Pictures of Gordon!

Gordon is a very small campus, and here are some snap-shots of us around it!

Here we are in front of Tavilla Hall, where I roomed my senior year with 6 wonderful women. and here I am with my wonderful hubbie! This was taken after we visited the chapel, where I neglected to take a photo....

Jon at the Gordon Gazebo, reading about the historicalness of the bell. What is not on the plaque is that this bell is rung everytime someone gets engaged - and if you ring it while NOT engaged, you won't be married for 7 years (or something like that). So I didn't ring it, and I still didn't get married until 6+ years after Gordon. We did ring it though! (well, kinda knocked on it because the ringer is hard to use...)

In the gazebo. I'm very very happy.

LIBRARY!!!! I may have kissed him in the library a few times... maybe.....

And that's the quick tour! It was fun to show him around - much more fun however knowing that life has been so much more adventurous since then...

Mental snap-shot of Satuday morning

This past weekend was absolutely amazing for many many reasons. Here is one of the moments that is standing out in my head right now:

Saturday morning I took Jon to Gordon, my undergraduate alma mater. On the way there, I realized my graduation ceremony was last time I had been on the campus! It had been nearly 7 years since I had last trotted around here and a great many things have changed since then. I've gone to pursue higher education, lived in another country, worked in many interesting places, and God brought the love of my life to Annapolis and saw to it that we married. How marvelous.

Driving up to the campus was very odd and surreal . Part of me shook in delight to share this place with Jon, another part began to fear final exams, heavy back-packs, and general college anxieties that were related to this place!

These were allayed once we started walking around and seeing the "sights." Our first stop was the chapel, where we were required to go to chapel twice a week. And because I have always tried to avoid as many unnecessary decisions in my life as possible, I sat in the exact same area in the chapel all 3.5 years that I attended Gordon, as it was one less decision to make!  So I immediately knew where to take Jon - about 5th pew the from front, far left hand side.

We ambled up to the row, and I remembered distinctly heading to these pews on September 11th around noon.  We had heard classes were canceled and there was a service in the chapel. Clear as day I saw my friend Bethany's face across aisle, shock and sorrow etched deeply in her expression, and myself coming to a deeper realization of what had happened.

As I related this to Jon, tears began welling up in my eyes out of no where. I'm not one to cry, so when I do I surprise myself and try to pay closer  attention to my emotions. I thought maybe it was the sadness of the memory; maybe it was to some extent. However my heart was filling with Joy! It then dawned on me I was standing with the love of my life in a place that had been fraught with much wondering about my future: who I would become, what I would do, and if I would ever ever find someone to marry. College was indeed an emotionally tumultuous time for me, as it is for many of us, and much of this wondering had happened in these pews. And now I was here with my dear husband, my greatest earthly blessing. With two masters degrees and a successful career. And with a great deal of hope in the goodness that is to come because of what God has done in my life, and what He will continue to do in our lives.

Jon smiled as tears merrily trickled down my cheeks and held me close, and I just enjoyed the moment relishing God's faithfulness, provision, and the Hope he has provided through Christ and His love, and the faith we can have in His future provision.

It was a good, good day.

Fridays with Friends

Today we spent the day hanging out with my college roommate, Kate, at her parents house, which is one of the most welcoming and creative places in the world. Today included incredible meals (Kate is a brilliant cook it turns out!), creative crafts, good friends, and fun games (Settlers, classic). It's good to be in a place that felt like home so many years ago (I graduated college end of 2003) and still feels home-like in many ways. Granted we've all changed, had life-changing experiences, married, and are significantly different than who we were in under-grad. That said - unconditional love and acceptance abounds here, and that will always be truly wonderful.

first married road trip

This morning began our first married road trip! They really aren't too different from dating/engagement, however it is fun to celebrate all the little "firsts"!

We got out the door on time, and the roads were amazing! Jon let me sleep in the morning, so it felt like only a 7 hour trip to me, and not 9.5 hours. The roads were clear, and it was fascinating to watch the weather turn colder and the terrain turn rockier on our way up here!

This evening I was able to introduce Jon to the Lewises, my college roommate's parents (and who are letting us stay at their home!), which was an absolute delight. There are so many good memories here; it is fun to share this with Jon.

Tomorrow bodes well: playing with friends and chilling out.

travels!

Hi Friends-
Apologies for not blogging last night - I was in the middle of making cupcakes for the big game today (Marseilles vs. Manchester United) and forgot until it was too late! I did take pictures however, and will put up a blog post with all of them.

The teams tied 0-0 for those who are interested.

Tomorrow we're leaving for our trip up north to see a friend of mine wed and visit other friends who are in the area. We're excited for the adventure! I will update as I can, but if you don't hear from me, we will update in full upon arrival back in the "south".

Cheese dough

In our latest implementation of create-your-own-pizza, I made a cheese dough pizza. Not cheese crust, where a lining of cheese is added around the perimeter when laying out the dough. Cheese dough. I had been thinking about this option for a while but never tried it. For those of you who know the recipe, into a doubled recipe (based on 4 cups of flour), instead of adding thyme & rosemary, I added thyme & about 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan into the dry mixture and mixed it all up before pouring in the liquid ingredients.
The result was subtle, but VERY tasty. I'd call it a success!

A game called "Poo"

Tonight we played a game called "Poo" with our friends. A first a bit skeptical, before we knew it we were howling laughing at the ludicrousness and fun of it all! [for those of you familiar with "Bang!", it is like that, only much simpler and funnier).

The setting is that we (the players) are all monkeys who have gotten a little upset with each other and begin throwing *ahem* excrement at each other. Everyone has 5 cards which determines what you can throw, how you can dodge, how you can "clean", and of course various mis-haps and wrentches you can throw into the game.

There are different ways of dodging the organic substance, for instance by grabbing a buddy next to you or using a leaf. You can also shake yourself off, which is unfortunate for your buddies who take a hit. You keep a tally of how much has been flung at you and after 15 hits, you are out of the game. At the end of the game there is a winner, the cleanest monkey, but most of all, it is just plain fun! As you may well imagine, with some creative players (tonight they were mostly male...) this can get quite funny.

In other news, we got excellent head-way on thank you cards today, so I'm optimistically predicting first week of March they will be all in the mail.  (we didn't take good card to record the gifts as they came in, so we are compiling the shipping receipts now)

Additionally I was able to admire Jon all day as he diligently plowed through his work. His concentration and focus are truly admirable!

Sundays :o)

Today was Sunday. It started with church, and then it followed by small group.

I am really enjoying small group. It is genuinely small (about 7 people), with two other married couples and a single guy who is fresh out of high school. We broke off from the main young adults group as it was getting quite large, and it seems that we are the adults that are not too "adultish" yet (maybe it's because we don't have kids) and the out-of-highschool kids feel comfortable around.

Today we were called the "creative" group from the pulpit - which we didn't know whether to take that as a compliment (like we are the think-tank for the church) or as "we don't really understand those folks, so we put them in a group by themselves." Either way, we got a kick out of it.

After small group, I (Sara) was coming off a sugar crash (they had those really good softee cookies there...) and took a coma-like nap. Then Jon made pizza for dinner and we started on thank-you cards with Chariots of Fire playing in the background. That movie simply does not grow old!

New kids to play with

I (Jono) finally found a pick-up soccer group to play with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, that merited 18 exclamation points. I've been missing it! There is an informal group around here called Reston Pick-up Soccer (RPS for short), and they play Saturday mornings. Today was when they started playing again after the snowy month. There were about 15-20 men, and we played for 2 hours. It was wonderful! The jogging is starting to pay off, as I didn't get too wiped out while playing. Although I still need to get my body used to this exertion: after I opened the score, I had to take it easy for a few minutes while I caught my breath. And yes, I actually scored the first goal! I wasn't expecting that since I haven't maintained my soccer reflexes, but I managed to get myself open in front of the goal, and a team mate gave me a beautiful pass perfectly placed for me to shoot it in. Awesome! This group has the right amount of skill (none of the players seemed to be beginners and no one stood out as a star player who would always do things right) and the right amount of competitiveness (everyone's trying to win, but there's nothing derogatory expressed when someone messes up). Fun group all around!
Today was unusually windy, which brought an added element of interestingness to the game. But the windiest bursts occurred after we had switched sides and my team was progressing in the same direction as the wind, so I didn't mind too much, :-) although long passes became less effective.

After playing 2 hours I felt happy all day and my body a little too tired to be productive. I need to get this to be a habit again!

On a related note, Marseille is playing against Manchester United on Wednesday for a place in the Champions League 1/4-finals. Allez l'OM !

eureka moments

So tonight I was beginning to think over everything we have to do this weekend, and the following conversation ensued:

Sara: (dramatically) We have so many things to do this weekend! I don't know if I'll ever be able to get it all done!

Jon: (reasonably and kindly) Sara, life is like that. There will always be things to get done. You better get used to it.

Sara: (humbly) You're right.

So here's to a weekend (and a 3 day weekend at that!) to getting things done, and being okay with the things that won't be getting done!

pass-out naps

Today I got home early and was completely tuckered out from a brain-heavy day. Jon was working and I was lacking the energy to process even the simplest bit of information (particularly anything involving productivity or movement. So I did what any other mentally-tired person would do - I stayed put on the couch.

About 1 hour or so later Jon woke me up from a deep deep sleep. And spent the next 15 minutes laughing at me incredulously as I tried to make sense out of life.

It was amusing. And that about sums up my day!

Mission Aviation Fellowship

First, I need to set a new goal to update this blog BEFORE 11pm, at which point I have zero energy to put my thoughts together in a coherent form. So here, in a quick list, are the things I'm thinking about:

• Tonight we had a long conversation with friends of Jon's from Christ Church, the church he attended in Grand Rapids. It is a couple going on the mission field with Mission Aviation Fellowship to Indonesia, where they will be flying missionaries and their supplies, especially medical supplies, to the islands. We really believe in what they are doing and are excited to support them.
• We are enjoying watching Psych and Better of Ted. They make us laugh and laugh. 
• Jon made REALLY good chicken last night. See previous blog from yesterday. 
• I heard of an interesting way to make chores interesting. First, get ping pong balls. Next, label each ping pong ball with a chore. Third, put ping-pong balls in a container. Then, every night, take a ping pong ball out, put the timer on for 15 minutes, and get the chore done! This is meant for children, I'm thinking of using it on ourselves! The house is in good condition and all, just want to get ahead of the curve :)

Cheesy chicken

Marinate 2 chicken breasts in honey dijon mustard dressing.
Combine bread crumbs, grated parmesan cheese and a selection of seasoning (rosemary/parsley/basil/mint/garlic powder/pepper/whatever suits your taste buds) for a total of 1/2 a cup. Mix well and dump into a holeless Ziploc® (or similar) bag. Take each piece of chicken and individually drop into the bag to toss it around until covered with the breading mixture, then move covered piece of chicken to an oven-safe pot to be cooked in (CorningWare® works well)
Lay a slice of Swiss cheese on top of each chicken breast.
Cook in the oven at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.
Eat with a loved one!
Please let me know quickly if this dish has a name before I go try to copyright it.

:-j

Valentines Day - married style

Today is Valentine's Day. We have been wondering how we would celebrate it, and we now know.

We ate dinner, played a game (Ingenious),  cleaned up house, and while eating desert and watching "Psych" Jon exclaimed:

"We're an old couple! We're spending Valentines Day in front of the television in our jogging pants, eating Jello out of plastic bowls!

This is awesome."

Marriage rocks. I think particularly as we are living with each other after we're married, every day is a valentine's day. Every time we wake up together, cook together, watch shows together, hang out in the office together, do errands together, clean together - it all has this sense of "wow, finally!!!" It's like a fun slumber party that keeps going on and on with my bestest of best friends- and with the marriage commitment we know it won't end if one of us gets upset, moody, or bored!  So it would of felt silly to do anything super special: vowing his love and life is enough for me to know how deeply Jon loves and cherishes me every day.

Now one day, when we emerge from the honeymoon-phase, maybe Valentine's Day will merit a night-out. But this year, our new "normal" is just right.

Valentine's Day Dinner

Tonight we went to a Valentine's Day dinner at our church! It was a fundraiser for the youth mission trip. They did a great job! (by "they" I mean the youth and all those who helped them!) They served a 4 course dinner (bread, salad, dinner, and desert), we had name cards (picture on facebook), fancy table settings, a photo booth, and the place was gorgeously decorated.

It is nice to go to a small church where these types of things can happen.

Jonny here. This evening saw the dawn (figurative, it was after sunset) of a new film club, which is pretty much our small group. We watched the 1940's Western The Ox-Bow Incident. It's an interesting story about mob mentality feeding off itself, rushing to judgment, human thirst for "justice" and forms it can take. I enjoyed it. In the discussion we had afterwards, I realized that what often makes a good movie for me is how well it matches reality. Now it's true that sometimes I just enjoy being entertained with an uplifting ending as long as it's not too corny, or I may get caught up in a ridiculous premise if it's creatively presented. But I usually get stimulated by a great story that's real, even if it ends poorly. Valkyrie, for example, was no pick-me-up, but I enjoyed it for how it honored the memory of some courageous Germans who did try to make a difference where they could to turn history around, even if odds were against them. Whereas there are other movies that get all kinds of professional accolades, and I get annoyed watching them because they make no sense: generally because real people don't act/react the way the characters do, or situations just don't happen the way the movie presents them.

Nutella

I haven't quite decided yet if Nutella is a good thing to have bought or not.

On one hand, it helps satisfy the chocolate cravings in a small chunk (1 TB = 100 calories, and I don't generally use a whole TB). It tastes great on healthy things like bannanas and wheat toast, thus making it easier to eat these things as well.

On the other hand, while generally the serving size is small, it isn't all the time. By satisfying chocolate cravings, it only encourages further chocolate cravings. And it makes healthy things that much unhealthier.

Hm. Quandries.

And, it being Thursday, I have no other thoughts than those that involve sleep, one last day of work, and cleaning the house. Can't wait for the weekend to charge back up!

Wednesday. Mid-week. Hurrah!

So it is Wednesday, and being the middle of the week, I'm quite tired! Probably not as tired as a mom of little ones, but tuckered out just the same.

Tonight I made mom's "comforting chicken noodle soup." It was okay, however I'm beginning to think the low-grade cream of chicken soup we bought (saving some cents) had way to much sodium in it, as it's making quite an impact in the stomach. I'm also wondering how I can make it taste exactly like mom's - because it didn't and that was disappointing. Maybe the "comforting" comes from "mom-made-it." Humph. I'll get the exact ingredients she does, and see if that will do it.

Speaking of cooking however, Jon found out at a regular physical exam that he's gained about 20lbs in the last 5 months. Now all his clothes still fit and all, and he looks pretty much the same, however it's good to see that he's not the skinny young lad he once was, and putting on weight from not working at a stressful job all day. (he barely ate during the day at his last job...).

So over all, I'm delighted :o) Just want to make sure he doesn't gain 20 lbs for every 5 months we're married!!! [I sincerely doubt that will happen!] And he got a clean bill of health, hurrah! The doctor did ask him if his wife sent him (which I did), and then informed Jon that almost all his male patients are sent to the clinic by their wife/girlfriend/significant-female-other. Both he and Jon laughed. And so did I.

Yay for Tuesdays

Today was Tuesday. And it was a good one! Jon's parents are staying with us tonight and will be flying to Asia tomorrow on a missions trip/visit. It was perfectly lovely to spend the evening with them, eating good food, and introducing them to "SET' - my favorite game from my childhood, which Jon has become quite adept at as well! They caught on very quickly, and we quit when our minds grew tired. It was a blast. After over 15 years of playing the game (yikes! I'm old), it's still fun.

Highlight of the day: Spending time with family
Lowlight of the day: Forgetting where I put the CD burned with wedding pictures they requested
Second highlight of the day: FINDING the CD with the wedding pictures on it! Yay for somewhat functional piles....

Why did we not blog last night?

We were playing this game! :

 

The game in english is called "Ingenious" and our board-gamer friends introduced it to us! The basic premises is like dominos, where you similar colors together, but then you count the points for how many colors you get in a row. The trick is, however, your ultimate score is the lowest amount of points you have in a single color. So there is a good deal of fun strategy to it, and we probably enjoyed playing it way more than watching the superbowl!

Here are two post action shots:

Jon examining the board

Jon smiling over a win, or exalting in the brilliance of his wife winning yet again? who can know?

Progress :-)

JJ here (aka the Council). After a few days of hiatus for my poor legs, I got back out for a jog today. After doing some plotting around on Google Maps's beta version of walking distances, I'm thinking the loop around Lake Anne is about 1.5 miles. Probably a little bit more. And today I managed to jog the whole way around! It took me 15 minutes. The last couple hundred feet or so were really hard, but I pushed myself 'cause I knew I was almost there. And when I finished the loop, my legs were hurting pretty bad.
But hey, I didn't need to stop the whole way around. If I keep going, I probably will be able to do the 1oK! It's only a little more than 4 times what I ran today. I better drink well and eat plenty of calories before...

BTW, after the snow, 45 degrees sounds warmer than it actually is. I decided to wear shorts instead of pants, and it was chilly at the beginning, especially when the breeze picked up.

Mental Wedding Pictures

We had absolutely one of the best wedding photographers one could ask for. I'm so deeply grateful for all the pictures we have from our wedding. They are touching and remind us of the first happiest day of the rest of our lives. They decorate our walls and we share them with nearly everyone who will look at them. I discovered today though the one picture that bring the deepest tears of joy I have ever known: a mental picture which popped into my head tonight during a youth worship service.

All the youth had picked their favorite songs to sing for the service and "In Christ Alone"  was one of them. Jon and I had also picked this song to sing at our wedding as it encapsulates our faith and trust in the Lord. We never talked about how we would sing it however. Then standing up at the altar, we ended up singing it to each other.

The picture I have is through my veil, watching my beloved sing with utmost conviction and deepest love to the Lord and to me. I had the deepest sense of peace that I would be in good hands with Jon as my husband, knowing that God was (and is) his anchor and song. In the deepest part of my being I felt what Jon was singing to me with absolute certainty and adoration was true and our lives would be held together firmly by Christ through all that would come our way. And this picture is mine alone; I will treasure it always.

The sanctuary was dark as we were singing tonight at the youth service and with people around, dear Jon couldn't tell what the sniffles meant (sad? happy? sick?) ! With tears streaming down my face, my husband held me tighter and stroked my hand until he could ask how I was feeling - he is still singing to me through his intentional love and heartfelt care!  I simply couldn't feel more blessed!


 (I copied some of my favorite lines below):
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand
[...]
Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live, I live
[...]
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
'Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I stand
(Stuart Townend & Keith Getty)

The black-out curtains strike agian

This morning I heard Jon get out of bed around 8am or so. I had the day off today so I thought, "Oh, I'm feeling restless anyway, I'll be up in a few minutes."

My next thought was me rolling over about 3 hours later, looking at the alarm clock, and thinking "WHAT?!?! How in the WORLD did I sleep in that late?"

I stumbled into Jon's office and immediately noticed how bright it was in the office; after all, it was close to noon. I then looked into the bedroom and saw that it appeared to be about 6am in there (well, in terms of light). And then I realized: the black-out curtains once again. Sleep cycles, which are mostly related to light I believe, are totally off in that room. I need to remember how important it is to set an alarm!

Tomorrow is another day with an empty morning. I do know now what I didn't know yesterday- sleeping in has taken on significant possibilities in that room and, unless I'm interested in eating lunch when I wake up, those possibilities should not be explored! Weekend alarm clocks, here we come....

emails and their former glory

In the past week I have received two beautiful emails from two beautiful friends - very long, very intimating, and very special.

It reminded me of emails from the late 90s, maybe even up until 2002. Emails were simply a way to get a heart-felt letter to its location much quicker, and hearts, thoughts, and dialogues were all conducted through that simple medium. Opening emails was like a mini-Christmas morning! Maybe this is just because I was in high school at the time, and then away at college, but those are my memories of my first inboxes.

Have things changed for anyone else?! Most of my emails now are for store sales, travel deals, and updates from various things, such as charitable organizations, newsletters I decided to subscribe to for some reason, and so forth. A smaller portion, and much more dear portion, is from family with pictures of the latest child, snow storm, family update or simple arrangements for the next visit. Email certainly is a very effective way of communication, however in the busy-ness it has somehow lost it's intimacy as well. I mean, I rarely have to take time to read through an email nowadays! I found myself being taken off-guard by the dear long emails and almost wondering what to do... their very presence seems out-of-place in my cluttered and scattered inbox.

I did take the time to read them, and am very glad I did. I love my friends and miss them dearly; I am very glad they wrote. And I guess the next challenge for me is the same challenge we decided on for this blog: to actually sit down, put a series of honest and true coherent thoughts together and reply! (which, friends, I'm very very excited to do [they read this blog too!])

So strange how a decade of technology transformation changes communication so much!

2 posts today to catch up for skipping Jan. 26

One of the advantages of working for yourself in Reston is that you have the flexibility to run out whenever you want to take advantage of the many paths throughout the woods that stretch out all over town. On the other hand, the thing about working for yourself is that every minute that you are not working is time you are not potentially making money. On the third hand, I have the intention of running 10 km at the Cooper River Bridge Run in now less than 2 months, and I've had no form of regular exercise in the past 32 months. Yes, while I was in Grand Rapids, I was playing soccer for a few hours once or twice a week. Every week. It was awesome. I kinda figured that going to the more cosmopolitan capital area I wouldn't have any trouble finding opportunities to play soccer. But the truth is, after leaving Michigan in April 2008, I did not play the beautiful game once until May 2009 when I was in France. I then found out that I did not have the stamina of yesteryear. And I've had pretty much no real exercise since then (except occasionally going swing dancing).
It helps that I already have a wonderful body. Hey I'm not just saying that 'cause I think so. I know a genius who tells me so every day. Keeping a slim figure was also helped for some time by having a job that fills you with stress (scientific fact of the day: stress bullies the fatty cells and scares them out of the body, that's how it works) and doesn't give you the time to have regular, decent meals.
On second thought, kids, the Council recommends that you do not try that last idea for yourselves. This stunt was performed by a professional.
Well, there weren't many job posts yesterday, and temperatures got above freezing again. So in the late morning I put on a few layers of jogging clothes and actually got out to the path to do me some runnin'. Well, jogging. I've always better enjoyed sprints to slow-paced endurance runs, but albeit higher on the funmeter, I didn't see how a sprint would help in this instance. Well, as it turns out I still don't have the stamina of 3 years ago. I thought by now it would have accumulated, but no! My legs were trying to reject my authority. But after 15 minutes, I made it around Lake Anne and back home. I admit I did slow down to a walk on a handful of occasions.
Fortunately, I can be stubborn when I want to, so I got back out today, even though it was colder. My legs hadn't fully recovered yet, so I did a shorter loop. We'll see what I manage to change before Charleston...

Yesterday's course did pass in front of our local wine-flower-chocolate shop, where I saw a reminder that the wine tasting was today. So I already know that this exercise thing has some benefit even if I'm too late to prepare for a strong showing in South Carolina.

Coming home

Coming home is my first favorite part of the day (leaving home in the morning is generally my least favorite part of the day). Yesterday I came home to Jon making something extraordinary with chicken and cheese and other yumminess. Today I came home to a "hurrah!" which was lovely. Additionally he received a translation job for a chapter in a French math text book, so he is pretty happy! (and dog-gone cute to boot).

Other than that, we've been following the news closely regarding the blizzard that hit the mid-west. We are praying for you all! The pictures are truly astounding and I'm grateful that we just have wet roads.

thank-you cards

So when I last wrote about thank-you cards I had approximately 10 cards written.

And I still have approximately 10 cards written a few days later.

hm......

Through this, and life in general, I'm realizing that I'm particularly good at setting up systems for other people to use! Library catalogs, websites, virtual shared spaces, home-organizational systems, and brilliant set-ups for thank you cards! Seriously, it's awesome. I have a whole table dedicated to it:  all the supplies are there, the instructions for writing a good thank-you card is well displayed - there's no reason NOT to use this wonderful system.

Well, except for eating dinner with good friends from out of town... and eating dinner with the husband.... and watching the "Count of Monte Cristo" [a French made-for-tv version that Jon really enjoys] and looking at my cute nephew's hair, and then surfing blogs....!

So - I have good systems down-pat. Now it's just for eliminating the distractions around them.... There's always tomorrow and my deadline is end of February! Hold me to it folks :o)