Christmas reading

 I haven't read as much as I thought I would over this break.  Here are the three books I've read cover-to-cover:

Her Daughter's Dream is the second of two books recently released by Francine Rivers - definitely a family saga.  They're both really good and I recommend reading them both.  It's a big book and I read it in about two days.

 

 Chip The Dam Builder, c. 1950

by Jim Kjelgaard (same author as Big Red, which was made into a Disney movie)

I read this from Knoxville, TN to Hickory, NC during our drive to mom & dad's before Christmas.  It tells about a beaver and his run-ins with lots of other animals: lynx, owl, bear, deer, otter, muskrats, etc.  Ryan got this book as a discard from the Oshawa Public Library.  When I was trying to find a picture of the cover for the blog, I discovered that used copies go for at least $50 on the Internet!

Hell's Corner (refers to the park in front of the White House)

I got this for my mom for Christmas and read it in about a day. =)

There's still time for more books!

recent artwork

I haven't really done any artwork lately.  This is a scratch art of Toby (Ryan & Jaclyn's dog) that I started in August and finally finished and gave to Jaclyn.

holiday time

It seems like Thanksgiving and Christmas are totally smashed together these days.  Coming back from Thanksgiving break means a mad dash involving the SA banquet, campus lighting, Christmas concerts, and exams.

We came home from Collegedale with a kitty!  She showed up on Thanksgiving and decided she loved us.  We ended up deciding that it would be nice to have a cat living in our yard.  She's done really well and comes inside the garage to sleep when it's really cold.

Ryan decided the cat should be named Rookie.  It's hard to come up with a female sports cat name we discovered.

Ryan talked me into finally getting a Christmas tree on Thursday.  When I came home from work last night, he had cut the trunk and bottom branches off and had it in the stand ready to decorate.  So he and I had a tree decorating contest in the living room last night.  His tree is in our bedroom this year so we can work on reorganizing the other two rooms to make room for the baby somewhere.

We're heading to GA with the Rilea clan on Thursday for the weekend.  After that, 3.5 days of school left and then Ryan & Jaclyn come up for a sports extravaganza weekend.  Before we know it, 2010 will be history . . .

13 weeks

Ryan got to come with me on Thursday when I had my second OB appointment in Nashville.  Besides the regular check-up stuff, we heard the heartbeat for the first time, which was really cool.  We could see it in the first ultrasound, but it was neat to hear.  I actually lost weight over the last 5 weeks, which makes sense because I haven't felt like eating.  I go back again for my next appointment on January 4.

Here's the only ultrasound picture we have from October 29 (8 weeks).  We won't have another ultrasound until 20 weeks if everything is going ok.