Reporting In

Well, it's been almost all month since my last post. Let me see if I can find news to report.....(pictures will have to come later)........

1.) I have been checking out all my fellow bloggers' blogs and found that a good many of you are having beautiful, warm weather while we are still getting snow. One day last week I was caught in a hail storm, under a tornado watch and sever thunderstorm warnings, with the skies dark for 5 minutes and sunny for 5..... The next day, snow. Alysa has had a blast sledding, but even she has had her feel for this year. We're looking forward to moving on to warm, sunshiny days and starting softball (her first year).
2.) I came down with a nasty sinus infection and Mark was out of town all week long last week, which meant to adult to talk to and no sympathy hugs. Poor Alysa. She was so good and took great care of me. I tried to be as upbeat and energetic as I could. But she was great about snuggling with me and "fetching" things that I needed. After taking her to school each morning, I would come back home and go back to bed. I have to say I rather enjoyed that part. I also read "The Hunger Games" in 2-3 days.
3.) Alysa participated in a dance camp at the high school and then performed last Friday night at a girls basketball game. It was so cute and fun to watch. They danced to "Too Cool for You" from Camp Rock.
4.) Mark finally put enough miles on his old white Ford that they gave him a brand spanking new, sparkling clean GMC club cab, fully loaded truck. He has XM Radio and was thrilled to find a Greatful Dead station....(yuck). He took me out in it on Valentines. I could have been riding in a lemo for all I knew. I do love the smell of "new car".
5.) We finally got all our furniture delivered! Well, we are waiting on a TV cabinet to come in from Ashley Furniture. Other than that, we're good!
6.) Believe it or not, we got home phone service last week. One battle won. But the more important WAR is getting internet. I waited the necessary time for AT&T to tell me if they could provide us with DSL or not, only to be disappointed when they said no. I've tried DirecTV satellite internet, but it's $199 to get started and then a monthly rate (between $50 and $80) and a 2 year agreement. Don't think so. So now I'm back to Time Warner, who told me back in December that we COULD get it but it would take about 1.5 months. We could have internet by now if I'd have said go ahead. But I trusted AT&T to pull through for me. So sad. TW is checking in on it for me and will let me know later today what their verdict is. If that fails, it's dial up or nothing. Life can be so cruel.
7.) Alysa got her ears pierced...finally! She's been begging us for years to let her (the original rule was "when you're 10"), we finally relented and told her she could do it when she was 9. Birthday time came and she'd talked herself out of it after watching someone else go through it and seeing the "surprised" expression on her face. She woke up a week ago and was contemplating it again. By noon, she had talked herself out of it... again. But Mark and I figured we should put a halt to this waxing and wanning and told her to just go get her shoes and coat....we're going and you will be thanking us when it's finally done. She was nervous about being "forced" - hahahaha - but she never even flinched and she DID thank us for gently encouraging her to follow through. She's so proud.....all day long it was "my ears are pierced....let's turn off the radio and talk....about my ears being pierced....aren't my ears beautiful?". So cute.
8.) Mark and I have started dating every week. This has been a long time coming. We are going to have to get creative, though, because while it is totally worth it and doing us so much good to get out alone, it can also get quite expensive. We've figured date night into the budget, but my practical side keeps thinking about all the other places that $ could be going instead. The up side is that we've found a wonderful babysitter just down the street. She knows we go out every week and we caught her before she's old enough to date or have too busy a social calendar. She and Alysa act like sisters together and it's great to watch them interact. For Valentines Day, Mark took me to a "Myster Dinner Theater". I've always wanted to do one but never have until now. It was so much fun....very funny. But, the food was slow in coming and not enough to fill everyone at our table of 6 and not really as tasty as we'd have liked. But the overall experience was great and we'd definately do it again.