Miscellaneous Happenings

The end of October was pretty exciting with the Reformation Celebration and our cake pop adventure. That's all small potatoes compared to the new construction going on right across the street!  Diggers. Dumpers. Earth Movers. Bulldozers. We've got it all right outside our front window. I would venture to say that most of our neighbors are less than thrilled to hear construction noise at 7am. Oddballs!  Matthew and Jonathan are ready for them by 6am!

Josiah lost his toothless grin and has already sprouted three teeth! Insert tear here. He is growing up way to fast! More tears.

David submitted his application for tenure and started working as a consultant for a drug software company in addition to his employment at UCI.  With a small part of his first check (most of which will go to paying off our mortgage), we bought a Blendtec!  I never thought I would spend so much money for a blender, but we've gone through four cheap blenders in our twelve years of marriage. Hopefully, this will be the last!  So far, we have used it to make pancake batter, lots of juice, and iced coffee yet we've only scratched the surface of its amazing culinary possibilities!  Matthew especially loves his homemade orange juice! For those of you who are interested, we decided on the Blendtec over the Vitamix because (1) it is cheaper (at least at Costco), (2) fits on the counter under our cabinets, and (3) can blend an iphone!

Lastly, I am grieved to admit that I will not meet my December goal of running a 5K with the family this year. Frankly, I'm just not a spring chicken anymore and cannot bounce back quite as quickly as I would like. I suffered a freak calf sprain earlier in the summer when I tried wearing my vibrams on the elliptical. This is my one and only claim to fame. I don't think I know of anyone else who has been able to injure themselves on an elliptical! I finally recovered from that injury and started training for the 5K, running 3 miles 3 times a week. After the second week, though, my IT band was really sore, so sore it hurt to walk. After maxing out the ibuprofen dosage for a week, a neighbor recommended I roll it out with a foam roller. I was really skeptical that the foam roller would do any good, but it has helped so much! Since I tend to be a teensy bit overambitious, I decided to limit myself to the couch to 5K training plan. If everything goes according to plan, then I should be ready for a 5K in January. I won't be able to run with the rest of the family, but I trust that God is sovereign over every detail of my life and that even what appears to me as a setback He is using for His own glory in ways that at present are mysterious to me!