New Hair!!

Usually, my long-hair days last longer than one year, but with all the heavy coats and static electricity up here in winter, I couldn't put up with it a day longer. So, I chopped it off, again. It's nothing new, and I've gone much shorter before, but it sure does feel good! (And yes, JD likes it!).

Gizmo recently had an encounter with a squirrel!

She cornered her quarry...

And attacked!!

Gizmo can be pretty ferocious.

Our New Church

Eastview Christian Church has been growing a bigger and bigger part of our lives up here in Normal. We joined a small group in November, as soon as I felt capable of handling an extracirricular, and as most of you know, God had his hand on that group forming. When we attended Connections, we met only one other couple our age, but the four of us met socially and prayed that God would lead others to fellowship with us. Within a couple of weeks, we had three more couples. The group now consists of ten strongly committed individuals who meet weekly to share and learn from God's word. JD and I immediately got targeted as small group leaders when Eastview heard that we hailed from Andy Stanley's Northpoint Church! Since then, JD's volunteered as a basketball coach for Upward Bound (which he alternatively regrets and enjoys), and has been asked to be a coach for the adult league beginning in March. Because of these opportunities, we are at the church a lot, and we're getting to know a good group of folks there. I guess I tell you all this because it feels so good to have found a church home here. The first time JD and I were ever here in Normal (back in June for a children's literature conference), we made an appointment to see a house for sale, and the owners told us about Eastview when they heard we were Christians. God has had all this planned for so long, and I am so blessed to have a husband that leads our family in faith.

And for those of you who like to keep up with Gizmo, she's still hibernating, awaiting Spring.

Valentine's Day

John David and I had a fun Valentine's Day this year. We celebrated on Friday because we wanted to attend ISU's orchestra concert; they were pretty good! Beforehand, we got dinner at Destil, a nice restaurant in town that I've always wanted to try but was waiting for a special occassion. Saturday morning, we tried a new scone recepie (JD's always searching for a good one). We ended up spending Valentine's evening with some friends from our small group, Justin and Ashley. We played games and ate pizza. It's nice to be making couple friends up here finally. For me, the semester is reaching the point where I'm tired of doing the work. My work ethic is decreasing, but if I can get past the next couple of weeks, I'll move into the final semester phase: resignation. That will get me through to final exams. John David has only 2 weeks left in his basketball league, but he's thinking of joining a men's team himself in March. Good thing I like watching basketball games!

Life

No kidding - at this moment, JD is running around the first floor in his pajamas, chasing Gizmo under the kitchen table. It's a crazy house I live in.

It wants to be Spring, but it's still Winter. We've had a couple of teasing days that have reached the high 50's, but the forecast calls for the 30's again this weekend. We're told that middle Illinois is famous for extreme temperature changes during Spring, but it must be famous among itself because I'd never heard of that before.

JD's basketball team, the Polar Bears, reached an all-time high this past Saturday when their players managed to dribble with only one hand.

I've already had to pull two students into my office to discuss the fact that they're failing my class. Neither of them turned in their first papers. A third student asked me for a tissue the other day. I hadn't realized that I was his mother.

JD had a runny nose for 2 days last week, promptly passing his cold along to me - a cold that I've now suffered with for 8 days.

On a higher note, only 12 more weeks of school until summer. And then summer classes. And then 3 more years...

Working Weekend

I was so excited to find a dresser on Craig's list that I loved and could afford, that I didn't much worry about the fact that it was in Chicago - until I told JD. But he agreed to make it part of his work day on Friday, since he would be up closer to Chicago anyway (we live about 2 1/2 hours away, but some days JD works only 45 mins south of the city). So I accompanied him to work on Friday, reading homework in a coffee shop until he finished up. We then tried the famous Chicago Giordano's pizza, but were pretty diappoined (sorry, Justin!). We headed north and found our dresser in a downtown loft. We succeeded in lugging it down to the underground parking garage but soon realized that it wouldn't fit in the Jeep, and if we tried to tie it onto the roof of the Jeep, we wouldn't clear the parking garage ceiling. We ended up having to work in a windy Chicago back alley after dark, trying to secure the dresser to our roof (my job was to watch for "sketchy people" wandering down our alley). But it worked, and we got our dresser home safely!

Saturday also involved furniture work as my parents' Christmas present to us arrived: a kitchen cart that we're using for an island. It took some assembly, but now it's perfect!

Our hard work was relieved on Sunday when we got to take a break for a Superbowl party. We brought snacks to our friends' Justin and Ashley's home where several of our other Bible study members also showed up. It was a nice ending to a busy weekend!