Reading Resolution

Darrin and I both made resolutions to read more this year. We cancelled our satellite service until we buy a house this summer, so we're definitely determined to end our days reading instead of watching TV!
I'm proud to say that I've already read 6 books! I think that's a record for me. The Peacegiver was excellent- such a great view and definition of the Atonement of Christ. The Last Lecture was a profound look at what is important in life and made me question what last words I would leave my children if I knew of my impending death. The last four are the Twilight Saga- purely entertainment- a birthday gift to myself. I saw the movie in early January and decided that after a year of hearing my friends gawk over these books, that I'd give them a try. I borrowed the first one and read it in two days- all 498 pages. I was hooked and had to buy my own copies. So a 25% off coupon to Borders and my birthday money in hand, I was out the door at 8:45pm to pick up my own set.

Darrin is reading his second book of the year - one on Warren Buffet. He laughs at how much I've loved the Twilight books because I'm now rereading them and added Edward and Bella's picture to my desktop. I dragged him to the movie last week and he said he'd read them when he's done with Warren. I'll report on his assessment.

January Run-Down

Since it's now February and I've done no posting lately, here's an update of our January:

The girls returned to school after a month break, but quickly enjoyed 2 snow days. We acquired about 6 inches of snow on Jan 20th! The kids had tons of fun!

Haylee has been learning to digital scrapbook (see her page below about Hannah) and is still reading all the Warriors books in her free time. She has such a love of animals. Karate is still her activity twice a week.

Hannah continued to play basketball each Saturday and just completed her last game of the season. Her New Year's resolution is to become more fit and finish the school's marathon. All of us are walking together and logging 25 miles before the end of March, where we'll finish the last 1.2 miles at the school.

We withdrew Preston from preschool to save the money and give us more time together before he starts kindergarten this summer. I'm teaching him to read, which is going extrememly well. He also can solve addition problems up to 12 and is now working on his teen facts!

I celebrated my 37th birthday for an entire week! Seems that I'm still receiving presents... the birthday that never ends. So great! I had lots of breakfasts & lunches with friends, dinner out as a family and a big night with the girls to The Cheesecake Factory! I used my birthday money to buy the Twilight Saga box set. (see my reading post)

Darrin and I also celebrated our 14th anniversary! We got rid of the kids for the day, rented movies and went out for Mexican food. We've learned a trick for those long waits at a restaurant on Saturday nights... take the laptop and a movie. Sit in the car and watch it- the pagers will reach into the parking lot. We got through most of Hancock while waiting for our table!

As a family, we attended the NC Symphony's family concert: Bugs Bunny and Friends. We watched some of the popular cartoons on a big screen while the orchestra played. Very fun!