concert.  It was good, but I was very tired, and it was VERY long.  Kristie was right, Karen…SCC does talk too much!  But the music was good, and I got cheap cds!

Today I am grading in my office.  I have only FIVE more portfolios to grade…and I save the ones I know will be good until last so they don’t take as long as the others! Yeah!!!  Of course, I still have to grade bonus work, but I don’t spend very much time on that at all!  I figure it isn’t going to do much for most of their grades, but they think it’s cool that I offer it.  And it gets them to go to the Writing Center and the “cultural” activities on campus, so I figure it has to do them some good anyway!

I have a problem with my office.  When I walked in this morning, it was 50 degrees in here!  Two outside walls and a very bad heating system make it impossible to keep my office warm!  And I get so annoyed with those emails trying to guilt us into not using our space heaters…what else am I supposed to do here?  After 30 minutes in my office without a heater, I can’t write or type without gloves (and I can’t really write/type with them either ).  As it is, I never take my coat off…oh well…I guess I’ll just keep running my heater!  Besides, after 4 hours of using my heater, my office is a balmy 60 degrees!

I guess I don’t have much else exciting to tell you.  Mom isn’t at CU today, so I had to eat lunch by myself.  Oh well, I guess that was God’s way of getting me back to grading faster!  So I suppose I should get back to grading…

So…October is the last time I wrote on this thing…I’m really bad at web-journaling!

I’m done with classes, but not grading.  I have two stacks of
portfolios on my floor downstairs that I have to grade before
Wednesday.  But I’m going to try to get them done today…we’ll
see, though!

I also have to drive into downtown to drop off our “Adopt-a-Family”
stuff at the Salvation Army place there.  It’s actually very cool
to walk into this large chapel and see all the pews and the stage just
filled with boxes and bags of Christmas gifts provided by
strangers.  It kind of makes you feel good! 

Anyway, can’t wait to see everyone next weekend!  I have to think of a good idea for a gift card for our exchange!