Most Recent Reading

I bought this book back before Christmas, and have not gotten too far into it. It is titled "Getting Stoned with Savages" (available here from Amazon) by J. Maarten Troost. I would classify it as a travel memoir, comical at times, dry and hard to read at others. I thought it was going to be similar to "Driving over Lemons" by Chris Stewart (another travel memoir writer), but it is not. I read Stewart's book back in the summertime, and it was a pretty good read. I will continue on with this one, but at the rate I am reading, it may be next Christmas before I finish it!

Good Listening

For Christmas, I got a new CD that is well worth sharing. It is by Wes Tucker & The Skillets, titled "Beauty in the Broken". I know what you are thinking, can it be good if it has the word skillet in the band's name? Do not be fooled by the quasi silly name of the band, they are for real and very legit.
I am not sure how I came across this band, but I am sure glad I did. According to the band's web site, they shift from folk rock, to funk, to gospel, to soulful ballads in the space of a set list, drawing comparisons to artists like Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and Bob Dylan. I am a huge Ben Harper and Jack Johnson fan, and would put them into that category with a definite dash of Bob Dylan like folksy flare. They are from the Washington DC area, so if you get a chance to check them out, you will not be disappointed!

It has been awhile.....

The New Year has been upon us now for almost 2 weeks and I have not made a blog entry. Shame on me! I have been busy, things are gaining full speed at work, the kids are keeping us on our toes at home, and other than that, I have no other excuses (are any needed really???).
Anyways, I just wanted to take a quick moment and make an entry and say that there is something exciting that I want to share, but I cannot do it just yet. Give me a little more time and I will spill the beans!

Almost there....

Our son has made some great strides the last 3 nights, and he is about to reach a monumental accomplishment. He has made it through the last 3 nights without having any accidents, and if he goes for 2 more, he will graduate to big boy pants, YEAH! He has done this all on his own, and he is very proud of himself (as are we). He is the last one to make the transition, so once he is done, we can say bye bye to pull ups in the house! Happy Days are almost here!

6:21 A.M.

OK, so I am starting to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. It was another early morning for me as I sprinted down the hallway into the girls' room to try and quiet Maris down. She was sitting up in her bed, crying and screaming for Mommy. She woke her sister up, who was asleep in the next bed (had she not, I would have been worried that Lillian may have a hearing problem, because Maris sounds like a plane taking off, but I digress). I guess by now it is to be expected that Lillian would be woken up, but I was really trying to get to her before she woke up Wilson. Mission accomplished, I had quited her before she was able to wake up the ENTIRE house.
I just do not know what is going on here, we have tried putting them to bed later in hopes that they would sleep in (by the way, does not work). We have even tried putting them to bed earlier thinking that maybe they are not getting enough sleep (this does not work either). I guess we should come to grips with the fact that this is the time that she is going to get up (at least for now until I can figure something else out or she just outgrows it).
In other news, I took the kids to see Santa on Saturday. This was the second time in their life that they have physically seen him and let me tell you it was a much better experience than last year! Last year they cried the whole time, this time, they kept telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas. All in all, they enjoyed it, but we will most likely take them again since the pictures I took did not turn out as well as I would have liked (yes, we have become one of those families that pimps out the kid pictures when we can, we are going to use them for Christmas cards).