The shortest month is strangely eternal

February is the longest, hardest month. This year we've seen many slight snowfalls that have cancelled public schools a few times, and this has improved house morale, but still, February is a bummer. This is what we were up to this time last year:


Last year I swore that we would get out of town this February to escape the endless cold, dark days. It's not happening no matter how many email last-minute cheap weekend package deals I view. I can't drop $1000+ for all four of us to spend the weekend in Cancun, Vegas, or similar. Instead, we went to the downtown post office and got the paperwork going for A's passport and L's renewed passport in preparation for big travels this summer. We got out of the stuffy passport office in record time, less than an hour! It took much longer to get A's passport picture taken at CVS last night (it was a horrible scene and I was in tears by the time we got home. She just totally resisted). The CVS people were great, though.

I spent a lot of time in this chair last February.



Two weeks to spring break for me! Not that we're going to Cancun or anything, but still.

Baby's first birthday

Presenting the one-year-old! L claims to have taken this picture.



We had great plans to bake a chocolate cake in this heart-shaped tube pan that I've never used, but it leaked out the bottom and all over the oven, so that didn't work. So, the remaining batter was baked in a square pan, and this was the result. It was yummy, especially after being improved with berries and chocolate syrup. V's chunk was reduced to crumbs in seconds.



After the cake, we went to CMOE. One awesome thing that they are doing these days is carpet skating. You put these slippery things on the bottom of your shoes and go for it. Grammy skated for a bit, and then Abba did. V loves it, as does L, of course.

V is starting to get into different parts of the museum.

She even climbed up on the giant lego table.

Happy birthday to our sweet baby! I can't believe a year has passed. V is so great and so funny; I can hardly remember what it was like before she came along. She is starting to say some identifiable words ("bye-bye Lilah," "baby," and "ball") and she's into everything. Soon she'll be walking and it will be even crazier!

scenes from last weekend

It snowed some last weekend, and it is going to snow a bit more tonight. Today it rained all day and there is currently no snow on the ground. Our front yard is a muddy mess.

Anyway, lots of people - including us - go to the mall when it snows here. What's to like at the mall?? Well, lemonade and soft pretzels for one.

And then there's the carousel. This was Vi's first Evansville carousel ride!

And there's the playground. Now that Vi can play too, one can actually sit and observe with coffee when there aren't many kids around. When there are lots of kids in there, we have to be vigilant so that Vi won't be trampled. We almost always see people we know there. Other mall highlights include the seasonal Israelis who work the kiosks. Only a few remain, and I didn't get any pictures of them.

see?

I look better now!

What a relief, and just in time for my 20th high school reunion! My mom brought a bunch of VHS tapes of various high school events so M could convert them to DVD. He is in love with my high school graduation one, in which he thinks I look "miserable." If I can stomach it, I'll try to at least get a still from the post-ceremony misery in the parking lot posted here soon.

our new adult lifestyle

We are no longer staying home having fun all the time. Now M works. He doesn't actually make money though; instead, he is a slave to the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, and we are actually paying tuition for him to work at Bosse High School 7-3 every day. And now that our Paseo is officially out of our lives (totalled!) he walks to and fro! Through the ice and snow! In single-digit temps! It's quite heroic. And he wears a proper outfit and shoes and all that (I'll have to take a picture to prove it).

Meanwhile, I deal with the morning routine and have Vi until noon. We do storytime, go food shopping, hang out at Penny Lane, etc. Then I go to work and she is babysat until 4 or so, when M picks her up. We all reunite in the early evening already after dark, except on Mondays when M actually has to attend a class at USI across town and on Tuesdays when I teach until 8:45. All of this means that we have rather limited family time and M hardly ever sees the girls on weekdays (it's seriously depressing). It also means that I will miss the season premiere of Lost next week.

I know that most people live like this, but we haven't. We made a conscious decision to live cheaply in a tiny house with no cable and within walking distance to school so we could live on my salary. It will only be like this until the first week of May, though, and we have already gotten through three weeks of the semester. Only thirteen more to go. It's kind of flying by, actually.

Next up: baby's first birthday! Grammy is here and soon there will be cake.

post-Christmas fun

Here's a cute picture of cousins and Aunt Ashly. It's been so long already.