Sorry it's been so long since my last posting. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I did. Brad and I spent a couple of days in Allen just hanging with the fam, but we had to turn around and come right back so Brad could go to work on the 27th. Just FYI, we'd be returning home from England today.... So glad I haven't been thinking about it....

I've been spending this week unpacking all our cool Christmas toys and catching after-Christmas sales. I got out the other day to see Casino Royale - wow! I can take or leave James Bond movies but this one was fab! And Daniel Craig...... yum.

Oh, and the big news is I have pneumonia. Yeah, no joke. I feel absolutely fine, but I have the nastiest cough you can imagine. I went to a doc-in-the-box in Allen and after a chest x-ray they determined I'm sick. I'm on meds, but they're not helping a lot with the cough. I saw a doctor here in town and they're keeping an eye on me. It's so bizzare. I had pneumonia back in college and I was really really sick, but this is nothing like it. Life is going on, I'm just coughing a lot. I'll let you know if anything happens with this.

I'm done! I turned in my grades last night and am thrilled that my vacation has started. I'm also done with my Christmas shopping and am busy wrapping presents today. I was supposed to arrive in London today, but alas.... However, I took part of the money we would have spent on the trip and bought another elliptical machine for myself. I really liked the one I had in Lexington until it broke. This one is much sturdier. I put it together last night and it looks so nice. I haven't had a chance to try it out for a full workout yet, but I'm really excited about it.

Nothing else really. We leave for Allen on Thursday, so I'm wrapping gifts, and doing laundry and housework. Not too interesting, but it's a great feeling to be done with work for now. Have a merry Christmas everybody!

What a busy weekend! Brad's office Christmas party was Friday night and it was fun to hang out with our new friends (and eat lots!). Yesterday was icky because I literally graded all day. Not kidding. From about 8am to about 11pm. Stopping for meals, of course. I'm almost done. Grades are due tomorrow evening and I have some finishing touches to place and then I'm through with this semester!

Brad took me to see The Queen (which was fabulous, by the way), but it's not playing at any of the theaters near us. So, we finally had an excuse to go check out this commerce-mecca called The Plaza downtown KC. It's really cool. We saw the movie and walked around and looked at all the shops. So much cool stuff! We had dinner at a fun Irish pub and tried something we'd never heard of - boxties. Basically, it's meat wrapped in a potato pancake, topped with sauce. Yummy! I love pub grub. It was a fun excursion and was our first downtown. We've just not taken the time yet. The other cool thing is the Plaza lights - it's a big deal. Every year they have a big ceremony for when they turn them on for the first time. So pretty!

My NEW car just rolled over to 100,000 miles yesterday on my way home from work! How is that possible??!!! I just bought it...... in August of 1999. Right before I started grad school. Before I even met my husband. Oh. Man, it feels like my new car - I can't believe it's that old. Thank goodness it still feels that way - I'm glad it's not an old clunker. I've not had any problems with it. The only time it's seen the inside of a mechanic's garage is for routine checks. I love my Honda Civic! It's not very kid-friendly, though, (being a 2 door sporty little thing) so it will have to be replaced eventually. But, shhhh, don't tell it that!

Whew! What a weekend! Brad and I had our first houseguests since my parents came back in October. The house looks so nice and I made a really yummy dinner (If I do say so myself). It was wonderful to just chill in this house we picked out mainly for it's entertaining-friendly layout. So fun!

Then, the big scary deal was this morning, I acted as a cantor at my church for the first time ever. This new church's choir isn't as active as St. Pat's in Lexington so a cantor runs the whole service, doing all the music at the front. My new director is fabulous and he sweet-talked me into trying the cantor bit. It even pays a little money! So, anywho, it was incredibly nerve-wracking and I made a very small flub with one of the words, but overall it went pretty well. I might even do it again. :)

We just got back from the movies - my very awesome hubby took me to see The Holiday. We were a bit worried it would be rubbing salt in the wounds, watching a movie about an American traveling to England for Christmas.... But it was a cute movie and I really enjoyed it.

So - got some bad news.... We're not going to the UK for Christmas. Due to a mixup in Brad's office about leave-time, we had to cancel the whole thing. I was really bummed when I found out, but it'll be okay. It's not like we'll never have the chance to go again. It was hard going back and cancelling all the reservations and stuff, but it's finally done. Since we cancelled with plenty of notice, we're not losing a lot of money, which is great. I just wish I could get back all the hours I spent planning the damned trip in the first place! At least we can plan a nice Christmas back in Allen - especially since Mary Beth just moved back. Should be nice.

On an upside, I've finally caved and gotten on Facebook. A friend of mine joined and invited me on, so I signed up just so I could chat with her. But, once my info was out there, I've been found by my old students in Lexington. The last 48 hours have been interesting as they discover me on there and I find them. All my A-team Academic Team girls are in contact now (they're in college now) as well as a few other students - I expect I'll find more soon. I even found a student I taught 5 years ago back in College Station! How fun!

Just to set the record straight - I'm not a moron. I was embarassed about my little ice capade yesterday morning, but it turned out to not be my bad driving-on-ice skills. When Brad got home from work, he walked over to get the car and drive it home and he got stuck, too! We can get it to go forward on very flat roads, but we got it stuck in a different part of the neighboorhood (again with the hills). Frustrating as hell, but I'm glad it wasn't me that was the problem. The sun is out today and so hopefully the ice will start melting. Yuck! Yay - welcome to Kansas!

In other very exciting news, you may note the link off to the left for My Korean Adventure. I finally got the Korea blog up and running. It's not that spectacular, now that I've been building the suspense for 4 months, but I'm just so glad it's done and I can FINALLY check it off my to-do lists every week. Enjoy!