long time, no post

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. No camera, so no photos, which means I'm less likely to post.

What's been going on around here? A mix of good and not so good. Our house was broken into on Jan 9th, relieving us of the aforementioned camera, both Nintendos, the 'better' computer, our DVD player, both the boys' cellphones, one window, and for a time, our sense of safety in our own home. It's take me almost 4 weeks to gather the necessary paperwork (just got the police report today, and it's not even the complete updated version) to file our insurance claim. It leaves me wondering -- is the secret to just not own any valuable stuff, or to keep every receipt we ever get? For that, tho, we'd need the ever-bigger house George Carlin joked about, so I guess not.

Gary's new job is going well overall, but due to some warehouse delays for all of December and much of January -- and now snow delays two consecutive weeks in Utah --we're not really seeing any more money than when we had him home every night and all weekend, so it's easy to be frustrated at all this sacrifice, for what?

Dan and Will both had birthdays last month -- my firstborn is now 23, and my baby is 7! It doesn't seem possible that I've been a Mom for 23 years.

Will is taking two courses at the local community college. He's really enjoying them, and I'm pleased to see he's both doing and enjoying the work. I had no idea, tho, how expensive college textbooks are! Captive market and all that, I guess, but the books will cost almost as much as his tuition when it's all totaled up.

We closed out the year with the death of a much beloved Uncle in Gary's family, which has prompted some very deep -- and sweet - conversations about life and people. Andy said, "If I could time-travel, I'd go back to when Uncle Nobu was a kid -- I'll bet he was just as great a kid as he was an uncle! Oh, and I'd tell him to be sure to look out for Auntie Michie, because she's the perfect one for him!" He is such a sweet soul.

Winter this year has been just too cold, too early dark and too long already for us, and it's just barely February. The snow today was pretty. At least if we have to be cold, pretty snow falling is a nice pay off.

Oh well, off to play Monopoly with Dan -- have I mentioned how much I miss the Nintendos? I'm just not a big fan of board games, especially Monopoly. I have trouble settling down to a game that complicated.

And on update, the game of Monopoly was fun. Unlike most times, we actually played for longer than it takes to set up!