Whew!

What a wonderful whirlwind week/weekend we had!  Here are some photos of the festivities.

When we took Riley outside to "experience" the snow, we thought she was scowling, only to find that the hat I so lovingly picked out for her was too tight, which caused her eyebrows to scrunch together.  (She was happy again once we took the hat off.)

I took about three million photos of Riley in her high chair, but this sequence--on her first morning here, I think--is my favorite.

She shoots, she scores!  Riley is an outstanding baby in every way, and obviously she is an an up-and-coming basketball star.  Maybe she'll grow up to be 6' 3" like her dad?  Get a scholarship to U Conn?  Be the first basketball player EVER to wear a pink bow (and a "Daddy loves me" t-shirt)?

Bob made some fabulous desserts, as usual, but I was so caught up in taking pictures of Riley, this is the only one I photographed.  It was a blackberry cobbler.  Yum.

Most of our time was spent watching, entertaining, playing with, walking around with, and sleeping alongside of Riley, so I got lotsa pictures of those things.

And now, the house is lonely and quiet.  We had a great time this Christmas, but we missed Logan and Jody.  Next year, maybe?  I love you guys soooooo much!  Merry Christmas, everyone.

Happy Birthday to Betsy!

Today we celebrate the birthday of the amazing Betsy!

In addition to being the wife-extrordinaire of Duncan, she is also an accomplished runner, saver-of-the-environment, fund-raiser, pet-care-taker, healthy cook, thank-you note writer, and she just finished her first quarter of graduate school!  Wonder woman!

I'm so glad you have officially joined our family.  Happy Birthday Besty!  We looooove you!

Christmas with doggies

I don't know if you all follow Sarah Ause's blog, but she just posted an adorable video of dogs gettin' ready for Christmas.  I guarantee it will make you laugh loudly.  And then it will make you cry because you realize you want to adopt another pet, but you really, really can't.  Can you?



And now, I will return to grading.

Bye!

Winter wonderland II and Cool Hand Oscar

It's been snowing since the wee hours of the morning and we are accumulating even more snow.  It's the super-fluffy stuff so it is looking gorgeous outside.

Devon spent THANKSgiving with her mom in New Jersey so Bob and I got to hang with Oscar again!  We love him.  He loves his crate.

Update from SLC, 9:41 MST:  Still snowing.  Snow's getting deep.

Here's some-a that Christmas music I was talking about

Flash mob style. The Hallelujah Chorus is coming to a food court near you!  



I love this kind of "impromptu" performance, so I've begun to post flash mob videos on a companion blog, here.

Happy day after THANKSgiving to you!

Happy THANKSgiving (as they say in Texas)

I am thankful for you, and you, and YOU!

Bob and I are headed to Tuscany for THANKSgiving dinner today, but I'm determined to cook a turkey this weekend.  I wish y'all could be here to enjoy the day with us, but Christmas ain't too far away, so I can last until then.

Have a great day, everyone, and remember to count your blessings.  We all have so many!

Winter wonderland

Don't y'all want to move back to Utah? We have a winter wonderland going here! The birdhouses all have bouffount hairdos, and we are [I am] dangerously close to pulling out the Christmas music, even though it's only November 21.

I love winter in Salt Lake City.

Also, go RAMS...state champs.  Pretty impressive.

T-Mobile knows how to do ads

Heifers, goats, sheep, llamas, camels

Heifer International

"Heifer International is a nonprofit that alleviates hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation through gifts of food and income producing farm animals and training. These animals provide a source of protein, such as eggs and milk, for children and generate income for families through the sale of animal products. Since 1944 Heifer has helped over 4 million families in 125 countries become self-reliant. Each family "passes on the gift" by giving one or more of its animal's offspring to another family in need" (Source: http://www.heifer.org/).


Heifer India:



A 13-year-old's perspective:



How it works:



Shall we go for it?

Ta da

And here, I give you our finished bathroom! We're thinking about moving a little cot in there, just so the hominess of the room doesn't go to waste.

Goooooo Logan and Jody!

They both finished!  Pretty good, eh?  Congratulations for finishing the 2500th marathon!  Now you can enjoy the sights (assuming you both can walk).

• Here is the Athens Classic Marathon Web site!
• Check the results!  (Jody's bib # is 13191; Logan's is 13223.)  

Close approximation of Jody running

Close approximation of Logan running

Run well, lad and lassie!

He's back (but then he left again) but he'll be back tomorrow

Bob just returned from visiting the TWO MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRLS ON THE PLANET.  (Chris didn't get home from school until Bob left to visit his sister Janis.)  The first girl is the little one named Riley, who seemed to warm right up to Bob, despite his deep voice.

Second is the big one, named Lindy, who is holding the shy (at first) little one.

Riley and Lindy were photogenic as usual.  When I think "happy child," I think "Riley."  Look at her!

But I have to confess I was a little taken aback by the baby CamelBak (or is that a bong?).  They sure have invented a bunch of new stuff for babies since I was a young mom.  Lindy, can you 'splain it to me?

I love the orange/red color combination in this picture.  It's very becoming. And who wouldn't be happy when chewing on a plastic lid?

I think Bob tried to talk Rick into coming home with him, and it almost worked.  So close!

I wish I coulda been there!  I'm sure glad my better half was able to visit and take a lot of really cute pictures.

Special teaser:  The bathroom remodeling is finally done.  Stay tuned for photos.

Nous allons a la France!

For our MBA trip in May we will be visiting Aix-en-Provence, Lyon, Toulouse and PARIS!  We're going to be taking the TGV (high speed train) all over the country and we're starting to set up our business visits now.  We had so many students sign up for the France trip we had to offer a second section (which, thankfully, two other faculty members are going to lead).  It is going to be a fantastic trip!

We leave April 22, and return May 2.  We're pretty excited...

Not much progress, but cat hatches rock

Today I'd hoped to post pictures of our finished bathroom, but NO.  Why is it that at the beginning of a remodeling project contractors are practically giddy about tearing the house apart, but at the end, they can't seem to find time to put it all back together?  There must be some kind of natural law about that.

And so, I am here today to report that our house still looks like this.  (Note that the photo below looks  a lot like the photo at the bottom of this post from September 21st, except now our house is even dustier.  We haven't cleaned the house in three weeks.  What's the point?)

The good news is that Lindy's old room looks like this (although you can't see all the junk from the bathroom that's still piled up on the west side of the room):

But the bathroom looks like this (a big improvement, I'm sure you'll agree, and having the toilet finally re-installed is BIG, but the tub grouting, final coat of varnish for the door and floors, and a bunch of other little things still need to be done):

Sigh.  I just want to be able to get up in the morning and walk around the house in my robe without running into a guy I've never met before.  Is that so wrong?

In more interesting news, I looked out the window this morning and noticed our friendly neighborhood cat hatching a rock!

Maybe when it's born, it'll be a cat made of stone.

P.S.  Check out Saussie.com  if you haven't visited a few days.