Dear Katie,

My sweet darling child, is it fun talking to your animals in the dark, at 4 am, on a day I need to work? I'm sure you are just telling them all about your dreams and such, but it really can wait until later. Also, it doesn't have to happen 2 out of 5 work days either. I know I am asking a lot, but please give this matter some attention. When you hold your conversations this close to the 5:30 alarm, it makes work real hard. You know, if you could just wait until then to hold your conversations, I wouldn't have to wake you up. It's a win-win situation.

Love,
Your sleep deprived Mama

More to the update

I wanted to publish the last one so I wouldn't suddenly lose anything.

Earlier this month I gave my first presentation for work--Water Quality Monitoring in the Distribution System. I was kind of nervous, but I got through it and my audience was receptive and asked a lot of questions. It's good to get one under my belt. As I got more into the presentation, I started finding my rhythm and was more comfortable. I was worried I wouldn't know what I was talking about, but I fooled everyone! Ha ha. I knew what I was talking about and it felt good. I kind of had an out-of-body experience when I started listening to what I was saying. Who knew I knew all that? Sometimes it just seems like I'm going on and doing the same thing day in and day out, but I really do know my stuff. It is a satisfying feeling.

Other than that, things have just been pretty normal and not too exciting around here.

Long Time No Post (started 1/3/07)

Well, the holidays are over and life is getting back to normal. We had a great holiday season. Well, I did anyway! It was especially great once Katie was better.

Christmas Eve we hosted Ben's family. Some of them made it for church and the others made it for a late lunch. Katie didn't know what to think of all the people in her house, but finally started warming up to everyone about an hour after her nap was over. It was fun to have everyone there, but it did make me tired. I guess that is what the holidays are for, right? I made an awesome roast for our meal. I used onion and portabello mushroom with the good ole' salt and pepper. I didn't really need the knife to cut it into pieces. I might just have to go get one for dinner this week.

Christmas morning I woke up around 5. I think I was still on work time. That or Charlie was crowding me on the bed. She tends to take too much of her alotted space. She now sleeps on the floor or couch when we don't watch her. Anyway, I was up and not getting back to sleep, so I decided to cut the fruit for the fruit salad for breakfast. Then I started surfing the net. I got caught up on everyone's blogs and started waking people up because I wanted to open presents! Katie made out like a bandit. I don't think she knew what to do with everything. I think she had too many options and just wanted to hold the presents wrapped in the pretty paper. She was so good about it though. We all got ready and picked up my Grandma and went to my parents' for breakfast.

When Steve and I were young, we started making Christmas breakfast for mom and dad. At the time, we thought we were being all sneaky and they didn't have a clue what was going on. As I got older I realized they knew exactly what was happening, but pretended very well they didn't. They let us have our "suprise" time. The first time we made breakfast, we went all out and made a menu, prompting them to choose the breakfast burritos since that was really the only thing we made before we got them up. We woke them up (they were very good to stay in their room and pretend to still be asleep) and gave them little bowls with lemon water to wash their hands, gave them the menu then escorted them to the living room where we had set two places in front of the tree.

(I wrote the last part at the beginning of January and finally getting around to posting more on Jan 25. Oops!)

We continued making Christmas breakfast until we were in high school. Then, mom took over and we've just been bringing the side items since. It's a good tradition though!

After breakfast, we opened presents. Mom kept saying she was sorry it was so slim in the gift department (she'd been battling illness so didn't go shopping much), but we didn't really care. For me, Christmas is more about being with family than presents anymore.

We ate a late lunch of our traditional Honey Baked Ham. It was so good! After that, people kind of scattered throughout the house to play games or take naps. All in all, a good day.

Then, the next day came our present from mom and dad. They took the whole family--minus Katie--to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was a sight to see. I really enjoyed the concert, but they could have brought the volume down just a bit. Does that make me old? But, it really was too loud because at times the guitar was distorting. I don't think they meant for it to be that much. Katie stayed at home with Joy and they very much enjoyed themselves.

So, that was Christmas. For New Year's, we went to John and Cheron's house. There were several families there so it was quite noisy at times. But, I think everyone pretty much had a good time. I tried something thatI can't believe I would ever try. Darren brought some sodas (I can't even think of the name of the company, but they are the same ones that will put your picture on the bottle) that were turkey dinner flavors. JONES! That's what it was! So, there were 5 different flavors: sweet pea, turkey dinner, dinner roll, sweet potato, and antacid. To be a good sport, I tried them. One word to describe it: YUCK! But, I had to do it. After all, when we were in Maine for our honeymoon, I had to try the lobster ice cream. Yup, as gross as it sounds. We rang in the new year and were home in bed by 12:30.

We're so old. But, I don't feel old.