Xmas Card 2010

Ornament Bubbles Christmas

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Lightning!

It's been a while since our last post. Time has gone by fast because we've been so busy. The house is complete and we are in and pretty much settled, for the most part. Of course, there are always things to work on, as well as things that need fixing--even in a new house. We had lightning strike the marsh right behind our house a few weeks ago. Jackson & I were home and it felt to us like it actually hit the house--it was such a loud CRACK and we could just FEEL it. As a result of that, our main TV in the family room was fried, as were the two direct TV receivers, and our internet modem. All of it were on surge protectors. We were using two different brands of surge protectors--Belkin and Prime. What we noticed was that everything hooked up to the Belkin protectors survived, and the things plugged in to the Prime protectors got fried. Draw your own conclusions!! We are communicating with Prime, trying to get them to reimburse us for some of this stuff; we'll see what happens. We had to send in the surge protectors so they could test them and they were supposed to send us replacements in the mean time, which they did, but they were the wrong models! Again, draw your own conclusions. Would I personally buy Prime surge protectors again? Draw your own conclusions, just kidding, the answer is "NO!"

Another House Update -- The Punch List

So we are in the house, getting it set up and making it into a home, when we start to notice little things. Like nail pops in the walls and ceiling, some botched paint, a few places where the countertop needs to be buffed...okay, that's all to be expected. Little boo-boo's like that are what the contractor's "punch list" is for. However, how about this: the outside lights on our back deck were installed upside down! Huh??? Weren't these put in by professional electricians? What the heck? Seriously, they didn't notice? I really have to wonder if they did it on purpose as some kind of joke. What makes it even weirder is that the exact same light fixture is on the side of the house by the door coming from the garage, and that one was installed correctly. Go figure. By the way, they also "forgot" to install our doorbell! So if you stop by, be sure to knock loudly!

Books, Books, Books

Last year I read about 60 books. I am trying to beat that for this year; that's one of the reasons I keep my reading log on this blog. Some of my favorite things to read are series, so if anyone has suggestions on good series, I'd like to hear them. I've read all of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody Emerson series. I've read all the Sookie Stackhouses (so far) and the Twilight Series. I read about 5 or 6 books in the Anita Blake series and then got sick of it. I've read all the Harry Potters, I keep up with the Septimus Heap series, I have read books 1-3 in the Pendragon series, and am soon to finish the Percy Jackson series. So I'm ready for a new reading adventure!

Speaking of reading, I was surprised by and proud of Jackson yesterday. He earned a $25 Visa gift card from being one of the top popcorn-sellers in his cub scout pack. We went to Target and looked at just about everything in the store, and he decided to buy himself 5 Magic Tree House books (he apparently likes series, too). He actually had some other things picked out and in the cart, and he put them back after he found the books! So he spent his entire gift card on books, with no encouragement from me. And he's very excited about them and has been reading! Wow!

We're In!

We are in the new house! We are not settled in yet, but we are in. It is great to finally be living here and to finally be out of that yucky little place we were renting. Right now our great room is filled with boxes. We've made progress though; at first, we had a mountain of boxes in there and now we are down to a couple of hills. There's lots of work to do getting everything put away, but it's all good!

A Few Thoughts from Jackson - Snow!

It snowed last night, and we live in Richmond Hill. It's so weird that it snowed! Me and my mom went out and played in the snow last night. It's fun playing in the snow. We had a snowball fight. And I catched the snowflakes on my tongue. They taste really good. And I put some snow in the freezer and saved it! Then the snow melted this morning and there's no more snow outside. I wish it snowed more. I'm mad that there's no more snow.

I've seen snow four times in my life. Once when I was a baby, then once at Grandma's, and once at Grandma's again, and then last night. I love snow.

House Update

Well, we're getting closer. The hard flooring is pretty much done, so the carpet should be laid next. The bathroom countertops have been put in, and the plumbing fixtures should be going in soon. I'm looking forward to seeing the how the faucets we picked will look. We need to pick out some mirrors this weekend. Then the screen porches need to be installed on the decks outside...that seems to be about it. Hopefully just a few more weeks.
It is almost surreal when we walk through the house now, with it almost looking complete. I can't believe that soon we will actually be living there. I try to imagine what our furniture will look like in the rooms.
I had a dream the other night that I was unpacking some boxes and I found our casserole dishes. I was so excited (in my dream) and thought, wow, I can finally cook something! The meaning of the dream: we've been living with much of our stuff packed up for too long and need to finally move and unpack!