We’re heading down to Tumwater to celebrate friendship and mark our growth through the passage of time. See you in ‘08!

You know that strange feeling when you feel like you have a lot and absolutely nothing to write? That’s where I am right (ha! Almost typed “write”) now. Christmas and its preparations have come and gone, and now I’m awaiting the new year and impending return of school.

Christmas was good. It kind of felt like our first Christmas together, since last year we were with family the whole time instead of having much time just us. In related news, I feel very married and settled. Didn’t think marriage was a feeling, did ya? Well, apparently love is a choice and marriage is a feeling. At least today it is.

Back to Christmas. We slept in, opened stockings and presents (I insisted that we have stockings–they’re just fun! How else can you give your husband a toothbrush and call it a present? Now Jamie’s toothbrush is bright green so I don’t mistake it for mine. Not that I’d ever do that), then ate breakfast and putzed around until it was time to go to Tacoma for Christmas linner/dunch with Jamie’s family. Delightful. Then to dessert with my family…mmm… cheesecake. I love to see my family, but it doesn’t ever seem like enough time.

We spent the night at Jamie’s parents’ house and then Jodi, Donna, and I braved the mall on the day after Christmas. Turns out it’s tough to return something to Old Navy when you have neither a receipt nor tags. Oops. After that, we went to Babies R Us to look at cribs and the like (for Jodi’s baby, calm down!). One of the good things about having a pregnant sister-in-law is that it’s a great excuse to look at absurdly cute baby stuff and pick things out when you’re still a year or two before needing them. It’s also a great excuse to knit absurdly cute baby stuff, but I’m waiting until they find out if it’s a boy or a girl to start that part.

Now we’re back to ordinary life sans work, though I did go to school today to tame the chaos that is my classroom and I’ll probably go to Starbucks to grade papers tomorrow. Just taking care of the hubby and hanging out. I could get used to this. :)

Yes, I have been pleased with my recent purchase of a ‘Wii’ console gaming system. See how carefully I wrote that sentence to avoid everyone’s inner 12-year-olds? It’s worse than selling a Chevy Nova in Mexico.

Anyhoo. It’s the first non-PC gaming system I’ve owned since my Commodore 64, and I’ve been delighted that it’s broken through my cynical & jaded gamer outlook to provide some moments of pure glee. I’ve been leisurely exploring Super Mario Galaxy, but have gotten still more mileage out of the bundled Wii Sports – Tennis mostly. Did you know that your ratings graph goes up outside of the entire graph pane at about 2020? :-)

Hey you in WA. Why don’t we hang out more? You know, now that we can. I need to be more intentional about getting together with all those friends we were excited to see when we moved back.

One of the many joys of marriage is discovering how weird you are. Today’s example: tomato soup with hot dogs. Did anyone else’s family eat their tomato soup with sliced up hot dogs in it? We did. Jamie thinks that’s weird.

Some teachers take “Mental Health” days–a day off to decompress and rejuvenate and in general make oneself a more balanced person.

Do people in other careers do this? Or are teachers the only ones who come unglued once and a while?

I may or may not be taking a mental health day in the near future.

This was a very abnormal week. First, I had something keep me after school every day, which I don’t like. That made me feel like I was constantly playing catch-up, rather than actually getting things done. Hallelujah that there are only seven school days until break! (Well, six if you don’t count the day I’m taking off for my sanity.)

Then there was the deluge. In case you haven’t heard (although I’m told it made the national news), it rained a little bit here over last weekend. It didn’t stop raining until some time on Tuesday. I’d never seen anything like it. Downtown Town Where I Teach was flooded, and two of the main roads to our school were closed. It’s a bad sign when you’re told to start calling parents to come get there kids early if they can. At least one of said parents had to hitch a ride on a canoe to come get her kid. Luckily none of the roads I take were closed and I got home just fine and enjoyed Thai takeout and Wii with Claudia and Jamie.

Yes, Jamie bought a Wii. He’ll let you know about that later.