Home Cozy Home

I wish that JD and I had some great adventure to tell you about this week, but the truth is that we're pretty much settled in for the winter. Besides Bible study and the occassional evening with friends, we're bunked up in the house, waiting out the cold weather. I had not realized that I'd never experienced winter before, living in Atlanta my whole life. 40 degrees is not winter; it's fall! But we are really enjoying our house, and since we've only posted pictures of my bookshelves (can you blame me?) and our paint jobs, I thought I'd put up a few pictures of other rooms in the house, since only the Ponds have seen them. We love our bedroom upstairs:

And our guest room is all set and ready for a guest.

Gizmo has taken to sleeping behind the TV (don't ask).

Is Winter Over Yet?

This was a crazy week: my first week of school, a snow day due to -40 degree temperatures, a frozen water pipe in our basement, and back pain plaguing JD once again. But all has now settled. Temperatures have risen to the balmy 20 degree mark, our water (and therefore toilets) now work again, and JD is feeling better. Needless to say, I'm already looking forward to spring!

On a different topic, I kept a list of every book I read during the 2008 calendar year, and my list is now complete, so I thought I'd post it in case anyone other than me cared. Books listed include only entire books read, so chapters read for class, magazines, audio books, or academic articles are not included. Books with stars were read specifically for school. On to reading for 2009!

Books Read in 2008

1) Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss (Jan)
2) The Chronicles of Prydian by Lloyd Alexander (Jan)
· The Black Cauldron
· The Castle of Llyr
· Taran Wanderer
· The High King
3) The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers
· A Voice in the Wind (Jan)
· An Echo in the Darkness (Feb)
· As Sure as the Dawn (March)
4) The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (Jan)
5) Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund (Feb)
6) The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (Feb)
7) Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald (Feb-March)
8) Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult (March)
9) Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (March-April)
10) Several ChLAs and short stories from American Authors anthology (April)
11) Sherlock in Love by Sena Jeter Naslund (May)
12) Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (May-June)
13) World Without End by Ken Follett (June-July)
14) Monster by Walter Dean Myers (June)
15) The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
· The Gunslinger (May)
16) Forever by Judy Blume (June)
17) Un Lun Dun by China Mieville (June-July)
18) Feed by M.T. Anderson (June)
19) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (June)
20) The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald (July)
21) Cut by Patricia McCormick (July)
22) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (July)
23) Cosmos Coyote and William the Nice by Jim Heynen (July)
24) Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (July)
25) Michael Rosen’s Sad Book by Michael Rosen (July)
26) Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne (July)
27) The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (July)
28) The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru (July-August)
29) The Blue Bottle Club by Penelope J. Stokes (August)
30) The Disobedience of Water by Sena Jeter Naslund (August)
31) The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve (August)
32) Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (August) **
33) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (September) **
34) The Shack by William P. Young (September)
35) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (September) **
36) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky (October) **
37) Revisionary Rhetoric, Feminist Pedagogy, and Multigenre Texts by Julie Jung (September) **
38) King Dork by Frank Portman (September)
39) Composition in the University by Shanon Crowley (September) **
40) Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (September) **
41) Terms of Work for Composition by Bruce Horner (September) **
42) What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones (October) **
43) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (October) **
44) Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire (October)
45) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (October) **
46) A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire (October-November)
47) Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (November)
48) Ghost World by Daniel Clowes (November)**
49) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (November)**
50) Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block (November) **
51) Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart
· The Crystal Cave (November)
· The Hollow Hills (November-December)
· The Last Enchantment (December)

Back in Normal...

We're back, and we were busy this week painting our kitchen. We tried a green color, which looked horrible, so we settled on a lavendar colorwash (yes, JD approved and loved it!). I'm so happy with the finished product; it's a huge improvement over the ugly wallpaper!!

Saturday, JD's basketball team, the Polar Bears, had its first game. They don't keep score for the 5-year olds, but JD's team did a great job! Only a few kids ran for the wrong basket, and only a few others blocked their own teammates in their haste to get their chance with the ball. But JD was a wonderful coach, patient and kind, exhausted after a hour!

I'll leave you with a video of the latest snowfall in our backyard while JD talks about what to eat for lunch. It's cold!

So Many Babies!!

JD and I had a nice week back in Illinois after the Christmas holidays; we settled in and tried to re-establish our routines. I continued working on academic papers while JD worked a couple of days, and we decided to start painting the kitchen. On New Year's, we saw The Curious Incident of Benjamin Button, a great movie that we both would recommend (although JD would warn that it's long. I wouldn't). On Friday, we traveled to Kansas City, KS - where JD lived during his sophomore and junior years of high school. We visited JD's close friend Brian, his wife Heather, and their 9-month old, Kyla.

It was a lazy weekend of eating, playing darts, and shopping. We even went by JD's old house.

We also went by Dick's sporting goods and watched as Brian and Heather climbed the rock wall there. I got to babysit!

Today we returned home to unpack yet again. I have one week (of painting, reading, writing, and preparing) of vacation left before I return for Spring semester. JD's heading back to work tomorrow. Hopefully, next week I'll have some pictures of a completed kitchen!