I'm finally putting some pictures up from the beach. Mostly the kids--more pics after the jump.

Last night was a tough game to watch. I have two suggestions for the Heels: start making your free throws and stop taking 3-pointers. An ill-advised 3 is essentially a turnover and we left a lot of points at the line. I don't remember who I was talking to yesterday, but I said if we hold smith to under 30, we'll have a chance to win. Unfortunately I was right.

Silver lining--we still control our own destiny. Win the rest and we still win the ACC, and I would rather win in March than in February.

Just for a pick-me-up, here are some pics of the kids.

I don't know how this didn't get posted before, but here are the kids in their Halloween outfits. Brooklynne was the costume maker once again. I'll put a couple more pics after the break.

I didn't blog last week because I was so busy with the house, but no fear, the blogging will continue.

We have been making great progress toward moving in by the end of the month. I took the plumbing re-test and passed this time with no problems. I was told that there was not a freely-available code book, which seemed weird to me since the code is a government document, and all government docs are in the public domain. It turns out the guy in the inspections dept. was wrong and you can download a copy here. It even comes in Kindle format.

What else have we done? We almost finished framing the basement (widening the bath, adding a laundry, mudroom, and 2 closets) and we completed the refinishing of our hardwoods throughout the house. We also scheduled our cabinets to go in on Thursday, and we picked out the granite for the countertops, which will go in next week. If we can finish tiling the kids' bathroom and get some painting done by the time the ganite is installed, we will be ready to move in. I am now really hoping to watch the Steelers win the Superbowl on my own TV in my own house. Any local readers who would like to join the fun on Superbowl Sunday are welcome to help us celebrate (provided we are in fact moved in).

Just to clarify though--just because I'm talking about moving in does not mean we're done with the project. we will still have the master and guest baths to finish as well as the guest room, deck, and exterior finishes. My target for those projects is the end of May.

Other updates from the week: I start spring classes today. Yesterday was my first-ever parent teacher conference where we learned that HJ has "advanced negotiating skills" (aka: apt to argue to get her way). I subtly lobbied for more work on math topics and Brooklynne told me I was being too pushy with our 4-year-old. UNC's sloppy performance against Clemson still made me feel better about our game against GaTech this weekend.

What else...? I don't know. More tomorrow.

 

My child finally fell asleep. For about an hour, she was in her room screaming about her hand being sweaty. We started putting a sock on her hand so she won't suck her thumb at night while she's asleep. Apparently, thumb sucking is to dentists as smoking is to pulminary physicians. I guess the sock makes her hand hot.

Anyway, just so this won't be totally boring, here's a blast from the past.

I'm ringing in 2011 with a new urge to blog, so here I am. Not much news for today, but I wanted to get on the board for Jan.1.

We celebrated Christmas in Utah this year. I had to come back early for work, but Brooklynne and the kids will be back Wednesday, so I'm kicking it alone for the next couple of nights.

The Wasatch Front got 18 inches of snow on Thursday, so we took HJ skiing for the first time. She did pretty well. She could manuver and keep her balance, but had trouble stopping. I asked her what was her favorite part of the day and she told me "riding the magic carpet." The simple pleasures....  

The Steelers have a big afternoon with a spot in the playoffs on the line, so Halleigh and I were set to watch the big game, but for some reason, the CBS signal only comes in about 50% of the time, and today we got unlucky. Before the switch to digital, we could always get CBS, but now we only seem to get it when the sky is cloudy (the clouds reflect the signal better?). So my lawmakers and the sun combined to ruin my Steelers viewing pleasure. At least I got this photo with my girl.

...if we had a fire it would be delightful!

The blizzard of '09 has come and gone, it looks like. We got maybe an inch and it has already stopped. I'm sure Kroger did very well on bread and milk this week though.

In other news, Halleigh left her new taggie blanket at my grandparents' apartment this afternoon. Anyone who regularly reads Brooklynne's blog already knows that last week HJ lost her original taggie, which had been her comfort item almost from birth. Well, what you may not know is that HJ was just about potty trained. She has been out of diapers for a while now during the day, but we had kept her in pull-ups at night until recently. But she suddenly started asking to wear panties to bed, and when she lost taggie, she had been about a week wearing panties to bed without an accident.

The night she lost taggie, she wet the bed, and she had accidents (sometimes two) every night for the next four days in a row. I'm no psychiatrist, and maybe this is just coincidence, but I had a strong feeling that the two were connected. Anyway, we gave HJ a new taggie (which she has warmed up to, though she still "misses my taggie"), and she has been a couple nights without an accident again.

We realized HJ had left taggie at Grandmother's as we were putting her to bed tonight and she couldn't find it anywhere. So, I was faced with a delimma: to go out in the snow and ice to retrieve the new taggie, or to tell HJ (again) that she would have to sleep without a taggie.

Well, I decided to brave the elements rather than risk a bed wetting episode, but by the time I got back, HJ was already fast asleep. So I laid taggie next to her in bed, and I have my fingers crossed that she will somehow sense its presence.

Only time will tell.... 

Kids say the funniest things.

Brooklynne and I realised that from time to time it becomes necessary to talk about Halleigh's nap while in her presence. Unfortunately, that usually led to mass hysteria and fits of kicking and screaming. So we developed a code language in which we refer to her nap as "going to Mexico." A common exchange might go something like this:

B: I'm supposed to be at Kelly's at 2, but Halleigh needs to go to Mexico.

M: I'll take care of it.

This has worked well for the last year or so, but we think she's catching on. Today, we had this exchange.

B: When were you thinking of taking Halleigh to Mexico?

M: I was planning to read her a story first.

H: I want to go to a different Mexico... one with TVs.