Abby packed up her room and moved back to La Crosse last Wednesday. I still can't believe it's her last semester! She's secured another babysitting job, this time watching 3 little girls. And Abby's applying to stay in La Crosse for another year working on the staff of CRU, the organization she's been so involved with all along.

Paige finished her first semester of her junior year with final exams last week. She's knows what she has to do to get into college and worked hard. We've scheduled her first college visit at UW-Whitewater in April.

Paige had been complaining about not being able to see the board in class and having difficulty reading road signs while driving, so she urged us to get her in for an eye exam. The doctor was confused at first. Listening to her symptoms, it seemed an flat-out near-sightedness diagnosis. But as he swapped out those many lenses, he discovered her to actually be far-sighted. Her eyes were becoming so strained working to focus on things close up, that her eye just became too tired to focus far away. She picked out the cutest pair of frames and was amazed at the difference she was able to see when she put them on. She doesn't "have to" wear them, but is encouraged to have them on when on the computer or doing schoolwork.

I've been home so long I'm wondering how I'll adjust once I have to go to work again. I'm enjoying keeping every little thing organized and being able to do some serious research graphic/web design trends. I was assigned to an ad agency downtown for some overflow help last week, but only for one day. Nice place, but I guess the one day is all they needed. I've begun scouring the internet for jobs and applied for a handful.

Wish Bryn could've been home as long as Abby over this winter break. We did meet up to have dinner with Bryn at Texas Roadhouse on Jan 8th to hear more about her trip to the Rose Bowl.

Abby's been working hard to make some much-needed funds for next semester. Hallmark has been generous with hours and Kristin had Abby help out dogsitting and watching the girls a couple times. Now, if she could just find their garage door opener...

We also found a "client" for the final graphic design class Abby has next semester. Her friend's (Kendal) mom recently went into the beading/jewelry business and Abby will work with her to create her logo and other business materials she may need. Last night we had them over for a photoshoot of her products to start Abby along.

Paige has begun indoor softball practices for her select team, the Sussex SunDevils. She's done a good job rearranging her work schedule in order to make it to 2 of the 3 weekly practices. (That means she likes it!)

Jeff accompanied me to an art show opening last Friday night for an old friend of mine. She worked as an intern at Norman Design about 10 years ago and now she's at the Milwaukee Public Museum and an artist in her own right. I was really impressed with her eclectic artwork and was glad I got to support her at the opening.

Speaking of art, this is Paige's beehive pot from her ceramics class. She's not wild about it, but I love it!

Bryn had her first indoor track meet Saturday at Carthage. (I placed a link to her schedule at the right.) I totally had the time to go, but never thought there was a meet coming up already! Bryn did exceptionally well! Coach put her in the open 800 and in a 4x400 relay. I called to congratulate her on her 800 time and she was happy with her results as well.

Jeff and Abby drove up to Appleton for Christopher's baptism last Sunday. Jeff said Abby got in a lot of cuddling time with the babies. Then they got to come home and watch the sad, sad Packer game. I stayed home with Paige to attend Generations of Faith and then she had softball practice. From softball, Paige followed the gps directions out to Bryn's dorm and stayed overnight since Paige didn't have school Monday. They watched the game, movies and danced with video games. Another priceless activity: Bryn tutoring Paige in chemistry for Paige's upcoming 1st semester final exams.

The freelance project for Hatco through my temp agency hasn't amounted to much work, so I turned my work focus inward and worked on my own website (link at right). I had fun photographing some items that I didn't have documented before and writing descriptions to let viewers know what my involvement was. Another step toward building my business is that I finally upgraded my dying iPhone3G to an iPhone4S. Now I feel confident to receive calls on it as the reception is even clearer. And I just ordered business cards that many have been asking for at the networking events I attend.

I finished up my temp assignment at Readers Digest on December 22nd. That day was the last day the building was open before the entire company shut down over Christmas break, so I had kind of a lonely and therefore quiet last day. I'm really glad I pushed to work 3 days/week during the month of December so I could be more available to get ready for the holidays and for our college kids returning home.

Bryn was done December 8th, so she was home quite a bit before her friends were. Abby came home on the 21st. Her finals were later and she wanted to stay to help celebrate one of her roommates leaving for an internship in Minneapolis 2nd semester.

When Paige finished her final half-day on December 23rd, we headed up to Appleton to celebrate Christmas with Jeff's family. It was a picture-perfect White Christmas! Snow fell as we mingled with the Saunders, Stanleys and Hintzs that afternoon at Maggie and Tom's. We also visited Richard in Menasha and were treated to a fish fry near his home.

On Christmas Eve we gathered with my family first for an amazing service at Elmbrook, then over to Kristin's to open presents. We went to a later church service because Paige had to work, and that made for a long night. Bella and Lucy were tired, but managed to stay awake and help everybody tear open their gifts. Bella presented many gifts to Kristin, the favorite being some cardboard packing Bella decorated that Kristin was to wear like a sandwich board!

Abby left for her annual TCX conference in Minneapolis on the 28th. It's a leadership conference with the Campus Crusade for Christ she's involved with at UW-L. She was able to shadow the Events Planner which counts toward her internship credits for her Communications major. Hard to believe, but Abby will graduate in May! We've reserved our hotels rooms already!


And Bryn left for the Rose Bowl in sunny California the next day (29th). I drove her and her 3 friends down to Chicago to catch the Amtrak that would chug them (over 40 hours) all the way to Los Angeles. I picked them back up yesterday (Jan 5). Sounds like they had a terrific time and adventured to the beach and Santa Monica Pier for the Badger Pep Rally on Dec 31, to Sunset Boulevard for a fancy dinner on New Years Day and finally to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl game on the 2nd. The weather was fabulous the entire time. I'm still drooling to see pictures!

Jeff came with me to on the 29th to Chicago and after we got the kids off safely, we drove over to Craig's and wished him a Happy Birthday. He introduced us to his local hangout where we bought him dinner. Glad we got to do that especially since Craig's son, Clark, was gone to DisneyWorld that week.

Back in Wisconsin, Paige hosted a New Years Eve sleepover complete with frozen pizza and chocolate cream pie. Jeff and I headed to the theatre and wound up sitting in the front row because it was so crowded! And spent New Years Day at the Seeds watching the Packers game.

Abby's been picking up lots of hours at Hallmark over her break. Even taking some of Paige's hours so she can get to her softball practices that are now starting up. We had to deliver Bryn back to Carroll after a home-cooked dinner last night so she could get up bright and early for track practice this morning. Practice had started the beginning of the week.

I'm currently working from home for the beginning of my next temp assignment which is redesigning all the literature for Hatco, a foodservice equipment company. Next week, I'll be showing them my new designs for their 5 catalogs! Then we'll see where it goes from there. After this design stage, I'm really not equipped to do the further production work at home...