So it's been a month since I updated this blog...

I know, I'm bad... but we've been SO busy! Here's a quick run down of our month:

We've all been busy with school- Marley absolutely loves her class and his constantly "playing teacher" at home, singing the national anthem and the pledge, giving "choices" to her baby dolls... she is having a blast and I couldn't be happier about it! They tell me often she's so smart (she's mine so I'm sure I'm biased) but her memory constantly amazes us. Now if we can just be sure she uses her amazing memory for good rather than evil (like repeating that bad word daddy uttered during the football game)... ha ha! :)

Jaxon is also loving school and is constantly wandering into his teacher's room after school to do "jobs" for her like stacking chairs, sharpening pencils, etc. Thankfully, she's a real sweetheart and doesn't seem to mind him hanging around, but you could definitely say he's a teacher's pet. He's doing very well in school and was very excited to be the narrator in The Gingerbread Man (his class play). I'm still totally loving my new class and new school. I'm also beginning to investigate masters programs in speech pathology (that is if I ever have the energy to go back for that while working full time and with 2 little ones!) Brian is still with his company and doing well, but still gets a little tired of the office life... thankfully no layoffs have come through his division. We have been competing in a few fantasy football leagues again this year and doing pretty well, but more importantly having fun. Brian will soon go into mourning as the football season winds to an end... the man is a full-fledged NFL addict... so here's hoping we find something else to keep him busy! :)

I almost forgot to tell you how Christmas was almost ruined! First, I was late getting calendars done so they still aren't here- guess they'll be New Year's gifts and one less gift for family at Christmas. Then I hadn't made Christmas cards until the last minute (they were quickly made, sent to the photo lab and sent out) but I didn't have enough made, so only a few folks got them (sorry!) Oh yeah, and they were in pajamas in the picture because we STILL haven't had our portraits taken. We had an appointment, but then Marley pulled a stocking at grandma Schock's house and it came crashing down on her face. No pictures with a fat lip!

Then we had another photo appointment, but Marley who had been coughing for a few days, suddenly got a fever. Cedar has hit here and since she has some seasonal allergies and didn't seem to bothered by the cough, I figured it was her allergies acting up. So, I take her to the doctor, and they say "She looks like she feels fine" as she was her usual silly, flirty self. They see she still has a fever "but she isn't acting like she has a fever"... I'm sure they thought I was just a mom over-reacting to a cold or allergies. The doctor comes in, checks for strep (which she didn't have thankfully), talks and listens to Marley and then proceeds to tell me Marley has pneumonia!!! My kids never complain and so the only way I know something is wrong is when they get a fever. With the holidays just 2 days away, she didn't bother ordering an xray, just got her a prescription to treat it. How terrible is that??? Going to the ER on Christmas would have ruined Christmas for sure! We're going to take her in tomorrow to double check that it's gone (since Marley never acted like she was sick in the first place, I want to be sure). Brian and I also got a REALLY BAD stomach bug- like a passage out of King's Dreamcatchers bad... it only lasted about 2 days and miraculously the kids didn't get it (whew!) Merry Christmas huh?

Anyway, as Christmas approached, the kids both made little lists for Santa and Jaxon even got to see him at our school's pancake breakfast. Marley was scared and clung to me like a little monkey hanging on for dear life and says "Santa's nice, but I don't want to see him!" They both made out like bandits of course, but they seem to appreciate all they have and in addition to picking out new toys to give to Brown Santa, they are now helping us sort through old toys to give to kids who didn't get any at Christmas. :) We had a great Christmas with both sets of families getting together at our house on Christmas day. We're on our way to the Alamo Bowl tomorrow and to spend some time at my parents house too. We'll FINALLY have those portraits made Jan.2nd barring any other catastrophe. Looking forward to a great new year (and be on the lookout for a new blog design soon too.. I hope to find time before January so the Christmas digi-stuff gets put away too!)

My biggest headache I saved for last- so if your not into the techie nerd stuff, feel free to skip this part! As most of you know, I'm addicted to digital scrapbooking (thus my fabulous looking blog, right?) Well, apparently my external hard drive (EHD) which holds ALL of my scrap stuff and lots of digital photos had died (actually it reformatted to RAW which is unreadable). So fast forward, I've got $60 software which recovers TOO much data (corrupt files making my 250 GB look like it's got 100GB of data on it). So for about 3 weeks, my computer has been on, searching for files and trying to weed out corrupt files (you can't "see" the files, only their names- most of which were replaced with numbers like this [478367492] so it is a HUGE pain). Well tonight it's FINALLY down to 400GB which I'm saving and then will weed through in my editing software where I can find duplicates and actually see file contents. Thankfully, Brian has not thrown my computer out the window (which I thought may cross his mind as I've been staring at the screen full of numbered files for weeks and trying to save them). Fingers crossed my good stuff is saved and this process is OVER. Go backup your important data right now at Mozy.com or on another EHD.

Wow... are you still reading this??? Go on... I'm done rambling for now... :)