Oh my gosh! I can't believe I haven't updated since Halloween. Sorry. It's nothing personal. Just a big case of computerphobia, I guess. That and the fact that I've done more than 50 pages of scrapbooking in the past 2 weeks or so. Almost every waking hour has been consumed with scrapbooking--sorting pictures, organizing materials, cropping photos, shopping for paper and embellishments, browsing through scrapbook magazines for inspiration (it starts to run thin after doing 20 or 30 pages!) and actually putting the pages together. Now instead of being a year and 10 months behind, I'm just 10 months behind. I finished my 2000 book and started and finished my two 2001 books. I'm thinking that I'll be able to squeeze 2002 into one album because it wasn't much of a photo year--no big trips, no weddings, no additions to the family. Whew! Two years like 2000 where there were 2 family weddings and 2001 where there were 2 really big vacations just about killed me!

According to Joey, Ed and I are the kewlest parents ever. We let her skip school on Friday last to go see the first showing of Harry Potter. Ed took the day off work (well, he worked at home except during the movie) and we had a family mental health day. It was so much fun to sneak off to the movies at noon!

Amy's ultrasound revealed that she is having a boy! His name will be Aidan. I'm a little bummed out because I really wanted a niece but I know I'll love my little nephew to pieces. I'll be watching him for 24 hours every third day starting in June so I know he'll love me, too. It will be fun to have a baby in the house again. Joey's not excited about the idea of changing boy diapers. She's at the age where just the mere mention of boy parts turns her 23 shades of purple.

As of yesterday, my weight loss total reached 30 lbs. I hit a plateau where it seemed like nothing happened for a long time and then finally broke through that and lost a few more pounds so I'm feeling very happy. Ed is back to his high school weight and pants size. He looks spectacular. I just keep wanting to grab his fine, fine ass. Mmmmm mmmm.

A few weeks ago, we had our Fall Chicks-Only Beach Retreat. We had a full house, too. There were 11 of us and boy was it fun! I scrapbooked 16 pages there, too. And we went to a favorite restaurant and spent many hours gabbing and shopping. I love our beach retreats! We found a house that is really great and really cheap so we were all very happy with the deal. I think it will be fun to go there in the summer with the kids since there is a main house and a guest house with an artist loft above. Great times ahead.

One of our fellow retreaters nearly came to a tragic end, though. She was on the beach at 7:30 am. She was walking along about 15 or 20 feet from the breaking waves when she turned around to photograph the shore. Just then, a sneaker wave came up and got her. It was pulling her out to sea and every step she took to get away pulled her further back. She was terrified that she'd get caught in the undertow and be unable to escape before she drowned. Finally she just started clawing her way on all fours in the sand and was able to break free of the wave and get to land. She was soaked along with her camera but she was safely on land. Poor thing! I was so glad she didn't get swept out to sea. She's been a little freaked out since then--almost like post-traumatic stress syndrome but she seems to be dealing with it better now. No more solo beach walks, though. That will have to be a standing retreat rule.

Well, there's not much else going on. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is next week and then BOOM it's Christmas. I'm feeling a little stressed about getting everything done that I want to get done. I need to get to painting the living room before our big Holiday Bash because I can't have a party with big splashes of trial colors on the wall! I'm going to be going lighter on holiday decorations this year, though, so that ought to help. I'm planning to have a smaller tree--not quite table top but not the usual 8 or 9 foot Noble fir that I usually have. I'm thinking something like a nice 5-foot tree on a taller stand will do. Less time to decorate. We're not going to be here for Christmas morning so I really don't want to have such a big tree. Ed will be delighted, I'm sure. Less expensive and fewer lights to wrestle with.

I promise not to go another three weeks without updating! Hope I still have a couple of readers left.

--L