So I understand that there's serious ice and cold weather back home today. Here, Nathan wore shorts to school. Now, it has gotten cold here. Here's a self-portrait of me, bundled up before going for a walk last week. No one ever takes pictures of me - and I'm usually horrified when they go - but I decided to take a pic of myself. Eric laughs at my 'save darfur' sweatshirt - but it's warm!

Notice the #43 car. The kid decided that he didn't like the green stripes he had painted on it. So mommy stands outside to sand the paint job down and repaint. Keep your fingers crossed - the derby is tomorrow. My dad has corrected me - he did not actually cut his finger off. Just a cut vertically through the nail. (And the slice on the forearm with the rotary saw, and the ...)

I finally finished re-quilting these two quilts. My mom's aunt made them for her when she was a girl. I took them with me to college and they just became mine. But by then, they were coming apart and the batting was coming out. I guess back when I was pregnant, mom dismantled the quilt squares with the intention that either she or I would reassemble them. I have carried those cotton-picked blocks around for 7 years! That's through 5 moves, stored in an old piece of luggage. I finally resolved to myself that I wasn't moving them again like that. It's taken me 6 months, but they're finally done. I love these quilts. I would never make the pattern myself, but I just love them. They are for display only! They are not going on a bed where a cat is going to hack up a hairball on them or a little boy will spill his fruit punch on them.

I suppose that's not so important in the grand scheme of things. Just one of those items on my to-do list that have been weighing me down. I'm trying to knock out as much of my to-do list as possible before I find a job. And I'm trying to get into the habit of exercising, so that when I'm working, I'll still make exercise a priority. Blech. I did buy a new exercise DVD that I like. It's amazing to me that I ever made it through 7 years of marching band - I obviously can't tell my right foot from my left.

I made our flight reservations to go see Eric. Nathan is very excited to go on a plane. I think he's just as excited to have Eric chase him around the hotel room (something that mommy just doesn't like to do).

Eric had the sniffles yesterday when I talked to him, but he sounded better today. He's acting first Sgt this week for his class. Apparently his brand of leadership is a shock to others in his class. His basic philosophy is that you figure out how to handle things on your own, the army isn't going to hold your hand for the simple stuff. Anyway, they're doing a field trip later this week. They get to got to Washington to play at Walter Reed. Not sure what else they're doing while they're there.

So if you have a facebook account, look him up. Somebody at sometime got him to register, and now he's got people coming out of the woodwork. Some who he insists he doesn't know. He says it's addictive - someone links to you, then you look at their friends and find people you haven't thought of for months. And he's right. I looked yesterday and found all sorts of people - people I went to high school with, the flag instructor I hated in high school, my cousins on my mom's side - even my uncle! I just don't get the attraction. It's not like I dislike the people I went to high school with - I guess I'm just not hard-wired to maintain long distance relationships. I can't imagine creating a profile on one of these websites and looking for people I haven't seen in 20 years (yes my 20th high school reunion is this year). The only reason I blog is to keep family and some friends posted on what we're doing out here. Oh well. To each his own. So invite Eric to be your friend, and be sure and add him to whatever silly online games you can do on facebook. I'm sure he'll love it!